VM1138

I'd love to have him. Maybe they need a second-line center? I don't think we are getting anybody for Hudler as the Wings have already tried many teams in the league and got nowhere. But I seriously don't think it will happen. Even if Holland pursued him.

Uh-oh, guys. Straight from the horse's mouth: http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2011/07/mike_commodore_jumps_at_chance.html Babcock: "If he’s (Commodore) paired with (young) Jakub Kindl, he’ll help him." That makes... Lidstrom-Kronwall Stuart-Ericsson Kindl-Commodore Could our worst nightmare be true? Was Ericsson, indeed, Rafalski's replacement?

No...they won't be relevant. Not even close.

But that was my point. Crappy defensemen are a dime a dozen and I was told I was wrong. That there was no one else out there in the league who could do what Ericsson does for cheaper.

You're right, but thus far the Wings have not improved. Not bashing Holland, I'm usually defending him, but even if these signings work out, the team is worse than last year because we have yet to replace Rafalski. I don't think Buffalo improved. They moved some pieces but it won't work.

He did it just last season again.

Holland signed Ericsson because he still hopes for potential. There ARE tons of cheap defensemen who bring what Ericsson does or more. He just signed Commodore for what Ericsson should have been paid. Boom.

Crosby requests trade to Philly. You heard it here first, folks.

You overpay for players who make stuff happen on the ice, not players who only benefit when other great players are already doing the work for them. Terrible overpayment, especially for 6 years! I don't understand why so many teams hate signing hard-working players. That's how you win!

Maybe it won't be a bad signing, but this guy is such a bad joke and a clown. He better not cause any drama. Every time he opens his mouth he's complaining about a coach or about how someone else got promoted ahead of him. This guy never works for anything, expects everything, and causes problems when he doesn't get his way. Babcock is going to eat him alive. I bet by mid-season he's on the bench for the rest of the season.

No idea. Thus the "lesser known" part of the equation. There are hundreds of defensemen in the league, are there not? THere's got to be someone out there who will play for 1.8, take penalties, hardly score and make bad defensive decisions.

I was actually hoping that the Wings would re-sign him. Philly is making a lot of moves, but I can't make out a grand strategy in them.

I'd like Yandle here but there's no way it happens.

I don't get it. Why did he come back at all? Make your money in the KHL, Jagr. If you wanted some storybook ending to your career you would have signed with Pittsburgh regardless of what they offered.

Well I guess they replaced one lazy floater who can score once in a while (Leino) with another lazy floater who can score a bit more often.

Maybe he could have. My point is we should have let another team overpay for him, we can find some lesser known defenseman who would be just as good for half the price.

I wouldn't say it's horrible. People have made the Rafalski comparison quite a bit, and I bet people would have been okay paying Rafalski that much. For a team like Columbus it's not a terrible deal. A slight overpayment but nothing really egregious. Not a Finger-type deal by any means. However, this doesn't really make Columbus any more competitive. They need to make a lot more moves.

Don't get too excited folks. That's a lot of teams that turned down offers with Hudler included. And Holland mentioned a while ago he had been trying to make some trades and there was no interest. Apparently nobody wants Hudler. He'll have to be packaged with Flip or else a straight trade with Flip involved, probably. I can see Kindl being traded for a really good young defenseman who is already proven, but there's no way Holland gives up Smith. We're already shallow in the defensive depth department and Smith is The Future ™.

We could have paid that and still afforded a top 6 forward and a backup goalie. http://www.freep.com/article/20110701/SPORTS05/107010406/1053/sports05 This article mentions E is slated to be a 5th D-man. It may just be pure speculation by the author, but why would a 5th pairing d-man get that much money? I have a feeling with the lack of D-men out there E is the top 4 guy.

Some players will be coming up from the AHL, but not more than two or three in the next three years. And with all the retirements upcoming, why doesn't it make sense to keep Eaves' depth scoring and PKing for three more years?

You are right about the circumstances that drove Ericsson's price up, but not the reason that Holland agreed to pay him. Ericsson has not proven to be any better than any other average defenseman. We did not need to overpay Ericsson because we could've gotten virtually any no-name bottom pairing defenseman for cheaper and had a seamless transition. Holland is paying for what he hopes is potential. It's not dumb, because Holland is a brilliant GM, but it is likely a mistake.

One of two things could happen: 1) Holland will sit tight and hope Ericsson plays up to his contract. (He won't) Holland will be forced into a trade later in the season. 2) Holland will have to work out a trade. Hudler will not be traded because I think Holland already mentioned no teams were interested in a trade. So look for a bigger trade, including Flip probably, to fill the needed gaps.

Mursak will be here. I don't know why everyone is so high on Emmerton, the kid has done nothing. He's like Ritola, he'll be given a shot but probably will be waived. The Miller signing is good. In a season of terrible inconsistency Helm, Eaves and Miller were the constant overachievers.

So the Pens and WIngs have officially dropped out? Anyone know why? Were they just tired of him stringing them along? Or was he demanding too much? With the Ericsson overpayment, we're going to need the salary that would go to Jagr to sign a real defenseman.

Honestly, I would have paid Eaves more. The guy does it all for us. He definitely deserves more than Ericsson should have gotten.