kickazz

26 goals last year and OVER a ppg player. (Nyquist had 27 goals and Tatar had 29) Surgery this year WITHOUT summer conditioning OR training camp and still top 3 in team points in signficantly less games played. Just wait till Pav has true conditioning this summer and a real training camp- he will still produce at close to a PPG. His style of play is way too unique for him to drop off the way we're making it out to be. Future kids on first and second line. Pav and Z on third line in a couple years with a good cap hit won't be a problem. Z already has a very good cap hit. If possible try to get Stamkos and a 1A D man and we are a guaranteed cup contender for years to come. We'll have to shed some players obviously. Just throwing some thoughts out. If Stamkos doesn't workout (probably won't) go for Okposo. If not him then perhaps Backes? I know our cap is tight going into next year. But as we've discussed ad nauseam we'd have to rid guys like Howard, Ericsson, Quincey walks, Green (?), Nyquist (?).

Looks like he might be back on Saturday. http://redwings.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=874390&navid=DL|DET|home

Dam look at the player moms and Larkin's mom lovin their time with The Beard

I don't think getting rid of (or letting him walk) a 38/39 year old who happens to be the best player on ice every night will improve the Wings. Unless we can find a suitable replacement who is young I think we should keep him if it's a fair deal. Which goes back to the point of trying to sign Stamkos. He could be our replacement 1C. Hence why I think we push for him. I think assuming that AA, Svech and Larkin will be able to carry this team to the cup is no different than the folks who assumed Nyquist and Tatar were the next Datsyuk and Zetterberg 2 years ago. And 2 years later we have a Nyquist and Tatar showing some issues in their expected production. My point is we simply cannot rely on "THE FUTURE" - we need a balance of proven players on this team. Take your pick. Got a bunch of UFAs this season and next on the radar.

The thing is the 4th line basically has two "scorers" now with Richards and AA - on paper at least. Glendening seems the odd one out of those two. I'm not sure exactly what Blash is doing but that's how I'm interpreting it.

LOL complete bogus and bologna. How many 39/40 year old FORWARDS make 7 million in this league exactly? Seriously tell me? Datsyuk will re-sign a deal worth his value. I can see him accepting $5 million for 1-2 more years given his drop in production due to his inability to play the full 82 game schedule. Additionally he's making $5 mill this year (not including his bonus) and $ 5.5 million next year (no bonuses) on a $7.5 million cap hit due to his previous years $10 million salary.

Maybe he wants 4 scoring lines? I mean it would be nice if our players showed up to score the entire 60 minutes. Our offense is weaaaaak

Hah fixed! Hah I see your edit

Datsyuk is twice the center any of our young guns are and likely will be. His vision is ridiculous. I would not he opposed to having him somewhere on top 9 even at age 38. Why would you want a team with a bunch of 19 and 20 something year olds who have never made past round 1of the playoffs or even seen a playoff game when you could potentially keep one of the most experienced and skilled centerman to guide them? I highly doubt Dats will ask for as much as you think he will. If he wants to stay for "cheap" he will. There's no reason not to sign him if we can. Anyways we all know the Wings would re-sign him in a heart beat so this topic of Datsyuk is useless regardless. So say what you gotta say.

Who said he has the stomach flu? Is that speculation?Anyways Coreau traveling with the team to Florida. Mrazek might not be ready.

You know who has a cup and actually named Henrik? The REAL King Henrik in Detroit. King Henrik. King Hank. King Beard. The Beard.

On a "soft euro" team a 2016 version of Backes would still help

Cmonnn it's Frank. Toews could put up 5 goals in an 82 game season but he would still be the third best player in the league. You know why? BECAUSE TSN SAID SO! Doesn't matter what Mrazek's stats are. King Henrik is god. He's Zeus. He's a king and a god.

Backes would be a nice addition

Is there a way to make Z a bit faster? Aside from performance enhancement drugs. It's painful to watch. ARGH!

Just to play devils advocate with everyone. What makes you think anything will happen even if we don't make it? If anything I could see them make an excuse like "Oh it's a new coach he needs time, just give it a couple years and we will be a cup contender". If you notice almost every year since we lost Lidstrom - the Wings have pursued free agency. 2012 - Suter/Parise 2013 - Weiss 2014 - Alfredsson 2015 - Green/Richards. Hell if we don't make it this year Holland may think we've risked too much for absolutely nothing in return.

I wouldn't go that far in your assessmemt. Mrazek could very well be as good as those two. It's only his first full year and he's played very well. Two years from now if he's at that level, what will you have to say then? I'll have to remember this quote Frank!

Say that to the 2013 season run to playoffs Definitely wouldn't be Coreau

NHL players should be required to take the flu shot

Blessing in disguise perhaps. Howard comes in with the clutch maybe? Will we see 2013 Howard who got us into the playoffs with a dozen games left?

Your second sentence is somewhat true. But our team has been in a major decline since March of last year. While Babcock was still coaching. We were 5-8-2 in March last year and 3-2-1 in April. We went through a stretch of losing 6 out of 8 games in that period. Maybe the obvious decline was another reason why Babcock booked it. Among other things. Lol!

That's what I mean. We have a lot of RFA's to re-sign - they (Toronto) cleared space to max him out (speculation on my part) - we need to resign our own guys. I was keeping up with the math months ago but with all the playoff fiasco I've fallen off the cap radar. But like kliq said we would have to trade away a bunch of guys and we could go all in. I personally hope they would. Howard, Green, Ericsson go bye bye and pitch for Yandle and Stamkos. Only downside is we may have to retain at least Howard's salary.

I don't see how we land Stamkos anymore. I wish we could but Toronto seems to have unloaded a ton of money ($20 million free I believe) and likely will give him a FORTUNE. We barely have cap space...

Yandle may be available as UFA no?

God I hope Datsyuk signs for like 3 more years or something. First guy I'd want them to protect.