Heaton

Also funny that at the same time the rivalries died as soon as the Wings rivals turned into garbage teams. Umm... St. Louis, Chicago, Colorado, Toronto we don't play, but they're garbage, Montreal we don't play, but they're garbage. Competitiveness leads to passion which leads to fights. Can't have one without the other 2.

I was thinking 3m max for Bertuzzi so Holland saying 2.5 is right around where I thought. If Bertuzzi is seeking 3.5m-4m he can get it elsewhere, while I still want him signed, that's too big of a risk.

Got his way? This spells the end of Shanahan in NY.

All that matters is the cap average afaik.

I like the signing, he's relatively young and battle tested. He has a right hand shot which we desperately need for the PP and is as steady as they come. He anchored the Devils defense the past few years without Niedermayer and has some of the best hockey sense in the game. The price may seem high, but this guy is worth it.

http://hfboards.com/showthread.php?t=39351...highlight=drury

I guess early reports are that at least 16 teams are already interested and the winning bid will be around 8.5 or higher.

Who's Chrissy? Chris Drury? I'd be surprised if Drury went for lower than 8.5.

I'm curious if some of you guys ever think about the long term effect of this contracts. I guess the main question is, what happens after next year? Datsyuk 6.7m Lidstrom 7.6 (possibly higher if it's a 1 year deal) Zetterberg possibly extended at 6? 6.5? 7? Smyth signed at 6-6.5? That's like 27.5m for 4 players, half the teams cap. We'd be relying heavily on contracts like Samuelsson and hoping to God that players like Franzen don't break out too much to warrant more money than we can afford.

Paying Gomez, Drury, Smyth or Briere 8m won't do the team much good either.

I can't wait for the KENNY WTF R U DOING????? posts when he's not paying Chris Drury 8.5m.

Maltby, Lilja, Lebda and a 7th rounder for Regehr.

We have more than enough bottom pairing guys as is.

You'll be surprised, a few teams will give RFA's contract offers this off-season.

First of all, Samuelsson didn't get 2nd line minutes all through the year, he was 7th in average iceitme with forwrds who were here all year. Samuelsson is what he is a 3rd line player who sometimes gets to play on the 2nd line. He fits in well with the team and doesn't make very many bad defensive mistakes. Do you guys not realize how valuable a 1.2m 20 goal scorer who fits in well with a team is? I mean, if we're talking about swapping him out for Hudler, then sure, but for what we have he's important to our success.

Because no insurance company will insure him which means no team would sign a guy who can't get insured. You open yourself up to getting sued for everything you've got if the kid dies on the ice.

No. Sammy makes pittance and is a consistent 15-20 goal scorer on the Red Wings. Lapointe is way overpaid and hurts teams more now in his career than he helps.

HC, Calder had 1 assist in 13 games in the playoffs, 1. 1 point, that's it. He averaged 8 mins a game, but in the first series against Calgary he was getting 15 minutes a game and doing nothing with it. Calder did nothing in the playoffs. A hurt finger does not make you invisible, Calder was fantastic when he first got here but he shriveled up in the playoffs. Priror to a few decent games against the weak sisters at the end of the year he went 7 games wihtout a point. If Calder showed anything in the playoffs I'd be inclined to bring him back, but he showed nothing. Not with 15 minutes of icetime, not with 10, not with 8 and not with 4. I know why you think he'd be even better if he came back, but you're holding onto the first impression that he made and not who he actually is.

Bertuzzi wants a 3 year 3m/yr contract and that's too high for us so I have no clue how we'd be able to add Smyth, Kozlov AND Blake without losing one of Datsyuk or Lidstrom.

Fair enough, I trust your judgment just was curious about how you came to your conclusion.

Not that I disagree with you about Kindl taking over for Schneider but how do you know he's stronger? Saying he's faster isn't that hard to agree with, bigger and has a great shot, but how do you know he's stronger?

No kidding, Craig Rivet always used to be a joke with me and my friends when he was on Montreal. He was a decent defensive, but nothing more than a 4th defensemen at best. When you're playing Craig Rivet 25 mins a game in the playoffs, you're in trouble.

I'm not sure what's to get into, do we need a goalie or something?

eva - Datsyuk is already signed, if we traded for and signed Iginla we would have to ship off Zetterberg to remain contenders.

Going after Iginla would in all likelyhood spell the end of Zetterberg in Detroit.