Dabura

Evaluating Brendan Smith Smith's a good defenseman. You can make a case against him, but you can also make a case for him. At the end of the day, I don't know why we have to fight about him. Is he getting paid like a first-pairing defenseman? Is he singlehandedly costing us games? Most of the time I barely notice him, which is probably a good thing. He definitely frustrates me at times, because he's clearly a really toolsy player and it feels like he should be more effective than he is. But it's not like he's dragging this team down.

Thoughts on Jagr? If the price is a draft pick, I'd seriously consider it. Gives us some more size, scoring prowess up front. He can still protect the puck like no one in the league, operate in tough areas.

Agreed, on all counts.

(Completely off-topic side note: Lupul's injured again. Most injury prone player in NHL history?)

Oh, I know. What I'm saying is, the best course of action is always, without fail, presented as the one which doesn't see us making any significant moves. July 1, the draft, training camp, December, the All-Star break, the trade deadline - it's always "Well, our two options are overpaying or standing pat. Given those options, we should stand pat. My hands are tied. There's no hockey store. It is what it is." To which I say: bulls***! We have a clear-cut need, one we can't immediately address with in-house options. We've had this need for years. We've waited for the perfect deal for years. Our cupboard is now full of assets. We're a piece away from making a very good case for being The Team to Beat in the East. If we don't make a move, I'll consider it a failure on Holland's part. The counter-argument is "Well, there were no deals out there. It was overpay for a rental or stand pat, so I stood pat." And I'll refuse to believe that. The league is full of quality defensemen! If Ken Holland is half the GM we think he is, he should be able to find the player we need at a reasonable price. He's had years to find him. We're now a contender. No more waiting. Get something done.

I wasn't necessarily defending Smith. You framed this as a discussion about what Babcock thinks of Smith - specifically, that Babcock doesn't believe he's a top-four defenseman. Smith's a good defenseman. The big mistakes stick out in our minds and we judge him accordingly. He moves the puck well. He drives possession. He doesn't get PP time (make of that what you will), but Babcock isn't afraid to use him in key situations. He's an incredible skater. He's got a mean streak, reminds me of Stuart at times. I think of him as a dynamic two-way defenseman. Pairing him with Quincey was a mistake, one that we rode for far too long. He should be paired with Kronwall (IMHO), but, again, the top four seems to be set in stone in Babcock's mind. My one issue with him is actually his work in the o-zone. He doesn't shoot enough (and when he does, it tends to look almost like he's holding back, like he doesn't want to score). He has great offensive instincts, but, for whatever reason, he's struggling to make things happen. He's struggling to generate. He looks like someone whose special spark has been punitively beaten out of him. I do think he's on increasingly thin ice. At 26, he needs to take that next step that we've been waiting for him to take. Ouellet and Marchenko want his job. Not that I necessarily disagree, but I feel like we say this every year. "He should wait until later." And then when that time comes, "He should wait until later." In the summer, we'll hear about our young players and how we want to see what they show us in training camp and how we'll make some decisions based on that. "There's no rush, no need to make a move in the summer. Might as well wait until the fall."

We're definitely interested in Franson. I'd be absolutely shocked if we weren't. But I dunno if I can see Holland giving up a 2nd and a prospect for him and then committing $5.5M x 7 years to him. He's a good player. I like him as a Wing, in theory. But, does Babcock play him on the first pairing with Kronwall? Does he even play him on the second pairing (which would mean breaking up the shutdown pairing)? Is he a player Babcock feels he can really trust? Is he good enough on the defensive side of the puck? What if he settles in as a third-pairing guy on this team? Are we so sure that that wouldn't happen? I forgot about Trouba. Wow.

Watching Hockey Central @ Noon. Kypreos and MacLean always kill me. Guest Tim Campbell makes a good point about Kane: he's not a playmaker, he doesn't have especially good vision, he needs to have the puck on his stick and he needs to be looking and thinking and playing in straight lines. If I've had concerns about Kane (in terms of him maybe becoming a Wing), those are the concerns, and they're not minor ones. Kypreos responds with the standard "YEAH BUT HE CAN HIT AND FIGHT AND HEART AND GRIT AND HEART" business. (Can you tell Kypreos wasn't a high-end player?) And then MacLean wants to know if this move makes sense for Buffalo, because it hurts them in the short term. I just....ugh. These are the people who keep the rumor mill going. These are the people who said this would be the year the Wings finally miss the playoffs.

Not sure I believe that. I think Babcock is just majorly against splitting up Kronwall-Ericsson and he wants a clockwork shutdown pairing, which he's found in DeKeyser-Quincey.

I'd assumed they were looking to package Kane and Bogosian together. I think I said so here or on SBNation. Bogosian's bombed pretty hard, and everyone hates Kane, but those are basically the two pieces we're looking for - a premier power forward with serious issues (otherwise, his team wouldn't be trading him) and a right-shot defenseman who can log big minutes. So in that sense it's kind of a bummer. (Not to mention the fact that we get to see Kane five times every season now. Ugh.) But I'm assuming Cheveldayoff would've wanted Nyquist or Tatar.

The Jets' top three is now Byfuglien, Enstrom, Meyers. That...is pretty damn decent.

I've been meaning to say something along these lines.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/blogpost.htm?id=33009&navid=DL|NHL|home Evil must not prevail.

Ducks s******* the bed against the Bolts, down 4-1 in the second. Because of course.

Assorted thoughts: I read a comment Babcock made about the Stadium Series game next season. It sure sounds like he plans on being behind our bench next season. There was a sequence in last night's Leafs game where Cammalleri totally undressed Franson. ...$5.5M x 7 years is a huge, huge investment... Andrej Sekera is highly underrated. He shoots left, but I think he could really help us. My gut says it's going to be Green, though not until the summer.

Eh, it's understandable. I think the general perception is the Wings draft coal and come away with diamond. Players that succeed as Red Wings wouldn't necessarily succeed elsewhere, and players that don't succeed elsewhere would probably succeed as Red Wings.

We should definitely be a more attractive destination this summer, assuming we finish strong this season and Babcock re-signs before July 1st. At the same time, though, I'm not convinced we're going to be a truly desirable destination. Holland recently came out and said, straight up, "It's hard to play in our top six." (Case in point: Weiss. Though, injuries haven't helped his cause.) On the blue line, Babcock probably doesn't want to break up the DeKeyser-Quincey pairing unless he feels he absolutely has to, and Kronwall and Ericsson are seemingly inseperable. So, if you're Mike Green, you might be looking at a third-pairing role, and with some promising prospects knocking on the door, breathing down your neck. Plus, Holland doesn't do hardcore bidding wars; he'll offer you what he thinks your market value is, and that's pretty much it, take it or leave it. Yet another concern: pressure, expectations. Holland's been looking for That Defenseman since Rafalski retired. The hope has been that once we get That Defenseman, we'll be going deep in the playoffs and winning a Cup soon enough. Detroit isn't a hockey-mad Canadian market, but that's still a lot to carry on your shoulders.

Barrie's out tonight. No Barrie, no Johnson. We need to win this game.

We can haz Matt Beleskey?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want Holland to make a move just for the sake of making a move. But, at the same time, I'm really, really, really, really, really tired of "We kicked some tires, but the price wasn't right. I talked to every single GM about every single one of his top-four defensemen and in each and every case the asking price was Nyquist + Tatar + Mantha + Larkin + Datsyuk + Zetterberg + Jurco + Kronwall + a first-round pick + my first-born child. So, my hands are tied. But, y'know, we like our team. We think we've got real good depth, some real good young players. A guy like Marchenko, he's been real good for the Griffins, scored a goal the other night." AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH

The Leafs are in hockey hell. They have to rebuild. To that end, they need to move out some big contracts and stockpile futures. So, Franson @ $5.5M x 7 years doesn't necessarily make sense for them. They're already up against the cap ceiling, even without a Franson extension. Even if Franson @ $5.5M x 7 years does make sense for them, Shanahan shouldn't be in this position in the first place. Franson should be on an affordable, manageable multi-year deal that takes him into the second or third year of his UFA years. His cap hit this season and next season and maybe even the season after that should be something like $3M, which would be a great value and would give them flexibility in terms of $ and term as well as trade options, as opposed to a huge $5.5M x 7 years deal that takes him from age 27 to age 34 and puts them in an even deeper hole in terms of their ability to wipe the slate clean and start over with only one or two big contracts on the books (one of them being Clarkson, who pretty much can't be moved). My point being, I could see Shanahan saying, "I'm not paying for a Nonis mistake unless I absolutely have to. We need to get out from under the mistakes of previous regimes, not double down on them in the first year of our rebuild." As for Kronwall - our D corps doesn't generate enough offense. Kronwall is the only defenseman we have who can give us eight goals and 45 points. A truly elite team should have at least two guys like that. When we won the Cup, we had Lidstrom, Rafalski, and Kronwall. Now? We have a 34-year-old Kronwall and three "defensive defensemen" in Ericsson, DeKeyser, Quincey. Our blue line doesn't move the puck well enough, struggles to hit the net with shots from the point, and, again, just doesn't give us the production we need.

We can haz Evander Kane?

I didn't say otherwise. My point is that Poile wants to upgrade a D corps that's already significantly better than ours and is arguably tops in the league. Poile should probably just be happy to be making the playoffs and being a top team. Instead, he wants to make his team even better, because why not. He wants to Go For It, because why not. Strike while the iron is hot, because why not. That's the approach I feel the Wings should be taking. We've liked our team for several years now, but we haven't made it past the second round in several years. This is the best team we've had in several years and I think we should Go For It, because why not. I want that top-three defenseman. Without him, we can't win the Cup. Ouellet, Marchenko, and Sproul are all very promising, but not one of them is ready to be that gamechanging piece that puts us over the top.

Franson's in the prime of his career. He's big, reasonably mobile. He can move the puck, score goals, put up points. (This season, he's been good for six goals, 30 points. Kronwall has been good for five goals, 28 points.) He's money on the power play. He can play big minutes against tough competition. He's a top-three defenseman on most teams, the Wings being one of them. We could really use a player like him. The Leafs, not so much. They're in a world of hurt right now because they've made bad decision after bad decision after bad decision. One of those bad decisions: handing Franson two short "show-me" contracts. Had they realized what they really had in him, they would've signed him to a longer deal that covered his first few UFA years.

The Preds are rumored to be looking for a defenseman. So...Weber, Josi, Jones, Ellis, Ekholm, and then add, say, Franson. And then look at our blue line, assuming we don't add anyone. And then cry.