Buppy

Worse even than we were, or Pittsburgh, or San Jose. They're pretty much at the expected new cap, and still like 8 players short of a full roster. They might be able to unload Huet, but they'll also probably overpay Niemi, especially if they win the Cup. They likely have to part ways with at least one of Sharp, Versteeg, or Bolland, and probably Sopel, and possibly one of their better RFAs like Ladd or Hjalmarsson. There is a part of me that will be happy to see them taken down a peg, but the bigger part just hates the salary cap even more. They've built a fantastic team, and they can't even get more than one shot at a Cup before they start losing pieces. They'll still be a solid team, but this might be the last time we see a team this deep for a while.

I highly doubt Stevie's first act as GM would be circumventing tampering rules, and we surely would have heard something if he had been given permission to speak with any of our players. It's certainly no more than coincidence, assuming the whole story isn't BS in the first place.

Kill two birds with one renovation. Replace those uncomfortable seats with toilets.

Nystrom is better than Burish in pretty much every way, and will probably cost about the same. Though I'd be ok with Burish.

Speaking of Euros, anyone know where to find info on all the European skaters? It's hard to judge a player on just the stat lines, especially without a frame of reference for good performance in all those foreign leagues.

If the Flyers win it should go to Halak. He's the real reason they're there.

Bear in mind that GMs do have a fairly high turnover rate. 20 NHL teams have changed GMs since the lockout. Anything more than 6-8 years or so is considered 'long term'. Holland's contract wouldn't have to expire at the same time, he would just have to agree to step aside. Or maybe Steve could wait a year or two in a different role. Or maybe Holland goes before Steve's contract is up and we go with a temp GM for a year or two. I believe he wants to be the GM of the Wings. I believe Ilitch wants him to be the GM eventually. The fans definitely want him. Assuming he doesn't fail miserably in TB, I have to believe he'll be back before too long.

You're forgetting perhaps that we are adding almost $3 million in Hudler. With all the other FAs, it certainly not outside the realm of possibility (particularly if we go with Kindl and Meech for the 6 & 7 D), but I'd say it's unlikely.

Except he never said that. It was in reference to breaking out of his slump and he said something akin to 'I just need to score'. He never said or insinuated that he didn't need to work hard or play the tough areas. Just that those things weren't what he needed to get out of his funk. He said something that hundreds of other slumping players have said. You hear it all the time that a player just 'needs to get that first one' to break the ice, get the confidence back, etc. Remember, Leino did at times earn some praise for his work while here. From Babs, Flip, Hank. It wasn't until January that Babs started to really get down on him. He may not be the hardest worker ever, but I think more than that was just that he isn't particularly good at doing that kind of stuff. He's not that big or strong, and not a great skater. He was doing all that stuff early on, but just getting beat more often than not. Then I think he totally lost his confidence, and didn't respond well to the criticism. Seems like maybe he even got a little depressed. Perhaps he knew he was going to be shipped out when we got healthy and gave up. Certainly not a good way to respond, but I don't think it makes him a bad player or person. Little immature maybe, but that's the worst I'd say. Now to defend Holland. Are you suggesting that we never should have had Leino in the first place? Even if you are, both of them together wouldn't have been enough to keep either of Sammy or Hudler (maybe Sammy would have taken a little less, who knows), and it would have left us a player short. Secondly, Leino and Willy were not supposed to be top 6 forwards. No one ever expected them to be. They were supposed to give us secondary scoring from the third line. They were only part of replacing some of the scoring lost. It was actually looking pretty good at first, up until Flip got hurt really. And when the injuries hit, we didn't have any other options. No, Leino wasn't ready, but what else were we supposed to do? Williams was one of the injuries, so he wasn't ever expected to step up. And speaking of Williams... He scored 19 goals and 47 points the prior season. He knew the system (and had scored 58 points here only a few years ago). He was the RH shot Babs wanted for the 2nd PP unit. He was available at a price we could afford. We can speculate all we want about who might have been a better pickup, but Willy was pretty much the only one out there who looked like he could fill what we were looking for. He was a better fit to play Flip and Leino than he was with the likes of Miller and Cleary or Bert. Who can say how he would have fared had he and Flip not been hurt? We can say in hindsight that we weren't looking for the right things, or we made the wrong choice, but we don't know that anything would have been any better. Likewise, we can say now that we should have gotten rid of Willy instead of Leino, but when Willy came back from his injury he was playing pretty decent. (Still no results, but he wasn't playing bad.) He didn't really start to look bad until after the Olympics. And again, who can say if Leino would have ever improved if he had stayed? The only thing that I wish could have happened differently was Maltby's surgery. He had to do that because we were still a hair over the cap when Lilja came back. I believe his salary was enough that if he had gotten the surgery sooner, we could have kept Leino and still been compliant when everyone was healthy. But I can't blame Kenny for that, since I don't think it was a sure thing at the time that Lilja was coming back.

I tried to tell you the last time you mentioned this, your version of the facts is inaccurate. Devallano became Senior VP in 1990. 7 years prior to Holland taking over as GM. When Jimmy D was promoted, it was Bryan Murray who became GM. After Murray left, Devallano did come back to the GM role, but he was still Senior VP, and to my understanding it was mostly Bowman's show at that time. Then, after 3 years as assistant GM (and 5 more as director of amatuer scouting, and 7 more in various scouting roles) Holland took over. Moreover, I don't think the Wings right now are in the best position to put in a rookie GM. Yzerman has only been in management for four years. Just because he was a great player, and did so much for the organization as a player , does not mean he is ready or qualified to be our GM, even with Kenny helping him. In the next few years we need to replace Lidstrom somehow, and most likely Rafalski. We also don't have too long before we need to find our next generation stars to take the torch from Pav and Hank. Then we have quite a few other players close to or over 30. Quite a few younger guys that we need to make decisions on and get locked into good deals if want to keep them. We have to do all this while wedged against the salary cap and trying to maintain the highest (and probably unrealistic) standard in the league. That's a little much to ask of someone whose GM experience consists entirely of assembling an all-star team from a huge captive talent pool without a cap to contend with. Tampa is a great fit for Steve. Basically on the ground floor of a rebuilding project. Expectations should be easily managed. Hardly any forwards already signed, so a lot of lattitude to put the team together. Not sure how the ownership down there will be, but I don't think money will be a problem (at least not immediately). It's a great opportunity for him to learn, and for us to see what he can do. I would have liked to see Steve take an Assistant GM role, but maybe he wasn't interested. But I still expect him to be our GM at some point. Devallano is 67, so I expect he'll retire before too long, and I'd expect Kenny to take over his spot. Maybe Steve would be ready by then, or maybe Nill can be GM for a while. I know Steve said the TB thing is a long-term project, but in GM terms that means like 5-6 years. Like the article on NHL.com says, this is kind of like going away to college for Steve. It doesn't necessarily mean he's gone for good. I wish him nothing but the best (unless he's playing us, that is).

Funny that you left Eaves off your roster. Jiri Hudler / Pavel Datsyuk / Tomas Holmstrom Valtteri Filppula / Henrik Zetterberg / Johan Franzen Todd Bertuzzi / Justin Abdelkader / Daniel Cleary Patrick Eaves / Darren Helm / Physical UFA (Nystrom would be candidate, someone in that mold) Kris Draper Ritola or Miller if we have the cap space Nicklas Lidstrom / Brian Rafalski Brad Stuart / Niklas Kronwall Jonathan Ericsson / Jakub Kindl Derek Meech (Yeah, unfortunately this is what I expect for our 5-6-7 on defense) Jimmy Howard / Chris Osgood

From what I've read on Merril is that he has a very strong all-around game. Maybe not the most physical, but he is big. MacIlrath probably fits our needs better, but stay-at-home, physical d-men usually aren't that tough to get in FA, and not that expensive. Merril would be my top choice among the 2nd tier defensemen this year. I haven't looked to deeply at the forwards, but from what I've heard is that after Hall and Seguin, the next 10-15 guys are fairly even. Skinner still intrigues me, even though he isn't ranked that high. Sheahan sounds good. Or Neiderreiter if he falls a bit.

Habs have Philly right where they want 'em.

If he'd actually do that, and at a price similar to this year's, I'd be ok with him. Though I'd still prefer someone younger. What I'd expect, however, is that he'll be slow, not very physical, take dumb penalties, show a few flashes of skill, a few flashes of suck, and tons of mediocrity. If he does come back, I hope at the very least it's cheap enough that we can afford to carry 14 forwards.

Bryan Murray became GM after Devallano was promoted to Senior VP. I believe at that time Holland was Director of Amatuer scouting. After Murray left, Devallano, Holland, and Bowman shared GM duties. Devallano was still Senior VP of Hockey Operations, so I'm not sure how much he was really involved in the GM role. I believe Bowman was basically GM, and Holland his assistant. Holland took over when Bowman stepped down after the first Cup. I give it ~6 more years. By that time we should be in transition from Pav and Hank to our next leaders. That would be the perfect time for Steve to come in. Could be sooner too. Kenny will probably move up when Jimmy D retires.

Plus, if we sign Boogaard for 2 or 3 years, we might be privileged enough to witness him score his milestone 20th NHL point!

I can appreciate your sentiment, but your facts are way off. I believe you're thinking of Jimmy Devallano, but even then it isn't accurate. I love Steve, and hope he stays forever, but I still want Kenny for now. If Steve has to take a job somewhere else for a while, then I wish him all the best. He'll be the GM here eventually (unless maybe he falls on his face somewhere else), no reason to push one of the best out of the way.

RFA. I really doubt NJ would let him walk. Not for what we could offer anyway. And I don't think we have anything we could trade for him. He could be a 20+ scorer though. It'd be nice.

5 points in 1 game, mostly because of Franzen's explosion. 6 points in the other 11. Most of those courtesy of Zetterberg's and Filppula's strong play. For the most part, Bert did little to really earn those points. Also, 1 game != chemistry. And excuse me, I should have been more clear. I meant goals. Bert isn't right for the 3rd line. He isn't good enough to justify losing a young player like Miller or Eaves. He isn't good enough to justify bumping Flip or Cleary or Hudler to the third line (one of them already will be). A decent scoring third line isn't worth a poor scoring second. Unless Homer decides to retire, I just don't think we have room for Bert.

Most of that list is either restricted, over 30, or can't play hockey. Torres would be nice, but likely out of our price range. The only other two that would interest me are Nystrom and Winchester.

If all we could fairly expect from Hank was 23 goals, then we would rightly want him gone. But we know he just had a bad year. We know we can expect much better from him. He is not 35. He is a star that can make things happen all over the ice. We have no players younger and better than Hank. You can't say any of the above about Bert. Hank had a terrible year by his standards. That does not make Bert's performance better. He was ok last year. Pretty good value while we had an opening. Now we don't have an opening. If he comes back (and assuming Homer also returns) we'll have to give up someone like Eaves, Miller, Ritola, or some FA addition who would likely help us just as much now, and possibly have a future. Bert played 17 more games, ~500 more minutes, ~200 more PP minutes, with much better linemates than Eaves. But he scored just 6 more goals. Eaves was a better value. Eaves is 26. Eaves will likely be cheaper. Eaves might actually get better. Don't forget Bert's mediocre season just because he finished with a couple good games. He's not a star. He's nothing even remotely special. We don't need him. If we had the roster space, fine. But we don't unless we give up someone young. I'd rather not do that. Not for Bert at least.

I couldn't see him playing anywhere but Anaheim if he comes back. Even if he did, I'd hate to lose someone like Eaves for a one year rental.

I hope someone offers him a bunch of money, because I really don't want him back. He played pretty much the whole year with either Datsyuk or Zetterberg, and still was barely any more productive than Eaves. We have enough marginally top 6 players. All Bert will do is take opportunities away from Flip, Hudler, and Cleary. Sure, it'd be great to have Flip and Happy back on the third line, but not if the top 6 has to suck for it to happen.

He played one playoff game. 7:45 of ice time. Credited with one hit and one takeaway. In 7 regular season games over the past three seasons, he's played around 70 minutes. 1 assist, 7 hits, 2 blocks, 2 giveaways, 2 takeaways, 0-3 on faceoffs, and 11 shots. He isn't a former high draft pick. He hasn't been that impressive in his two seasons in GR. He's average size and speed. Nothing about any of that screams 'notice me'. I don't think other teams will pay special attention to him simply because he's from the Wings organization. He has some potential and a minimum wage contract. That's really it. It's far from certain that he would be claimed. As I said, I hope he earns a spot so we don't have to risk it, but honestly, if he can't win at least the 13/14th spot against his likely competition, I think there'd be a good chance he would pass, and even if he was claimed I wouldn't really care.

Considering he's done nothing in the NHL thus far, and not exactly tearing up the AHL, I wouldn't be surprised if he cleared waivers. The 2-way deal keeps him exempt from recall waivers, so that's good. Still, I hope he makes the roster.