DetroitRedWings1993

Well, I guess that's it, then. The rebuild is upon us. I can't say I'm happy with it, but it is what it is. I'm extremely frustrated with Holland's choice to stand pat, but I can also begin to understand. He wants to build this team again. We entered the twilight of this franchise's success in 2009 and now it's finally over. We're committed to youth. Our farm system is extremely boom-or-bust, but it's all we have. Or are we? We still employ the likes of Cleary, Bertuzzi, and Samuelsson. Three contracts that could be used on young talent. But no. So, what do we do going forward? I'll start with right this second and go into the beginning of next season. I'll touch slightly on the draft and free agency. I don't know what the market will look like come "Opening Day" and I'm not in-tune enough with the world of hockey prospects to really make a sensible draft list. I'm doing this operating under the assumption that we make the playoffs. Missing the playoffs wouldn't change much as far as core needs and tasks, anyways. Well, here we go. - Begin contract talks with Filpulla. DO NOT go in with a "sign-or-let-walk" attitude. If his demands are unreasonable (I would consider pretty much what he's making now to be reasonable, given his production), be prepared to move his rights at the Draft. - Finish Howard's extension. While he is prone to inconsistency and lets in soft goals on occasion, he's the best we have. He's probably worth around 4-5 million a season. He's playing well right now and seems to have put last year's injury behind him. - Go into the playoffs and do what you're going to do. Allow our current rookies to show what they can do in the playoffs. - When all is said and done, go to work. It's time to trim the fat. Use cap-compliance buyouts on Samuelsson and Bertuzzi. Try and move Colaiacovo at the Draft, if possible. - This is the big one: dangle Franzen at the Draft. By no means am I saying to absolutely move him for whatever someone shoves under your nose. I'm saying to dangle him. See what you can get. If you find an offer that you can't refuse, take it. He's aging, inconsistent, soft, and doesn't use his size. He's not a player that will perform well in the East. - As far as draft strategy, size and scoring need to be the focus. The East is a totally different monster from the West. We're going to get eaten alive in the first couple of seasons. Find a sniping power-forward who plays with an edge and a big, strong, right-handed defenseman early on. Fill out the draft with some good two-way guys. We need all the effort at both ends of the rink we can get. - After the Draft and everything settles down until the re-sign period, sit down and have a REAL heart-to-heart with Datsyuk. I don't care what BS the media spews about him wanting to leave after this contract. I want to hear it from his mouth. If he does indeed intend to leave, be prepared to make him available at the deadline and move him. Losing Datsyuk for nothing is absolutely unacceptable. - Seriously re-evaluate your position on Brendan Smith. Let's be honest with ourselves. He hasn't been very good since his first few games after being called up. He's been invisible far too often. He makes a ton of mistakes and, quite frankly, isn't contributing offensively. This should affect your demands from him contractually when it's time to re-sign him. If he doesn't like it...tough. - Now comes the re-sign period. Brunner needs to be the top priority. He shows a desire to go to the dirty scoring areas, and that translates to the East. While he is undersized, totally un-physical and hard to watch defensively, he scores goals. We can't afford to let that go. Get him for a reasonable raise (3 million should be fine, at the very most). Next, Kindl and Smith need new contracts. Neither realistically command a significant raise. 2.5-3 million each should be just fine. If not, I wouldn't go beyond 4 for either. -Free-agency comes next. Waive bye-bye to Cleary and White. Completely unnecessary plugs who aren't much use anymore. Make Gustavsson available, and take whatever you can get for him. In what little we ask of him to do, he has been downright awful. Mrazek needs the experience. He deserves a chance to prove he can hold down the backup role. See if Miller can be re-signed for about what he's making now. If not, it's not a catastrophe to let him walk. - Same strategy should apply to free agency as was applied to the draft. We won't have a whole lot of money to spend, so we're probably not going to be very active. We're screwed cap-wise with so many free agents. I'm going to do the rest of this assuming we aren't active. - As we enter training camp, we now have 7 defenseman (Kronwall, Lashoff, Quincey, Smith, DeKeyser, Kindl and Ericsson), so there aren't many open spots. None of our defense prospects are close to being ready. I can see Lashoff being the 7th defenseman during the season. - Forward is a little trickier. Put Abdelkader in the bottom-6 where he belongs and keep him there. He is not, and never will be, a goal-scorer. There are three openings now that Cleary, Bertuzzi, and Samuelsson are gone. Tatar should be brought up full-time. No one else is really NHL-ready. Try to find two young forwards with size and decent offensive skill on the market. I can see us going with a lineup looking like this: Filpulla - Datsyuk - Franzen Tatar - Zetterberg - Brunner Nyquist - Helm - Abdelkader Miller - Andersson - Tootoo Extras: Emmerton/Eaves Kronwall - Ericsson Smith - DeKeyser Kindl - Quincey Extra:Lashoff Howard Mrazek - Be prepared to call-up Jarnkrok, Pulkinnen and Sproul during the season if injuries hit. They aren"t ready for full-time duty, but could hold down a spot for us. And that's about it right through the start of the season. Essentially, it's about cleaning up the mess from last offseason and getting serious about installing a youth movement to me. I do NOT want to go the way of Calgary, Buffalo, and Dallas. Middling in the middle while you try to rebuild on the fly DOES NOT WORK. We can get back on the road to winning consistently if we cut the over-loyal BS and start managing in the 21st century.

Every time I defend Howard, he just makes me look like a fool. I'm not even going to bother. Just praying that we at least make the playoffs.

Because he has one goal in the past 18 games. He's fallen off the face of the Earth. Looking more and more like another Franzen every day. I hope a full offseason helps him.

Problem is, everyone behind us is already hot. Edmonton and Nashville have been replaced by Dallas and Phoenix.

This team can't control themselves on the ice, let alone their destiny. With how they're currently playing, it'll be a miracle if we finish the season higher than 11th.

Need to have effort to be creative. This team gives an embarrassing effort every night. They ought to be ashamed of themselves...honestly. Columbus deserves our spot so much more than us it sickens me.

He'll sort his s*** out. A full offseason of workouts and training camp will do wonders for him. He's basically had to make it up as he goes. He's seen the league now and knows what it's all about. Count on him to be stockier and more consistent next season.

I hate to say I told you so... I love Helm. The prototypical bottom-6'er. Very valuable. Does a lot of the dirty work that most just aren't willing to do. He's such a little firepisser. I love that about him.

Suter and Parise were always going to play together in Minnesota. Parise wanted to go home, and Suter wanted to go with Parise. There's nothing Holland could've done about that. He can't force Parise and Suter to want to play in Detroit all of a sudden. They became joined at the hip and hitched their wagon to the Wild, for better or worse. That being said, the team failed to acquire anything of substance after they knew they wouldn't be getting Suter and Parise. It was a domino effect. All the "plan-B" players were already gone by the time Detroit knew they lost out on both players. Brunner has been a nice surprise, and Tootoo has been doing his job admirably. The rest of Holland's band-aid box...not so much.

He's got a lot of baggage and just isn't the player he used to be. Not worth the money.

Totally agree, and you make an interesting point about Kronwall. I have to disagree with one-year deals to vets. We need to be honest about this youth movement if we really want to install one. Everyone who's ready should have every opportunity to make the team. That means that we need less veteran plugs. We need less of guys like Cleary, Samuelsson, Colaiacovo and Bertuzzi and more guys like Andersson, Tatar, Nyquist, Smith, Lashoff and DeKeyser.

This is what teams that are saturated with bottom-6 forwards, are too old, are gutless and soft, don't work hard and haven't had a good draft pick in 21 years look like. It's just how it is. It got this way because we've lost 3 top-4 defenseman in the last 3 seasons and haven't been able to replace them with, at the very least, something close. It got this way because, instead of leaving roster spots open for prospects this season, signed Tootoo (although I've loved his play) and Samuelsson. It got this way because the patchwork defense has mostly failed, as it was destined to, and Howard isn't able to allow 1 goal or fewer every night. It got this way because our forwards are simply unable to generate offense any longer. This is what we are now. We're in a rebuild, and this is what that feels like. It hurts that the glory days are over, but they are. It's time to let the streak go and start managing in the 21st century.

The only kinds of teams who are on the downslope that don't eventually come back are those that have incompetent management who waste draft picks and make bad trades that hurt the long-term viability of the team. While I do not agree with everything Ken Holland has done, he is far from incompetent. And no, we do not need to ask him to retire or fire him. That's absurd. Installing a new regime now would only set the rebuilding process back. This is what happens when your roster turns over and you haven't had a good draft pick for 21 years. No team can perpetuate that kind of success. It just doesn't work that way. This is what a rebuilding team looks like, and we had better get used to it.

Oh, the fun of puns! I say to re-evaluate our position on Smith and you say move him to forward! I love it! And that is not sarcasm. Seriously. I'd love to see what he could do at forward, but he has too much potential as a defenseman. He's really the only one in our system that has #1 ability. Sproul and Ouellet are great #2 options for the future, but Smith is the big dog in that race.

I'm excited to see what DeKeyser can do. It's high-time he got some playing time.

Very true, missed that. That makes things a lot easier.

1. Their record, failure to bring in supplementary talent from outside the organization, and overall age of their core players says they're in a rebuild. As Serratoni stated above, Holland said it himself. You think it's 1997. It's not. We aren't going to be making the playoffs forever. In the cap era, you just can't. Beginning the rebuild now and cutting the dead weight is the best way to expedite the rebuild.2. I'm getting it from Holland. I don't know what else I need to show you. Bertuzzi has LONG passed his productive years. To expect him to produce after a major injury at his age is simply absurd. Again, you think it's 1997. WE...CANNOT...WIN...FOREVER. 3. You're trying to get me to admit to something I, very clearly, said I wasn't trying to say. I said to DANGLE him. NOT to absolutely trade him. The only situation...and again, ONLY situation...in which you trade him is if the trade supplies you with strong, young talent and several draft picks. 4. Yes...they are getting bigger and better. Dougie Hamilton in Boston. The Ottawa Senators in general. Philly is always big and tough and are only going to get bigger and tougher. New Jersey is always physical, forechecks hard, and is tough to play against. The Rangers play an extremely physical game. Marc Staal, Rick Nash, you name it. To think that a conference will stay exactly the same, or even get worse, is foolish. Entirely foolish. Montreal is an anomaly. Florida and Tampa Bay play the exact same game and both struggle mightily in the East. Montreal's game is focused around speed and production from the defense. Outside of Kronwall, we have almost ZERO production from the defense and, as currently coached and constructed, our game does not rely on speed. 5. Losing an asset like Datsyuk for nothing is insanity. Loyalty kills franchises. Again, you missed the whole point of what I said. I explicitly stated to discuss with him what the truth is. Read the point. 6. Smith has twice the raw talent Kindl has, for one thing, and for another is higher in the lineup. This is not his first year in the NHL. He was called up last year, and didn't impress me. He has continued not to impress me. If he's so talented, he should've at least shown some improvement by now. Again, and I don't know how many times I have to say this, DID NOT say to get rid of him. 7. No. False. Gustavsson is a worthless scrub and a waste of a contract. A failure to scout him properly. He was awful in Toronto. He showed the same flaws in his game then as he does now, and no one saw it. A remarkable blunder. He BADLY overplays the puck and struggles to contain even the simplest shots. His positioning is awful. He tries to be Hasek and flops all over the crease, but in reality he just looks like a moron. There is absolutely no confidence in him as a backup, hence why Jimmy must play so many games. 8. You failed to provide any real evidence as to why his play hasn't tailed off. Babcock continues to play Lashoff because we are thin on defense and he doesn't have a choice. DeKeyser has more raw talent and needs the experience. Again, I DID NOT say Lashoff will never play. 9. You are...once again...missing the entire point of what I said. I said to use them in emergency situations. NEVER did I say to make them full-time NHLers. Not once did I use those words. And furthermore, yes, this team needs to commit to youth and begin the rebuild. The glory years are over. Accept it. 10. Yes, continuously making the playoffs as a lower seed and being easily dispatched in the first round is mediocre. The definition of mediocrity is hovering in the middle of the pack while not accomplishing anything real. Making the playoffs does not mean you're any less mediocre. Besides that, this team may not even make the playoffs. And even if they do, they're an easy first-round out. This team CANNOT compete in the playoffs. You're trying to make what I'm saying out to be A LOT more extremist than it actually is. That doesn't help your argument. You need to get out of 1997 and start living in the present. Picking in the middle of the first round every year is not how you rebuild a franchise.

Brunner needs to play with Z. He's most effective when they're both on the ice together. I would go with something like this: Filpulla - Datsyuk - Franzen Nyquist - Zetterberg - Brunner Cleary - Andersson - Abdelkader Miller/Eaves - Emmerton - Tootoo If Bertuzzi, Helm and Samuelsson get back, we're really in a bind. Both Nyquist and Andersson would have to be sent down, and we would still have to open up another roster spot, meaning we'd have to do something with both Miller and Eaves, most likely.

If anyone here believes Twitter, Dave Waddell and George Malik, do yourself a favor and sleep through the rest of today and all of Wednesday. I saw a very interesting comment on one of Malik's blog posts today. Not only that, but I totally agree with it. From PaulInMiamiBeach: I’m so sick of this “you can’t fix it all at once, so don’t fix any of it at all” attitude. That is a recipe for failure. He hit it right on the head for me. Not only that, but I believe it was kipwinger who shared pretty much the same sentiment. Doing nothing makes us just as worse as making a bad deal does. This team is full of bad deals. Cleary, Bertuzzi, Sammuelsson, Quincey, Colaiacovo, Gustavsson, the list goes on. If we emerge from this trade deadline the same team, this team is going nowhere. Not even to the playoffs. Nowhere. But, we already knew that, didn't we? This season wasn't always a "rebuilding/transitional" year. Off the topic, but transitioning to what? Mediocrity? Becoming an awful team for several decades? What's the end result? It honestly frightens me to think about it. Anyways, this season only became such when the team failed to do much of anything in free agency. At that point, management cut off their own collective manhood, threw their hands in the air, and gave up. At least, that's the way I see it. Also, I'd like to address some ridiculous and false optimism. People cite the lowering of the cap next season and say how many great players will be available because of cap-compliance buyouts. Sorry, but that's the biggest crock on Earth. Do people really think that quality players will be bought out? That's hilarious. No one is going to buy out key pieces, people. Certainly not a top-6 scoring forward who can consistently score goals. That's the reality of it. People think all these players are going to fall right into our lap. Not only that, but wasn't that the mantra last summer? See how that turned out. So, by all means Kenny, do nothing. I just hope your prepared for another firestorm from everyone around you afterwards. I would've thought you'd be sick of that already. Our prospects aren't nearly as good as everyone seems to think. I've seen Tatar and Nyquist...and I'm not impressed. They've fallen victim to scouting. Teams know them, and I'd say that's about it for them. Our farm system is almost entirely boom-or-bust. See the dramatic peaks and valleys of a lot of their past performances. Jarnkrok and Pulkinnen, especially. So, I guess tomorrow's a waste of time. Great. It'll be fun watching this team spiral out of control and crash in a flaming heap outside the playoff window.

It's a Philly source. Not sure how much credibility to lend when talking about Crosby.

That's exactly what I'm saying. Start the rebuild now. Changed, missed Helm. My mistake.

OK then... 1. That's the point of a rebuild...ice your young talent and see what they can do. We...will...not...contend...for...the...Cup. 2. Bertuzzi is old as dirt and this is a serious injury. Again...WE'RE IN A YOUTH MOVEMENT. A half-assed one, but that's how it has to be to get back on track. He won't be able to produce even if he does return. 3. What production? The one he brings when he feels like it? We can't win with those kinds of players. You can't agree with dangling him? You make it sound like I said exactly what I said I WASN'T saying. 4. We play the East in the odd game now and then. We haven't played them at all this season. They are only going to get better next year. Nyquist and Tatar ARE NOT big. At all. And even when we have size, our guys with size play like kittens. See Ericsson and Franzen. And yes, the East IS as big as everyone says. Chara, the Staal brothers, Lucic, Ryan Malone and Scott Hartnell, just to name a few. 5. So, you're okay with losing him for nothing? Okay. Have fun answering for that one. 6. Kindl has proven that he deserves a contract and has been able to hold down a roster spot. He's been in the league far longer than Smith has. He has more points and is better in plus/minus than Smith. He's slowly, but surely, getting better. Smith has fallen off sharply since those first few games. Smith makes many mistakes I see Kindl making less and less of. I literally NOT ONCE said to get rid of Smith. Never used those words AT ALL. 7. Gustavsson is awful and does not deserve to end his deal here. He was bad in Toronto, and it was a complete and total failure of scouting to sign him. His game is so screwed up, it's almost laughable. Mrazek can provide much more than he is able to. 8. Lashoff, while being mostly impressive, has started to tail off. It's obvious there are some parts of his game that need work. He was forced into action this season due to injuries. He's young yet and cannot be realistically counted on to play a large role without a little more seasoning. You're overvaluing his early success. Again, DID NOT say to get rid of him, just diminish his role with the presence of health to allow him room to learn. 9. Again, missed the entire point of what I said. I said for them to be emergency spot-fillers should injury strike. I literally use the words "they aren't ready". That's exactly what happened this season. I never ONCE said for ANY of them to have a full-time spot. If we are really committed to a youth movement, we have to give them some time in the NHL at some point and be able to cope with some mistakes. We were able to this year, why not next? 10. This just makes absolutely no sense to me, but maybe I'm just having a hard time understanding the statement. So, you're fine with being like Buffalo, Calgary, and Dallas? You're fine with being mediocre for an undetermined amount of time and eventually having to rebuild when even that comes to an end than rebuilding for a few years and becoming a contender sooner? I can't wrap my brain around that. Hope this helps explain things. The way I see it, you missed a lot of my points. Furthermore, he didn't continue trade talks when the price got high...hence the decision to stand pat. Your definition of success is obviously different from mine. As such, this argument will go nowhere. Anyhow, being perpetually stuck in the middle of the pack is NOT success. We had success. We know what it looks like. Also, I literally said in the first few sentences that I understand that decision. This is not a rant about how much I hate Holland. I was telling how I would do it were I the GM.

Who knows if those offers were even competitive? If your roster is the same as when you entered the deadline, you stood pat. He could've upped the ante, but he didn't. He decided to stick with what he had. It's neither here nor there. The deadline is over and there's no sense bitching about it anymore. Literally nowhere in this did I once say he stood pat during the summer. In addition to all this, this has nothing to do what the original post.

...Ok...thanks for trying, I guess. I literally almost started off by saying to buy out Sammy's contract.