kipwinger

Stastny to St. Louis

Ok, I give. It was pre-ordained that Ehrhoff was going to Pittsburgh because despite the fact that not a single source reported him being interested in Pittsburgh, he "obviously" wanted to go there.

So tell me how Pittsburgh is a better investment than Detroit. Since you're so sure it's about playing for a contender. Do you not remember their last four or five HUGELY embarrassing playoff exits for Pittsburgh? Or have I been sleeping and they made it to a Cup final since 2009? If it was about playing for a contender he's have picked some place other than Detroit OR Pittsburgh, since neither team is contending lately.

The point was, that just because we didn't get a guy doesn't mean that we COULDN'T get a guy. I don't know what Ehrhoff was thinking. But I know it's a little premature to say "he obviously wanted to go to Pittsburgh", which is speculative. One day ago he "obviously" wanted 5 years and 5 million too. Nothing is definite, least of all Christian Ehrhoff's "obvious" intentions.

Fayne and Puliot to Edmonton. Good moves.

And 3 years at 4.5 or 5 million couldn't have convinced him otherwise? Don't start making excuses yet. My least favorite part about FA day is that in the end, when we're left holding a bag of s***, everyone tries to explain why it wouldn't have happened any other way. That team has had no more success the last five years than our team has had. I'm not sure why you think so.

Erhoff, 1 year, 4 million to Pittsburgh (good work Kenny!) I thought Ehrhoff was supposed to go for 5 years and eleventy billion dollars?

Up to the minute FA tracker through the Detroit Free Press for anyone who's interested. Following Lebrun, McKenzie, and Dreger. All of whom are most likely to break the stories. http://mobile.scribblelive.com/Event/NHL_free_agency_rumor_mill_2?theme=4000 Malhotra to Montreal

Wow, super good contract. Atta boy Kenny, and atta boy kid.

I didn't say it's impossible, few things are. I did, however, imply that it is so unlikely as to be pointless to discuss. In the last 20 years only 8 or 9 offer sheets have been given out of the hundreds upon hundreds of RFAs, and only twice has the player's team not matched the offer sheet. In each instance it was for players that were marginally talented, not players of Johansen's caliber. Hold your breath if you want to, but Johansen is not leaving Columbus on an offer sheet. EVER. If I'm wrong, and it does happen, I'll volunteer to be lobotomized by a Mexican doctor with an online degree in brain surgery. So sure am I.

That's definitely a possibility. The other possibility is that he's a really good defenseman who's numbers are increasing because he's just entering his prime. Either way it beats signing a 38 year old declining veteran. One who scored 36 pts. on a top six offensive team. And who was -8 (the only defenseman on their team with a minus) on a top five defense. Normally I don't put a lot of stock in plus/minus. But the only people on that team with a worse plus/minus were fourth liners playing less than 13:00 a game. Not a single other defender was a minus. 36 pts. and -8 is not that great, and it's only going to get worse considering Detroit is worse than San Jose offensively AND defensively. And we'll play 5.5 million dollars a year to get it. I cannot stress how stupid signing Boyle is.

If someone told Helen St. James that the Wings were going to sign Ted Lindsay, she'd run the story without a second thought. She'd regale us with theories about how "in the right role...", or "on Datsyuk's wing...", or "age doesn't affect hockey sense...". It's like her entire identity is at stake should Ken Holland's player acquisition strategy be thought unsuccessful. Apparently, once Red Wings fans ever decide that loading up the team with declining veterans is a bad idea, the house of cards will tumble.

Columbus will match any offer sheet on Johansen and be pleased as punch that someone else did their negotiating for them. Nobody is getting offer sheeted. I cannot stress enough how massively unlikely it is that Ryan Johansen (or anybody else) gets moved as a result of an offer sheet.

Malik's an excellent place to go if you want all the sports writers articles laid out before you. That's what he does, and he's useful if only for that. But his insights into the game are about as useful as a football bat.

She's definitely a hack, there's not doubt about that. However, I think Malik's most annoying habit is how he pretends to have some special rapport with the Red Wings organization, and then gets all huffy puffy when people call him out for being a dude sitting at a computer. He acts like he's a personal guest of the Holland family on all the high holidays.

Look dude, I'd love to be wrong. I'd be thrilled if each of them played 75+ games. But if I had to bet my paycheck on it, I think it's clear how I'd wager.

Didn't mean to brush over it. I thought I'd already made my point that even if he played 82 games a year for two years, his production is declining, he was never good defensively to begin with, he's small, and he's old. Whether he's in the lineup or not, he doesn't make us noticeably better. If he were so valuable, I'd imagine a Sharks team desperate for post season success would be hanging on to him. Secondly, neither Lidstrom nor Jagr had the history of nagging injuries that Zetterberg had, and neither of them (at any point in their careers) missed games as frequently as Datsyuk does. It's not hard to imagine those guys staying healthy in old age, they were ALWAYS healthy their entire careers. Datyuk and Zetterberg have never been all that healthy, and certainly aren't going to get more healthy as they get older, slower, and weaker. Nobody should expect them to be. Ideally they'd be passing the torch to a couple of guys who were just entering their primes right about now, not carrying the team on their aging backs.

I guess I don't know enough about Petry or McBain. Anybody watch them enough to say anything about their games?

I'd obviously much rather have someone who's harder to play against, but that's not happening, and I'd certainly rather have Vrbata than Alfie. You'd probably get the same production and hopefully Vrbata wouldn't run out of gas. For me it would all depend on the contract. Not more than 3 years, and not more than 4 million. 2 years at 3.75 would be ideal, but that's probably dreaming.

It's not hate for ANY potential move. I'll all for spending money or assets on young guys. But I'll gladly admit that I don't like the idea of signing a 38 year old declining veteran. Also, the part about not getting 20 pts. was pretty clearly a joke, as evidenced by my smartassy rejoinder following it. Lighten up dude. It's hockey, we're not enemies and I'm not out to get you (or am I?). <------------- See, cocky rejoinder indicates that I'm goofing.

Better get used to it. Those guys aren't going to get any healthier as their careers go on.

I've already offered my alternative a thousand times. If you can't get Niskanen (and now Ehrhoff) then let the kids play. I'd rather miss the playoffs with Sproul than get murdered in the first round with Boyle. At least one of those things helps us in the long term (the kid getting experience). The other only gives a bunch of self congratulatory dummies another year to talk about "the streak" as if it's relevant. Also, Boyle didn't have an "off" year. He's numbers are declining because he's old and losing his effectiveness. If anything, they're probably artificially high considering his team is WAY better offensively than ours is. If you think he's going to have some kind of a bounce back year on a team who didn't have a single 50 pt. player last year, I don't know what to tell you. Joe Pavelski had almost as many goals as our points leader had points. That's why Boyle's numbers were decent there, and that's why they'll suck here.

Loading your team up with aging vets, and playing them a ton of minutes, INCREASES the likelihood of injury. It doesn't decrease it. I think Ken Holland is the only person on earth who thinks that injuries are the product of magic and not wear and tear.

Of course I'm disappointed when the Wings don't get the exact players I want. I'm convinced of my own good judgement in these matters lol. But I'm fully capable of settling for others, provided they're not 92 years old and clearly declining. As for Malik...I loathe the guy. He's the absolute definition of a company man. I might put more stock in what he had to say if I hadn't spent the last 5 years reading him agree with every misstep Holland made, and then make excuses afterward as if Holland were a victim of fate and not a man who is clearly petrified by uncertainty.

What could Boyle teach Smith that Kronwall can't? Kronwall is the better player. He's had more success. Plays a gritty/offensive game (the way we'd like Smith to play). And he's a lefty, like Smith. Boyle and Smith have very little in common aside from the fact that neither are likely to score 20 pts. for the Red Wings next year (sorry, I had to). Like I've said before, you can justify it however you like, but adding mediocre players to a mediocre team just leaves you mediocre.