kliq

I obviously wish we could have gotten something for him, but sometimes value isn't there. I knew if he got claimed people here would go nuts. But if Frk and Pulk tought us anything, it's that some players just don't have value. I really don't think marchenko gets us anything.

I can't argue with a point that is based on pure emotion. The logical thing to do is waive Marchenko a guy with zero value, and trade Smith a guy with some value. But if you want to just waive Smith and give away value to make some stupid point, go for it.

I dont think he's a great coach Dickie, but if he was as bad as you make him out to be then we would have like 10 wins all year, unless of course you think he has a stalked roster and it is GREATLY under-performing. The actual truth is is that Blashill is a below average coach with a slightly above average roster. A good coach will get this team in the playoffs, a bad coach will not. I dont get why you are so over the top when evaluating him.

Agreed that they should try to trade Smith, but coming off an injury his trade value is going to be a bit low. What they should be doing is putting him in a top 4 role in a way to showcase him so a team will give them a decent pick for him.

Semantics, he signed a 2 year deal and this season is just over half done. My point is that he is not worth hi 1.5mil caphit. Pretty sure that when a GM is about to waive a player they put out feelers to all the other GM's (unless they want the move unnoticed), and if another GM is interested they will make contact. Do I think Holland literally called every GM to talk about Marchenko....of course not. If every time a GM was about to waive a guy he had to call every GM in the league you would just end up with a ton of pointless calls.

If you feel this way, I understand your frustration. I'll say this, if I could shed this team of Kronwall's conract or Marchenko's contract, I would get rid of Kronwall's contract every time. Since that is not on the table and Kronwall's cap-hit is here to stay until he is a UFA or ends up on LTIR, I choose Kronwall to stay and Marchenko to go. If we were talking Sproul, I choose Sproul. Don't forget, if Holland all of a sudden demotes Kronwall to the AHL, what's stopping Kronwall from retiring and costing us the recapture penalty. He has to treat this situation with ease or it could bite him in the ass later.

Ok, but do you think he's better?

So you think that Marchenko is a better player right now then Kronwall I take it?

Nice!! Such a fluke, but nice!

Seriously Mrazek.

Marchenko was was sitting in the pressbox as our 8th d-man. It appears all of DD, Green, E, Jensen, Sproul, XO, Kronwall, and Smith were above him on the depth chart. With that being said, he and his expendable caphit are better off gone. He had no value. I'd rather have Kronwall in the lineup then Marchenko at this point. It doesnt make sense to have an inferior kid in the lineup over a vet unless the kid has upside. Marchenko doesnt have much upside. As far as losing Sproul, that's not what happened, so lets not turn this into something its not.

I'm all for trading E, and I admit Kronwall is on his last legs and will likely be put on LTIR sooner then later, but moving a well liked vet who has been with your team for 10 plus years to the AHL is a big move. I am not against doing it in the right situation, but doing it to save Marchenko a guy that has no future here and is likely not even now as good as either of them is not that right situation. If we were talking Sproul, different story, but we arent.

Who Pat Caputo and Frank?

Why would a team trade an asset for a guy who projects to be a 7th man on most teams and holds a cap hit of 1.45mil for 2 years. They can likely get a player who is cheaper and has higher upside from their farm team. Not to mention, maybe Holland did offer him for a 7th and nobody wanted him for that. if he goes unclaimed tomorrow, I think that proves it. Personally I'm hoping he gets claimed. I dont want that cap hit and we are loaded with low end d-men.

In all seriousness, I think Babs leaving us hurt much worse then what people were expecting. Not only did it lead to the regression of pretty much all of our players, it boosted a divisional rival. If we still had Babs and TO had say Blashill, I think we are the one's sitting in that last playoff spot, or at least close to it.

Ok...3 of those 4 ages are wrong. Pietrangelo is 27, Tarasenko is 25, Schwarz is actually 24 and Berglund is 28 (you are 7 years off with this one) and other then Tarasenko none of those players are elite. So based based on the fact that they don't appear to be getting any better and if anything are regressing (as a team), and they have proven they can not get it done in the playoffs, they should re-build....right? You always contended that since the Wings got bounced first round, they should tank. Shouldnt that apply to the Blues as well? For the record, I dont think they should, but my point is with your philosophy, any team that is not a favourite in the here and now, or are not a team that already suck but have a franchise player should automatically tank/re-build. It's easy to say after the fact when hindsight is 20/20 that a team should have re-built, but in the moment when your team is a contender, to just pull back and completely tear things down can be absolutely detrimental to a team and the fan base. The average fan is not going to put up with a team that is constantly hitting the reset button. You always bring up how the Wings should have started a re-build in 2012, which I'm sorry but at the time was just wrong. I dont know of any team that has 2 elite players on their roster, and a solid group of complementary talent that would make that decision, not to mention there is no way the fans would have accepted it. Add to that the fact that in 2013 we were 1 goal away from making the final 4 and knocking out the eventual cup champions, and it completely makes sense why would Holland did not tear anything down. What he did was start a re-build on the fly and hoped that his kids would become high end players before his elite players regressed, in theory it made sense as it worked between 2002 and 2008. In hindsight, our big 4 regressed quicker then we expected due to injury, and our kids didn't amount to more then top 6 players. When that happened, the next logical move was to speed up the re-build, which Holland sort of did. With that being said, I am not going to sit here and make it sound like Holland is perfect, he is far from it and definitely made mistakes, especially this past summer. I think that the Nielsen, Ott, and Miller signings were all bad decisions on his part. I think he should have ate Datsyuk's contract, though I get why he didn't considering the reaction from the fans, but never the less it was still a mistake as I think he should have brought up Mantha, Bertuzzi and whomever from the start and rolled with it. I still think that the young core of this team is very good, and with a few extra pieces I think they can make some noise. Hopefully we trade Vanek and Green before the deadline, and try to get rid of Howard and E in the summer. If we pull off those moves, get a good draft pick, trade for the d-man we so desperately need, and throw in a coaching change for a guy like Hitchcock, and I think we are in a lot better of a position then most think.

If this is a weak year like most are saying, maybe we should consider trading the pick. I am not a believer if drafting someone top 5, just for the sake of being able to say you drafted someone top 5. If we can trade the pick for a potential 1A d-man, I am all for it.

What about St. Louis? They are garbage come playoff time, just don't appear to be a team built for the playoffs, should they re-build?

You have said many times that Detroit should have unloaded everyone as soon as Lidstrom retired in 2012 and should have started to tank, and I believe this is what you are saying when you say they have not accepted reality. With this logic, do you believe a team should always tank unless they are super young with "elite" young talent or are a favourite to winning the Stanley Cup? For example St. Louis Blues, they suck in the playoffs as bad as anyone, probably worse then the Wings and they are not super young. Are they not accepting reality? Should they tank? What about the Rangers? Nash and Lundqvist are getting older like Z and D, St. Louis is gone. They dont have any "elite" players left. Should they unload everyone? San Jose? I bring up all these teams because they are all pretty much in a similar boat to what Detroit was in back in 2012. Not to mention, the Wings have been re-building over the past 4 years given that almost 75% of their roster is completely different then what it was back in 2013, we just haven't completely tanked. What are your thoughts on teams that are fringe contenders? Should they all just unload everyone?

Go Away Troll

What has Chelios done to make you think he would be a good coach? His accomplishments to date are that he has been an assistant on one of the worst coached teams we have had in years. Other then being Chris Chelios, why should we assume he is some great coach? Don't get me wrong, he could be, but I don't want to bank on it.

This Hitchcock thing is odd. They guy wanted to retire, Blues talked him into 1 more year, Blues fired him, now he wants to coach. My gut tells me that if he wants to continue coaching, it would be a Scotty/Wings '94 type of deal where he wants to be the final piece for a team on the cusp of winning a cup. I can't see a guy going from wanting to retire, to being a part of a re-build. He is 65 and doesn't appear to be a healthy 65.

To be fair, they did but he got hurt.

Interesting answer when asked the Blashill question.

He would, and I think we will eventually add that 1D. As far as a 1RW and 2D go, those I think we can grow in our system or acquire via UFA. Remember, if we dont make the playoffs this year, we could get a really good pick.