StevieY9802

He did it well though with those picks. You can't say that about everybody. Picked Toews over Kessel which has worked out nicely for them and even better picked Kane when he was getting pressure to pick Turris or James Van Riemsdyk. As pointed out by John Jaeckel in a blog he wrote for hockeybuzz, John also points out the trades Tallon worked well: dealing Matt Ellison, Brandon Bochenski, Michal Barinka and Mark Bell for Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg and Martin Havlat. While I agree he signed some guys to bad deals, really the bad ones were last summer when they were grasping at getting guys to come there and making the big splash. There were too many egos in that front office. Tallon took the fall for that. I'm sure Scotty helped push him out too as people have said Scotty can be a dick.

Just listened to XM radio and it sounds like there was a lot of disagreements in the front office. Rumors he didn't want Hossa and wanted to keep Havlat. Obviously he gets crap over the Campbell and Huet signings but they were big splash signings which teams like that often do. Just look down the road at the Tigers in 03 and 04 with Pudge and Maglio, granted those worked but time will tell if Huet will or not, I think Campbell flopped. I still think it's a raw deal. he drafted a lot of these guys and was a big reason for this team. He'll land on his feet.

What Hawks fans comments were you reading? They kept saying how great he was and thought they were great moves. I don't remember one Hawks fan questioning the signings. And then I remember a few Wings fans thinking he was better than Holland because ya know Holland didn't have cap space the Hawks did....

This sure has been a crazy summer for the Hawks. I don't like this move personally. This guy got you to the WCF's and helped build this team. Whether it was to get Stan the GM job or one rumor I heard was taking the fall of the qualifying offers, which sounded like McDonough's fault anyway. Whether it hurts the Hawks or not remains to be seen, but it makes the Hawks look stupid, imo.

I could see him retiring after this year. That's a tough job to be doing in your later 30's, when you've been doing it for years already. And amazing how so many people right players off after one bad year where a guy misses 30 games with injuries and was probably never 100%. He can still be effective. Not many guys are as good at screening as he is.

He'll have to play for whatever the arbitrator says. So if they say he's worth 2.5mil he'll have to play for 2.5mil whenever he gets back, if he ever does.

yeah I'm with you. He took what could be 10mil in tax free money. I would do that too even if I wanted to stay in a certain place. Ya gotta take it. You would be stupid not to.

yeah this is gonna be interesting. I honestly wish we knew he was gone so we could move on and look elsewhere. Any idea how long this would take to resolve? Dreger is right on with this part: "Hudler, a restricted free agent filed for salary arbitration, which in the eyes of the league is acknowledgement of his intent to play in the NHL next year." And that was the part that bugged me the most of this whole situation.

Yeah so I go back to what I said... Rangers want him so stay away.

yeah.... so again where were people getting 1mil?

Where are peole getting $1mil a year? I can't find it anywhere. And Capgeek.com has him at $3mil per

Also...if the Rangers are signing a guy I think that should be a red flag to stay the F away.

I was gonna say that and forgot. More defensive responsiblities for Hank and Pavel with only one two-way forward left of those 4 who did? And more than Hank and Pavel had in 08 when they were both Selke finalists and Hank scored more goals than when Hossa as here...ok.

Everyone keeps saying 88 goals but if the Wings can get the GA down to around 200, which is still more than 07 or 08 they don't have to replace as many goals. Hank had a down year and I think will be between 40-45 again, Helm and Leino is out of the question to think 10 each? I think that's underestimating but ya never know. So Z gets 42 so that's plus 11, those 2 at +20 combined is 31. Homer missed 30 games so if he stays healthy I think his numbers will improve a little so we're pushing 40 goals with 2 roster spots to fill. This team will be just fine. Presidents Trophy? maybe not, probably not actually. But where did the Pens finish last year? Oh wait I am using common sense, I'll stop now.

Excuse my language but give me a f**king break. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Cleary, Filppula, Leino, Franzen, Helm, Draper, Maltby, Homer, Listrom, Rafalski, Kronwall, Stuart, Ericsson and Lebda as of right now with Osgood in net and this team is gonna be back to the 80's? They will be down a little bit but gonna suck? Whatever.

No kidding. Go be a Thrashers or Panthers fan. Low expectations are always met there. Amazing how spoiled people are. If you think they are gonna suck please don't watch. Wings sign two of their best players for $10mil total early in the year and only have 3mil to spend right now for basically 2 players and because they couldn't keep everyone and didn't run off to spend the money real quick, they are gonna suck. I said it before I feel like we're back to 05 where people here said March Denis was ready to be a starter and the Wings should trade for him. But the Jackets and Blues were both going to be better than the Wings that year. yeah I want you guys running the team instead of Ken Holland.

I know Sammy was usually put ahead of Hudler but please tell me when Kopecky was? Don't tell me game 6 agaisnt the Ducks in 07. I know what Babs was doing there. He was going for size because the Ducks are goons. Most nights Kopy was lucky to play 10 minutes. And Hudler had some, maybe not a lot, of chances on the 2nd line at times and he always seemed to do better on the 3rd. He just wasn't gonna get ahead of guys, whether it was Babcock or just Huds wasn't the guy thats just the way it was. I'm not gonna pretend I know better than the coach of the 2 time Western Conf. Champs. Honestly I LOVED him down there on the 3rd line and that seemed to be his role. Sometimes guys just have to accept that. Marty Lapointe had his role and it wasn't a first line go-to winger and you saw what happened when he left. How many teams have a guy like Hudler on their 3rd line? And I just don't believe him playing a little more during the season kept him here. $10mil for 2 years tax free and its front loaded! The max the Wings could pay him, cap hit wise anyways, was $6mil over the same 2 years and he would have been taxed on it. And it sounds like he's gonna play on the top line and sorry he wasn't gonna play with Hank and Pavel. That's gonna be Franzen or Homer I think. I don't blame Holland. I don't blame Babcock. I blame Hudler and not in bad way. Go get paid!

I don't like the idea of a luxuary tax at all. A cap is a cap for a reason. I was actually looking forward to the cap after the lockout. The Wings started spending money stupidly instead of on what they needed. They had too much talent, if that makes sense. I wish they had a little more cap space but that's life. They still have enough talent. As for the discount to home grown players how do you enforce that or monitor that? Hank took a discount, all though it took a 12 year contract to do it. Krauses example makes sense but that would never happen, sadly.

fourthperiod.com is also saying this. yeah 10mil tax free over 2 years and they say its front laoded, or 15mil (max.) over 5 years. I would live in Russia for 2 years too. Kenny why didn't you get it done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????????????

yeah. Homer might not have been up stats wise but he was still going to the net. And I know people will say Cleary and Franzen can do it, but imo not as good. And you can't have enough of guys like that.

Well with it sounding like the Wings were offering aroundd $3mil a year for anywhere from 3-5 years I think the Wings put their best offer(s) forward. He is a #7 forward in my mind. He never did well on the top lines it was always when he was on the 3rd line getting 13 minutes a game when he seemed to do his best. His contract is for sure over $2mil a year in Russia. Even tax free that wouldn't make sense to pass up $15mil. See ya Jiri.

If you already know then don't even watch.

He's right on though. This team has enough offense, especially if Cleary and Fil rebound and have better years, and Z too. Get those GA down. And people who say this was a bad offseason as he said Franzen and Z were part of this offseason. That requires giving up stuff. That's the cap world. Wings will still be good and next summer will have cap space which will be even more key with the cap expected to go down.

I was just thinking about that a few mintues ago. This team upgraded talent and had a worse regular season and lost the Cup. Also with those additions some guys had worse regular seasons. I'm not worried.

Samuelson put his house up for sale before free agency started, that doesn't sound like a guy who was really planning on staying. Filppula was signed with the expectation of what he will do later in his career. Kinda like Kronwall. When Kronwall was signed to a deal worth 3mil a year he had never played a full season with the Wings. What do you think about his deal now? I never expected Hossa to stay and I didn't expect any team to offer up anything to talk to him when you knew you could talk to him at noon on 7-1. So while it sucks I'm not upset cause if I was a GM I wouldn't do it. As for Hudler, again, Holland gave him an offer, which his agent said was a good offer so it was obviously at least a starting point and he filed for arbitration. Those aren't moves by a guy who wants to go so Holland wasn't gonna trade him. You are just looking for someone to pin this on. This is Hudler taking the money and not communicating it with Holland that he might be going. If Hudler wanted to stay and wanted more he should have negotiated not just left. I put this on Hudler and Hudler alone. And you keep comparing it to last years team. Last years team was beyond stacked and this team was never gonna be close to that talent wise so you need to get over that. Yes they lost 80 goals but if they can get their team D back to where it was the two previous seasons they won't need to make up all those goals. 07 they gave up 191 goals and 08 179. They gave up 240. If they can get back down to around 200 goals against then they only need to make up 40 which I think Cleary, Hank, and Fil will have better years than last and maybe Leino and Helm will help too. Anyone here who thinks they are smarter than Kenny Holland or would do a better job why are you talking on a message board? Go do the job. I'm gonna trust the 4 time Cup winning GM over what people in here think. Will he make mistakes? Yes. Will his good moves outweigh his bad ones? Totally. If Holland did the moves people here wanted, Marc Denis would have been signed in the summer of 05 instead of Ozzie.