gcom007

Very good news indeed.

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!!!!!!!!!! Nah, actually, just kidding. Didn't you get the memo? If you don't think all our guys are Hart-trophy candidates and we are on pace to sweep the Cup every year, then you're just a reckless, idiotic pessimist spewing negativity.

This is what kills me every day on here. I just look at the screen and shake my head a little...

Ha. Since you know me so well. I like Flip. I'm positive about Flip. I'm also not into absurd expectations.

And I'd love Slava Kozlov back, but that's message board fantasy fodder...

We don't exactly have a lot of choice in the matter folks. I'm not saying I like it at all, but this is about as rough as the off-season could've gone for us. This is absolutely the worst-case scenario the Wings were expecting this off-season. It's not like we're screwed out of making the playoffs as we still have a solid core, but we were a signing or two away from being favorites to return the Finals for the 3rd year in a row. Simply put, that simply isn't so much the case now. Time will tell how it all shakes down, but like Jimmy D has said numerous times, it's very tough to make up the 82 goals we lost from 3 guys and all the tougher in July after most of the guys that are most likely to help have been signed by other teams. It's slim pickings now. We could come out fine, but it's not as much of a given at this point when you have to gamble on iffy players to make up for guys that left.

I agree. I've got nothing against the guy and I think he's a solid player, but I don't think he's going to be the player many around here are expecting. We're on the same page on this one.

http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=60241

Any deal over 6-7 years is pushing it no matter how you shake it. I'm not going to ***** about Chicago when no doubt 29 other teams were bitching about us when we signed Franzen and Z in the same manner. Like I said, I don't really like any of the deals when it really shakes down. Sure, I'm not pissing and moaning about benefiting from it and I'd sign Hossa in a heartbeat to the same deal with the Wings, but I'm not going to be upset when the league cuts the ability to do this kind of tinkering out completely.

I'll be shocked if he breaks 50 points.

It's very hard for me to sit here and say that Chicago shouldn't be able to play "our" game because they don't have the over 40 crowd we do? Sorry, that just doesn't do it for me. I know it's nice to think that we're just better than everyone and we can get away with anything, but I'm not going to trash other teams for playing our game even if taken to a further extreme. Because after all, it's not "our game," it's a glitch in the system that perhaps we exploited first and luckily enough, we got away with it. If they tried to pull the deal off next year for Z after this, we'd probably face the same empty stare down from the league. All cases cited are extreme cases of pushing the rules of the cap. It is what it is. Everything else is just getting petty.

No surprise. The cap number will be the thing that's interesting and whether or not he'll sign during the season or next summer. I imagine the Wings would like it done ASAP.

A world of difference? How's that? They all sign 10+ year deals with 2-3 years tacked on the end with a small salary to lower the overall cap hit. Everyone and their mother was saying when Z signed, "No deal on those last two years! He'll probably retire! Ken Holland is so smart!" Everyone can see the writing on the wall with these deals and the likelihood of them actually being fulfilled to term. And to be blatantly honest, as much as I like them in some ways when they're working in our favor, I really don't like them in a lot of other ways. But Hossa: 7 years at $7.9 million, 1 year at $4 million, 2 years at $1 million, 2 years at $750k Zetterberg: basically $7-7.5 million for 9 years, 1 year at $3.35 million, 2 years at $1 million The structure is different but the brunt of the money is coming in the first 8-9 years for these guys and after that, it falls off. If you really want to say there's a "world of difference," you better come up with something better than Chicago's just being a bit more extreme on the back-end drop. They're both set up to accomplish the same thing and they both just pull it off in a different way.

Not to mention the fact that we can sign him now so long as we clear the cap space before the regular season. But please, please, please let this not pan out. I tend to like Red Wings even if they're not that great. I'm a Red Wings fan. I never liked Jason Williams.

I think Z and Franzen just set the ball rolling. They were the first of their kind in some ways to sign such deals. I wasn't so surprised about Franzen's slipping under but I was a bit surprised about Z's not taking more heat. I had a feeling they'd get away with it, but I also had a feeling that the league would do all they could to prevent such deals in the future. That looks to indeed be the case at this point.

ROLLING!!!!!!!!!

Any updates? I'm still hoping he signs with us...as a coach/development guy.

But Maltby will fight for himself as well. Hell, he got into a fight in his first game with the team after we traded for him from Edmonton. Of interesting note in regards to that first game, I distinctly remember saying with utmost conviction after the fight as he walked off the ice because his jersey was all torn up: "Kirk Maltby: Red Wing for life."

How long have you been following the Wings? If you've been watching throughout Maltby's entire career with the Wings, I would think you wouldn't be calling him a cowardly *****.

Umm, I knew things weren't all rosy with the Wings, but I didn't think we were this desperate. Man oh man...didn't we get rid of this guy already for some pretty damn good reasons? Damn. Jason Williams?! For real?!? I'd almost rather write this year off now as a growth year and make sure the main GR kids are up getting experience so we can ice the most solid team possible in 2010/11. While it's not like he's the worst player in the world and at times shows potential, I just feel like this is not the right move to make at this point.

88 goals, 118 assists, and 206 points That's the production we've lost in Hossa, Hudler, Sammy and Kopecky. 88 goals, 118 assists, and 206 points Like I and others said for the last couple weeks, there's a strong chance we're going to lose all our FA's, not just Hossa. Many scoffed at the notion. But look at us now. 88 goals, 118 assists, and 206 points Now, if you really want to see how ugly that is, check this out.... http://www.nhl.com/ice/teamstats.htm?fetch...ewName=goalsFor Subtract 88 goals and we edge out the Rangers by a goal for 28th place in goals scored. Obviously, it's not that cut and dry, but our kids are not likely to put up that much. Leino's had success at times but he wasn't a big scorer in the AHL even. It's unlikely we'll be able to bring anyone in with our cap space to help that much. I'm not saying we're out at all as a lot of elite teams are taking a hit this go around as well, but this sure isn't going to be like the last few seasons. This team is going to have to work harder than ever for every point. 88 goals, 118 assists, and 206 points - 4 (really 3...) players That is not something to minimize.

I was reminded of my little thread after reading Jimmy D's comments. "I think the salary cap has finally caught up to my hockey team, the Detroit Red Wings," Devellano said. "Up front, we've lost 82 goals, between Samuelsson, Hudler and Hossa. ... There aren't many teams that can afford that, us included, so we're a little bit, um, concerned, to put it mildly." http://www.freep.com/article/20090724/SPOR...up-to-Red-Wings

Not sure about that. Not disagreeing, just not sure. I don't think he'll be moved this summer, but I still think Flip would be the first guy to be traded if we needed to either clear cap space for a bigger signing (won't happen this summer) or make a splash deal at the deadline/clear cap space. He's a good player, but he doesn't have the best hands in the world to say the least and gets paid quite a bit (in Red Wing Cap World) considering he's most likely never going to net more than 45-50 points tops. If he doesn't come out significantly stronger than he has in his past 3 seasons through February and the Wings feel like they need to make a big deal at the deadline, I think he's going to be gone. I hear everything people say, but the cap is what it is and they might not wait forever for Flip to potentially grow into his cap hit when he'd be easy to trade, yield a good return and free up the most space. A 36 point-pace is not going to do it especially as the regular season race becomes more competitive. This is going to be a big year for him. If he doesn't show significant improvement, I wouldn't be shocked at all if he was on another team in 2010/11.

Kessel just DM'd me back on Twitter after I asked him about the possibility of coming to Detroit earlier. He simply said, "Thanks for the support. Nothing done yet but stay tuned..." This is me trying to make it on Eklunds site...