DSM

I think it might get interesting for the Red Wings this summer. Holland has a good amount of cap space to resign our good players and might have some openings to bring in some UFA's from teams that will need to shed salary to get under the lower cap for next season.

You forgot: 4) Make trades on NHL13

I don't know, I'm still kind of hung up on this whole plan thing. I'm trying to think of a situation where a team had to prepare for some of their best players to leave and was able to successfully replace them just like that.

Quick everybody, turn on NHL13 and see what kinda trades will work!

The Red Wings aren't even that old, they have 2 players over 35 years old...

We went through this same crap in 06/07 after we lost Shanahan/Yzerman. The team will be fine. No need to sell the team when we are a whopping three games into the season. Also, you put way too much emphasis on the draft. It's really hard to build a team throught the draft alone unless you are consistently drafting in the top 5, which means you have to suck for a long time. Worked for Pittsburgh and Edmonton. Drafting players is always a gamble. Ask Thomas McCollum, or even Angelo Esposito...

I wonder how hard it was for Boston to win the cup with those old guys Tim Thomas and Mark Recchi taking up roster space?

Wouldn't have worked with Suter anyway. He wanted to play with Parise and Holland couldn't afford both without significantly dismantling the team. I love how everyon thinks Holland was supposed to have some grand scheme for when Lidstrom and Stuart left. He can't stock pile top 4 dmen in GR, so he had limited options: 1. Pursue the limited UFA's available, which he did. Didn't work, there are 29 other teams in the league they get to choose from. You can't win them all. If you can't get over it, put Suter on the Red Wings in a season on NHl13. 2. Try to shore up the bluline with a trade or two. He did. Unfortunately it was for Quincey, but John Edwards wasn't able to let Holland know that Quincey as going to blow it after the trade. 3. Fill the holes with cheaper UFA's and give some of the dmen on the team a chance to step up. He again, took this option. Colaiacovo and Huskins are both reliable NHL dmen that came for cheap. He's also giving guys like Smith, Kindl, Ericsson and now Lashoff to step up their play into a bigger role. The approach worked for the Red Wings offense in 06-07, who to say it can't for the D this year?

Smith, Nyquist, Tatar and picks.

Lol, is this sarcasm?

I don't see why it's such a bad move. The Wings were lacking in depth on d and added a NHL defenseman... I know you want to see Almquist become the next Lidstrom but geez give him time. While you wait play some more seasons on NHL13.

I don't think Holland needs to rush out and make any trades yet. I wrote something in a nother thread earlier today that I think applies to this as well. I'll leave it here for your enjoyment:

Iginla would be an excellent pickup, and there are talks that he may be traded at the deadline if Calgary blows it this year since he is a UFA. Bouwmeester is a different story. Like I said before, his cap hit is massive. If he came to the RedWings, he would be the second highest paid player on the team. It would be a risk for Holland seeing that he needs space to replace or resign so many players this summer. If Holland makes any moves this season, it'll probably be for rental gap fillers. That way he can potentially make a splash in the offseason.

They are getting experience. They log big minutes playing in all situations in GR. None of the forwards in GR are going to outperform anyone in the top 6 and would be buried on the 3rd/4th lines. Save for Lashoff, none of the Dmen in GR even have very much pro experience. Miller, Eaves and Tootoo have done their jobs just fine this season, and Bertuzzi hasn't even played yet. What makes them all "crappy"?

Seriously. The guy has a $2M cap hit and produces nicely for a 3rd line forward...

Bingo. I've been comparing this season to the beginning of the 06-07 campaign. Let's recap... We lost Shanahan and his team leading 40 goals, and Yzerman retired. Holland made no moves whatsoever to replace them. Some even proposed tricking Manny Legace into resigning and then trading him for a 1st line forward. Then Holland signed this decrepid old goaltender named Hasek. The reaction on this forum going into that season was that the Red Wings were destined for failure. Forum members spent long hours on NHL06 making trades that they could post about. When the season started, members threatened to boycott if the second coming Filppula was not kept on opening roster. They were sent into a rage, when Babcock and Holland kept Kopecky on the roster and wasted the final spot on Brad Norton. Filppula was FORCED into humiliation by starting the year in GR, and then we lost the first game of the season to Vancouver and it was PANDEMONUEM. XBOX360's were buzzing madly as Red Wings fans tried to trade Kirk Maltby for players like Crosby and Ovechkin on the newly released NHL07. Patience payed off though. An injury to much reviled Brad Norton allowed Filppula to be called up and his play allowed for him to never go back to that awful embarassing place called Grand Rapids. Johan Franzen and Dan Cleary stepped up on offense to help offset the loss of Shanahan, and a small forward named Hudler cemented his place in the lineup by providing secondary scoring from the 3rd/4th lines. The Red Wings even held off on making trades until the deadline, aqcuiring 2 forwards who made very little impact on the team. They made it all the way to the Western Conference Finals that season. I see a lot of parallels between that seasons offense and this seasons defense. I think Holland has the same outlook for this season. Rather than make outrageous trades, or sign overpriced UFA's, he wants to see if some of the existing players on the blueline step up to fill the holes left by Lidstrom and Stuart.

I doubt a cup contending team will be looking to sell any dmen that aren't 3rd pairing guys...

Filppula's value is down this year since he is a UFA at years end.

What do we do? Just waive the entire team so we can call up all these guys?

To make this deal anywhere close to realistic, you would have to replace White, Quincey, Kindl and Mursak with Smith and Nyquist. They should make a new sub forum on LGW, "Trades that might work in NHL13" LOL

Fixed.

Hopefully Kindl or Ericsson (or both) will be ready to go this Friday, otherwise Adam Almquist will be making his debut...

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="The Axe" data-cid="2344799" data-time="1358901139"><p> Kindl is missing a great opportunity.</p></blockquote> He's going to have to make some kind of an impact, or his clock is ticking. Sounds like Babcock is real high on Lashoff, and he's no longer waiver exempt next season...

So you'd rather have Tatar play 7 minutes in 5 on 5 last night than Tootoo?

I like him and thoroughly enjoyed watching him last night. I however, am biased. I think teams need players of Tootoo's ilk and if you look at some of my old posts you'll see a boatload of Downey defending... I also own a Downey jersey if that counts....