alienanxiety

yeah, my bad ... shows how much i think about calder. haha

Calder isn't a Flyer, he's a Blackhawk.

yes, it's official. official bulls***

calder is worthless.

T'was me that made a stink about this here in the first place. Glad I'm not as out to lunch as most of you made me out to be.

August 29, Detroit News: This one probably won't sit too well with some of the fans I've talked with over the last few months. J.P. Dumont, a guy who many felt would've been a good fit for the Wings, signed with division rival Nashville today. Ken Holland wants to keep his salary-cap flexibility for a deadline deal and also for the next offseason, so patience is still required, yes. But it's wearing thin this offseason, isn't it? Wings GM Ken Holland's insisted that he's looking for a "bargain" player on a one-year contract. Unless Peter Bondra's interested in playing for another season, he's not going to land a goal-scorer, period.

Well that certainly didn't bring the prices down. In fact, I think it just drove them up. It scares me to see what they want for Guerin. With these prices I say our best options now are Laraque and (if it is conditional picks only) Bertuzzi.

Holland, "We're comfortable going into this playoffs with this team. I mean, I'd rather make sure we pad our regular seasons so that I can look like a good GM and keep my job. Playoffs don't mean naything anyway, they're just a bonus."

To me the whole idea of padding your team by taking advantage of other teams lack of playoff hopes almost comes across as cheating a bit. To me, a true team plays through the ups and downs of a season together, earns the playoff rights together, and goes for a championship together. I have no problem with playersbeing acquired at the deadline, aslong as the intent is that this player will actually be a member of the team, and not just a hired gun. My feelings on this have become stronger since Doug Weight basically admitted that he was only on Carolina to win a Cup, and then he was going back to St. Louis. If I was a Hurricane, I wouldn't want him in my locker room, I'd see him as a St. Louis Blue on vacation. My suggestion is this, and I know for various reasons it will never fly, but i think it would lend some credibility to trade dealines... keep the trade deadline where it is, hell move it back into March if you want, but any player acquired after Jan 1st who is set to become a UFA automatically gets his contract extended another year, or he at least becomes an RFA.

I totally agree with the above London Free Press rant. Weight and Bourque's Cups comes with asterisks beside them. I felt the same way when I read a story the other day that Scotty Pippen would like to come out of retirement but just for the playoffs. Screw that. You have to earn the right to be in the playoffs. And the other poster brings up a good point. Teams that know they are going to be rebuilding can just sign a UFA or two with the full intention of carrying that player all season and then turn them into draft picks and prospects at the deadline. That is not sports. Teams should sign players to help them win, not to use them as commodities, with no intention of winning that season at all.

i couldn't care less about forsberg, i want us to get a player, which we should have done before the season, but i don't want some ass who isn't going to stick with us for at least another season. call me old fashioned.

dude, the rental player is a NEW phenomenon, last 10 years or so. i'm not saying get rid of deadline deals, i am saying make sure that the player is ... you know .. actually a member of the team.

I can see how the idea of another year being tacked onto his contract is against his right to free agency, maybe in that circumstance then every player has a no trade clause, in terms of being dealt at the deadline, then they can decide to either stay where they are, go to the new team with a negotiable or arbitration decided one year extension, or he can go to the new team and be a RFA for the following season. That covers the greedy player .. now for the greedy owner side ... the team that deals a player after Jan 1st cannot re-sign that player for a full season, similar to the buying out of a contract rule. This way the league can prevent teams and players from taking advantage of this system. I mean, would you really want a guy on your team coming from some last place club, and reaping the playoff rewards that you and your team mates fought so hard for all year, and conversely, wouldn't you feel like a retard as a player from a last place club and being handed a contending new team for the playoffs. i have always hated the whole, "i'd like to go to a contender, to try to win a cup." f*** you - earn it. the worst example of this was ray bourque leaving boston to coast to an easy cup with colorado. did he feel proud of that cup when he held it high? did he feel he earned it? i don't think he did. they would have one that cup with or without him, he was just a tourist.

I think our softness is about equal to last year's. VERY SOFT.

Well if it was so obvious, then why bust my balls for it? If we play San Jose or Anaheim in the first round we will lose, if we manage to pull past Nashville and play Dallas/Minnesota/Vancouver we should be able to take them. These predictions are based on the team we have now, if no moves are made.

it's called making a prediction. happens all the time in sports.

Yeah, maybe we should, wouldn't make any difference, we'll still have the same SOFT, euro-intensive, team who's offense can go desert dry at the drop of a hat with players that refuse to stand up for one another when the team's stars get cheap shotted. Why all the Holland love here? He sat on his hands all through the off-season, then claimed he did it to save room to acquire a big gun later in the season. Then as time went by he said he was waiting till the deadline to pull any triggers, and now he is laying the foundation for doing nothing at all. I can understand if he is getting outbid for the offensive stars, but there is no excuse why he can't acquire a Laraque/Drake/Mayers type of grinder. Have we all forgotten the Philly debacle so soon? or how about the times this season we have been destroyed by san jose, nashville, anaheim, and yes, last place philly. folks, i do not care what their record is, and i do not care if you say i am not a true fan, but any fan not wearing blinders can see that this team is built about as wrong as you can be for a playoff run, with the exception of Hasek. i am a die hard wings fan, and if this is the team we go into the playoffs with, we will be destroyed round 1.

that's what scares me the most out of this deal. the bar now has been set. if forsberg was worth that much, what will other teams now want for their trade baits? i am starting to fear that we just do not have enough depth to compete with what other teams can offer.

i'm not saying he is washed up. i think nashville overpaid, but I think if winning this year is what was priortiy number one, then they got themselves a fantastic sweet huge deal that makes them that much better. i am glad we didn't pay that much, but at the same time I am seriously down that we didn't get him, cuz with our swedish contingent he would have done wonders for us.

well let's be realistic. if forsberg stays healthy - IF - then they have to be the favorite to win the cup. and if we don't get nashville for the division, then we face either Anaheim or San Jose in the first round. those two matchups give a very high probablity at a first round exit. holland has work to do, and i think this could be a make or break trade deadline for him. he fails to add some decent pieces, and Ilitch might fast track Stevie Y to GM.

c'mon, sing along with me guys ... "JOE MACDONALD'S HEADIN' BACK TO THE FARM. EEE-YYY-EEE-YYY-OOO..."

Who the hell is "Murray"? The link mentions the Wings seeking Perezhogin, which seems steep for Lang. How about this ... Lang, Draper, Kronwall for Ryder, Souray, Perezhogin

I agree. Do that deal, and sign Markov. Kronwall will be injured again by Christmas.

Why is everyone in love with Kronwall? The guys been injured over half his NHL career. If Fischer is coming back, that makes room. Plus we have Quincey, Lebda, Kindl, Meech, etc ... all great young D proispects. afinogenov with datsyuk would be sick.

it's funny how we started wanting luongo, then he was gone, then we had fantasies about pronger - gone, then on and on, every time we'd mention who we want to get, then within a couple of days he's gone. slowly we began finding lesser and lesser players more attractive. we started out wanting Luongo, Pronger and Elias and now we're turned on by Belfour, Markov and Carter.