DickieDunn

Ask the Canucks how easy it is to trade a goalie with a long contract.

Quincey yes. LAshoff is fine as #7. IDK what to think about Kindl.

Good God no. Vanek isn't worth close to what he's going to get on the market.

The only rumor I heard was that Toronto wants him, not that he is even considering leaving. Iginla to Boston was done, until Iginla changed his mind at the last minute. It's also a totally different situation from Legwand-Jarnkrok.

First, Iginla did sign with Boston. He was traded to the Pens. Second, several writers said that Jarnkrok had said he wouldn't play in GR next year. Third, Babcock said himself that he wasn't in a hurry to sign an extension, and would be ok with going year to year, but that he wasn't going anywhere this year. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/04/red_wings_mike_babcock_says_ge.html

Miller at this point is slightly better than Howard, if that. Howard may not be a Vezina winner, but he's better than his stats showed this year. Off years happen.

Jarnkrok allegedly said he won't report to the AHL next year, which means he would have gone back to Sweden. How many players have gone back to Europe then come BACK to the NHL and had success? The trade was essentially a prospect they were going to lose anyway and a second, and I have a strong suspicion that ownership told Holland that he needed to make sure he made the playoffs.

Babcock isn't going anywhere this year. His daughter is a senior, he'll let her graduate then move on.

The only way he's going to get top line wingers or top pair D is to trade some of the prospects people don't want traded. You're not going to get a top flight player for a 3rd rounder and 8 second tier prospects.

Borg were offered contracts. Hossa wanted time to think and negotiate. Franzen was willing to sign. You don't sign him, you risk losing both. The only thing that makes Franzen's deal bad is the recap penalty which A) didn't exist at the time and B ) length is an issue with Hossa's deal too.

Datsyuk wouldn't have scored with Legwand's line mates either.

Babcock has said before that 10 years is about the max a coach can be effective in one place. Given his statements about not signing an extension, unless they're just bluster to get a better deal, and the fact that they won't let other teams talk to Blashill lead me to believe that there's a good chance Babcock steps down after next season and Blashill takes over. Beyond that, to me it makes sense to bring in a coach who is going to have direct experience coaching most of the guys who will be the long term core of the team going forward, as well as knowing the vets from training camps.

Callahan, Ferraro, Almquist, Nestrasil, McCollum, Miller, Tootoo, Glendening, Frk, Aubry, and Coetzee, plus the 15th pick for the #1 overall. He gets a ready made checking line plus a bunch of young guys he might value more than the Wings do because everyone knows that the guys in other organizations are better than the guys on yours, and a change of scenery might turn these kids into studs. Am I doing it right?

People really need to stop taking what they hear in interviews literally. "Overripe" means "we don't want to let a vet we trust walk away to call up a kid, then have to send the kid down because he's not ready, hurting his confidence and leaving us with a hole in the roster." "We like our team" means "yeah, we have holes, but I'm not going to call anyone out publicly, and it's not like we're the f--king Isles or Panthers." "Kicked the tires" means "I made a bunch of calls but they wanted our first round pick and our best players and I didn't want to trade any of them. Deal with it." "Getting him back is our deadline acquisition" means the same as "kicked the tires" only they're also getting a good player back from injury, and it will help.

The only thing Myers has proven is that he had a good agent who got him that huge deal before he could legally drink. $5.5 mil a year for another 5 years is a lot of risk to take on that he's all of a sudden going to get better in Detroit. No thank you. If the Wings sign a d-man they only need a stop gap for a year or two. I'm not convinced they need that even, unless they don't believe Smith is going to improve going forward. Except for the left hand/right hand issue, an improved Smith would give them a pretty solid top 4, then Kindl or Lashoff can play with Marchenko or Ouellet on the 3rd pair. People hate Franzen because he's "lazy." Stewart would get the same complaints.

The problem I have with Niskanen is that he hasn't been nearly this good for the last few years. I've seen too many guys have a career year, sign a big contract, then drop back off.

Hossa put up better numbers when he was younger. Since he left, he had one season where he had more points but hasn't come close to the 40 goals he scored his one year in Detroit. The other players mentioned didn't really do significantly better after leaving or worse after coming here unless injuries were an issue.

Detroit would have to give Krug a ridiculously bad contract to get him. It isn't happening.

Niskanen isn't a #1 D. It would be stupid to pay him like one just because he's the best free agent D.

Holland said he would not give teams permission to interview Blashill.

The Wings have 2 directions they can go. They can go all in, trade a bunch of youth for guys who will help them win now, and end up with a lot less future depth. Or they can let the kids develop and Datsyuk and Zetterberg probably won't win another Cup in Detroit. If they try to go halfway and do both, I think they're going to end up being stuck in the middle of the pack.

Ownership can think of several million reasons the streak means something. People act like Holland doesn't have a boss and makes every decision based on what he wants. It doesn't work that way.

Tootoo will cost almost a mil against the cap and $1.9 mil in real money. A buyout eliminates the cap hit and $633k of money from the budget. Those are 2 reasons to not let the buyout go unused.

As far as I know he's always been a winger.

They'll use the buy out on Tootoo or Franzen. Unless someone is a 100% certain upgrade over Jurco I don't want them to sign anyone.