DickieDunn

I don't think that any of those older guys are the answer, even in the short term. Boyle's play dropped off significantly this year, I've never been impressed with Zidlicky or Morris, and Timmonen is a small, 39-year-old left handed shooter. I don't want anyone over the age of 35 signed, period. Niskanen and maybe Gilbert on a shorter term deal are the only 2 I'd be really interested in, and I doubt Niskanen makes it to free agency. With Sproul, Ouellet, and Marchenko, plus the lower tier prospects coming and Kronwall, Ericsson, and Dekeyser not going anywhere, and Smith finally settling down and still having upside they don't need to go out and do a lot defensively.

Again, his current contract is based on what he signed for with the Avs (I looked it up, he signed a 2 year deal with Colorado after the trade). Holland could have let him hit the market as a UFA by not tendering the qualifying offer, but what would have been the point of trading for him then? Whether or not he's overpaid on the contract he signs this offseason is going to depend on your feelings about him. Some people act like minimum salary would be too much. I think he'l get just under $3 mil per from Detroit, maybe a bit more, if he wants to stay. I think that even with the weak market, he'll top out at what he's getting now on the market.

The first step should be getting lawyers who have a basic knowledge of the game.

Where is the overpay thing coming from? His current salary is based on the qualifying offer Holland had to give him based on the contract LA (I think, might have been the Avs) gave him.

It would be nice to have a couple guys who shoot right but not a necessity. Kronwall Ericsson Dekeyser and maybe Smith should be a decent top 4. Marchenko and Kindl or Lashoff with the other as 7 is a good bottom 3.

Counting the injured players Almquist is their 11th best d. I don't care about his AHL points he'd be destroyed in his own zone in the NHL. Marchenko Ouellet and Sproul are all ahead of him and Jensen has better NHL potential too.

Let him walk and call up a rookie. Kindl and Lashoff can fight for the 6 spot or make a trade.

I'd rather keep Kindl and hope he finally puts things together than sign any of those old farts.

A lot of players file for it as a way to get talks moving. It doesn't mean they're unhappy. He may want to leave, who knows, but I don't think that there's any indication that he does. He'll have to take a paycut most likely, but unless someone gets desperate and signs him to a big deal just to say that they did SOMETHING I think he's going to make less money regardless of where he plays going forward.

He's unrestricted. They'll either offer him a contract he likes or he'll walk. There is no arbitration, and they're probably just waiting until the end of the season to talk with him.

Can Datsyuk play near 100%? Can Smith avoid giving Boston free goals? How quick will the young guns adjust to playoff hockey?

Conditional 4th where they get nothing if he doesn't sign here. I hate the idea of trading for a guy's rights.

The other side are the people screaming about how he doesn't have the balls to make a trade or the ones who think that Cleary, Almquist, and Miller will bring back a quality player.

Gotta give to get and nobody in their right mind could have realistically expected Nyquist's outburst.

I'd take him in Detroit in a hot second.

The thing with him is, I've seen evaluations saying he's a solid #2, and others that said he's a good 3rd pair guy on a contender, and a lot of his stats are because someone had to play those minutes for the Isles. Obviously Philly feels the former is true, but this is Philly so who knows if he really is a #2. But at least they have Timonen coming off the books, so they'll only have 5 active defensemen making over $3.5 mil. Until they give someone else a big contract that is.

He would have gotten more on the market. $10 says they try to trade him in the next 2 years.

Marchenko doesn't have as much upside but he's closer to ready

It depends on what else they do. I'd like to see Marchenko on the 3rd pair, but the free agent market is going to be paper thin, with a few decent players and a bunch of guys who are old, injury prone, or just plain bad, if not a combination of them. The odds are anyone they'd sign won't be much of an upgrade, if at all, just have different issues. Ideally they can trade Kindl and a prospect or two and get a top 4 quality defender and use Smith and Marchnko as the 3rd pair with Lashoff as the #7. If not, trading Kindl for a pick and re-signing Quincey to a pay cut to play on the 3rd pair won't be the end of the world.

How many guys are hurt now? And they don't have good players to bring up like the Wings had.

Just reliable. Sproul and Ouellet aren't ready for that yet.

Sheahan plays a much more mature game than a typical rookie. Jurco has shown flashes but 15 points in 35 games isn't all that spectacular.

They can be a lot worse.

Bertuzzi and Cleary would have spent time in that 6th spot in the top six, but none of them would have been regulars there. Samuelsson was meant to be a 3rd or 4th line winger and point man for the PP. Samuelsson was a disaster from the get go thanks to injuries, Bertuzzi had stretches where he was useful. I understand the reasoning for both deals. I don't get the Cleary signing though. I know they think he's a great guy and everything but they already had too many forwards and were over the cap. The reason they played Samuelsson early is simple. They had him, they needed to see if he could help at all and hope he showed something so another team would take him. He was banished fairly early on when he didn't do anything.

People do dumb things. Hopefully he pays attention to the counseling he's probably going to be told to get and cleans up. So not a fan of Probert either then? How would your life look if details were made public? Probably not very good, just like everyone else.