DickieDunn

Blash thinks da process will be better this year with his boy Witkowski on the team. Process=Cup, no need for talent or scoring.

Keep calm and Witkowski

I showed this to my kids a few months ago, they thought it was the greatest thing ever

STEALTH TANK

No, What's at RW, Who's at Center, and Idontknow's at RD.

you know what

Martin and Draper did reel gud as my assistants and they'll do what I tell them to do for the next few years and you never know what you might get by looking outside so we just promoted from inside because that's reel gud.

Except the defense sucks and it's had to expect Zetterberg to be as good as he was last year at his age and the coach is still an idiot. I look at it that the Wings don't have ANY starting goalies. Howard can be good but he's injury prone and most of the time struggles after he gets hurt. Mrazek appears to be a spoiled self entitled head case. Coreau just isn't any good, I don't see what makes Holland have any confidence in him, unless it's just more inane "we like our team" drivel.

I will be surprised if one of them isn't GM and the other gets a promotion as well. I've said before I expect them to be co-GMs in some form, with Martin handling the numbers and Draper in charge of personnel decisions.

He was a great GM post cap too, what he did transitioning from no cap to cap was nothing short of genius. But he stopped trying to adapt and thinks that because rebuilding on the fly worked once it will for sure work again, and he started overvaluing role players.

Zetterberg, Abdelkader, Helm, Nielsen, Ericsson, Kronwall, Dekeyeser, Howard, Mrazek, Franzen, Daley all are on the books for over $3 mil this year. Weiss is still on the books as a buy out, $2.6 mil this year and $1.667 mil for the next three years. Glendening is getting double what he should be. I have a hard time crapping on Holland for any of these. At the time they were signed they were reasonable. Zetterberg: Great deal when he signed it, the retroactive punishment for violating the spirit of the CBA makes this potentially hurt. Franzen: Ditto. Ericsson: Probably would have gotten at least that contract and maybe more on the market. Injuries and an apparent fear of getting hurt again have turned him from a solid player into a waste of space. Kronwall: Was a legit #1 D, although not elite. Very good deal until his knee fell apart. Howard:Was paid like an average starting goalie, which he is. When he's healthy and confident, he's one of the better goalies in the league. Problem is, half the time he's hurt or is fighting the puck and is terrible. Mrazek: Looked like he was on track to be a legit #1, until he as named the #1. Apparent entitled attitude and refusal to listen to coaches about what his weaknesses were combined with the rest of the NHL figuring out said weaknesses led to him being one of the worst goalies in the league last year. Looks like the team has soured on him and it may take a small miracle for him to stay after this year. Weiss: They lost Filpulla, needed a #2 center, and the wrist injury he dealt with the year before was healed. Then he hurt his groin, didn't say anything and made it worse, lost Babcock's confidence, and was a complete disaster. The rest of these deals were terrible from day 1. Daley: In a vacuum it's not a bad deal. Given where the Wings are now, it was dumb. Abdelkader: Took a grinder who had never scored much until he played with Datsyuk and Zetterberg for a year and rewarded him with a 7 year deal a year before he was set to be a free agent when he was starting to get close to the age players like him start slowing down. What could go wrong with that? I said the day he signed it he'd never score 20 goals in a season again, and it looks like I'm going to be right. Helm: "Best 3rd line center in the league" gets moved to a scoring line, does nothing, still gets a 5 year deal for too much money. Could have found someone almost as good for a lot less. Dekeyser: Holland jumped the gun and paid him like was was 100% to continue to improve. Was exposed when he was forced to play against better competition. Glendening: Double the $ and term of what he should get. The ultimate replaceable player who has little talent and gets by on hard work, basically a faster Matt Ellis. Should have spent his career on a series of one and two year deals for near league minimum. Nielsen: Aging center who put up the numbers he did because of who he played with as much as because of what he was. He's only going to continue to decline. Desperation signing, too long, too much money, and at a time when they should have been going with a youth movement. Arguable the worst of the bunch, even looking at the others in hind sight.

Holland doesn't seem to get it. Either he really believes the BS he spews, or he thinks that it's what fans want to hear. Either way he's off his rocker. Most knowledgeable fans I've talked with understand that there's a difference between the recent Wings teams and the teams that made runs as low seeds, and that signing a player approaching 30 (or is past it) or a grinder to a long term deal is a bad move. And that's exactly how Kenny has been doing business lately.

Even if they went in a new direction, they're more or less stuck with most of the contracts until they expire. Nobody is going to want them, retaining salary doesn't help much because unless they replace the traded player with someone making close to league minimum, and buyouts just spread the cap hit out to future seasons. The l;onger they keep Holland around making the decisions, the more bad deals he's going to sign, and the longer it will take to clear them out.

Not unless Holland isn't the GM anymore. PLAYOFFS OR BUST

Konstantinov would be suspended every other game if he played like he did back then. Wussification of the USA (and Canada)

Holland still thinks that the team is a couple bounces away from winning the Cup. Either that or STEALTH TANK

Jensen had a good stretch of maybe a dozen games then was fellated the rest of the season because of it. He was BAD for more games than he was good. Smith was better, but that's like saying he was the tallest person in Munchkin land.

One of. Better than Kronwall, Ericsson, or any of the younger guys. Only Green and Dekeyser were better

ask me in 5 years

1) Yup 2) Yup 3) half right

Kronwall and Franzen between them can only "clear" 10% of the cap, because that's all you can go over during the preseason. I'm not sure it's enough to solve the issue, and even if it does it's an idiotic way to do business.

He has a contract in Finland, if he doesn't make the Wings roster he plays there

Based on CI's comments, the fact that Jimmy hasn't been GM in decades, and that Holland seems to do whatever he feels like.

While I admire Kylee's optimism, that's a big F@$# no. Blashill is still the coach. The defense improved but the forwards didn't unless all the younger guys take a step forward. Howard can't be relied on to stay healthy, Mrazek can't be relied on to be less than terrible, and Coreau is just plain bad.

Not Detroit Alienated the closest thing to a long term solution in goal you have, set yourself up to be over the cap by a couple million unless you dump salary, and made it so you'll probably have to trade said goalie, assuming you find a taker, in order to get cap compliant while relying on an injury prone guy on the back half of his career and a guy who completely crapped the bed in his brief NHL career as your #1 and #2. STEALTH TANK!!!!!