Leaderboard

Say what you will about Holland's job the past couple years, but you can't fault him for what happened with Parise and Suter. He did just about everything he could to land Suter here.

Jonathan Ericsson. Knock, knock, it's destiny calling. A quote is a simple thing. It has no physical form but for the movement of lips or the vibration of air, perhaps even the paper or screen on which it is recorded, yet at it's heart it is entirely simple. It is but words strung together. Different words for different means. Poetic words, strong words, abusive words, kind words. Words that question, words that rally, words that challenge or accept. But simple words none the less. There is a famous quote, one that many of you may have seen numerous time before, even in this very place, that consists of words in equation: 'To whom much is given, much is expected'. A sort of Yin and Yang if you will. Action and reaction. Yet still a quote of simple powerlessness. For a quote can only acquire strength and meaning through situation. A moment in time where mere words define action in such a way as to have been meant. To have been written in the stars. Some people in this world believe strongly in things that others may cast aside as legend or myth, believe in structure and purpose against chance and coincidence. Fate. I cannot say I am one of these people, yet I do believe in opportunity to design your own fate. To control a personal destiny if you so choose to take your chances. Jonathan Ericsson? His time is now. I was talking with a friend earlier today about the less than promising situation facing us this year following the departure of Lidstrom and Stuart, and whilst big things were said about the future of Smith and his potential to be a great of the future I couldn't shake the idea within my head that this could be the single greatest opportunity that Ericsson's life will throw his way. Something inside me seems to be wishing him to be the replacement for Lidstrom that we've all been searching for. Wishing for! Yes, I can't deny he's a whipping boy at times, yet I struggle to think of such a time in recent history. Yes, he's made mistakes on the ice, yet again I struggle to think of others who hadn't also. As a player drafted and trained by this single organisation, moulded into the player that they entirely wanted him to be, cannot simply be put down to chance. There must be a reason for his journey through this team. A young Swede who loves the game and has worked hard in the shadow of possibly the greatest defenceman of all time, a countryman and icon whom he wills to be like one day. A player who has grown to be strong defensively, in his own zone, much like the icon he once used to watch. He isn't near that level yet but there are many years left in the tank and he can only move forward. Whereas some see a hole on the blue line in the vacated space left by Lidstrom, a void that cannot be filled entirely but partially patched over in the hope that nobody will notice, I cannot help but see an opportunity. Following a solid season from Ericsson, earning ice time in a variety of situations designed to test his skill and nerve and desire, his "metal", I do not look at the coincidence of an ever-improving player and a newly-retired legend. Yin and Yang again. Two sides to the same coin. I instead look towards the opportunity. A chance for a young player to provide the situation for which the quote can draw meaning. A young player to whom much has been given and now has the chance to pay back in full. In retirement, as in much of his career, Nick Lidstrom is incomparable, yet if it had to be done with this Red Wings roster I see no better candidate than Ericsson. He's not flashy. He's stable. He's not devastating. He's smart. His offensive game lacks a little something but nothing that cannot be gained with practice. He could have the skill set and the personality to be another truly great defenceman in the mould of the Red Wings system, not simply a spare part brought in with the hope that it fits. After all, these can be notoriously hit and miss (White as a potential Rafalski replacement springs to mind). Perhaps nothing of this has sunk in with anyone who happens to read it. Perhaps Ericsson will be nothing more than what I have outlined: a solid, sensible, and smart 2nd pairing D-man. Perhaps my tiredness has got the better of me and has rendered me delirious, yet something inside of me cannot shake this feeling that this year, with a little confidence and a bit of belief, Jonathan Ericsson could start to pay back a little of all that has been invested in him. Oh well, at the very least one can hope.

Alright people, If we re-sign Abdelkader that gives us 16 forwards under contract. If we sign Semin ( what do we have to lose ) that gives us 17 forwards under contract..... last time I checked we only dress 12. and we have o wait... almost 17 million dollars in cap space. I firmly believe Parise and Suter both got overpaid today and I'm glad Kenny was wiser than that. Kenny has put a team on the ice that has been the most consistent high performing team in professional sports history over the last 20 years. I think he's knows what's up. I feel our forward situation at this moment has actually improved from last year. We can trade some of our forwards for a D man, sign Semin and still have tons of cap space. We don't need that many forwards and I can guarantee you we won't start the season with that many. There's other variables too ( in my opinion ) - Fil just keeps getting better and getting more confident. He's arrived as one of the better two way players in the league and he's still young. and Nick feels he's a leader. - Brendan Smith's numbers through his very few games last year were spectacular... if you do the math through 82 games we woulda been the 2nd highest plus minus behind White on Defense - Ericsson can have more ice time and run with that ball. - for the price, maybe Brunner will be a surprise... but regardless we haven't lost anything. it's not high risk. - I'm stoked to watch Nyquist develop. We will be able to trade for a D-man, watch some of our guys take larger roles and be a tougher, bigger, stronger team. We got this. How's that for a first post after years of just reading? For the record, I'm a shareholder of the Moose Jaw Warriors in the WHL... Brian Burke took a stud in Morgan Rielly. getting him at 5th was beyond a steal.

Ericsson was our 2nd best D man in the playoffs this year. E has made great strides. He will never be a point producing defenseman, but when it comes to PK or shutting down the opposition he has improved a ton.

In 10 years, the Wings brass will be glad they didn't sign Suter and Parise

Missing out on Carle wouldn't be too big a deal. A stop-gap like Hannan or Roszival might be better anyway if we can't swing a trade. Depends on how much Carle would take. $4M or less for 2-4 years? Probably not now that he's the "best" one left. And he's not good enough to make a big difference in how far we can go. Regarding the bold: I see Kenny taking a lot of flak the last few years for expressing confidence in our players. It's like people see comments like that and completely forget what he's tried to do or the circumstances we've been in, and also ignore anything he says about considering other options. Seriously, what do you expect him to say? You think he should act like a fan and say, "This f'in sucks! We suck now and we won't make the playoffs ever again!!!1! Franzen's an A-hole!!one! I'm trading everyone!!?/! I'll trade Joe Louis for that Rocky statue!!! Next guy that walks through that door is getting a blank check just so we can say we did something!!exclamation point!" The last few years, either because of the cap or lack of available players, our options have been very limited. Sucks that we haven't landed any of those few as of yet, but there's no reason for even fans to be as negative as they have been, much less for Kenny to be.

Nope cant fault him for Suter and Parise (Detroit doesnt have farmland to drive a tractor around on), I can fault him for not having a good go to plan. He rode out Nicky till he left and now hes in a situation that could actually cost him his job. When it gets down to brass tacks, he makes some type of huge trade to get our team to where it needs to be or hes out. If Im Illitch thats the only out I give you. Then its Jim Nills turns until we can pick up Stevie if that ever happens or ever turns into a good idea.

1. Kenny wasn't wise by not signing them. They chose to go to the Wild. Kenny would have paid those contracts too. 2. The Wings had Lidstrom over the last 20 years, and Ken Holland took over after they already had rebuilt the train wreck that was the 1980s. 3. Our situation has improved from last year how? Last year we signed Ian White and had Lidstrom and Stuart still. 'Splain yourself. 4. Flip hasn't done anything of note. He can be traded to teams that think he is a somebody though, I'll give you that. 5. 100% correct on Brunner. He could be a difference maker or the next Fabian Brunnstrom. We'll see. 6. Smith is unproven. He will get his chance this season. +/- is a useless stat for players not getting ample minutes. 7. Ericsson will definitely get more ice time. He is our #3 defenseman and better pay for himself or he could be gone as well (although there aren't that many GMs who would take that ridiculous contract, except maybe the Wild). 8. F*ck the Leafs.

To everyone trashing Holland for that one, some questions. 1. What would you have done differently? Don't give me the excuses like "he should have" its about what you would have done in order to improve this Hockeyclub. 2. How would you have the handled the Suter & Parise situation? Keep in mind before you answer, they both wanted to play together and in front of their families. They passesd up on an Original Six franchise and also on the chance of playing alongside Malkin, Crosby and Suter being paired with Letang. So this has nothing to do with Detroit's Diamond losing it's shine. 3. Would you be confident with overpaying for at best class B players in order to squeeze into the playoffs and getting our asses handed to us by Vancouver, LA or Nashville? or maybe just maybe we should pack it in for this season, see what we have in our young-guns, load capspace and offer the world to Getzlaf and Weber next year? 4. What would you have done to prepare for Lidströms retirement? Save for Burns who went to the Sharks there was absolutely no one outthere, to improve this defense last year! 5. How much more money would you have offered? Please notice, it wasn't about money for them. Aside from the obvious questions some of you should ask themselves if you are truely RedWingsFans or fans of winning? Money and tradition aside, you can't win it every year and sometimes you have to go through a reload/tool episode and personally I can't wait seeing our young-guns learning from their mistakes and becoming better players. Sorry I know I am the new guy here, but some people are acting like the wolrd is coming to an end just because two elite UFAs decided to go elsewhere.

While I agree it's definitely not time to fully panic there is some serious concern. You mentioned it could be worse, we could be the preds or the devils who actually lost an elite level player off their roster. While this is true, I believe we can all agree that the wings lost possibly the best defenseman of ALL-TIME this off season. Sure it was to retirement as opposed to free agency but lost nonetheless. While I feel for the preds and devils today I honestly dont care as we are fans of the wings and not them. The truth is that the state of this team is not horrific like a Toronto, Montreal or Columbus but it is in some serious jeopardy. Pav and Hank are clearly great but for how much longer? Howard is good but how good and how much is he going to want next year? Filpulla is solid but if he has another decent year i can only imagine what his next contract will look like considering todays market, in my opinion hes good but not the future. Kronwall is our best dman but he's probably hit about as good as he is going to get. Now, outside of the five I just mentioned the rest are just solid role players either in their prime like helm or past their prime like the bertuzzi's and cleary's of the world. As far as prospects, smith will probably be a top 4 d and if all goes well a top 2 d. After that there are no sure fire top 6 f/top 4 d in the system. Sure there are the Nyquist,Tatar, sheahan, jarnkrok in the system but from what we've seen or been told mid level NHL players is probably their ceiling at best and that's probably best case scenario. There is no star in waiting in the system with smith hopefully being the exception and I know all you out there will give me the whole finding a gem in the 6/7th rounds like Pav and hank. The problem is that is few and far between and there is no way to ever bank on that happening often if at all for a while. I guess what I'm saying is if the wings truly want to be contendors without a monster rebuild like the oilers of the world it might be time to open the doors to ALL trade possibilities. As much as I love to watch our stars play I truly believe trading Hank to a team like the Rangers or Flyers could bring back assets that could assure being competitive for a long time. While I'm no gm and just a passionate fan I believe something big has got give for this team to remain an actual true top 10 contender. I hope kh has something up his sleeve but I just don't see it so I'm hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

What I have to say to Holland: I hope Yzerman likes your office, I have a feeling he will be occupying it soon.

Short-term overpayment would be ok, but not for 6-13 years... If people are worried that we're not a playoff team right now, then with Carle we'd be at best a 7-8 seed. If we're a 7 or 8 now, then with Carle we're maybe a 5. And regardless, we may still need a full rebuild soon depending on how Pav and Hank continue to age. What Carle would bring is not worth making that commitment.

Every thread that has the names Parise and/or Suter in them should be locked, other than the original threads stating where they signed and the details of their contracts. Even after they've signed, about 470 new threads have been started about them.

@DarrenDreger: Working on details. Matt Carle is closing in on a deal with Tampa Bay Lightning. It won't be Carle thank God.

Parise, in many ways, was a Hossa-like luxury, not a dire need. I realize this team has scoring problems and an upgrade would have been nice, but with Brunner, Nyquist and all the returning guys, it wasn't like there was a Lidstrom-sized hole to fill at forward. Losing Suter, however, does hurt. But he's gone. I think Brendan Smith is a player. A trade for Ryan would be great, but if Franzen/Filppula can be flipped into a Top 2 defenseman instead, I would love so sign Semin and get D help that way. Sent on iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi, I'm Gabriel, and occasionally I like to come on and dish out some logic in the face of illogical statements. Firstly, I'm glad you put 'ALMOST' in there, because they're no where near identical cap hits. 12 years would get both players off the books in the 39th year, 13 years would be 40th. That's an extra year at $7.5 when they'll most likely be crappy shells of their former selves. So whilst similar in yearly numbers, not so in practice. For a GM that's a difference maker. As for the second point, if Detroit hasn't lowered their standards then there is still the lure of a chance at winning. What you've put out is close to an unfalsifyable statement, in that I can counter it with an equally valid yet opposite statement and neither can be proved right or wrong. If 'parity' means that more teams have a chance of winning, yet Detroit hasn't necessarily lowered their chances, then yes there will be more teams with a good chance of success yet Detroit will still be in the same strong position only with company. That doesn't mean their appeal for players lowers. See my point? I love my iMac, but those nice new Windows laptops have really closed the gap in regards to performance and technology. Still, iMacs haven't got any worse so I'll stick with them. Make sense? Unfortunately he went to a place where they only have young players looking to develop. By the time they have done, they'll be priced out of that team and will spend their prime years elsewhere. And who is to say that a whole team of young player will even develop as they should without veteran presence at all levels? I understand his decision, but don't necessarily agree. That being said, also don't mind that he didn't end up here as there is no guarantee he'd have faired well or suffered in the NHL. Could have been a risk. I must be fooling myself then because this team is always appealing to me. But that's only because I support them and will during thick and thin. They may not be as successful in years to come but I'll still love watching them and will still cheer every goal and wish them to do well each and every night. That's what I understand as 'appealing'. The first point here, you use in reference to the Wings failing to land two players who decided to sign for a team close to their homes. Everyone has a different 'hometown'. Much like we managed to convincce Mike Modano, only the best American-born player in NHL history, to put off retirement for a year and sign for a hometown discount in the state where he was born and raised. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances it didn't pan out as it could have but proves the point that everyone has different homes. The second point is a bit of an odd one, because being one of the winningest teams in NHL history, there are far more teams that have more 'first/second round exits' than the Wings. In fact there are far more teams that don't even make the playoffs year on year... Calgary would wish for a first round exit after these recent years. Reference for the above point about 'hometown discount'. Non-bold: Maybe Holland didn't lose a race here. He simply got to a point that was financially viable and make the decision not to go over the top and risk future money. Hence not offering an extra $8m. Deciding to not throw more money and risk losing a contract is a stronger, more ballsy decision than doing it. People might criticise him for doing it but it makes this team stronger going forward than if we had them for that long. If it was 7/8 years then maybe not as much, but 13 is a long time and I think he made a good choice. Also the cap doesn't simply rise a la inflation. It can very well go down. We'd be boned if it did (as MIN will be if it does). Bold: Those aren't facts at all. They are opinions. Why they are not facts? I think 1 is a great player and 1 is a good defenceman who can give solid play but is in no way elite. Also I think Holland is a damn good GM. See, not facts. Opinions. 1) Those ARE facts (see above point). As are those at 2) yet everything else is once again opinion. Not sure how it's crappy management either considering Lidstrom made his own decision (Holland didn't tell him to retire), Schultz is unproven, and Parise and Suter either wanted too much money or wanted to play closer to home. If anything I'm thinking that limiting yourself with money and thinking about the sustained future of the organisation rather than the next 10 years is a good thing. If you're going on age here as well, Gustavsson and Tootoo are both 27, same as Parise and Suter (I only say as people seem to think that Tootoo is old for some reason?!) Yes they're not as accomplished as P & S but one's a goaltender and one's a physical forward. Bert and Sammy also have the experience over all 3 of Parise, Suter and Schultz which can count for everything down the line. People are acting like we lost Dats, Z, Flip, Helm, etc in all this and that we're falling apart. I think we'll be ok, maybe not as dominating as we've been in the past, but come on, we're not the Thrashers here.

I hear you. I always hope people die horrible deaths if they don't sign with the Wings.

Something tells me that signing Lidstrom this season was not an option. I don't think that you can reasonably lay that one at Holland's feet. Suter and Parise chose to go a non-contender. Schultz was not willing to consider non-Canadian teams.

I disagree. They had a below-average offense and a very below-average defense last season. Now they have an average offense and a defense that is average at best. They have $2.8m with which to make additions. Parise alone will not be able to make a sufficient improvement to the team's horrible offensive numbers, and Suter will not be able to do so for the defense either.

Are you a fan of the Red Wings or are you only a fan of winning? Every franchise faces challenges. Half the fun is seeing how those challenges are overcome. Are we as prepared for a cup run as we were five years ago? Are we the number one cup contender? No. Things change, players come and go.

Kill everyone, burn down the city, arghhhhhhhhh

You are talking about 2 players that took well over what they are worth. 98mil for 13 yrs??? If thats what it took would you of really wanted us to do that and handcuff our team for the future??

You can go join the Wild board..

For someone who isn't a good hockey player, he had more points last season than in any season Eaves has had in the past five years. Tootoo isn't a goon. He can actually play hockey. Everyone ******* about not having a fighter or toughness on this team and we get a guy who is the epitome of that and people ***** because he isn't their favorite knuckle dragger. Get over it. He makes this team better and harder to play against.

You don't think the team he plays for has something to do with that.