YoungGuns1340

I posted elsewhere that the Wings being able to sign Bouwmeester to a 6.5M per year contract would require them to trade Stuart, Filppula, and Kronwall, let Hossa and Sammy go, and possibly Franzen as well, unless he took 3.5M or less. To summarize, the Wings won't blow up the roster to such an extent, and Bouwmeester signing for 6.5M is a discount as is.

Yes. Thats working quite well in Pittsburgh, where 2 of the 3 greatest offensive talents are making power forwards out of *******.

Blessing in disguise. I love homer, but more youth only means a better work ethic overall. In the Wings system, you have to impress to get a legit shot, and Leino, Helm, and Ericsson know that better than anyone. We'll miss Homer - he makes our PP what it is - but there are worse things that could happen.

There is no "answer" to the goaltending situation. But with that said, who could really do worse than Osgood right now? Any starting/semi-starting/splitting goaltender that has played NHL hockey this year, outside of Toskala, Gerber, and Legace would be at worst be on par with Osgood, and even thats hard to say. I say the Wings think outside of the box. Teams like Boston and Philly might find it better to trade their back-ups for the extra cap space they could use to address other holes, or to make some room to bring back Briere, in Phillys case. Maybe Nashville would forgo the fear of dealing with a rival if they were to garner something interesting in return for Ellis, since Rinne has stepped up so much. Atlanta is still in rebuild, and likes the look of Pavelec a lot, while Lehtonen has been on the block before. They may seem like unlikely situations, but with Ken Holland, it seems like he pulls off a lot of deals that come out from left field.

North Dakota would never get a team. Luring FAs there would be even worse than Edmonton, and the team would likely have to overpay to land free agents with money that they undoubtedly don't have. I dont like the idea of Vegas getting a team, but its financially feasible. Considering it would be the only real pro sport in the city, it'd be a huge gambling sell. Plus, with Vegas attracting a lot of professional fighting/boxing fans, you could probably stack a Vegas team with a couple of enforcers and have that sell the game alone. If you're going to put a hockey team in a warm weather place, it might as well be a locale where people go with the sole purpose of spending money.

"Sounds like another long deal," says Eklund. It better effing not be another long deal, unless its a 7-8 year deal that pushes his average to about 2M per year. Otherwise, I want no part of a "long" deal that has Franzen's name on it. Has he even eclipsed the full calendar year mark of being a top 6 player? Wouldn't be surprised if we end up paying a second-rate Johnny Cheechoo 3M to play on our 3rd line. Yikes.

Just out of curiosity, what is everyone's obsession with trading our forwards at the deadline? Offense is not our problem. If we were going into the playoffs today, our 4th line is not what would ruin us. Our defense and goaltending is. Unless we're trading Filppula for a defenseman or some sort of goaltender (not a soon to be UFA tender. Kenny would have to be creative here), then theres no point in trading Filppula when you can trade him AFTER the playoffs, and add a gritty 4th liner with only moving a pick and still keeping Filppula. For example, if all we're going to do is add a guy like Neil, then we don't need to move salary to do it and a 2nd round pick would likely suffice. And keeping Flip only makes us deeper in the playoffs. Then the Wings can take the entire summer to look for a "cap clearing" trade in which Filppula could be tossed in favor of something else. The only way, in my eyes, that trading Filppula for a forward at the deadline makes sense is if the Wings are making a second trade that requires them to clear some cap space.

He could definitely garner some assets if he were moved. At this point, Anaheim is going to have to more or less makeover their entire defense, and Pronger's value at the deadline + an additional year at a reasonable price could be the guy that puts the team over the hump for the next year. If they can trade him for a good young Dman, and maybe a 2nd liner to boot (with some balancing required), it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Anaheim has a lot of holes.

Cleary is pretty hot and cold with his goal scoring. God knows he has the capability to pull off another 20 goal season. I'm pretty sure hes put up something comparable to 12 goals in 30 games before.

Right now on NHL.com, the top 2 articles are both about the Red Wings and Penguins. And not in a good way. Both articles discuss the Pens mediocrity - which has been noted by their place in the standings - but the articles also point out how average the Wings goaltending has been this season. It seems like a lot of time, people like to think that Wings fans are the only ones who really know whats going on with the Wings, but folks around the league are spot on about the Wings issues. And our opponents in the playoffs are going to have a simple game plan if we don't fix some things by the deadline. And my apologies for the redundancy of the threads. Just thought it was interesting that these were voices not affiliated with the Red Wings that we're speaking out about the Wings issues. http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=407959 http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=407962

I've caught some Pens games this year, and in all the games I've seen, Malkin has been noticeably better than Crosby, in some cases significantly better. Its funny - Crosby is still considered the best in the game, yet Ovechkin and Malkin are really doing more for their teams right now. Crosby is trying too hard right now.

Didn't want to make a new thread, so I'm bumping this one. Alexander Ovechkin - 23 years old, and he scored his 200th career goal tonight.

At this point, we've lost before the finals more times when having the best odd than we've won the Cup.

Why are people so keen on trading Kronwall? Because his playoff showing was the exception, not the rule, and because defense has been a bigger problem than offense has. And no, hes not a future Norris winner. As a 28 year old, he has yet to show that he is anything more than a PPQB with a "when I feel like it" physical presence. While his offense has developed nicely over the years, his defense has flat-lined. Its stagnant. Hes making similar defensive mistakes that he made two years ago. The Wings don't need to trade Filppula at the deadline. Our top 3 lines are about as solid as anything in the NHL, and are the only thing that has kept us alive this season. Messing with that is not even a secondary issue, let alone primary. Edit: clarity.

One or the other has to be fixed. I'm confident that if the Wings were to somehow rectify the defense, that Conklin would be adequate enough to win some playoff games. Conklin has a .915 save percentage%. If we can strengthen our defense and cut down on those shots in the slot, I think you'd probably see Conklin pull off some games with only a goal or two against. One things for sure, though. We have to fix one or the other. If we can boost our defense, then we should be able to insulate our goaltenders. But if we can't do that, then we need a goalie whos gonna make up for our defensive gaffs. And neither Osgood nor Conklin seems capable of being a game stealer.

Just listened to the clip. Holland says hes already getting calls. I wonder if they're teams soliciting players, or looking to see if Holland is interested in dealing anyone.

1. The Wings could afford Kaberle if Kronwall was going back the other way, even with the 1M difference. 2. Kaberle's agent is assembling a list of about 10 teams that Kaberle wouldn't mind being traded to, and my guess is Detroit is likely one of them. 3. Kronwall has age on Kaberle, and thats it, and even then its only a difference of 3 years. 4. If the Wings added Kaberle, he would be a much better "insurance policy" in case Lidstrom retires than either of Rafalski or Kronwall. The more I think about it, a Kronwall + for Kaberle swap be an absolutely awesome deal, both for the playoffs and for the future. And it makes sense for Toronto in the future as well. They get a younger Dman that cuts some salary which allows them even more money to play for Cammy and JBo. And Burke apparently likes the idea of two brothers on the same team. Detroit would have to add to it though, since Kaberle is locked up at a great contract.

Let me preface this by saying I don't think Hudler will ever be at Datsyuk's level, but it wasn't long ago that Datsyuk was chided for being defensively irresponsible. Hudler reminds me a lot of Milan Hejduk.

The way I see it, it has nothing to do with Hossa or Franzen. It has everything to do with numbers. IMO, I don't think Franzen is worth over 3.5M. And I don't want to see the Wings sign ANY forward who costs 5M or more. I'd rather see if the Wings could add a guy like Tanguay if he came at 4.5M or so. A guy that falls in between the talent levels of Hossa and Franzen, and also in between the salary schema.

Wow. Way to skew your statistics. Osgood has 17 games of 3 goals or under, and Conklin has 15 games of 3 goals or under... ...but Osgood has 6 games of 2 goals or under, and Conklin has 12 games of 2 goals or under. Osgood: Percentage of games allowing 3+ goals 75% Conklin: Percentage of games allowing 3+ goals 50%

Thats ridiculous. "Come on over, and I'll sign all the s*** you want for free, and then you can go make money off of me by selling it on ebay." Thats the reason why they charge. No one wants to take time out of there day to be faced with people who make a livelihood off of selling autographs. Most likely, if you're willing to spend 20 or 30 bucks on a guy's sig, you're a real fan. And thats who Hudler is serving. Makes fine sense to me.

Hudler doesn't need Hossa to point out his playmaking. As it stands, Hudler is developing into a better playmaker than Hossa and Zetterberg. He ALWAYS knows where to put the puck. His decision making skills are elite. If he were 4-5 inches taller, Babs would be giving him 16-17 minutes a game, and he'd probably rank among the top 30 in scoring. He actually ranks 48th in scoring as it stands, putting him among the company of guys like Spezza, Zherdev, Havlat, Staal, Toews, etc. Here we go - 48th in scoring, 281st in ice time among forwards.

Lets see. Our goaltending sucks, and our defense sucks. A year from now, we may lose Lidstrom, and as of now, even he isn't where he used to be, with all of our other Dmen even further behind. Matthias Ohlund or Niklas Backstrom.

The 2006 playoffs against Edmonton is a perfect example of who Schneider is. He was the biggest defensive bonehead that series, and yet he lead ALL Wings in points. Scoring clutch goals means s*** when you're giving them right back.

Doesn't kick in until next year.