Majsheppard

Pierre LeBrun thinks that San Jose could trade some players away including Setoguchi and Pavelski. I would love to aquire Pavelski, if nothing else to keep him from scoring on us!

Why on earth do we need to draft a scoring winger? We have a bunch of quality forwards in our system already. We only have ZERO defensive dmen in our stable that look legit.

The guy has earned the right to retire on his own terms and he proved to be one of the best players on our team last year in the playoffs, getting tough faceoffs and winning battles. If Hudler is traded, we might not have to worry about losing any players so let the guy have a contract.

You are right, I just don't want to give him up. Honestly if we didn't move Hudler and Bert this trade would be bad for us. If we moved Filpula with them we would need to make the trade more complex.

Some people have cited Washington for a trade looking at green... but what about Wideman? He is a righty and good on the PP. His salary is 4 million which would allow us to add to the rest of the team. Honestly he would bring more offense to the club then Defense, but perhaps you add Bieksa as well or a cheaper Defensive specialist to solve the D problem... I could see Washington liking Hudler as well. Oh they would, but I still would offer him a maximum deal for one year and see what they do.

Some people have cited Washington for a trade looking at green... but what about Wideman? He is a righty and good on the PP. His salary is 4 million which would allow us to add to the rest of the team. Honestly he would bring more offense to the club then Defense, but perhaps you add Bieksa as well or a cheaper Defensive specialist to solve the D problem... I could see Washington liking Hudler as well.

The Flyers will be signing Bryz, so that kind of money is going to force them to make moves and they love to do that. They also have been known for making perplexing ones. I just don't know if we have enough firepower to make a big move without touching the forward prospects that should be untouchable. Pulk, Tatar, Jarn, and Smith I feel will be the price for anyone important in any trade and I would say no every time.

Damn it, I knew we should have traded him for future considerations.

Oops, guess not.

Well what do you think it would take to acquire a top three draft pick, keeping in mind that our prospects are pretty good and I don't think Holland will want to part with them.

Fair enough, and I would love to see it happen too. Usually those picks are harder to get than established players though...

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR Usually hate doing these, but just a thought. The extra space would most likely be used up going to one of the new contracts to bump it up. FORWARDS Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m) Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Jeff Carter ($5.272m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.750m) Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Drew Miller ($1.000m) Kris Draper ($0.850m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($5.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m) Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Kevin Bieksa ($4.750m) Andy Greene ($1.750m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) Brendan Smith ($0.875m) / Doug Janik ($0.512m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Chris Osgood ($0.850m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $62,500,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,689,771; BONUSES: $0 CAP SPACE (24-man roster): $2,810,229

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR Usually hate doing these, but just a thought. The extra space would most likely be used up going to one of the new contracts to bump it up. FORWARDS Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m) Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Jeff Carter ($5.272m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.750m) Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Drew Miller ($1.000m) Kris Draper ($0.850m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($5.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m) Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Kevin Bieksa ($4.750m) Andy Greene ($1.750m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) Brendan Smith ($0.875m) / Doug Janik ($0.512m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Chris Osgood ($0.850m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $62,500,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,689,771; BONUSES: $0 CAP SPACE (24-man roster): $2,810,229

The Bogo rumor was started by a writer for The Windsor Star, and he said he did not pursue that trade. That does not mean there wasn't an offer there. I would like to know what makes you think that deal could get done?

Interesting possibilities in trading with Philly... It is possible that Richards or Carter could be moved this summer out of philly... I know it wouldn't fix the defensive problems, but perhaps I would make a run at Richards or Carter. Both are ideal fits for our team. I believe Carter has more upside and his right handed shot helps. Both are two-way players that could contribute to the team and help us improve our top lines, which I believe are worse then our overall offense due to incredible depth. I propose using up some of that depth to improve. Any thoughts on what it would take to get Jeff Carter? I am wondering if they would take Hudler, Bertuzzi, and draft picks. Bertuzzi and Hudler are Flyers type of players, and taking both of them would help their cap situation now and later. Plus it would be trading two potential 20 goal scorers for one 30 goal scorer, which is good imo. It would also allow us to keep Draper, Miller, and Eaves for another year and still bring in Mursak and Emmerton while improving. Plus it would keep Zetter and Pav together forever, maybe even freeing up Filpulla for top line duty, or a trade for a dman... It also would help take some of the sting out of losing Raffy on the back end offensively. We could still sign one or two defensemen.

You don't assume he is coming. Keep signing people as if he isn't, and remember that Stuart is off the books next year and his NTC is gone. You trade him if you end up over on Dman.

Holland also let in a few hints. He said he was going to look at UFA both this year and 2012. This pretty much leaves out RFA and the idea that we will fix things in one shot. He said we want to see what the young guys can do, but certainly wants to add a vet or two. He said he will make some calls. I think he has an idea of what he wants to do, but he seemed unsure as to the exact course. Word also has it that Bieksa is the number one target, but that is a rumor from Mark Spizzirri.

8. find a backup plan. O'Brien? Hannan?

Mike Green is HORRIBLE defensively. I trust Fil better to play D than him. Just letting you all know that such a trade would make us a worse team than we were last year. Here are my steps that I would take. 1. inquire about the cost of a trade for Bogosian in the week of trading before free agency begins. If you can make a trade using Hudler, Emmerton, and the rights to Ericsson and no other players but whatever picks... Do it. Success chance 10% 2. Failing that you feel out whatever offers there is for Hudler, but do not rush to make a deal. 3. Dawn of free agency you immediately offer Weber a one year offer sheet for the maximum affordable amount for us. If possible make it the maximum cap amount. This forces Nashville to match it and screw up their cap, ensuring that next year Suter and/or Weber will be free agents. If they refuse to match it, Weber comes here and we lose first round picks, which really don't mean that much to us anyways. Our Defense is fixed and no additional moves are necessary on the backend. Success chance 5% 4.Failing that make an offer sheet for Yandle for whatever amount you are willing to pay him. Phoenix will most likely match. Success chance 20% 5. Failing that, go after the following players in this order and do so aggressively a. Pitkanen Success chance 30% b. James Wisniewski or Bieksa Success chance 35%/20% c. Andy Greene Success chance 50% Make sure you get one of the first three and Andy Greene (provided Ericsson is gone) Andy Greene is a poor mans Rafalski but without the right handed shot. I think he might be one of the most underrated signings of this offseason. Also I would be willing to sign all four, if an additional move would be made following those signings. The idea there would be to have a more deep puck moving core, similar to what Pit did this past season. Less top heavy. Stuart would have to be moved subsequently to make it cap friendly. 6. add one value forward if needed. 7. Get a backup goaltender, I would be fine with Osgood or Larsson myself.

I say we take Andy Greene and a Wiz or Bieksa and look to make a bigger splash with trades later on while attempting a one year offersheet on Webber. Andy Greene is the closest thing to Raf in the league, yet would be a third paring type.

You have the whole year to sign him to a multi-year deal. I would hand him a nine year extension as soon as the season begins. Besides, I say this time and time again. The only way they part with him is if they are afraid they will not be able to sign him as a UFA. That is the biggest fear of a GM. One year offer is the only way for them to play that card. A multi year deal just does the work for Nashville and they sign on the dotted line.

You do not offer him anything more than a one year deal. Otherwise he will be in Nashville forever. You offer him a one year offer and you get two chances to sign him.

Andy Greene is actually someone I would like to have on the team.

BTW, if it gets to the point where it looks like the Wings will be screwed out of going east, I suggest a set of protests, both outside the Joe and outside the Toronto and New York offices of the NHL. I will be pissed if they give preference to those expansion teams over us.

I don't get why no one seems to notice that Weber is one year away from UFA. We see superstars all the time become available at this point when teams think they cannot sign them and will lose them. The only thing that needs to happen to make Weber available is someone has to force the Preds hand. A one year offer sheet would do that. Then it doesn't matter if they match or not, because he will definitely test the free agent waters next season. That kind of pressure causes teams to often take anything rather than lose the player, because that makes a GM look horrible. Remember Ilya and Hossa? That is what happened to Atlanta. I agree the odds of Detroit getting Weber are less than 5% this year. Doesn't mean you should not try. Besides trying dramatically increases the odds of getting him the following year, which might be more important anyways. What if Detroit added Wiz or Bieksa this year for one right handed shot... and next year was able to add Weber because we let him know with a one year sheet that he is wanted in Detroit? The odds of it happening are low, but it seems pointless to just say, it most likely won't so lets just forget it. I mean the odds of winning the cup are extremely low as well, but we try every year right?