Nev

Don't forget he also had those two goals in 07 to clinch the series in San Jose. Bye Sammy, I'm pretty sure you don't care how you tarnished your lasting reputation with Wings fans by coming back - in fact I can think of 6 million reasons why you won't care.

Good for him, I remember seeing him playing over here for the Nottingham Panthers at the end of his career.

Pics or it never happened

Well, Kenny sure has had a great off season for the Griffins.

Stevie Y was definately a flea in the refs ear. He wasn't one of those who was an "obvious" whiner, but you could see he was always on their case.

I agree with most of this. Journalists are, generally speaking, all lying areseholes. They drive the story, even as they pretend to report it. The media for Toronto, Philly, NYR, its like having half a dozen Drew Sharpe's as your beat reporters, and he is the lowest of the low (thank goodness he has the Lions to focus his childish trolling on). Having said that, the Wings beat reporters are a bunch on patsies. HSJ is the worst, she is virtually a unpaid mouthpiece for Ken Holland. I understand that being in and around the team every day makes it hard to be too critical of them, but the silence on the teams succession of poor roster decisions the last 5 years has been deafening.

Man, Babcock sure does go through the assistant coaches eh? Anyone know how many he's had during his time here?

I voted for the Phaneuf hit for the same reasons as yours. The 07 playoffs were a real coming out party for that team. That hit helped define us a team that was able to compete and win in the playoffs and wouldn't be physically intimidated.

Holland made it quite clear to both of them, and to the fans through the media, that he only had the cap space to sign one of them, and whichever signed first would get the contract. Franzen signed first, Hossa landed on his feet.

Wow. I wonder if yours isn't the only voicemail they've received the last couple of days?

First, good for you for putting your money where your mouth is. Second, that follow up is absolutely disgusting. Honestly, it worries me for the future direction of the organisation.

This.

You're right, we do have an impressive pool of prospects. Shame they can't get a game because they're blocked by the likes of Quincey and Cleary.

Its a real strong field, but in the end it comes down to Sammy vs Cleary 2.0. What made Sammys so bad was that it was 2 years, a 1 year deal for him to provide insurance depth would have been OK, but 2? Against that is re-signing a player who is clearly no longer able to physically perform at NHL (and possibly AHL) level. Because we couldn't be sure which Sammy we would get, vs knowing exactly what we're getting with Cleary, it has to be Daniel. BTW, I agree with the posters who say Carlo wasn't so bad when healthy, I was bemused by Hollands buy-out of him.

A 1 year deal for 500k would have been a terrible signing. This? This is bad beyond words.

So much of Sporcle is getting the right spelling. There's a Wings one for their top 50 or 100 scorers all time, and I'll be damned if I could spell Ray Sheppard correctly. Spent most of my 10 minutes trying and failing combos of that one.

Please, tell me which thread I can post in, since every single thread is a Holland bashfest? Which threads can I even READ which aren't the same old whining. And every day there will be new threads which will be Holland bashfests, as if a front page full of them isn't enough. I get it, free agency was a let down, but its only taken 3 days and its already got really, really tedious.

This is getting boring now

No, they are filling holes on the roster, especially at C, where the Griffs were quite weak following the departure of Emmerton, Jarnkrok etc. Miele is a ppg AHL player, I expect he'll be the 1C with Mantha/Jurco and Pulkinen on his wings

Oh, and as for who's with you - when Fat Guy In A Maltby Jersey is the only poster who agrees with you, then you are badly, badly in the wrong.

Well, I've read some ridiculous hyberbole on here lately, but this one takes the biscuit. Last year, with no Datsyuk, no Zetterberg and an out of form Howard we still made the playoffs. What do you think we could achieve with our 2 star players and our goalie back to 2013 form? As for nothing to be excited about? Pavel Datsyuk excites me every time he steps onto the ice. Nyquist. Jurco. Tatar. Hanks beard excites me. MANTHA. Go ask Oilers fans how Operation Tank is working for them, and how much they are looking forward to another season of it.

There were plenty of comments from Z and Pav after we were knocked out by Boston that it wasn't good enough to just make the playoffs. They never said "Holland needs to make this team better or else", but there was a clear undercurrent of "this team simply isn't good enough". They are both under contract and not going anywhere. Babcock on the other hand? The last week (underwhelming draft and pathetic free agency) I think has all but confirmed that this will be his last season in Detroit. The only thing that can change it is if the kids get to play and play like stars.

Exactly. Griffins are a bit thin at C this season. That is all this signing is, but people are so onboard the HateHolland bandwagon right now, that they're not thinking logically.

Well, look on the bright side........its only 2 years. Right.........?

Spezza, Havlat, Hossa, Alfie, Chara, Redden (when he was good.......). They just never had the goaltending.