Yzermania19

Wow, look how young Nick looks! Both of them, really! What an awesome photo. Regarding that video above - Vlady just laid out Lemeiux and continued skating like he was simply on a Sunday stroll after church!! Wow! I really miss seeing that. Again, it makes me wonder what might have been.

Looks like an excellent signing. I admit I didn't know much about Guy Boucher before his name came up as a Tampa coaching candidate, but I like the choice. Like others have said, he's unproven at the NHL level but has the resume to indicate he will be successful. Much like Steve, who doesn't seem to be wasting any time in putting his crew together. So far I'm impressed, but again, like others said, time will tell. Hiring good people puts you in a great position to be successful, but the ultimate test is on the ice. Hopefully the Bolts players will respond favorably to Boucher and his assistants. BTW - has anyone heard about Boucher bringing his Bulldogs assistants with him? I didn't get a chance to listen to the presser (work got in the way...dammit! LOL) and I had read that's something he wanted. Just curious.

Supposedly Boucher is going to bring his assistants from Hamilton with him to Tampa, so it appears that MacLean is safe with the Wings. However, according to the latest reports, the Bolts and Boucher are still negotiating, but it appears he is definitely their man - Full - Source: Bolts, Boucher still negotiating

It wasn't cut down, but it's gone - a couple of years after the accident it was struck by lightning and what was left of it was removed. I used to drive through that intersection every day on my way to and from work and I remember the eerie feeling I'd get seeing that tree. I was never so glad to see a tree hit by lightning!

Not to throw a wet blanket on this thread or anything, but it was 13 years ago tonight that the Wings won the Cup for the first time in 42 years - June 7, 1997. The limo accident happened six days later on June 13, 1997 - a Friday. But I agree with everyone else...if that accident never happened, IMO we could have won 3 or 4 Cups in a row! Vlady brought a physical presence to the blue line that the Wings have struggled to find since. I remember when he laid out Lindros in the Final in 1997 - Lindros looked like he'd run into a brick wall! And then less than a week after they won, hearing the breaking news come over the TV...running to get my Walkman so I could listen to the radio and watch TV at the same time...hearing one news report say Sergei was dead (found out later he wasn't even in the limo)...then the looks on all the Wings' faces the next morning and the catch in Stevie's voice as he asked everyone to pray for their fallen teammates. What makes it so much worse is the Wings were actually being smart - they were celebrating with the Cup and knew they'd be drinking so they'd hired limos to drive them around! And the limo driver was high and fell asleep at the wheel! It's one of those things that just makes you sit back and wonder what might have been.

I agree...Steve was a part of the Red Wings for 27 years and he still has a lot of fans here. He is a legend here in Detroit and that will never change. I know I am not the only Red Wing fan who loves the man (male AND female) and I know if he decided to come back to the Wings, the organization and the fans would welcome him back with open arms. I don't understand why some people are upset with him leaving...he's realizing his dream of running an NHL team. Yeah, it's not the Wings, but would you really want Ilitch to push aside Ken Holland to put a rookie GM in his place? And would you really want Stevie to just wait around for the next 10, 15, 20 years until Kenny decided to retire? I know I wouldn't - Stevie's too good for that. As for Stevie hiring one, and potentially two, Wings' personnel, I think that was bound to happen. I don't consider that to be "raiding" the Wings' organization, considering he asked the Wings for permission to talk to them, and permission was granted. Verbeek surprised me a little, but Martin didn't, because I had heard he and Steve were close. Regarding the draft, Stevie's coming on board in Tampa with just about a month left before the draft. Their scouts have pretty much already done their jobs. Steve has said he is going to let the scouts run the draft for the most part, but he is going to review their notes (or whatever it is they have on potential draft picks) and let them know what he thinks. He said he doesn't want to step on toes by coming in and blowing up all their work and starting from scratch. The Lightning have the sixth overall pick and the Wings have the 21st. In the second round, the Wings have the 51st pick, and the Lighting don't have one (traded to Florida via Boston). So I don't think his knowledge of the Wings' draft intentions come into play. Going forward he may employ a Red Wing-like draft strategy, in which he looks for unknown European players in the late rounds who could become Tampa Bay's versions of Zetterberg and Datsyuk. I don't know how much the GM's talk among themselves outside of the GM meetings, but I'm sure there are more than a few who are on friendly terms. With all the people he is friends with in the Wings organization, I can't imagine that just ends now that he's in Tampa. Stevie has too much respect for the Red Wings to compromise any relationship he has with the organization, from the Ilitches on down. They are like a family to him. This too.

teehee...maybe he learned from Ken Holland too well. If he wants any more Wings, he should look at the unrestricted free agents the Wings probably aren't going to sign, like Maltby.

Hey, here's a thought - maybe a couple of the guys (Martin and Verbeek, perhaps) told Stevie, "look, you get a GM job, I want to come work for you." Maybe Stevie's just making good on a couple of promises. If the Wings are willing to let them talk to Steve (or any other team, for that matter), and they want to go, then there's nothing underhanded, secretive, sneaky, poachy or raid-like about it. Just like the Lightning approaching the Wings to get permission to talk to Stevie last month that set all this in motion. It's really no different - just a mutual decision between the heads of two corporations. Geez, if people are making this big a deal about front office people, I hate to see what will happen when Stevie comes to the Wings for the first time with a trade proposal. Yeesh.

A ******? Please. This happens all the time in business, and hockey is a business. An example - two former colleagues of mine started their own firm a couple of years ago and took HALF the people from their old firm with them. Now that's what I call raiding the cookie jar. But it happens! And I'm sure it happens a lot more in pro sports than any of us hear about. We're just hearing about this because it's the Wings and it's Stevie. That's all. If it was Joe Blow GM of the Podunkville Pirahnas or something it might be a footnote at the end of one of George Malick's columns, if that. Just for the record, I am an Yzerman fan and a Red Wing fan. Stevie is the reason I became a Red Wing fan. I understand his concern is now Tampa Bay and I feel like I now have a second team to cheer for. I want BOTH teams to succeed. However, I am not surprised that he is asking for permission to talk to a couple of guys from the Wings team. Not at all. And no, it doesn't bother me. I don't consider that raiding. Besides, the Wings could have said no when Stevie asked to talk to Martin and Verbeek, and he would have understood. He's on the other side of the table now.

Says Martin's not participating in any Red Wing meetings anymore...looks like he's bolting (hahaha ) for Tampa. Can't blame him - looks like he's being offered the assistant GM position. That's quite a promotion.

This thread is hilarious! I suck at puns otherwise I'd jump right in and participate! But as to the original topic - I highly doubt Stevie would work out a trade that would send Lecavalier to the Wings. First of all, Vinny's contract is freaking huge (11 years, $85 million through 2019-2020) and the Wings simply cannot - and will not - take on a contract that size (Franzen's is for 11 years, too, but for half that amount and it's front-loaded). Also, there is the sense in Tampa that Stevie can act as a mentor to Vinny and help him regain some of his former sparkle. One more thing - in a letter on the Lightning's web site that Stevie wrote to the fans, he said: He wouldn't call someone part of the team's "nucleus" if he was thinking of trading the guy. So, Lecavalier appears to be staying in Tampa, at least for now. BTW - here's the rest of the letter, if anyone wants to read it - A letter from Steve Yzerman

I'd hardly call asking the Wings for permission to talk to two guys "raiding" the organization. This kind of stuff is done all the time in hockey, and for all we know other GM's have asked to speak with other Wings' execs. We just haven't heard about it because the other GM's aren't Stevie. Also, just because he is asking for permission to talk to these guys, it doesn't mean they'll accept his offer. Ryan Martin probably will, but Stevie's allegedly offering him a promotion over his current Wings job (assistant GM vs. capologist), and like Stevie, Martin probably knows there's not a lot of room to move up in the Wings' organization.

LOL!!! Well, technically not until July 1st...

ROTFL!!! That's a great clip! I love those commercials.

There had been talk of Holland and Nill getting long-term extensions, but as to whether the contracts were in the works, they were apparetnly imminent or else Stevie wouldn't have gone to Tampa. If Stevie felt he had ANY chance of being handed the GM job for the Wings within the next five years, he would have stuck around, IMO. BTW - I have been catching up on all the radio interviews Stevie and various members of the Red Wings brain trust gave last week regarding his departure. In one that I found very interesting, Stevie said that he pretty much knew all along he wouldn't be the GM of the Wings and that he'd have to go somewhere else to run a team. This is a good move by the Red Wings - Holland is known as one of the best GM's in sports and Nill is no slouch, either. The team has been extremely successful under their watch and it's the only move that makes sense. As much as I hated to see Stevie leave, this is good for the Red Wings (and good for Stevie, cuz he gets to run his own team).

The angle of that photo makes it look like Lids and Franzen are walking on the water...LOL

I just heard them say on 97.1 The Ticket that it's for between $5-6 million, but closer to $6 million. It's a "hometown discount," but not much.

Links to this story are popping up all over Twitter - Ansar Khan is reporting that Nick Lidstrom is has decided to come back for one more year and will finalize a contract this week; Source: Nicklas Lidstrom will return to Red Wings for one-year contract

No more "sources say..." This quote comes directly from the Red Wings GM, Ken Holland - Unfortunately it doesn't reveal anything about which way Nick is leaning. It does say if he decides to come back the Wings will try to get him to sign for about $6 million. Here's a link to the whole article - Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom will make decision on his future by end of week

We didn't exactly "suck" last season. The first half was rough because at one point we had half of our regular lineup out with injuries, and didn't have Franzen, who was on fire, unitl February, as someone pointed out. The Wings had one of the best records in the league after the Olympic break, and surpise! They had everyone back by then! Yes, we lost in the second round but all but one of those games were by one goal, and I still maintain the craptastic officiating had something to do with the losses (not blaming the refs, just saying that they were a factor - the Wings definitely didn't play up to par at times against the Sharks). If we didn't have all those injuries during the first half of the season, and if we didn't have to play so dang hard to make up ground just to get to the playoffs, I think we'd be in the Cup Final instead of Chicago. I really do. The Wings could beat either of the teams in the Final. Lidstrom showed this season that he is slowing down, but just a bit. He is still the best defenceman in the NHL and it's my opinion that if they want to contend for the Cup next year, the Wings need Lids back.

I could see Maltby signing with Tampa. He's been with the Wings since, like 1995, so Stevie knows him quite well. Like him or not, he is a champion and would bring that mindset and his four Cups to the Bolts, and add a veteran presence to Tampa. The only question is (and this applies for any team, not just Tampa), would Malts want to move his family for a year or two? I read an article where he said he wouldn't look forward to that, so maybe if the Wings don't sign him he'd retire.

I'm hoping it's true, but like others I will wait to celebrate until I see it from a reliable source. I know blogs are quickly becoming "the new media" (I'm in PR and we deal more with bloggers these days than with journalists and traditional media), but anyone with rudimentary writing skills and a computer can start a blog and say whatever they want, whether it's true or not, so you have to be careful who you trust. Of course there are legitimate, respected and knowlegeable bloggers out there (I hope I'm one of them! LOL). I still want to hear news like this from the Wings themselves.

Thank you for that explanation. I knew about the July 1 free agent thing, but wasn't sure about the rest. It just seems that there aren't too many trades happening during the season anymore (except around the trade deadline) so I wasn't sure if the rules had changed. Good thing Tampa hired Stevie for the GM job and not me. LOL So, if Holland and Stevie were to work out a trade that would ship Drapes and Ozzie to Tampa, they would be under contract with Tampa until next summer, when their contracts run out, although Stevie could negotiate with them during the season for a contract extension. Yes? ROTFLMAO!!! That's funny!

ROTFLMBO!! I believe it is July 1, when free agency starts.