ogreslayer

That's exactly why this will happen. It's the owners way of helping to make back money, and money they don't have to share with the players at that, from the last lockout. There's just no way that expansion doesn't happen in the next 2-5 years imo.

Given some quotes I've seen from the front office over the years, the first question that will need to be answered is which of those 3 will make the HoF which is the first step in getting their number retired. "But, but, but Stevie & Lids got their numbers retired before HoF induction", I hear you say. Yeah, but there was no denying that those two would be in the HoF before they even hung up their skates. Personal HoF opinion is Feds might not be a 1st ballot HoFer but he should be, Dats might have to wait a year or two but he'll get in, & Z has at best an outside chance if he stays healthy. So out of those 3, Pavel has the best chance of having his jersey in the rafters in the near future with Sergei maybe getting a shot with a little forgiveness & time, like in another decade plus as nostalgia begins to outweigh the bad vibes that a large part of the fan base still have in regards to Sergei. As to the question posed by the OP though, Stevie & Sergei in a no-brainer. Instead of posting this as a new thread, I'll throw out a similar question to everyone here. The Wings are in a tough battle for a Stanley Cup. It's game 7 and right before the game, Doc Brown pulls up in his DeLorean, tells you the fate of the world hinges on the Wings winning & offers you the opportunity to pluck one former Wing in his prime from the time stream to guarantee a victory. Who do you pick & why? My choice is a close one, but I would take the quiet, consistent perfection of Lidstrom over the more manic variety of Hasek. So who you got?

And with a 3 year deal, Tatar is an RFA not UFA, when the deal expires.

In 99.999999% of the time, a claimed player would have to go through waivers a second time if claimed by an NHL team who then wanted to assign the player to the AHL. The lone exception to that is when a player who was already claimed on waivers is waived a second time & the team that initially lost him on waivers reclaims him. In that case, the original team can send him straight to the AHL.

Already lost Emmerton. He's off to HC Sochi in the KHL. Personally, I'm not convinced that Callahan and/or Ferraro will be snapped up on waivers if they have to be put through.

Feels like this thread really should be titled "Griffins sign Zengerle" given that this is an AHL signing only. Just feels to me that saying the Wings signed him implies incorrectly that he's on the 50 man roster, which he's not.

It will actually be the Belle Tire Kicking Arena. Yes, it absolutely will be corporate named. Too many $$$s at stake with that.

Yeah, that's not gonna happen. The deadline to file for arbitration was back on July 5.

It's not entirely true. Bonuses may be applied to: Entry level contracts For players who have played at least 400 NHL games who were injured for at least 100 calendar days the previous season. The contract may only be for 1 year though. 35+ contract again with the 1 year limit There are no conditions locking out bonuses on 2 way contracts, given that the vast majority of ELCs are exactly that. That said, all coverage I've seen has reported Cleary's as a 1 way deal.

Pretty much a guarantee but he'll be up as soon as the injury bug hits & his waiver exemption won't run out mid-season like Nyquist's did last year so expect to see him bouncing back & forth.. The bigger impact imo will be on Ferraro & Callahan now as their chances of making the team would effectively be 0%. I still think one if not both of them will make it through waivers though so they will be retained.

Hmmm, that feels a little like a baiting reply to me... Nowhere in my post did I say I'm hoping Cleary will get injured. I'm just flat out predicting that he will & it will happen early in the season. Too much of a history of injuries the past handful of seasons & way too many miles. I'll go on the record in fact on how I think this plays out... Around the week of 9/15, we'll start seeing media reports of Cleary not skating due to groin soreness He'll try to go in the last pre-season game in Boston or maybe 2 of the last 3 and skate like his age matches his jersey #. Yes, I'm assuming Alfie will be back so Dan will not skate like he's 11. Despite struggling in the 1 or 2 pre-season games he appears in, he'll still make the team & Jurco winds up in GR. I'll save this rant until another time but my theory is Cleary making the team has much more to do with Babcock than Kenny. Danny looks terrible to start the season & after 3-4 games (around 10/15-17) we start seeing commentary on him being a warrior for playing through either what is thought to be a sports hernia or complications with his knees again. HSJ will be the one leading the pack on those reports. After a rather lopsided loss to either the Canadiens or the Pens the week of 10/21 where Cleary checks in with at least a -3 for the night with a couple of particularly boneheaded turnovers, he's put on the DL & Jurco is recalled. He tries to make an early return right after Thanksgiving & only lasts a few games before heading back to the DL. Trade deadline day rolls around, there's no action from the Wings, & the board goes crazy when "The return of a healthy Dan Cleary and ... are our deadline acquisitions" ("and ..." being one of the following: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, or Franzen, my money's on Franzen) comes out of the mouth of Holland. Much weeping & gnashing of teeth ensues. So in actuality, I'm hoping everyone stays healthy. Given past history though, I'm expecting that won't happen & in Cleary's case, I'm expecting it to happen fairly quickly.

Well if it's any consolation, reports are that Danny has started skating already (6 weeks earlier than normal) in order to get ready for camp. So that means he should be injured & out of the lineup by what, the 2nd or 3rd week of the season?

But then where does Cleary fit in if he re-signs?

And somewhere in a dark, quiet room, Brett Lebda & Derek Meech are waiting for their calls from Kenny too at this very moment.

Commie plot you say?

Speculation I've seen is pointing to Washington, but they'll need to clear somebody out before the start of the season (my bet=Mike Green) to make it work.

Step-daughter is now 18/18+ I believe & the custody conditions that kept her in Cali no longer apply.

Yes he does

Agreed. Using an Orca on their current jersey is the equivalent of the Wings switching their logo to this guy:

I saw plenty of coverage that reported the list Kesler originally gave Gillis during the season had 6 teams on it: Anaheim, Chicago, Colorado, Detroit, Pittsburgh, & Tampa Bay. From everything I've seen, the "only Anaheim or Chicago" scenarios came into play because those were the only two teams still in discussions with Benning.

As long as he's not worse than Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo... Oh who am I kidding, he will be.

Well technically Weiss could be bought out, but part of his salary would still count against the cap. He's not eligible for a compliance buyout but the Wings could use a regular course buyout on him if they wanted to. Might as well give him (hopefully) a healthy year to see what he can do before even thinking about that recourse though.

Ultimately, I think this is going to be like a Draper/Maltby situation, an insurance policy in case one of the kids they're relying on blows it in camp. There's barely room for Jurco on the team, especially if Alfie comes back, let alone a broken down Cleary plus you got Ferarro & Callahan out of options. He either winds up in GR as a player/mentor or he'll take a job with the organization somewhere else.

How does that saying go? "If you love someone, set it free. If it returns to you, lock the doors & don't take any of his agent's calls."

"local boys" per season... 96-97: Aaron Ward (Windsor) 97-98: Aaron Ward (Windsor) 01-02: None 07-08: Brian Rafalski (Dearborn) 12-13: Justin Abdelkader (Muskegon), Luke Glendening (Grand Rapids), David Legwand (Detroit), Drew Miller (East Lansing), Danny DeKeyser (Detroit) Good thing those good ol' local boys were around this past season to spur the Wings on to a Cup win, right? Right? Personally, I would rather have the front office concern themselves with building the best 23 man roster they can regardless of where the players come from.