kipwinger

Just out of curiosity, isn't it possible that nothing nefarious happened and that Franzen simply had a reoccurrence of symptoms which had subsided consistently over the previous week, culminating in three straight days without symptoms at all? Is that really such an extraordinary sequence of events?

I'm sorry I'm asking a lot of questions, I'm just trying to follow your line of thought. You'd keep Smith because of his upside as a young defenseman, but you'd trade Dekeyser? I mean, doesn't he have even more defensive upside than Smith?

I mean, I get that Smith is going to improve. I agree actually, he'd almost have to. But apparently you think he's going to improve so much that you'd rather move Datsyuk than him? Do you really believe his ceiling is that high?

I just want to be clear, you'd trade Datsyuk for a powerforward but Smith is untouchable?

God bless you for this post.

Noesen hasn't stepped foot in the AHL as of yet, because of injury. He's a Canadian junior stud who hasn't made waves in the AHL, like Frk in a way. So yeah, I agree with you. We could have matched that.

Dollar hotdog night, every night + Larry Murphy as new color commentator = Bankruptcy. It's as simple as that. Edit: That's why FSD let him go. Too much of a strain on their promotional capacity. You should have seen how flagrantly he took advantage of the "Homer for the Holidays" ticket package in years past. Disgusting!

Hockey hair. Perfect!

I have a two part prediction that might be considered "bold" by some. 1) The Olympics will go off without a hitch, 2) The Americans will win the gold...easily. Suck it Canada, and suck it even more terrorism.

I mean, by the sounds of it Franzen will be able to tag along since he's never going to play hockey again...unless...unless, he's a vegetable that is. Anyway, everyone needs a wing man. Just don't cramp my style.

Jesus, a lot of you are making it seem like he's been out for a year or two. He's not Crosby there fellas, he's missed a good chunk of time, but that happens with concussions. Let's not jump to conclusions. I mean, if I had a nickel for every person that said Helm or Bertuzzi was done after last year I'd be typing this post from somewhere that serves drinks with little umbrellas out of Brazilian girls' belly buttons...so basically anywhere in Brazil.

So, I don't really want to post line combos, but I just did this on capgeek. Following this blueprint we can fit the majority of our young guys and still have room for the vets that aren't going anywhere. They, if we want to make further moves, we're in good shape capwise to do so. CAPGEEK.COM ARMCHAIR GM ROSTER CapGeek Armchair GM Roster FORWARDS Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Daniel Alfredsson ($3.500m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Stephen Weiss ($4.900m) / Gustav Nyquist ($0.950m) Tomas Tatar ($0.630m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Tomas Jurco ($0.709m) Drew Miller ($1.350m) / Joakim Andersson ($0.733m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) / Danny Cleary ($1.750m) / DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) Danny DeKeyser ($0.925m) / Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) Brendan Smith ($1.263m) / Brian Lashoff ($0.725m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.292m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) BURIED Mikael Samuelsson ($2.900m) Jordin Tootoo ($0.975m) Patrick Eaves ($0.275m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (estimations for 2013-14 crunched using simulation date of 2014-01-28) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; BONUSES: $2,850,833 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $1,430,167 Some thoughts: 1. We're not waiving Cleary or Bert, so best we can hope for is that they're scratched (which is possible with this lineup). 2. I traded Kindl for nothing. Someone would take him for a conditional 4th or something. Probably more than that actually if we really wanted to do a for real trade. 3. I demoted Glendening and Sheahan sadly. However, either of them could be back if we made an admittedly difficult decision and traded Andersson or moved one to wing in place of Jurco.

I agree with most of what you're saying, except that I don't like Smith in the top four. Against decent competition he turns the puck over A LOT, rarely creates offense, and frequently blows zone coverage. He'll get better, but until then he'd be my third-pair puck mover until he shows (like Ericsson eventually did) that he can play the game safely. Until then, he's not ready to play defense on the second pair and his offense isn't good enough to make the turnovers and shoddy zone coverage worthwhile.

I've always loved Gaborik, and for the right price (significantly less than he makes now) I'd still take him. But honestly, I'd like to see a Jeff Carter/James Van Riemsdyk type of guy. Those two aren't going anywhere, but you get the idea.

I agree with your point, however I'm not particularly interested in "blaming" anyone. It's not therapeutic for me to point fingers. The roster could have been managed better, and the coaching could be better, but immaterial right now. We've got a team that could (and should) go on a run down the stretch. There's no reason for this team to miss the playoffs. Add a puck mover to the second pair (moving Smith to the third and Kindl off the team for good) and a scoring winger with some size and there's no reason we shouldn't compete for the Cup. But to do so requires that tough decisions be made. Moving the right combination of vets, prospects, young guys, and picks. How deftly Holland does that will say a lot more about his talent than all the FA singings in the world. Likewise, how well Babs can coach a young team that doesn't coach itself (like he's had since he joined the organization) will say a lot about his talent as well.

Same as we need this year. Big forward that can score and a second pairing puck mover who's better than Smith. That's it.

This is just like every other Babcock cliche. It's not saying much to say "the best players will play" when there's no competition for jobs at the moment. Bring Dats, Z, and Weiss back and there will be, and I'd be amazed if "the best player played". He might as well say, "the best player (who can effectively alleviate cap constraints) will play". Which is no different than two months ago when Tootoo and Eaves were waived. Talk is cheap. It's time for Holland and Babs to actually DO SOMETHING to prove that "the best players will play". And that doesn't mean waiving Sammy either.

I wish this would work, and I sure hope it still will...but given how bad Franzen, Weiss, and Alfie played together I'd be real hesitant to pencil them in together.

Yeah, this is what I'm thinking too. The amount of money they've invested in him keeps him there for a while, and the amount of money we'd have to pay him (including his bonuses) means we don't go get him. There is no way we trade for a guy that makes more than Dats or Z. Just not happening.

You're off your rocker man, but I do appreciate your enthusiasm.

Weiss is a natural center and has never played the wing consistently in his professional career. How would putting him in an unnatural position, in an unnatural system make him feel more comfortable and "get him going". Better to put Z on Weiss' wing if you're trying to coax along his offense considering Z produces better on the wing than he does at center.

I like this. Except swap Helm and Sheahan (considering Helm learned how to score goals out of nowhere) and drop Tootoo for Miller (since you've already dropped one of our better PK guys in Andy). I like it because you've got a guy who can carry the puck into the zone on each line (Dats, Weiss, Helm, Sheahan), a guy who plays well without the puck on each line (Z, Franzen, Tatar, Abby), and a guy who's most successful when playing with the puck (Jurco, Nyquist, Tatar) on the others. Miller is obviously there for defense and special teams so who cares what he does with or without the puck.

Weiss does have an NTC if I recall correctly.

I wonder if Zetterberg ever gets tired of answering questions about Datsyuk in the media. I'm not sure if the sports writers realize this, but Zetterberg is a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY good player too. Yet, nobody ever asks Datsyuk what it's like to play with Zetterberg.

Gotcha, mine were their current goal totals. I'll give you this, your team can hit. I didn't tally my hits yet, but I specifically put Okposo, Simmonds, and three hard hitting defenders on their to make sure they'd be tough to play against.