centcougar07

I can't stress this enough: You HAVE to do your research before you make comments. If you want to talk about their prospects not panning out that's fine, but you should know that all those picks in the first round that never panned out were all drafted by the previous GM. Their current GM was the one that helped build the Anaheim stanley cup team and the Pittsburgh cup team. The draft picks HE has taken are all projected to come to the NHL next year, it's taken a few years for them to clean out all the s*** from the last regime and restock the shelves. And even though none of those prospects were pro this year, Minnesota probably would have made the playoffs had they been able to stay healthy. Look at them when they were healthy, they were winning like every game even without their touted prospects; and winning against the best teams. They beat us multiple times, they beat Nashville, New Jersey, Boston, Vancouver multiple times.. I'm not here to bash the wings' prospects or anything but as someone who follows the NHL closely, you're kidding yourself to think that Minnesota doesn't have one of the top 3-5 prospect pools in the league. And what the wings have is great, they have one guy who I think is top 6 for sure and then a couple other quality guys, but it's a far cry from what Minnesota has built, which only makes sense. Finally they get a competent GM and with all the high picks he's had, they are finally hitting on a lot of those. They of course have to prove themselves just like everyone else, but they are so deep with prospects that even if one or two are busts, they still have a bevy of other guys that will be home runs. Granlund alone is already scoring over a point per game as a youngster in a league full of men. It's just preposterous to compare Minnesota and Detroit in the area of prospects. Just as it would be to compare Mikko Koivu and Pavel Datsyuk. They are both good, but one is CLEARLY better than the other. With all that in mind, it's an absolute fallacy to be thinking that Parise and Suter with immediately sign with the Wings on July 1. Minnesota is not a team to be taken lightly in any sense.

Could not disagree more. Don't get too arrogant with how you compare our team to others in the league; its not a wash, not at all. As of now, Minnesota is superior in terms of young talent. Prospects are unproven and anything can happen but they have a lot of prospects considered the best among the league. Granlund and Brodin are considered "can't miss". We have to be honest here in our evaluation of franchises and their futures.

You have to do a little more research before you go and say that Detroit is anywhere close to what Minnesota has. It's just simply not true. Detroit has QUALITY prospects. Minnesota has OUTSTANDING prospects.

It would be an insult to offer a deal that small to a Hall of Famer like Lidstrom. Parise is going to get offered around 8Mil per year to play in his hometown I'm guessing. 7.5Mil at the lowest. Suter should get 7 Per year. And the Wild actually aren't a crap team. They were first in the league for the first half of the year until everyone and their brother got injured on that team, and they have (in all seriousness) a better future than the Wings because they have a talented, deep prospect pool which Detroit lacks. It's going to be hard to get Parise and/or Suter here. There will be plenty of competition that's for sure.

I'm sure he would. I'm saying I don't think Parise will sign with the Wings.

I do a lot of my own research too. But I talk to scouts and other people who know a lot about western conference teams. I have to get most of my stuff on the East on my own accord, but I digress. Ah you are right about Granlund and Hackett. They are very good prospects. But there's WAY more than that. Charlie Coyle and Zach Phillips are two players the Wild picked up in the draft last year and they both play together for the Saint Johns Sea Dogs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The numbers in that league are slightly inflated based on style of play but those two absolutely tore it up. Coyle had almost 2 pts per game and they haven't slowed down in the playoffs. Coyle has great speed and size and is a pure scorer. Phillips is a great offensive forward. He makes passes that he has no business making and is on the same line as Coyle and regularly sets him up. The one knock on him is that his skating needs to improve. Jonis Brodin was their first pick in last years draft and it looks like once he adds a little size he's going to be a fantastic defenseman. He can really skate and move the puck. He played for Farjestads in the Swedish Elite League. Johan Gustafsson is another goalie prospect that looks really promising. He won gold with Sweden in the WJC. The captain of that team was Johan Larsson and he is probably the most underrated prospect in the organization. All he does is win everywhere he goes. There's a ton more.. Bulmer, Zucker who played the last few games with them this year, Mario Lucia is a raw prospect but has a huge upside and serious star potential. Tyler Cuma, Marco Scandella, Haula and theres more but I don't wanna get too deep. Plus they have the 7 overall this year and will likely end up with one of the defenseman that scouts are salivating over. And this new regime they have is really really good at drafting. They've rebuilt the prospect pool in like 3 years and considering they had absolutely nothing before that it's impressive that they now have really an embarrassment of riches.

It's going to take more than 7 mil per year to sign Parise. Minnesota will probably offer him about 8 per year.

Wow that would be a horrible decision. There's not a GM in the league that would take the Wings' prospects over Minnesota's. After the draft the wild took an average pool and made it a great prospect pool. I've seen them ranked in the top 3 in the league by a few scouts. I'm friends with a couple NHL scouts I met a while back and we talk hockey every now and then and they have said that Minnesota's prospect pool is still a little bit underrated even though they are ranked high in virtually every updated list by a competent author. The Wings have a very average prospect pool. I'm not saying it's certain that Parise and Suter won't sign here but let's be honest with ourselves, it's going to be tough to get them both here. Kenny will probably offer around 7.000Mil a year for each. I think Minnesota is going to be the stiffest competition for the Wings given everything I've said about the prospects and a number of other factors. They both have strong ties to Minnesota and Parise was born and raised there. Toss in the fact that Minnesota will probably go as high as 8.000Mil per year on Parise and maybe 7-7.5 for Suter and it's going to be tough to get them in red and white.

Doubt it

Any team that has a good core and a good prospect pool (i.e. Florida, St. Louis, Edmonton, Minnesota, LA, etc.). I would say Detroit is more of a safe destination than a promising one. And don't be surprised if Detroit is struggling to get in the playoffs in 2-3 years. Work needs to be done on the prospect pool because right now, players looking to sign long term are not going to be best suited signing with Detroit

An incredible player. But an aging one. He falls in the 'core' IMO. He's not getting any younger (turning 34 soon) and neither are the rest of the guys who have carried this team for the better part of a decade. And the prospects to replace them simply are not there. The sooner that realization is come to the better. This isn't THE destination for free agents; there are plenty of other teams that players want to play for. It's a little arrogant to just assume that top end FA's are going to come here because "it's Detroit and we have a tradition of winning". The future is a very uncertain thing for the Wings given the age of this team and there are a lot of other teams with much better futures. It's wrong to assume that this is just the place to be and FA's are certainly going to come to Detroit.

Unless he signs with Detroit or another team and then has a great year. I'm assuming you will probably not want to be quoted then.

Optimism is fine, but in reality I don't see why either one would sign with the wings. What we have to offer here is a tradition of winning (which is great but doesn't mean much), an aging group of core players, and some modest talent as far as prospects go. We have to be realistic here and realize that Parise and Suter are just about to enter their prime. They are going to want to go to a team that is going to be getting better and better every year. I'm sorry to say that I see Detroit going the exact opposite way and in the end, I think that will be why they don't sign with the wings.

I just don't see it. They may not be in the playoffs but I'll take them any day over your average joe type of player. Also, I'm sure where you read that the Wings had a top 5 prospect pool. The last updated page I saw was written a few weeks ago and had the Wings at 21. Prospects may not mean anything in terms of guarantees but they are a point for predicting the future of a franchise. I'm not sure why you think that the Wild would sell out to Atlanta, I'm assuming that was a joke. And yeah, nobody knows where any team will be in 7 years but based on all factors (prospects, draft picks, core players, etc.) it sure looks like they will be in a very good position. Them and teams like Florida and Edmonton. I know it's hard to admit, but teams like that are in a MUCH better position going forward. Talking specifically about Parise and Suter, I think that given everything, Parise will probably go back home to play in his hometown in Minny because his heart is there and with the future they have there he knows that he can win there. I do a lot of scouting/research of every team in the league in my spare time it's kind of a hobby of mine. That's how I've formed this opinion of him and potentially Suter as well going to Minnesota. They have the cap room to spend a ton of money just like the Wings. They have a ton of high end prospects that are considered "can't miss" by many league scouts and I believe they were first in the NHL until they got derailed by injuries. I heard a radio interview with Parise saying he loves Minnesota and thinks it would be cool for "a kid to play in his hometown". Again this is all just speculation here because nothing is ever certainty in pro sports but you can play the odds and I simply don't see Detroit being the landing spot for these guys. I'm not saying it's the end of the world here, the Wings will still be competitive in the future, but I honestly don't see them being more than a 7 or 8 seed in the playoffs year to year. Maybe 5 or 6. And again, I'm just basing this on my comparison to notes on the other teams around the league. We'll see what happens this summer.

Why is everyone so confident that Suter and Parise will land here in Detroit? There are plenty of other organizations that want them both.

Players to replace guys like Datsyuk and Z and Lidstrom.. No. There might be a few "interesting" prospects in the system but none that make you look and say "wow, they could really be a star". I'm not saying that they aren't quality players potentially, but they aren't Datsyuk's. They draft well no doubt about it but eventually having such low draft picks for years and years will catch up. I posted in another thread that I think Parise will go to Minnesota in the off-season and that Suter may follow him there. Minnesota has finally put the pieces in place and rebuilt the right way. They have had a lot of high draft picks and they are only going to get better in the years to come. I have researched this a lot and could go into detail about it all but it would be a long comment. Anyway, that's the type of team Parise and high end guys will want to go to. They want to know that when they are 32, 33 they are going to be on a great team and Detroit doesn't really offer that because of the lack of star potential in the system and the aging roster as is. I just don't see it. I think the Wings will continue to be a good, quality team.. But lets face it, the days of domination are over with. I think Nashville gave a rude awaking to that. And as far as treating players right, I don't think there is a team in the league that really treats them wrong. All I'm trying to say is that the Wings need to be honest about the future. This team needs to get younger because in a few years, the core of players Detroit has banked on for a decade or so won't be here or at least won't be producing the same way. Detroit is kinda sliding into that 7-8 seed year to year area. I mean the writing is on the wall you can see that the franchise in general is trending downward from where it has been. And lastly, the Wings are sure to go after top guys, but as you said they will not overpay. Some other teams will because they can afford to do so. Again, teams like Minnesota or Dallas have come out and said they are ready to bid high for these guys. Any offer Holland makes is going to get matched or bested by another team. I don't see the Wings getting Parise or Suter. IMO.

Yeah but there is no future with that. Wings are getting old. You look at Datsyuk he's 33, soon to be 34 and with the knee this year we're already starting to see the effects of age on the core guys. It's only going to get worse from here on out in regards to that. So yeah, maybe they could be good for a year or two but they are both going to want 5-6 year deals and so they are more apt to go somewhere they can win now AND in the future. They will want to go somewhere that is trending upwards so they can be assured of their future not just the short term. That place is not Detroit unfortunately.

Agreed. The more I look at it I see Parise getting lured to Minnesota. And then Suter may follow him there if the two want to play together. From the looks of it they have a ton of talent prospect wise turning pro this coming year with granlund being a future star according to a lot of scouts. Plus they were playing really well at the beginning of the year so they have some selling points. I think they can land Parise and Suter. Wings should look at Semin and maybe trading for Iginla.

I don't think Parise will sign with the Wings. And given the fact that Parise and Suter are really good friends and might want to try and pull a Miami Heat type of thing and sign somewhere together and I seriously doubt Detroit will be that place.