wings_fanatic

He came into the league during the playoffs, against the best goalie in the NHL, Henrik Lunquivst and scored like 4 times that series, and ever since then has been a mainstay on that team. He is so good that their coach opted to play him on the point on the 1st PP unit to allow Chara to go to the front of the net, which made their powerplay much more improved. Usually I would agree with you. But like I said, sometimes when things are this good, you take the risk. The cap is going up to 70 million and, within a coupe years is projected to be around 80 million. Worse case scenerio is he regresses a bit but with the cap going up so much it isn't like it would cripple us. Best case, and most likely scenerio, we take this risk and it pays off because everything I see from this guy tells me he is going to be a mainstay on whichever team he is on for years.

Clearly Krug is going to be an ELITE dman. IF you can't see that then you are blind. Offering him 7 million over 3 years would do us nothing as boston could easily match that. Like I said, it is taking a risk, but in the world of professional sports, sometimes the best thing to do is take a risk. Our team has been getting worse every year since 2009. Now we have the kids coming up. Hopefully Pav and Hank stay healthy, god knows the Hockey Gods should leave us alone after this past season. But by taking a risk to sign Krug to 7 million, I guarantee he becomes a mainstay on our roster and will become the elite dman that many project him to be. Those who are unwilling to make good risks in this business aren't going to last. This is a good risk and would show Kenny's desire to become an elite team once again.

No way does Markov leave the Habs and no way do the Habs let it happen. The thing about Krug, since he is RFA and holds out, then he can talk to Detroit like Weber came to an agreement with Philly. Lets face it, he grew up in Michigan, the Red Wings were his favorite team. SO if the Red Wings offered him around 7 million dollars, he probably doesn't say no to that. Then it all comes down to Boston being able / wanting to match that. I do not think they could match that. If we went to 7.5 or 8, there is no way they could possibly match that even if they wanted to. Yah we would lose some 1st round picks, but so what. Not like those typically benefit us anyways. I just wish Kenny would take that chance as it would truly make our team great again.

That is good news for us. I say we do 2 things to improve our D: 1) Time for Ken Holland to make a ballsy move. If he is willing to take a risk to sign an injury prone Stephen Weiss to a 5.5 million dollar deal for 5 years, then he should for sure be willing to take a risk to go after Torey Krug. Everytime I watch Krug play, he reminds me so much as Nick Lidstrom (offensively only of course). He keeps his game simple and always makes sure that he gets the puck to the net. Does not always feel the need to wind up for the big clapper, but he does know when he can. Either way, his shots always generates good scoring chances. I think Kenny should go all out for him and offer him a contract that Boston simply cannot match. IMO if we offer around 7 million, Boston can't match that. This is such a good move because it makes us a better team for many years, but as Zetty and Pav said they want, it makes us better NOW as well. Obviously it is a risky move, but I have little doubt we would benefit from this. 2) Then sign Dan Boyle to a cheaper contract for 1 or 2 years. He gives us some nice veteran experience on the blue line, right handed shot and, most importantly, gives us a better team NOW. So now our Defense will look something like this: Kronwall- Smith Krug- Dekeyser Ericsson- Boyle Oulette That is a MUCH BETTER blue line that will give the team a greater chance to win on a nightly basis. 3) Sign Gaborick or trade or get Hossa if available. That would be pretty much all we can do, but look at what our team could look like with those moves: Zetty- Pav- Franzen (use him as Homer net front) Nyqyist- Weiss- Hossa Alfie- Sheahan- Tatar Jurco- Helm- Abby/ Glendending/ Miller Kronners- Smith Krug- Dekeyser Ericsson- Boyle That would be a very very good team and for sure would be our best lineup since 2009. The problem is kenny does not have the guts to make a bold move like that for Krug.

Looks like we get to see a rematch between the two goalies involved in the olympic gold medal game but this time i see King Henrik coming out on top as the Rangers just look too good right now, especially the King. I am loving all these original 6 matchups though.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Nyquist was being hooked left and right, was pushed and everything. But he still scored.

Krug is a stud. Every Boston game I watch, I am more and more impressed with him. Tonight, he has been their best player. He has been rushing the puck, making some solid hits, moving the puck, and most importantly getting shots on net. But what I like most about his offensive game is that he keeps it very simple, much like Nick Lidstrom did for so many years. He gets the puck at the point and he simply puts it on net. He does not always take the big windup, but makes sure it gets through to the net. Call me crazy, but I think Kenny needs to take a risk and go all out for Krug. Make him an offer that Boston simply cannot match. IMO if Kenny was willing to take a risk in signing injury prone Weiss, along with players like Cleary and Sammy, then this is a risk he should be willing to make, as I think it would pay off HUGE for the Red Wings. I love Kronners, but he simply does not get the pucks to the net from the point the way that Krug does, and that was a huge reason why our PP hasn't been the same since Nick left. Anyways, this has been a good game 7, I am thinking abother Boston comeback/.

Brunner played all year with Datsyuk or Zetty. Nyquist was good all season with Zetty and when Pav and Hank were BOTH out, Nyquist raised his game even more and single handedly took our team to the playoffs. Nyquist displayed that he is not only a good player, but also a smart player, a hard worker, a team first kind of guy and most importantly, a good leader. That is NOT the type of player you trade away and he is absolutely not even comparable to Brunner. My god some ppl...

That is an awful idea. You just don't trade away Nyquist after the season he had. It baffles me that so many are willing to do so. Furthermore, by you trading away that many components of our team, we will go back to sucking when pav and hank retire in a few years. The only way I'd ever trade Nyquist and Tatar is for evgeni Malkin that would be it.

This is correct. The reason for that is because they rely so much on Lunquivst. Their superstar players never play up to what they should in the playoffs, such as Rick Nash. Therefore, there are scoring issues that they always have in the playoffs, and the King is not going to steal every game. So far, he has played a HUGE part in their 3 wins against the Pens. In the losses, the King lost 2-0 with one being an empty netter, and then 3-0 in New York (not much a goalie can do when his team doesn't score). So they will pretty much always go to game 7's so that the King can steal the series.

Lunquivst is light years better then Howard. Like it or not Howard has never gotten us past the 2nd round, even when we still had Lidstrom and Rafalski. Lunquivst has never had the teams in front of him that Howard has (NY's star players always disappear in the playoffs giving him no help). You look at this series against the Pens. Game 1 was all the King. Game 2 the Rangers lost 2-0 due to a late empty net goal, but the King played unreal and really deserved the win. Game 3 he played great again, but got zero goal support from his team again. Game 4 he was above average, but not as good as he can be. Tonight in game 5 he was simply fantastic. 5-1 is misleading in some ways because the King made several unreal saves at key times to keep his team ahead. Basically one thing I can safely say about the King is that he NEVER loses games for his team, whereas Howard does. Like it or not, Howard has had some AWFUL playoffs games where he has costed us. Remember both game 3's against the Sharks, Howard gave up awful goals and we lost both years. That is just one example I have. Yes Howard is not a bad goalie, but he is not close to the clutchness of Lunquivst. Howard or Lunquivst? I take the King every time.

No. If you are going to make stuff up, at least try to have it make sense. The first "rumour" of yours is awful, not even a 5 year old would make that trade. Not only that, but Nyquist especially is pretty much untouchable after the season he had and the way the organization talks about him. Regarding Franzen for Umberger, that too is false because Columbus is thinking of buying out Umberger so why would Kenny make a trade when he can wait for that to unfold. You sir need to stop making things up.

LOL. I HIGHLY doubt that happens. I think you need to trust in better "sources"

I find the nhl scheduling ridiculous. Rangers play back to back game 6 and 7 and then play back to back game 3 and 4, making it 3 games in 4 nights. I mean you could tell the Rangers, besides the King, were gassed last night. I find it halarious that the Penguins ALWAYS seem to get favourable scheduling like this. I remember in 2009 the stanley cup finals schedule was released and then when the Red Wings beat the Hawks, Lidstrom and Pav were injured. Lidstrom played in game 1 but Pav did not play until game 5. After the Wings beat the Hawks, the NHL adjusting the schedule to start the finals series a few days earlier, which CLEARLY benefited the Penguins. I still blame that for us not winning the cup that year. I really hope the Rangers find their legs and come out flying tonight because they are a far better all around team then the Penguins and deserve to go on.

Guys I still think dan Boyle is the best option for us at this time. The biggest problem with our D is that they are too young. Adding a veteran guy like him is perfect. He can come in and play around 23-25 minutes a game and make our pp loads better. The best part is that it gives us a key guy for around 3 maybe 4 seasons which IMO is our window to put a team together to win a cup with pav and hank before they too retire. After Boyle retires it opens up a spot for a younger guy that will be ready by that time.

I think Boyle simply needs a change. The entire San Jose team does the same thing every year in the playoffs... and end up disapponting their fans. Niskanen, while he seems like he would be a good signing, has only had one good season. Just good. Not great. I remember we signed Ian White because he had a good season the year before with the Sharks. He had a good first season with us, largely because he played with Nick Lidstrom. The next year he could not even make the lineup. I would rather go with Danny Boyle, someone proven to be good over a number of seasons and quite frankly we need a little more veteran presence on our blue line. Kronners and Boyle would be 2 great leaders of the blue line for us and I feel our powerplay would be better with Boyle as well.

I think that the Wings should hire him to be the personal motivator for Franzen. Torts is utlra competitive and very demanding and is not afraid to call a player out to the media, unlike the Wings who are always polite regarding Franzen. Imagine if Franzen had to deal with Torts all year, might get his rear end in shape haha. Obviously I am kidding, but this would be quite funny.

I think it is clear that the brass is going to make a couple moves to improve this team in the off season. Lets be realistic, we have a good group put together and, with a couple key additions, we become an instant contender again. For those of you saying the streak is overrated, I would just like to say that I was born in 1991 and am therefore 23 years old... the same age as the Red Wings playoff streak. It is truly remarkable that I have never not seen the Red Wings in the playoffs. I think it says something about the organization. Yes we might not win the Cup every year, but the mere fact that we get in shows that this team is about winning. Zetty said it best... we have not gone deep enough in the playoffs for too many times in a row lately. The fact that he and Babs both basically said that we need a couple key additions tells me that Kenny will act. I am honored to call myself a true Red Wings fan because of the passion that the Red Wings and its players have always had for winning. My friend has a little brother that is 14 and he is a Leafs fan. We talked about how the Maple Leafs have missed the playoffs 8 out of the 14 years he has been alive (more then half of his life he has not watched his team in the playoffs). Meanwhile I am 23 and have always had my team to cheer for in the playoffs. Some Red Wings fans take that for granted, but we are such lucky fans and I have faith our team gets much better from here once again.

Depends how you look at it. I believe he was gotten because the Red Wings wanted the playoffs streak to continue. In that sense, getting Legwand was a success. Yes Nyquist played unreal and was the sole reason we made it, along with the other kids, some clutch performances by Alfie and good goaltending. But there is no way we made the playoffs had it not been for getting a guy like Legwand to fill the top centerman position while we had FIVE of our centerman injured. Say what you want about Legwand, but he worked extremely hard almost every game and, ultimately got the job done, that is helping the team make the playoffs. The problem came after that. Babs mis-used Legwand once we got Pav back by playing him in the 4th line role, which made him ineffective. If Babs plans on doing that, then there is no point in keeping Legwand around. But initially, getting Legwand was successful for getting us into the playoffs. But as Zetty correctly said yesterday, just getting in is not good enough for him. He said lately the team has not gotten deep enough in the playoffs and that needs to change. So like I said, it depends how you look at things.

Exactly. Our team would possess so much skill with these couple of moves that we would be close to "Elite" status, especially if we get the goaltending out of Jimmy that we all know he is capable of for the full season. Our captain Zetty said it best yesterday when he said "lately our team has not gone deep enough into the playoffs and that needs to change." Spoken like a true captain. He knows the team has to get better, he wants alfie back because you know he just really badly wants to win that Cup for Alfie so come on Kenny go back to your ways of making magic happen and give us fans a good off season.

Exactly. Get Hossa back, sign a guy like Danny Boyle and maybe make a play for a guy like Chris Stewart and all of a sudden we have a very very good hockey team. Zetty- Pav- Hossa Franzen/ Nyqyust- Weiss- Alfie Nyquist- Sheahan- Tatar Stewart- Helm- Abby/ Glendening/ Miller Kronwall- Smith Dekeyser- Boyle Ericsson- Sproul/ Oueltte That is STACKED and would give us a very good shot at the Cup imo. Kenny really needs to make some sort of change like this because our window to win the cup again relies on us still having Pav and Hank.

That is partially true. But Kenny made the mistake of working out a contract with Franzen BEFORE HOSSA!!! He should have worked out a contract with Hossa and THEN try to re-sign Franzen. You sign the better player first. After that if Franzen wanted to walk, then w.e we would have had Hossa which is better.

The problem is this. Pavel and Hank accounted for 4 of the team's 6 goals. Hank, playing two games, had a goal and an assist for 2 points. Hank had more points in those 2 games, not even close to his full potential, then pretty much anyone on the team. Thats pathetic. Once again, Pav and Hank were carrying the offence in the playoffs for the Wings and got no support. Yes the kids learned a tough lesson and they will grow from that. But, Kenny needs to make some changes to this team to make it go from being above average to the next level, possibly even elite. Even if they keep Franzen I would try to make my team look somewhat like this next year: Zetty- Pav- Alfie Nyquist- Weiss- Gaborick Jurco- Sheahan- Tatar Glendening- Helm- Franzen/ Abby Kronwall- Smith (Gotta keep them together) Dekeyser- Boyle Oulette/ Sproul- Ericsson That makes our team almost elite. Maybe also try to add a big forward like Chris Stewart if possible.

Won't happen as compliance buyout won't work on him. I say we give him one more chance next season before decisions are made.

package him and Franzen up and trade for a player that can actually make an impact on the Red Wings.