achildr1

Miller, Ward and Anderson? You crazy?! Howard is more consistantly good than all three of those guys. They may hav a little more upside but Howard is much more consistant. Price, Rinne, Lundqvist...yes. Loungo (no matter how much I hate to say it) is better than Jimmy. The crazy GM's have done this to the NHL...and part of it is Holland's fault. See Franzen/Zetterberg's deals...Holland was doling them out before it was the cool thing to do.

I don't think he touched that.

Frk. Jarnkrok Jurco Ferraro Sheahan. Pulkkinen Tvrdon. Aubry Callahan. Coetzee. Quine. ( a good AHL vet) Sproul. Ouellett Almquist. Billins Nicastro. Marchenko Nedomlel Mrazek (One of our many G prospects) My only questions are who they will send to Toledo? You have to believe the higher ups in Toledo want to keep Coetzee and Nestrasil, and they probably will get to with the latter. If GR signs a AHL vet defenseman (and they probably should) Nedomlel or Almquist may be on their way down too. GR should think about a veteran goalie as well to mentor Mrazek. If that happens, Toledo should have one of the goalie prospects too. They could be pretty stacked next year. Anasthasio, Backman, Jensen are in the mix too.

I was pissed when they switched it. Yzerman was my favorite player growing up. But man, looking at these pics made me realize how much I like it it how it is now I've been an Yzerman nut since I can remember. I have over 100 Yzerman cards, 2 jerseys, and so many paper and mag clippings I wouldn't want to count them. In all that, I have never seen a image of Yzerman with the C on his right shoulder.

I've had a chronic back injury since I turned 23, four years now. One herniated and one bulging disc...I have no idea how you could play NHL hockey let alone Helm's type style. I love Helm as a player and what he brings to this team. If this ends up being career ending it will be yet another sad, very unfortunate loss for the organization. Terribly sad for Helm as a person. I really hope he can recover. I am getting really tired of seeing great players careers cut short. I was just talking to my Wife about this the other day. Imagine how different the history of this sport would look if we wouldn't have lost all or most of the careers of Orr, Lemieux, Lindros, Bossy, etc. But just as frustrating is how hard the phenomenon has hit the Red Wings, in the case of players in thier prime. Konstantinov, Fischer, and Grigorenko's careers were ruined within the span of 7 years. Konstantinov was one of the best defenseman of his generation, Fischer was a cornerstone of the next generation of Wings, and Grigorenko was primed to become a fixture in the top six for years to come. Darren Helm's career has just begun...i truly hope things work out for him.

Haha...little high and mighty don't you think?I am a Wings die hard. I love the Wings having the outdoor game. I believe i am completely justified in saying everything i did and I totally plan on watching the game and almost bought half season tickets this year to try and attend the Winter Classic.I am excited for the game. What I am mad about is that this is supposed to be the most attended, probably most watched, probably the most fervent fan bases that have been involved to date, two original six teams, and at "home" to boot and Holland has assembled the worst Red Wings team in 25 years to take part in it. Our fans have a real chance of being outnumbered at the game and the last thing I want to see is a good, young Leafs team steamroll us like we steamrolled the Hawks in Chicago. Look at my post history...I've stood by Holland way more than most since being here but he legimatly dropped the ball on this. The point of all this though is that I believe Bettman isnt satisfied (NOT ME!)and he knows that the product on the ice, for both teams, is not elite and doesn't match the hype of the rest of the event and he's looking to appease the fan bases that matter to him and his agenda. Wings-Leafs matters to us and to Leaf slappy Nation but how much does it matter to Bettman's love child's die hards, fair weather fanbases (Pens, Caps, Kings...), and any other fan that doesnt live in a traditional hockey market? Bettman probably wet his pants when the Kings won the Cup because it has been his agenda for every warm weather franchise to reel in fans as much as possible (which is cool...I want the game to be bigger too). I just feel he wants to keep the people interest before they go back to acting like Kings don't exist...even if that means watering down this "special" event only to rake in money for a few years.

I'm not an expert on DD but I'm hoping Smith ends up being a tougher version on Kronwall. He should end up being a future #2 guy.

We're the Detroit Red Wings...first round exits are pathetic, collasal failures. The thing now is, we're not even trying to win the cup. Kenny knows we aren't good and I guess we're supposed to cool with. Well im a spoiled Wings fan and i hate, i hate, first round exits. If we have to suck and accept it we might as well get a good pick instead of losing to the Hawks or something in the first round.

I'm glad we were in on a younger guy like Kulikov...that's the age group we should target if we are gonna give up prospects.

I don't know how you came up with this. Who's the old gaurd? Are Kronwall, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg part of it? We obviously transitioned well from the late 90's team and now as those three guys age we have the deepest farm system I've ever seen the Wings have. On percentage's alone we should have several very good NHL'ers in our group. Smith and Dekeyser could end up being the Kronwall and Fischer clones from the early 00's. Jarnkrok could end up being close to Zetterberg, Nyquist should end up being at least a more rounded Hudler (i personally believe he's better than that), Mrazek looks like a stud goalie (and we already have a relatively young goalie), Sproul looks like at least a good future #3 guy, Andersson is the new Sammy Pahlsson, Tatar (see Nyquist above), Sheahan's downside is Abdelkader and upside is Franzen with passion. Those are just the most legitimate guys...in most hockey writers minds Ouellett, Pulkkinnen, Backman are future nhl players with real upside. But to stay on topic, as for transition, I see Smith, Dekeyser, Jarnkrok, Tatar, Nyquist, and Andersson as high impact 22-25 year olds ready to start their takeover in the next couple years and Mrazek, Sproul, Jurco and company after that. If somewhere in the next few years we signed or traded for a younger elite player or just one of Jarnkrok, Sproul, Mrazek, or Jurco become elite nhl players...we should have as bright a future as any other team, if not better.

And to be honest...I wouldn't mind if we did miss them. I don't see us winning more than a round anyway, although we have the experiance to maybe win two rounds. I would almost rather not make the playoffs and get a real good pick than make it and get bounced immediatly. I don't know how you see that. I see them sweeping us...and I despise the Hawks. That said, sometimes teams are upset because the other team just simply hates them. And I pretty sure the Wings veryuch dislike the Hawks.

Look man...I treat the Wings like i would my own kid...even when they're near useless and a shell of what they have been or could be, I still can't help but think the impossible is possible. That said, I dont believe this is anywhere near a Cinderella team. Could you imagine if we made it to the conference finals and had to rely on Kronwall to be a true difference maker, Ericsson as on top shutdown guy, anyone not named Datsyuk or Zetterberg to score a big goal, or for that matter almost anyone besides those two actually playing like they really care whether they win or not? Cinderella teams usually use stellar work ethic to succeed...we do not. Theres a reason SF didnt put Melky Cabrera on the playoff roster last year...even though he very well could of been the best hitter on the team not named Posey, they didnt want him there because his presence was bad for the team. That is Johan Franzen for us. If he can just loaf aroind constantly without any reverberation, i dont see our other floaters acting like they care either. The last few years the only guys that really looked to me like they desperatly wanted to win in the playoffs were Datsyuk, Helm, and Howard. Thats gotta change before we can believe the improbable.

I hate IF'S. The Tigers used to be like that...its always the example I use when talking about the IF philosophy. If Nate Robertson, Craig Monroe, Bonderman, Everrett, and Pudge all repeat their career years...we'll be all good! And then they don't, because that's reality. I don't like being fed the IF philosophy by Kenny...its his job to make sure we win. The reality is...we've overachieved this year. If anything, were more likely to fall apart.

Here's the thing now though... I've heard speculation that there could be more than one outdoor game next year and I'm fairly certain the NHL would like to do that. Mainly because Leafs/Wings is not anyhting near a marquee matchup. I can see them setting up an LA/Vancouver game or something. This is another reason why Kenny dropped the ball over the last year. Who wants to watch the Leafs run over our worst team is 20 years at home? Our team will be on the biggest stage possible for the NHL and this is the team Kenny is throwing out there...awesome. Also...if they are doing the jersey unveiling, they are probably using the ones leaked a few months ago. I think the really screwed that up too. Here's to hoping things brighten up a bit...

Skinner was pretty good as an 18 year old.

Umm....'07-'09 was by no means "middling". Unless you mean when he was still an advisor...

If we playee them in the playoffs this year, I believe we'd beat them. This team has much more experiance, two elite players far better than anyone on thier team, and a better, more experianced veteran goaltender.

That's madness. The Kessel trade wasn't bad...it was devastating. If he hadn't made that deal he would almost certainly still have his job today. That deal ruined what would have been a real, true rebuild that the Leafs desperatly needed. The Wings homegrown players and prospects are better than the Leafs right now. Burke did maul the Ducks with that Beauchemin trade though.

Man, I hope your not serious.I would give LGW two weeks before they completely hate that man.

Yes!

THANK YOU!

Big surprise.

Lol..."why were you not traded?" - Reporter "Uh...my contract sucks" - Loungo

Agreed. Only problem is that all Kenny's AARP members will be back to fill those spots and take the kids ice time. They are our deadline "additions" anyway, right?

If Moore was anywhere near Smith he would have meant much more to Columbus. Erixon, Murray were much more highly regarded and Smith is arguably better than Erixon but not as highly regarded as Murray. Lol I figures you were being sarcastic anyway.