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It's a little bit early, but I wont be around at Midnight to post it. Hopefully that's ok.

Holy hell. I'm going to this game, my first ever game, and Datsyuk is back? So excited!

13 returns on Friday the 13th!

Smith is what he is...not nearly as bad as half the fan-base make out, but not nearly reliable enough to earn complete trust. One thing is for sure...he needs to be alongside someone who is more defensively solid and calm under pressure. Hence the reason he looks better next to kronner or DD....next to kindl you have jakub's primary weaknesses (a slight lack of intestinal fortitude and a related capacity to panick under intense pressure) intensified by a complimentary s***- storm of Smith's erratic decision making and Iack of awareness.

Dats' Back

https://www.facebook.com/DETROITREDWINGS/videos/10153382847784139/?fref=nf Wet my self a little. ^Today from practice. Return of the Euro Twins!

The article makes it sound like Pulkkinen is a *****. Coach wanted a battle drill, Pulks couldn't take it and lost his temper and went off on Smith.

I'll take tomorrows vs San Jose if nobody minds.

I will make a LGW wager that Abby scores at least 15 goals this season

The only thing to complain about, and rightfully so, is the skyrocketing salaries for average players. It seems you have the Elite ($8M-$10M) then the bottom ($2M or less) and then for some reason you have everyone else making $3M-$7M and most not really deservng it. I konw the market dictates it, but in no real world does Abby deserve the same amount of money as a Nyquist. Nyquist is a 50+ points per year scorer, I can never see Abby getting above 30 too many more times, if ever again, heck I even thought $4.75M was a bit much for Nyquist so soon, I was kind of hoping for a bit less for a couple of years, then the bigger money. If you ask me, $3.5M is the top of the heap for players like Abby, if not a bit less but no more. But, I digress because we are living in an NHL world that says KFQ and Erection are worth nearly $5M....that's my complaint, we've gone through 2 lockouts to get a reign on these contracts, but you sure cannot tell by looking at most of them.

I find it funny that some people attribute any success Holland has to those around him, however any bad decisions are solely placed on him. Got to love being a GM in the NHL, you will never please everyone. As far as the '89 draft goes, yes it gave the Wings Vladdy, Lidstrom, and Fedorov, and yes of course it was a big part in the future success of the franchise, but only 2 of them were there in 1998 and 2002, and one in 2008 (well I guess 2 if you count Drake lol). To say all of his success is based on that draft is just wrong. Using that logic to dismiss Holland's part in the 2008 cup win could pretty much dismiss every GM's part in any cup win ever as most teams have a player that is good that was there before the GM got there.

Aawesome stuff flashy. Good to see you back here. LETS GO WINGS!

So in other news water is wet, grass is green and the sky is blue

i like our second line nyquist larkin tatar

Funny how many experts we have on here that didnt see any of the said incident. Oh wait, thats everyone. Let me chime in here on the "Im gonna comment on an issue i know nothing about" tip: Pulkinnen shouldn't be spearing Smith in the kidney and slashing him on his ankles if he doesnt want Smith to retaliate. Smith has already had stitches in both wrists and a lacerated kidney from previous Pulkkinen dirty cheap shots. He was like Jesus and "turned the other cheek" the first 6 times. But he finally had to retaliate. Wish these unfortunate circumstances didnt occur.

Meh Holland has made some mistakes. A lot of them are hindsight to us. But it's not entirely Holland if you think about it. It's what this league is becoming. Locking up guys left and right. Used to be where you locked up your elite players. Now everyone seems to be getting locked up. To be honest though we dont overpay players as much as other teams have in the recent past. Just not a fan of super long term deals.

For the record, im fine with the deal. I would have liked to see something with less term and/or money, but its nothing to get upset over. HOWEVER... this really makes me question Holland's ability to negotiate. Like, how much was Abdelkader's starting point? Did he want Tarasenko money or something? Because otherwise it seems like Holland just laid down on this one.

23 goals last year. 10 goals in the Lockout shortened season (you have to look at games played) so you almost double that calculating for a full 82 games (19 maybe). Then the 2 full seasons he played before that while on the 3rd and 4th lines (7 and 8 goals). 13-14 is a concerning dip down to 10 goals, but otherwise, if you account for the line he was playing with and the role served, it looks like a pretty steady progression.

Having a guy that hovers around 20ish goals and leads your team in hits at 4.25M is a pretty good deal. 5 years would have been the perfect deal imo but I'm sure Holland considered this but Abby didn't want to hit FA on the downside of his career with only a few years left in him

I think Holland plans on continuing with the youth movement. Abby will be a great complimentary guy with Dats and Z and then with Larkin and AA. We are just now seeing our high end prospects seeing NHL ice time. The deal is long but it's not like Abdelkader is being paid like some corner stone of the franchise, he's being paid like a good complimentary forward. Who knows what 20 goal scorers will be getting in 3 years and this saves us from getting a gritty scoring forward through FA. Something we will always need even int the future considering our prospects

I would be okay with 4.25M but getting close to 5M for 7 years is pretty close to being a bad deal imo. Not terrible, that's close to market value but with that term it should be lower You're dreaming

So an extra year and an extra 0.75M really makes or breaks this for you eh? You're really living in the margins on this one.

Abdelkader is a decent player, but nothing special except that he's the only really physical guy the Wings have with any amount of skill. Depending on how long and how much, this could either be a decent contract or terrible. If he gets close to $5 mil for 6 years, I'm going to be pissed. If it's 4 or 5 years at $4.25 mil a year, I'll be ok with it. Pros: He scored 44 points last year and showed he has the skill that made him a 2nd round pick. He's the only Wings' forward who is big, plays like he's big, and has shown NHL level skill. Cons He has one year where he scored at a good rate, other than a 20 game stretch where he was hot the previous year. He's approaching the age where physical players start to tail off. Lots of guys could score 20+ goals playing as much as he does with Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

Moves are going to have to be made! If Abby is projecting north of $4M, Danny D is projecting north of $4M, guarantee Mrazek gets at least $4M...that doesn't even include having to try and better our team via trade or UFA, or the players that are out of options next season. This is why you have to get rid of Erection, one of Smith/Kindl and don't even think about re-signing KFQ. Helm can be traded, Andersson can as well. These are UFA's that are redundant on this team and will waste cap space if re-signed. Hell, most of us knew Helm was tradable with the emergence of Glen and Sheahan. Speaking of Sheahan, he will get in the $2M's on his next deal too. We need to make this team better, and right now, we need to add by subtracting so we can do so. If we want to even sniff Byf, we need to clear tons of capspace, especially if we are going to overpay 30 point players.

I'm shocked and appalled that Jeff Dunham is getting another special on comedy central. Everyone should boycott it and flood cc social media with stuff.