Leaderboard

I'm kinda surprised more people don't have the attitude of "when a bonafide star is available for nothing, you sign him" in regards to Karlsson. Regardless of injuries, he's still only 28 and producing at a superstar clip. Would you have passed on Crosby when he had all those concussions if he was made available? If Brent Burns was available over Karlsson would you be gun ho for him? I'm not gonna be mad if we don't purse him, just sorta surprised.

Valterri Filppula, Teemu Pulkkinen, Ville Leino. And speaking of Ville Leino.... I agree. This team hasnt been the same since we lost Ole-Kristian Tolefsson.

In "theory" I'm with Azzman on this one. For the whole bird in hand reason............ But you guys arguing about whether or not to sign Karlsson is like me paining over the moral dilemma of whether or not I should bone Scarlett Johnasen despite having a girlfriend. It ain't happening regardless, so why all the fuss?

Mrazek out for game 3: https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/hockey/news/hurricanes-petr-mrazek-unavailable-for-wednesdays-contest/ McElhinney should be fine though for a game or two, especially with the home boost. The two day rest should help the skaters. I’m hoping they can pull off a sweep to give some injured guys some rest before the semis. If they get Mrazek back solid and don’t add any more injuries and get some guys back for round 3, I think they’ve got a chance to keep this train going. I’d love to make the trip to Raleigh to catch a game in the next couple weeks.

A few things about Mrazek. The knock on him in Detroit, and the reason Howard stayed over him, was that he wasn't receptive to coaching. He wanted to do things his way. So he got bounced to Philly. Sucked there. Signed a bargain basement deal with Carolina, which would likely have been his last NHL stop if he hadn't improved. I think it's likely that he realized he better start listening and doing things right rather than free wheeling it in goal, and THATS probably the cause of his improved play to a large extent. These coaches didn't get to the NHL level by being dumb. If they tell you to play a particular way you should generally listen. Guys who do, like Cleary or Mrazek, have longer careers. Guys who don't, like Brunner or Jurco, end up in 2nd tier leagues or in the AHL.

I get what you’re saying, and if you noticed my follow up, I acknowledged that my comment was made somewhat in jest. It’s fun to stir the pot a little. That said though, I do think goalies can take time to develop, and I think the Wings could’ve handled the whole situation better. He was young coming in and probably not totally ready to take on the role of starting goalie, especially with Jimmy Howard still around. That whole situation was a bit of a tension-filled mess. I really do wonder if things might’ve gone smoother had Howard been dealt. It seems like Mrazek performs best when he’s the guy carrying the weight and he knows it. He seems to thrive with that pressure, and the biggest reason I would’ve liked to have kept him is that he seems like a goalie that performs in the playoffs, and he seems to be getting better in that world, which shouldn’t be shocking as he grows and matures. You talk of the goals he let in, but if you watched the games or read the commentary, he was clearly great and widely praised for playing so well against Ovechkin and company, the defending Cup champs, and his team didn’t show up the first couple games of round one. Holtby let in 6 goals in a game against a weaker offensive team. And he’s got two shutouts already. And what about game one of the second round? The Hurricanes as a team did nothing to help Mrazek; they looked tired and terrible, and Mrazek without a doubt stole that game for them. Carolina is clearly a better team overall right now than the Wings the last couple years, but as you said, Mrazek has talent, and when he’s on, he’s on. If the Wings were likely to struggle either way, I’d rather bet on the younger goalie with the talent and see how he matures as the team matures. In the end, it simply got messy and the contract extension was going to be tricky, but again, I do wonder what would’ve happened had the whole situation been handled better earlier on. Mrazek may do something Howard has never done very shortly as well, make it to the 3rd round, despite Howard getting a chance to do so with better teams than the current Canes in front of him. Canes are a good team, but Mrazek has been a huge part of their postseason success. No one watching is arguing that. They win the Cup, he might get the Conn Smythe if the current trajectory keeps up. And that’s looking like less and less of an outlandish suggestion every game.

This team was never going to be any better with Mrazek instead of Howard. Mrazek was not a long term option and the smartest move financially was to trade him instead of re-sign him. I don't care how he plays in Carolina, it doesn't change the fact that he wasn't good enough in Detroit.

My big hangup is that we'd probably have to seriously overpay to get him to sign with us. I don't feel like this is a situation where we have as good a shot as anyone else. I think Karlsson looks at, say, Dallas and sees a good playoff team and the possibility of a phenomenal top three in Karlsson, Heiskanen, Klingberg. I think Karlsson looks at Tampa or Florida and says, "Yeah, I think I put this team over the top. We're gonna win some Cups together." I think Karlsson looks at Detroit and sees...a basement team that's still a few years away from being a serious contender, even with an Erik Karlsson on the blue line. I dunno. Maybe Yzerman has crazy-ambitious plans and he's able to sell Karlsson on a crazy-ambitious vision. "We want you. And we want Trouba. And we're gonna get Nylander or Kapanen. And I'm gonna dump at least two of our albatross contracts, which will cost assets, but I don't care, we're going for it."

CNN confirms. Then bashes Trump for not speaking out against it.

Green and Karlsson signings are completely different. I supported signing Green despite injury concerns because it was a low risk signing. Karlsson will command double the annual salary and 4 times the term of Green. With his injury history, that's too high of a risk for this team at this time IMO.

Mike Green wasn't going to cost us a billion dollars in cap space over the next trillion years.

How would you react if Yzerman gets Erik Karlsson for 12 million a year for 7 years? f*** Yzerman? I would be content with it. Change is good. Karlsson for Michigan is good. Karlsson for Cholowski is good. Worst case he becomes a shell around age 33. Oh well, I’ll take 5 years for the franchise, teams and cities benefit. If that means 2 “possible” bad years at the end of his contract (personally doubt it) then so be it. You know what else Karlsson would bring in? Another free agent. And another, and another. It’s a snowball effect. Players want to play for good teams and players. They want to play where there’s an attraction. People are looking at Karlsson and Panarin and freaking out that “we’re not ready yet.”. It’s not about that, it’s about the franchise, selling tickets, motivation from teammates, attracting other players and raising eyebrows from trade partners.

So according to you Larkin, AA, Mantha and Bertuzzi are now in their prime. My point exactly lets get them some free agents to push for the playoffs and cup before we waste them away. We have 4 young players in their prime and they could use the help of a hall of famer defensemen in Karlsson and an elite forward like Panarin who both have experience and are two of the best in the NHL. Do you want to waste away those 4 guys' prime years? Remember that Datsyuk and Zetterberg were consistently making players in the early and mid 20s and finally won that cup at 27 and 29. At this rate none of your young players in the prime have even made it to the playoffs (except Larkin for a couple of games when he was 19).

Definitely agree. I’m not saying he didn’t burn bridges here or put on the best face. I do think there’s an argument to be made that he had the talent that deserved a bit longer rope though. And again, for me, I wonder how the situation might’ve played out without Howard. I think he felt jerked around by coaching/management when he got signed to his deal and the Wings planned to move Howard and then didn’t, leading to a tense locker room situation between both players, and too much room for confidence to slip and get called into question. That sort of situation doesn’t help the coach-player relationship or anything in general.

No.

Very true. However, being able to retain up to 50% on these contracts could definitely help. Abdelkader at $2.125M, Helm at $1.925M, or Nielsen at $2.625M all of a sudden doesn't look like such terrible contracts. Of course we wouldn't trade / retain on all of these contracts, but the option is there...

Some of these guys wouldn't be trade-able even if they didn't have the clause as part of their contract. They just don't produce enough to be worth what they are being paid. Nielsen, Abdelkader, Helm have some of the worst $ / point in the league for forwards. Nielsen 624/784 132k/ point Helm 681/784 166k/ point Abby 708/784 708k/ point https://www.capfriendly.com/cost-per-point/2019/season/forwards/all/all/costperpoints/desc/standardized

Yeah he's only 28. But he is more than likely going to sign a high dollar long term contract. Thats not good when u still have Nielsen, Abby, and Helm on the books for a few more years soaking up cap space. I would rather keep the money to re-sign pending free agents with. That's where the cap space should be going. Not bringing in almost 30 year olds who are going to end up hurting the team later on those contracts when their cap hit has exceeded their diminishing skills. Imagine 35 year old Karlsson and Panarin with cap hits totalling 18 mil at a time when this teams kids are in their primes and due for big pay raises/contracts. That's not good long term financial planning, which is ironic because people used to criticize Holland for being too fiscally shortsided.

Was at peace reading your post until the bold. I hope you're wrong. He's no longer a Red Wing and is enemy.

I don't agree with that linear thought process and I don't think any GM does. You can't just rely on your young guys you draft early and hope that in the long term you win the cup, when the current guys cant even make the playoffs. It's not like we're a bubble team. We're one of the worst teams in the NHL and that's not a joke. We need help. We need superstars and we already have 3-4 young players who are getting into their primes. If we continue to be the worst team the next 3 or 4 years vs become an immediate playoff team and eventual cup winners, then you go for the becoming a playoff team and consistency. What more do you think this team needs? A defenseman? A forward? A goalie? We've drafted a bunch of young guys. It's not so bad to get some free agents to fill the holes now.

I generally agree with you but I have to pause on Karlsson. Something about the idea of throwing a lot of money and term at him really doesn’t sit right after this season. The injuries, the age, the off-ice sideshow...I get that he’s great, but it doesn’t feel like a smart move.

That's a good thing!

Don't worry, it looks like Amazon has us all covered. Looks like they also included some Dashboard Confessional for those that needed it. Big Brother is definitely watching.

I still think we should’ve kept Mrazek... Bring it motha uckas!!!