SwedeLundin77

See now you're throwing Tatar in and getting a tad silly. I think these players would be good here, but at what cost? Smith WILL play in the NHL and he has the potential to be every bit of the player Yandle is right now. He may not be quite in the league of Doughty, but I think he'll do just fine and be a solid top 3 d-man. Tatar will be a solid top 6 forward in this league and has shown some promise on the offensive and defensive fronts. Our defense, as is, is just fine. We'll get a top 2 man at the trade deadline or next off-season.

To deal Smith for Doughty or Yandle would be a mistake. You are going to trade a kid who has just as much potential as those two and will more than likely be up full-time in one season. I'd rather not do that when our defense is set for this up-coming season. Those who are freaking out need to realize that we have gotten better defensively this off-season and will only dip a small amount in defensive points.

I love when people speculate on how good/poor someone is doing at their job when they have no idea what it takes to actually do said job, as well as not having the understanding of what goes on behind closed doors. There are deadlines and CBA restrictions that make signing players by certain dates necessary to the job. Do you not think that Holland has calls into various teams regarding trade options, as well as calls into UFA's with possible offers? Frankly, it would be assanine to think otherwise as he's been doing this job for over 10 years, with success, praise, and very little (earned) ridicule.

Yeah, I agree. People that keep talking about throwing Smith into a package for whatever are crazy. Smith will more than likely be just as good as some of these D-Men they would trade for, and he's younger. You don't trade potential like that, especially when our defense is already set. If you're going to trade Hudler right now, it'll be for a backup tender and a pick. Then you either shift your forward depth up or go out and sign a UFA forward...

That's good for them. He's a good player and I wouldn't have minded him here, but I like what White brings to the table for this squad and believe he'll fit more into our system and bring some much needed grit to the defensive core, along with Commodore. For about the same cap hit, I like the direction we chose. Next season will be nice too, with Smith coming up. White - Krownall Smith - Stuart Ericsson - ? We could essentially sign Suter or pick up another big name d-man next year. Doughty, Yandle, Weber all have the opportunity to sign only 1 year pacts, so there may be some nice options.

The Wings don't have value like this to trade, and we also wouldn't pay 7.5 for Heatley, it's a bad deal.

Because fighting a ton wins you games? The correlation is as outdated as disco.

Trade for who, with what? Try being specific with your ideas.

The 6 points are based off of Smith playing in Grand Rapids and possible call-ups from GR.

There has been a pattern of your peers with the same viewpoint to put down those who accept what is at hand and not provide any suggestions for how you would do things better, other than "let him walk." I was pissed about the signing at first, but you know what, I got over it. I realized that he would command that money on the open market, and frankly, his potential matches that of Babchuk or White. We weren't going to get any big names that were young. And our trade pieces aren't that enticing at this point in time.

If you read what Holland has said and what I said, you'd understand that no one is stating Ericsson is replacing Rafalski. Where do you get this s***? Read! Holland is doing what he can to get a top 4 defender, but pickings are slim. If we can't, he'll expect the ENTIRE defensive unit to pick up their games to offset the loss. It is, after all, a team sport. I'm making the best of the situation instead of bitching about it. It's called being positive and trying to see the bright side. Give it a try. Oh, and who do you suggest we replace him with? White? Babchuk? Wizniewski was never coming here, Ehrhoff was already locked down in Buffalo. Enlighten me. The fact of the matter is that no matter what Ericsson has done to this point, he has potential. The entire management wouldn't have approved of this, otherwise. I don't agree with the way we paid him, I'd rather he prove it beforehand, but it was a risk that Holland felt we needed to take. He has faith in the guy, and I'm sure there was conversation of expectations. His contract is not too big to trade, in this market.

Where do you people get this idea that Holland/Babcock have somehow implied that Ericsson will be replacing Rafalski?!? All they've stated is that more will be expected of him and that he'll need to step up. They've also said that he may or may not be given a top 4 spot. It all comes down to if they can find a suitable top 4 guy who is already established, which Holland has stated before and this evening that is his goal. He's not going to overspend, however, and that makes sense. If we lose a little offense, then we tighten up the defense. This is not the end of the world, people.

Haha... you're ridiculous.

This is directly from our GM and Coach. See, we are looking for a top 4 d-man still, so everyone can stop freaking out and assume that we are sitting on our hands or that Commy was the only intended Defensive move. I'm confident Holland will do everything in his power to bring in a top 4 that MAKES SENSE. If Ericsson is it, than there will be a lot of pressure on him to perform and step up. Holland is right about the going rate and that Ericsson could have probably gotten somewhat more on the bloated market. Dallas really wanted him, I remember reading. If this is it for our Defense, than we'll have some options next off-season or at the trade deadline perhaps.

Rafalski - Good for 45-55 points. Overall 2010/11 Defensive production (including Kindl/Janik): 196 Points. 2011/12 Projections: Lidstrom - 55 points Kronwall - 50 points Stuart - 20 points Ericsson - 30 points Commodore - 20 points Kindl - 15 points Janik/Smith - 6 points = 196 points Now these are pretty reasonable projections. Kronwall has a 13 point increase from last season due to seeing 1st powerplay unit time more often and an increased role overall. Lidstrom will drop off just a touch, Stuart will be steady, Ericsson will see 2nd powerplay time, Commodore will put up his typical point total (if healthy), Kindl will put up Ericsson type numbers, and Janik/Smith in fill in roles here and there will chip in 6 points. So our point total on the back-end should not drop off much at all. And we had the second best offense in the regular season last year, so there is no worry there. I just don't understand where all this bitching is coming from. We are day 1 into a weak UFA market. There are legitimate rumors of Holland trying to trade Hudler, which could mean he is looking at other trade routes as well to improve the team. We could make a push for Gagne to add some scoring punch in the top 6. I'm not saying this is exactly how I wanted things to go, but it's not all doom and gloom. We finally have a steady stay at home d-man who will clear the crease and isn't afraid of a confrontation or physicality. Stuart and Kronwall do fine, but they're too passive at times too.

Very level-headed view of things, I like it. I don't like Ericsson's contract either, but with the way everything went down, it's right in line with the inflation seen across the UFA signings. I like us bringing in Commadore as he has a lot prove and will effectively take over Salei's spot and be much more aggressive (something this team has been missing since Fischer). I honestly do not feel that Holland is done looking at d-men via trade. I think he'll certainly look at Ian White and Anton Babchuk as options, relegating Kindl/Commadore to depth positions (competing for playing time). I also wouldn't be surprised with over 9 million in cap if Holland doesn't look at trade options as well.

Yeah, Crymson is slowly becoming one of the biggest naysayers on this site. Any idea, small or large is ridiculous and unobtainable. Just block him out.

If Holland has even the smallest of chances to obtain Yandle, he had better take it. As long as it doesn't cost Smith, I'm fine with it, within reason. At some point, Holland is going to have to give up some picks to make these things happen. When it's someone young and already becoming established, it's not wasting a pick.

Well it would have been earlier, but all have been snatched up. At this point, if we can trade Hudler for whatever and have cap room, i'd take one of the following forwards: Gagne Arnott Prospal Bernier (still only 26 with tons of potential) Or we could try and ****** up Enstrom.... Trade Kindl, Hudler, pick.

He's played 454 Regular Season games. He's also played in 53 Playoff games and has won a cup with Carolina. I'd say he'll be fine.

I would be surprised as Ken Holland always likes to "kick the tires" and I think I heard something earlier about the Wings being on a conference call with Richards and his crew. Although, it sounds like all teams were meeting with him. I wouldn't be surprised if they made an offer, but I'm sure he'll get a longer term and higher offer elsewhere.

I would love to take care of our own, but the fact remains that at this point, Ozzie is too fragile. It would be nice to give Jimmy 20 games off and I don't think Ozzie has the health anymore to accomplish that. Don't tell him that, of course. We'll see Conklin, Turco, or Nabokov via trade before we see Ozzie. i would love Gagne... Kaberle I could deal with, maybe on this team he can get his defensive game together. He can't be much worse than Raffi was this past season, right?

We have approximately 9.8 million dollars left in salary. We need a top 4 d-man ($4 mil max), backup goaltender (1.5 mil max), and possibly a top 6 forward if we can pull something off (cap remainder = $4.3 million). If we can find a taker for Hudler (Isles for Nabakov) than we'll have $2.2-2.8 million extra. We could essentially sign Richards if he'll come for 6 million.... but more than likely, a decent target would be Gagne at this point. He had a crap season in 10/11 and still put up 40 points. Pair him up with Datsyuk or Zetterberg. I hope. Hopefully we sign White or Babchuck for short term deals around 2.5-3 million. Then we can trade Hudler to the Isles for Nabokov. And also sign Gagne for 4 million. CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Simon Gagne ($4.500m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m) Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) Drew Miller ($0.825m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m) Anton Babchuk ($2.500m) / Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) Mike Commodore ($1.000m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Evgeni Nabokov ($0.570m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,062,044; BONUSES: $0 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $5,237,956 You can work all this out, it's all feasible. And we would still have 5 million in cap space for the trade deadline and extensions for next season. I envision Nabokov staying our backup until he's done. Babchuk signing up for 1 or 2 years and if he plays well enough, he stays. Gagne signing for 1 or 2 years as well, and same deal, if he fits in nicely and stays healthy, we retain him.

Amen.

Notable UFA D-men Available: Bryan McCabe - 36 Scott Hannan - 32 Tomas Kaberle - 33 Craig Rivet - 36 Ian White - 27 Anton Stralman - 24 Shane O'Brien - 27 Anton Babchuk - 27 Lee Sweatt - 24] The guys in bold are the guys I'd like us to target now as a number 4 guy if we go this route. Primarily I'd like White or Babchuk, but Sweatt could be an interesting pick-up. This is not ideal, but if we're talking about short term contracts, it's definitely something I'm sure the brass is discussing.