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You think this team would be a lot better with someone besides Blashill? This team on paper is bad, really bad. Look at the defense we threw out last night...sure the team has long term potential, but on paper as it currently stands, the team is REALLY bad. So not sure how coaching fixes that.

I believe we would become instantly more competitive as soon as we get a real NHL calibre coach. We won't be fighting for the cup but we will be a big and fast team that is miserable to play against. Blashill has shown no improvement as a coach, his system(s) suck and I fear the longer he is on the bench the more damage will be done to the development of our young players. Even with the crappy contracts we have I truly believe a good NHL coach would make this exact team far better. How many more years of this experiment will convince people?

Agree with those that say the current contracts won't stop us. Neither player is useless and frankly the contracts are only concerning due to the lack of top quality elsewhere. Up front we have a decent young roster, but we lack any top pieces on defence and are short of 1 or 2 potentially elite forwards. In goal we are 'meh'. if all goes well-ish we could be a playoff team in 2 years and a contender in 4. For the first time in a long time, our roster is clearly focused on the future as much as the now. A bit of lottery luck or good drafting. A couple of smart FA's and we could easily be back in the game for real In 4 years. if decisions are bad, however....

At least 5 years IMO

A few things: Any contract can be traded. It's safe to say we're at least a couple years away from being a solid playoff team. At that point, those contracts are nearly up and shouldn't be too hard to dump. The Seattle expansion draft could be a nice relief valve. So, personally, I'm not worried about those contracts. I think people get too hung up on them. If it gets to a point where they're genuinely strangling the team, something will be done and cap space will be opened up. I'd be more concerned about, say, Montreal's situation with Price and Weber.

Cheers to another year of Ken and Mickey!

Regardless of what contracts the Wings are saddled with - it all boils down to the 'quality' of players we acquire via the draft for the next 2, or 3 seasons. i'm cautiously optimistic Holland can move another contract, or 2 in order to add more picks for these next 2 draft classes since they're projected to be deep like 2018.