LeftWinger

Here is a guarantee, if Lidstrom signs with Tampa, then Weber will sign with Detroit... this COULD happen, but I think I would win the mega-millions before either happened (which also COULD happen) I believe that you have a better chance of the United States Government confessing the truth behind 9/11 than any of that happening though...sorry... edit: The question wouldn't be if you will still like Lidstrom, the question would be would you still like Yzerman for poaching our best defensman of ALL TIME...

...how many points did Wisniewski have last season again? Andrew Ladd has always been a favorite of mine. I remember when he was in Chicago I was hoping the Wings would pull something to get him. Fast forward to this year, I didn't know he may $2.3M, it would probably cost at least $3M for him to even consider an offer sheet from any team, and that is too steep in draft pick compensation for him...oh well... My wish list still remains: Wisniewski, Pitkanen (although he'd be pretty expensive,) J. Jokenin and/or Tanguay. (and Maybe a cheap Jovo to replace the greedy Ericsson) Jokenin(Tanguay) - Datsyuk - Filppula Bertuzzi - Zetterberg - Franzen Cleary - Helm - Eaves Miller - Abdelkader - Holmstrom Mursak Lidstrom - Wisniewski Kronwall - Pitkanen Stuart - Jovo Kindl Howard Legace ( I put him down, because all we really need is a competent cheap back-up, and I happen to personally know he would sign for the absolute minimum, MINIMUM!) If PItkanen would prove too expensive, then maybe Anton Babchuk who would be considerably cheaper...

I wouldn't mind Rocco in a later round....but for the first and second, I wouldn't mind any of these: (but what do I know?) any of these guys in the first and/or second (or further down if they are around) would make me a very excited fan. Since it usually takes 3-4 years of developing before they make the big club, any small flaws these kids have SHOULD be worked out before they make the jump...

Yes, but he was selected before Detroit picked in the second round, so Holland would have needed his first pick to select him.... OH and Crymson, the idea is knowing what we know now, Holland would use a time machine to go back and CHANGE history and draft Weber, since that is the only way he will be able to acquire him. Didn't you watch any of the movies?

I suggested this a little while ago. People should have to comment on why they negged someone. But with the mentality of some of the folks here that neg just because someoneisnt a fan of acertain player (cough cough, Hudler, cough) there would probably be explanations like: "You Suck!" or "EAD" Hardly anyone would leave legit reasons that they left a negative... anyhow... I would love to move up in the draft, but not if he is gonna grab that Swedish d-man that some of the mockers have him taking. Jonas Brodin....BLECH! But, the guy I would love to have in the organization is projected at #27 Joseph Morrow... I read this and thought if they are so high on this guy and the fact that they made reference to Rafalski retiring, why wouldn't they mention him for Detroit? The other defensmen mentioned above are all projected to go before Detroit's pick, so all that leaves is Brodin and Morrow, but it sounds like they are higher on Morrow than Brodin. They just must be used to Holland taking Swedish defensmen....

Los Angeles traded Matthieu Schneider to Detroit for Maxim Kuznetsov, Sean Avery, a 1st round pick in 2003 and a 2nd round pick in 2004. You had a nice thought there, but he'd have to go a little further back and NOT make this trade...

I love all the Hudler hate! Priceless! I do agree about Stuart, if everyone remembers he turned down deals for $4M+ to re-sign here. He is worth every bit of the money he makes and is vastly underpaid when it come to comparable players...that being said, he will most likely get a raise next time around, and if Holland throws $4M at Wisniewski (who is worth it IMO) Stuart will definitely get over $4M, just by being one of the players with the most seniority on the team and we all know how Holland rewards that!

not many folks agree, but I think Alex Tanguay would be wonderful on Datsyuk's wing...sure he is not as good defensively, but how many players are as good defensively as Datsyuk? but we don't have to look too far back to comapre, take Kozlov for instance, he wasn't the best defending forward, but he didn't have to be, he played with Larionov and Fedorov, whose defensive skill would never being questioned. Tanguay would be on a top line with Dastyuk and either Zetterberg or Filppula, again, who are all very, very good on that side of the puck... and the Wings would welcome 70+ more points from the forward unit...

"enforcer" is really a outdated term. Wings don't need a Marty McSorely, but a Dallas Drake would suffice... other than being on defense, Wisniewski would fill that role just fine....plus he would score a lot more than Miller...

just a question for you, just how many Detroit Red Wings players do you think live in Southeast Michigan in the off season? Sure, a good portion of them do, but there are some that don't. Just because someone doesn't uproot his family, doesn't mean he won't be a Red Wing for a long time... Exactly what I was referring to, there will be day in Detroit when Kronwall/Stuart are the top paring on the blueline. Even if Lidstrom keeps coming back for more and more, his minutes will dwindle (ala Chelios) and Kronwall/Stuart will increase...

If the Wings make the right tweeks this year and STAY HEALTHY(!!!!) they could be making another trip to the finals WITH Stuart on this team. It's no secret that once a player comes here, more times than not, they finish their career here. Once Lids retires and if they can remain a playoff team, there is no reason why Stuart will not re-sign his final contract here. Not many teams can start training camp with a realistic chance of competing for the Stanley Cup EVERY season. Detroit is one of those teams... can LA say it? Anaheim? Sure they can have realistic goals of making the playoffs, BUT, do they really stack up against a healthy Detroit/Vancouver and San Jose if they could rid themselves of some dead weight... I am sure if Stuart felt that it was time to give way to the next era, he would move on, but like someone mentioned above, as long as he wants to be here, Detroit will keep him. The feeling is likewise I am sure. Stuart will retire a Detroit Red Wing... Besides, there is no reason not to expect, when Nick retires, Brad Stuart won't be the #2 guy behind Kronwall...

I agree, there is nothing wrong with Mursak having to earn that spot. Emmerton may come in and do the right things and earn that spot. Can the Wings have 14 forwards and 7 defensmen? If so then Mursak/Emmerton/Miller can all rotate that 12th spot...

Ok, so if nothing presents itself, it would be fine for Holland to stand pat (outside of dumping hudler's salary) until something does present itself. But we are all pretty much in agreement that adding the players in the molds of, but not necessarily the exact names, Wisniewski, Pitkanen & Jokenin all while letting Ericsson/Draper/Salei walk and re-signing Lidstrom, Eaves and Miller. Thus allowing Mursak and Emmerton to battle it out for the last roster spot. Sounds good to me, and it still leaves plenty of Cap space for a "sniper" at the trade deadline (if needed) and a Suter next July.... sidenote: we haven't discussed a backup goalie, but thats pretty much a non-issue with what is available out there for less than $1M...

I hear ya! But if Holland dumped Hudler's salary and had the nearly $25M to spend (assuming the cap goes up as much) that would be a ton of cash to spend PLUS alot of NEW faces on the team. Just because he has the cash, doesn't mean I want to see him overpay the likes of Ericsson/Miller/Eaves/Lidstrom. This goes back to the outside chance Holland lands a Brad Richards. Using your idea of paying a premium, Holland could essential give Ericsson a 1 year $2.5M, Lidstrom 1 year $6.0M, Wiz $4M and as long as he keeps Miller/Eaves under $2M combined he could offer Richards a 1 year $9M contract. Then after winning the Cup next year, he could talk about keeping Richards/Wiz longer and if Ericsson improves, maybe a longer deal at a smaller Cap hit and then if available try to land a Suter. That scenario would pretty much give up on Kindl and make Smith your 7th for 2012-2013. Can't be spending too much of the cap though, because 2013-2014 is Datsyuk last year of his contract and will be looking to sign an "End of Career" contract extension and I am sure Holland will give him what he wants... (disclaimer: (directed towards Konnan) I am in no way suggesting Richards will be a Red Wing next year, just suggesting that if Holland wants a Sniper via UFA, he'll can very well offer him $9M for one season.)) Of course Dallas has $2M more available cap space than Holland does and will no doubt want to keep Richards very badly! Which leads me back to my question, other than Richards, is there a "Hossa" out there to be snagged up?

I see your points on all of that. Question is, is there a "Hossa" out there for Holland to sign/acquire, or are the likes Tanguay/Jokinen pretty much the closest thing the secondary scoring you are referring to? Either of which I would welcome here and would probably score 30+ goals playing with Dats and Flip on the first line... but I really cannot find a Hossa-type UFA out there (outside of Richards) so someone would have to be traded for and in reality who would someone want off our team in exchange for their pure sniper without raping our prospects?

Makes sense, but having $11M available, if someone out of the top 6 were to go down again for an extended period, there is always a trade option. I am just saying it is possible that Mursak steps in and out performs Hudler's offense and having MIller and Eaves full time could only help really. I really didn't make line combos, just added players on the capgeek calculator. I think Z, Bert and Franz play great together as well as Fil, Dats and Homer. Cleary with Helm and Eaves sounds like a nice line too. I do agree though, a nice top 6 guy would be very nice, but that would pretty much mean you either say goodbye to Miller or risk Emmerton to waivers(which may not be that big of loss IF someone claimed him.) IMO, Miller has earned more than a 13th forward position, but I am not Holland or Babcock, so who knows. I know they have high hopes or Mursak, so they may try him at different lines to see who he gels with before they designate him to the 13th spot... (then again I think they had the same hopes for Leino and he never really gelled with anyone...)

agreed, I think if Holland added Wiz or even if he wanted a Jovo type player that would at least make Kindl battle Smith for the 6th spot... I am all for another top 6 guy, but is it absolutely needed considering where the Wings were offensively last season? Mursak is at least equal to Hudler and giving Miller/Eaves full time jobs can only be a positive thing... the 13th forward can be anyone really, I just threw Emmerton there because I think he is out of options to Grand Rapids...

do we really NEED a top 6 forward? I do not know exactly where the Wings finished in offensive numbers last season but losing Hudler and Modano and replacing them with Mursak and Emmerton (along with gving full time jobs to Miller and Eaves) shouldn't really affect their offensinve productoin considering the top 6 wold pretty much be entact from last year... Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Filppula, Bertuzzi, Cleary & Holmstrom...basically....

I don't see why not. Up front you really only lose Hudler, and I don't think Mursak can do any worse than Hudler did, and really, with Modano's injury I don't see Emmerton hurting us either. I do acknowledge the D is pretty green, but like I said, if you wanna add Wisniewski instead of promoting Smith, then that would cretainly be an upgrade, espeially if Wiz scores 50 plus points again, but other than that, this team should make the playoffs easily, win their division maybe, conference probably not, but come January/February Holland has $11M to acquire some high-end talent to help in the playoffs... Which part would you change? Maybe Emmerton or Ericsson...I am not sure, but I would hate for Holland to blow his "cap load" on UFA's outside the organization and not have the team gel. At least we know (with the exception of Emmerton) that this team can pay well together, well enough to make the playoffs in my opinion... That being said, I do maintain that it would be nice to acquire Jokinen up front, re-sign Lids/Miller/Eaves and sign Wiz and Pitkanen. Back-up goalie is a toss up, I just threw MacDonald in there, but as long as it's a back-up for less than $1M, because Howard will probably get 60-65 starts, and who wants to pay a goalie over a million to start less than 20 games?

So Hudler/Emmerton our 1st for rangers 1st... Do you think that would be enough to move up 10 spots? I could honestly, now that I think about it, see Holland trading Hudler and our 1st to move down to maybe a top 10 2nd round pick...especially if lets say the Thrashers or Panthers really want a certain guy that is available in Detroit's #1 spot...

Here's a scenario: Let's say the Cap goes up to about $63.5M. That'll give Holland $22.6M before he signs anyone. Let's say he trade Hudler at the draft for some more pick(s), that then makes the Cap total available $24.5M. We all have our "Wish List" and most of us know that that's all it will be is a wish list, so considering the fact that they were a very good team (offensively anyhow) in the regular season, would anyone be that upset if Holland remained 'Status Quo' and just re-signed his own UFA's? Of course excluding Draper, Modano & Salei and just allowing the younger guys to come up and play. I know the general consensus is that Smith will/should spend another season in the Griffins line-up, but what if Holland just sign's Ericcson, Smith would be getting good ice time/experience up here anyway. Anyhow, icing a similar team next season would kill two birds, it'll allow for plenty of room for a HUGE trade-line acquisition (if needed,) especially if there are some non-playoff teams with an upcoming UFA that is looking to dump him knowing they are going to lose him anyway. (ex. if Nashville is way out of it, they could do this with Suter if they feel they can't sign him anyhow.) It also saves a large amount of cap space for July 1st, 2012 which promises to have a better crop of UFA's available... Now, I am a huge Wisniewski advocate and would love to see him here, and in reality, even in this scenario they could throw $4M at him for a season and still have a lot left over for the deadline.. (which is what I am hoping. (of course you can put your Wish List d-man in place of mine.)) Anyhow, let's see how it looks with some Capgeek numbers... (please don't neg me if you don't agree, just voice your opinion, thanks!) CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m) Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) Patrick Eaves ($1.100m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Drew Miller ($0.950m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($2.500m) Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / Brendan Smith ($0.875m) Doug Janik ($0.512m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Joey MacDonald ($0.750m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $63,500,000; CAP PAYROLL: $51,704,544; BONUSES: $0 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $11,795,456 ...I realize that is a very lean defensive corps, and like I said, Holland could always sign one D-Man to fill the top 6 and keep Smith in Grand Rapids. Also, I just gave some modest raises to the UFA's with the exception of Ericsson, giving consideration to the rumor he turned down $2M... I for one, hope that Holland at least adds ONE d-man from outside the organization, but I believe, up front, that this lineup cannot hurt the Wings considering all they are losing is Hudler's offense(orlack there of,) and that isn't much of a loss. But as you can see it leaves plenty of cap space for March or July...

That is fine because I would be perfectly happy with him re-signing Eaves/Miller/Lidstrom and then signing Wisniewski, Pitkanen and a reliable back up goalie. Do NOT re-sign Draper/Ericsson/Salei, trade Hudler for whatever he can bring... To me that would be a super off season... We all know any of the RFA's mentioned are pipe dreams because Holland loves to keep his draft picks now-a-days. I wouldn't be surprised though if he traded Hudler and our #1 to move up a bit if the player he wanted wasn't gonna make it to us...

I do routinely trash him, but I am not necessarily signing his praises, but I am thinking that this is one of the rare off-seasons he has tons of money to spend and, like you mentioned, the last time he had some money he scored Hossa, so I am hoping that is the key to his success, having money to spend. I will always disagree with the Williams over Malhotra signing, right hander or not, and I will complain about it all the time. How many of us still hate the Oates/MacLean for Federko/McKegney trade and how long ago was that? But I do think he can work some magic and surprise us again, especially with the cash he has, but I am far from convinced that he is the best GM out there because he got Datsyuk and Zetterberg late in the draft. Every GM out there has found at least one diamond in the later rounds of the draft, and to be fair, have made stupid first or second round picks as Holland has done as well (Yuri Butsayev, Tomek Valtonen, Jiri Hudler ) Anyhow, we had cash and landed Hossa, we have mega cash now so nothing is out of the question, albeit unlikely...

I do believe you and I are drinking the same coffee this off season. Wisniewski, Tanguay, Jokinen...trade Hudler.... I like the way you are thinking this year! I agree Marleau should go before Seto, but for some reason they love them some Marleau in San Jose...

Man I like Abdelkader and would miss him. I see you let Miller go as well. I think Lidstrom will get $6M so I am not sure the Zherdev signing could happen... but Lidstrom COULD take $5.5M or even less in order to get a better team, but it would have to be HIS idea, I am sure Holland would not insult him with a low-ball offer, especially if the Cap rises to $64.5M, PLUS if he trades Hudler's and his Cap hit away, Holland would have $25M before any UFA's were re-signed... Hell he has $18M right now and the Cap hasn't moved a bit. Add the $5.1M increase and remove Hudler's $2.9M... it's good to be a Wings fan this off season!