ogreslayer

IMO some of the players you listed won't be resigned, starting with Sammy, Bert, Eaves, & Emmerton because the next wave from GR will be ready, specifically Ferraro & Sheahan. Granted, some of them may be gone sooner. Wouldn't be surprised if Monster's gone too. I think Quincey might be expendable as well because signing Ericsson will be the priority, you've got cheaper & hopefully still developing options in Kindl & Lashoff locked up, & they'll have Almquist potentially ready to move up as well. Kind of frustrating that the Wings have too many bodies to fit on their roster over the next couple to few years but really exciting too. Basically, I think that the salary cap will be less of an issue in 2014-15 & beyond because we should start to see younger, cheaper options starting to hit from the prospect pool.

I think the salary retention's going to be key. I still think Nyquist will end up signing for around $1m or maybe a little over for 1 year. If it is $1m, that means the Wings need to shed around $700k in salary to get back under the cap. Trading Tootoo by himself & retaining the max 50% of the contract does that for them along with an extra $250k. The more critical piece of the equation is getting rid of bodies more so than salary.

Sure $2.8m on average for 23 players with the current cap but you don't build your roster will all average players right? For the type of player Tootoo is, $1.9m is too much (tootoo much?) if you don't allow him to play his game during the regular season or trust him enough to be on the ice in the playoffs. That is compounded by having him on a team that will be above the cap & roster limit. Is it really best for this Wings team to have $1.9m a year neutered agitator for the next two seasons that only plays 6 minutes a game when he does crack the line-up when they need to trim salary & players? Sure I would much more prefer to see them move Sammy, which is going to be difficult if not damn near impossible, but regardless the Wings will have to trim two spots anyway. Why continue to keep Tootoo around if the handcuffs won't come off & you're back to spending $1.9m a year to keep an agitator you won't let agitate on the roster? To stretch the analogy to ridiculous levels, would you want Babs to tell Pavel not to dangle? TB to tell Stamkos not to snipe? Boston to tell Chara that he has to play small? In essence, that's what the Wings have done with Tootoo. They brought him to add a sandpaper to the line-up & then effectively tell him not to all season & bench him completely in the playoffs. A waste of money & roster spot imo & Tootoo would probably be better off career-wise being on a team that will let him play to his strengths. I don't think the Wings are that team based on current evidence.

Sure that's what he excels at but is it worth having him on the roster or the $1.9m he's paid if he's not really allowed to do that?

According to Forbes, the NHL will have to take over operations of the Devils when they start cutting payroll checks in September unless a new owner is found before then. So they finally get the Phoenix mess off their hands, temporarily in my opinion, and might have to take over another team almost immediately? Instead of all of the expansion talk to 32 teams, maybe they should really consider contracting down to 28. http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2013/08/08/nhl-takeover-of-new-jersey-devils-looming/

If I had to put money on it right now, I would say that Sammy ends up on the roster & plays out his entire contract. Same for Bert. Neither are going anywhere until next off season.

Best opportunity=guaranteed top 6/PP spot perchance? Not happening in Detroit unless Kenny suddenly ships off Abby & Franzen in a trade. Let's concentrate on getting that 1 year deal with Nyquist finally done & trimming the roster by 2 spots instead of dreaming about Brunner.

I'm pretty sure the ordinary course buyout period was the same as the time frame for compliance buyouts, which means it expired back on July 4th. Basically compliance buyouts had to be done during the already defined ordinary buyout period. No go on a Sammy buyout then since the window won't open again until June of next year. Going by memory here, but I believe the lone exception to that comes down to teams that have had 2 players go to arbitration & having a 3 day window open for potential buyouts after an arbitration decision is done. Didn't apply to the Wings this off season.

No matter how hot one of those teams may be at any given moment, Chicago with always be a Bears city first & foremost.

So by your own admission, you've been limited to buying tickets within the state of Michigan up to this point. Good to know. My own experience (off the top of my head) includes attending games in at least 9 states over the past decade & the ticketing experience bumps up to double digits easily counting window shopping at venues in other states and passing on tickets due to some of the shenanigans I'll mention. In regards to ticket gimmicks organizations have used with specific "premier" match-ups, I've run into everything from extreme markups on specific games due to the opponent and/or time of the season, having to buy 1 additional non-premier game & in at least one case having to buy a pre-season game, having to buy multi-game packages (6 is the most I've seen & that was at the college level btw), having to enter a lottery drawing to even "win" the chance to buy a ticket to a regular season game with the additional higher cost of it being a "premier" game too, having zip code restrictions on certain games, & having to purchase tickets during an "exclusive pre-sale" that really aren't exclusive because the "exclusive" part is that the premier games go on sale early with an additional markup included on the already higher premier game price. And yes, they do still sell out during that pre-sale. Other than the zip code restriction, the one thing that all of these have in common is, for lack of a better word, greed. It's not about "sticking it" to another team's fan base, especially since these gimmicks apply to anyone buying a ticket. (Read the article, not just the OP's opinion. That's what Nashville is actually doing with the exception of the zip code lock but that's only on the pre-sale.) These organizations know that certain games/opponents have greater appeal & instead of letting the scalpers make the extra profit, they're now taking it for themselves. It's all supply & demand, maximizing profits, & has been going on for years. Not so much in the NHL maybe or for a handful of teams in one particular state in your experience, but it happens a whole hell of a lot in the rest of the world. The worst offender that I've seen over the years is MLB but the other leagues & even colleges are starting to catch up quickly. You want specific examples? Here are just a handful of ones I've run across just with MLB: Live in a National League city & the Yankees are coming around for the first time in years for inter-league play? That's a mark-up for everyone. Want to attend the first series the Cubs have had in Boston in a century or the Yankees play in Fenway? That's a ticket lottery & huge mark-up for everyone. Want to get your Cubs/Sox Crosstown Classic tickets? That's an exclusive pre-sale, so pay for a higher priced ticket plus an additional 25% mark-up for the privilege before they sell out. And that's not even mentioning how some teams in the past were (and may still be) funneling tickets to ticket scalping companies that they actually own for those in demand games. Ultimately, what Nashville is doing with the mark-up on Blackhawks tickets is probably the least offensive thing that Major League Baseball is doing with ticket sales right now. FYI if you're a Tigers fan, they actually do the same thing. 3 pricing tiers on tickets depending on the time of year and/or opponent. Edit: One other quick edit & that's about the title of this thread being inaccurate beyond this just effecting Blackhawks fans. Paying double means buying tickets at the same price point for both games which, by all appearances, you don't have to do. If you're buying lower bowl for the Hawks game & buy an upper bowl for the other, you're looking at a ~38% mark-up in having to buy the extra game. By comparison, look at the difference say between an April game at Comerica vs. the Royals that's in the "value" tier or a June game vs. the Red Sox that's a "premium" game. That's a 25% mark-up between the two. FYI, those mark-ups for Tigers games actually are worse from a percentage standpoint the cheaper the tickets are i.e. their mark-up for the cheapest seats (skyline) is 66% between the top & bottom tier. The difference with Nashville is that you can always try to sell off the tickets to the extra game to recoup some or all of the mark-up.

Suggest reading the story instead of just relying on the OP. It's not just targeted at Blackhawks fans. Anyone buying a ticket to a Blackhawks game in Nashville have to buy at least 2 games regardless.

See the post right below yours. MANY teams, maybe not the ones you've bought tix for, make you buy not just one additional game if you want a matchup against a top team (like the Hawks in the case of the NHL) but several make you buy a multi-game packs if you want to get tickets to a game like that & they've been doing that for years. You do realize that the sports world extends beyond the state of Michigan right? So yes, for those of us that buy tickets outside of your limited experience, there is certainly logic there. And btw I'm not your buddy, pal.

And say hello to the reason for the next lockout Edit: Granted it couldn't happen, not being an entry level or 35+ contract...

If you think this is a new phenomenon, you haven't bought tickets to a sports event in quite some time. The Preds are not the first team in sports, professional or otherwise, that have done something like this nor will they be the last. Nothing to see here...

Put out a hit on Sammy maybe

One other option the Wings have if they're really desperate is to send Nyquist & DeKeyser down to GR. Between going with 6 d-men though & not having DeKeyser in the line-up, I think we would see the first ever time that a single coach in the NHL went on strike.

To be fair, it does look like Kenny's plan all along was in essence to pay Sammy 1 2/3rds seasons of salary to play for 1 year & then do a compliance buyout. If not for Sammy's "injury" blocking the buyout, he would be gone already.

Less about getting anything back than clearing up space for better options on the roster. That's again why I think that the Wings will end up having to retain some salary to potentially move someone like Tootoo. Doubt teams could sign a Morrow or Cleary cheaper than trading a 7th rounder for Tootoo when the Wings are still paying a chunk of his salary. One other option they have is to send Nyquist back down to GR but if they do, he'll have to be there for the season. From what I remember, he has all of two games left in the NHL before his waiver exemption expires. I seriously doubt though that Kenny would do that. And as far as sending vets to the minors, I do recall that's more than likely where Draper & Maltby would have ended up if they hadn't called it quits & moved into the front office. They where both offered a "come to camp to try to play your way on the roster" contract by Kenny with the thought they would end up being player/mentors in GR if they didn't make it. Both obviously chose retirement instead. The problem in doing that with Sammy or Bert now, well other than the fact that they're already under contract, is that the Wings would only get cap relief of $100k per if they're sent to the minors.

If the Wings could keep them on LTIR the whole season, it sure would. Would also clear up more money than the other alternatives Kenny's looking at too I would think.

Like maybe if it was for a ridiculous cap hit which the Wings themselves couldn't afford right now based on where they're at against the cap.

The Lids home white (at the time) was the first one I bought for myself. My first, a red Howe jersey, was a gift. If I remember correctly, I got the pre-letter Lids the spring before he got an A so I was in just under the wire.

No, it's pretty definite. The Wings have roughly $300k in cap space assuming bonuses are carried forward to next season & 24 players on the roster. The cap can be exceeded by 10% through the end of preseason so they'll still be able to sign Nyquist & the only roster limit that applies is the 50 man contract limit. Before the start of the regular season though, they'll need to trim say ~$700k (let's assume Nyquist signs a 2 year contract with $1m cap hit) & 2 players off the NHL roster to get back to the 23 limit.

I think the two that get moved are the two you mentioned, Tootoo & Eaves. Given their ages & NTCs, I don't see Kenny being able to unload Sammy or Bert. The other option if Helm proves healthy in camp is Emmerton & I do think there's a pretty good chance that if Emmerton is sent to GR at the end of camp, there's a good chance he passes through waivers. Edit: Just to add a thought, I think if Tootoo is traded, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Wings have to retain some of his salary to make it happen. And if a miracle happens & it's Sammy that's shipped out, they'll definitely have to retain salary to make that happen.

So let's see, the team has an internal cap nearly $14m below the cap ceiling & as an owner, he's said he can't afford to put any more money into the team after his casino bid was shut down. Good luck fighting off the Leafs for the 4 spot as the Wings & Bruins battle it out for #1 in the Atlantic, Eugene.

Incorrect. Bowman never held the title of General Manager while in Detroit. In addition to coaching, he held the title of Director of Player Personnel. The GM's during Scotty's tenure with the Wings were Bryan Murray for one season, followed by Jimmy Devellano & Kenny.