FlashyG

I wouldn't want Foligno for both Quincey and Hudlers rights. Although I've heard far worse trade proposals than that. I think its a little bit too expensive, If the Wings needed to sweeten the pot and Ottawa wants Hudler I'd rather give up Kindl or a later round draft pick. We paid a pretty steep price for Quincey, I'd like to see him after he gets a training camp with the current team under his belt. Ottawa may be hesitant to trade for Hudler's rights as well unless they get permission from the Wings to work on a deal with him beforehand.

Off topic but I hate that this feat is named after Howe. In his 1700+ games played during his career he recorded only 2 "Gordie Howe Hat-Tricks". Stan Mikita had 22, Lindsay had 19, Shanahan had 17 and Iginla is the current active leader with 9.

I don't read Russian but when translated the article does say that it was Nashville that made the offer. I agree that a KHL team makes more sense throwing out that kind of money though. With no cap you can be as stupid as you want with your money.

I agree, I highly doubt the Preds actually offered that, but that was the rumor. It came from a Russian website, so it could be his agent trying to drive up his price.

Word is he rejected a 4 year 36 million dollar offer from the Preds. he is delusional if he thinks he deserves the 2nd biggest salary in the league. That loophole was closed long ago. Radulov was only allowed to come back because his KHL deal was signed before the transfer agreement was signed between the KHL and the NHL. Now that both leagues recognize each others contracts that situation can never happen again.

Do you ever get tired of being wrong? its absolutely Waddell's opinion, unless you can produce a link to Hollands comments. Link I'm fairly certain this is the article/blog you're talking about. Its George Malik using a Dave Waddell interview for the Windsor Star as the basis for his opinion piece. The portions in big quotes aren't quotes from Holland, they are the portions that Malik has borrowed from Waddell's article. The quotes from Holland are in small quotations within the borrowed material. At no point does he say we need X number of players, or what type of players we'd need. Just that he's open to exploring the trade market for the right players rights, that Joey MacDonald will be healthy next year, that he wants the team to be deeper and a little different and that he always feels pressure.

Thats pretty much what I said. I don't see there being a bidding war for Suter/Parise either, I think the bidding war will be over whoever is left after they sign.

Link to Holland's comments please? I must have missed the interview when he so specifically listed where we needed to upgrade. If this is from the Garrison thread/article, it wasn't Holland who outlined our needs or anyone with a connection to the Wings. It was Windsor Star writer Dave Waddell. All Holland said was that this may be his most important off season of his managerial career, that he's had some trade talk at the Winter meetings and that he'd be open to trading for someone's rights if the price was right and the player was a target of theirs. As far as our roster spots we have Hudler, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Stuart and Conklin's roster spots opening so there isn't a need for a trade, although making one for Parise or Suter's rights might make it a little easier to work some young blood into our roster next season and keep the cost down on Parise and Suter's deals. Franzen while not popular among fans is signed long term to a favorable cap hit and is our leading goal scorer in an off-season where we will most likely lose our 2nd best goal scorer. Unless he's being traded in a package for a better goal scorer there is absolutely no chance of him being traded. Lastly, I think you should define what a top 6 forward is to you? Semin, Selanne, Hudler, Whitney, Jokinen, Doan, Jones, Parenteau, and Jagr are all top 6 forwards and only Jokinen is a C. Is this like how you view prospects where everyone has to fit into either the mold of a can't miss prospect or career minor leaguer? I don't think we can send him to GR without putting him through waivers. He signed a 2 year deal with last year being a 2 way deal and this year a 1 way.

Here is a source on that Garrison to Vancouver rumor Link I think he's a great defenceman but I think given the circumstances this off season he'll end up being over-paid by someone. There is a lot of concern about a bidding war for Suter/Parise but the real bidding wars start when they put pen to paper. Once they are signed everyone who missed out starts spending like drunken sailor trying to sign their #2 and 3 options.

Whether they all turn out doesn't matter. We have far more prospects in our system now than we have during our entire playoff streak. Given our managements success rate of turning projects into NHL players there is no reason not to be excited about the future of the Wings. Our core is going to be around for 3-5 years at the minimum giving these kids plenty of time to develop.

Players always claim their injuries are worse than they are to avoid going to the tournament. You don't see European players making excuses to get out of going. Stamkos and Crosby could definitely have played, and would have if it was the Olympics. Giroux, Pietrangelo and Weber all could have come over once they were eliminated much like Ovechkin and Semin did when they were ousted in the same round. Brian Campbell could have done the same when Florida was eliminated in the 1st round. If you don't think Lupul, Couture and Parenteau are better than Teddy Purcell, Andrew Ladd and Alexadre Burrows we don't need to discuss this any further. As far as too old for Sochi, I don't see what your point is? Sochi is 2 years out and Canada won't start to put its team together until a couple months before the games. With the CBA being negotiated we don't even know if NHL players will be at the games at all. Also how can you ask what veterans would help the team and then dismiss them as too old? Rick Nash could have been added as well. Miller is better than Bachmann, Thomas may be too old for Sochi, but he wasn't too old for this tournament. Patrick Kane is partying in Chicago right now and his drunken antics have been trending on twitter at times, he could absolutely have played and helped Team USA. Suter, Oshie,Legwand, Backes and Shattenkirk could have come over after being eliminated much like the others have done. I didn't say other teams didn't have good players that stayed home either, Just that there is a higher volume of North Americans avoiding this tournament than Europeans. The problem stems from North Americans not recognizing the tournament in the same light as the Olympics. Its timing conflicts with Hockey that we deem more important. Both Canada and the US will qualify for the Olympics no matter who they send to the WHC so we view them as practice tournaments for the one that matters every 4 years. Yzerman is the Executive Director of Team Canada in name, but for tournaments like this he doesn't pick the team, it was Kevin Lowe running the show for WHC and Yzerman for the the games that matter. Team Canada is picked almost exclusively based on play in the NHL. Someone could set WHC tournament records for scoring but if they have a rough NHL season next year and the partial season in 2014 they won't be going to the games. There isn't anyone who is going to earn a spot on an Olympic team for 2014 with play in 2012. This thread has been derailed enough, if you want to continue this, you should probably make a new thread

Crosby isn't hurt, and he was in good enough shape to play in the playoffs he's in good enough shape to play for Canada. He just doesn't want to because North American's don't care about the WHC. Iginla isn't too old to play, the Russian team that won the championships had 5 players older or the same age as him on their roster. Stamkos had an "irritated bursa sac" that he used as an excuse to not play at the tournament, if the Lightning had made the playoffs he'd still be playing without complaint. Miller may not be better than Howard, but he'd give them a better 2nd option than Bachmann, and might have returned to the form he had at the Olympics.

Stamkos, Crosby, Giroux, Neal, Thornton, St. Louis, Staal, Hartnell, Iginla, Seguin, Lupul, Parenteau, Couture, Pietrangelo, Campbell, Weber, Boyle, Bieksa, Letang, Burns, Subban, Fleury, Luongo, or Price could have helped the Canadian team (some might have been injured but not all of them were) For the US - Kessel, Pominville, Kane, Wheeler, Cole, Pavelski, Backes, Oshie, Legwand, Stafford, Kesler, Malone, Foligno, Higgins, Umburger, Byfuglien, Suter, Shattenkirk, Carle, Leddy, Carlson, Gardiner, Bogosian, Thomas and Miller all could have helped. I'm not sure why North American NHLers don't look at the WHC the same way their European counterparts do, but for whatever reason Canadian and American players don't seem to head overseas to represent their countries for the WHC. When every playoff round ends you seem to see European teams getting boosts to their rosters, but the North American's who get eliminated from the playoffs tend to stay home with a higher frequency. Steve Yzerman had absolutely nothing to do with Canada's team this year, it was picked and managed by the Oilers Kevin Lowe, and it also wasn't the last chance to audition for the Olympics, next years WHC championship and the next season and a half of NHL play will be the audition's for the NA teams. This WHC was fairly meaningless as far as Sochi is concerned unless you care about your ranking.

Why not let some other team burden themselves with Nash's bloated contract. For just his 7.8 million dollar cap hit we can afford Franzen, Flip and a gritty 3rd or 4th liner. Trading for him would weaken the Wings not make them stronger.

Scott Clemmensen is available as well

Drogba was almost the goat with that stupid challenge in extra time. Cech bailed him out on the penalty so he could be the hero in the shootout.

Why isn't Filppula in your spreadsheet, and why is Cleary? Seems to me you handpicked the forwards that fit your agenda and left off the ones who didn't. (Parise/Hudler) Flip could easily shoulder part of Datsyuk and Zetterberg's loads as they get older, as can guys like Nyquist or Parise if we are lucky enough to land him. Then you have a ton of prospects with potential and good depth guys who haven't been given a shot with the Wings yet, all of which can transition into the line-up in the same way D and Z did. Also their names are Datsyuk, not Datsyk, and Fedorov not Federov.

The Red Wings website is run by some unknown guy or girl just like us posters here...they make mistakes and probably don't update the site everytime someone's position gets changed. So yes in this instance it appears I and most people who pay attention to the team are correct about what position Zetterberg and Filppula play. You're the one who compared the 2 players, in their first full seasons with Grand Rapids Tatar put up more pts than Abby and has shown himself to be the better skater. At the WHC championships playing on a worse team Tatar has out performed Abby again. Bigger and tougher is good for the 4th line, but you don't need 2 checking lines. Tatar will bring much needed offence to the 3rd line when he gets his shot. You get comments like that because you are seemingly wrong about almost everything you post, and when shown evidence of your errors you continue to argue. Nobody cares how long you've been watching the Wings....You obviously haven't paying much attention or you wouldn't be spouting such ignorant opinions.

Just because the Red Wings website lists him as a Winger doesn't override the fact that he played center almost all season. If you watched the games you'd know this. You keep trying to move the goal posts....I'm not saying he's going to be an elite player in the league, I think he'll be a good 3rd line player. He's developing better than Abdelkader has and Abby is already an NHL player. Sounds like you're already conceding he'll be more than a career minor leaguer. This is your problem right here, if they aren't the next Claude Giroux or Pavel Datsyuk they are all the same and they suck...nothing more than filler etc. Not every draft pick is going to be a superstar, and you will never have a team full of them, these "journeymen" players are integral to every team in the league. If you really think Tatar doesn't have any more offensive upside than Mursak or especially Emmerton then I don't know what to say other than...Don't ever go into scouting.

I guess time will tell which of us is right. There aren't too many career minor leaguers who lead their team in scoring over 2 seasons.

If you pay so little attention to the Wings that you think Zetterberg played the wing this year, why should any of us take your opinion of our farm team any more seriously? From your assessment of prospects in the NHL the only ones that count are ones that will become an elite talent. I'm not saying Tatar will be our future #1 left winger. I think he'll be a great 3rd line left winger, or a good 2nd line winger once he gets a little stronger and that he's more valuable to the franchise than either Emmerton or Mursak.

58 pts is in the top 25 in the AHL. Neither Emmerton or Mursak have scored anywhere near that in their time in the AHL. The kid is only 22 years old and can easily bulk up, but I don't seem him playing on the checking line anyways. If we have to lose someone to waivers, I'd rather keep him than I would Emmerton or Mursak.

How would we lose both Emmerton and Mursak by re-signing Holmstrom? Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Parise, Franzen, Filppula, Nyquist, Bertuzzi, Cleary, Miller, Helm, Abdelkader, Eaves, Mursak, Holmstrom Lidstrom, Kronwall, Quincey, Ericsson, White, Smith, Kindl Howard, MacDonald 23 roster spots, 14 forwards, 7 defenceman and 2 goalies. Like I said, I'm not a big Homer fan at this point in his career, but even without the connection to Lidstom, I'd prefer him to Emmerton. I doubt we'd even lose him to waivers, he'd probably clear them with ease. There is also a chance Eaves will be on LTIR which would give us an extra roster spot to work with. My biggest question is whether Tatar has any waivers exemption years left. I wouldn't want to lose him for nothing after watching his performance at the WHC.

Parise and Homer is better than either. I'm fine with putting Emmerton through waivers if it comes to that. I'm not huge on bringing Homer back but if its a case of him and Lidstrom or neither, then the decision is an easy one. Sign them.

I think its unlikely we get both Suter and Parise. Suter is likely to be the more sought after prize so I'd guess he'll be the one we don't get, especially if Lidstrom comes back for another year. Also, I think that Detroit could even stand pat at the deadline and win the Cup next year, the difference between winning the cup and going out in the first round is a very slim. I'd like our chances a lot better though with an upgrade in the top 6 and a better back-up goalie. A right handed shot on the point wouldn't hurt either, but the point is that even with Homer back for another year we have plenty of cap space to improve the roster, and we'll have more than enough next year to address the re-signing of Howard, White, and Flip.