DickieDunn

What a team says that they want and what they'll actually take are usually two different things.

A lit of players have similar injury histories. Hockey is a violent sport played by large angry men. Injuries are to be expected across the board.

I see both sides of the NHL Olympics debate, but it kind of pisses me off that he was OK to play for Russia but might not go for Detroit. I understand the honor and wanting to play for his country and everything, but part of his contract is to not do things that unnecessarily jeopardize his health. If he was hurting that bad he shouldn't have played.

Yes you can, just not as much as you could under the old rules. CONTRACT VARIABILITY Front-loaded contracts where the average of salary plus bonuses over the first half of the contract exceeds the cap hit, variability rules apply. Year-to-year variability is limited to 35 per cent of the first-year compensation. If a player earns $10M in Year 1, the contract cannot subsequently increase/decrease by more than $3.5M from year to year. Meanwhile, the lowest year’s compensation cannot be less than 50 per cent of the highest year’s compensation. If a player earns $10M in his highest year, he can never earn less than $5M any other year.

He's better than Almquist.

I'd rather go Kindl, a 4th, and a conditional pick. 2nd if he re-signs, a 2015 5th if he doesn't. I don;t like giving up high picks in a cap league for a rental just to lose him in July.

Torn muscles hurt. #experience

Their goal pace puts Clarkson at one more goal than Weiss over a 1000 game career, so by your own logic he's underperforming because he won't outscore Weiss even though his "job" is to score goals. Never mind that the whole argument about whether wingers should get any assists is completely wrong.

That was pretty cap. Holland has said repeatedly he is going to use the draft, and with their cap situation I don't see a big move happening this season. The offseason is a possibility.

Even without Zetterberg, the Wings top 3 lines will have Datsyuk, Franzen, Alfredsson, Tatar, Nyquist, Helm, Weiss, and 2 of Jurco, Sheahan, and Abdelkader. That's a pretty damn solid group.

If those goal rates hold up, it's one goal over a 1000 game career. What's the assist differential, 2.5 or 3 to one in favor of Weiss? And how is a defensively responsible center who has consistently been near or over 50 points in 5 of the last 6 full seasons he played not a good player?

And would have been a killer at $6.68 mil until then.

I wasn't against Bouwmeester, I was against that contract.

Clarkson's goals average is skewed because of a big year. He generates no offense on his own and doesn't skate or play defense well. He's Homer with worse hands. Weiss skates well, generates offense for his linemates, and can be trusted on the ice against the other team's top line. If you think that .001 goals a game more is meaningful in any way I seriously question your knowledge.

Can we give them to the Pens instead?

Yes. Because the refs made the US stop playing hockey and miss an empty net goal so they could blow a 2-0 lead with under 3:30 to go.

Hmmm, a team build by Brian Burke underperforming. Where have we seen that before?

Looks like the US lost their motivation.

I have a similar issue. The doctor told me that unless it starts pressing on a nerve, they won't do surgery.

One, it wasn't a bone fragment. Two, unless it was pressing on a nerve there was no reason for him to have the surgery.

Hell. No. Weiss is better, and the only think he needs to get back on track is health. Clarkson isn't worth that contract now, and in 3 years it's going to be an albatross.

He had decent linemates still. I can't see him all of a sudden jumping up 5 or 10 goals a year playing in Detroit. First, the offense wouldn't be centered around getting him shots. Second players tend to see their numbers level off and drop after 30. Don't get me wrong, I'd take him on a 4 or 5 year contract , but no longer than that and not for more than $7 mil per.

Vanek isn't a 35 or 40 goal guy anymore. He's a 30 goal guy.

Where was this quoted? The only thing I ever saw was speculation by St. Lame and fans, no direct quotes from Holland about Ryan. O'Reilly was a RFA, and it was pretty clear Colorado wasn't interested in trading his rights, meaning he was never really available. Holland is smart enough to know that when you give another team's RFA a qualifying offer it's going to be matched every time unless it's one of the worst contracts in history. Weiss has struggled because of injury. Clarkson's numbers are down partly due to injury and partly due to lack of skill. His role in NJ was similar to Holmstrom, only his hands aren't as good, he doesn't get assists, and he fights. One of the things I saw people ripping Abdelkader for last year when he was scoring goals is that he wasn't getting assists playing with Datsyuk and Zetterberg. Clarkson played on the Devils' top line and barely had any assists either.

Anyone who looked at Clarkson closely could tell that he wasn't worth what he got. Holland didn't pass on Ryan the Sens had a better package. O'Reilly was never a real option.