Opie

All of you call Nill the real mastermind, were you in the room when the Wings Brass made these decisions? As I said in another thread: Did Nill want Brunner and Holland did not? Did Holland want Sammy and Nill did not? Because to me it seems like the org as a whole is in on all decisions, I just don't see how some of these moves are all on Holland and some are all on Nill. To me it seems like people are arbitrarily assigning blame and credit!

Flip, IMO, was out of the mix a while ago. Brunner wanting to test the market (Note: NOT Holland not offering him anything) and if the Wings sign someone while he makes up his mind, he is not yet the type of talent you wait around for. There is plenty of room, as well as plenty of assets to trade. They just won the Calder cup, other teams will want some of those prospects.

PHO has a huge void in leadership, this will not help!

Nill is saying Stars are not in on Cleary!

Brunner, over a guy that is a proven 50 pt commodity on a s***ty Florida team? Man the rose colored glasses are strong with this one. Does no one remember what happened with Brunnstum?

They will trade him before this contract ends, see Jeff Carter!

So other than the obvious troll post, where do you get that idea when the Wings are clearly in the mix for Weiss and Brunner?

Never let the facts get in the way of an opinion!

Now what I am seeing from Dreger is 3m base and 2.5 in bonuses!

So, bring up a player you don't think belongs on the first line as a replacement for Alfie on the first line? Plus his cap hit is 3.5 and a potential for 2 more in bonuses, you cannot count those 2 in bonuses yet, as he has to earn them, and if he earns it what is the issue?

Right but Abby was on pace for 6 assists, well behind Alfie who was on pace for 32! Alfie is not one dimensional, he will play very good defense, will go to the net, will set up other players as well. And that was with Abby playing minutes with Datsyuk, remember Corey Perry giving Abby crap about his totals while playing with Dats? You think Abby should be playing 1st line minutes over Alfie? Really? Doesn't really matter as they will probably be on the same line as Alfie is RW and Abby is LW.

3.5 is actually the report (potentially 6 with bonuses!), but thoroughness does not seem to be your strong suit!

Great, Alfie stats declined, I get that. WHAT PLAYER SHOULD TAKE HIS SPOT? As that was your original point! What youngster is going to give you the 50+ points Alfie gets? What youngster is going to get you 20 goals that Alfie gets? You are avoiding your own original point which makes me believe you were not thinking of who should be there, but that you don't like him there. This is a one year stop gap, gives the young guys a chance to actually play an entire NHL season before you put them on the top line!

Right Crymson, I guess my attempted point was that his attitude that I deserve to be on the team, as opposed to a guy like Marchand who was expected to be a grinder, but plays above his weight class so to speak. Like me having a hot wife who runs marathons, I am out of my league, and apparently she has vision issues! I would take 22 Marchand's any day of the week over one Sequin on my top line scoring 50 + goals. The attitude Marchand has helps teams and is contagious, Sequin's attitude is contagious and is a hinderance. I think the B's made up the drinking thing, because now it is really becoming an issue, but where were the issues mid season? How come his drinking and living the life (BTW I hear Ovie has the same weakness) is now an issue? It is now an issue because they wanted to get rid of him. In today's society you can not just say we wanted Erikkson more, you have to pile on people on the way out. ESPECIALLY in Boston sports, anybody leaving is a trader and anyone on the way in is a savior and "character guy".

Guys, according to reports Brunner told Holland he wants to test the market, but will come back for them to match or beat. His plan the entire time has been to test the market. That is why I am a bigger fan of Alfie at 3.5 than a bidding war for Brunner (think Damien Brunnstrum) who has had a decent half of a season!

I disagree, since the stories hit that his off ice behavior were a problem, a lot of people have stated that Marchand lives the lifestyle harder than Sequin. I think the overall problem was that Tyler had regressed to his rookie year again. After playing in Sweden he came back with the same play on the outside and only use his speed move to the outside. The B's worked hard with him to be play more on the inside, then he went to Sweden and came back with the outside game. And there lies the real difference between him and Marchand. Brad will do whatever it takes to win and stay on the ice. Tyler plays like he deserves to be on the top line, but does not work to get the minutes, the way the B's expect him to.

So what he gets downgraded to the # 6 scorer? You claim that there are youngsters lined up to take his spot, but all of them are unproven, even Nyquist and Tatar did well in less than a half season. None of the youngsters we (myself included) are all excited about have played a full season in the NHL, plus they are all headed for the dreaded Sophomore slump. And I am looking at his stats, he has scored 20 goals every year except for a 47 and a 57 game seasons. He has been a minus twice in his entire career. In his last full season (2011-2012) he put up 27 32 with a plus 16. So my question to you would be who's stats are you looking at that make you think a youngster should take his spot? Which was your original statement!

Who on this team or in this Org had better stats, played a better 2 way game, and can instantly be ready to play on the top line at the start of the season? What youngster has shown they deserve the top line minutes over Alfie? This is not a 40 year old who, like Modano, couldn't find a home and was a rebuilding project. This guy would have been tied with Brunner for #4 scorer on this team.

OK, I would rather pick Seth Jones than sign Alfie, but would rather sign Alfie than get in a bidding war over Brunner. Better?

I always think teams should be very careful with players coming off of Back, shoulder, or knee surgeries. But if it is C-bus, go ahead, suck ass! I do like Davidson as a gm though!

Does the shoulder surgery change his value?

Given the choice between overpaying Brunner due to a bidding war(as it appears Brunner wants to test the market) or Alfie in this instance I pick Alfie. But if you are asking me do we trade a pick for Alfie or draft Sequin, Hall, Stamkos, etc... I take the draft pick. See I am not assigning my logic to all situations, I use logic based on the individual circumstance. I know that may seem weird to some, but I actually look at each transaction as a one off situation, there is no fix all tool. Edit: This is response to Dirty Dangle, the gap between our posts was bigger than I thought it would be!

You are banking a lot on the future of a guy who was unable to keep up with the NHL pace over a half season, he is yet to play a full season in the league and you are extrapolating what he can do based off of what he did in a very small sample size. I am basing what Alfie can do over a long career worth of accomplishments. Brunner is an unknown commodity and has people feeling giddy with hope, Alfie is a guy who you know what you are going to get, and that is not nearly as exciting as Brunner's potential. Also while Brunner is a lot younger than Alfie he is not a 20 year old rookie, he is 27, there is a reason it took him until the age of 27 to be discovered!

I agree with VM, he does not fill the main void with this team, a sniper. Unfortunately Mule is supposed to fill that void, he was picked over Hossa, he was supposed to be the scoring machine the Wing's need. However he is more often playing like Johan Franzen instead of the Mule!

Yeah Brunner went 5 and 4 in 14 games and was a plus 2 Alfie went 4 and 4 in 10 games and was a plus 5 So your sarcastic point about me missing the playoffs is pretty irrelevant!