StormJH1

Think about how this compares to Damien Brunner - Brunner was a horribly one-dimensional player with little NHL track record but already in his mid-20's, and there were those that pissed (at the time) that the Wings wouldn't go to 2.5 or 3 million per on a 2 or 3-yr deal.
Tatar posted a 19-goal season in really his first full season (on a team decimated by injuries and surrounded by other young players). To get him on a 3-year evaluation period AND he's still an RFA at the end of the deal is terrific. It benefits Tatar, too, but it's a good signing for the organization, nonetheless.
UPDATE: And I see that it's $2.75 per now. You can see from my posts that I was preparing the mob for this I think it's perfectly valued. Maybe he's worth just shy of $2 million now, but if he progresses at all, he's easily a $4 million player in year 3. And if he doesn't pan out, qualify him conservatively or cut him loose.

Drunk/impaired driving is wrong, make no doubt about it. But people get on their high horse about this issue like none other, when virtually EVERY person who has ever drank at a bar and then driven home has probably broken DWI laws to some degree. And if you don't drink, but use your smartphone while driving every once in awhile, don't try to tell me you're any better than a drunk driver, either.
Sheahan did a bad thing, and the law will punish him for it to the extent sorted out by the system. If it happens again, we can start to talk about a pattern. But the way people "discard" people with a DWI as if they must be "alcoholics" bothers me, even if the underlying offense IS wrong. You don't have be an alcoholic or chronic screw-up to make a mistake.

Weiss hasn't been healthy all year, other than maybe a short stretch shortly before he went on IR this last time. He hurt his groin in preseason, re-aggravated the injury, then had the sports hernia. It's short sighted and stupid to judge him based on that when he has a history of good production in Florida. As someone who has had a groin injury, I know how tricky they can be. You think you're feeling ok, then you push it just a little more, and you hurt it again. They will NOT buy him out or waive him, and I doubt they'd use the buy out even if they could. Would you go to your boss and tell him that you screwed up and it's going to cost him several million dollars paying for something he's not going to get any value at all for? I sure as hell wouldn't unless I was ready to retire. There are only 2 candidates for the compliance buy out, Tootoo (probable) and Franzen (not likely but possible).

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.

Haha, that blog post is awesome. It's easy for armchair fans like me to look at scoring numbers and wonder why Brunner wasn't resigned (well, initially, anyway), but if you're a coach like Babcock that understands the game on a higher level and has seen mistakes like this over and over again in games and practices...it's no small wonder skilled guys like Brunner and Tatar end up in the doghouse for reasons that seem unwarranted.
I really think the whole NHL is just smarter about this kind of thing now. It's really no different than basketball - it's a 5-on-5 game where each player has both offensive and defensive responsibilities. But in the NBA, casual fans seem to understand that a guy that puts up 20 PPG but plays crap defense is a garbage player. Meanwhile, the Marian Gaborik's and poor man's versions of him with offensive skill seem to skate along, and invariably get big money from dumb teams, even though they cost their team as much as they help. To be fair, defensive in hockey is much more amorphous than the largely man-to-man NBA.

The criticisms of Franzen are totally fair, so I get it. But the reality is that while his contract isn't a good contract, it also a manageable enough cap hit to avoid it being a total disaster.
The other thing about Franzen is that he's going to have knee problems because he already has and because of how he's built. If he played like Ryan Kesler, would he be capable of banging his way to a 30-goal pace every year? Very possibly. But I also think he'd average about 25-40 games missed from injury every year.
The thing that irks Wings fans about Franzen is what people call "work rate" in soccer. But there are some good strikers in soccer that have notoriously poor work rates, yet still put the ball in the net. That's what Franzen is, or at least what he's supposed to be, in a streaky fashion. He sticks out like sore thumb on a team on a team full of defensive minded forwards, but as great as 13 and 40 are, you will see them disappear for weeks at a time from the scoresheet. That was made Marian Hossa (IMO) such a great Red Wing during the '09 season, he carried that team for weeks in the regular season when nobody else was scoring. Then his shoulder tore apart in the Playoffs and he skated in circles. But Franzen was never as good as Hossa, nor was he ever as expensive. He literally cost almost half the price from a cap standpoint, so the comparison is ridiculous.
Also, if he just has a TERRIBLE year (which I don't think he will), isn't compliance buyout still an option after 2014? Provided of course he isn't on the IR. My opinion remains that I'm not going to dwell on him until that window has closed. I think fans are right to worry about what's ahead, but the contract is what it is, and it's not killing us right now.

I'll respond to the general question by saying, "Sure, why not". I don't have an opinion on the proposed trade yet because we don't know what BUF will look like in January yet, even though they'll probably be sellers. For all we know, BUF uses that abundance of cap room to overpay Moulson, and he extends there making this a moot point. That probably WON'T happen, but we don't know. Hypothetical trades like that one presume that teams with cap room want to spend it on all the overpriced crap we have and want to get a rid of. BUF was smart enough to get a 1st and a 2nd without even losing much production for the remainder of the year. Sammy, Eaves, and Tootoo are not players that do anything for BUF. Of course, if the Wings were to trade a decent prospect, then yes, that's always on the table. I wonder if signing Ville Leino, however, has them feeling a little burned (even though he went through PHI).
My concern about signing Moulson is that it's kind of like doing a more extreme version of the Franzen deal all over again. I don't know anything about Moulson's defensive game, but I'd have to think we're looking at a $6 million AAV player on the open market, at least. Does he keep up this scoring for several years, or is he Mark Parrish? People bemoan the Franzen contract, maybe unfairly so, but that's a $3.9 mil. AAV deal.

I understand why a lot of people were skeptical about the Alfie signing (or glancing at CapGeek and dreaming what else we could have done with the money), but it was almost impossible to imagine him playing on a line with Datsyuk and Zetterberg and not having that become one of the most cerebral, veteran scoring lines imaginable. He's also a coveted right-handed shot that actually can play the left point on the power play, which was not a good role for Brunner.
He's 40 and staying healthy for a season could be a challenge, but it's a vintage Red Wings' free agent signing and I loved the idea as soon as I heard it.
Also, T.Low's point about "playing for Alfie" in the Playoffs is huge. This is a team with guys who have pretty much all won it before (Howard being the key other veteran that hasn't), and the Swedes get to play with a living legend who never won a Cup. Reminds me a lot of the veterans on the 2002 and 2008 teams.

I like Bert on the top line for most of the game and then switching it up with Alfie. I think they can make the switch seamlessly, but it really throws off the defense
When that line scored last night all I could think of was " old guys rule "when they school the young guys.---Me being an old guy, of course.
The way Zetterberg has come out of the gate, it's as if he wants to make sure Alfie gets the Stanley Cup on his watch. All of Sweden will love Z for getting Alfie the Cup.

Gustavsson did have a very nice game. But the thing you notice about him immediately is that his movement for a big goaltender is very chaotic. Most large goaltenders (Sean Burke, Giguere, etc.) identify the angle, and then play a little deeper to limit the amount of movement they have to do. This would be in contrast to someone like Manny Legace, who had to run about 5 feet out of the crease at times just to cover the net.
When Monster goes side to side, he seems to over-commit, and then either falls or shuffles back to the correct angle while the puck is in traffic. While he's doing that, he's basically effed if there's a shot on net. There were a number of times yesterday (including one where Weiss blocked two shots on his ass) where Boston could have scored quite easily, but the D cleared it out. Then again, he is a backup goaltender, and we're actually spoiled watching Jimmy Howard, who I think may be a Top 5 NHL netminder right now, and plays very under control with his movement.
I'm not pointing this out to rail against Gustavsson, just pointing out that even in a win, there's a bit of luck involved.

Gustavsson did have a very nice game. But the thing you notice about him immediately is that his movement for a big goaltender is very chaotic. Most large goaltenders (Sean Burke, Giguere, etc.) identify the angle, and then play a little deeper to limit the amount of movement they have to do. This would be in contrast to someone like Manny Legace, who had to run about 5 feet out of the crease at times just to cover the net.
When Monster goes side to side, he seems to over-commit, and then either falls or shuffles back to the correct angle while the puck is in traffic. While he's doing that, he's basically effed if there's a shot on net. There were a number of times yesterday (including one where Weiss blocked two shots on his ass) where Boston could have scored quite easily, but the D cleared it out. Then again, he is a backup goaltender, and we're actually spoiled watching Jimmy Howard, who I think may be a Top 5 NHL netminder right now, and plays very under control with his movement.
I'm not pointing this out to rail against Gustavsson, just pointing out that even in a win, there's a bit of luck involved.

Comparing styles? Filpulla "looks" like the better hockey player. He's has better high-end speed. He's more graceful. Better hands. More patience with the puck.
And guess why?
Because he plays on the perimeter where he has room.
Weiss looks sloppier and more chaotic/jumbled out there because he's trying to make plays in the slot and around the net. The "hard" areas.
I'll take Weiss' blue collar skill over Filpulla's photoshoot finess anyway.
And just wait until the playoffs.....

Haha, that blog post is awesome. It's easy for armchair fans like me to look at scoring numbers and wonder why Brunner wasn't resigned (well, initially, anyway), but if you're a coach like Babcock that understands the game on a higher level and has seen mistakes like this over and over again in games and practices...it's no small wonder skilled guys like Brunner and Tatar end up in the doghouse for reasons that seem unwarranted.
I really think the whole NHL is just smarter about this kind of thing now. It's really no different than basketball - it's a 5-on-5 game where each player has both offensive and defensive responsibilities. But in the NBA, casual fans seem to understand that a guy that puts up 20 PPG but plays crap defense is a garbage player. Meanwhile, the Marian Gaborik's and poor man's versions of him with offensive skill seem to skate along, and invariably get big money from dumb teams, even though they cost their team as much as they help. To be fair, defensive in hockey is much more amorphous than the largely man-to-man NBA.

Haha, that blog post is awesome. It's easy for armchair fans like me to look at scoring numbers and wonder why Brunner wasn't resigned (well, initially, anyway), but if you're a coach like Babcock that understands the game on a higher level and has seen mistakes like this over and over again in games and practices...it's no small wonder skilled guys like Brunner and Tatar end up in the doghouse for reasons that seem unwarranted.
I really think the whole NHL is just smarter about this kind of thing now. It's really no different than basketball - it's a 5-on-5 game where each player has both offensive and defensive responsibilities. But in the NBA, casual fans seem to understand that a guy that puts up 20 PPG but plays crap defense is a garbage player. Meanwhile, the Marian Gaborik's and poor man's versions of him with offensive skill seem to skate along, and invariably get big money from dumb teams, even though they cost their team as much as they help. To be fair, defensive in hockey is much more amorphous than the largely man-to-man NBA.

Haha, that blog post is awesome. It's easy for armchair fans like me to look at scoring numbers and wonder why Brunner wasn't resigned (well, initially, anyway), but if you're a coach like Babcock that understands the game on a higher level and has seen mistakes like this over and over again in games and practices...it's no small wonder skilled guys like Brunner and Tatar end up in the doghouse for reasons that seem unwarranted.
I really think the whole NHL is just smarter about this kind of thing now. It's really no different than basketball - it's a 5-on-5 game where each player has both offensive and defensive responsibilities. But in the NBA, casual fans seem to understand that a guy that puts up 20 PPG but plays crap defense is a garbage player. Meanwhile, the Marian Gaborik's and poor man's versions of him with offensive skill seem to skate along, and invariably get big money from dumb teams, even though they cost their team as much as they help. To be fair, defensive in hockey is much more amorphous than the largely man-to-man NBA.

As is so often the case, the new rule will not be the problem. The problem will be having competent on-ice officials making the call correctly.

As I've mentioned, the category of capable power forwards who both score and fight has been shrinking for the past 20 years, and is now almost gone. There were zero scoring forwards amongst the top 20 in fighting majors in 2013, and only two (Clarkson and Simmonds) in the top 30. Also almost extinct are quality defensemen who will drop the gloves. There were zero amongst the top 50 in fighting majors last season, with the first decent one (Kaleta) placing #52.
In general, most players who fight regularly are good for little else. Of the most prolific fighters last season (let's call it the top 25), only Nystrom was useful for anything beyond fisticuffs. In other words, the data disagrees with your assertion.
More, there has simply been less and less need for pure fighters as time has gone on and the game has become more refined, and most teams have found it fitting to use that roster spot for a more generally valuable player. There has also been steadily less need for the average player to drop the gloves at all.
I know you yearn for the old days where this particular category is concerned, but that period is gone and likely won't be coming back.

You could make an argument that Tatar has the most intriguing offensive game in the Wings organization right now. At least from the standpoint that he's much closer to NHL-ready than some of the newer draft picks, and I believe he has more scoring upside than Nyquist and Andersson. Maybe considerably more.
I'm just not really that receptive to these "bad attitude" complaints about guys in their very early 20's. If Sean Avery can play two half-seasons for the Wings, surely Tomas Tatar deserves a chance to become a professional while actually playing at the highest professional level. These are just kids that come over from Europe chasing a dream to play in the NHL. He's 22 now, and I'm sure he watches highlights around the league of 18 and 19 year olds already that he may be better than. And no offense to the City of Grand Rapids, but living and playing there and in other small U.S. cities probably isn't what he had in mind. Especially now that he's achieved (in his mind) the highest prize the AHL has to offer.
Maybe he is a bad dude, cancer, "coach killer", whatever. Or maybe he's just an immature, talented kid who is frustrated because he wants to prove he's better. Either way, he's an asset, and I'd prefer to know more about him before we move him. And I'd certainly prefer to see him getting ice time over Dan Cleary.

You could make an argument that Tatar has the most intriguing offensive game in the Wings organization right now. At least from the standpoint that he's much closer to NHL-ready than some of the newer draft picks, and I believe he has more scoring upside than Nyquist and Andersson. Maybe considerably more.
I'm just not really that receptive to these "bad attitude" complaints about guys in their very early 20's. If Sean Avery can play two half-seasons for the Wings, surely Tomas Tatar deserves a chance to become a professional while actually playing at the highest professional level. These are just kids that come over from Europe chasing a dream to play in the NHL. He's 22 now, and I'm sure he watches highlights around the league of 18 and 19 year olds already that he may be better than. And no offense to the City of Grand Rapids, but living and playing there and in other small U.S. cities probably isn't what he had in mind. Especially now that he's achieved (in his mind) the highest prize the AHL has to offer.
Maybe he is a bad dude, cancer, "coach killer", whatever. Or maybe he's just an immature, talented kid who is frustrated because he wants to prove he's better. Either way, he's an asset, and I'd prefer to know more about him before we move him. And I'd certainly prefer to see him getting ice time over Dan Cleary.

You could make an argument that Tatar has the most intriguing offensive game in the Wings organization right now. At least from the standpoint that he's much closer to NHL-ready than some of the newer draft picks, and I believe he has more scoring upside than Nyquist and Andersson. Maybe considerably more.
I'm just not really that receptive to these "bad attitude" complaints about guys in their very early 20's. If Sean Avery can play two half-seasons for the Wings, surely Tomas Tatar deserves a chance to become a professional while actually playing at the highest professional level. These are just kids that come over from Europe chasing a dream to play in the NHL. He's 22 now, and I'm sure he watches highlights around the league of 18 and 19 year olds already that he may be better than. And no offense to the City of Grand Rapids, but living and playing there and in other small U.S. cities probably isn't what he had in mind. Especially now that he's achieved (in his mind) the highest prize the AHL has to offer.
Maybe he is a bad dude, cancer, "coach killer", whatever. Or maybe he's just an immature, talented kid who is frustrated because he wants to prove he's better. Either way, he's an asset, and I'd prefer to know more about him before we move him. And I'd certainly prefer to see him getting ice time over Dan Cleary.

To be fair:
- This isn't exactly the first time Tatar's been, shall we say, snubbed.
- He's been proving himself for how long now? What else is left for him to prove? He was a monster for the Griffins in their Calder run, and he was named the MVP for his efforts. So, what, does he need to be an even more valuabe MVP?
- It's not like he held a press conference. I actually think Sarah is slightly at fault here; she probably shouldn't have said what she did.
- If this were any other organization, any other one, this wouldn't even be an issue.
- What happened to the "youth movement"? Isn't building and promoting from within our bread and butter?
- Ultimately, yeah, like I said, Tatar probably has some *issues*. But, again, he's friggin' 22. You know what other 22-year-old pro hockey player has *issues*?
Coyotes GM 'not happy' with absent Ekman-Larsson
- It's easy for us to wag our fingers at Tatar and tsk tsk him. But if you were in his shoes, I think you'd probably be pissed.

Well, now Tatar is has said that he will not go back to Grand Rapids, and is angry. I have no idea why the Wings are toying with their future to keep around another forward that we didn't need. Tatar probably should have been up LAST YEAR for the playoffs, but they left him down to help the Griffins win an AHL championship.

I'm going to vent my anger in this post and leave it at that. I can't control the team in any way and I have to get over that and just try to not swear in front of my children when a player I think shouldn't be on the team fouls up.
Dan Cleary shouldn't be a Red Wing right now. I don't care how much he loves the organization. I don't care if he got the fictional "hometown discount." This is a business and he got what he got because that is what he is worth in the real world. Teams overpay for UFAs all the time because they think that they will be a cure-all for their problem (Leino, Suter & Parise, etc). Philly almost proved that point the way I understand the situation. The fans on BOTH the Flyers and Wings side were crying/laughing about the deal. "OVERPAYMENT!" they shouted with anger/glee. This is an unbiased assessment of Cleary's worth. His UFA price was too high. So, he took a "discount" and stayed with the Wings. And we talk of loyalty.
KH knows he is over the player limit and signed a player. That is not a good environment for the other forwards. Don't get me wrong, there should be competition in camp and players shouldn't be under the impression that they have a guranteed spot on the 3rd or 4th lines. I shouldn't be able to tell you who will be on the 3rd and 4th lines right now and neither should Holland and Babcock. But for some reason, I can fill 2 of those 6 slots right now. Sammy and Cleary.
No 3rd or 4th liner should have an NTC. NTCs should be for top tier guys so they will be not be uprooted by their org. and moved to Winnepeg so their previous team can get some young talent and do a rebuild. The majority of the 3rd and 4th lines in this organization with this cap should be reserved for youth. Guys being brought up from GR to fill in for injuries and during other 3rd and 4th liner slumps. This is the biggest flaw with Sammy's contract. The price was decent and length is OK. He was OK in VAN. Good enough to put with the Sedins on occasion. The Wings needed a righty and knew what kind of player he is. Not a bad signing. Better than the Cleary signing IMO. We know Cleary is on the decline and still signed him. But now we need players (older players) to leave and make room for youth (Tatar, Nyquist) and they can't be moved.
At least two of these things WILL happen:
- Bert dropped
- Tootoo dropped to GR/traded
- Tatar traded
- Nyquist (Datsyuk 2.0) plays in GR until an injury
- Eaves traded (EDIT: Forgot him)
IMO, if I could, I would get rid of Sammy and Cleary. It won't happen. So we are left with the above scenarios. In all honesty, the thing I don't want to happen will most likely happen. Tootoo will be traded and Nyquist will play in GR. If Helm continues to have issues, we MIGHT not lose Tatar to a trade. But if Helm plays, Tatar is gone. IMO the Wings have 3 NHL-caliber players that have had playing time that they can get offers for on the block: Emmerton, Nyquist, and Tatar. Emmerton will be in GR, and I think Nyquist is too good to be traded after last season. That leaves Tatar to be offered up to make room for Cleary and Sammy, following Tootoo being dealt to NSH for picks. That's how it has to be now.
On top of it all, we get older, smaller, softer, and slower. And we get to play in the East.
Ok, I'm done. In Kenny I trust... I guess.

I really appreciated Cleary's contributions to the Wings (particularly the 2009 Playoffs, when Cleary CARRIED us at times), but he had to go. As hard as it is to let go of important veterans, I'm glad that the Red Wings organization is not overly sentimental when making roster moves. We have young players ready to take his spot now that can do it better and cheaper.

This whole Big, Bad East thing is incredibly overstated. It's the same stuff people were saying about the Flyers in '97. (Remember how the Legion of Doom was supposed to outright abuse the soft, smallish Wings?)
We had to play the 'hawks, what, like, 77 times this past season? And we won how many of those games?
No one in the East "scares" me like the 'haws. And, for my money, the Ducks are about as Big, Bad, and Nasty as any team you're gonna see in The New NHL - so, no, Boston doesn't really scare me too much. (Though I'm expecting us to drop quite a few contests against them.)
The Caps' PP scares me. I feel like it would eat us alive.
Overall, though? I am so incredibly pumped for our first EC tour.