ogreslayer

Yeah because the NHL has a long history of GMs making offers to other team's restricted free agents & when they do, they're almost never matched by the player's current team.

And with signing a player to a maximum allowed contract, which would be a cap hit of $12.86m a year next season or 20% of the total cap, you would cripple your team's ability to compete. With the current average NHL contract being worth $2.45m a season, you could afford your supposed high risk/high reward player & 20 additional average players to fill out your roster. Comparing how much Mr. I can spend on salaries for the Tigers vs. the Wings is a complete waste of time because of a little thing called the NHL salary cap.

I think something will give with Sammy...something called an amnesty buy out. Colaiacavo will be the other one imo.

From Babcock via Khan, no DeKeyser tonight: Ansar Khan ‏@AnsarKhanMLive Babcock said Brunner is out. Lashoff in for White. DeKeyser not playing. Zetterberg is in.

On the DeKeyser front, looks like he's in the lineup tonight vs. the 'Yotes.

Erat is signed through the 2014-15 season

Oh let's see... Has something to do with the fact that the front office knew a lockout shortened season was on the way, rookies having to prove themselves capable of playing major roles with the team without the benefit of a training camp & preseason was a recipe for disaster, the condensed schedule was going to mean less practice time between games making integrating rookies full time more difficult than normal, and the schedule also meant less time between games to nurse injuries meaning a stretch on organizational depth. The lockout greatly reduced the organization's ability to evaluate how much they could trust their NHL ready talent at the start of the season. Taking say a month to do that at the start of a non-lockout season has much less risk than if they would have tried that this season. A month figuring out what they had this year would have probably meant a lock to miss the playoffs. Sammy was a known quantity, knows the organization/system, & was a relatively cheap way to improve short-term depth. The front office & Babs all knew that at some point, GR call ups were going to happen. Bringing in a Sammy, Colaiacovo, & Tootoo just meant having a little more NHL proven talent without handcuffing the team from a salary cap situation & relying on GR for the "over ripe" players as versus starting the season with the "over ripe" playing significant roles already & when the injuries started to pile up, having to call up the maybe not so ripe.

No, the definition of irony would be the now Columbus "Rangers" making the playoffs while Rick Nash & the New York "Blue Jackets" don't.

Wyshynski is hockey's equivalent of Skip Bayless.

Not to be that other guy, but you do realize that if there hadn't been the threat of a lockout & the young players would have had a chance to shine in a full training camp & preseason, the youth movement probably would have happened regardless right?

Hmmmm let's see.... The day Gordie signed with the Wings, the first game the Production Line was put together, the day the Ilitch family bought the team, the day Devellano was hired, the day Yzerman, Lidstrom, Fedorov, Zetterberg, or Datsyuk were drafted, the hiring of Scotty, the Shanny trade, the Russian Five on the ice for the first time, the Turtle Incident, the Cup win on home ice in 97, Vladdy on the ice with the Cup in 98, the 02 Cup with all the future hall of famers, the Cup win in 08 when all the haters said the Wings couldn't win under a salary cap? None of these are greater? Really? Really? Use hyperbole much?

And from all reports, they didn't even look at Clowe who I would think would be considered a "depth player" which Kenny said they weren't going to target. Looks like the targets were Jagr, JBo, & Pominville.

No progress on the extension front: http://prohockeytalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/03/valtteri-filppula-hasnt-made-progress-on-extension-with-red-wings/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

LA was a team that hung around all season based on the play of Quick, winning a bunch of games 1-0, 2-1, etc. It was the move to bring Jeff Carter to town, their version of Brendan Shanahan in more ways than one, that allowed everything to click into place with their forward lines. Is the return of a healthy Bert or Sammy going to do that for the Wings? I seriously doubt that. To a lesser extent, maybe it's Helm if he can get back in the line-up but even then, I think the lack of a reliable shoot-first forward in the top 6 means this team is going nowhere once the playoffs start.

I think there's a better chance that Kenny would trade Pavs to Washington than Ovie coming this direction. Granted, both chances are just a shade higher than "slim".

They won't be with the big club & I would put even money on DeKeyser starting the season in GR too actually.

Oh just wait until Holland trades that first round pick to grab an extra early second & third round pick in June & people lose their s*** around here.

Just announced that he's headed to GR for the rest of the season: Ryan Sproul‏@Sproully93 Headed to Abbotsford tomorrow to join the Grand Rapids Griffins for the rest of the year

So who deserves to sit more after this game, Smith or Kindl?

JBo to St Louis: http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=663316

News is that's he's a scratch tonight so let the speculation begin.

Here's the thing though: They can eat some of his salary but that doesn't impact the cap hit even one cent. I'm sure Mr. I's pockets are deep enough that the difference between $6.6m vs. $4.6m in actual salary cost means very little. It's the $6.68m cap hit that's at issue here.

You know, his agent said a decision was going to be made by noon. Not announced, just made.

Did they mean noon Pacific time?

Are you saying you would prefer to see Phil in that outfit?