StormJH1

Ridiculous. I suppose you'll be burning your Steve Yzerman jersey too, since he was mean enough not to accept that Lashoff/Tootoo/Samuelsson for Stamkos/Drouin/Hedman offer Kenny sent him. C'mon Stevie, we retired your number! You OWE us! Seriously, though, this is not a big deal. 90% of Red Wings fans would have understood if Datsyuk wanted to return back home and finish his career there, so why would it be any different if Fedorov had anything to do with it?

Bingo. I want to punch my computer screen every time I hear one of those Shanahan videos where he says "The Department has taken into consideration that there was no apparent injury caused by the play". (1) How do you KNOW that with a head injury 1 or 2 days after the hit? (2) Why does that really even matter? I've said it a million times - what Bert did in 2004 was despicable and I had no problem with giving whatever punishment they were going to give him, including multi-year bans, but it was also very unlucky. There are plays every night - both intentional and accidental - in the NHL that have the potential to cause that degree of injury if a player falls slightly different, or hits up against another object differently. If the PPOC (principal point of contact) is the hear or if there is clear intent to target the head, it's really no longer up to the offender whether that guy he's hitting stands right back up again, or if it ruins his career like Marc Savard. As for the helmet technology, if a $500 helmet really could make the difference, I'd imagine there'd be a stronger push for that. I'm just not sure that closed head injuries work that way. It reminds me of when that Georgian guy died on the luge track before Vancouver 2010, and people were mad that they didn't have padding on the support beam he hit. At 90mph, I'm not sure there's a material they could have put up there that would have prevented death or very serious injury.

"East" and "West" don't figure into the division names because that would create confusion with the Conference names. That's why it's Pacific instead of West. But Metropolitan is so vague a descriptor, they might as well have called it the "Earth" division. The weird thing is that only three of the "Atlantic" teams are coastal, and two of those are the crappy Florida teams. Teams like Pittsburgh used to be in the Atlantic, and they moved them now. When I heard the new division name, I assumed we were in it, since we're not "Atlantic". Also, Detroit is becoming decreasingly metropolitan. (oooh, too soon?)

I saw a bit of hype on Twitter for a pending Pavel Datsyuk interview - kind of like the giddy excitement leading up to "Sharknado" last week Pavel Datsyuk is one of most uniquely intriguing athletes I can remember ever following closely. Maybe the whole point is that nobody actually is able to follow him closely. I certainly don't think of him the same way you would think generally about other "Russian players". Even the other Russians, many of which do not like each other, seem to revere him like some sort of deity. Also, that was a pretty awesomely subtle joke about being behind his Twitter handle, and also the handle of his bicycle and car. I think he actually speaks English better than I do, and is just playing it down as part of his master plan. Also interesting when he was asked about Sochi and didn't even offer an opinion on it one way or the other. When they ask Ovechkin that question, he almost forgets that he's under contract with the Capitals for about 5 minutes.

You could pretty look up any post I had about Brendan Smith from April to the present, and it would range from critical to betrayed to outright nasty. But all of that was coming from a person who was a big Smith backer at the beginning of the year. The type of step forward that Kindl took by the time of the Playoffs is what I expected Smith to do, only Smith probably has more offensive upside. ...And that still might happen. Which is why this deal is perfectly fine. Considering that this team (and most teams) has at least one cap hit the size of Jordin Tootoo's that frequently gets healthy scratched (or is oft injured, like Samuelsson), Smith will have every chance again to be a Top 6 defenseman. There isn't even a Coliacovo, Ian White, or Kent Huskins-like guy (yet) to take that spot away from him. The whole thing that made Smith infuriating is that he appears to HAVE the necessary tools to be a good player. The mental side of the game just wasn't there last spring. This is a great cap hit to monitor the next two years, by which point if he hasn't improved, it will be a good time to walk away.

I agree with that. (Well, time will tell on whether or not our offseason moves were flawless, but I like them now). When millions upon millions were handed out on July 5th, and it became clear that Brunner was going to shop around, my assumption was that he had at least two other suitors he could bid off each other and would sign in a day or two. Or at least that was my assumption because he seemed to be happy with the Red Wings and a two-year deal of some decent amount still allows him to increase his value for a 2015 contract, or return to Switzerland. Now, you have to wonder if he ever had a better offer anywhere, or if he and his agent are being totally irrational about this. The player in the second half of last season would have struggled to reach 15 goals over an 82-game season. He also doesn't have an 82-game season on his resume. I don't think 2.5 million or 3 million per year is unreasonable for him to ask for, but I also understand why teams aren't lining up to sign a guy who could be the next Ville Leino. He has no track record.

Apparently, if he ever wants to return to the NHL, it would have to be approved by every team. I guess I'm just perplexed by how many media outlets are talking about how great this is for the Devils organization. Great how? Nobody put a gun to their head and made them give this guy that length of term...twice. If you sign a contract that's so bad that you'd happily lose an elite player in his prime because you don't want to pay for him, you shouldn't have played high stakes poker to begin with. That team now has terrible long-term contracts for both Zajac and Clowe (I liked the 2-yr deal for Ryder). They have 10 million in cap room, but virtually nobody left to spend it on because Kovy did this now instead of two weeks ago. Right, except signing Grabovski and Brunner will probably approach the cap hit that Kovy had. I'm not sure any rational Devils fan would rather have two mid-level players over one mega-star. So now you have a less competitive team saddled with a greater number of mediocre contracts, instead of one huge contract for a guy who was one of the best scorers in the NHL. If I'm a Devils fan, I'm PISSED.

This is STUNNING. People have to remember the original context of this - this was the contract that broke backdiving deals like the ones the Hawks abused and helped perpetuate the lockout. They were also penalized a 1st and 3rd rounder for trying to sign him. And all of that was to penalize them for something that never happened - which was that he would retire later in his 30's before his actually salary fell below his cap hit. I'm not sure the Devils wanted to "get out" from this contract. The original deal was voided by the NHL, and they signed a different one again anyway. Kovy got them to a SCF, and pretty much delivered everything they could have asked for. That franchise is becoming a wasteland out of nowhere.

Very true, point taken - I did remember that from the WIIM article as I was writing it, but I wasn't well enough versed in all things CBA to spell it out. The point still remains that a 3-year, $9 million deal for Brunner does more damage to our ability to sign FA's in upcoming seasons than a 1-year deal for Alfredsson does, even though some of the bonus money is deferred to 2014-15. I suppose Brunner could still end up getting close to what he wants, but I have to think he didn't expect being the guy left out at the end of "musical chairs" when he decided to test the market. In a year where the cap went down significantly and so much money was thrown around on Day One, that's not a position I'd like to be in.

It's a risk, but Rask has looked very consistently elite for several years now, and I also think the goaltending pool as a whole is SO much deeper than it used to be. I'm not sure if that's an argument for or against huge deals for goaltenders, but think back to 15 years ago and countries like Finland and the U.S. were notoriously bad at producing NHL goalies. Finland's youth programs are really paying off now, and the U.S. is arguably on par with Canada in producing quality goalies. So yes, you can find more good goalies, and some of them are undervalued (Niemi comes to mind). But that also means that there should be more star goalies "worthy" of the large contract than there were in the mid-2000's.

As much I definitely hated Smith's play in the postseason (which I contend was some of the worst defensive play on the Wings this side of Derian Hatcher), this is a totally fair comment. I think the adjustment period on Kindl is still happening, and much like Ericsson's contract was lampooned here when signed (present company included), $2.4 AAV for Kindl could look like an absolute steal if he continues the way he played from April on. Kindl was never as bad as Smith looked this spring, but you certainly skills in Smith's game that make you think he could be a good puck moving D-man, and at least a passable defender. As the other poster noted above, too, arbitration with Smith might not be such a bad thing. He didn't have any stellar offensive numbers, and he managed to be on the ice for virtually every Anaheim goal. It's kind of similar to evaluating Brunner for a long-term deal, except you could make an argument that Brunner has already displayed his peak value in the NHL. I don't think there's any possible way Smith could view his recent play as demonstrative of his value, and the Wings probably shouldn't be committing to him for more than a year unless he plays better.

While I'm personally disappointed that Brunner isn't on the team, I'm not mad about it. The part of this that people ignore is what happens next offseason. Tell me if you agree with the following statements, or if they're at least in the ballpark of 50/50: The Wings will benefit from a veteran presence and additional Top 6 forward who can score. Alfredsson is a safer bet to be more productive than Brunner in 2013-14. Having $5.5 million in new cap space next offseason is preferable to the $2 to $3 million we would have as the difference between Alfie and Brunner Yes, we signed Alfredsson "instead" of overpaying Brunner, but Alfredsson's money is completely off the books next year. In the NBA, an "expiring contract" is a valuable commodity. Teams will purposefully trade for old, overpaid players so that they get the cap room. If you think of Alfredsson as a pretty useful "expiring contract" who will help this year, what's not to like? And the reality about Brunner is that wasn't Brunner vs. Alfie, or Brunner vs. Cleary. It was Brunner vs. Brunner's price tag. If I blast the Wings all season for giving a 3-year deal to Jordin Tootoo that isn't worth his cap hit, I have to be intellectually honest about the fact that I can't say with strong confidence that Brunner will be anything better than a 3rd liner making $3 million a year. He could be a 30-goal scorer and a steal, but there's zero guarantee of that. Far more often than not, when the Wings let go of or lost a player to FA who has become overpriced, they made the right decision (Lapointe, Fedorov, Leino, Hudler, etc.).

Interesting topic. The injury stuff with the Olympics is a 100% legit issue - we just push it to the side because the tournament itself is so intriguing. The wear-and-tear on Howard would definitely be a concern, but barring an injury to Quick, Howard will probably be more jet-lagged than fatigued. Howard's stock has shot up this past year, but not higher than Quick's. Of course, one bad game and a relief appearance could change that too, who knows. Pretty cool that the U.S. suddenly has killer depth at goaltender, things used to be pretty rough for us. It's easy to say that Abdelkader, DeKeyser, Tatar, etc. have a shot at making their squads, but when you start listing out other players that could take their place, they get eliminated pretty quickly. For the European countries and Russia, also don't forget that there are a number of players in the KHL, Elite League, etc. that are very enticing to hockey federations, but just don't happen to be currently in the NHL.

This. I can't stand hearing how "big" the East is and how much the Red Wings need to change to become more like those teams. If you don't like the fact that the stars of this team are European guys with skill as opposed to large centers who hit people and throw pissy fits at the end of games (Getzlaf), go root for another team. When people say the "East is big", all they really mean is "Boston is big". And when you say "Boston", all you really mean is Chara and Lucic. Cripes, Boston has Krug and Marchand on their team too! Glad this breed of Wings fan wasn't on message boards in 1997 - Lindros was SO much BIGGER than Yzerman that series. Turns out you can skate and pass around people.

A lot of non-Detroit fans I talked to kind of snickered at the Alfredsson signing, and that's confusing to me. To me, the guy is ageless like Selanne. He won't have quite the scoring impact that Selanne has had in his 40's, but he has leadership qualities and experience that will mean a ton to this locker room. You think the players on this team (especially the Swedes) will ever quit knowing that there's a living legend on their team who came here for basically one final crack at a Stanley Cup. It may not work, but what's not to like? This is the type of move that almost seems matter-of-fact in the offseason (because he's old and it's short-term), but when October rolls around, I know I'll be having that "holy crap, Daniel Alfredsson plays for the Red Wings" moment. It's gonna be awesome to have him in that sweater.

I'd like to think that, but I doubt they're in that kind of contact. Also, if he was really committed to sign him, and they had a number in place (say, $2.75 AAV), wouldn't they just sign him now and fix the cap before the season? That would be an awful big risk to leave him floating out there. I think it's more likely that they've moved on, and we wouldn't even revisit him at $2.5 million unless somebody wants to bail us out on Sammy or Tootoo's contracts. We have too many forwards as it is. I also disagree that Tatar and Nyquist are being shopped. Tatar is cheap and skilled for one more year - Nyquist will get paid some more, but neither of them makes close to what the hypothetical defenseman we would trade for would cost. I actually think that Holland and Babcock are happy with the defense as constituted. There's a glimmer of hope that DeKeyser could be considered a Top 4 defenseman if all goes well this year. Kindl can be counted on as a starter, which had certainly never been the case before. It's a young defensive corps that played 3x better in April than they did in January.

I'm actually pretty happy with what happened on 7/5. You'd have to be stuck in 2002 to not see how that was a successful day for the Wings. Even if Brunner ends up being a casualty, they had to get down to the lower cap figure AND replace two fairly key guys (Flip and Brunner, Cleary to a lesser degree) with decent options through free agency. Filppula obviously had motivations beyond just money and wearing the Winged Wheel, so I thank him for his service and wish him well. We don't know know what will end up happening with Brunner, but I doubt we could have signed him long-term, or would even have wanted to. Even a 40-year old Alfredsson is probably more of an impact player next year than Brunner will be. No, I don't think Steven Weiss is awesome, but do I think he can be as effective, or possibly more effective, as a second line center than Filppula? Yes. And that cap hit given the competition and the insanity happening all over free agency is very manageable. I'm actually okay rolling with the young defense options that emerged this year, as opposed to paying $5 million a year for some broken down 34-year-old. Nyquist is an intriguing two-way player, Andersson has size plus versatility, and Tatar might be more talented than than any of them. I'm excited for next year.

Yeah, woah. I'm with THIS comment, not the one he quote that completely slammed Brunner. Brunner was like a $5 lottery ticket that paid our $250, and people have the nerve to curse their luck that they didn't win the $1 million jackpot. He was paid virtually nothing last year, and yet people act like they were "ripped off" by him. I don't get it. Even if you factor in all the slumps and the defensive gaffes, that's probably a $2.5 to $3.5 million player there. And he would have GOT that too if the Wings had been able to compliance buyout Sammy, or weren't still saddled with Tootoo's $1.9 AAV. Brunner isn't a "kid", he's in his late 20's and has had almost a decade of professional hockey experience. It's possible he's being unreasonable, but I don't blame him for wanting to get paid given that he probably expects to be a 25 to 30 goal scorer next year, and he may be right. As for Fedorov, the point is well-taken (if not the anti-Brunner rhetoric). Yzerman could barely get this team into the Playoffs for years until Fedorov (and Lidstrom) became Red Wings. I'm in the even smaller camp of "2009 Hossa apologists", so I guess the pattern with me is that if you play hard as a Red Wing and aren't a total jerk about how you left, I don't carry the hate.

I cannot believe this. I literally had 95% confidence he was coming back here. It'll make me sick if watching him score 20+ for some other team.

There's two things at work here - there's the idea itself of Alfredsson being a Wing for a year, which I think is AWESOME. But there's also the idea of what it means. If it's simply swapping #11's and letting Cleary go, so be it. But Alfredsson costs a little more, and if this deal means that they can't retain Brunner (or don't find a decently priced 2nd line center), then that could be a net negative. Alfredsson, even more than Iginla, always seemed like a natural fit for the Red Wings some day. This really is the "IKEA Red Wings" now!

I hear you. It's not that I don't want Alfie as a Wing, I love that idea, even as an old Alfie. But this isn't 2002, there are consequences for every signing. I hate this signing for what it means for our other activity. Sent on iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't want Cleary back, but it's not like I'll burn the place down if he's resigned. I don't understand what they were thinking when they agreed to this IR exception to the compliance buyout. If the point of the buyout is to escape from burdensome contracts that can be as long as 5-10 years (though not in Sammy's case, obviously), then why prohibit them for players hurt at the end of last year, but who presumably will be ready to play next season? I think with how negative this place was last summer and leading up to the start of games in January on Holland, a lot of people had egg on their face the way the youth movement made this team better than it was last year. Holland deserves the credit for assembling that talent, and Babcock for patiently executing it. It's just too bad Kenny got in his own way by signing this garbage veteran deals (Sammy, Carlo, Tootoo) that were instantly regrettable.

Yeah, George Malik had a write-up about this, really bizarre. He hinted at some type of internal shake-up as to how this information could have come from the organization. Maybe now that his hockey career officially "died" on Twitter, he'll be free to perform without pressure! Or not.

Well, yeah, absolutely, but my point was that those were the top two gritty power forwards on the market, so one helps define the price of the other. Clarkson is absolutely going to get more than Bickell.

Yeah, Grigorenko absolutely got wrecked by that accident. I had forgotten that he was a 62nd pick - I assumed he was a late 1st rounder because that guy was absolutely expected to be the "next" diamond unearthed by the Wings in the early 2000's. I refuse to vote on the poll, however, because 2008 is really the latest one I feel at all comfortable passing judgment on. For example, Landon Ferraro is 21 years old right now, and actually had a good year for the Griffins. He's also logjammed behind a bunch of other forwards (Nyquist, Tatar, Andersson, etc.) who are around his age or even a little older and just broke in with the Wings. Are you ready to say that he is or isn't a "bust"? I'm not!