kipwinger

As long as youre not paying him obscene money you don't need him to have a career year. 20+ goals and 50 points is reasonable and would make him the best winger on our team. I'd offer him 4.5 million for three years, if he doesn't take it then oh well. If he does, great.

And all of the "inexperienced" guys are in depth roles. Also, I don't believe that ANY of Dekeyser, Mzazek, or Sheahan will get the contracts you've advocated. WHAT?! You mean to tell me I'm not an ACTUAL GM? Well I guess I just shouldn't talk about this team at all then eh?

I said a combination of Nuquist and those guys, not ALL of them. The cap would work fine.

I don't mind 7 year deals depending on the players age and as long as the term keep the AAV low. Taking max contracts off the table basically ensures you'll never sign a quality FA again.

This is my official offseason wish list. None of it will happen, but a boy can dream. 1. Datyuk's contract+Pulkkinen to whomever for the cap relief. 2. Let Richards, Quincey, Miller, and Andersson walk. 3. Draft best available offensive defenseman. 4. Sign Alexander Radulov 3 years, 4.5 million. 5. Sign Kyle Okposo, 7 years, 5.5 million 6. Trade Gustav Nyquist and some comgination of Jurco, Ouellet, and Sproul for Cam Fowler. 7, Re-sign Darren Helm, 7 years, 3.5 million. 8. Promote Mantha and Callahan and Tangredi Radulov-Larkin-Abby Tatar-AA-Okposo Z-Sheahan-Mantha Helm-Glendening-Callahan Tangredi Fowler-Dekeyser Kronwall-Green Smith-Marchenko Ericsson *Mic Drop*

You're the only person I've ever heard call Radulov soft. Makes me think you're just throwing around pejoratives in an attempt to justify your dislike for him post hoc. Radulov is a lot of things, but "soft" isn't one. He's very tenacious and aggressive for a goal scorer. He's not likely to punch anybody, sure, but the guys ain't "soft". Maybe an *******, but not soft.

Lol. You just named 3 of the best centers on earth. There are 20 other #1 centers in the league who can't play with those guys. If outplaying those guys is your standard, then Ryan Johansen, Kyle Turris, Boone Jenner, Alexander Barkov, Brian Little, Zach Parise, etc. are all chopped liver too eh? Who do we have that's better? Sure, they're better than him now, but you've got to start somewhere. At least he can keep up with them, we know that for sure. I expect he'd get outplayed badly by the elite guys (whom you mentioned) but he'd fair well against the second tier guys. And that's all I'd want out of a 20 year old top center. If we sign Stamkos then sure, everything changes. Otherwise there's not a single center we can put on the top line who WONT get badly outplayed by Kopitar, Toews, or Bergeron. So why not see if the competition makes the kid better? I think he's got the right mentality, and that by playing against the best he'll want to be the best. Also, Tyler Johnson played against top centers as a sophomore and did fine. Not great, but fine. So why not Larkin?

I might have talked myself into a scenario where I don't mind Radulov. And that is if we subsequently trade Nyquist and something else for Cam Fowler. In this scenario, Radulov is signed at 5 million for 3 years (and only if people in Russia can verify that he's not a total dick). And Nyquist is packaged with whatever combination of prospects and/or Pulkkinen or Jurco that gets the job done. I'd still rather have Okposo, but I could live with some version of these guys as our top nine. Radulov-Larkin-Abby Tatar-AA-? Zetterberg-Sheahan-Mantha Get Radulov AND Okposo and I'd lose it. On the back end... Fowler-Dekeyser Kronwall-Green Smith-Marchenko Ericsson

No they weren't. The Illitches planned to forego selling the naming rights. They didn't want the money, and could have named the arena anything they wanted. They literally passed up millions, and paid themselves instead, to name the arena as they did. It's not like it was this OR another corporate name. It was this OR literally any other thing the Illitches wanted to name it. They chose to ignore the public's vested interest. Trying to gloss it over is disingenuous. http://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2016/04/28/detroit-hockey-nhl-little-caesars-ilitch-red-wings-arena/83650554/

I get WHY public funding is often necessary, I'm not even against public funding. I just think that if you're going to accept public funding for your teams new arena you should probably make an effort to represent and validate their contribution rather than be wholly greedy and promote your brand to their exclusion.

Lol. Uncle Mike and the great Illitch family hoodwink the public again.

Vatanen IS one of the Ducks prospects, the one they want to trade. And Trouba isn't even as good offensively as him or Shattenkirk. We need scoring from the back end. Not another shutdown guy.

Oh, more homosexual slurs. Good for you Frank. Really classy. Can this guy get banned now?

My only issues is the public funding aspect. The MASSIVE public funding. If the illitches had paid for it themselves they could name it whatever they want and I wouldn't have much to say.

I absolutely DONT think now is the time to trade for a defenseman. Sure we need one, but no high end defenseman are available for trade. Shattenkirk? Vatanen? They're no better than Yandle and you wouldn't have to lose assets to get him. What we definitely don't need to do is throw away good assets, from a rebuilding team, on a second tier defenseman. Magically put PK Subban on our current team and we still aren't contenders. We need a good defenseman to be hitting his stride in 3-5 years, when Larkin, AA, Mantha, Tatar, Nyquist, etc. are all in their primes. Not next year.

What a benevolent act by our patrons the Illitch family. They used millions of dollars of public funds to erect the world's biggest advertisement to themselves. Thank god for our glorious leaders!

I know, how dumb we are for preferring the name reflect the culture, history, or people of our great city instead of acting as an advertisement for sub par pizza. Perhaps we should build an alter to Mike Illitch in Campus Martius Park and ritualistically bow each time we pass since idol worship is now something to be proud of. The arena is partially financed with public funds, so its not asking too much to have the name reflect the public, and not corporate, interest. But that's just me. I'm a dreamer...who also played attention in civics class. Now if you'll excuse me, Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" just came on the radio and I need to go practice being slavish.

It probably will, but to be honest those attempts to come up with phoney baloney nicknames are almost as bad as the corporate names themselves. Nicknames have to happen organically, they can't be the result of some marketing strategy.

To be fair, Larry Brooks is a total weasel.

I don't agree. The "eyeball test" doesn't really tell you anything over a whole season. First, because people see what they want in a player. Second, because the types of things you described tend to wash out over a full season. The defense, for instance is just as unlikely to clear the crease for Jimmy as it is for Mrazek. The eyeball test should be used (sparingly) in specific instances. For example if Abby has two goals in a game it might look really good, but not if you watched the game and one was an empty netter and the other bounced in off his foot.

Lol, Helm's not happy with his "situation"? Apparently playing with Pavel for a good portion of the season displeases him. Screw that guy. Tell you what buddy, make good on any of the 10,000 breakaways you get and we'll talk turkey.

Dombrowski finished last in the division with one of the leagues highest payrolls. Hardly comparable to a guy who made the playoffs while transitioning his team to a new generation for the second time.

Imagine all the booze he and Tatar could drink. Maybe even more than Patrick Kane. No thanks for me. Obviously.

Dang, apparently being bigger, and punchier, and hittier isn't all its cracked up to be. I wiffed on this one. Expected more from the Kings skill guys.

You're right though, I do like Bean and Fabbro at our current spot or even back some. Guess I need to do a deeper dig.