kipwinger

I'll take the Wiz and his .46 ppg, aggresive playing style, sticking up for his teammates, PP quarterbacking, cannon of a shot, and ability to log HUGE minutes, any day of the week. With or without his on ice attitude. If you know of some Choir Boy who was available two years ago when we needed to begin transitioning for Lidstrom and Stuart's departures that can do all that, then I'll agree that person was the better option. Character wins: Which is why guys like Chris Pronger, Claude Lemieux, Dino Ciccareli, Darren McCarty, Ulf Samuelsson, Chris Chelios, etc. etc. etc. had such miserable careers.

White has exactly the same number of points (176) in 100 more games than Wiz. Colaiacovo has 68 fewer points in 7 fewer games. YOU might want to compare the numbers hombre. Wiz puts up better numbers, is a PP quarterback (like we couldn't use one of those), plays more minutes per game, AND is a roughneck. That's why he's a "good" player, and they aren't as good.

I agree with that everyone is saying above. You can't use that one game as a basis for projecting his future play. BUT that doesn't take away from how well he played in that game. Good for Lashoff, and thankfully, good for the Wings.

God forbid we overpay a good player as opposed to overpaying for Ericsson in the same offseason.

Like Ian White, Colaiacovo, or Quincey? Because that's exactly who you did get. Also, since when is being overly aggressive a bad thing. Everybody hated Tootoo until yesterday. Personally, I think some roughneck m*****f***** is exactly what we need. How many times do we have to say, "we need someone to stand up for our stars"? Wizniewski does, which I can't say for any member of our current defense.

Who cares? If they are claimed off waivers they don't count against your team's cap and the money can be spent to re-sign Flip, Howard, and Brunner!

Ok, let Cleary's contract expire and buyout Bert. Give that money (almost 6 million) to Flip, Howard, and Brunner (if he deserves it) for raises. Re-sign Ericsson if you want, or don't, who cares, you're still under the cap, with everyone re-signed.

Our penalty kill percentage plummeted after Ericsson was hurt last year. Bobcock himself discussed how valuable Ericsson was in that regard. Also, every contract I would have signed would have expired no later than five years from now, I have no idea where you're getting 8 years from. Allen's contract will expire when he's 35, Wiz's when he's 33, and Carle's at 33. We'd have had them all during their primes, we wouldn't have been paying any of them when they were old and ineffective, and at least two of the three have a ton of potential trade value considering they can score. If they're claimed off waivers they wouldn't count against our cap, so the money's clear either way. And the buyouts apply to contracts signed before the new CBA as Wade Redden found out. Wade Redden was signed under the old CBA and bought out under the new one. Cleary, Bert, or Ericsson could be too. Next. The lineup I posted above was easily possible, and money could still easily be cleared in the future to resign Flip, Howard, and Brunner while still staying under the 64.5 cap for next year. Naysay all you guys want, but it's true.

Maybe so, but Johnny Damon said he'd never be a Yankee. Money talks it professional sports. As a matter of fact you absolutely CAN buyout terrible contracts, per the new CBA signed weeks ago. Might want to read up on that.

Ericsson and Allen are both VERY effective penalty killers. Who knows about Wiz and Kronwall, but it can't be worse than the glut of offensive minded defensemen we already have under contract.

right, and we are under that, and could clear more with buyouts.

You're right, nobody has to sign with anybody they don't want to. However, he did sign with the team that traded for his rights, as free agents frequently do. Of course there's no guarantee that he would have signed with us, but we don't know because we didn't try to trade for him. However, there's at least some reason to believe that a player may want to sign in his home state (Parise), especially if they made him feel like they really wanted him by trading for him, slightly overpaying for him, and signing him to a 6 year contract (which wouldn't have been bad considering he was 27 at the time). If you think landing Wisniewski was impossible ask yourself this: How did the lowliest team in the league, with a terrible GM and no money, prestige, or future prospects, manage to do it?

Forwards Johan Franzen$3,954,545 Pavel Datsyuk$6,700,000 Damien Brunner $1,300,000 Valtteri Filppula $3,000,000 Henrik Zetterberg$6,083,333 Gustav Nyquist $875,000 Danny Cleary $2,800,000 Darren Helm$2,125,000 Todd Bertuzzi$2,075,000 Drew Miller $875,000 Justin Abdelkader$1,800,000 Jordin Tootoo$1,900,000 Patrick Eaves$1,200,000 Defensemen Niklas Kronwall$4,750,000 James Wisniewski$5,500,000 Matt Carle$5,500,000 Bryan Allen$3,500,000 Brendan Smith $875,000 Jonathan Ericsson$3,250,000 Goaltenders Jonas Gustavsson$1,500,000 Jimmy Howard Total payroll: 61.8 million. More than enough to give guys raises next season. And if you need to clear a little more money, buy out Bert, Cleary, or Ericsson and replace them with Sheahan, Andersson, or Lashoff.

He didn't refuse to sign with Detroit, his rights were traded to Columbus and he signed with them before free agency started. Might want to be accurate the next time.

That's exactly the problem though, you get what you pay for when it comes to aging defensemen. Yes, he signed a bunch of cheap contracts (well not necessarily considering he overpaid for Ericsson and Quincey) and now we have a cheap defense. If you want top flight talent, and you aren't currently developing it, then you have to pay for it. We didn't, so therefore we don't.

You're misunderstanding me, we could have signed BOTH Allen (3.5 mil) and Carle (5.5 mil) to their current contracts and still spent the same money as we DID offer for just Suter. Both of those guys are playing top four roles on their respective teams. Allen is averaging 20 minutes a night, Carle is playing 22 minutes a night. Turnover machine or no, he's better than Quincey, White, or Colaiacovo. Wisniewski is a top pair guy for Columbus, who traded for his rights, and then over paid him. Are you telling me we COULDN'T have traded for his rights and overpaid him too. Rather than overpaying for Ericsson in the same off season. The roster spots were there, the money was there, the will on the part of our management sadly, was not.

I agree Lefty, it's not that this is necessarily a bad signing given the current situation, but that it should never have come to this.

Nobody said anything about that. You can't replace Lidstrom, and you certainly can't stock pile people in the AHL. But the off season after Rafalski retired you could have signed Wisniewski for the price of his current contract and still saved money (as Rafalski made more). Or, you could have signed Allen AND Carle this offseason for the same amount as you were willing (and did) offer Suter. No need to stockpile anyone. They would have walked straight on to our team, and straight into our top four, no AHL stockpiling necessary.

I think I might actually have preferred to see Ferraro or Tatar. Nyquist is the better player no doubt, but I don't think we need another playmaker in the top six. A shooter might have been more of a help. If Nyquist steps in to Samuelsson's spot, with no line shuffling, then all the defense needs to do is key on Franzen as clearly Nyquist and Flip are reluctant to shoot the puck.

See post #70 where I tell you exactly what I would have done. Or you could dig back through old threads where I repeatedly argued for signing Matt Carle AND Bryan Allen for less than we eventually DID OFFER for Suter. Or even older threads were I repeatedly argued for signing James Wisniewski. Holy s***, there's three top four defensemen I wanted who aren't named Ryan Suter and who are all currently playing top minutes for their respective teams.

No, he should have done more to land Bryan Allen.

I know right. I would have taken Nostradamus like foresight to see that in a lockout shortened season, with essentially no training camp, that injuries were going to be quite common in the first part of the season. It would have taken an all knowing God to have foreseen the glut of groin pulls and hamstring injuries that would result. And even that God wouldn't have seen that injuries are likely to occur when you are playing in an intense shortened season, where guys like David Backes habitually run over people every shift, and our defense corps is full of guys like Jakub Kindl, Carlo Colaiacovo, Ian White, and Kyle Quincey. Who could have known that a bunch of softies would likely succumb to injury, after being repeatedly hammered by freight trains?

Not necessarily, but given that there isn't a single member of our current defense who is big AND hits, it might be nice to have. For instance, on the PK when clearing the front of the crease, or against power forwards who are quite common in our division. And it's not like we haven't had trouble in those areas so far this season, or last, or the year before that.

Agreed, I can't speak for anyone else but from my end the sarcastic/negative comments generally stem from frustration about the overall state of the defensive corps. It's not that the Huskins is necessarily a bad signing at this point, but rather that one of the premier teams in the league have a defensive corps that is so thin that a few injuries necessitates a signing like this in the first place.

Listed as 210-ish. The Griffins' press release as of yesterday says he's 225 lbs. http://www.griffinshockey.com/news/releases/?article_id=2356