VM1138

The Wings really dropped the ball on this. Refused to trade him, then threw him under the bus (Thanks, Jimmy D!) which I imagine further lowers his trade value. I'm not sure what we'll get for him, if anything, now.

Nothing says "successful location" like having to win Cups constantly in order to hold more than a few thousand fans' interest. A good location should be pulling in at least a decent amount even when the team struggles. Yes, attendance and sales go down when teams suck, but the "real" franchises still get someone to show up.

I don't know much about Soderberg at all, other than the fact that Boston fans are ecstatic he's leaving. Apparently he was good the first half of the season and then terrible hot garbage the second half.

I'm just not getting the Tampa hype that everyone is high on. They're good, yeah, but to me this seems like the par-for-the-course stacked West team against the weaker East team. Tampa has some great players (Stamkos, Johnson) but Chicago has more, and neither goalie is super-impressive, but the Hawks just find ways to win. Hawks in six.

Kind of bummed out that the Hawks have basically matched the Wings glory years, or at least they will when they win this series. Now the Wings are simply another almost-dynasty, but no longer the most recent one.

Yeah, it sounds like Bucci is reaching and not speaking from any sort of insider information. We sign kids to pro contracts every off-season. It's nothing new. Although if there's one area we do have a lot of depth it's bottom six centers. We can spare a few of those.

Blech. I feel like the focus on statistics and fancy stats is ruining sports for me. It's turning away from a competition of will, luck, opportunity and whatnot and turning into a predictable pseudo-science.

In all seriousness he's probably just interested in moving to a different house or area. I mean, he's under contract for two more years and seems pretty happy here.

It better be a multi-year deal if we're losing Blashill as a backup, you know?

Tampa really isn't that good. They're not particularly scary. They eked out of a series they probably should have lost against the Wings and while I didn't watch the Montreal series, we all knew Montreal was sort of a one-trick pony (Price).

All the news lately points to him staying. Which I'm fine with. But what worries me is his stated desire to switch to one year contracts. What if we lose him next season, and no longer have Blashill in the wings?

His point is, can you name twenty or more better defenseman? No. He's a top 10 defenseman I think. If feel even safer saying he's top 15z. He is a number one, especially without Ericsson.

I hate seeing the Hawks win, but I think this is Anaheim's year.

Exactly. A tough guy wouldn't have helped us do better this year at all. But a big guy who can win board battles and crash the net to actually score frequently would have.

Franzen's situation really hurts us. We spent years trying to find an extra big body shooter type, and found Cole. Now we will likely have to find a replacement for two of them in one offseason with a poor UFA market. Chances are this team will be worse than this last season because of that. Edit: Unless Jurco finally shows he can be more than a grinder.

Jimmy D needs to be put out to pasture. Mantha had a rough year but from reading about his play (haven't seen him play yet) he's not playing badly. He's just sort of average. That tends to happen with prospects one of their years. Very unusual for a prospect to be called out after one year.

I wouldn't mind Holland taking bigger risks of the contracts are short. I think the lifetime contracts he pioneered, that have now taken over the league, are what is making the league feel fairly stagnant to me. Limit contracts to three or four years and you'll see more turnover, less caution and more exciting parity.

I think it's fair to say Mantha won't be the power forward most of us hoped he'd be. I still think he'll make the NHL, though. Just not a player to build your franchise around like they were hoping to do.

Wow, I don't usually gush over AHL goals but that Athanasiou goal GIF was amazing. He lets go of the puck (with opposition players trailing him), hits the guy in front of him, scoops up the puck again and just rifles it so hard straight at the goalie that I thought it shot THROUGH the goalie's body for a second. Nothing was stopping him on that goal. Color me excited for this kid.

We had enough performers offensively this series. What we needed was to hold a freakin lead.

If his wife is rational like he is, she probably wants him to further his career and go for expanded responsibility or a GM spot. I think he likes what he's doing and doesn't much care about career implications.

I'm ready for whatever happens, I just hope it happens soon. We could be better off with a new coach and a new system. I feel Babcock misuses players and his defense-only mentality hurts us. But on the other hand, he gets the most out of these players. I wonder how much worse we would be without him, you know? I don't much buy into the Holland vs Babcock stuff. They seem to be on the same page every year, things just don't work out.

Gus wasn't a horrible signing. He did exactly what we all thought he would. He plays very well (when he plays) and gets injured a lot, giving Mrazek a chance to get some experience, which paid off. I don't think anyone can seriously say Gustavsson was a disappointment. We just all knew what to expect. And who cares how much he made? Cap hit doesn't matter much when you're not spending to the cap. It's not like we were paying Gus a fortune. We could afford it.

The way I look at it, we need a second line center, a third line winger and a fourth line winger. Aside from the 2C our top 6 could be considered 'set.' The thing is that top six lacks any size and 'drive to the net' attitude with Franzen and Cole gone. Which is what we need to fix. So we need one, maybe two top 6 players to replace Cole and Franzen. Which means someone (Nyquist, Tatar, Abdelkader, Zetterberg) needs to be displaced to a lower line. This problem sort of fixes itself if we make a trade for defensemen, but it's hard to predict who goes and who we acquire. But I look at it like this: Tatar-Datsyuk-Abdelkader Zetterberg- ????? -Nyquist ?????-Sheahan-Helm Miller-Glendening-????? I suppose Jurco will probably fit in on one of those bottom two slots but I think they might move him. He's been invisible all year. Pulkinnen will probably get a call-up but he doesn't really fit on this roster and I don't think he'll ever be an NHL player. A call-up could fill the fourth line spot. I'd like to see them maybe acquire a 2C and a second line power forward, and bump Nyquist down to the third, maybe. Thoughts? Maybe Mantha could be an effective third liner with Sheahan and Helm. Either way we have a logjam at forward. I'd like Cole to come back, but I have no idea how severe his injury is or how frequently it will happen, so I'm relying on Holland to replace him if he doesn't sign him. Again. On defense I'd like to see radical changes made. For starters we need a bonafide #1 or #2 offensive defenseman. Ericsson has been a liability most of the year, but we might be able to use him as trade bait in a package. I'd like to see him go. We have a logjam at defense again and need to clear up dead weight. Assuming, of course, we acquire someone to replace him. None of the kids can, yet. Zidlicky proved to be effective in the regular season and showed how important a puck mover and scorer is on the back end. He disappeared in the playoffs and I no longer think he will return. Kindl and Smith have their moments but overall disappoint. They should be moved if we can get something to replace them with. Perhaps a third pairing of Marchenko-Oullet would be effective? Sure, it's an all-rookie pair but they'd have all season to get comfortable. Kronwall-?????? Dekeyser-Quincey (A real solid, reliable second pair) ??????-??????

They have had no problem benching Weiss (5 mil). That money is already a sunk cost, so it's a silly reason to not play someone. That being said, those of us who aren't bi-polar and irrational know Howard is still a good goalie. He was phenomenal up until his injury. With an offseason to recuperate and get back into form, I have no doubts he'll be tearing it up again next season. But Mrazek also showed us the future. His time in the AHL is done. We've all wanted to roll with a 41-41 split for years now. Here's our chance. No placeholder goalies or short-term fixes. We're set in goal until Mrazek is up for a big contract. That being said, I feel like Mrazek is the better big game goalie, and his style of play better complements a puck possession and fast transition strategy. So he needs to be our number 1 come playoffs. Trading Howard would be a mistake, because we have no goalie depth. Mrazek is still a big question mark over the course of a whole season, and it's ridiculous to go into a season riding an unproven goaltender when you don't have to do so.