joshy207

We need a GM that has no ties nor loyalty to these players. 

I think they need to go outside of the organization.  No Draper, no Martin, no Fedorov, no Yzerman (I don't think he'll come here anyway).  The Wings need a house cleaning, and none of those guys would do it.
That said, I don't have a legit candidate at this time.

Of course, rebuilds are no guarantee.  Having the best roster in the league is no guarantee either.  How many times did the Wings flame out in the first or second round with their All-Star rosters?  How many other teams have done the same?  Only one in thirty teams can win the Cup every year.  The goal is to be competitive enough to have a legitimate chance.  Luck and health are obviously needed as well, but those are beyond anyone's control.
I think the disconnect between Wings' management and a large portion of the fan base is this:  KH & Co. felt they were close enough to being contenders that one or two additions could put them right in the hunt.  Many of us fans don't agree.
There are pieces to build with, for sure.  The problem is, there are too many players being forced to play roles above their capabilities.  DeKeyser should not be a top-pairing defenseman.  He'd be a good #4.   Ericsson should not be anything more than a #6.   Kronwall shouldn't be on the PP anymore, at least not regularly.  Abdelkader is not a top-6 forward, and neither is Helm.  Nyquist and Tatar crumbled when the team leaned on them to carry the offense.  Mrazek needs to find consistency at the NHL level, and Howard needs to find consistent health.
Ken Holland knew Datsyuk would not be here this season.  He had to beg him to stay last year.  That said, Holland also knew he had a perfect opportunity to begin to transition his roster.  Instead of swallowing Datsyuk's cap hit and going with a younger roster, he locked up Abdelkader, Helm, and DeKeyser long-term, brought back Miller, and brought in Nielsen, Vanek, and Ott.  All moves pointing to a GM who believed his team was a playoff team... especially the one where he traded the pick that would have netted him a much-needed potential franchise defenseman.  Yet here we sit watching a team with the highest payroll in the league, but only the 25th-highest point total... and the 29th-highest Regulation Win total (16).  Even Arizona has won more games in regulation (17).  Barely above brutal Colorado, who has 14.  THIS.  TEAM.  IS.  NOT.  GOOD.
I've wanted Holland gone for a number of years now.  I don't believe he is willing to make the moves necessary to improve the team in the long term.  The Streak (TM), while very impressive, became a focal point--they have said as much--and, in turn, a hindrance.  I am glad it is out of the way for that reason, but I need the GM to feel the same way and shake up this roster this summer.  Otherwise it ended for nothing.  If you can defend Holland, legitimately, with evidence that he's the right man for the job going forward, I'd love to hear it.

Wish we never got rid of Eaves - a true grinder with actual scoring ability 

While I agree that Holland will probably re-sign him if he feels he can play, but he'll probably do the 1 yr at a time thing like with Lidstrom. 
You fill it with nobody big. You play your youth and have some cap space for once in our cap history in case you're at that point where you need to acquire that one or two players at the deadline. Having cap breathing room is not a bad thing in a reset/rebuild.

The Wings don't need a full tear down.  They need to not sign guys like Helm, Abdelkader, Nielsen, Glendening, etc. to 4+ year contracts for too much money.  If they don't get those guys for short term deals, they find cheap vets like Vanek instead.  They need to hold spots for their top young players unless the kid plays himself off the team in camp, not automatically send them to GR until an injury happens.  AA and Mantha should have been in Detroit playing 14+ minutes a night from game 1.  Both were good enough.  They needed to have XO, Marchenko, Sproul, and Jensen up the last couple years to see what they could do, not stockpile them in GR.
Holland's comments about a team never getting good again?  Yeah, if your GM is a moron, keeps drafting the same types of players, and never gets the guys to compliment your top picks, and overpays average players, your team is going to stay bad.  If your GM knows what he's doing, then your team is going to get 2 high end forwards, a #1 D, and acquire quality players to surround them, and give the supporting cast deals that allow you flexibility and not panic at the thought of losing your 3rd line center.  Your team is going to be as good as your GM builds it.  Apparently Holland believes that he'd follow the Oilers model instead of Chicago.

The rebuild begins with management.  If Ken Holland says a rebuild will take 10-15 years, that might be true... for him.  I'm sure Chris Ilitch can find someone out there who can do it quicker, who isn't afraid to get rid of mistake contracts (either through trade or buyout), and who isn't afraid to say "Less is NOT more exciting, this will be rough.  Please bear with us... we WILL be back."

The Detroit Red Wings crash is officially here. There’s no easy or quick fix. So, settle down and in for a rough time.
 
For the 2017-18 season, the Wings have 17 players signed with a $67.7m cap hit against a projected $73m ceiling. And, for the 2018-19, the Wings have 10 players signed with a $51.7m cap hit against a projected $73m ceiling. Regardless if it counts against the cap number, Johan Franzen hasn’t played a truly meaningful number of games since the 2011-12 season, but still draws almost $4m a year. Meanwhile, GM Ken Holland’s albatross Stephen Weiss, who last played NHL hockey in the 2014-15 season and was  bought out in 2015, will draw an average $1.6m for the next FOUR years.
 
Yes, every team has hiccups and busts, but savvy hockey operations offset those mistakes with corrections in other areas of the ledger to prevent falling off the cliff. We hear repeatedly around the trade deadline, draft day and off season that hockey is a business. However, the DRW front office – Holland, Assist. to GM Kris Draper, Player Evaluation Jiri Fischer and Sr. V.P. Jim Devellano – is seemingly incapable of biting the bullet for fear of burning bridges or pissing someone off.
 
As a result of the “we are family” approach, the Wings, in part, have slipped into the playoffs in recent years and today are 25-27-11 and -29. The 28th best team in the league.
 
There would be no point or value in assessing the current roster. These are OUR Red Wings …  for now. Rather, I would like to see is a fundamental shift in how hockey operations and the coaching staff assemble and build the team. Trusting fans have told to be patient as the precious assets (young guns) are slowly worked onto the big club, learning and maturing with superstars and wily veterans. It was supposed to secure a successful future. So, where is the line on the ice, where difficult hockey (business) decisions are made to determine if a manager or player is truly an asset or an albatross? This is where tough decisions need to be made for the club’s betterment.
 
I grow weary of excuses like “salary cap,” “long-term contracts,” “a different NHL.” Blah, blah, blah. Yes, I am spoiled. I follow one of the most successful hockey teams in NHL history. There was a dogged reason/strategy/purpose on the bench, behind the bench and in the owner’s box that is now missing.
 
I’m not asking for change for the sake of change. I’m asking for tectonic shift to reset/restore what it means to operate and represent the Detroit Red Wings.

I'd rather see a Pittsburgh vs. Chicago final, where terrorists seize the building in game 7, preventing a clear winner.  

You should not be a motivational speaker.
But you are not wrong.

Cleaning this mess starts and finishes with KH.

...or give Marchenko a minute to see if he's capable of filling that role before you bury him back in GR.

Stop it right now, Evil Ken Holland. Get back in your box.

Several points that tie into each other:
-Someone else sees the Bowman effect and it cannot be understated! Except for Buffalo, who no one can help, the Stanley Cup follows Bowman and I don't think it's coincidence in Chicago either. 14 Cups in one capacity or another plus another 4 Finals appearances where he didn't win, that's 19 Finals appearances since he started in 1967. If Scotty Bowman is the janitor in your building, that makes you an immediate Cup contender.
-The decline really picked up when Brian Rafalski left 2 years after Bowman, if you look at the standings and defense numbers. Not filling it with a proper partner for Lidstrom and getting a top pair Dmen to replace Lids/Rafalski has been a huge problem that everyone knows about and I don't need to rehash it here.
-Ken Holland needs to go. He doesn't know why free agents won't come to Detroit, he keeps saying there is no one to land on the free market yet all of our competitors have no problems landing free agents (Tampa, Minnesota...). I think the Illitches need to look hard at moving Kenny, he is unable to keep up with the modern trends and it shows. Yzerman went to Tampa and has not been afraid to trade core players, and he signed key defensmen, and has turned the team completely around, he looks like a friggin' genius with what he's done the last few years (trading for Bishop, signing Flip, trading St. Louis, buying out Vinnie, signing Hedman, Stralman, signing super huge goalies and defense, that's not coincidence that whole back end is over 6'5", etc. etc. etc.). Other GMs also have no problems trading and signing, it's time for a regime change, the era of Holland is not working anymore.

Philly denies ever having offered any contract, only a tryout. The only ones talking about the rumored 3-year Philly deal are Cleary and Holland. Also, how is the "handshake deal" and "promise to take care of" Cleary allowed under the CBA? Teams are not allowed to discuss multiple one-year deals. Could be considered cap circumvention.
Besides, it's plainly obvious to everyone except Cleary and Holland that Cleary is DONE, and has been for 3 years.

The most games Mrazek has started is 52 and that was back in the OHL.
I'm guessing he splits the season with Jimmy and the "starter" will be the guy who ends up earning the spot over the course of the season.

That would make sense if he was 33, but not if he's 23.

If OEL is so good, why would Phoenix give up on him at age 23?

If OEL is so good, why would Phoenix give up on him at age 23?

You've probably not heard of our hockey down here because we have maybe 1500 players countrywide, though it is one of the fastest growing sports. The haka itself is a traditional war challenge, performed by the Maori, our indigenous people. We're pretty proud of our culture hence its incorporation into the sporting arena. I was privileged enough to perform the haka when I played for the NZ lacrosse team at the World Cup in Canada 2006. (Another minority sport with about 150 senior players in total!). There's the occasional uproar here about the overuse of the haka, but I reckon it's pretty cool, shows off our little country and gets people like yourselves who wouldn't otherwise know who we are talking about us!

Ericsson with the own-goal... can't fault Mrazek on that one.

Nothing misleading about it, DeKeyser was not drafted by an NHL team.
He, and a lot of other NCAA players, are late bloomers. In most cases, they aren't the kids who are ready to play major junior at 16 or 17. Major junior is usually a faster track to the pros... you're out of eligibility at 20, which would be the age of a college player in the middle of his career. Some players benefit more from the CHL, others benefit more from the NCAA. It's up to each player, his family, and his advisors to decide which route is better for that player.

Nothing misleading about it, DeKeyser was not drafted by an NHL team.
He, and a lot of other NCAA players, are late bloomers. In most cases, they aren't the kids who are ready to play major junior at 16 or 17. Major junior is usually a faster track to the pros... you're out of eligibility at 20, which would be the age of a college player in the middle of his career. Some players benefit more from the CHL, others benefit more from the NCAA. It's up to each player, his family, and his advisors to decide which route is better for that player.

You don't "enter" the draft. You're either eligible or not. Dekeyser wasn't drafted because he was a late bloomer.
Datsyuk made the team in 02 because he played so well in camp they didn't want to risk him going back to Russia permanently.