VM1138

I have a feeling everyone but DeKeyser, Mrazek, Larkin and Sheahan (we don't do sign and trades) and Z are available. There was a story about how Holland is planning a huge summer. Putting that word out on the street sends the message to everyone that he wants to wheel and deal, which to me means almost everyone is on the table.

I don't think he really is being shopped. It's a rumor from Chicago fanboys and Malkin's name gets tossed around every year.

I know it's just a rumor but if Malkin goes to Chicago I'll tear my hair out. Chicago is what the Wings used to be. I'd love to have Malkin here.

Buffalo is also close to Toronto, haha. I just don't know if Toronto is close to shaking their perennial loser reputation. At least the Wings make playoffs. We are certainly closer to competing than the Leafs, so that's in our favor. Also he'd be our number one center, no chance he gets put on the wing here. Our franchise also has a reputation and money to blow. We may have struggled in recent years but we've set our mind on competing again and when the Wings really committ to winning, we win. We've just been in a weird holding pattern since 2010. I don't know if that factors in but there's got to be a confidence that now that we've decided things have to changed our leadership knows how to do it.

I'd take Nielsen. Contrary to what people say we still need vets, just vets that can play or bring a certain dynamic. Our vets are currently just washed up.

No kidding. Every year its beaten up, peed in, drank out of, dropped, etc. It just adds to the history.

This is a classic case of numbers without context. Nobody except a few fans think Smith is any good. Certainly he didn't stand out as a good possession guy, which partly led to his being benched for a good long while. He is certainly not a top four guy or a high level league player. If he was he wouldn't be so widely considered a disappointment.There's something the numbers are missing. Because when he's on the ice he doesn't make smart decisions, doesn't do much more than crash the net. About all he can do is occasionally play keep away with the puck in his own end. He certainly doesn't make the team on the ice better when he's out there, except for his rare good stretches which are followed by a return to has natural sub-par play.

I don't give a damn what his advanced stats say. Smith isn't good and has no future.

Very classy of the Sharks to do that. Further proof that everybody admired Mr. Hockey.

Parity is a joke. End the Cap now.

Parity is a joke. End the Cap now.

As already pointed out, this is about money. Naming rights are huge and are a major part of business plans. They can't (even if they wanted to, probably) just change the name to a non-business name. They'd lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars. What they'll do is put a big statue of him out in front, name a street after him, or name a wing or part of the arena after him. I think Toronto has something like a hall of legends, and I think the Wings need to do the same thing. Statues of the greats (not just Howe and Lindsay, which are the ones that are currently at the Joe, I think) ringed around the arena.

Careful, you might cut yourself on all that edge.

I've heard he's not a great special teams guy. He was just available, so he was a natural target for us, I guess.

If we can improve any area we do it. Nielsen is pretty clutch, isn't he? From what little I've see if him Id say he'd be a good fit with the way we need to transform the roster. Adding one or two top sixers and a defensemen won't be enough. We need a total transformation and our fourth line is garbage and our third line could use a boost.

Helm is one of the best puck hounds and bottom sixers in the game. The problem only arises when he's in the top six, and then the issue of cost and term.

The problem is, we're not going to get an elite superstar through drafting, and probably not through UFA if we miss out on Stamkos. These types of players don't come along very often, and we're not going to win a Cup without one. Sure, money is a big issue but if we're serious about rebuilding and COMPETING, we have to make a huge play for Stamkos. Filling the team with capable but non-spectacular players is exactly how we ended up being a perennial playoff team with no shot at the Cup. I agree that you can't rely on one player, but you also can't move forward without a big superstar.

But why are we pushing so hard so early for Radulov before even talking to Stamkos? That's my issue. And we do need more than one player but we need a high caliber superstar like Stamkos the most. We can always hope for Larkin or Mantha or AA to explode, or pick up someone next season. We can't fix all the problems in one summer but there may not be another superstar available for many years.

And honesty the more I hear from our beat writers the more it seems we haven't changed our mentality at all. It's Radulov OR Stamkos? They aren't even on the same ballpark. No one should hesitate to pay Stamkos $10 million. That's just the cost these days and we HAVE to have a ready number one center to compete.

Signing someone like Radulov just replaces Datsyuk and puts us even with where we were last year. We still need a Stamkos like signing to make us improve. So if it's so unlikely we might just be screwed.

Simmonds would be a huge help in transforming the team.

He did get regular time for a while. It's not like he was never given a chance. No one expects him to have hit his peak, but he hasn't shown any kind of development or improvement at all. None. And he's not new anymore.

We don't necessarily need to dump Jurco but I don't see why people think he's going to turn it around. He's a big bodied scoring winger (supposedly) who can't make an impact. And before you bring up the fact that he's always on the fourth line, that's exactly where a player like him should be able to make a mark.

There's a lot of reasons Stamkos might want to leave Tampa. He may re-sign with them but it's not crazy to think he might want to leave, even to a worse team.

Except it's not a favor. It's an even swap in cases like Phoenix. They get the cap hit they want and don't have to pay actual money.Now teams could be dicks but that's where reputation comes in. Kenny has good relations with everyone and no in the old boys club almost no one is going to try and so obviously put the screws to the Wings. In fact the favor would be in taking a scrub or failed prospect that we can't unload anywhere else. I'd imagine the sweetener is just Holland trying to unload chaff to free up roster spaces.