ogreslayer

Teams don't have to wait to put players on LTIR until Tuesday. There are benefits, however, that the Wings could take advantage of if they could make moves to get to the salary cap prior to putting Helm & Eaves on LTIR though i.e. waive/trade enough salary to get to the cap ceiling of $64.3m & then putting Helm & Eaves on LTIR the next day. That's going to be close to impossible though imo but they always have the option of just moving Helm & Eaves to LTIR, putting Tootoo & Monster on regular IR, & bringing Mrazek in to backup Howie tomorrow. That's all the Wings need to do at this point to be cap & roster limit compliant by the start of the regular season. By not being able to make a move to get to the cap before putting Helm & Eaves on LTIR, that just means the Wings' upper cap limit while they're out is ~$66.69m instead of $67.625m, which is the $64.3m cap+Helm & Eaves' full salaries. No need to think about waivers/trades until the Wings start to reach a fully healthy roster.

If DeKeyser & Kindl aren't already considered the 2nd pairing by the coaching staff, I would expect that opinion's going to change pretty soon now. I would love to see Babs at least split up Smith & Quincey because that pairing, at least to my eyes, has just not worked at all. Do you just shake up the 2nd & 3rd pairings though, all the pairings, or maybe does Lashoff work in more & the bottom pairing becomes a rotation of Lash-Q-Smith?

Got my Leafs Cujo authentic from them years ago. Quality site but I give the edge to sportsk for Wings gear. They're typically a little cheaper by $10-20 per jersey on Wings stuff.

If both Eaves & Helm are out on LTIR, as stated in my edit, yes it does solve the cap problem. The Wings are currently a little under $2.4m over the cap & you can take Helm's $2.125m & Eaves' $1.2m cap hits off the books if they both start the season on LTIR. Last time I checked 2.125+1.2>2.4. That would actually put the Wings $937k below the cap limit & buys Kenny some time to solve the cap issue until either Helm or Eaves comes back. That also means if he moves Sammy to GR, they get additional cap relief of $100k so they would then be $1.03m below the cap. And as I said before, I still don't have much confidence that it plays out that way & think there's a pretty good chance that Nyquist proves to be the odd man out because he is still waiver exempt. Edit: I think depending on whether the Wings have players go on regular IR, like if Tootoo isn't ready for the start of the season but doesn't need the full LTIR (10 games/24 days), that reduces the roster spot he takes up but his salary cap still counts. So there's a chance that the Wings won't have to make any roster moves if Helm & Eaves are LTIR & Tootoo is on regular IR to start the season. If that does happen though & Nyquist starts the season with the big club, he'll be in Detroit the entire season.

As long as Helm's out, they don't need significant cap relief. The Wings will only be ~$200k over the cap with him on LTIR. If Eaves is out on LTIR too to start the season, Kenny's got to move at least one player off the roster that will clear that $200k. That player can't be Sammy since his cap relief if he ends up in GR is only $100k. Looking more & more to me like Nyquist starts the season in the minors unless Kenny pulls a rabbit out of his hat. Edit to correct: If Eaves is out for a few weeks on LTIR, that actually solves the Wings cap issue & Kenny can move anyone, even Sammy, down to GR. Too early in the morning for me to work numbers I guess. Still think it ends up being Nyquist on the short end of the stick though.

LTIR applies to at least 10 games or 24 days so there's probably a pretty good chance that's where Eaves will end up.

And maybe add another week for a conditioning stint in GR once he's cleared. Eaves & Helm out puts the roster at 24 bodies so 1 more to go.

That loophole is going to close as fast as the "Team A trades player to Team B, Team B does buyout, Team A resigns player at lower cap hit" loophole that the NHL warned teams not to do this past summer. I can already hear Bettman (or Daly) now... "Something, something, rule circumvention. Something something still a minor penalty."

Would they hold a news conference to announce that Sammy's waived his NTC? A guy can dream right?

Ansar Khan ‏@AnsarKhanMLive11s Can confirm what has been reported, Daniel Alfredsson will sign 1-year deal with Red Wings after noon.

In my experience, most officials don't deliberately intend to blow, they just do. Except for this guy maybe. I think he blows on purpose.

Personally, I think if a 22 year old with 25 games of experience who will be fighting for time in the bottom six is the key to the season, it's going to be a long season for the Wings. In my own opinion, it's the continued development of the Wings defense & production from a much improved 2nd line that are the keys.

While past performance does not guarantee future results, I think the league is going to "Brendan Smith" him. I'm expecting the same suspension Smith got in 2011 which would be the rest of the pre-season & 5 regular season games. And like in Smith's case, I wouldn't be too surprised to see the AHL maybe not match the 5 games but suspend him for a couple/few. Non-star player+preseason game=NHL will send a message Same hit from a "name" player in March=Game misconduct and maybe a one or two game suspension on top of that

Given that they play different positions & Jensen already has his spot i.e. an entry level contract and is on the 50 man roster, I wouldn't really say this was about both of them flighting for a limited number of spots. I still do think that the term "boneheaded" applies to both of them in this situation.

I just hope that there's enough value for another team to want to either trade for or claim an Eaves or Tootoo on waivers, let alone a Bert or Sammy if they waive their NTCs, to get their salaries completely off the books. Kenny won't be facing a huge problem from a salary cap standpoint to start the season if Helm is on IR as that hit coming off puts the Wings only ~$200k above the cap & all he has to do is move two bodies. Once Helm's back though, there's no combination of waiving three players which includes Emmerton (which I think is a valid assumption) where the two non-Emmerton players go unclaimed that works due to the new Wade Redden & 35+ contract rules. They have to move a salary completely off the books in that case or they're leaving Emmerton on the big club & sending 3 non-35+ players to GR to be cap compliant. So Kenny needs to find a trading partner before Helm gets back, cross his fingers that another GM puts in a waiver claim when sending someone down (paging Garth Snow, paging Mr. Snow), or possibly the fans in GR get to see a combination of three from Eaves/Tootoo/Miller/Nyquist play in person for the bulk of the season. Kenny's gonna have to live up to his reputation of being the best in the business once Helm gets healthy, assuming he does.

Correct, as stated before, there's no contract tied to a tryout in the NHL. Unlike the AHL where an actual tryout contract exists & gives the player 25 games (I think) to earn a full contract after that, a player on a PTO in the NHL actually has no obligation to the team nor the team to him.

Can someone add Cinderella's "Don't Know What You Got Till It's Gone" as a soundtrack to this video? Fixed that first part for you. He turned down at least 2 offers from the Wings, from what I've seen, thinking he was going to get big money/ice time somewhere else. Not like Kenny could force him to stay here right?

Last I saw, he's expected to be on the 3rd along with Pulkkinen who is now in with Franzen being held out.

It's really not a "tryout contract". The AHL has tryout contracts, but the NHL doesn't. Having a professional tryout with an NHL club means you have an invite to attend camp with the opportunity to play your way onto the team & earn a contract. Terms may be discussed & a handshake deal may be in place on years/money before it's officially earned probably but it's only that, a handshake. So technically, Brunner still doesn't have an NHL contract just like Cleary wouldn't have if he had attended Flyers camp on a PTO.

Exactly. Jensen could have easlily just fired back with a "Seriously, you're trying to start s*** at a prospects camp?" and skated away, but he dropped the gloves instead. He has as much if not more culpability for this as Little Bert. Still, not a good move by Tyler to stir things up like that in camp which is probably why he got a talking to from Uncle Bert.

Can't link to it from work but it's on youtube. Just search bertuzzi jensen & it's the first vid that will pop up. Jensen was the one to drop the gloves first actually, responsing to some slashing, pushing, cross checking, & chirping from Little Bert.

Certainly hope not. I would prefer to see the next step be some time on 2nd line with Weiss & Alfie if Babs finally gets tired of Franzen's laziness & demotes him to the 3rd.

Extremely stupid move from Little Bert to do that to a fellow prospect. That said, Jensen should have known better than to engage too.

There might be an chance of Emmerton being sent down & having to use Abby at center, but I think that chance is pretty slim. If it does happen though, I would much rather see a healthy Bert on a line with Hank & Pavs over Cleary. At least Bert can go into a corner to retrieve a puck without falling down. I still think that Abby ends up playing the bulk of the season on the top line. Edit: I think there's a better chance that Franzen gets moved down to the 3rd at some point if he's not producing & someone else (I hope Nyquist or Tatar over Cleary) get an extended look on the 2nd w/ Weiss & Alfie.

Calle actually got 9 games with the Griffs at the end of last season. On the Almquist front, it's just too bad that we can somehow transplant his brain into Smith's body.