DickieDunn

Clarkson was traded for a dead contract that the Leafs cold stick on LTIR,clearing some cap space for them, while the BJs, a budget team, would rather overpay a guy and get at least some production instead of paying a guy to not play. It was the perfect situation to happen. With Franzen on the books, Detroit can't take on another dead contract like that. Why pay a team to take the bad contract if it's not necessary?

Untradeable means "we'd have to give up too many assets to convince at team to take the crap deal as well to be worth it," or "his value is so low right now we're better holding on to him in hopes that it increases and trade him later." Do you really want to send a 2nd or 3rd rounder with Ericsson and get back a 4th rounder just to move him? I'd rather not. I'd move Sheahan, sign AA, and do what I can to fill out the roster from there. If that means sending 2 or 3 guys down and replacing them with guys making $6-700k to clear a little bit at a time, so be it. But I still say if Holland gives Ericsson the option of "retiring" to play in Sweden with his brother or playing in GR, he'll retire. That saves more than enough cap.

should be playing for someone else. Abdelkader should be too, but they needed someone

I'm confused. You said Chicago got good through a natural process. Now you're saying that they sucked for a decade just like the other teams that tanked. In order to get good, you either need to be be bad for a period of years or get extremely lucky. Holland is banking on hitting a couple homeruns with later picks. I think it's a huge mistake. The team he's build has at best a 50-50 shot of making the playoffs. It's loaded with vets and mid level players on long contracts that pay them too much. If the team I'm a fan of doesn't have any real shot of winning, I'd rather that they be going with younger players who have a chance to improve instead of guys that they're hoping will rebound or won't slide too much at 30-ish years old. Mantha-Zetterberg-Nyquist Tatar-Larkin-Abdelkader Svechnikov-AA-Sheahan Bertuzzi-Glendening*-Witkowski 2 random cheap vets as reserves Dekeyser-Green XO-Jensen Kronwall-Sproul *at $950k or so That looks better to me going forward than what will be on the ice this year. Ericsson

Ericsson was a solid 2nd pair guy. Then he got hurt and started acting like he was afraid of getting hurt again. Now he's a so-so 3rd pair guy.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/teams/dr00005492.html Larkin was picked to get a hometown boy. Svech and Mantha were good. How many other picks int he last 6 or so years can you say were really good picks?

I agree to the point that bitching about Zetterberg's deal and for the most part Franzem Kronwall, and some others, is being Captain hindsight. But a lot of the moves he's made lately have been stupid from day 1.

I thought Babcock's time was done in Detroit, but I wasn't convinced Blash was the correct choice either. I thought Blash might be too much like Babs. I was right in part, he tries to be like Mike, only he's not nearly as smart.

I wish

You don't think Chicago benefited from high draft picks?

Half of Edmonton's problem was constantly taking the wrong guys with their top 3 picks. They took the same type of player every year, and got a couple busts in there. A art GM would most likely do better. Crap, we have Kenny. We're screwed

XO and sproul have limited upside. At best they might develop into OK 2nd par D who would be 3rd pair on a good team. Mrazek is either going to be a stud or a dud, probably not much room in the middle. Spends a crap ton of money and D and goaltending are the two major flaws on the team. GENIUS!

Holland apparently believes that adding a second pair caliber D to the team will put them over the top.

If he has a contract in Finland that says he plays there if he's not in the NHL, I doubt it's possible, unless maybe the Wings send them some cash to get him out of the contract

I suppose they could defer some payments, but ti wouldn't affect the cap

Know hot to be good on the PK? Work hard and follow the system. Good PK players aren't some rare commodity. They're the NHL version of a baseball utility man or NFL special teams ace. Valuable players, but not guys you pay a lot to keep around. Some people thought Nyquist and Tatar were going to be Euro Twins part 2. Now that they're just good secondary players who are going to help the offense but not carry it, they're perceived to be over rated 3rd line caliber players by most of those same people. Just like Dekeyser was going to be a #1 D, or at worst a good #2, or Ericsson was going to be like Pronger only not a dirty mother @#$er, or Smith was going to be a good offensive d-man, or Pulk was a Finnish Hull, or insert other over-hyped prospect here.

We're the product of a GM reluctant to admit that that he needs to do a rebuild or let vets walk away, and who overvalues hard work at the expense of talent.

The odds of Zetterberg playin the last couple years of that deal were about the same as the odds of Mary Swanson marrying Lloyd Christmas

And trading an asset just to move a bad contract hurts the rebuild that they insist they don't need. I'd move Sheahan for a pick, sign AA, then worry about the rest later. Maybe see if Babcock loves him some LFG enough to take him at that cap hit.

negative 23.8

for what little cap room they have, not what he should be getting. Would you take a job that pays you 2/3 of what you should be making based on your qualifications?

Best case is Blashidiot coaches them to a last place finish and they win the lottery. Worse case is they're close to the playoffs and Holland makes a move to get in because "you never know what will happen."

If Zetterberg says his back hurts too much and a couple doctors back him up, I don't know how the league can argue it. Medical experts vs. "we don't believe it?"

it wasn't the players, it was the GMs who gave them the deals. And I would have done the same thing. Under the rules at the time, it was a legit strategy. Buttman and the owners who were butthurt about teams doing that forced the retroactive BS penalty.

The better question is, who COULD they trade without paying a team to take on a bad contract? Tatar, Nyquist, Green. Helm if they retain some salary. Ericsson if they retain enough salary to make it almost a moot point. Maybe Dekeyser if a team believes he'd be good in a better situation, which he probably would, but you're not going to get any kind of value for him so it would be a mistake to trade him. Ditto for Mrazek. Howard will be more movable next summer if a team needs a one year stop gap while a young goalie matures.