SwedeLundin77

Emmerton will be a depth player, if he remains on the roster. He will be gone next season. Nothing against him, but we have better players that do what he does and more already, he's redundant. Brunner still could come back, but I doubt it. He's chasing money, and I guess you can't blame him, but man, I wanted to see what he could do with a bit of rest and a full season.

Yeah, slight difference.... those were the ONLY two big names potentially hitting free agency. There are 15+ forwards of significance, and some have already been talked about being moved, namely Vanek.

Next season we'll have the following players under contract: Forwards: Datsyuk Zetterberg Weiss Franzen Helm Tootoo Abdelkader Miller Defense: Kronwall Kindl Lashoff Goaltender: Howard Mrazek So we'll need 6 forwards and 4 defensemen. Assuming Nyquist, Andersson, Tatar, Smith, and DeKeyser stay, and that seems to be pretty automatic at this point, we'll need to fill 3 forward slots and 2 defensemen. I assume we'll end up re-signing Ericsson and I hope we sign Phaneuf. Then I'm not sure if we have any kids coming up at that point, but assuming we don't, there is a chance we re-sign Alfredsson for one more year. Then I hope we go after someone like Kessel or Vanek and Bergeron or Brown. Pipe dreams, I'm sure, but I can hope.

I like Brunner, and wouldn't complain if we could re-sign him for 3 million or less, but if he truly walks, I'm okay with that. We'll be solid this upcoming season as is. Next years free agent class is going to be 10 times better than this year and we will have some spots clearing up, and cap. Gaborik, Heatley, Vanek, Thornton, Marleau, Stastny, Sedin, Sedin, Cammalleri, Iginla, Kessel, Pominville, Hemsky, Bergeron, Jokinen, Legwand, Michalek, Callahan, Pavelski, Steen, Brown, Moulson, Vrbata, Setoguchi, Kulemin, Ott, Boyle, etc. Bouwmeester, Boyle, Phaneuf, Markov, Pitkanen, Komisarek, Meszaros, Orpik, Hjalmarsson, Girardi, Greene, Niskanen, Emelin, Diaz, etc.

Alfie is going to be a beast.

I'm happy. I would have been happier if we could have kept Brunner, but the guy is a fool for leaving for money. Sign a 2 year deal with us for 2.5 milion, play your ass off, prove yourself, and then cash in (all under 30 years old, too). Now if we are going to sign Cleary, please let it be for 2 years, not 3. I honestly would rather see us give the kids a chance, but I understand that Cleary brings a lot of leadership and competitive edge that is beneficial for the kids to feed off of. Also, he is a Babcock favorite because he competes.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2013/07/red_wings_begin_exploratory_ta.html So it appears we are exploring the following forward options: 1. Stephen Weiss 2. Mike Ribiero 3. Matt Cullen 4. Jerome Iginla And on defense: 1. Andrew Ference 2. Marek Zidlicky The thought is that if they acquire a defensemen this off-season, Quincey will probably be dealt. I'm sure this is music to many ears, if winding up true. I'm not sure I'd like Zidlicky, but I do like the idea of Ference, being that he is a steady stay at home that could mentor some of the youth. I'd like him over Quincey for sure. Kronwall - Ericsson Kindl - DeKeyser Ference - Smith Lashoff

I would be fine with Ribiero on a 2-3 year deal MAX. I'd like for us to give Grabovski a chance, as I think he could thrive here as the 2nd line center and playing on the powerplay with Datsyuk.

What? Not following what you're trying to say here...

Clarkson is not really proven to be able to play in "all" situations. Why in the world would you pay an unproven player 6 million for long term?!? That makes zero sense. It makes much more sense to trade from our abundant forward depth and get Vanek, then work on an extension with him. You don't know how much he may or may not command. If he buys into our system, he won't get more than Datsyuk, so he'll still only cost us a million more. If we could sign Clarkson for 3.5-4.5, sure... but 6 million for a 1 time 30 goal scorer is a tad much... Franzen is the nearest comparison on our team to Clarkson and you're going to pay him 2.2 million more based on one season? Nope.

Calling it, he'll go to Philly.

I doubt Smith goes anywhere... that kid has a lot of promise and growth still. Edler would be a great pickup for the team, he's that 1/2 you're looking for, but I'm sure, as with most teams these days, the asking price is too much.

Ray Shero is a moron.

What a stupid move for that much money and term.... Smith failed to find any consistency this past season, one night he was solid and the next he let in 5 goals. He shouldn't have gotten more than 4 million per.

Solid deal. I like this. He improved a great deal over the season and will definitely be in our top 4 next season. Kronwall - Ericsson Dekeyser - Kindl Smith - Quincey Lashoff

While I really like the idea of a Nyquist - Datsyuk - Brunner line... there needs to be some size.... I know Datsyuk can hold his own, but the other two still need about a season of conditioning before they're strong enough for it, and even then, you probably want Franzen or Bert on that line to provide some space. I hope in the off-season we had some size, as always. Nothing crazy, but somebody like Clowe would be nice.

While I don't see much happening, I also wouldn't be surprised if Holland traded for Campbell.... Seems like a likely backup plan to Bouwmeester (if that was indeed someone he was gunning for).

Yeah... Ovi is slated to make $9,538,462 annually through 2020-21. Somehow I don't see Holland trying to make that deal, since we've never been about super-bloated contracts. And I'm completely fine with that. I think it's been rebranded to "Little Caesartown"

Andy McDonald...

White is our only right handed shot on the back end.... it's tough to trade something you have no other resources of. Having said, that, I wouldn't mind him being sent off for picks or in a package for something we need (Glencross comes to mind).

I'll give Holland through this upcoming offseason to improve the team..... If he sits on his hands again, I seriously think they need to demote him to assistant and put Nill in charge. We need to be an aggressive team and get out of this rut. Then whenever Yzerman's deal is up in Tampa, you press hard and offer him the head job.

I don't think you want to mess with your goaltending prospects.. .other than McCollum of course. You need to be ready for a prospect who has promise to maybe land flat once they get to the NHL level... that's why you need more than 1 viable option in the prospect pool. Now forwards, that's a different scenario.... make some moves Kenny!

I believe the defense is alright. We can try and take care of that top 2 spot in the offseason as the only viable candidate that is available now is Yandle, and I'm not even sure he's what this team needs. We need to boost the offense, have you seen our lack of scoring this season? Some of it comes from lack of offensive defense as well, which has been lacking. We need a legit scoring winger, which we don't have right now, aside from Brunner and Franzen (when he decides to play). Also, Streit may be available in a trade, if not, in the offseason for sure. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=419674

Gaborik, Vanek, Pominville... come on Holland, get one!

I'm afraid we won't trade White because of his right handed shot.... which doesn't seem all that effective. I also remember reading around when he was scratched that the team still has him in their plans (whatever that means).