ogreslayer

Plus he only sits 3 behind Sproul & Almquist for the points lead for d-men on the Griffs. Seems to have adjusted to the North American game pretty well. Added bonus of being a right handed shot too.

That's interesting. The coverage of him that I saw pointed to the fact that he went undrafted in 2010 because he had just had his spleen removed & there were questions about whether he would ever play hockey again.

Looks like the injured d-man is Danny D. Lower body injury. Really interested to see what Alexey can bring to the table.

Babs will be in Detroit as long as he wants to be. When that time comes, I have a feeling it will be more due to him thinking there's no longer an opportunity for him to grow as a coach here & that he'll make the decision to leave before the Wing's brass makes that decision for him.

Ahem...that's not exactly correct. The cap recapture penalty can apply to both the original team that signed the deal AND the team the player is traded to. It is all based on the team(s) that benefit from years in which the player's salary exceeds his cap hit. Let's use Franzen as an example. If the Wings traded him this offseason, they would be on the hook for 5 seasons where his salary each year exceeded his $3.9m cap hit. He still has 2 more seasons left at $5m each that would then apply to the team he was traded to if he retired early, not as you stated the team that originally signed the deal.

Well, technically he can be. Of course he wouldn't be waiver exempt & would absolutely be claimed by another team, but technically he can be sent down. I'm just not willing to say it wouldn't happen with 100% certainty after thinking it was impossible that Cleary would wind back up on the team.

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Who's to say though that those conversations aren't being had up & down the organization already though? I think things would have to get really bad for us as fans to start hearing that from the higher ups in the Wings front office though because I don't think they're the type to air that kind of stuff in public. For me, I think the biggest problem the Wings are facing right now is the fact that they lack definition as a team. They don't quite have the personnel to be the puck possession team they've been for the past couple of decades & lack the type of players needed to be a true dump & chase/grind it out team too. They're just stuck in the middle right now. I've gotten the sense that the organization knew it had a couple of seasons at least where they needed to rely on band-aids on the roster as they tried to figure out what direction they were going in & restocked the prospect pool accordingly. They've gotten pretty lucky in the past finding solid contributors off the scrapheap but sadly the odds seem to have finally caught up with them the past two seasons. While it's painful to watch, I guess it's still better to see the Wing's form of struggling i.e. still thick in the playoff hunt despite everything, than to see them fall completely off the table into the Edmonton/Florida range of struggling. This offseason will be pretty telling I think on how far along the front office feels they are in their rolling reload/rebuild of the team. We should hopefully (fingers crossed) see the likes of Sammy, Cleary, Bert, Quincey, & Eaves (if not more) come off the books and have a rather significant wave of young players developed in the system come up to start defining what the Wings will be in the next decade+ instead having to wait another season or two for that. That's why personally I think the most important person the Wings have in the organization right now isn't Holland, Babcock, a current roster player, or prospect, I think it's Jeff Blashill. The job he does to develop those players in GR into NHL ready professionals is really the lynchpin for the youth movement that should be on the way. In the meantime, I'm prepared to grit my teeth, keep watching, & stay ready to rage the first time I hear that Kenny's working on a contract extension for Cleary. My $0.02 after another frustrating game.

I doubt that. Personally, I think Mr. I's direct involvement with the day to day operations of the team has been grossly overestimated over the years to begin with.

1-0 Preds in OT after either Smith or Quincey bowls over Howie leaving Seth Jones an open net for the game winner.

Is that 3rd line officially nicknamed 1 kid & 2 anchors?

Think Kenny can convince Sammy to accept a trade to Florida in order to maximize his salary for the rest of the year due to the lack of state income tax? Would Tallon go for Sammy for a package including one of Lebron's used headbands & a postcard of the Clevelander?

All the comments I saw on Tootoo's waiver was that no teams would be willing to pick up 2 years at $1.9m each.

The move is to fit Ericsson & Smith back on the roster which could happen as early as tomorrow for both. Moving both Tootoo & Eaves to GR doesn't free up enough cap space to bring up Nyquist from the coverage I've seen.

I've seen some speculation that there are around 3 teams that might be interested, including Chicago.

Correct. Sammy can be waived but the Wings only see cap relief of $100k if he goes unclaimed so he still counts for $2.9m against the cap. With Eaves, it's $275k I believe against the cap if he goes unclaimed.

It makes more sense now why Babcock has a bee in his bonnet over the team's play lately.

I wouldn't call it hack journalism given the fact that what he does isn't journalism to begin with. Regardless of whether there's a mental block there or not, that's not what's going to put Franzen in the crosshairs for a compliance buy out. The fact that he's on pace for a 32 point season & the Wings are potentially staring down the barrel of a recapture hit when (not if) he retires early is the reason his chances of being unemployed next June are increasing.

Post #406

2012-13 thru 17 games: 8 games vs. Western non-playoff teams, 9 vs. Western playoff teams (All games vs. Western Conference last year) 2013-14 thru 17 games: 8 games vs. Eastern Conference, 9 vs. Western Conference Let's throw in 2011-12 too thru 17 games: 9-7-1 19 pts (Split was 2 East vs. 15 West) And goal differential too while we're at it: 2011-12: +5 2012-13: -7 2013-14: -2

2012-13 thru 17 games: 7-7-3 17 pts 2013-14 thru 17 games 9-5-3 21 pts

Buyouts can only be done during the ordinary course buyout period which starts on June 15th or 48 hours after the SC Finals end, whichever is later, and last until June 30th. That's includes both regular & compliance buyouts. The only exception to that is for teams that have at least 2 players (I believe it's 2 off the top of my head) go to salary arbitration. There's an extra window that opens up for a couple of days after the team's last arbitration decision is handed down. Buyouts can't be done outside of those periods. For as much angst that was generated around Kenny not buying out Sammy this past summer, I'm thinking it might end up being a good thing that he didn't waste his second one on him in the long run. Sammy's already gone at the end of this season & if Franzen continues to crap the bed, he very may well find himself the recipient of that second compliance buyout in June. For all of the "look at the production the Wings get for his low cap hit" arguments, if he doesn't kick it into gear those will turn into some very loud "look what production we might be able to get IF we clear his cap hit (& Sammy's & Bert's, etc.) and sign a good free agent" comments soon enough.

I wouldn't say they've given up on him completely. He's not on the 50 man roster but he was signed to a GR only contract this season so the Wings brass can still keep an eye on his development.

Maltby was a 50 goal scorer in juniors As far as Mantha, I really don't see him projecting out as a power forward. Much better chance that Martin Frk becomes the Wings' power forward of the future than Mantha.

According to Helene St. James, Kenny's been trying to trade him but no takers, not even for a draft pick. I would think there's very little chance he'll be claimed on waivers either, not at $1.9m a season. The only way he's going to be traded is if Kenny includes a pick and/or prospect and even then, he'll probably have to retain some of Tootoo's salary in the deal too. http://www.freep.com/article/20131107/SPORTS05/311070060/1053/sports05?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

He would stay on the Wings roster until they need to make a move again to clear up cap/roster space but in this case, he just goes through waivers now instead of when the actual move happens. Very similar to what Emmerton went through right at the start of the season.