DickieDunn

I don't know why he'd want to go be a #2 for another team after spending his whole career in NJ. He'll look for a starting job.

Gaborik can't stay healthy

Sometimes the easiest way to improve is to let your young players get better. Smith is ready to be a top 4 guy. Dekeyser is improving his puck movement. I don't want them to get someone who isn't head and shoulders better than those 2 kids. No Boyle. No Orpik. No Markov.

Unless Brodeur decides he's ok as a backup, he won't come to Detroit. If was ok as a #2, I don't see why he'd leave New Jersey for one year.

I think Edler's performance was largely due to Tortorella'a incompetence. I fully expect him to get back to where he's been.

Tatar and a D prospect, plus a first might get it done. I'd rather not send Nyquist or Jurco out. Of the other young forwards, those three and Mantha are the only ones who would have much value.

You know how bad everyone says Smith, Lashoff, and Kindl are defensively? Green is worse. Plus he can't stay healthy and he has a cap hit of over $6 mil next year.

Yandle is great offensively, not so much defensively. If the Wings are going to give up the prospects to get him, they need to get someone better.

Lashoff.

I think that he would have stayed had they promoted Botterill.

What I don't understand is people want Ouellet Sproul or Marchenko sitting in the press box as the seventh D.

The Wings aren't in a position to need a small piece. Adding Boyle and Penner or another lower level free agent forward won't make them that much better. Moulson or Vanek plus a higher level D wound't get them over the hump either. At this point, regardless of where Zetterberg and Datsyuk are in their careers, the only two good options are either using the youth to trade for 2 top flight players, better than the guys in free agency, or letting the young guys develop. That includes Kindl and Lashoff staying, starting the year witha rookie on the 3rd pair, and giving Smith an extended shot at a top 4 role, and using Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan, and Jurco a scoring line players along with Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Weiss, and one other guy to fill out the top 3 lines. Then roll out a checking line of Miller-Helm-Abdelkader, or use Helm or Abdelkader on the 3rd line and plug Glendening or Andersson into the 4th line.

People are judging this contract based on the length. He wasn't supposed to play the last 2 or 3 years of it, and under the rules that were in place when it was signed there would have been no cap implications for him retiring. The only thing that makes it a remotely bad contract is the NHL retroactively punishing teams with front loaded contracts. Consistency issues aside, Franzen puts up a good number of points for his cap hit. How many guys who have signed as a UFA are putting up better numbers for the same money or less? Virtually all of them are still on entry level or RFA contracts where they had less leverage and therefore got less, or had done nothing to indicate that they could score 25+ goals before signing their current contract. People are talking about giving Vanek $3 mil more. Over the last 3 full seasons plus the lockout, you get something like 3 more goals and 10 more points from Vanek than you do Franzen, and Vanek is less engaged away from the puck or when he's not scoring. If Vanek is worth $6 or 7 mil, Franzen certainly is worth $4 mil.

No thanks to Stewart. If he couldn't get along with Hitchcock, I can't see him getting along with Babcock. Anyone who thinks Franzen floats would despise Stewart even more after his first shift. He's one of those guys who could be a superstar, but he doesn't have the drive, and never will. Just because they have cap space, doesn't mean they have to use it all. Ask Buffalo how well that works out. Bring in a 3rd pair D on a short term deal and let the younger guys develop. Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Jurco Franzen-Weiss-Nyquist Tatar-Sheahan-Abdelkader/Free agent/Mantha Miller-Helm-Abdelkader/Glendening Kronwall-Dekeyser Smith-Ericsson Rookie-New Guy Lashoff is the 7th D. 2 of Glendening, Andersson, Callahan, and Ferraro are the reserves, depending on if they bring someone in.

They won't have a rookie as the reserve. It would be stupid to have a kid who could be playing major minutes in Grand Rapids sitting in the press box on a regular basis. you see that from a bottom feeder occasionally, but Detroit won't do it. Lashoff will be kept as the #7. Kindl and Lashoff together wouldn't come close to bringing a second rounder anyway. Maybe a 4th.

Who says he's the go to guy?

There is no way I'd sign with Detroit unless I had no other offers if I were Quincey. He needs a fresh start.

Nope. Other players are better, at least until they get to Detroit and people see their flaws, then they suck too.

I'd do $6 mil per for 3 years for Vanek, maybe, probably less than that. It's been reported he wants $50 mil over 7 years. Too much and too long for Vanek. I wouldn't sign Niskanen for more than 3 years either, at about $5 mil per. You just don't know if he's the guy who stepped up and played well this year, the guy he was the last 2 years, or somewhere in between. He got demoted back to the 4th D in Pittsburgh once everyone was healthy and I haven't heard a word about them trying to make a move to keep him. That tells me that the team that knows him best doesn't think he's more than a second pair D, and I'm not going to give a guy like that 6 or 7 years unless it's a very cap friendly deal.

There may be a trade available. Free agency isn't going to supply a very good option though, which is what I was talking about. Baneo and Niskanen will get big contracts because there are always teams willing to pay too much so they can say they're trying.

There are no elite players in free agency. Vanek is so awesome he was demoted to the 4th line and Montreal won't try to sign him after giving up assets for him at the deadline. Niskanen was 4th in TOI for the Pens in the playoffs and if he was really worth top pair money for long term there would be more talk about them trying to keep him. I'd rather see them fill every open spot with a rookie than sign a guy for too much money for 5+ years or some over the hill stop gap for 2 years.

You're not getter a top pair D for Ferraro Almquist and a second.

First, he doesn't want to be a call up or be given a chance. He wants the NHL or Europe. That won't happen in Detroit. Second, if he can't win puck battles he won't help offensively because he'll cough up the puck constantly. The team constantly evaluates their prospects. The fact that Ouellet got time in the playoffs over Almquist should tell you all you need to know. They know he'd be overmatched, which despite his goal and a few nice passes, he was in his 2 games. And don't talk to me about camp. Half the players he was up against were AHL, ECHL, or junior players.

Small players can excel in the NHL. It's harder for a defenseman though, and the few that do make it are far better skaters than Almquist is. As it stands now, he'd be overmatched in his own end and offensively he wouldn't be able to win enough puck battles to be effective enough to compensate for the poor defense. People who are saying he'd be better than anyone the Wings have now, or Sproul, Marchenko, or Ouellet, are the "grass is greener" crowd. The same ones who said that Ericsson was going to be the Swedish Pronger, and every hot prospect was already better than half the roster before they played more than a dozen NHL games, and any given free agent would "obviously" be good here, until that player gets here and we see his flaws. If Almquist was on the roster next year, everyone would be screaming to get rid of him by Thanksgiving.

Hey, hiring an analyst just because he can say words on TV that sound almost not stupid is a great idea. Just ask the Lions.