LeftWinger

Not excited about this....sad...

The wooooo is regarded. This team is a disgrace.

IMO, each time there's expansion there should be 2. Keep this crap even, odd number teams screw up playoffs. Also fug the expansion draft. I hate when that comes around. It seems teams get to protect less players each time. Although I know the last 2 have been the same. Another good reason to keep middle of the road aging vets on the team!

Time to start looking at this again. With about 50 rolls at Tank-A-Thon, we never moved out of 16th spot. If the losing trend continues, we'll move up more, but right now we're 16th.

at this point, all may be lost. We have fallen out of the playoffs, when just 2 weeks ago we were 12 points in a spot. Can't sell now, so what can we do to make next year better? It's of utmost importance to get Kane convinced that next season is going to be THE season we make some noise. We have to convince him that we are going to trim the garbage and upgrade the team from outside and within! Get this man signed ASAP! I'd keep Fischer around as well, although he might not want to stay. Here are my subtractions, and by any means necessary. Perron - Walk, he is just too old and his skill is diminishing. I would welcome a coaching role though. Sprong - Walk, he's had the last 6 games to prove he is worth a big payday and that he can carry a team, he's failed. Let someone else pay him. Fabbri - Trade, this has come to an end. He is no longer top 9 material and we have better prospects or can replace him via UFA. Ghost - Walk, it was fun while it lasted. Again, a chance to carry a team on his shoulders and he failed. He does have 42 points though ...so, maybe? Holl - Trade, at whatever the return, it just has not worked out. Chiarot - Trade, while a bit better this season, just not going to be justified keeping his cap hit. Petry - Buyout, not worth keeping, even for a 7th guy. Time to retire, Peaches. Reimer - Walk, no explanation necessary Husso - Trade, he is not a starting goalie and he has become injury prone. I'd even consider buying out his last year. Ok, additions (re-sign) to make this team a playoff team: Kane - Obviously. Fischer - Re-sign, very serviceable 4th liner. Seider, Raymond, Veleno - Re-sign, first two obviously, but I'd have Veleno on a short lease. He's my first casualty next season if we get bad again. Berggren, (Mazur or Kasper), Edvinsson, Johansson - Promote permanently I don't think we're going to be able to afford to sign a top UFA D or G, these will have to come via trade. Although I would try hard for Hanfin, but I feel he's going to Boston. Chychrun, Ullmark, Saros, Andersson, there's just too many options and these all depend on availability. There are a lot of interesting UFA forwards that we could upgrade to, but it's going to cost money! That is why trading the contracts above will be a necessity. Few examples for top 6: Stamkos - I'd try to coax him away, he would slot right in our top 6 opposite Raymond with Compher at C. (or does he actually play C? ) Geuntzel, Bertuzzi, Tarasenko Middle 6: DeBrusk, Foegele, Roslovic, even Mantha, just to name a few. We're going to be a lottery team again, hopefully we can get a top 10 pick.

The problem is roster spots. You can only have 23 total. Just sitting those two doesn't remove them from the roster. I don't know the solution. But we need to get Kane inked before he just decides to jettison.

How can they be this bad minus Larkin? Of course they were 0-2 before he went out. I thought this team was better and I wasn't that mad the Yzerman didn't add last week. I guess I'm second guessing this plan at the moment. At this moment, come summer, gut the team. We can't go forward with this D or G tandem. We need to re-sign Kane and say goodbye to all other UFA's. Trade who you can. I'm sick.

He hasn't stepped up at all. When we're down a guy, we need players like him to step up. They all need to step up, bit he's doing nothing to prove he deserved that big of a raise.

Seriously.... what the f***? This is going to be 0-6. Get rid of the patch! Where's this teams heart? Yzerman kept them together and this is how they thank him. No clue why Rasmussen got $3.2M. Say goodbye to Kane.

Fedorov was a wing on the Russian 5 line. Plus he also played D. Does any of this have anything to do with The Yzerplan? We have 2 pages of arguing about who played C and now plays W. This could be it's own thread. Yzerplan. I, as well as most people, tend to give Yzerman lots of leash and lots of passes because he's such an icon here. If Holland were still GM, we'd (still) be calling for him to be fired if he made the same moves or lack of moves that Yzerman has. Especially after this past TDL. While I don't really have too much of a problem with his plan so far, but if you think of a couple of other teams that were also rebuilding the same time we were (Rangers, Canucks, Devils) we are still way behind in our rebuild. Although Rangers and Devils have been gifted 1st overall and in some cases, multiple #1s, and top 4s. But nonetheless, we are still way behind them despite having top 10 picks the last 6 or 8 years. Holland absolutely killed us with Zadina. Vancouver drafted ahead of us the year prior and just behind us the Zadina year. Not going D that year was the most...nevermind that could be yet another thread! Point being, they were rebuilding the same time we were and now look at them compared to us. I'm not convinced Lalonde is the guy to lead them either. My biggest question with the plan was, why did he keep Blashill around so long? That makes me afraid that he'll just keep Lalonde around far, far too much longer than he should. Obviously we weren't there when he was interviewing coaches, so we don't know who he called or who wasn't interested. It just seems Lalonde was the guy no matter what. IMO there were at least 3 better choices. Larionov, Fedorov and Grönborg. Fedorov being the wildcard. But they didn't call Igor The Professor for no reason. Nobody thinks the game like he does. Again, maybe these guys weren't interested, but to me, it just seemed like Lalonde was his guy from the start, and he wasn't going to consider anyone else. I would've liked to have seen a coach that was new and had ideas that 31 other coaches don't already have. There's nothing special about Lalonde. Nothing that sets him apart. And my one gripe about TDL. I think Roslovic could've and would've been an upgrade to our top 9 and think most definitely he would've been worth the 4th(3rd) that Rangerd paid for him.

A lot of great stuff on this one. Maybe the two can be merged somehow.

I don't. Just looking at age and when we'll contenders. Plus if we need to improve, some players need to go.

Oops, this was on page 2 of threads.

Trade Fabbri, Veleno, Holl and Maatta. Ghost, Perron and Reimer can move on. Unless Perron takes a team friendly deal. Sprong will be too expensive. Kane is important and Fischer shouldn't cost too much. UFA D isn't very deep this year. If we want an upgrade, there will need to be a trade. We NEED an upgrade. We also need a top 6 upgrade up front. It is 100% playoffs or bust next season. 1000%.

Islanders 2 points back, 2 games in hand.

Petry just may be bought out next season, if not then he'll be the 7th D. Yzerman will probably still look to move Holl. Pretty sure you're getting Edvinsson next season for sure. You never know what will happen in the summer. We are all wanting the playoffs now. I was upset initially with yesterday, but honestly, if acquiring a player who might not be here next season at the price of Berggren and a 1st, is it really worth it if we aren't going to make much noise in the playoffs either way? Everyone was mad that Berggren wasn't here, Yzerman traded Kostin and made room for Berggren. Now he's here and he isn't going back. Who knows what kind of player we'll get with our mid teens 1st this season. Would it be worth Losing those two assets, for example, to acquire Hanifin who wouldn't be the difference maker for this playoff anyhow, then have him go to Tampa in the summer, and now we're out all three? Plus I don't think the players are upset because for the weeks leading up to the deadline, every interview it was mentioned how much they love the group of players they are with and how much the love playing together. The team are probably happy that Yzerman didn't take any regular roster players away or add someone that would bump a player out. Yzerman felt the team is better with the players coming up from GR instead of what was available out there. I also happen to think if Yzerman wants to sign Stamkos, he will get Stamkos and at a very team friendly deal. It'll all be ok. Berggren and Edvinsson will be here next season.

Understood. I can only go by what Yzerman said. He said that he had players just as good that he could borrow from GR. Maybe he's just spinning it because he couldn't get the deal he wanted. He did say the was a forward he was trying to get, but it would've cost too much when it came to young assets and picks. I personally think Jack Roslovic would been well worth a 4th.

Ok.

But he literally said he didn't feel the price of dealing away top prospects and picks was worth any player he could've picked up at the TDL. So are you mad he didn't make these trades to get top 6 or top 4 talent or are you mad he kept Berggren instead? I understand the frustration of lessor players in the NHL while top prospects are in GR. But Berggren has been called up and he isn't going back. If he plays 4 more NHL game's he loses waiver exemption and Yzerman, again, literally said in his presser that he didnt plan on bringing him up to only play him to the threshold (3 games) and send him back. He's here to stay. So that covers one of the top prospects that you're referring to. In regard to the last 3 years 1st round picks, ASP and Danielson aren't quite ready. Kasper is in his 1st year in the AHL and Yzerman said yesterday that he couldn't say no for sure that we won't see Edvinsson this year in Detroit. He's in GR to learn how to run a power play, lead the D, and learn how to be a top 2 guy. He's pretty much ready, so if not sometime this year, next year for sure. I went over all this in the TDL thread. We're all a bit upset that teams around us went all in and we just cleared a roster spot. But that spot is now filled by Berggren. Plus I can appreciate him not throwing 15-20 years of the future away for rental help now. If that means fall out of the playoffs this season, oh well. It beats selling off our top picks and prospects to squeak into playoffs. AKA Ken Holland 2.0.

So, watching the press conference, i got a couple of takeaways. Yes, he likes his team. He likes ALL his UFAs and will get things done very quickly after the season, whether it's re-signing or letting them know that they will be not offering a contract. Not that Berggren (for example) is better than any player they could've acquired yesterday, it's that he's more valuable to the team than giving him up for a player who might not be around 3-4 years from now. So it was better to keep him instead of lose his future here. He wanted Kostin to work out here. He also recognized he needs to play and wants to play, so he moved him so he could get into nhl games regularly and not sit. Plus although $2M isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, it'd too much to be not playing this and next year. We all enjoyed the 25 year playoff streak, but how angry were we at Holland near the end when he was desperately trying to squeeze into the playoffs every year by trading our future and acquiring expiring contracts and aging vets just to do so? Good on Yzerman for not following that road. Speaking of Berggren, per rules he can only play in 4 more NHL game's before his waiver exemptions expire. So if indeed he is officially called up, Yzerman said they aren't going to NOT play him to avoid that threshold. It would be pointless to call him up and only play him 3 of the next 20 games. So if he gets the official call (which I do believe he has) he's here to stay. So there's that for all the fans complaining that he hasn't been promoted. They sit at 11 forwards right now with Larkin out, so he's probably getting into the next game. As much as I was disappointed yesterday, I'm glad Yzerman didn't overpay to desperately grab at the playoffs. And honestly, I wouldn't be upset if he re-signed all his UFA'S except Reimer of course.

3.2M guy!

Lottery pick here we come.

Berggren sitting? Yzerman went full tire kicking Holland today, and Lalonde is going full Blashill.

After not being dealt, I expect a Berggren extension soon. Kane extension please.

I would've liked Yzerman to give up the 4th for him. I'll have to say, I am a bit disappointed. There was players to be had for low round picks. Roslivic being one example.