Johnny Diamonds

Alright, how about this, roll off your next best 5 regardless of position you'd like to see the Wings take? Surely one of them will drop to 24.

they're talking about your boy right now.

I don't follow jr. hockey so I really have no idea about any of these kids apart from what I am told. I watch a bit of NCAA hockey(mainly Michigan) so I might recognize a name or two in a draft. But I'd like to see the Wings pick-up another big/skilled forward like they did last year with Shehan,

Well compared to Chara all defensemen are small.

At 6'7 that's a big boy. Talent Analysis Oleksiak is a defenseman that possesses a really nice blend of size, physicality and outstanding puck skills. While much has been said of his size and physical side, what is most impressive about Oleksiak is his superb agility and athleticism. He moves remarkably well for such a big man, skating with long, fluid strides. He also maintains very good balance on his skates as well. Sounds interesting. Have you seen him play?

We got a long way to go before 24. So who do you want/like the Wings to take?

Watching the Tigers I forgot all about the draft. Just pulled up a stream and tracker. So what the heck is going on? Why did 3 teams pass on a defensemen billed to be the next Nick Lidstrom? Are they stupid or insane. Especially a sh!t organization like Florida.

Happy Day! But seriously guys, with the news of the cap going up $4mil just yesterday. Do you really expect Lidstrom to take another pay cut? I bet he's closer to $7mil this year.

SIAP: Art Regner of Fox Sports Detroit recently had an in-depth interview with Ken Holland. Video can be found here Make sure to watch all three parts!

Bet if the Wings played a Pens team without Cindy and Geno, a Caps team with zero defense or goaltending they'd be in the conference finals as well. Yzerman has done a decent job thus far. Picking up Roloson was a nice move for one. But for the most part Stevie Y walked into a good situation with a good balance of quality veteran players who have already won a cup. And also having some young star players that can do nothing but only get better each year. And oh yeah some cap space to work with. I'll take a wait and see approach with Stevie Y. But for right now it's Holland.

Bummer with Glenncross.

If Lidstrom stays, I'd like to see a couple small moves like the Wings signing James Wisniewski and Curtis Glenncross. If Lidstrom leaves well that opens up other possibilities.

Ah the days of having a young fast star player like Federov who took the puck to the net with speed. Instead of this Hossaesque bring the puck in the zone-stop-and pass to someone else who might have the balls(maybe) to take it to the net.

I hope we don't have to play these guys in the playoffs again. I don't think the Sharks are world beaters, nor do I believe they are good enough to win a cup. But they sure kick our ass in the faceoff circle and by doing that they completely take the Wings out of the game.

Wings and Pens in the 2011 SCF. Lock it up!

There's still enough money to re-sign Abs, but what a logjam on this team right now. A couple players are either getting waived/traded or something. Meech is gone for sure imo, Who else?

Ken Holland will be on WDFN NOW-4pm today. They will take calls at some point during the interview. So if you have any questions call the show. Call 248-848-1130 Listen live My link

Why this is bad news for the league. Another lockout in 2012? From George Malik's blog on MLive http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2010/08/sunday_scuttlebutt_red_wings_p.html Finally, the New York Post's Larry Brooks offers a fantastic take on the NHL's decision to grieve Ilya Kovalchuk's 17-year contract with the New Jersey Devils. He duly points out that it's the NHL, Gary Bettman, and Bill Daly attempting to circumvent the CBA here by imposing contract limits on players, general managers, and the NHLPA without collectively bargaining such limits into the CBA. As arbitrator Richard Bloch prepares to hear both the NHL and PA's arguments regarding supposed CBA circumvention on Wednesday and Thursday, Brooks found an anonymous member of the PA hierarchy who's willing to call the NHL out for its attempt to screw players and fans after "losing" the battle to make it even harder for teams to retain their star players as Bill Daly, NHL sycophant Ted Saskin, Trevor Linden and, to some extent, Devils GM Lou Lamoriello authored the CBA during the lockout: August 1, New York Post: "They absolutely tried to get the right to limit contract length," one of the NHLPA's prime negotiators into and throughout the lockout told Slap Shots. "It was another cap they wanted to impose, but we were able to win that one." As Brooks notes, the NHL's grievance has a scary pre-second-lockout parallel--the NHL grieved three contracts because they refused to allow three contracts to include signing bonuses deferred to the 2004-2005 season, which the NHL fully intended to spend locking out its players and fans. The NHL lost the case, of course... Though this is the first circumvention charge filed since the lockout, this is not the first time the league has brought larger collective bargaining issues into an arbitration hearing. This case bears striking similarity to the 2003 case in which the NHL claimed signing bonuses to Joe Sakic, Rob Blake and Pierre Turgeon constituted illegal lockout protection and therefore, circumvention. Signing bonuses were legal under the old CBA just as long-term, front-loaded contracts are legal under this CBA. Indeed, the league routinely registered contracts containing signing bonuses without protest, just as the league routinely has registered long-term, front-loaded contracts. And, as Brooks points out, the NHL allowed two of the five teams it actually markets to fans, the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks, to sign Marian Hossa and Roberto Luongo to five-year contracts (the NHL essentially acknowledges that the Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, Blackhawks, Canucks and Calgary Flames have individual players who merit individual praise, but as Wings fans know, the NHL's marketing department tends to ignore the Nicklas Lidstroms and Pavel Datysuks who receive no "face time" in national ad campaigns)... Moreover, and perhaps most disturbingly, Gary Bettman, Bill Daly and the league seem to believe in preferential treatment toward their biggest allies during the lockout, like Boston Bruins owner and Board of Governors president Jeremy Jacobs, but newcomers without preferential status deserve the league's scorn: No rule is violated in this contract any more than the Bruins' seven-year agreement with Marc Savard, that kicks in this year, violates the CBA. Savard, 33, is in for a cap hit of $4.01 million on a deal in which he's due to earn $14 million over the first two years, $11.5 the following two years, $1.5M the fifth year and the league minimum $525,000 each of the final two years of the deal. Both deals are structured so that the largest drop in annual compensation -- $3 million in Kovalchuk's contract from the 10th to 11th season, $3.5 million in Savard's contract from the fourth to fifth season -- complies with the "50-percent" rule relating to the average of the first two seasons. Apparently, the first one coming from Jeremy Jacobs' team was fine in the minds of the NHL, but this one from Lou Lamoriello's and Jeff Vanderbeek's team is not. In other words, as we already know, some teams are more equal than others. Just about every pundit and legal expert weighing in on the Kovalchuk case agrees that the NHL has no chance of winning this battle, but they certainly agree that between attempting to circumvent their own "sweetheart" CBA and floating the thought balloon that they'd restrict the salary cap to $48 million to force high-spending teams to gut their rosters--and likely demand another across-the-board salary "rollback" from players to re-set the market--the NHL is both declaring labor war on the NHLPA ahead of the expiry of the CBA in 2012... And the NHL's not-so-subtly informing its paying fans that they fully expect you and I to come back and embrace the game with open arms if they lock out their players and fans for the third time in fifteen seasons. For the second time in a link-roundup and pseudo-column, I'm going to use that dirty word: I think that the NHL's acting both arrogantly and stupidly in this situation. Shame on the NHL for daring to assume that its players and fans will fold in short order and give into a league that chooses to break its own rules and believes in periodically burning its village down in order to save it. So I'll conclude with something I never thought I'd say aloud (or type): Gary Bettman, you're acting predictably like your little whiny spoiled brat self, and you deserve a five-minute major and a game misconduct for your immature actions. Take a clue from Landon Ferraro and start acting like a grown-up instead of throwing yet another temper tantrum because you can't get your way in imposing term limits upon contracts in search of your equally stupid dream of imposing utter parity upon 30 teams, 700 players and millions of paying fans who are the reasons why your league's consistently earned over two and a half billion dollars while weathering a worldwide recession.

Stick him in GR on a 2way deal just incase we get the injury bug on the team again. Other than than he's got no business being on this team.

That is some seriously hockey elitist drivel right here. We're still talking about a regular season game here right? SO are you saying if you don't watch every regular season game that one is not a "hockey fan"? Ovie/Semin ,Cindy/Malkin we've never seen that before! The suspense is killing me!!!!! What will happen? Despite frostbite, will Cindy and Ovie each have a hattrick? Will it go to a shootout? YAY! FIND OUT IN THE NEXT WINTER CLASSIC! And again, there you go with the "hockey fan" crap. I'm not much of an "NHL fan" right now. I don't like the way the direction of the league is going with Bettman at the helm. But I'm still enough of a "hockey fan" that I make damn sure I watch my hometeam because I love them no matter what. On the other hand I am such a "hockey fan" that I will even watch NHL playoff games featuring other teams as well despite hating Gary Bettman's new watered down NHL!

I think there's a difference between a "hockey fan" and an "NHL fan". Outside of watching pretty much every Wings game. I watch more college hockey than watching NHL games featuring other teams unless were talking NHL playoffs.

If you absolutely must see an outside hockey game this season, watch this one.

I'm in, College Football FTW!

Well deserved, it's a shame the NHL doesn't recognize what Babs has done with this team since the departure of Stevie Y and the Salary Cap. All while the prognosticators were all saying "death to the Red Wings." "It's the end of an era"

DMac has been on the airwaves a few times over the years and he does a good job. It's always nice getting an inside perspective from former pro athletes as opposed to only getting the fratboy opinion columnist perspective that is constantly rammed down our throats.