DetroitRedWings1993

Iginla would have to agree to a reduced role and probably a pay cut next year. I see a better fit with the B's or in LA.

I doubt that will sway him very much. He'll see the talent, youth, and potential of the Ducks roster before he sees that. Honestly, it's a crap shoot as to where he signs now. I've heard that the Preds and Lightning have jumped in. A source close to the situation listed them but not the Oilers. I hope he ends up here. That would be huge for us and could focus our shopping list at the deadline. Holland can go all in on acquiring a scoring forward.

Yeah, I just read that. It's all about the intangibles at this point, I guess. I refuse to think that we're the only team guarenteeing playing time. I hear Anaheim's pushing hard. Still butthurt about losing Schultz, but I don't blame them.

Twitter's blowing up. Both Dreger and McKenzie, amongst others, are tweeting that a trade between Dallas and Pittsburgh involving Brendan Morrow is in the works. Sources say that the only thing holding it up is Morrow waiving his no-trade clause. Joe Morrow would be going back to Dallas. I'm just glad there's no more crazy talk about the Wings trying to trade for another aging scorer passing the twilight of his career. Also, he's a UFA at the end of the year. Just like Iginla, even if he did re-sign, we couldn't possibly expect very much. It would be like the Modano signing. Only worse because we'd be losing pieces to get him.

Crosby and Malkin sell tickets and are attractive to free agents and stars with NTC's. They consistently fill the seats. They're considered a big-market franchise and probably don't benefit much from revenue-sharing. Revenue-sharing was a clever way to pay Phoenix's and Dallas' bills. Morrow only makes 4.1 mil a season on this contract. He'll probably re-sign for less over the summer. Pittsburgh may end up saving money by this time next year. This does create an interesting situation for Iginla, though. You'd have to think Boston is going to get Feaster on the phone NOW.

They were big on Iginla, so this move is a surprise to me. The Pens need an elite winger, not Morrow. Morrow's good, but not elite. Iginla could be an elite winger alongside Crosby. He's been one of the best scorers of his generation with guys not even a tenth as talented as Crosby. That being said, he's getting up there in age and has started to finally decline. Sending Joe Morrow in the trade is also a bad move, if you ask me. Morrow's going to be a great pro someday. While the Pens do have a deep prospect pool on defense, you can never have too many. I would've kept Morrow, Despres, and Maata and instead moved Pouliot. Plays a similar game to the others. Also, trading an elite defensive prospect for an aging winger who's more of a grinder than a scorer at this stage of his career? Doesn't make good hockey sense. All this means for us is that he's not coming to Detroit. Oh well. I didn't really want him much anyways. Too high a price for too little a return.

Damn co-eds getting in the way of hockey! Sit back and enjoy the sun and sights, man. DeKeyser will sign with whoever he signs with later on in the week, probably.

Honestly, good to hear that we aren't on his list. Now, there's no reason to waste prospects and picks on an aging star with no real expectation for him to re-sign. Any even if he were to come here and re-sign, so what? He's on the downslope of his career and is likely to far even further next season. He was great one. He just isn't anymore. Anyone who expects him to be an elite player now is just insane.

I've heard everything from two-way superstar to stay-at-home D-man with a little offensive upside. Either way, good on us if we can get him to sign. Promising anyone, even him, NHL time is very risky. What does that say to our other prospects? After missing out on so much over the past year, I'd be willing to try anything. I guess we could axe Colo for a few games to let him condition and see what DeKeyser offers if he signs. Another thing I noticed is how everyone seems to be so sure he's going to sign here. There are probably offers from just about everyone for this kid. Not only that, but you know both Philly and the Rangers have promised NHL time and probably are willing to throw ridiculous money at him. I'll be crossing my fingers, though.

Not sure what happened, but he's back to "we have no idea when he's going to be back" status. Still a status-quo prognosis on Bertuzzi. He'd like to play this season, but doesn't know. Wonderful.

You're both happy with being stuck with Franzen and his infuriating play until he's 134? THAT is a "litany of craziness". I acknowledged that a move for Stafford could blow up. But is doing nothing when we obviously can't score consistently REALLY that much better? Please. I wish I had both of your confidence in the situation. Maybe I'm just being hard-headed and a little harsh. But I don't see how we can go forward without exploring additions to this offense. And that means Stafford, too. At least Stafford doesn't play half his size. Helm had a bad setback. He went from possibly coming back tomorrow night to who-knows-when. Bertuzzi is still gone for a long time. Samuelsson and Colaiacovo are out, and now Quincey is gone 4-6 weeks with fractures in his cheek. Maybe Stafford isn't the answer. But with how our offense has performed, he or anything else is at least worth a shot. No GM bats 1.000. Hell, bring Stafford in to push Abby back into the bottom-6 where he belongs.

I wouldn't pay very much for him. He's a great defensive D-man but our lackluster scoring is a bigger problem lately. If we can add Smid for a true third-rounder or a conditional pick, fine. If not, then forget about it. We need to add something, though. We can't sit by and watch while everyone around us gets better.

The way I see it, we've seen two different versions of Damien Brunner. One goes to the dirty areas and isn't afraid to be creative and use his shot. One skates in lachidaisically and fires off a random, long-range wrister with no traffic the exact same way every time he touches it. Maybe it's just him adapting to the NHL. Which do you guys think is the real one?

What would you see us getting in returm?

I've been pretty hard on Nyquist in my time. I've always vented about how unimpressed by him I am after just about every game. But after last night, I think I've changed my tune. Abdelkader, despite Nyquist's call up, was still on Pav's line for most of the night. Read the above sentence again. Now finish vomitting. This isn't Nyquist's fault. This falls squarely on Babcock. His team can't score. In no universe of hockey is that a good thing. His second line is in shambles. So instead of putting a young player with good skill on Datsyuk's wing and seeing where that goes, he leaves Abdelkader there. Nonetheless, Nyquist had an assist and a great shot on goal that resulted in a scoring chance. He produced more than Abdelkader did, no matter how simple that is. I wonder if we'll ever get our offense back. We can't continue to be so badly mismanaged. Datsyuk is being wasted. At least Cleary got demoted...

This is...unbelievable. Do you actually believe this? Beyond the financial implications...that team you suggest won't even be fun to watch. Less so than this year's team is. I agree that it'll be time soon, but complete and total nuclear bombings never solve anything. Look at the Marlins.

If Perry leaves Anaheim (and I doubt he will), it won't be until the offseason.

Ok. You can pat Holland on the rump and tell him he's just the greatest thing ever if you want. Brunner and Tootoo have been pretty good. Samuelsson and Colaiacovo, true to form, have gotten injured. He should've known they were likely to get hurt beforehand. Gustavsson has been awful.And if Holland is so great, where was the "plan B"? I'm still waiting for it. Anyone who has confidence that Holland can make a big signing after last offseason is just living in the clouds. I certainly hope the brain trust isn't as resistant to making moves as some fans are. Trading Franzen is an "unrealistic NHL 13 dream"? What? No, suggesting trading Miller and Eaves for Corey Perry is an "unrealistic NHL 13 dream". That statement just makes no sense whatsoever. There are plenty of teams with GM's dumb enough to take on Franzen's contract. He doesn't even deserve league minimum right now. Plugging your ears, closing your eyes and telling yourself that everything's fine won't make the problem go away.

Holland doing anything on the UFA market is far from a sure thing. I highly doubt anything gets done this offseason but a few resignings. I expect Fil to be gone and Holland to spend all summer trying to trade Franzen and his horrible contract. If he couldn't get Suter and Parise, he's not going to get Perry. There aren't any really valuable defenseman on the market this summer, either. None in the mold of what we're looking for. Stafford could help now. Waiting for free agency guarantees that we continue backpeddling.

Buffalo's centers are also far-and-away worse than ours are. Buffalo isn't a good team all around. Plus-minus can be a misleading stat. He's a risk, I acknowledged that. He could end up not doing a whole lot. But are we really in a position to be that picky? He's relatively young, relatively cheap and isn't signed for too much longer. Getting Stafford would be a helluva lot better than standing pat and continuing to decline while everyone around us gets better. Again.

When you have Datsyuk playing with two worthless bricks, then you're going to have problems. We have no finishers. We have defenseman who are capable of moving the puck effectively, but once that gets done, there's no one to finish the job. Brunner has fallen off. He's looking less like the answer and more like the question. I seriously wonder if he'll ever get back to the way he was going early on. Franzen just can't do it. I can't quite say why. He just doesn't have it anymore. His effort always leaves something to be desired. He leaves me scratching my head. He missed a wide-open net last night. Brad Boyes could've hit that. Samuelsson shouldnt've been signed in the first place. He's old and prone to injuries. And even when he's healthy, he's not going to do what he did in Vancouver. He was never a 30-goal guy. The Sedins made him one. The same can be said about Bertuzzi, the only difference being that he was a good goal-scorer once. He either needs to be traded or bought out. Too old and beat up to be of any use anymore. Zetterberg continues to astound me. His goal-scoring has completely died. I remember when he was a 30-40 goal guy. I guess age has killed his ability. Haven't seen much out of him offensively lately. Datsyuk gets a slight pass for playing with such terrible linemates. Abby is a career bottom-6'er and Cleary shouldn't even be here. Waive him, trade him, whatever. Just make him gone. I've concluded that counting on Filpulla for anything consistently is foolish. Last night means nothing. Looking over his whole career, he's done nothing reliably but disappoint. He dances too much and doesn't shoot enough. He beat a Pens defenseman with a pull-back move a year or two ago and now has tried to force himself to become a dangler. I honestly don't expect him back next season. Someone will overpay for him. What's the answer? Unfortunately, something I don't see Holland doing: making some moves and adding some players. We're terrible, and honestly, I see us being terrible for a while. No one wants to sign here anymore and we're going to have to hope that something falls to us in the draft.

Thank goodness I'm smart enough to notice sarcasm when I see it. Bravo, sir. You just summed up my feelings about this team in one brilliant show of comedy.

That risk backfired, yes. But this team needs a trade. Anyone who has watched this team as closely as I have all season knows that even when at least mostly healthy, this team has NO teeth and can't score in any situation.

Neither HockeyInsiderr or Eklund know what they're talking about. They just throw crap at the walls and hope it sticks. Darren Dreger and Bob McKenzie are the guys to go to for rumors.

Just heard per The Fourth Period that Holland has been working the phones "for the past couple of weeks" looking for "some secondary scoring help and a top-tier shutdown defenseman". I certainly agree with the first half, but the last part is only half of the defenseman we need. We have enough guys who claim to be good defenders who either A) can't stay on the ice or B) just aren't as good as they should be. That second half should go more like "a solid, top-pairing, two-way defenseman". Too bad those are about as rare as unicorns these days.