LeftWinger

007, Ya,I agree. Ozzie, as good as he was in 08, he was just as if not a bit better in 09. If it weren't for a goal post by Lidstrom, we would've won game 7, and an unbelievable save by Letang in front of an empty net...oh and there is that little "instigating" by Makin in game 2, that was somehow rescinded, that would have resulted in him being suspended in game 3, thus pretty much allowing us to go up 3-0 in the series, since Malkin factored in all goals scored by Pitt in game 3....Ozzie most definitely would have been Conn Smythe. Ya, I am still steaming over that one...

wtf is the hold up for puck drop? C'mon already!

Pulk will do great. I can remember when we were accused of overrating Nyquist and Tatar...they are both on pace to be our first 30 goal scorer not named Datsyuk or Zetterberg since Hossa.

yay! No Franzen! who'd of thunk he'd get hurt again...waive him already...

The bottom line is, if you want to acquire a defenseman this season that is not just going to be a playoff rental, you are going to have to dump 2 or your top 6 defensemen. XO is not going to be here to be the #7 guy. Lashoff is that guy and he makes very minimal salary which wouldn't put too much money in the press box. In two summers you are going to have 4 AHL defensemen out of exemptions. Jensen this summer and Marcehnko, Sproul and XO next summer. If you acquire Petry (for example) and re-sign him this summer that is one spot gone. Let's say Kindl is dumped (whether its for Petry or a pick doesn't matter.) Next training camp you have: Kronwall, Ericsson, Dekeyser, Quincey, Petry under contract. If you hang on to Smith and re-sign him that is 6 spots. I already said XO is not going to be here to be #7, so you go ahead a keep Lashoff for that. Now, since he still has exemptions, XO goes back to GR. BUT you have Jensen who is out of options. He almost won a spot here this year, so I imagine he will challenge again next year, except now, you cannot send him to GR. Jensen could possibly come up and be that #7 guy if you opted to get rid of Lashoff, but it still keeps XO in GR. Because now, with re-signing Petry and Smith, you have this: Kronwall - Ericsson - Dekeyser - Petry - Smith - Quincey - Jensen That is fine, BUT it seems destined that XO is going to be here permanently starting now, so you have to make room for him. Now, fast forward to 2016 off season, you will need to re-sign Dekeyser, plus now Sproul, Marchenko and XO are all out of exemptions. So lets say you re-signed Petry and Smith the year prior and let Quincey walk as a UFA next, you dealt Kindl and Lashoff the year prior as well, you now have this: Kronwall - Ericsson - Dekeyser - Petry - Smith - Jensen - XO - Sproul - Marchenko 9 players vying for 7 spots. That is why it makes sense to deal someone else in your top 6 along with Kindl. That someone with the best trade value is Smith (I know Dekeyser is better, but he is not being traded.) Petry and Smith may be a wash talent-wise ( I happen to think Petry is better defensively) but Petry addresses something Holland covets, a RH's shot. I suppose you could always trade 2 of your 4 prospects, but since 3 of them are RH'd and Holland needs his RH'rs I find it difficult that he may do that. Even if Holland dealt Smith, you still have 3 kids fighting for 2 spots. XO would take the #5 spot and the other 3 would fight for #6 and #7. You still cannot send any of them back down to GR in 2016 so now what do you do? This is a good thing to have a log jam of talented defensemen, but Holland may be forced to not only trade Smith, but one of his prospects as well. Don't get me wrong, I like Smith and am not calling for his head, but in order to fit Petry here (or any other non-rental defenseman) Kindl and another top 6 guy will have to go. Lashoff can be dealt as well, but you are either going to have Smith or XO sitting in the press box if all you trade is Kindl out of your top 6. Your top six would be this: Kronwall - Ericsson Dekeyser - Petry XO - Quincey Smith would be the #7 rotating with XO. Now I would gladly deal Quincey before Smith, but he does not have as much trade value and moving Q and re-signing Smith longer does help the log jam in 2016. Hedging the fact that Quincey leaves as a UFA only helps in 2016, not a long termed signed Smith. If Holland values Smith too much to move him, then the best thing to do is move Kindl to keep XO here this year and not acquire anyone. Then next season, you re-sign Smith, keep XO here, dump Lashoff and promote Jensen to #7. The year after that, you let Quincey go, everyone moves up a spot then Sproul and Marchenko battle it out for the last spot. Unless you trade one of Sproul, Marchkenko or Jensen before then. Which like I said, makes very little sense because they are all RH'd and that is what Holland is dying to have on his team... One of them are going to have to go, and that is unfortunate. Good Lord this messy.

I was thoroughly impressed last night with Tatar that I have decided I am DEAD SET against using him to acquire Myers. I was also impressed enough with the play and composure of Petry to want him to be our pickup to solidify the top 4 defense. I just hope that it doesn't cost too much. I assume that Kindl would probably be involved, but I do believe it would cost a bit more to acquire Petry, especially since Edmonton knows that Detroit has a 99.99999% chance of re-signing him long term. Would you swap Smith & Kindl for Petry and a 2nd rounder in this years draft? That would open the door for XO to stay, Petry would take Smith's spot and the2nd rounder would make up for the one Kenny sent to Nashville. Plus, that 2nd rounder could be high enough that Kenny could entertain idea's of trading our 1st rounder for some "rental" help for the playoffs. That being said, I am not sure Edmonton would send us that 2nd rounder. Maybe their 3rd, since it would almost be like a low second rounder.

Nope, Hossa 6 years ago....and 5 years, and 4 years, and 3, and 2, and 1, and now...

Sure was nice to see a Franzen-free Powerplay earlier. Too bad we couldn't bury it, Tatar had two great chances. Screw Myers, we want Tatar!

How come the name Joe Grimaldi sounds so familiar? Does anyone else think that Maxime Langelier-Parent of Nottingham sounds like the noblest lad in the kingdom? Or like he's the Parent of everyone in Nottingham!

I happen to think it is a conspiracy amongst the other GM's to raise the asking price when it comes to the Red Wings. Not that they all hate Ken Holland and want to lynch him, but because Detroit has done so good the last million years (so it would seem to every other GM in the league) that they don't want to give them something that may help them get better without taking something super valuable to their future. David Perron for example, I am sure Edmonton had talks with most of the GM's in the league (Ken Holland included seeing that he has interest in Petry) and what they accepted from Pitt could have been beaten by Andersson and our 1st pick. But I am sure the asking price from Holland was a top prospect and our #1 pick. Which (even though I ranted for a couple of days) I am glad we didn't give them. I am sure at least Edmonton wanted Pulk and the 1st, and Holland isn't dealing either. I'd like to see a trade to better our team, but not a the price of rape. I happen to think the rumor of Tatar for Myers is overprice. The ONLY guy that would garner (in my book) ANY of our top prospects or super kids on our team is Shea Weber and I balk at even starting with Mantha for him. We missed out on Suter, and he would have been solid (I hate the description) on this team, but he hasn't won anything in Minny yet, even with all that "talent" up there. He isn't exactly the absolute best in the league and we aren't the worst without him. If Holland could land a #3/#4 RD'd guy for a lower prospect or pick and lower roster player, that would be great, but if the prices are too rape, I mean high, then I just assume wait on our kids. Pulk will be here no matter what next season, as will Jensen if he isn't traded or signs somewhere else as an RFA. Ouellet seems to be on the fast track to staying, even though he has another entire year of exemptions. His exemptions run out the same time as Sproul and Marchenko as well. Something has got to give since in two years time, there still won't be enough room for 4 new defensemen. Especially if Smith is re-signed and not traded. So, unless we get a rental on the cheap, do we really have room for a guy under contract with 4 of our own being out of exemptions in the next two off season's? I disclaim that even though I said what I said above, I will still be bitching on March 2nd about Holland, because that is what I do on a knee jerk reaction. It helps me get frustration off my chest and then after a couple of days, I will calm down and return to my mindset of what I said above. This is not an emergency, only a test. We now return you to your program!

Make room for Babcock! Let him go I say...sometimes coaches just come to an end of a run. Maybe its time. Hey, maybe Scotty will come back! Seriuously though, Blashill will probably get the nod when Babcock goes.

Nyquist will not be traded because he is Swedish. But Kip, I do agree, I like Tatar better than Nyquist and would choose to trade him first. I'd rather not trade either of them, especially for the RH'd version of Ericsson. But maybe Pulkkinen will get his call up and maybe he will out perform Tatar. It just stinks that our D cannot get it together enough to avoid a major trade like this (rumor.) I know I was all over the (non)trade for Perron, but it would not have hurt as much as losing Tatar. He should be one of the untouchable's IMO. Hopefully this is only rumor and Holland just stands fast until one or two of his RH'd kids come up next year (marchenko or Jensen, both out of expemtions.)

God Bless Matt and his family! He really provided all of us with unlimited information! Sad to see the site go (RWC as well.) We lose nothing without those two sites, but if we lost Matt, the world would lose an exceptional human being, and this world is running low on those, the world needs Matt, we can do without Capgeek. Get Well Soon!

if we trade Tatar for a right handed version of Ericsson, we are in trouble.

#BREAKINGNEWS Just received confirmation from very trustworthy source that the #RedWings offer on the table is Tatar for Myers. #Sabres. This tweet is from a guy that goes by hockeyinsiderr....take it for what it's worth. I wish I could cut and paste like that!

i will try to cut and paste again

Ya, twitter is hit or miss. But I will still stay tuned just in case!

reading on twitter (sorry can't cut and paste from my phone) that the Wings have an offer on the table for Myers. Supposedly it includes someone Buffalo "really wants." I certainly hope its not Larkin or Mantha.

even Babcock says they need more offense. The entire point is there is nothing wrong with having more offense on your team. The Wings with Perron would be a team with more offense. Period. I never secretly wanted Perron here, but would welcome the change and attempt to make this team harder to keep off the scoreboard. With Abby, Franzen, Cleary, Andersson, etc...taking up valuable roster spots or lineup spots, you are stuck with the lack of offense with the occasional burst. Would Perron guarantee the Cup, no, but more offensive threat, absolutely.

I don't have the time to spoon feed you, just do a search, there a few threads about the oilers that people talk about trade scenarios acquiring Perron. BTW, could've used some offense last night, eh? Boy Franzen looked good....if you think Stage 4 cancer is good. Listen, I already agreed that he may not be exactly what the Wings "need" but there is no harm in stacking your team with as much talent as you can, as long as you are under the cap and you don't overpay. Perron would've have cost very little, we would still have plenty of cap room and we'd have another scoring threat on this team. Would have been minimal loss even if he didn't improve our team too much, but at least make the effort. Nobody can be happy with the lack of O this team has. Every SO loss, it's "if we only scored more goals in regulation...blah, blah" You have an opportunity to acquire someone who can score goals over players that we have that cannot score, and all of a sudden he isnt what Detroit needs? Funny, plenty of hockey writers had Detroit has a possible destination for Perron after his comments in Edmonton weeks agos. But hey, I reek of BS, that's fine, I never know anything about hockey, I get it. I should have never statred watching and following hockey in 1979, man, I wasted my time because even though I have followed intensely since then, I still don't know what a good hockey player looks like. Damn...where's my Miroslav Frycer jersey at?

nobody wanted him up until 5 mins before he was traded? Really? Go back through the oilers presser thread, I think there may even be a Perron thread. The truth is, a lot of people wanted him before, wondering what it would take to get him, until he gets traded elsewhere then he wasn't what the Wings needed anyways. If I had a dollar for every player that gets hyped up here during trade talks, then belittled after he gets traded somewhere else, I'd be a rich man.

this is true, but we won't have to face the oilers in the playoffs...

no way am I comparing 02 with a cap team. The only comparison is too many offensive talents is not necessarily a bad thing. You insinuated where he would play because of us having Tatar and Nyquist already in the top 6. My point was, Detroit was already loaded with O talent and Bowman didn't have a problem with putting more talent on the ice. If Perron is not as good as Tats and Gus, but better than Abby, Andrsson, Franzen, it wouldn't be a bad thing to have the best players and better offensive talent. It would not have been a bad thing to sacrifice a bottom 6 player and a pick to make the team better. But instead Pitt got better and stayed the same.

not pissed off. Disappointed that players that could help this team get moved cheap elsewhere. Holland doesn't make the lines, but surround the team with better talent and there will be no choice but to play the better players. I see what you are saying, but why miss an opportunity to make the team better? Did Scotty worry about where he was going to play Robitaille, Hull, Shanny, Fedorov, et al. No, he had so much talent, all lines were considered dangerous. My point was why not cut some fat and make your team more dangerous from top to bottom?

I don't know what you mean by saying I have a lot wrapped up in whatever. Not sure what that has to do with anything besides trying to belittle me. My point is, Perron would've made this team better offensively. Period. I do agree though that Babcock would not use him correctly and waste his talent. Which is why I will be happy when/if he goes elsewhere.