Rice

Are you sure? Or is it just that no one else could afford him?

If Bertuzzi goes down I fail to see how one 3rd or 4th line banger would help this team that much. Why sacrifice the pick?

I'd say A-. Holland did an excellent job with the limited resources. He gave up almost nothing and got two players that may significantly upgrade our squad in the grit/speed/size departments. He revamped our second line. Virtually no risk, all reward. I would've liked to see a third or fourth line type that can physically punish guys, but prices were crazy. I wouldn't have wanted to see Holland deal a second rounder for Mayers. Yup, that's what it comes down to.

Dropping the gloves doesn't matter in the playoffs. You may not call a guy like Calder gritty, but from what I saw of him in Chicago and what I've heard about him from fans and Holland I think he is. Would you call Yzerman soft? Gritty? To me, Yzerman is the definition of grit. He got the job done even when he was getting physically punished. That's all that matters. If you have a big guy that fights but he wilts when the competition steps up a notch, who cares?

Well sure, but we're not giving up somone we can use right now either. No risk, high reward.

How is this a high stakes gamble? We gave up Matthias and conditional picks. Holland did a great job this deadline. Low risk, very high reward. From what I've read Calder was great in the past and we all know what Bertuzzi can do when he's at the top of his game. Two days ago this was our top six: Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Cleary-Lang-Williams Today we have: Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom Calder-Lang-Bertuzzi And we gave up next to nothing. Great moves by Holland!

I wonder if this has anything to do with Stuart's crosscheck from the Flames game. Prick.

Bruce Macleod posted this at RWC: Sounds good to me.

That'd be my guess.

Here's a Flyers fan's take from HFBoards:

Guys, this trade was purely a contract dump. Williams wasn't getting it done here. We got his roster spot and salary off the books for next year and we've rid ourselves of his awful play this year. Calder won't be worse. This won't be the last move Holland makes. Bank on it.

Minus the contract that runs through next year. This is a good trade for the Wings. Williams is useless. This opens up cap space and a roster spot for next year.

It's official. It's a refresher to finally see a roster player get traded. I have a feeling this is the first of a few moves.

This was a comment on hockeybuzz? Nevermind. Williams is still here.

Can anyone confirm? I'm just glad Williams is gone -- peace Willy!

I'm not that excited about Guerin. Seems like we'd have to give up a lot and I really don't think Guerin would put us over the top.

I'm not too sure I want Guerin here. Would he put us over the top? If not, he's not worth it.

Weird. We have a full lineup already...

I've read New Jersey and Atlanta. Probably not Atlanta anymore since they got Zhitnik.

TSN: Odd that the Jackets wouldn't try to get something out of Berard. With the market the way it is you'd think they'd be able to. Same with Cajanek and the Blues. He looked good against us.

From cyberbuzz: I like them. They're an improvement over their current jerseys, IMO.

Bob Duff: Wow that blog is impossible to read. It's good to hear the Wings and Datsyuk are making progress. Holland better not put too much money into him though, because if Datsyuk flops in the playoffs again it could come back to bite Holland in the ass.

Well, compare it to the Forsberg deal then. Those two deal set the price for veteran forwards.

It took Metropolit, a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and conditional 1st to get Tkachuk. It'd be a lot more than that.

What the f***? I don't get it. What's the worst that could happen?