LeftWinger

...so, of course they are going to make us wait the entire 48 hours for a verdict.

Quite the possibility. If Bertuzzi is only asking for $4.25M, it seems more like it was on purpose to allow another buyout. If it was a negotiation problem with Yzerman, why would Bert file and not Mantha? Are there no problems with Mantha and Yzerman? I do believe this was on purpose to allow another buyout. Nielsen or Filppula for sure.

is this a coincidence that we are on page 71?

His twitter is @dylanlarkin39, so I am guessing he wore it enough that it was important enough to him to use it. Guess I could be wrong.

The only two I guessed were 18 and 54. anyone else hear any rumors about Mantha going to his #8 that he wore everywhere else? That would be nice to see! Also would be nice to see Larkin go to his old #39 that he used to wear before 71, I don't know why, but I can't stand 71. I don't like 70 on Stecher either, I don't know what it is...He wore 51 in Vancouver, but unless we dump BOTH Filppula and Nielsen, I guess he's not getting that. Maybe in year 2 (and beyond?) Greiss I am ok with, he wore #1 before, obvioulsy not available, but 29 is a nice throwback to Randy McKay....LOL! Mike Vernon of course, just testing your age! Merrill either was a big fan of Probie, or he because he grew up here watching Chelios in it...maybe both. I am pretty meh with 92 of Namestnikov, I thought for sure he'd wear 13 for Kozlov. I am sure that Datsyuk would've had no problem with it either. I know he wore 90 the last few years, but either he knows about the voodoo curse on it, or they are saving it for Veleno. Right! Hell, $4.25M is a lot less than we were all predicting! Give him 4-5 years also!

No matter, Lucas Raymond is going to be better than Laf anyhow. Bet. The QMJHL always has players with tons of points come out and not do so well in the NHL. Laf will be good, but not the generational franchise talent his over inflated QMJ stats show. Raymond (and Stuetzle) are playing in men's pro leagues. The real winners are Ottawa and Detroit anyhow. LA should have gone D, they have 11, yes ELEVEN center's in their organization including Kopitar. That is not players that are listed as C/LW/RW it is straight up C! The ONLY center over the age of 22 is Kopitar, and he has 4 years left on his contract. So that is 10 C's (and yes they also have tons on LW and RW) that will all be vying position. that means more than half of them won't be playing for LA ever. Should've gone D. But I get it, BPA. Again, Raymond is going to be the stud of this draft, along with a few others that went outside the top 5.

So, instead of increasing our odds at the draft lottery, since, you know, 26 other teams got to play for a chance at Lord Stanley, including the lottery winner, our reward for sucking is an extended training camp....gee NHL, these 7 teams thank you oh so much for giving us a perk.

Just cancel the season, give the same lottery odds as this year.

That's what Yzerman should do. Go to these teams that refuse to pony up a 1st or top prospect in order to get some cap relief, then offer sheet one of their RFA's to the point where the team cannot afford to match (of course not having to give up too much in compensation) and force their hand(s.) Not that there are too many available from those top cap teams, but screwing Toronto over would be nice. What is the compensation this year? Sure would like to handcuff Tampa and offer sheet Sergachev, but they have $2.8M in cap space, we'd have to go above $3M for sure. Winnipeg better give me that 1st or I am offer sheeting Roslovic $1.5M as well!

all these cerebral players, we now need a cerebral coach, a chess player, a Professor....

Here are the teams that seem are going to be in dire need to dump some salary. What are these teams giving up?

Thornton just signed with Leafs. They sent "on paper" Engvall and Liljegren down to make room. Soooooooo worth it! But hey, it's a business!

from everything I can find, they get the 3rd best odds at the #1OA. I am not sure if they can fall 3 spots though, maybe they can only fall to the 4th? Here is how the NHL is gonna punish Arizona even more. Even though they forfeited their 1st round pick, the slot is still there, they will just skip over to the next pick like they did this year, for example pick 10, then pick 12. Arizona having pick 11. The punishment will be Arizona will win the 1st OA pick, but being forfeited the #2 team will choose the best player!

I could see all of these guys (the ones on 1 year deals) staying here for a couple to a few years. Names and Greiss could very well re-sign after 2 as well. Staal will be dealt or not re-signed, but Merrill and Stecher are types of D that we haven't had for a bit. After we lose a player in the expansion draft, we can re-sign these guys to a longer deal(s.) Honestly, lets say we lose Staal and Biega (possibly Nemeth) after the season, honestly we could have a D that looks like: DD - Hronek Merrill - Seider Nemeth - Stecher Lindstrom(Cholowski) ...Not sure the actual order, I just lined them up Lefty and Righty. For a couple of season's after this one, that is not a bad D lineup while the kids grow more in GR or abroad. This is barring any trades (Cholowski) or possible expansion loss (DD.) I think is Ryan goes back to 25+ goals, if he isn't trade bait, he'll re-sign here for a couple more season's before he retires. I know a lot of folks like to talk about that all of our signing's are just to deal them away at the TDL, but I don't think Yzerman plays that way. I think he signs players that fit his vision of the team moving forward. Sure, Bobby Ryan might be a reclamation project, but he is a low cost, high reward type of player. He is an upgrade over Abby and others for sure.

This has been a great thread, and it's lasted a long time. The off-season is still among us and there is still tons to talk about, so please, let's not get this thread locked of deleted.

If the indeed buyout or waive Nielsen, I would like to see Galchenyuk as his replacement. Only 26 years old. Could be a nice bounce back playing with Names and Svech. Why not? He would be a cheaper, better option.

So, as we sit, barring ANY trades, here is how I would do the protection list: Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, Namestikov, Rasmussen, Timashov Hronek, Lindstrom, Stecher Greiss ...which means, I hope Yzerman trades Cholowski so we don't lose him for nothing.

I mean, it makes sense looking back at the first couple of days of UFA. Plus, we weren't acquiring all those big contracts that Yzerman said he wanted to do for assets. I am not saying the Ilitch's weren't crooks, but as always, as the businesses are handed down to the next generation(s) the businesses become s***tier and s***tier. That being said, I do believe the "off-season" is done for us. If there are teams like Vancouver willing to help bailout teams like Vegas without demanding an extra asset in return, there is no reason to believe that we will be getting any extra 1st's or 2nd's or prospects this year. During a normal market, Schmit is worth more than a 3rd, so that was Vancouver's "gift." Unfortunately Detroit (as stated above by the tweet) is not in a position to add assets like that, so we won't be seeing anything more, I do believe. I guess all we have left to look forward to is see who makes the team, gets waived or who gets traded away. just to put my 2 cents in, the Ilitch's didn't do what they said they were going to do in and around Commerica and they aren't going to build a "District Detroit." It might be time to sell the team to another billionaire. BOTH team's should be sold to owners that really care about the franchises and their homes re-named. Never liked the name Commerica Park (not even a Michigan business) and from day ONE I've hated name Little Caesar's Arena and the roof switch from the LED light show to the stupid logo. <barf>

I enjoyed him too. But, if he is going to keep getting banned with new usernames, when we refer to him, we should refer to the OG name, Number9. I remember before he came back as CRL, his first new name was GordieHowesNumber. Then right before CRL there was another reference to Christopher Reeve or Superman I do believe. I hope he isn't banned for good though, he did help keep this place active when most others abandoned it!

Ya, I edited it to say I forgot Gagner, but yes, part of the selling point to Ryan was top 6. That was addressed in the interview with him. That really is not a bad 3rd line. Once the season goes on, there will be shuffling, along with injuries, but Ryan is expected to be top 6, and no way Fabbri is on the 3rd.

Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha Fabbri - Namestikov - Ryan Svech - Filppula - Zadina Helm - Nielsen - Glenny Timashov/Erne ...if Yzerman doesn't add anyone else, then this looks pretty close to what we'll see. Of course also barring any other buy-outs or waiving of someone. ...WAIT where is Gagner!?! Sheesh, someone is getting traded/waived or bought out! unless Zadina stays on loan.

If somehow Yzerman pulls a 1st AND Glass out of Vegas, he is GM of the year. No matter what he flips MAF for! MAYBE he gets MAF in the deal and trades Bernier to Buffalo for a later pick! I'll take the tandem of MAF and Greiss, then trade MAF at the TDL when he may have more value.

Well then that also gives us an upper hand. Could you imagine if Yzerman got a 1st, Glass and then flipped him to Buffalo (50% retained) for their 1st?

Here is my take on this. The difference is Buffalo NEEDS a goalie, they have Hutton as their starter. Detroit would just act as the middle-man in a three way deal. So I think Buffalo would have to give up more, and I think Detroit is in a position to ask for more. Detroit would have more control because they could have a deal in place to move MAF to a team he wants to go to. He may not want to go to Buffalo. That being said, a 1st AND Glass is a ton to get, if Yzerman was able to pull that off, wow!