kickazz

Drew Miller was priority.Lol jk, I had to throw that in there.

What I'm wondering is why management wasn't all over this? Did they think he would be waiting until July 1 and thought they had "time" to set up a good presentation? Or was it that Stamkos really didn't show interest in meeting with us this week and ended up staying with Tampa. I'm just trying to figure this out in my head. How the hell do you miss an opportunity to lure a guy in. Time is money. Time is Stamkos. But maybe they were trying to get a meeting with him ASAP but didn't have any luck.

...But Staal is a worse player than Z and Larkin so why waste money a worse player when you have better ones? FA signings should be to make the team better not worse.

Really you don't approve? And here I thought you were talking about just how "good" Edmonton will be and how they're progressing well.

ALL IN ON RADULOV!

Say goodbye to the bandwagoners then.

It would be ridiculous for Eric Staal to be 31 years old and produce only 39 points and ask for $6 million dollars. At age 31 our centers were putting up 80 points. Jeez. Hell NO to Staal. Larkin put up more points than him as a rookie.

Uh no lol.

Staal is a lot worse than Zetterberg is. If you think Staal is a top 6 center then on that note so is Zetterberg. And if that's the case then just stick with Zetterberg as the top 6 center and promote Larkin as the other top 6 center. Staal won't make us any better than just sticking with Larkin/Zetterberg on top 2 centers. We should focus on signing a Winger now imo.

Wanted to see how s***ty the Leafs were. Probably realized their colossal failure in person and gave Yzerman a call today and said "screw it, I'm staying"

He's 31 (turning 32). The only thing he's got left to prove is how fast he ages and how much worse his decline can get. (His decline is pretty awful)

Lol the Predators just got better. Weber is overrated as hell.

LOL. Did the Leafs meeting scare him away?

Lol? You were complaining about Zetterberg the last 4 months yet somehow a washed up Backes who was demoted to third line and produced less than Zetterberg makes a lot of sense. No to Backes for the following reasons. He'll want a long term deal till he's 37 or 38, he's not as good as he once was, and not interested in a 3rd line center. Would rather have a winger if it's not Stamkos as center. I chose Kyle Okposo. He's young, tough, and he's a good scorer. We need scoring not heart lol. Have enough washed up folks with heart.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.wingingitinmotown.com/platform/amp/2016/6/29/12047838/red-wings-re-signing-drew-miller-dampens-hope-for-change?client=safari#

Weak year comparitively to last. Had Lidstrom, Fedorov been eligible this year, I doubt Lindros would have gotten in.

Look at my previous post. I think family is a small factor. I think it was moreso because he wanted to play in his home country. Maybe he got sick of Detroit, Michigan?

I think the daughter not being around situation is a SMALL part of it. I don't think it's as big as we think it is or as big as he might have made it out to be. I think the BIG issue was that Datsyuk missed Russia. He missed his home. He was home sick. Datsyuk has ALWAYS been loyal to his country and has ALWAYS talked about going back home EVEN when his daughter lived here in the late 2000s. He almost went back to Russia after his original contract was up if I'm not mistaken. This was when he was still married to his first wife and his daughter was going to school in Michigan. I don't have an issue with any of this by the way. A man's home is valuable to him and I get it. There's no way I would go play hockey in Russia for 14 years and NOT miss Michigan. I'd probably be home sick in about a week lol. But all in all I still cannot pretend like it was okay for him to sign a 3 year extension and one month into it try to get out of it. That's some bulls*** and you all know it. Thankfully it's worked out and we were able to move the contract. He made some mistakes, he knows it, he felt bad and guilty about it and it's totally okay. He didn't make excuses for himself and neither should we. Datsyuk isn't perfect, he is Houdini. He's the magician. He's not the Perfect Human. He's not Niklas Lidstrom

A combination of a speedster and Glendog and Miller is a good idea for now. As the young centers get more experience they will likely transition into bigger roles.

Precisely, which is why they used the superstars to kill PK in crucial moments. Not 4th line studs.I envision Larkin being used for crucial moments just like Z and D. He doesn't have to spend 3 minutes a game on PK. He can do 1.5 minutes a game just like those two did. Leave some of the mid game PK minutes for Glendog, Sheahan etc. Imo use the possession driven PKers to play the steal and chase game in crucial moments. Miller and Glendog are not possession guys and never will be. They're the type that sit and eat up shots hoping they block them. That stuff works 8/10 times true, but say with a 1 goal lead and 3 minutes left to play in a game 7, I'd rather put in the guys that can do more that just sit and take shots, I'd rather take the guys that can cause turn overs and play keep away and run down the clock (Helm, AA and maybe Larkin in future). We saw this all the time with Z and D. While Draper and Maltby were still our major Pkers, D and Z were used in the most crucial moments. In their primes, D and Z made Pk look like it was still a 5 on 5. Their possession was insane.

To be closer to his friend Lidstrom, who he rarely gets to see anymore. ---- Jokes aside I think the KHL team was stupid to not go year by year. Datsyuk is injury prone, bad knee an a bad ankle there's no guarantee he'll even play half of a season. Will be hilarious if that team gets screwed with his contract too.

I was talking specifically of the Lidstrom transition year (2013). The drop in PK from then on (2014 and beyond where each only played like 45 games dur to injury) would likely be because of the aging factor but even more so because of slowing down of their speeds. (Back surgery + knee injury for Dats) Just looked it up. Between 2011/12 season to 2012/13 season, Datsyuk and Zetterberg's shorthanded time per game went UP after Lidstrom retired and then started going down year by year again from 2014 onwards. http://www.foxsports.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings-team-stats?season=2011&seasonType=1&category=ICE+TIME&type=1&position=0

What does solid D core have to do with the forwards? Those forwards killed penalties because they were good at it. We lost Lidstrom in 2012, but that didn't stop Babcock from using Z and D on the PK. Bergeron isn't going to stop killing penalties just because Chara retires. Larkin is supposed to be a two way center that's compared to Toews. He'll be used on the PK. Trust me. This isn't something I'm "hoping" for, it's just what's going to end up happening (already started with small minutes last season). The only difference is I prefer to train these kids now rather than wait. Which also is the reason why I prefer Z to slide onto the Wing and Larkin into center. Larkin needs the training now.

Look at those 2003 season penalty killers. Maltby, Draper, Shanahan and Zetterberg were primary forwards killing penalties. SHANAHAN of all people eh?. And my mistake on earlier post. It seems Datsyuk didn't start killing penalties until 2006/07 season. He truly was a late bloomer. And 2 years later ends up winning the Selke trophy. Amazing. http://www.foxsports.com/nhl/detroit-red-wings-team-stats?season=2002&seasonType=1&category=ICE+TIME&type=1&position=0

Two words man. Doug Houda. This guy is going to turn the PK around for sure. Bergeron, Marchand and Chara really thrived under him.