PavelValerievichDatsyuk

What I said was not incorrect. His actual salary is 5.5 mill, but he also missed out on 2 mill from last year's salary by not completing his contract. Hence, if he were going for more money it would have to be a contract of over 7.5 mill. The only players that make more than that in the KHL were Radulov and Kovy. Radulov leaving, the state of the Russian economy, and the KHL announcing that they would incrementally lower the cap for the next few years, tells me that salaries won't be going up in that league. US sports endorsements are larger than those in Russia. If anything, he's losing financially in this area. Plus, he's already a national hero in Russia so he probably has endorsements there if he wanted them. You can find some funny ads with Ovechkin in Russian. When playing in Russia he'll be able to see his daughter often throughout the year rather than the couple months he had with her while playing in Detroit since his divorce.

But I really don't think the cap hit for one year is that bad. Maybe we don't sign any free agents and go with the kids. That could end up being great for the organization long-term with AA, Mantha, maybe Bertuzzi getting more opportunity than usual. We weren't going to win the cup next year anyway. Also, I think him leaving actually gives us more of an opportunity to sign Stamkos than we would have had. Russia would have been the hometown discount? What does that mean in the context of what I was talking about? I was making the point that he could have made more by signing with other teams in the NHL. Just because he could have made less in Russia doesn't negate that. He stay with us for 14 years which is rare in the NHL and shows loyalty. As for the "KHL has evolved" stuff - If you're trying to insinuate that he's going there for more money, we debunked that in another thread. That league is struggling due to Russia's economic woes and the hard cap for that league is being lowered successively for the next few years. He won't make more there for next year. His salary would have to be over 7.5 mill. He hired an indepentent lawyer and talked to the player's union to try to find a way to leave without leaving us with the cap hit. Doesn't sound like disregard to me. He's divorced, his ex-wife took his daughter back to Russia. He's only able to see her the summer months. I consider that a legitimate family situation. We don't really know the specific (rightfully), but I think you can imagine the effect of losing touch with your daughter.

This is sad way for him to go because the discussion everywhere seems to about the contract rather than celebrating the NHL career of one of the best players to put a Wings jersey on. I don't hold anything against Pav. He's been loyal to us. We had him at a 6.7 caphit 08-14, which is definitely a hometown discount and helped out the team financially. That should be considered in the picture. Also, from Holland's characterization of the situation and him firing his agent, it seems clear that Datsyuk wasn't aware of the rules involved when he signed the 3 year, 35+ deal. I see many situations where it's not advantageous to trade the Datsyuk contract (trading youth, high picks) but I hope we trade the contract just so people don't blow this little blemish out of proportion; saying he crippled us by leaving the caphit. Especially if we were to miss the playoffs, I could foresee some blame being dumped on him. I'd like to see his number retired, but I think Fedorov is more deserving and should be done first

Yeah, I do think it's slightly high, but not by much. Tatar got 2.75 on his RFA deal with 19g 39pts. I guess with inflation, his more rounded game, and the fact that he's more proven having played 2 and a half years - it's makes sense that 13g, 36pts and 14g, 25pts gets you 2.075. Honestly, I've never been blown away by Sheahan. The Jurco-Shea-Tat line was great and I think we should take advantage of that chemistry. At the same time, I'd rather have both AA and Helm as our 3C. Unless Sheahan is the 2C (which is a stretch for him), I think he'll likely be switched to the wing and I didn't think that was great in the past. It will be an interesting year of players making their claim for their spots within the roster since very little seems a given.

I hope for his sake that was a choice made so he could stay close to where he's been, rather than due to a lack of other NHL interest.

It has to the situation when negotiations completely fail (with a gap that can't be brindged) and the player hasn't stated public that they will test free agency. In the case of Filpula, I think we were really close in negotiations (there were some saying that Fil came back to accept our offer, but we had already signed Weiss) and wanted to leave the door open for him to sign. I don't recall their being a great demand for Hudler. If Helm says that the money isn't close to what he wants, then we could look into it. I don't think there's that much benefit to having an extra 7th round pick, though. We seem to be good at finding college players and undrafted others, and unsigned prospects if we want more prospects. These guys (Nosek, Hicketts, Glendening, Russo) have as much of a chance to make it as someone in the 7th round. I think it really only matters for higher value guys that would bring a higher round pick. Filpula could have maybe brought a 5th in, but we haven't let many high value guys go. Maybe Hossa was a situation where we should traded his rights since we were sure we weren't going to sign him.

I see Helm, Larkin, Sheahan, Miller, Dekeyser in the pictures. A lot of the international wings would be in their home country.

Leonard Cohen - Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye P.S. That Memphis Slim song is from a great album called 'Blues in the Mississippi NIght.' It was recorded by the folklorist Alan Lomax and it's Bill Broonzy, Memphis Slim, and Sonny Boy Williamson I sitting around a room telling stories and each playing random songs.

I wonder how many franchises have won a cup on their first time being in the final, though. I don't know the actual number, but I'll bet it's a low number.

With Oulette, Sproul, and Jensen out of options, I think we should consider carrying 8 Dmen and 13 forwards this year. It would allow us to keep 2 of them (O+S probably). Then we can make a D trade as the year goes on. That's with the guys we have, of course. More ideal would be a trade that brings in a top pairing defender and likely sends some of our blueline out.

ummm...

For Wisniewski?

Life is Like That - Memphis Slim

So your reading of the trade is: Contract+2nd for nothing Nothing for 2 prospects. The 2 prospect have to account for at least a little of the value. Maybe without the prospects that's a 5th or 6th rounder. Anyway, no reason to get upset with this. I don't think Holland would give up a 2nd unless we signed Stamkos and desperately needed to get rid of the contract.

Led Zeppelin/Dylan/Blind Willie Johnson/Old Gospel Tune - In My Time of Dying

The only add on to that is that, to get the relief, you are forced to exceed the cap-limit: https://www.capfriendly.com/ltir-faq Not sure how that effects our situation, though. If we're shedding Datsyuk contract it's to add a bigger contract so we would likely reach the ceiling. If we don't reach the ceiling then Pronger's 4.921 will be a little less of a caphit then Datsyuk's 7.5.

The deal was not a 2nd straight up to take the contract. The full trade was Savard contract + 2nd to Devils for Graham Black and Paul Thompson. - Black was a 5th round pick and had 97 points (34 goals) in the WHL. He's struggled in the AHL, but maybe Florida sees something in him - Thompson was undrafted and has been in the AHL for 6 years, he's scored as much as 33 goals there and, but he's probably a vet for their AHL affiliate.

The only way it makes sense to me is that they seem to be in win-now mode. They went big at the deadline and they must want to add something this off-season. I'm sure they see that Jagr won't be around forever and Luongo's 37 - They have plenty of good youth, but those will be a starting goaltender and leading scorer to replace in a few years.

We've had a number of players playing above their ideal spot. And it has lead to many people turning against those players. But I don't understand it - it's not their fault that Blash didn't put Tatar or Nyquist in our top 6 or that we don't have the franchise Dman. To me Helm is the perfect 3rd line player. Ericsson would be fine used as a number 4 guy and off the first pair Abby is not a 'typical' 1st line player, but is there to add grit and a net front presence - a different version of Holmstrom I think Helm did fine with Datsyuk, but it wasn't ideal. Tatar and a healthy Franzen would have been good. Have Richards on the line made things worse when he was there. Partly roster mismanagement, partly a team in transition. To me, Helm is the 3rd line center who always put in huge effort, is great at faceoffs, great pker and supplies secondary scoring, is responsible defensively (I have no idea where the turnover-machine idea comes from - one site says he had the 2nd least of our regulars).

Alice in Chains - Heaven Beside You

Thanks for the support guys, but in fact I am the Nightmare on Helm Street.

Nope. We kept Draper 6 years after the cap, Maltby 5. Draper's caphit in 06-08 was 2.128 mill. 10 years later, I think that's equivalent to something close to 3 mill for your checking line centerman.

Just like we did with Draper, Maltby, McCarty, etc? We've done pretty well keeping consistent bottom 6ers. You are going to be very disappointed in the years to come. I'm sure we will keep Glendening for many years. His contract is only that low because we were lucky to sign an undrafted player before he'd played much in the NHL. Finding players in that situation, which turn out to be any good will be rare.

RFA deal vs. UFA deal. Totally different animal. I would love to sign DD to 6 years now, though, while his bargaining power is lower as as RFA. I think the time for keeping the team afloat is over. We have promising prospects lets keep the transition going.

I think it's Miller's time to go. He's been good for us, but his injury adds a question mark and I do think we can replace him with someone as capable and maybe more rounded. If Glen, Sheahan, Abby, Helm is our PK, then we don't have to worry about losing his PK abilities. Sadly, if we want Miller, we'll get him since his injury will scare any other team away. 1 year wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'd rather someone take that spot with more speed and a little more speed and scoring (maybe Callahan, Bertuzzi). I'd like to resign Helm - up to 3 mill is good for him. But Helm will get interest elsewhere and might opt for a place where he's not 2nd line for 2 games, 4th for a couple, 1st for half a game, etc. Though I've always seen that as one of his strengths - that he can play in many situations - I've gathered for his off-season comments that this has been his gripe. It would be hard for a player to get going not knowing what you're role is. I think this can account for his slight dip in production this year as well.