kipwinger

Saw this topic over at Hfboards and thought it was interesting. Who's the one player that you think would put us over the top, and who would you give to get him. Over there, they put everyone in the league in play and the only stipulation was that you had to give fair value to get him. I'm changing that. Has to fit under the cap, has to be "reasonably" available (so basically no elites like Stamkos, Crosby, Malkin, etc.), has to get fair value in return, and try as best you can to meet the other team's needs as well. Also, assume that Eaves and Tootoo are gone as well. Giving us an extra 3.2 million toward the cap. As such, we'd be sitting 2.4 million below the cap. Mine? Evander Kane for Franzen, Mrazek, 1st. Zetterber-Datsyuk-Kane Alfie-Weiss-Sammy Tatar-Andersson-Nyquist Miller-Helm-Abby Bert Kronwall-Ericsson Dekeyser-Kindl Smith-Quincey Lashoff Howard Gustavsson

Again, Girardi is a really good player. I'm just not sure that he's the missing piece in a cup run. I think our defense was fine in the playoffs last year, I just don't think we were deep enough in our top six. Adding a young, goal scoring, power forward would make the difference in my opinion. Basically I view us like the 1995 Wings, tons of skill, but in need of a big body with scoring potential. I also view Kane as a poor man's Shanahan, i.e. just what the doctor ordered.

I really like Girardi, don't get me wrong. But do you think he's the one guy that would put us over the top? I'm not so sure. He's a stud though, I'll give you that.

You're definitely right, I wasn't reading carefully. While I realize it might be an overpayment, you're getting a 22 year old stud power forward, for a good forward (Franzen), and really good prospect (Mrazek), and the first. The reason I'm ok with it is because I don't think Mrazek will be the goalie of the future. Not because he isn't good enough, but because Jimmy is still young and is on a five year contract. The Wings can't keep Mrazek as a AHLer and backup for that long, he's too good, and you're not likely to get anybody better than Kane down the road anyway. But I do understand why some might think that's too much.

I was talking about Evander Kane, so you're probably going to be MUCH more disappointed haha. Originally I had Sammy, Mrazek, 1st, but thought that was underpayment.

Multi-billion dollar industries don't just make changes for the hell of it, without knowing what the outcome of their actions will be. I'm sure that it's thoroughly researched before it's implemented. By whom? I have no idea. But I'm guessing its most likely a professional research firm, and not Al Sobotka.

He didn't speak against them, he insinuated that he was in favor of those laws. So I doubt his position on homosexuality will bear negatively on his chances to be captain (at least not for the Russian team).

This is a real good deal, I'm pretty pumped about what Holland was able to do this offseason. If only he hadn't had to dig himself out of the mess he made with last season's signings we'd be sitting real pretty right now.

Yeah, who needs him and his goal scoring on a team that tied for 19th in "goals per game" last year. Good riddance indeed.

I agree. I thought the looked best when he'd grab the puck and rush up ice with it. He's a real good skater and has good speed, one of the few defenders we have that can turn from defense to offense in a hurry. Overall I was very impressed by him this year and expect more next season as well. Looks like he's finally hitting his stride.

You guys should check out the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary on "The Trade". Gretsky completely absolves the Edmonton organization and admits that he was chasing the money and put them in a situation in which they couldn't possibly have re-signed him. As such, what else could they have done?

Agreed, but Cleary played better and didn't. That's the point I'm trying to make. This year is really scattershot as far as free agency goes because of the new CBA. Any other year all of these guys would have received good money for their production. But this year is different. If you didn't sign early, you were destined to wait until teams could figure out their cap situations. That's all I'm trying to say.

Look, you never see so many quality free agents wait this long. The reason for it is not because Brunner's agent screwed up, or he screwed up. It's because the cap decreased, which rarely (or never) has happened since the cap was instituted and thus waiting for teams to straighten out their cap situation is necessary. If the cap had stayed the same (or decreased marginally) Damien Brunner would have signed by now on his terms, though maybe not with the Wings, and we wouldn't be talking. Again, this is a super atypical year for free agents, and drawing conclusions from it is not truly indicative of anything. Last year (and most years before that) Damien Brunner would have made every penny he was asking for based on his stats. Hell, if Ville Leino made what he did then Brunner would surely have cashed in.

I don't know, was the fourth liner a repeat offender? Was someone injured on the play? Raffi Tores was suspended way longer than any of those stars, and he definitely should have been. But that doesn't indicate a "star bias". There are a lot of variables that determine the length of the suspension, but one thing that you absolutely, positively, cannot say is that stars don't get disciplined.

Are you nuts? No they don't. Nobody needs the NHL's permission to determine whether ratings are up, down, or in the middle. The channels which carry these games release this information frequently (Neilson Ratings) and they do it for free. So the NHL has nothing to do with it when some reporter comes along and says the NHL's popularity is way up because the ratings during hockey games are way up. You can make up all the silly b.s. you want to support your fictitious argument, but the fact is that the popularity of the NHL is way up (contrary to what you claim), which has been verified by about 2 billion media types, none of whom needed the NHL's permission to report these numbers (contrary to what you claim). So at the end of the day your argument really boils down to "I want the Wings to be able to buy any team they want regardless of whether or not it's good for the game or the league". If you said just that and didn't use phoney bologna arguments to back it up, I might not be so happy to prove you wrong (there's no joy in shooting down people's opinions, only their made up logic).

The popularity isn't declining. You're arguing against something that's not even factually correct. Both ratings AND profits were up in the NHL again this year, as they have been every year since the 2005 lockout. Type any combination of the words "NHL", "Lockout", "Ratings", and "Profits" into google and you'll be hit smack in the face with the truth. The fact that you believe there's something wrong with the game doesn't make it so. In fact, it's more popular than ever.

Yep, it does. And the NHL has definitely not suspended any star players recently. Except Kris Letang, Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green, Shane Doan, Jeff Skinner, Duncan Keith (twice), James Neal, Nicklas Backstrom, Claude Girouix, Dustin Brown, Alex Edler, Taylor Hall, Joffrey Lupul, and Corey Perry. All of these guys were suspended in the last two seasons. It is an absolute joke to think that the NHL won't suspend stars, or that they're otherwise immune from punishment. If you do the crime, you do the time more often then not. Do they miss one occasionally? Sure. But there is no "star bias".

Whether you admit to it or not, promoting a conspiracy theory is EXACTLY what you're doing. It doesn't change the fact just because you say "not a conspiracy theory". If there is no evidence to back up your claims then they don't mean anything, they're conjectures.

Well you may be right, but it doesn't take away from the fact that it's pretty hard to claim a "star bias" when both the players are stars. If he were suspended, half the people would be complaining that he got suspended ONLY because he hit a star, and if he didn't get the suspension the other half would complaining that he got special treatment because he IS a star. This is a loaded argument without a single shred of evidence to validate it. Which makes it about as meaningful as every other conspiracy theory.

Show me one shred of evidence to back up your conspiracy theory and I'll begin to give it come consideration. Yep and it was a bad call. However, it's not an indication that "star players" get special treatment considering Shea Weber isn't as big of a star as the guy he was hitting. If this "stars get the calls" argument were true, then Weber WOULD have got the suspension considering the guy he hit is about 40 times more respected and accomplished.

Who are Bettman's teams again? I'm having a hard time keeping all of these conspiracy theories straight.

Exactly. Irrelevant dummy.

Agreed. When guys get hit clean, whether it's Crosby or anyone else, then there's no suspension on the play. Which is the point I was trying to make. Lots of people around LGW seem to believe that there's some sort of bias in favor of marquee players, and there isn't. Everybody is just as susceptible to suspension as everyone else, as the 2013 suspensions to Duncan Keith, Corey Perry, Joffrey Lupul, Taylor Hall, and Alex Edler seem to indicate. I'm tired of this old "well if it happened to 'so and so' then there would/wouldn't be a suspension" bulls***. It's simply not true. Star players get suspended all the time, ask Ovechkin. Furthermore, just because you hit a star player hard doesn't mean you'll be suspended, ask Steckel and Hedman. It's just a line of b.s. that dummies keep repeating to make themselves feel relevant.

Better in what regard then? They look flashier? More aerodynamic?

More baseless Crosby bashing. If you recall Crosby WAS hit from behind, into the boards, AND injured on the play. You'll recall he missed about a full year of hockey because of it. Viktor Hedman did it. And he wasn't suspended on the play. Neither was David Steckel when he "blindsided" Crosby and injured him. People keep saying "if it happened to Crosby the NHL would sing a different tune". Well it has, and they haven't.