Dabura

We have some absurdly fast forwards. Put him on a line with Flip and the speed isn't such a big deal.

Let's say Kenny just handed him the backup spot. What would Kenny then do if Howard, for whatever reason(s), were to crash and burn? This is an insurance signing. Anyone who's the least bit upset about this needs to chill, imo.

In his defense, he's in much better shape now than he was back then, and, unlike last time, he wouldn't be brought in with especially high expectations. It's universally understood that Bert will never be nearly as effective as he was way back when.

I'm very surprised, gotta say. Maybe a slight overpayment, but all in all I'm happy with this. 4 years. Damn.

I think they actively try to be thoroughly detestable.

Damn this is a busy day!

I could live with Bert for one year at 1 million flat.

Conklin was s*** today. Bench his ass, Babs.

Good stuff.

Eh, to be fair, the 'nucks with a motivated Sundin could be decent. Nowhere near serious contention, of course.

I imagine Melrose would negate that effect, though.

Ah, the salary cap era. This truly is a time of financial prudence.

In looking to establish a solid secondary scoring component within a 4-line forward unit in the salary cap era, a GM can take one of two basic approaches: riding a couple of workhorses, or spreading the threat. Holland, being a fairly sharp guy, is not so hot on the former -- specifically, having two relatively high-priced guys carrying the secondary load. He prefers to set aside four or more spots and fill them with bargain-priced nobodies like Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson. The logic being very simple: it's better to be safe than sorry. An example of being "sorry" in this context is being caught in a bind because you rely on two high-priced guys for 96% of your secondary scoring needs -- and don't look now, but they're both out with serious injuries and your bottom sixers can't adequately fill the void because, wouldn't you know it, they're all scrubs! And why are they all scrubs? Because you're not smart with your money. And why can't you just pick up, say, a solid FA to help shoulder the load? Check yo' pockets, foo'! In contrast, the Wings' secondary scoring paradigm is "safe." And it clearly works. The basic asset here is having strength in numbers, which comes in handy when you're dealing with injuries, special teams, and line combinations in general. If you're smart and you have great coaching and scouting systems to work with, you can assemble this small army for about the same amount of $$$ you might otherwise split between two relatively high-priced secondary studs (see "sorry"). This savvy, cost-efficient setup is a big key to the Wings' continual competitiveness in this salary cap world. Given this success, Kenny signing Brian Rolston to anything but a big hometown discount would be tantamount to Kenny punching himself in the face. Which would be hilarious, but only for, like, an hour or two. Maybe a day if you're stoned or drunk or something. Now, one obvious "consequence" of success through this safe approach is the inevitable raise(s) in salary that your army will have earned. Ironically, this can very easily lead to a hybrid of the "safe" and "sorry" models -- i.e., relatively high-priced secondary scorers and a small army (albeit slightly smaller now) of low-profile secondary scorers (basically, the guys who don't get the big raises). Sammy's still a bargain. Hudler will settle for a shiny bag of pucks because he loves it in Motown. If the planets align in exactly the right way, Leino could be a very cost-efficient weapon in the near future. But Franzen could potentially demand big money, and rightfully so, as he's on the verge of establishing himself as The Player Dustin Penner Was Supposed to Become, aka an elite power forward. As Flip is an RFA for which Kenny has pledged to match "any offer" all through the summer, he could climb as high as 4. Considering this, adding one or two high-profile secondary scorers makes no sense. Even if you're not sold on Flip's viability as an effective secondary scorer, his salary alone will place him in the category of "big" secondary scorer. Now, to be fair, adding someone like Sundin to the picture does not, at least on the surface, sound like an infinitely more logical and cost-efficient course of action. My point in all of this, though, has been that Holland manages the secondary scoring situation in a specific and deliberate way, and that, in accordance with the tenets of his "safe" approach (which proved its worth this past season), no big pieces should be added to the secondary scoring unit right now because it's more or less where it should be. You throw Rolston in the mix and things could get messy. In this sense, the primary scoring force (basically, Hank and Dats. Potentially Mule if he picks up where he left off) is more conducive to additions. If there's a possibility that Sundin can be added at a cost that won't break Kenny's back, making a push for him is a total no-brainer. He's 6'5. He's gritty. He's experienced. He's a great leader. He can log tons of minutes. He can play in special teams situations. He'd give us a big body at center. Perhaps most importantly, he's not suffering through the kind of dropoff in production that you'd expect to see with a guy his age; his numbers are as good as they were several years ago. "Complete waste of money?" Um, no.

Decent doesn't boost sales, though.

And Flip, Homer, Cleary, Sammy and Hudler. Altogether, that's two whole lines of secondary scorers, which means two secondary scorers in the bottom 6. Which makes for a damn deep offensive corps. Which we saw this postseason. So, again, there's absolutely zero need to run the number of secondary scorers up to 7 or 8. If you're carrying 5-6 secondary scorers, it's time to either stand pat or add elsewhere within the forward lineup. So, ask yourself: Do we need more, say, roleplayer/energy types? Then look at the guys we have in that mold -- Draper, Maltby, Helm, McCarty, Kopecky, Downey, Abdelkader in the pipeline, maybe Leino....I don't think we need more depth guys. How about primary scorers, then? Hank and Dats are just flat-out insane, and I'd be fine with going into this coming season's playoffs with them as our 1 and 1a again. And hey, if Franzen continues to be a force, he's a solid 1b. But it would be nice to have a little more flexibility in this department. As I said, adding a guy like Sundin would make the top 6 unstoppable.

It's management, methinks. They brought in Melrose because they want to sell more tickets. Then they secured Vinny for the rest of his career. Now they're trying to build a stacked forward corps around him. Marketing, marketing, marketing. Honestly, I'm actually kind of looking forward to seeing this team in action. At the very least, it should be exciting to watch.

Well, Burke doesn't necessarily have to be the one to do it. But I wouldn't put it past him, especially since he's coming off a season that saw him make several masochistic moves. And he may be Toronto-bound anyway. But anyway, my point is if Burke doesn't do it, someone else probably will. Like I said, if you're Ken Holland, you don't want things to even get to that point, let alone broadcast the fact that you're going to take all summer to work out something. Assuming this report is even accurate in the first place, I suspect Kenny's taking the "He's a sure lock, so I won't worry about him just yet" approach. Generally, I have no problem with this strategy; Kenny usually pulls it off flawlessly. But, again, with an RFA situation like this one...it's tricky.

Such is the power of The Mullet. I'm telling ya.

Rolston probably isn't happening. Bertuzzi definitely isn't happening -- at any price. He basically told management to take a walk. Considering the Wings' "family atmosphere" and the fact that certain folks in the Wings camp still haven't even gotten over the Feds' fallout, there's no way he gets taken back. Oh yeah, and he's was pretty much awful in his brief stint in Motown. Granted, he wasn't 100%, and yeah, I loved the sight of Bertuzzi wearing the Winged Wheel (I mean, come on! How cool was that?) But it's not happening, especially since we have absolutely zero need for any more secondary scorers or roleplayer types. I honestly think we're more likely to land Sundin than we are either of those two. And, if you'll pardon me for being a geek for a second: Our top 6 would be absolutely. fooking. sick.

I'm familiar with the rules of negotiation, thx. Realistically, no, you can't expect Flip to take the first offer he's been given. But that's not what I'm griping about; my problem is with this "Val definitely wants to stay a Wing. And we're gonna wait all summer to get this sorted out" business. If you're Kenny, you simply do not publicly put that kind of time table on negotiations of this kind -- i.e., re-signing a very promising RFA...after saying you'll match any offer sheet...after you've just won the Cup. As YoungGuns noted, a guy like Burke would have no problem hiking Flip up to 3.5 just to squeeze an extra million out of Kenny, knowing he'll "match any offer." This could lead to overpayment and missing out on someone in the FA pool. As for Flip, I cant blame him for maybe wanting to get a feel for what he could get elsewhere. But if he's truly set on being a Wing, just get the damn thing done, man!

It shouldn't have even gotten to this point, especially if Flip genuinely wants to stay a Wing. All this ("this" being Holland saying, "We'll wait all summer") does is, like I said, paint a target on him and make it much more likely that he'll be earning more than what he's really worth. I can't help but wonder if Flip isn't really as intent on staying with the Wings as people have said he is....

We have secondary scoring in Mule, Homer, Flip, Cleary, Sammy and Hudler. That we have this supposedly great need for secondary scoring is a myth; signing Naslund would be redundant and mostly pointless. As things stand, we only have two big goal-scorers, maybe three if Mule keeps it up. Therefore, if there's a "need" in the forward corps, it's a top-tier guy -- who, no, would not necessarily have to play on the second line.

"We're gonna paint a big ol' target on Val's back and see if we can't find him a more suitable situation with some other club. If no one hits him, we'll take him back. I guess. *zzz*"

Damn, this report is a major buzzkill.

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