haroldsnepsts

It's in the Detroit News article, but they're paraphrasin his point right around there so there's not much context to be had really. http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120712/SPORTS0103/207120392/1128/rss16

Well, they will replace him. But that doesn't mean it's an equal replacement. The Wings lost one of the greatest D-men to ever play the game, and a solid middle pairing guy. Quincey will hopefully be okay but not great once he gets used to the pairings and system. They're bringing in a talented but very green rookie who has played a whopping 14 NHL games in his career. And now they're also relying on Kindl, who couldn't manage to hold the #6 spot convincingly and didn't see a lick of ice time in the playoffs. It's hard to feel good about the Wings defense right now.

It wouldn't screw the GM's because it would pretty much have to include a salary rollback. A small rollback may seem logical, but I can't see the players agreeing to it very easily. They conceded and agreed to a cap. And now their salaries are tied to revenue (something which they have zero control over). The reason their salaries are up is because revenue is up. So it's a tricky argument to make that they need to pay the players less even though revenues continue to increase.

Plus the Wings only have 6 D-men signed right now, and Janik just signed in Germany. If someone got injured, who'd fill in? At the very least you'd think he'd pick up a 6/7 d-man. Knowing Holland's fondness for boomeranging players, it'll probably be Commie.

Merged with yesterday's thread about an article on Smith.

He also said this in the mlive article: http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2012/07/general_manager_ken_holland_st.html So he's not necessarily done, though I understand the frustration. I was disappointed when Holland didn't make a move in the offseason or trade deadline for what we all could've guessed was Lidstrom's last season. Now he's in the press basically trying to have it both ways, patting himself on the back that the Wings were one of two teams that met with Parise, but then spins it that maybe their 13 year term (which I thought the Wings matched?) was too long with his "out of the game for a decade" comment. It's also a little funny to hear him say that given the contracts he gave to Zetterberg and especially Franzen. The lack of moves is frustrating, as are his comments. I'm just trying to wait patiently and hope he makes another move or two.

I disagree with your assessment.

Maybe after the Suter/Parise signings, he's downplaying it to try and keep yet another free agent signing from turning into an episode of the bachelor. True. But there could be the fear that he'll play for a year under contract, and if he doesn't like it then he bolts to the KHL where he doesn't have to work as hard, and the Wings (or whoever signed him) lose him for nothing.

Hmm, I wonder if Holland is playing it close to the vest or if he's really not that interested. Work ethic aside, I guess another serious concern is him running off to the KHL.

Has there really been talk that the Wings aren't interested in Semin? Because my guess would be he's the number one target for Holland now after Parise signed. He's a talented forward that's a bit of a reclamation project because of his reputation. He could play alongside Datsyuk and under a coach that is known for making players work hard. Getting him away from Ovechkin probably won't hurt either. In terms of talent level for the cost to acquire him, this seems right up Holland's alley.

I hope Kronwall will step up big next season, but extrapolating a 12 game stretch over the course of a season is a pretty skewed use of statistics. If I take the first 12 games in November for Franzen, he had 6 goals and 9 assists. prorated for 82 games is 41 goals and 102 points. That puts him just shy of Malkins league leading totals of 109. BUt if I take the 12 games starting in March into April for Mule, he had 4 goals and 2 assists. That prorates to 27 goals and 41 points over a full season. Like I said, I hope Kronner steps up this coming season, but I'm not going to read too much into that 12 game stretch.

I don't know if there is any truth the rumor that players may stay away because they think Babcock is too tough, but even if that's the case, who would really want those players? A pro athlete who doesn't want to play with a coach like Babcock because he's not nice enough? Babs record speaks for itself.

Agreed. It's probably partly influenced by my never really liking Nash, but it seems like for Columbus to trade him to a team in their own division, the Wings would have to give up a ridiculous amount to acquire him. Hockey reasons aside, even just from a public relations standpoint it would be a nightmare for the Blue Jackets to trade Nash to Detroit. It'd be hard to find a better way to piss off the fans. Yes, I know the Hawks did it with Chelios, but as bad as the BJ's are, I don't know if they're really as dysfunctional as the Blackhawks organization was back then.

Filppula had 23 goals and 66 points on the Wings. Ryan had 31 goals and 57 points for the Ducks. That's not a wide margin, and the Ducks were pretty awful. Ryan is 25 years old, 6'2" and 210 lbs. He's put up 30+ goals four straight seasons. The only year he hasn't is his rookie year when he played 23 games. Flip is 28 years old, has never scored more than 23 goals and this was a career year for him with 66 points. Every other season he's had 40 points or less. Honestly it'd be hard to lose Filppula, but I think bringing in Ryan and losing him could still be an upgrade more than a lateral move. I'm mostly referring to the upgrade part, not the package to get Ryan. Flip plus a couple prospects and a pick seems overpayment. Especially since the Ducks have dangled Ryan so many times now they've basically soured their relationship with him.

The report function does get underutilized. I'm not sure if it's a "snitches end up in ditches" mentality or what. When someone trolls or makes a personal attack, basically the thread (and therefore the forum) gets crappier. The more personal attacks and trolling, the crappier this forum gets. Reporting a post isn't tattling as much as it is calling a mods attention to a mess so they can clean it up and keep the quality of the site higher. We're not the police here as much as we are janitors. As I've said before, the forum is only as good as the content you guys provide. Post good stuff and the forum gets better. Post garbage and it turns to garbage.

That link took me to the lines for this season, not 10-11. But changing it to that, it comes up that for even strength Bert was with Flip and Franzen the most. Then Hudler and Flip. Then Z and Franzen. Then Cleary and Zetterberg. I'm not really familiar with that site though so I can't say how accurate it is.

People need to focus on the content of the post, and not the person posting it. If you don't have anything to add other than a smartass comment, move on and don't post in the thread. I'm tired of the posts where people are mocking some of the previous overreactions here about free agency. While some people may be overreacting to the state of the Wings, it's at least an honest attempt to discuss the situation. The mocking posts are simply trolling and make the situation even worse. Stay on topic or people will be getting vacations.

Honestly though when Yzerman retired, did Lidstrom seem like captain material? Great player but as the perfect human you didn't see a lot of emotion or leadership on the ice other than just being awesome. Luckily Zetterberg got to be around Stevie for a few years and Lidstrom for several.

Honestly I hope you guys are right, but that's not what I remember. To me as the Wings highest draft pick in years, he's been mostly a disappointment. At 25 years old, I'm having a hard time keeping hope he'll improve to anything but a 6/7 guy. He did have a decent stretch where they gave him more minutes (and I was hoping he was trade bait), but then went back to being afraid to go into corners. He constantly loses puck battles there and is not nearly physical enough in spite of being 6'3" and 210 lbs. Quincey is a little smaller but looks like Pronger out there compared to Kindl. And there's a reason Kindl didn't get a sniff of the ice during the postseason. I will say that he does a good job of getting his shot through from the point. It's not as heavy as Ericsson's but E takes so long to wind up it doesn't matter because it'll get blocked.

I disagree. Kopitar is tough all on his own. It's not like he's going to be out there fighting guys (though he did fight Burrows this year when Burrows went after him) but I think he'd play that way on any team. He plays like Z if Z were Franzen's size.

It sounds like no one wanted him. They all had eyes on Smith. Kindl could maybe have been a spare part thrown on top of an already good deal.

What's funny is that Kopitar and Franzen are the exact same size. 6'3" 225 lbs. But if you watch them play you'd think Kopitar was a few inches and 70 lbs bigger than mule. Kopi is so strong in the corners and impossible to move off the puck. I guess that's not really funny at all, just sad.

I don't really agree with the premise of this thread, but I will say that honestly the free agent market is always unreasonable. To me that's no excuse. Every singly year there's guys who get grossly overpaid, then there's also some reasonable contracts and a bargain or two. There's always going to be a few teams in a position of nothing to lose who will grossly overpay a free agent out there.

This. And it's definitely something I could see happening. It's why players like Suter wanted so much as a signing bonus the first year. Because that can't be reduced under any new CBA salary reduction.

Merged. There's a thread for The Next Move, there's a thread for Chill People, We Have Options, there's a thread for what Holland shouldn't do next. Everybody please take a look at those existing threads before creating a new one to see if it fits in any of those. We've been letting a lot of them go but are starting to get too many threads that are all basically speculating on what to do now after losing out on Parise and Suter.