kipwinger

I agree with both of the last two posts, and so does the vast majority of sports writers who are all saying "west is best". You don't get ready for the playoffs against the Atlanta's, Florida's, or even Ottawa's of the league.

Yeah but I mean the Wings have play makers every bit as good as the Capitals and have been near the tops of the league in "goals for" for several years, so it's not like he'd be going from and offensive team like Washington to Nashville or something. He'd still have real good offensive numbers if Miller's ten goals and Eave's 13 are any indication.

I haven't read this whole discussion so maybe some agree with me on this, but I doubt it. I'm one of the few people who doesn't like a move to the East. People justifiably worry about the wear and tear and travel time for the Wings during the regular season, but I think it actually serves them well in the playoffs when there's no way to avoid a gruelling schedule. For the Wings to be successful in the Western conference means they absolutely must be successful on the road, and that is exactly the same in the playoffs no matter what conference you're in. Over the last decade the Wings have been hockey's most successful organization, regular and post season, and I really feel like the fact that we MUST win on the road and DO win on the road is a huge part of that success. I think teams in the East are often unprepared for the gruel of the playoffs because they don't have much of a taste of it throughout the season. If I had a vote, I'd say Columbus to the East, Minnesota into the central division west.

Yeah I completely agree, don't break the bank for him. But I like the depth a guy like that would provide, in addition to the toughness and size. The only issue would be that signing another forward means that either Eaves, Miller, or Hudler doesn't have a spot. I like Eaves and Miller on the fourth line with Helm, and I really wouldn't mind seeing them dump Hudler's contract (I was one of the many who thought bringing him back was a terrible idea...especially at 3 million) but would anyone take him? Or would we have to continue to sit guys like Eaves and Miller who did more with less (and for less) than Jiri?

I'm not going to lie, I'm unfamiliar with Babchuk's game. All I know about him is from what I'm reading online right now. My biggest two concerns with him would be 1. He only averages 16 minutes time on ice, and if you were playing in the top two defensive pairings for Detroit you'd need to be coming in at around 22-23 minutes. Is he capable and quality enough to take on the bigger role at this stage of his career? 2. Again, not familiar with his game, but ideally I'd like to see Rafalski's replacement play a little grittier, with more of an edge. It's not necessarily a matter of size, but of playing big and being able to compete physically with big power forwards. Sort of like Stuart does. Now here's my bias, I generally think North American defenseman are more prone to this as I believe European defenseman tend to play a more positional style of defense. How is he with physical play? Note: I just reread the previous post and realized you were talking about replacing Ericsson with Babchuk, which sort of negates the two concerns I just brought up. I thought you meant as a replacement for Rafalski. Interesting idea given this Ericsson situation.

The only other right handed shooter of this caliber in the FA class is Bieksa, who's probably better defensively, but only marginally, and not as good moving the puck or offensively. Bieksa will also likely command a much higher contract after the post season that he's had. Plus, I don't think you really have to go for a lock down defender with this signing. They're replacing Rafalski, who hasn't been real great on D for the last couple of seasons anyway, so as long as he's as good as that or better then you're even money but with more offensive production. Then when Lidstrom retires you go after the biggest, baddest, lock down guy out there in next year's FA class. Probably Burns from Minnesota. Also, here's hoping Wisniewski would sign for the old home town discount.

Yeah but wouldn't it be smart of Holland to send an offer sheet on someone like Weber (not expecting to sign him) and force Nashville to pony up and spend more of their cap on him than they really want, in essence using money to sign him that they would like to use to sign Suter next year? Sort of like what San Jose did last year with Chicago and Jalmerson. In the end they had to pay way too much to keep him and ended up losing players they likely would have liked to keep. There's more than one reason to send offer sheets to guys. That said, I tend to agree with everyone here who suggests there's no way that the Wings outbid Nashville for Weber without breaking the bank, which would be dumb and not a good idea in the long run.

It's not unrealistic to think that we could send offer sheets on low end RFA's, but it is unrealistic to think we could do it for someone like Weber.

How about signing Bieksa or Wisniewski to shore up Rafalski's hole on D (both right handed shooters and point men on PP) and pursuing Brooks Laich or Andrew Ladd as a much needed addition to the top forward lines. Both Bieksa and Wiz make around 3.5 mil now and would want a raise, Laich and Ladd both make around 2.5 mil and would want a raise as well. All told, I think we could sign one of the defenseman and one forward for around 7 million, which is offset by Rafalski and Modano's contracts coming off the books. The team would look something like this (not married to these line combos but have to make due with what we've got considering the old guys are under contract and nobody is going to trade for Homer or Bertuzzi at this stage of the game). Zetterberg - Datysuk - Homer Ladd/Laich - Filpulla - Franzen Bertuzzi - Abdelkader - Cleary Eaves - Helm - Miller/Draper/Mursak Lidstrom - Stuart Kronwall - Wisniewski/Bieksa Kindl - Ericsson