WingNut 25

No way on Semin. Signing him would be a huge mistake.

. Morrow is not an upgrade. I'm sorry but you'll never convince me of that. Morrow will be 34 next January and scored a whoppin 26 points this season in 57 games, all while bringing in a cap hit of $4.1 million through next season. You want to bring him on board? Wait until you can sign him next offseason for a fraction of his current salary. He fits right in that 3rd line mold but for Franzen in trade? Come on. That's the dumbest trade proposed yet. Franzen is younger (though granted not by much) and had 56 points this year with a smaller cap hit (again not by much but cap space is valuable no matter how much). In today's NHL, I'll take Franzen any day. The Wings will go all in on Parise no doubt but why go after an underachiever w/ a bad attitude in Semin? You posted at length on the need for leadership in your proposed plan and why it's wise the Wings dump Mule for Morrow yet completely do an about face to bring in Semin and his awful attitude. I'm sorry but I'll keep Mule over Semin. Your posting is the type of short sighted, ill informed fantasy GM-ing that's good for nothing more than a laugh. At least do some homework before posting.

No one will trade for Stuart's rights knowing he'll only go to the West Coast. That means very few teams will even be in the running for his services when July 1 hits. The only teams remotely likely to give up anything (likely a low draft pick) are one of the 3 CA teams that want to get the jump on the other 2.

LeftWinger - any player can be traded. Ask Wayne Gretzky. Here's the problem with these armchair fantasy GMs: none of these trades make sense. Your theory is a guy who has a C on his sweater is better than someone you label soft, despite that aforementioned soft player scoring more goals and being far more proven come playoff time. Morrow's resume is far from a compelling case to be a "must get" guy. I see nothing wrong with adding fresh leadership but at what cost? Morrow fills no need beyond taking some other team's captain and helping add a new voice to the Detroit locker room. You really consider Morrow an upgrade over Mule in production? One of our greatest needs is more depth at forward an more goal scorers. Your fix is to trade one away and bring in less goals? That's the theme of my posts: live within reason when suggesting moves. Nash will never get moved to Detroit because of the immense negativity that will carry for the Columbus franchise. Perry, Getzlaf or Ryan coul be moved but if you're on the other end of that deal as a GM, are you salivating at the prospect of trading one of those 3 for a Franzen or Filpulla and spare parts (I.E. Abby, Eaves, Kindl, etc). It took a 1st round pick to get Kyle Quincey. It's gonna take loads more than the lower tier guys and 1 of our stars mentioned to land any of the names I'm seeing.

Wings won't trade Flip or Nyquist. If Franzen is made available, Holland will want a comparable player in return. Name how many of those guys are actually available and if someone wants to absorb the years left on Mule's deal. Realistically, what do you think guys like Eaves, Emmerton, Miller or Abdelkader bring in return? Not much. Miller actually scores on the bottom 2 lines. You gotta hold on to guys like that. The other 3 are role players that don't score. Not exactly hot commodities.

Salary cap prevents a lot of trades and who, minus our core, was really trade bait? Too many people live in a fantasy world when it comes to trades & free agency.

Franzen for Morrow is one of the dumbest trade ideas in recent memory. Franzen, while streaky, pots close to 30 goals a year. His injuries have often been freak plays. Morrow throws a check and limps off the ice. He fills no void for the Wings. To me, Parise is the "all in" UFA for this franchise. He'd be dynamite on a line with Datsyuk. I truly think Detroit is on his short list of destinations. Suter is interesting because Nashville could go far this postseason and now has an ownership group that can pay him. The question for the Preds will simply be "Can we pay everyone?" Radulov is going to get a huge pay raise. Weber is UFA next summer and could easily get $10 million/year on the open market and the team has some other free agents they'll need to decide on. Given their depth of D, maybe they let Suter walk for the greater good. I think most can agree on the Wings making a huge push on both Suter and Parise. They are "need" players for the franchise. I can only hope management does not drop the ball this offseason as they have since 2009.

Morrow can't stay healthy. That's an issue.

Lidstrom disinterested? Wow that's a dumb observation. The guy was getting cortisone injections before games. He was basically playing with 1 leg. He was clearly hampered and far from 100%. I think Parise is a very real option. Suter is gonna get $8 million/year from someone. If Lidstrom returns, which I don't believe he will, Holland needs to get realistic and offer him a $2 million base. This $6-7 mill/year BS is only hurting the club. What were Zach's recent comments on the Wings? Just curious as I hadn't heard them.

This team needs more grit and speed on the bottom 2 lines.

Someone on another board I frequent made an interesting comment that led to the debate of: did the Wings sign the wrong player in 2009 (Hossa vs Franzen)?

He's useless at this point considering he's barely used on the PP. That sucks to say but it's my blunt opinion.

I sat there watching the handshake and my gut feeling is that Nick is done. He's 42 and clearly his body doesn't heal the way it used to. He went scoreless in the postseason to boot. I think Nick is going to see that as a sign he's not what he used to be and he'd rather not come back and be even less than what he was. Stuart is gone. My guess is he signs with the Ducks. I think Holmstrom is gone too. He was barely used on the PP and that, truly, was where he was most valuable. At this point he's useless if he's not being used on the PP. The bottom line is that the league has caught up to and figured this team out. Change HAS to happen. Management needs to realize the team isn't good enough to win a Cup anymore. With the uncertainty of the next CBA, it's hard to see them going after Parise and Suter. Suter, IMO, is the more important of the 2 if Nick retires. If he comes back, they need to switch the focus to Parise.

This is just Peca wanting to get attention as an analyst.

What I don't get is how people even follow him and how he gets on XM's Home Ice. Has he ever been right more than 2 or 3 times? His trade deadline appearances on the radio are a joke. None of his rumored deals go through!

I think we'll see more games in HD this season due to the switch-over to HD signals.

Me on the right.

He signed both my Z jersey and Winter Classic jersey at Training Camp this week. He's an awesome dude. He was so cool to everyone.

First off let me say that training camp was an EPIC experience. Far and away the best trip of my life. I can't believe how many players I met and how many autographs I got. So now onto the thread title. Erin (from LGW) and I made friends with 4 people in the autograph area that we ended up hanging out with all trip: Jason, Kevin, Ashley and Amanda. At some point we were discussing prospects and Tomas Tatar came up. Jason made mentioned of how he botched his name once before and referred to him as "Tartar." Instantly my brain got going and I said, "Then we need to give him the nickname of Sauce" in obvious reference to tartar sauce. We unanimously agreed it was both hilarious and awesome. We decided we would be his first fan club members and bestow the new name upon him. Well not long after, Tatar came out to sign autographs. Jason said he was going to tell Tomas about it all. So when he got to us and signed our stuff we told him the story and asked if we could nickname him Sauce. He loved it! He was so cool and laughing about it. Jason quickly asked him to sign his program "Sauce" above where he had signed his name and the best part is he spelled it "Souse." So now Tomas Tatar is nicknamed Sauce but spelled Souse. Jason made a sign for the Red & White game with Souse Fan Club #21 on it and Tomas skated by, smiled and nodded his head. So freakin cool! I told Tomas it is gonna spread like wildfire!

Tatar Tots definitely fits but we stuck with the hockey mentality of 1 word nicknames.

I'm sure his people knew he'd upset some folks w/ that Wings sticker on there. I'd love to know why he has a Wings one on there as I'm a huge Beatles fan.

I will be attending for the first time this year. I could not be more thrilled! However, as a result of my gf and I splitting up I now have an extra ticket to all 4 days of camp. If someone is interested in them, send me a PM.

Howard at SportsK is the best. I have sent blank jerseys to him and already customized jerseys that needed a patch sewn on and they always do an amazing job. Use them.

Prices?

I think the Wings have definitely lacked a big guy who is just flat out nasty in front of the net. Guys crash the crease when they know there are zero consequences for doing so (and some just do it anyway!) A guy like Salei should help keep some bozos in the league honest. As much as I hate the guy, I would love to have seen Pronger in the Winged Wheel.