ShanahanMan

Kopitar is a King for life and Vanek would take key pieces of our current core to acquire. Considering how much of a pincher Holland is, no way we land him.

In terms of whats out there, Weiss is honestly the best option to replace Filppula as the 2nd line center for the long term. As someone mentioned here, a line combo of Nyquist/Weiss/Brunner would be too fast to handle. If the guy actually stays healthy, he can be a lethal playmaker and scorer. Again, I just question his health. Ference is a solid, physical defenseman but he's packing quite a lot of mileage under him. Would be a good signing however he will be by far the most sought after defenseman and will probably go for over 4.5M-6M. If we could sign both (Weiss long term, Ference 2-3 years), I'd be quite content. But yeah, chances are we land neither and reach out to Jason Williams for another run

Great, so we can agree then he's done an awesome job "trusting his scouts". Bang up job on the trust factor Kenny! And again, most front office was in place PRE-Holland days, so not much credit there, and yeah, in terms of "signing and trading", aside from the obvious decisions, he's not responsible for many good moves. I mean, does it really take a "great GM" to ensure a guy like Dats is locked up?

First time I disagree with you. Dude was spending his very first year in a system so much more physical and intense than what he's been used and all things considered, I think he did a damn fine job. Also don't forget, he was our top scorer in the playoffs, where it REALLY counts. I foresee him only getting better next season and unless he's looking for an astronomically high salary, he should have been wrapped up already.

What does naming current guys in office have anything to do with my point? You can find countless articles stating Andersson and Nill are the primary guys responsible for the current top players on our team. In fact, Holland has admitted this many times. Instead of asking me to name off names for the sake of it, why don't you tell me specific guys or moves you know Holland directly made that were good for our organization? A couple I named, Babcock is another, Bertuzzi was good a few years back. point is, the credit this guy gets for past success is going to the wrong people.

Chief of Scouting or not, I can't seem to recall any particular guys he's responsible for bringing into the organisation while he was a scout.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't most of our scouts and front office hired from Pre-Holland/Jimmy Devellano days? You know, the guy who personally assembled the team that got us our 1997 and 1998 cups? And before you say, "well, Holland got us Zetts and Dats", they were both noticed and handpicked by our amazing scout Håkan Andersson (one of the few remaining saving graces for our team in management) and Jim Nill. So basically, Holland has done little if anything for our team. Meh, Hull and Robitaille were good signings.

You're still on? I officially threw myself off the wagon and gave up on him when he dropped Hossa and signed Justin Williams in 09.

blah blah blah. We all said the same thing about Chicago after they won the cup in 2010 and their roster imploded. What did they do? They won the cup again 3 years later.

So by your logic, he purposely signs players like Samuelsson to a 3M per year deal WITH no trade clause......Tootoo for 2M a year (wouldn't have gotten more then 1M with any other team) who was scratched a lot of the season and all of the playoffs......because he knew it wouldn't make a difference? Guess you can't really argue with that. God knows they sure as hell didn't make a difference and I guess that.....was.....Holland's.....plan?

Yes, because the signings Holland made had so much to do with that.

He is 37, this contract would end at 40, he's our weakest player with the puck and literally never ceases to fall everytime theres a battle. Even on the free market, he wouldn't get more than 2M.

HAHAHAHA. Wow, if this is indeed true, Holland has seriously reached a new low n his stupidity. 4.5M too big a risk for a proven elite player. 3M a good number for a guy 37 years old for 3 year contract. Seriously?

Oh come on, who didn't see this coming. If the guy was 40, then maybe Holland would have considered him. First off, in regards to term length, it seems much less risky now with each team allocated compliance buyouts per year. Yeah its not the most respectful thing to the players but it would allow Holland to sleep while still signing him at an appropriate price. 4.5M is a fair price for Lecavalier. And again, what new player has Holland signed in the last 4 or 5 years that has worked out and proved to be a good signing? Tootoo? Samuelsson? White? Modano? Holland signs these guys, just for them to get scratched every game by Babcock. Its quite clear our commander and chief has no direction on what he's doing.

And pretty much bashes players in the process. Yikes. Not the best choice of words, Jimmy. http://islandsportsnews.net/component/content/article/1-hockey/3443-one-on-one-with-jim-devellano-detroit-red-wings-senior-vp

Hate eddie olczyk so damn much. Tries to find any negative thing he can with the Wings.

Fair points, but I gotta disagree with you on Ericsson being more physical. While the guy does have the size advantage, he's also a pylon and rarely makes use of it. He is a decent puckmover though. Haven't watched too much of Carlo so can't really comment on his defensive abilities but yeah, the general consensus seems to be he's a solid 5th/6thdefender when he's healthy. Also, he's got pretty good numbers.

Makes you wonder how a guy like Ericsson who's averaged about the same amount of games played as Colaiacovo the last few seasons but with less than half the points, can command almost a million dollars more a year in salary. Just don't get it...

He's a plus player, good age, and if he can stay healthy, he's good for a solid 30 points. Given what was out there, this was our best bet. Better than Kindl at least.

He's finished + only ONCE in his career, and last year finished -21. How can anybody with those kind of stats be considered "a top defenseman".

As Crymson said, Anaheim's GM has come out and said, amidst all the Ryan talk, that they have no intentions of moving him. Besides, a top pair defenseman is of more priority now.

Yeah, Suter was the last straw. 95% my ass.

Well that's not fair. How can you expect Holland to do research while he's been vacationing in BC the last week? Obviously all the work he's done during the offseason so far has made him quite tired.

Well.....uh, to be fair, it would have been a bit hard for those guys to put up minutes for us while they were playing for other teams........or other leagues.