DickieDunn

The thing that makes Brunner so expendable is that he's so one dimensional. He's small and isn't strong defensively. They already have Tatar and Nyquist like that, although both should improve their back checking with experience. If Cleary is brought back, and right now it's looking pretty unlikely unless they get a ton of injuries, it will be as a bottom 6 role and will be more for his off ice influence than anything else. If I was Nill I'd offer a short term contract for good money so he could mentor Seguin. Cleary was there before, the high draft pick who would rather party than work. He could be a good influence.

They have better helmets. Players won't make the switch.

Brunner isn't signing here. Happy? Q is overpaid but other guys are worse. The Canucks got Ballard and he was promptly a $4.2 mil or so healthy scratch for 2 seasons. Others are almost as bad.

I agree. Q is overpaid, but he's a decent d-man and the only one besides Kronwall who played both special teams. People just have unrealistic expectations for some players.

Lashoff started well but by the end of his stay he was God awful. Even when he played relatively well he had several brain cramps that led directly to goals. There is no way in hell a good team should have him pencilled in as a regular. Brunner is more of a shooter than either Nyquist or Tatar, but at this point I don't see room for another small fairly one dimensional winger.

Lashoff as the #6 scares me

f*** ties. Keep ot and shootouts and just drop the loser point

Yes, because those 13 points that Tatar and Nyquist combined for really put the team over the top.Tatar was 26 in rookie ppg. For the forwards. Nyquist was 42. Most of the kids behind them played in under 10 games. Rookie toi/gm among rookie forwards who played 10+ games Tatar was 38 and Nyquist was 23. Neither are that physical and neither helped on special teams. They were pretty solid rookies. That doesn't mean they were good NHL players. What about 2 for a win and 0 for a loss no matter how you do it?

Yup, he fights and hits. The other 3 kill penalties, he doesn't. Eaves and Miller skate better. Emmerton can center a line. All 3 make less. Miller Also hits, outhit Tootoo 81-68 in 2 more games in fact. I'm not saying Tootoo is bad, and he certainly has a role on the team. He's not a better player though.

He doesn't bring more, just something different. And Eaves and Emmerton are both likely gone if everyone else is healthy

If Tootoo is overpaid it's not by much, and it's hard to get a free agent without overpaying a little. This isn't nearly as bad as some other recent contracts like Leino, Ehrhoff, Clarkson, and Clowe.

1.9 mil really isn't much for a vet like Tootoo

Why, because of his name?

I think the league is telling him not to suspend stars unless he has to and to not suspend if there's no injury. When he was hired he talked like an attempt to injure was going to bring the hammer regardless of who you are or the result of the hit. Now it's back to the flow chart where who hits, who gets hit, and if someone I'd hurt are considered more than the hit itself.

When their worst contract is Samuelsson at $3 mil with one year left, the team is in pretty good shape.

Did they let one get away? Probably not. Simple short answer

He did he same last year. Sign with a team that will probably miss the playoffs for more money then get traded to a contender at the deadline.

The 28 points he had with Florida I'd a good estimate of what he could have been expected to do. The biggest ***** I heard was that he was a retread. Another guy just like him would have been OK, bit because they had him before, it was a bad deal. Personally, I wasn't thrilled about it but there weren't really any better options. Any guy they bring in might get hurt, that doesn't mean Holland did a bad job. It's just part of sports.

Stepping on the logo is seen as a sign of disrespect for the club.

http://www.capgeek.com/redwings

If he was being compared to Helm, and he needed to be better defensively, wouldn't it have made sense to tell him to work on that part of his game? I don't see how that's a big if.

If they specifically told him to improve a certain part of his game and he wouldn't because scoring is more fun, doesn't that raise a red flag to you?

And that includes Alfredsson's bonus that can be deferred. I think so too, but probably not this season.

20 games a season is a lot but it's not most of the time. Regardless, not signing Colaiacovo wouldn't have opened a contract for Quincey because he's a center and was going to be in juniors for the year and they wanted an NHL defenseman. They just would have signed a different d instead.