Richdg

One of the things we all need to keep in mind is, it ill take 2 offseasons of being aggressive to fix our issues. I firmly believe we are 3 or 4 high end players from being a legit cup contender. You don't get that many in one off season. 1-2 each summer and maybe next season 2015/16 we can contend.

Kip, if Mantha is the next Primeau then he is pretty damn good!

would I trade for him? no. now if he gets bought out-which there is a chance of that happening, I would think about signing him, for the right price/term. to risky to trade for.

At least that is the rumor/.story this morning.

if the rangers don't win tonight, the series will not make it back to la.

yup. lashoff as a 7th is just fine. he is young and cheap. he will never be a top 4 guy, a glue guy that plays well vs. physical teams. speed kills him. so a good coach will.......nevermind......

Yup. But then again, nothing like the 70's, 80's, and first 2/3's of the 90's.......

The beer or the player? LOL

If the rumors are true of Thornton, Kesler, and Spezza all being on the market, it will drive the price down. Fewer teams competing for the same resources. Basic econ guys. This could work in our favor if Holland..........nevermind......

Now let me be clear about somethings. I am not a Boyle hater. he has had a nice long career. What I am is a guy that loves to win SC's! To me that is the true measuring stick. Not just making it to the PO's. Which would you guys rather have? make it to the playoffs for 5 straight years and no SC's, OR making it to the PO's 3 out of 5 years and 1 SC? Again, the later is what I prefer. Now prospects. Most that want to sign Boyle are saying "sign him to allow the prospects to develop". That is all fine and dandy, but you are forgeting 2 very important things. 1. History shows only 1 out 5 guys ever make it to the NHL. So out of the Oullett, Sproul, Marchenko, jensen group, we might have 1 good/great NHL player someday. 2. This might even be more important. History shows that forever whatever reasons, Dmen take longer to develop. Look at our current BL. It didn't click for Ericsson untill 2 years ago when he was 28. Kindl is 26 and it still hasn't clicked. Smith turns 25 this summer and he is still trying to make it. Now there are always exemptions to every rule. maybe one of our young prospects is it. But history says that it will be 4-6 more years for anyone of the Oullett, Sproul, Marchenko, jensen group makes it. Now what does this mean? Well, the 4 guys we are talking about are not guys to step in today. A better way to look at that group is, those guys are potential replacements for Kronwall and Ericsson down the road. The problem is, they only have 2 more years that they can go down to GR and play. In the meantime, there are-to use a Datsyuk paraphrase: "no new stars" being added to the blueline from the minors anytime soon.

Just using him as an example. Would we be a better team with Nyquist or Carlson? With Carlson. Again an example. Now would nyquist alone get a guy like Carlson? Nope. It would tae a little more than that-prospect and a pick. Now go one step further. Are we better with Boyle and Nyquist or Carlson and say Moulson/Callahan/vanek/Vrbata/etc..... In both case the team is better with the later.

If Franzen is good and his contract is so reasonable, how come there is NEVER any rumors about other teams wanting him or stories about teams even asking about the possibility of trading for him? There are people with RW ties all over the NHL in front offices and on coaching staffs. yet no one ever is rumored to want him. Why? There are plenty of teams with cap room that can use more scoring. The 2 things that are Franzen's "strengths". Yet there is nothing out there in rumorville........... Never is.

The common theme by those in favor signing Boyle is to by time. buy time for what? Datsyuk to retire? because that is what is really going to happen. Think it through for the next few years. Datsyuk has 3 years left on his contract and is getting upset BTW.... So we bring in Boyle for 2 years. Then we play a rookie. Now Datsyuk leaves. Rookies is in his soph. year. Again the talent level is dropping faster than we can replace it. Now we are 3 more years out and still not a SC contender. That is if EVERYTHING goes our way. Add a couple injuries or have guys fail to develop and we are screwed. Yes, this is a bunch of unknowns. But here is the thing about unknowns (prospects): other teams like them. Do we right now have the ability to make a deal for a true top 4 Dman that can be here for another 8-10 years, without destroying our future? yes we do.

2 things: Boyle doesn't know the system-never played for Babs before and 2. If all of the kids are in GR how does Boyle help them? he doesn't/can't. Which brings me back to the begining. What is gained by a Boyle signing? Nothing IMHO.

Forgot to add: per Bob M

The chances of Z and Datsyuk both playing more than 70 games is small. With Kronwall and Franzen both also being in their mid 30 and also dealing with injuries, this is the new norm for all 4 of them. Yes some of the kids will get better. some will remain the same, and some will get worse. happens to every team every year. The sophmore slump will hit several of them. Which ones? No idea. So yes at the end of the year if we stand pat we will end up in a all to familiar spot: fight for the last PO spot, 50-50 chance of making it, and if we do out in the first round. These rinse and repeat seasons are getting old.

Yes. We need pieces, as in plural. More than one. That being the case what benefit is there to signing a guy like Boyle? Are we going to win more games? Maybe. Yes he improves puck movement-so would Sproul, but our defense is worse. Also young guys that need to play/develop are not allowed to do it. In the end there is one way to find out if a guy can play in the NHL. That is to play in the NHL. Now if Holland would get off of his butt (maybe he will/is behind the scenes), do all of your BL pairs after adding a guy like say Carlson. That is the type of player or players we should be talking about. Not a stop gap like Boyle. Yes that means we have to give up some good young players. We have more. We lack stars and proven quality players that we can build around for the next 10-12 years.

If winning the cup is the goal, and to be honest NOTHING is telling me that is our goal anymore, then we need better players than guys like Boyle. Is we are not trying to win another cup right now, then go young. BTW there is this thing called trades. We could try it, it might work........

Some would be ok with Q coming back at a good price? WTF? Have you watched him play? Q at ANY price is a bad deal. He has played poorly for us. Maybe it is the pressure maybe it is a lack of talent, thought, or whatever. But the fact remains he has been terrible for us since we spent a 1st round pick to get him. If he was willing to play for free I still don't want him. if we are going to have guys making mistakes on our BL, I would rather it be a 20 year old with upside. They could get better, Q will not. We are not even to the draft and already the tide is turning for many. Stand pat and we will get better seems to be the new mantra for the month of June. That is NOT a recipe for success in the up coming year. We won 39 of 82 games this past year, squeaked into the PO's and got bounced in 5 games. But some expect us to improve by not adding talent? LOL

Is signing a guy like Boyle going to win us another SC? Let me answer that for you: NO! In that case I pass.

Et that says a lot about our lack of talent overall. Alfie is toast. has been declining for several years and physically can't take the pounding anymore. HOF player whose time has passed.

Bennett isn't a pro athlete yet. he is an 18 year old kid that will get drafted. he hasn't had a professional S & C program to build himself up. We seem to forget, these are HS kids. dec, we used to have big strong players to go with our skill. 97,98, and 02 were lead by guys like Mccarty, Shanahan, lapointe, Kocur, Vladdy, Chelios, fetisov, ward, Pushor, etc.... to go along with the smaller skill guys like yzerman, fedorov, kozlov, larionov, and Hull. There is a fine balance that every team has to find. Philly has always been to far to the size side of things while we have gone to far on the small skill side of things. Teams like Chicago, LAK and Boston have both. No the Bhawks don't fight, but most of their stars have good size. Toews is 6-2/205 which is the same size as our "big bodies": Abby, Sheahan, Jurco, Andersson etc.....

Almqvist is like 11th on the Dman depth chart. If he was better than lashoff, Kindl, Quincey, etc..... he would have been up. He isn't and wasn't. it is pretty simple. Just because a guy is a swede or has been scouted by hawken doesn't mean they can play at the NHL level. Far to many around here think every swede we have is going to be an AS player.

Don't forget he has a bad back. several years worth of back issues.

Have been seeing that little nugget this weekend. Couple of spots. He has had a second interview. if so........LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!