GoWings1905

Way more excited for tonight's game than last night. Can't wait to see Larkin, AA, Mantha and Bertuzzi.

I'm in this camp on Abby as well. His shooting percentage was abnormally high last season and likely not sustainable. He does all the right things though on the ice, so I'm thinking somewhere around 17-18 goals for Abby.

Nyquist and Tatar for sure. I think both will come in at or slightly above 30 goals. Pav will get there if he plays enough games; same with Z being on the wing now. I don't feel confident enough in Franzen staying healthy or he's easily on the list. My dark horse pick is Jurco. I think his usage under Blash will allow him to blossom this season.

Neither was Brian Rafalski and look what a huge difference he made for the Red Wings. Having d-men that can move the puck and start the transition game in hockey is critical in today's game. I think it's a huge reason the Wings have struggled at even strength lately -- the forwards are capable, but the defense struggles to get them going.

It took Franson two months into free agency to get a contract. There's probably a good reason no team was willing to pay him more. If you are using the Caps defense to judge Green, that's a deep and talented group. Being the #5 there isn't necessarily a knock against Green.

Franson is a right-handed Kyle Quincey with a decent shot. I think Quincey is even more physical of the two. Green fills a much larger void on defense than Franson would have.

Green can (and probably will) be a disaster defensively and I won't care. The Wings have enough d-men that are defensive minded and aren't particularly adept at moving the puck and adding offense from the back end. Plus, Green will have the most responsible d-man on the team as his partner. It's like Tatar and scoring goals. He's kinda careless with the puck and not great defensively, but he brings a skill to the ice that the Wings don't have in abundance otherwise. Green can do his thing and it will be a huge boost -- something severely lacking since Nick and Rafalski left.

Larkin wanted 17, but Richards snagged it so he flipped to 71. He should most likely be able to get 17 back next season.

You mean like our former one that probably would use Glendening and Miller for most of the 3-on-3 time?

Isn't the man willingly handing out these contracts to Cleary more to blame than Cleary himself? None of this even matters if Ken Holland doesn't make that "handshake deal" or have a continuous obsession with useless veterans. I'm more pissed Holland can't adjust his philosophy when youth is the foundation of the organization at the moment.

He should edit all of that hack's HSJ work. And by edit, I mean terminate her and write the articles himself.

Abby isn't going anywhere. I wouldn't invest in Helm though right now.

Seems like a perfect scenario. Rask will probably start about 79 games anyways, so Monster can play three, which is about his max before getting hurt.

900K is nothing compared to some of the sunken contracts with the Tigers.

I do find it humorous the Wings released this at 5 PM on Friday of Labor Day weekend. They obviously were well aware of the reaction it would garner.

Don't care. He isn't going to see a second of playing time with the Wings unless there are a rash of injuries. I'm not gonna even get worked up over this.

Winning never gets old. We are all insanely spoiled to be fans of this franchise. Just a world class organization on and off the ice. You definitely appreciate what the Wings have accomplished when you root for teams in other sports and they haven't won anything. To think the Wings have been good for basically my entire life is insane.

Mrazek had his fair share of rough moments. Like when he gave up an absolutely terrible GWG to Zach Trotman with a couple minutes left and the Red Wings got no points in a huge playoff race game against the Bruins. You can spot-pick moments with any goalie. Obviously puck-handling isn't Howard's forte, but let's not pretend Mrazek is impeccable when it comes to playing the position.

You have taken people in this thread saying it wouldn't be smart to trade Howard now and jumped to that conclusion? I think they both should play. Figure out who gets the bulk of the starts based on performance.

You mean a few people defending the fact Howard shouldn't be traded at this time? Go back and read any GDT from last season.

You keep saying that and yet pretty much 90% of this board would want Howard out of town tomorrow if they had their choice. Where is all this support you see for Howard?

No, Howard was very good. He wasn't helped by the fact none of his shooters could score in the shootout either. His numbers before the injury in January were some of the best in his career. Besides, I like how Mrazek plays with the same team/defense and magically "steals games", but Howard just gets bailed out by the team when he's good. All about what you want to see, I suppose.

I think Mrazek has a higher ceiling no doubt, but right now I would take Howard too. People seem to forget how consistent Howard has been since becoming the starter. He's not a superstar, but he is still a very good goalie.

Because the Wings front office can count on her to write exactly what they want released.

If Mrazek has a 17-3 stretch, we have a lot more going us for than worrying about Jimmy Howard's contract. I think that might be jumping the gun a little on Mrazek's ability.