betterREDthandead

Short term need? There are way too many defensemen and too few spots as it is. Short-term, the last thing we need is a d-man. Goalie and forward are much bigger priorities. Long term, I kind of grant you, once Nick retires, but I strongly disagree that it wouldn't break the bank. It would as long as Nick is around. The Wings aren't going to pay $3.5M for Stuart - $3M, tops. They probably would prefer to drop it down to $2.5. And $5M is a minimum for Bouwmeester, especially with a good season.

Well, I think that's kind of a crazy claim too. And I'm not really big on the idea of trading from a weakness to shore up a strength. Let's make sure that our younger offensive players develop like we think they should before we go trading one or two of them for a defenseman.

Is that so Toronto can finally get to watch a banner being raised?

Has anyone given any thought to how Bouwmeester would fit into the cap, long-term? Figure $8M for Hank, $6.7M for Pavel, $6M for Rafalski, $7.45 for Nick, and $8.3 for Cleary/Homer/Kronwall, and that's $36.45M for those guys - Bouwmeester would push it over $40 million. (Figures for the '09-'10 season.) That'd leave less than a million per year for the rest of the team, not forgetting of course that Flip and Franzen are set to join the 2-to-3 million club. Sure, the cap likely will rise, but no way you can project accurately enough how much - not when dealing with the figures Bouwmeester will command. Frankly it'd be irresponsible of Kenny to sign Bouwmeester. He's a hell of a player but the cap prevents it from being anything more than a dream right now.

No, that's the second-tier package; Hudler and a pick is the elite-level offer.

O I C I thought the affiliation agreement between the leagues didn't allow for that to happen.

I doubt another NHL team could "steal" him any more than they could steal a player under contract to an NHL team. But it does put the Wings in position to buy his contract from the Griffins and then call him up and send him down as per usual regulations.

That's not so bad. When Z signs his extension the Wings will probably have about 25% of their cap wrapped up in two players. 40% in three players. Over half in four players. Similar to what the Lightning have, and nobody would say we're hamstrung. Pick 8 players off our team, including our top three paid (after Z's extension), and our cap situation looks the same.

$8.5M is a fair deal for Lecavalier. I wouldn't have been surprised if that's what Z signed for either, not even before the Lecav deal.

To back up what I said about signing a goalie: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic.../806240346/1128

I don't really agree. We just don't need bums. But at the moment, we're looking at Osgood and three kids. Howard, Larsson, Koopmans (RFA). And Adam Berkhoel, who the Wings signed specifically to stock the Griffins, and who may or may not be brought back. Holland ought to look into getting a veteran of some reasonable talent. If it came down to it, I'd rather have Denis than Raycroft, but there are better options out there and I wouldn't be surprised to see Kenny go after one.

Well then why not just grab any ol' stiff off the waiver wire? For every Dan Cleary there's a Boyd Devereaux. I understand Alexandre Daigle isn't employed by any NHL team either. And skaters are far, FAR, FAR less of a risk than goalies. You have 18 of them in a game and 20-some of them on the roster, and more awaiting call up. You only get four goalie slots between Detroit and GR. You have to use them wisely.

I'm sort of hoping one day we'll discuss a goalie worth a s***. We ought to be setting higher standards than Raycroft and Denis - these guys weren't even good enough to wear the baseball cap for craptacular non-playoff teams, what does the Stanley Cup Champion need with them? We can do better. They are, at best, good for forming the veteran half of a tandem with Larsson in GR and being called up for spot duty in the dark days of January should the unthinkable happen and Ozzie and Howard go down. In other words - organizational depth, not as legitimate competition to actually be on the roster.

Denis is, at best, borderline serviceable. If Howard couldn't beat him out in camp, then we might as well give up on him entirely. We don't need Denis.

I wouldn't worry too much about the combos. It's fun to conjecture and it's actually kind of important on a game-by-game basis in the playoffs, but for an upcoming regular season? I guarantee you they'll shuffle several times over the course of 82 games. No need to worry that so-and-so doesn't seem to be getting his shot with Lidstrom or whoever - the regular season is six months long and any number of things can and do happen.

I'm pretty sure he means 25 minutes a night in the AHL. Notice he's not included in the lineup.

Oh, "poster" like on a wall.....I thought you were talking directly to me

I'm not arguing against you specifically, I'm arguing against the idea that we can or will sign a big-name forward, Rolston being one of the ones mentioned. Why do you think I have to be the one to silence my opinion? We can either have a discussion, or a circle-jerk in which we all pretend fanciful things. And if I'm wrong, and Kenny can find a way to improve the team under the cap, then awesome - so be it. But in any case, as I've said before, if you don't want to be disagreed with, don't post.

Also: The kind of guy that you're talking about, the Naslunds and Rolstons of the world, aren't going to settle for a one-year deal. One year deals are for guys looking to impress in order to earn a longer deal, not well-established guys in the league like Naslund.

Also: The kind of guy that you're talking about, the Naslunds and Rolstons of the world, aren't going to settle for a one-year deal. One year deals are for guys looking to impress in order to earn a longer deal, not well-established guys in the league like Naslund.

As I said: I believe the Wings will pay him this year. The extension can override the current contract. I could be wrong about the way the CBA will apply but I think the Wings will find a way to hook Z up so that he doesn't have to wait another full season at his current salary before the raise kicks in - the Wings tend to be loyal like that when doing business.

You have to have options. Have to. At the absolutely critical position of goalie, no matter how confident you are, if a team leaves itself without a pipeline of replacements, they're setting themselves up for failure. If the team is losing confidence in Howard, they're not going to solve that by giving him four more years to prove it, they're going to go out right this year and get a new goalie that can play right away. And don't put anything much into the Ryan Miller possibility, the only reason it's mentioned so much is because he's a native.

McCollum is no threat to Howard for at least four or five years. Drafting a goalie has nothing to do with how they feel about Howard, it's just a replenishment of the pipeline now that Howard's ready for the big club and Larsson is starting to knock on the door. The only other goalie prospect is Koopmans, and he's never going to make the Wings.

Nope, not even for 1 year deals. The Wings have about 41.3 million tied up already. I think it's safe to assume that Hank will play for more than 2.9M next year (the organization doesn't cheap out on their players) and that Flip gets re-signed, so tack on another 4.5M for Hank and another 2.5M for Flip, that boosts it up to 48.3 right there. There's a few RFA's to be signed besides Flip: Ericsson, Howard, probably Quincey too, so that's going to take about 2M also. $50.3 now. Looks like Lilja and Cheli will be brought back, probably another 1.8M there since that was their total last year, so, $52.1. Do we bring back Stuart for about $2.5? If so, $54.6. And then, even if Drake, Downey, McCarty, etc. don't get re-signed, there will have to be guys to fill those roles, so you still have to commit about $1.5-2M to those guys, whether they be the same guys as last year, call-ups from GR, or free agents. That's going to take us right to the edge of the roughly $56M salary cap. There's a few assumptions in there, but the Wings can't maintain the status quo and add players too. Definitely can't fit Jason Smith AND Markus Naslund in there, it's nigh-impossible unless they make Hank wait a year for his raise to kick in - but is that how you treat the Conn Smythe winner and Selke finalist?

I don't see any cap space for the Wings to make a big summer FA splash. Kenny's handed out a number of raises and has more to give in the future. I think we ought to forget about Sundin, Hossa, Naslund, Rolston, or any of that.