joshy207

Couldn't agree more. It's as if every DRW contract is a lifetime contract.

06/07 Jason Williams to Chicago in Kyle Calder deal, 05/06 Jamie Rivers to Phoenix for pick, 03/04 Sean Avery and Max Kuznetsov to LA for Schneider. These are all borderline moves, Williams had been bumped down to probably 3rd line duty, Rivers was a 3rd-pairing D, Avery and Kuznetsov were 4th line and 5th/6th D, respectively. I don't remember any big off-season trades since Kozlov to Buffalo for Hasek in 2001.

Yeah, I don't know how that goes unpunished. I seem to remember back in the early days of instant replay that if a goal wasn't called but was going to be reviewed after the next whistle, and a penalty was called in the ensuing play, that if the goal was allowed, everything after that was wiped out EXCEPT for penalties. So now, let's say the Wings put one in and the refs don't see/call it, but the play will be reviewed. Then, during the action, an opponent decides to two-hand Datsyuk in the face, knocking out a bunch of teeth and taking him out of the game. The refs go to call a penalty, but because the play is reviewed and the goal counts, now there's NO penalty for maiming Datsyuk? That's not right. It shouldn't be treated any differently than something that happens after a whistle. I know it would be rare, and my example is pretty extreme, but the league is potentially opening a disastrous can of worms here.

Don't forget, Jagr was heavily rumored to be signing with Pittsburgh last summer. (And Detroit.) He used those offers/rumors to get himself his deal with Philly. So they're understandably upset. More acceptable than Wings fans booing Hossa, IMO...

At this rate, 6th is exactly where they'll end up. Desire, desperation, fear of losing their job for underperfoming. It's a country club down at the Joe.

I understand staying positive when your team isn't playing well. But this is not peewee house hockey. This is a team that says it expects to compete for the Stanley Cup every year. They sound like they've never been there before and are trying to build off of every little good play they make. This is bulls***.

That won't happen as long as Holland is still GM. He has a huge boner for this roster as it stands. That's why, despite him saying the team "NEEDS TO GET BETTER" after being eliminated by San Jose AGAIN last spring, nothing changed. He replaced Rafalski with White, Salei with Commodore, Modano and Draper with Emmerton and Mursak, and Osgood with Conklin. 4 of those guys retired and had to be replaced. White is the only one who's really panned out well. What else? NOTHING. Is the team "BETTER"? NO And the only deadline move the last 2 years was getting Quincey back... aka fixing a mistake from several years ago. NOTHING WILL CHANGE. EVER.

Per Bob McKenzie on Twitter, DeKeyser will be returning to Western next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J18zxeBE54 This is straight out of Mystery, Alaska! Skip ahead to 4:45...

I think Babcock is right, Smith should have been up with Detroit all year. Even if it meant not bringing back Ericsson, or at least not signing Commodore. Having Smith play 60 games paired with Lidstrom, especially on power play and penalty kill situations, would have been absolutely invaluable. If Lidstrom retires this summer, or if for some reason Holland banishes Smith in Grand Rapids again next year, that chance will have been lost forever.

I'll bet Mike Fisher likes playing in Nashville, it makes his wife happy... haha

...and just like that, Western has lost and their season is over. Signing announcement coming soon??

Sheahan signed with Grand Rapids, not Detroit, so the Wings can't call him up at all this season. It seems like, as someone speculated in another thread, that they're keeping a contract spot open for free agent Danny DeKeyser from WMU. I wouldn't be surprised to see him sign with Detroit as soon as Western's NCAA run is over.

How is the roster "DEADLY"? It's almost exactly the same exact club that hasn't been able to get out of the second round the past two years. It's stale.

Emmerton's been here all season. He was a often healthy scratch earlier in the season, but has taken on a regular role with all the injuries. I think a big part of the Wings' problem is complacency. The team rarely seems to play with any sense of urgency, and when they do, it's too little, too late. Underperforming players are almost never scratched or benched unless they're fourth liners or sixth defensemen. Franzen being demoted to the third line was, honestly, surprising. When's the last time a regular player was traded away or not re-signed in free agency? (Hossa was a cap issue, and I don't count Kopecky, he missed almost every playoff game.) They know they'll be back next year, whether they meet expectations or not. There is no fear of losing their jobs. I heard an interesting quote on the radio around the trade deadline... basically it said the Wings overvalue their players and prospects, and undervalue players and prospects from other teams. Kind of goes along with Wisniewski's quote from last summer that the Wings "don't pay market value". Also explains why Holland didn't really improve the team last summer (despite the fact that he said the team "has to get better") or at the deadline this year. Money is no excuse, he had PLENTY of room under the salary cap. If there's an early exit from the playoffs this year, there NEEDS to be change. Whether it's trading away a few regular players, firing Babcock (maybe the players are tuning him out?), or even Holland, something would need to be done. But the loyalty begins at the very top, so as long as Mr. Ilitch is still in charge, I don't see much change on the horizon.

The point of the salary cap is to create a level playing field, where big-market, big-revenue teams like DET and NYR can't simply open their vaults and outspend small market teams every time a marquee player enters the free agent market. While all teams are bound by their own financial constraints, the cap ensures there is a minimum and maximum amount each team is allowed to spend on players. I think what you are talking about is revenue sharing, where some money is pooled together from the richer teams and distributed to the poorer teams. That's what gives them more money to spend. The salary cap is tied directly to league revenues (how much money the league brings in through ticket sales, merchandise sales, television contracts, etc. It is adjusted up or down every year bases on these revenues. The players collectively earn 57% of all money the league brings in. The cap is DESIGNED to be adjusted every year! If the cap was still at $39M, the players would only be making somewhere in the neighborhood of 35% of revenues, not 57% like they are supposed to. I will go as far as saying that the salary cap saved the NHL. Without it, we'd probably be looking at a 16 team league.

Bertuzzi's been good the last couple years, he was about the only guy producing for a stretch last year. But I think this should have waited until early July (see what else is available), been for one year (he is 37), and been for less money.

This team has become complacent. For the last however-many years, we have heard that "we expect to contend for the Stanley Cup every year", but when the team falls short (1st or 2nd round exit), nobody seems to pay the price. Sure, Curtis Joseph and Dave Lewis can be counted among the few that did... Joseph unfairly IMO, and I think Lewis was put in a situation where he had little chance to succeed. But since then, who's been traded or let go for underperforming? Which star players have been benched after a stretch of poor or uninspired play? Do any of the leaders in the locker room flip their s*** when the team isn't playing up to their standards? The only players who fear for their jobs are the bottom guys, 6/7th defensemen and 4th line/extra forwards. The other guys know they'll be here, win or lose, Cup or no Cup. I think a shakeup is needed if this team is going to succeed in the postseason.

I would tweak this a bit... get rid of Conferences altogether. Leave Vancouver's division alone; this would include all 8 teams in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. The other divisions would be: -Winnipeg, Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto. -Dallas, St Louis, Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay, Carolina, Washington. (This division worked better with Atlanta) -Montreal, Ottawa, Boston, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, New Jersey, Philadelphia. Format: 1 home and 1 away game with each team from the other divisions. All remaining games will be played within the division (5 or 6 games with each divisional opponent). Playoffs would match 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd in each division, then winners would meet in the division finals. Division champs would be seeded 1 thru 4 based on regular season standings, and 1st would play 4th, 2nd vs 3rd, since there are no conferences. Winners would then play for the Cup. Negatives: I would expect Montreal and Toronto would want to stay together. If need be, Toronto could be shifted to the last division. Washington really belongs with Philly and the NY-area teams, but a 7th team is needed in the southeast, and they already play there. Positives: This gets rid of the east/west debate. 3 teams really have legitimate reasons to want to move east under the current and proposed formats, and this placates all of them. It also brings back the divisional playoff format, which I really miss from the old Norris days. It gives meaning to the divisions and will produce greater rivalries.

I'll agree with this from the original post: There are no consequences for lackluster play. Nobody gets traded, nobody gets benched. Even when Holland says the team "needs to get better", he doesn't clear out the underperformers. Although, it sounds like he tried to move a couple guys and there just wasn't a market for them. Once... just once... I'd like to see a struggling top-liner scratched and see the energy-type guys play more minutes. Those are the players who seem to spark the team more often than not.

They're simply exploring the option. The western teams aren't necessarily unhappy with the jobs their eastern affiliates are doing for them, but it's a major hassle to have to fly a guy back and forth across the country if they need to call someone up or send them down. I can see the NHL working with the AHL and ECHL to realign those leagues to beter fit the needs of NHL organizations.

I'm starting to wonder if Ilitch is running out of money. No big free agent splash this summer, even though Holland said the team needed to get better... then, the Amway deal... now this... the Tigers' payroll was down a lot this year compared to last... throw in his lowball offer for the Pistons/Palace and the fact that the Wings are still playing in the Joe... either he's really pooling his resources together for a new arena, or the well is starting to run dry. Just a thought.

Obviously, lines change month to month, week to week, game to game, even shift to shift. I can see Holmstrom spending time with Datsyuk and Zetterberg if they're playing together, and with either one of them when they're separated. I can also see Holmstrom playing on the 4th line and even being a healthy scratch some games. (I'd expect about 60, maybe 65 games from him, barring injury.) He can still produce points, but his advancing age and diminishing skill level will limit him. Best to keep him a little more fresh for the postseason, IMO. I highly doubt Brunnstrom makes the Wings' roster. He pretty much showed he can't play consistently in the NHL, and struggled to do so in the AHL with Toronto and Texas last year.

My grade for Holland on this off-season so far? C, maybe C-. Based largely on this: He said after the playoffs that the Wings "need to get better". (Sorry, I don't have a source or a direct quote, but I think most of you remember him saying that after losing to San Jose again.) Has this team gotten better? I say NO. The only change at forward is Conner for Draper. Conner may not make tbe big club, so it could be Mursak or Emmerton instead. You lose a little in intangibles with Draper's expected departure (faceoffs, experience) but you do get younger. Unfortunately Mursak and Emmerton have very little experience in the NHL, but they haven't been able to bump anyone out of a spot in the lineup. Whether or not they're NHL players remains to be seen. I do like Eaves and Miller returning, both contracts are good too. No moves have been made to improve the top 2 lines, but there weren't a lot of players available. Nobody seemed to want what the Wings had to offer in a trade. So for now we're the exact same as last year up front. Losing Rafalski apparently was a surprise (I had heard a rumor from an insider in April or May that he'd be done) and he was not truly replaced. White is nowhere near similar to Rafalski, but he is a defensive upgrade, so that's good. Re-signing Lidstrom was an absolute no-brainer and required zero effort on Holland's part, so I'm not going to gush over how great of a job he did bringing Nick back. As was already said, the choice was Lidstrom's. I was honestly pissed to see Ericsson re-signed, especially at that price. I don't think he's good at all and I think they'll regret that deal. Maybe I'll be wrong though. Commodore's a nice replacement for Salei. Kindl needs to see more time or his development will stall or regress, and I hope there's a way to get Smith in a dozen or so games with decent icetime in all situations (15-18 minutes?) After losing Rafalski, I was disappointed to see the Wings do nothing while impending free agents' rights were dealt before July 1. Yes, some of the contracts are bloated. So was the salary cap this year with the NBC/VS TV deal and the continued strength of the Canadian dollar. If Ericsson's a "value" at his money, then most of the free agents were equal values at their deals. IMO. Overall, the Wings will lose some offense from the back end, but they'll be better in their own zone, which could pick up 5 or 6 points over the course of the year. Less mistakes, less blown coverages, less turnovers... all would be nice to see. Goaltending, Conklin's a decent backup and it really was time for Osgood to move on. I'm not sure who was Holland's first choice though... notice it was left up to Osgood to "tell Holland he couldn't guarantee he'd stay healthy" this season. So did Holland tell Ozzie he'd re-sign him if he wanted to come back, or did Holland let it seem like Osgood went out on his own terms? I can honestly see both happening. Either way, we can look at it as a noble move by one of the parties involved. I was disappointed with the lack of activity in the days leading up to, and the first week or so of free agency. The grade can go up if a trade or moderately significant signing is pulled off... but I stand by my C/C-.

I don't want it to be, but I'm thinking more and more it'll be Osgood. The more things change, the more they stay the same....