Richdg

Bingo. Yes all professional athletes are overpaid. Some are paid for O some for D. But at the end of the day these are the terms of the game that everyone is working under. We can all dislike it, think it sucks etc... But that is the way things go. DD will get paid and it will be for over 5 million per year. If we can do a 6/48 deal we should all be thankful.

market value is fairly easy to find. Find players that Dekeyser is comparable to and see what they are signed for. So over the past 4 years here is the list: Niskanen 5.75 cap hit, signed deal 2 years ago Orpik 5.5 cap hit, 2 yrs ago Carle 5.5 cap hit 3 yrs ago Streit 5.25 cap hit, 3 yrs ago Staal 5.7 cap hit 1 yrs ago Giradi 5.5 cap hit 2 yrs ago Boychuk 6.0 cap hit 1 yrs ago Leddy 5.5 cap hit 1 yrs ago Markov 5.75 cap hit 2 yrs ago E Johnson 6.0 cap hit next year Hamilton 5.75 cap hit this season Giordano 6.75 cap hit next season Myers 5.5 cap hit 4 yrs ago Enstrom 5.75 cap hit 3 yrs ago Now those are all players that Dekeyser compares to overall. Yes some better on O some more physical or some better on D. But DD is younger than all of those guys and a 1 for 1 trade for most guys on that list for dekeyser would be equal value. factor in inflation and yes 6 million per year for 8 years is a very fair-maybe even favoring the team, deal. No a bridge deal would be worse for the team in 2 ways. 1. His next contract at 28/29 will cost even more in terms of dollars/cap hit than doing it now; 2. He is 26. At the end of an 8 year deal he is 34. If we do a bridge deal for 2-3 years then he is signing a big money long term deal at 28/29. That means the contract ends at 37ish. That would increase the chances of the injuries/reduced production like Kronwall and Green.......

2015/16 points per 60 mins of game time for the RW under all conditions: AA 2.52 Tatar 2.32 Franzen 2.32 Datsyuk 2.22 Nyquist 2.07 larkin 2.04 Z 1.92 Pulk 1.73 Richards 1.67 Abby 1.67 Mantha 1.54 Helm 1.34 Sheahan 1.22 Glendening 1.02 Jurco .89 Andersson .69 Miller .33 Nosek .000 Tangradi .000 Numbers don't lie. Mantha produced more points per 60 mins of game time than Helm and Andersson. Yes it was only for 10 games. But he did produce more. Now who is going to get better? Helm who has always been between 1.25 and 1.5 for his career or Mantha who is just beggining? Mantha was 11th overall this year. Franzen is out forever, datsyuk is leaving, and Richards is a UFA. Makes him a top 9 guy next year as a minimum. More than likely top 6. So Play him! BTW Tatar and Nyquist are terrible in 5 on 5 situations. Both were at 1.69 pts/60 this year. Which continues their downward trend. tatar the last 4 seasons: 2.10-2.08-1.70-1.69 Nyquist the last 4 seasons: 1.03-2.81-1.44-1.69

In the 10 games that the wings played with Mantha in the lineup the record was 6 wins and 4 loses. In the 3 games since we stopped playing him we are 1-2. Yes Mantha had a -6 in the 10 games he was here. 3 of that came in the 7-2 loss vs the Pens. Who were his line mates in that game? Datsyuk and Helm. All 3 of those guys were -3 for the game. Helm is not nor has he ever been an offensive player. He has great speed and that is about it. His best goal total since turning pro was with the Griffins-16 goals in 1 year. His best in the NHL is 15 in a season. Helm is a 3rd/4th line checker and that is it. That is all he brings to the game. Now that is not a knock on Helm. he is very good at those things and every team needs people that can play that role. But Helm is not a top 6 forward in any way shape or form. To use him in that role only hurts the team. Same is true with Glendening. A great checker. But neither should log top minutes. You know what they call teams with guys like Helm and Glendening playing in their top 6? Expansion teams.

Sorry WW, you are so lost I am not sure where to even begin. Bless your heart.

The money/cap being spent on E, Kronwall, KFQ, and Green vs the production they provided this year-both ends of the ice was terrible. No 2 ways about it. Maybe Green and Kronwall bounce back but still. That is close to 20 million on those 4 guys. Good news is we can start to remove and replace them this summer.

We need help at both positions. There really is no debate about it. Our O sucked and our D sucked. That puts us in the great (?) position of taking the best available in the draft. Where we are drafting there is much better F's than there are D, it is very simple. Do you understand what words like "maybe" or "potential" mean? I didn't say that Marchenko is a top 4 deman. I said that "maybe" he can become one. Big difference. He has the makings of a good stay at home Dman-something we lack atm. Not every Dman has to score points. In fact very few do. Most teams have 1 maybe 2 big time point producers on the Bl. The rest of the Dmen are good at keeping goals out of their own net. Something Marchenko does well. As for Tatar and Nyquist, no I do not see them are true top 6 forwards. top 9 yes, but not top 6. I am also looking at the roster 3-5 years from now. Abby could be gone, Z is gone, are tatar and Nyquist even still here or have they been traded/left via UFA, etc....

I don't get some of you guys dislike for Dekeyser. He is a legit 50 Dman in the NHL and by far the best we have. Is he a #1? No. But he is a #2. #2 Dmen make 6-7 million per year. You don't have to like that but that is the market rate and what he will get paid. We need to lock him up for the next 8 years and be happy we have him. Then go get him some help because this year he was largely doing it all by himself.

Now If we are going to go into the UFA market this summer a guy that really moves up the list of targets is a fav of mine and that is Backes. He is a big RH C/RW that could step in and help with scoring, physical play and leadership. That would give us 3 good solid vets that we could spread throughout the top 3 lines with him, Z, and Abby. Something along these lines: Z-Larkin-Mantha Nyquist-Backes-Tatar Jurco-AA-Abby Helm-Sheahan-Glendening pick a young F as the 13th That isn't the worst F group. Leadership on each line, some size on each line, and multiple guys that could score 20 goals. The BL is however still a mess and needs some serious help. If we want to add more toughness then don't resign Helm and go after Martin instead. Would be cheaper and allow more Cap to be available to upgrade the BL.

A page back that is what I said. Now that datsyuk is going, sit on our cash and cap and go young. Let the young players come up and prove what they are-good or bad. Then next summer and beyond add as needed.

It really doesn't matter which way we go in terms of D or F because we need both. I think we all agree that to be a good team you have to have a good top 6 at the F position and a good top 4 on the BL. We are 2 players short in both groups when we look down the road a few years. We have larkin, AA, mantha, and Svechnikov at F-need 2 more and we have Dekeyser and MAYBE Marchenko on the BL. Need 2 at each group.

Now with the griffins playing tonight there is the chance they sent him down for 1 game to get some work. He hasn't played in over a week. That would be the optimist in me. But the realist then knocks the optimist over the head and realizes if that is what they were planning on doing, Holland wouldn't have said what he said. But lets carry this thought out a bit. What do the RW's gain by playing Richards? How about Andersson? Green? Ericsson? I can go on. The answer is the same. The RW's gain nothing. If there is anyone that believes the RW's are a legit SC team, please pass whatever you are smoking! We are not. We will be lucky to win any games in the PO's and that is vs a injury plagued team. So then what is to be gained by playing Mantha or Jurco or Pulk or Smith? Well they gain experience and learn what playoff hockey is all about. They get to see it, feel it, got hurt by it and yes grow from it. You can't gain any of that by watching from the press box. yes each and everyone of those guys plus Larkin, AA, Tatar, Nyquist, Dekeyser could fall on the face and fail. But have we lost anything if that happens? No. If they all make it or fail we all learn from it. Player A failed so we can move him. Player B rose to the challenge so we keep him etc....

We will be lucky to get DD signed at 5.5 million per year. It could be 6+.

Let's be clear about this. Current cap: 71.4 million. NHLPA 5% minimum increase comes to 74.97 million for next season. RW's have 57.7 spent already for next season. Leaves us with 17.27 in cap space. Mrazek-3, Dekeyeser 5.5, Sheahan 2, Pulk 1, Marchenko 1.5 have to be resigned. That leaves 4.7 to spend. LTIR Franzen frees up another 4. So we have 8.7 million to work with. Now there are guys that could be moved via trade: Smith, Nyquist, tatar, etc..... That would free up another 9-10 million before salaries come back to us.

That is before we resign any RFA's. Mrazek will get 3, Dekeyser will get 5-6, Sheahan around 2. Now if I raad this right Franzen hasn't been removed from their numbers. I did the mnath last week and figured we would ahve about 15 million under the cap after the RFA's are resigned, Franzen to LTIR, and some guys are moved out in trade. But its not enough to improve the team AND replace Datsyuk. Holland has to trade the contract-which he has said he will not do.

2 goals in 10 games over the course of a season is 16 goals. How many current F's scored that many this year? 4. 16 goals would be tied for 5th with Datsyuk this year. For anyone that doesn't think he made a difference isn't watching the games. he did what he should do: get the loose pucks behind the net and along the boards, he scored goals in front of the net-which BTW isn't his game. Blashill used him wrong-mainly because he has no other choices. Mantha is a sniper and is great at driving the net-not camping in front of it. But that is another issue all together. Now he wasn't playing so yes send him down and let him play. But stop with the stupid statements. he wasn't a spare part in the PO's last year. he played every game for the Griffins.

Yes, which is why since Datsyuk's announcement I have moved into the go young crowd. No sense in spending money right now on old big name UFA's. Draft, make smart trades, and when possible a young ufa or dare I say a RFA.

Ok we made the PO's. That means we are drafting 15th or later. It also most likley takes gauthier off of the list. Updating the wish list: 1st round targets: Gauthier, Brown, Jones 2nd round targets: Bastien, Morrison, Hajek Early look at 2017: Vesalainen, Hague, Gildon, Valimaki in the 1st round. 3 of those 4 are Dmen.

He already has. He isn't trading Datsyuk's contract. Now is it possible that Mr I steps in? Yes. Will he?

Most of us agree with this. Some of us have been saying these types of things for a while. I don't care about the streak. I care about winning cups. We are not a cup contending team right now with or without Datsyuk. It is time for the RW's to butcher the sacred cows and rebuild. Whatever that takes.

Better to play in GR than sit on the bench.

Well.... With Datsyuk now leaving and we getting stuck with his 7.5 million cap hit and no way to really replace him and improve the team that does change my thoughts a ton. Go full on with youth and find out who can play. sit on our cash/cap space for another year maybe 2, then see where we are at and add.

It was a question not a fact. "If we have to retain 50%". Now put your GM cap on. Are you as a GM trying to build a better team going to pay the full contract of a 30+ year old G that hasn't had a good year? No. That was the point I made at the begining of the year. If we want to move Howard we all should have hoped he had another AS year to drive up his value. He didn't have that type of year so his value is down. The best options with Hoiward are to keep him or move him for another high priced vet.

As I have said before Howard will be moved only when it makes sense to move him. he has a 5.3 million cap hit. If we move him and have to retain 50% of his cap and then go out and sign another vet backup for 2 million-market rate, we haven't gained much of anything. Maybe .5 million in cap space. if that is all we are freeing up it makes more sense to keep him. To date Mrazek has not proven he can be the starter all season long. he should at some point, but he isn't there yet.

Nope not at all. trouba is the most unproven and thus the biggest risk. But he is the type of risk we should be taking. Which goes back to Holland. Is he willing to take risks? stay tuned.......