kipwinger

I'd rank it right where it belongs...ahead of Minnesota's.

I agree that more could have been done to smooth the transition, but probably not too much this offseason. I would have liked to have seen Holland sign Bryan Allen, but short of that, most of the defensemen this offseason went way too high. The last two years were where the work probably ought to have been done.

I bet he has the same season he has every year, 25-29 goals, another 20-25 assists. Good, better than most on our team, but certainly not great. With regards to trading him: it would be stupid. As it stands we only have about 4 proven top six forwards, and then rest are old or unproven. We can't afford to lose another one without a top fligh winger coming back in the trade. And since nobody is going to trade a 25-30 goal scorer for Franzen (who is the same thing, only much older) I'm guessing he isn't going anywhere. And thank god for that, I'd like to see the Wings actually put one in the net from time to time rather than passing, and passing, and passing, and passing, and passing, and passing, and passing...

Our dumb move was giving Sammy a No Trade Clause. Other than that, I'm not too upset about the signings, or lack thereof, given how things have played out. ...maybe, I'd have liked to have seen if Semin would have signed a one year deal here for less than what he did in Carolina. Oh well, the NTC with Sammy was dumber.

google first row sports, vip box, and slip stream. I use all three.

let me ask you this, even if the price was nothing, would you be willing to spend half of our available cap space on Bouwmeester? And we'll say he puts up forty two points, which was close to his average in FL I think, and plays his typical 82 games and -5 rating?

I have to disagree with you there buddy, I'm not willing to take on that cap hit for JBO no matter what. There are guys with big salaries worth taking a chance on (Semin) and guys were you know exactly what you're going to get. Even if Bouwmeester turned into the same guy he was in Florida (doubtful) he still isn't worth that money. Peole thought Wiz and Erhoff's contracts were bad, but at least they've each scored 50 pts. in their careers, something JBO can't say. For his production to salary ratio you might as well just burn about two million dollars because you're certainly not going to get any use out of it if you're spending on that bum. Note: Last season 44 defensemen scored more points than JBO, of those 43 had a better plus minus (only Mark Streit's was worse). Furthermore, only Brian Campbell, Chara, and Drew Doughty had a higher cap hit. That means 41 defensemen in the league scored more, cost less, and played better defense than JBO. Why would anyone want this guy for this money? Or, another way to look at it is that you're getting (at best) the 44th best defenseman in the league and paying him as if he's top five in the league (top four actually). Really bad idea.

I can't find it anywhere else.

Depends on what the deal looks like, but I certainly wouldn't mind having him on a contract roughly the same as what White got paid last year. Though ideally I'd like a bigger, stronger, stay at home guy, I do know that Colaiacovo usually plays real tough against us, and when you hear a guy's name a bunch against the Wings its usually a pretty good sign that he can play the game.

Yeah, I misspoke on my earlier post. I don't want a third pair stay at home guy, but rather a top four. Again, this is why I was interested in that Ellerby rumor. I think we need a replacement for Stuart and our defense looks pretty good. A big, strong, defensive minded defenseman.

Obviously we all do, but adding another smallish puck moving defenseman, on a team full of smallish puck moving defensemen, doesn't really help our chances that much. Del Zotto is good, but not what we need. Let Kronwall take Lidstrom's spot, let White, Quincey, Smith (by committee) take Kronwall's spot, and go get someone to do Brad Stuart's dirty work. That's the best bet for our defense in my opinion. Plus, replacing a stay at home top six guy will be MUCH cheaper than chasing someone like Del Zotto.

Honestly, I don't see them trading for a high profile d-man at this point. I think they'll try to get a decent sized stay at home type to replace Stuart and go with that. That's why I was interested in this Ellerby rumor, it seems more likely then sending an offer sheet or trading away one of the relatively few trade assets (Flip, Franzen) that we've actually got.

haha, no thank you.

Articles I've read suggest that they've just got a lot of defensemen and may be willing to move him if the price is right. I don't think that they were actively shopping him.

Nothing important, just a little speculation for fun. Between Nyquist and Brunner who will have the better season and why? My take: Brunner is a supposed to be a shoot first guy who should, if he adjusts well to the NHL, have prime opportunities on a line with quality centers like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, or maybe even Helm. Nyquist has the better all around game, but given that he needs to carry the puck to be really effective, I'm guessing he'll produce less than Brunner. On a top six with guys like Flip, D, and Z Nyquist is probably not going to be carrying the puck nearly as often as he'll need to in order to maximize the effectiveness of his skill set.

I think he was referring to Brunner's tendency to tip toe around in the middle of the ice while skating. Toe dragging and cutting back and what not. His skating ability is not to be questioned, but his decision making needs to change if he doesn't want to get killed in our league.

Based on this interview with Lucic it sounds like its not uncommon to have a fight after a legit goal, or a legit hit, or just because you feel like your guys are a little sluggish. Anyway, tons of reason to fight which don't involve retaliation for something dirty.

He'll definitely have to stop cutting into the middle of the ice like he seems to do, play a little more north-south hockey, but I don't really think he'll have too much trouble adapting. With his speed, skating ability, and wrister he'll have all the chances he wants, even without his nifty toe drags.

Perhaps because if I'm the coach my job is to win, and that's much more difficult if my top line guys are getting the hell beat out of them.

Again, I don't think that he SHOULD have to answer for it, but I agree with the statement above, if I'm an oppositing coach me most definitely WOULD answer for it. Colton Orr would be out the very next shift and someone would be in serious s***. The rules and the referees are there to police the game and keep people accountable, tough guys are there to keep the physicality on an even keel.

I'm starting to think the NHLPA is being too accomodating. Sometimes you've got to be a hardass when negotiating. Playing nice only encourages the other guys to press harder.

Robert Lang...always Robert Lang.

I don't think he should have to fight for clean hits, but having said that, I'm really surprised that more teams don't make him...or someone else on the team. The fact that he does it and gets away with it so much is a real surprise. Note: On a positive note, seems like we'll never have to ask this question about Smith.

Yeah, it all seems to dead end back at the same place, the only reason I even noticed it was because of the news feed at the top of the forum here. As I said, I don't really know much about him, but he seems like a pretty tough dude. Edit: The scouting report I read on him suggests he's a good stay at home d-man with shutdown capability. I'm sold.

Any credibility to this Keaton Ellerby to Detroit rumor? I don't know anything about the guy except he was a tenth overall pick. Anybody know anything about him or the rumor? Edit: After looking into it I found that this kid is 6'4 220 lbs, hits, fights, and is Shane Doan's first cousin. Still don't know anything about his overall game though.