StormJH1

Assuming that 99.7% of LGW posters (me included) have never seen Anthony Mantha play a game, you wonder how "work/compete rate" is gauged at such an early level. Some guys who are long and lanky look awkward but actually are moving fast (or fast enough for their size). It is worth nothing, however, that you really don't see 6'3" 190lb NHL forwards in their mid-20's in the NHL. Guys who are that tall are either on defense, or fill out and become "power forwards". Despite the production numbers, there have to be holes in his game, or he wouldn't have lasted until 20th. Still, it's an intriguing pick from a part of the draft where the Wings have been finding a lot of legit NHL'ers.

Yeah, that's a great deal for both sides. Bobrovsky has the flexibility to go to another market or Russia if he has that inclination in a few years. And for Columbus, it would take almost 2 years to fully convince themselves that Bob isn't an elite goalie no matter how bad he plays, so this is a nice low-risk deal for them.

I'd be lying if I said I knew anything about this pick, but at pick 20, it looks like a hell of a good try! Style comparisons to James Neal and a legit scoring pedigree. (Though ISS compared him to Wojtek Wolski...hmm). To me, though, the best part of this is the absolute fleecing of San Jose to get the #58 pick (Tyler Bertuzzi). Dave Bolland was traded for the 51 and 117 - we got a second rounder just for moving down 2 slots?!

The Fox Sports Girls thing is stupid. When they rolled it out, I had to check to make sure it was 2011 instead of 1961. Here in Minnesota, one of the original "Girls" (Jenny) has kind of evolved into a deeper role, where she does some hosting and interviewing with players. They even credit her last name on the broadcast (wow!). Good-looking woman, and she was a former hockey player in high school, so she does skating drills, etc. after the games. Overall though, the promos are ridiculous. If I was a legitimate female broadcaster/sideline reporter with FS, I'd probably throw up in my mouth a little every time one of those commercials airs.

Wow, I HATE this deal for Phoenix. They play a defensive system that is friendly to goaltenders, and Bryzgalov's performance in Philly showed that to an extent. No way in hell Smith deserves Howard's contract - we're lucky Howard got his money first so that deal wasn't out there as a comparable.

A lot of people were surprised that they were clearing out Bolland and Frolik after saying they would have to blow up their secondary players again. Looks like they probably identified Bickell as a priority to keep. I agree that $4 mil/yr for such a limited track record is a bit high, but if David Clarkson gets $5 mil AAV from someone, Bickell was absolutely going to get $3.5 mil or better. He was an undeniable force for them in the Playoffs, it just seemed like they could have done a little better going that long on term.

Good God, they really offered him that much? Letang has "Brian Campbell" written all over him (remember that Blackhawk's contract?). Or maybe "Sergei Gonchar", for a more familiar, Pens-centric reference. Top-level offensive performance from defenseman really is a fleeting thing in the NHL. It's as much a product of your system as it is the skill of the defenseman, and it can be gone in a heartbeat. Just look at Jay Bouwmeester, or any number of Florida or Nashville defensemen (Andy Delmore?) that were 20 goal scorers once and never again. True shut down defenders are rare, but that is a commodity that carries over from year to year. Yes, Letang is a skilled powerplay weapon, but he also plays with Crosby and Malkin. Even more than the money, I really wouldn't want Letang on my team if you had to pay him and play him as a #1 defenseman. He's been involved in way too many 5-4 games where the defense was a complete mess, and that could never have happened as consistently as it did if he were an elite defender along the likes of Chara, Keith, Weber, etc.

If you're an impending UFA and look around at the type of money paid to other guys that you know you're better than, I don't know how you can consider it greed. Players around Flip's age have to lock down that one big deal to make the bulk of the money they'll make in their lifetime. Logic and reason tell you that with the cap going down, players like Filppula can't be paid $5.5 mil per year, but experience tells you that somebody will pay that, or close to it. Crap, teams like Phoenix, Columbus, etc. need to hand out a bad contract or two just to stay over the salary floor! Have you ever left a job voluntarily that you weren't fired from? I suspect most people have (or have considered it), and some people consider doing it on almost an annual basis. Did you feel like a greedy traitor knowing that somebody else had to take over your work and clean your mess up so you could go earn a little more money somewhere else?

Chicago's players and (much of) their fanbase may be classless individuals, but that is different than the front office. This was an excellent gesture by them at a time when they didn't have to do anything at all. I doubt the Arizona Diamondbacks did anything like this when they delivered an analogous kick to the stomach to the Yankees in 2001. The Hawks organization is leaps and bounds from where they were 10 years ago, and that's good for the game. For all the damage of the lockout(s), terrible TV contracts, etc., don't you look at the health of the teams and fanbases in MAJOR U.S. cities (LA, Chicago, NY, Philadelphia) that weren't always in a great position, and feel pretty good about the league?

As big of an opponent as I was against backdiving deals and other 2005 CBA "cheats" and "workarounds", I still think this is massively unfair to teams that signed these deals, all of which were within the rules of the existing CBA and were approved by the league (except for Kovalchuk's first deal). Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the effect of the recapture penalty to punish NHL front offices for taking advantage of the way cap hits are determined in the first place? Duncan Keith and Marian Hossa will both make just shy of $8 million next year, but the salary cap treats them as if they were making $5 million. To retroactively put into place a rule that punishes previously legal conduct makes no sense to me. I have no problem with recapture penalties going forward (or other rules limiting year-to-year variance on salaries), but that's because teams are now under notice of the rules going forward. Yes, I understand that the two compliance buyouts were granted to give teams an "out" for that, but that isn't a real solution either, since it forces you to release that player off your team (you can't re-sign a compliance buyout for one year afterwards). If Zetterberg has kids in Sweden and wants to play there, or just decides that he wants to retire from the NHL for health or personal reasons, it just seems wrong to me that HE should be the one put in the position of tanking the Red Wings' salary cap situation by walking away from the team. For the reasons stated by the OP, I kind of thought that Franzen was a borderline candidate for a buyout. He isn't a player like a Datsyuk or Z that I feel could be productive into his late, late 30's. His knee problems, physical style, and frame suggest a guy that will have a career arc more like Holmstrom, which means we'll be penalized when he hangs it up.

Disagree with the "Sad" part, but that's not why I'm posting. I keep hearing this "we're going to the Eastern Conference and need to get more physical talk" and I don't get it. Most of the time people cite that argument, they're talking about adding a fourth line banger, a heavyweight goon, or (in the case of Tootoo) retaining a 13th forward. I don't get the Eastern Conference thing at all. There is ONE team in the East (Boston) that is head and shoulders more physically imposing than the rest, and that is Boston. Really, when you say Boston, you mean Chara and Lucic. The skill guys on that team are mostly regular-sized dudes. And Chicago just beat them in 6, and we damn near beat Chicago. You could look teams like LA and find as many (or more) skilled large body forwards, and they're a Western team. But even if it is true that the East is this totally different style of hockey and we're likely to get bounced all over the rink, you aren't going to change that fact about the Red Wings by adding and subtracting a few role players in free agency. You'd literally have to re-make the entire core of the team, plus throw out all of the elements of Detroit's discipline and emphasis on skill and puck possession that frustrate other physical teams into dumb penalties. I'm a fan of physical players with skill. For example, if you added David Clarkson (or maybe even Bryan Bickell) to a forward corps that also has Franzen and Abdelkader, that's actually a decent number of skilled big bodies. But this Red Wings team is pretty darn good the way it is, and you can't just reinvent it into something else overnight. Nor would I want to.

You have to keep in mind that while I'm sure your average Boston fan doesn't like Gary Bettman, they do love their team, and the owner of their team (Jacobs) was the biggest Bettman apologist out of all of the owners. A lot of fanbases, you would think, would have a much clearer disdain for Bettman and what he's done to the league. And yet, it's hard to even articulate exactly how he's been so bad, because the product, for the most part, continues to be excellent. It makes me smile a bit to see Bettman get that reaction, but it also makes me sad. You could argue that even though we're at temporary labor peace in the four sports right now, player dislike for the leagues/management is bad across the board. Much the same way opponent Bruins fans stick around to watch the other team hoist the Cup (out of appreciation for the spectacle and the tradition of the game), you wish we also had that pride in the people entrusted for running the league.

The topic is a fair one, but we don't know what's going to happen. I think 51 is gone, but if someone like Weiss is signed to replace him, then you haven't gained a spot. Tough to imagine Tootoo having much trade value with that contract, but old-school hockey guys have an inexplicable man-crush on him, so maybe somebody will bite.

Enjoyed the nugget about the Wings trying to trade Tootoo. There are some posters here that will burn the forum down if they deal their beloved "enforcer". It's interesting that people talked about the Wings as one of the (secondary) offenders of offering backdiving deals, yet the two suspected candidates (37 and 28) are actually guys on shorter term deals signed in the 2012 offseason. In other words, we actually did intend on honoring the Zetterberg and Franzen contracts. However, is Khan right about this? I thought that Sammy and Bert were both on 35+ deals, and you can't buyout a 35+ deal. I must be mistaken.

Also, NHL games do still end in ties, we just don't call it that. Teams play for that single point by tightening up at the end of the 3rd. Once secured, they open things up in overtime, but no matter what happens in OT or the shootout, you're still giving a point to the other team for the "tie". Neither team wins the team in regulation, but one point is awarded to each team for the "tie", and an additional point is awarded to the team that prevails in a 5-minute mini-game or the skills competition (SO). It'd be one thing if eliminating ties resulted in a simple W/L record and uniform standings (like in baseball). But it really doesn't simplify things at all - teams have a complicated 3-part record, and then an additional points total that actually determines their place. The elimination of the term "tie" was basically semantic, kind of like making a golf course "harder" by shifting the definition of "par" to require fewer strokes.

I understand your point, but think about what you're saying: 3 on 3 seems ridiculous to you, and yet...it still involves teamwork, live action goaltending (instead of set pieces), passing, strategy, and (wait for it...) DEFENSE! How could any configuration of live hockey action be less "hockey-like" than the shootout? I liken the shootout to free throws in basketball, yet, strangely, NBA fans just readily accept that guys throw themselves into traffic with no real plan as to how they will score, and are rewarded with a stoppage in action and two unopposed shots at the net. The argument I hear in favor of the shootout is that Bettman wanted shootouts because ties are unpopular in American sports, and because he wanted certainty that all games would fit into a 3-hour window. While the latter goal is desirable, that's a straw man argument because shootouts actually make the game LONGER than they were before. We had 5 minute OT followed by a tie before - now we have 5 minute OT followed by Zamboni followed by shootouts that can extend even longer than 3 rounds if its tied. 4 on 4 OT doesn't necessarily create more scoring, but that's because the goalies are so good nowadays. It does create more action, however - OT hockey is great! I'd like to see 3 on 3 tested out somewhere - the chances of an odd man rush become so much greater because if just one dude wipes out in the other end, there's going to be a scoring chance.

Crazy for those people up there - I've been following Maria Camacho's pictures up from that area (she's sort of like the fan avatar for the Wings on Twitter - a la Lauren Ashley for Devils), and they're surreal. I had not heard about the Jumbotron being damaged, that's terrible. Introduce water to a populated area, and there's no way to even predict the extent of damage it will cause.

So I take it, then, that you must think Mike Babcock is a terrible head coach right now, right? After all, Babcock scratched Tootoo every game of the Chicago series, and we fell one overtime goal short of knocking off the best team in the NHL up to that point. If only Jordin Tootoo had been there, with his considerable skill, and spirit-crushing behind-the-play body checks. You are possibly the first person I have ever heard say that the Wings have bandwagon fans who are only here for that European style of play. You're probably right. It's only the hardest of hardcore fans that can appreciate things like Fight Night at the Joe, or good Canadian boys like Yzerman and Shanahan winning multiple Stanley Cups. Yep, attendance and fan interest definitely spiked as this team became more European and less inclined to fight. I think Opie's comment above this one is a good, measured analysis of Tootoo. Even if you happen to like elements of what Tootoo does, you can't focus narrowly on that without acknowledging what Tootoo doesn't do. He can't kill penalties, he's not affordable relative to his contribution, and he can't contribute any meaningful offense. Anyone happen to see Akim Aliu's 5-game stint with Calgary this year? (14 PIM). You can pay some AHL'er $700k to start jumping into checks and trying to murder people all over the ice. That isn't really a "specialized" commodity the Wings needed to pay for.

We would agree that $5.5 mil AAV is too much for Filppula, but in terms of Filppula's right to be a free agent or demand whatever he wants, I think you're off-base. You're saying Filppula owes it to the Wings to accept whatever low-ball offer we throw his way? That a player in the prime of his career needs to "prove" himself by taking one-year deals until he either (a) Has an outlier season where he blows up and then gets overpaid; or (b) Gets his head run into the boards and sees a serious diminution in his value and future earning potential? Um, no. If I'm Filppula and another team offers me $10 million more (over the life of a multi-year deal) AND a higher profile role on the top lines and PP unit...and all I have to do is live somewhere else and wear a different color sweater? Yeah, I would at least consider that. Filppula is no longer the "property" of the Detroit Red Wings come July 5th - there was nothing stopping his from extending him previously if Holland wanted to lock him up on a multi-year deal.

Regarding the naming rights - I really could care less. It was cool that JLA was named after a famous sports icon, but these things are damn expensive. Naming rights are huge in sports, so as long as its a company that isn't embarrassing and still likely to be around in 10 years (in other words, not GoDaddy.com), I'm fine.

I have such mixed feelings about this. I think that any rational citizen looking at this objectively would agree you shouldn't have publicly funded stadiums for billionaires, and a city as economically depressed as Detroit shouldn't have built THREE new stadiums in the span of 15 years. There is no appreciable economic benefit to building a stadium, particularly where there was already a stadium in that area. Studies have been done, and there just isn't any evidence to back it up. All that being said, people who like the Red Wings (myself included) convince ourselves that we don't care. Or, to look at another way, we DO care about the Red Wings more than we care about a museum renovation, lowering a budget deficit, or the $12 million diverted from education funds (my number/sources may be inaccurate, but you get the point). And as an out-of-state Red Wings fan, I actually felt guilty that I was happy about the new arena because it benefits me as a fan (though not one that gets back to many live games) without having having to pay the bill in the city I grew up around. I guess here's the thing with Detroit that keeps coming up: If not now, when? If your argument against any new development or construction is always "wait till things get better?", has that wish ever really come true since, what, the '67 Riots? You could argue there are certain way the city has gotten better since the 90's, but what they really mean is that city has done a better job becoming a Chuck E' Cheese's for adult suburbanites (casinos, Comerica, Ford Field, etc.). JLA is old and would need to be replaced sooner or later, even if there wasn't an immediate threat (like an owner thinking about selling the team or moving it somewhere else). Sorry, just rambling out loud. I get frustrated when I go back home, see the busted out windows and 28% unemployment, and then have my family tell me how nice downtown is because there's a skating rink at Campus Martius now. Most of my family has never moved more than 10 miles in their lifetime, and they don't know that it doesn't have to be like that. Go Red Wings.

Shootouts are a ridiculous skill competition with no actual correlation to team skill or the ebb and flow of a hockey game. However, if the league is going to keep them, this rule sort of had to happen. Two plays this year forced their hand: (Burrows) (Daugavins) Basically, when you introduce a gimmick into the game and players start interpreting the rules so carefully as to make said gimmick jump the shark, you have to make changes. You can pretend a guy skating in, making a deke or two and firing is analogous to an actual hockey game. Neither of these plays (which were both technically legal) conveys a similar delusion. A 10-second time limit really wouldn't stop the madness. Pavol Demitra used to come in really slow from a wide angle (even off of the strip of freshly Zamboni-ed ice) for his attempts. Variety in shootout attempts is "desirable", but there have to be some rules or it appears even more arbitrary than it already is.

Yeah, no way in hell. He basically established himself as a poor man's version of David Clarkson. Granted, he has very little previous track record to back that up, and by "poor man" I mean "guy who will still make at least $3 million next year", but yeah. Bickell's stock went WAY up these Playoffs. All that stuff that LGW'ers claim Jordin Tootoo does for Detroit (or, um, would do if he wasn't a healthy scratch), Bickell actually DOES, and he did it against Detroit. 6'4", 223lb, the heart to go to the front of the net, and a face that looks simultaneously unhinged and determined at the same time. Even better, he averages around 40-50 PIM per year, so he seems to avoid the cheap stuff (by and large). Still, I think the market for him will be so competitive (especially if Clarkson goes first) that whatever price he actually goes for will be a bit too much.

There's a surprising number of people around this site that seem to agree with you, and that's surprising to me. There are obvious holes in his game, yes. But he's an unrestricted free agent entering his late 20's - he's not your average "2nd year player". People seem to think he's in the same category as Nyquist and Andersson, and he's just not - he's older, more experienced, and did more to develop his pro track record this year. I don't think it will be more than $3 million per, but nothing short of $3.5 million in a 1-3 year deal would "surprise" me. If he were on some other team last year, I feel like people would be more understanding of his market value. LGW'ers seem inclined to assume that the Wings will get this big discount because he's comfortable here...I doubt that's what will happen. I do want him back.

This is GREAT! Such a unique talent and great all-around player. It hasn't even sunk in that I could get to watch him for longer than just next year. Igor Larionov was traded to Detroit in 1995 at Age 35. Think about that! I remember the radio stations blasting them for picking up "just another old guy" at the time - and think about how much he contributed to Detroit through 2003. No offense to The Professor, but Datsyuk is almost twice the NHL player that Igor ever got the chance to be. Such a cerebral player and in excellent physical condition. I've always gotten the sense that he could be productive in the NHL long after he "lost a step".