FlashyG

Because we only have 1 roster spot available and far more pressing needs and also because adding a "fighter" won't have any effect on D and Z getting hacked.

I hope this means they trade for Bouwmeester just so the Wings don't make that mistake.

How come none of them did anything when Lemeiux broke most of Drapers face with a hit from behind? The fact is that in the playoffs its a foolish move to retaliate and give your opponents an extended power play while also getting yourself suspended. The Wings didn't win any of their last 4 cups because people were afraid of their tougher guys. Teams were far more afraid of their offence and their powerplay to take liberties which would end up costing them games. I'd rather have guys who can contribute offensively, and can drop the gloves when needed than I would employ a "tough guy" who will sit on the bench until we feel we need to get retribution. Its a waste of a roster spot.

Smith is the only one of those players that is higher valued than Franzen right now. Filppula will be once he signs a new contract but with 1 year left on his deal he probably has the least value of all of them. Teams are afraid he'll bolt back to the Wings after one season. The Ducks might be an exception where he is concerned though as Selanne absolutely loves him but even they have to value 8 years of Franzen over 1 of Flip. Helm is arguably more valuable to the Wings but despite his stellar defensive play and elite level speed he seriously lacks offence. Maybe with better linemates this season he'll develop that side of his game but even the best energy guys aren't more valuable than 30 goal scorers.

I think you could make a case then for last season, but like I said in the previous post, just the season before he had the 2nd most hits on the team. He certainly looked great at the World Championships so hopefully last season was just a down year in his physical play. Even if it wasn't, his possible lack of effort didn't affect his production and at the end of the day that's what he gets paid for.

That entirely depends on how he plays in his late 30's. The average pt production for players making less than 4 million a year is around 20 to 30. I feel pretty confident he can match that even in the last year of his deal. I somewhat agree with your point though, since we didn't manage to use the cap savings we got from him I'd rather pay him slightly more on a shorter term as well. However if Holland manages to make a trade for a top 6 winger that uses that savings effectively then have no objections to his contract length. Franzen didn't this past season, but the year before he was 2nd on the team in hits behind only Abdelkader. I agree that Ryan isn't "Lazy" but then again I don't see Franzen as lazy either. They are both equally streaky with their scoring, in fact Ryan is slightly more streaky than Franzen and often goes weeks without registering a pt before exploding for a big game. "Mule" just isn't a nickname given to someone who you consider lazy, and I imagine his teammates have a better understanding of his effort level than any of us do posting about him on the internet.

You are comparing a 7 million dollar superstar vs a 50-60 pt top 6 forward. Franzen led the team in goals, +/- and was 2nd in SOG with a cap hit just over half what Zetterberg makes. You seem to be focusing more on what you perceive he can do better, rather than being happy with what he already does well. I'll concede he didn't use his size as well this past season, but other than that his play has been the same since he came into the league. Most goal scorers are streaky, the ones who aren't get paid almost double what Franzen does. Franzen's production hasn't declined though, he was 3 pts and 5 goals away from his career highs last year. He's actually been one of the more consistent Wings during his career, and his style of play has never been centered around playing in the corners. He's a goal scorer, you don't score them from the corners. (Unless you have a bank shot mastered like Zetterberg seems to have) If Franzen made the Wings easier to defend he wouldn't lead the team in goals. You could just as easily make the case that the Wings are easier to defend because teams know Datsyuk will look to pass rather than shoot. I personally don't think the problem with our top 6 is any one player, its that we only have 4 that are legitimate top 6 players. If you put another good scorer on a line with Franzen and Datsyuk, the complaints about Franzen would likely disappear completely. Why? are you paying him? The only thing that should matter from a fans perspective is his cap hit as its the only thing that effects the quality of the team.

We absolutely need another D. We only have 6 and there is nobody on the Griffins good enough to fill in should someone get injured. As far as your other complaints, replacing Hudler and Holmstrom with Samuelsson, Brunner and Tootoo gives us a slight overall upgrade in scoring (providing Brunner can put up around 20pts or so), a larger upgrade in grit, and a massive upgrade in speed. If we can somehow translate our wealth of bottom 6 forwards combined with picks or prospects to land a top pairing defenceman this team would be in great shape going into next year. That seems unlikely this offseason though so we may need to sign a shutdown journeyman FA to fill a role and try to add to the D-corps during the season. Either way there is no reason for us to go all chicken little yet.

Are you kidding? Franzen is easily the one of if not the best piece of trade bait the Wings have. The only drawback against him is the length of his contract, but considering his production vs his cap hit he's among the best valued players in the league. Who cares if he needs a set-up man to produce, he's not paid to be a superstar, he's paid to do exactly what he does every season. Put up around 30 goals and produce around 50-60 pts. What exactly do Franzens critics expect of him? 40-50 goals? If so he should be making a lot more than 3.95 million a season.

trading a large package like that for Ryan creates more holes than it fills. We'd need another top 6 forward after the trade to replace Franzen. Then we'd need to address our biggest need, Defence, and we'd have to do it with very few tradeable assets.

We have too many bottom 6 forwards as it is. We need a shutdown defenceman, and we could use a top 6 forward if possible, our bottom 2 lines will be made up of guys already on the roster.

Attempting to compare this team to the dead things era makes me wonder if you remember the dead things era very well at all.

The Wings didn't make an offer from what I've read. They were waiting on Doan and were only interested in Semin if that fell through. I think Babcock was a big part of not signing him, I can't imagine he'd want anything to do with Semin as much as all of us fans wanted him. Sounds like Doan is out too so either they are giving the prospects a chance to play this year or there is going to be a trade soon.

The Wings were looking to make a deal for 3 years between 4.5 and 5 million a season. He has an offer from an Eastern Conference team for 4 years at 7.5 a season. At that price I'd pass too

I agree completely, and I'm not sure he's worth much more than Quincey considering their production over the past few seasons. When you consider he'd also be the highest paid player on the team I think I'd rather pass and look for other options.

As overpaid as Bouwmeester is, If Kindl is the centerpiece of a deal for him the Wings will likely be adding a 1st round pick to the deal and even then Calgary may ask for more.

Loui Eriksson

While I agree that Ryan is a slightly better player than Franzen, I think you and many others would sour on him within weeks since he's very similar to Johan. They both score in bunches and then experience long stretches where they produce nothing. The main value I see in Ryan over Franzen is his age and his right hand shot. I prefer Franzen's salary, but we have so much cap space that the extra million isn't a factor at all.

Of those 4, only one plays on the right side, which is where we lack players. Montador would be a good fit, but I'm not sure I want to trade for a #6 or #7 defenceman. Jurcina ranked 20th in the league for hits by a defenceman and he only played 65 games. He's also a great shot blocker and he kills penalties. I actually think he'd be the best fit to replace Stuart, if it weren't for his terrible skating. The fact that he's 6'4 and 253lbs doesn't hurt either.

Other than possibly Parise, (who I think the Wings only approached because they needed to, to have a shot at Suter) who have the Wings lowballed? Yes losing Lidstrom is a huge hit to the team but our forward group has gotten better and we now have a back-up goalie able to give Howard a rest ,something we sorely missed last year. We have more grit in the bottom 6 and we are MUCH MUCH faster, which was one of the biggest problems the team had. I think we've taken a step backwards defensively, but if Howard continues to improve, and Smith steps in and has a good rookie season I don't think the step back will be that noticeable, especially if we sign another defensive guy to fill Stuarts role. If we do that, we could, if all goes well be an even better team next year.

The only way that even begins to make sense is if the Wings make a trade that involves a bunch of bottom 6 players, even then I'm sure they could find better and younger replacements than him.

I'd rather sign a depth defenceman off the FA market like Kubina, Rozival, or Jurcina. All big RH shooting defenceman, and hopefully 1 of them can fill the defensive void left when Stuart went back to California. Unless Bouwmeester comes at a very small price, meaning no Franzen or Flip, then I'm not interested. We have enough left side defence, the only RH we have is White.

They are going to pay him 27 million dollars over the next 366 days, I don't think think they'll be in a hurry to trade him unless he demands it. Even that's unlikely since he has no NTC/NMC so demanding a trade could land him in an even worse spot.

I'd say after the obvious one in Smith, the only other defenceman that should be a top 4 guy is Sproul. I didn't count any of this years draft picks since the defenceman we picked are completely unknown to me.

1 out of every 3 shots he takes goes wide, which is too much, but when you're achieving the same or better shooting % numbers than guys like Perry, Malkin, Neal, Crosby, and Ovechkin I'm not sure its worth complaining about. Not singling you out on this, but sometimes I think fans won't be happy with Franzen unless he scores 50 and puts up 100 pts.