Zetts

And we didn't just win the Stanley Cup, did we? Not that he was the main reason we lost, but having lazy players like Williams or Spezza (although they're not in the same league talent-wise) is not the way to win the Cup.

I agree, I definitely wouldn't want him here. He's lazy, etc, etc, etc as has been said. But there's no denying that he'd be a huge help to push a team into the playoffs. IMO he's the type of player who will be able to help you win, but isn't the sort of player who could really help you actually win the Cup. If a team like Columbus got him it would be big for them.

He wasn't coming here anyways. He was comfortable in the middle of nowhere after his fiance died. Poor guy.

Wow, this line thread is really going to hell. If only we had another 50 threads in which to discuss exactly the same thing. Thanks blueadams.

Yes, loyalty is part of Kenny's game. And a no trade clause is part of Cleary's contract. Does anybody have a count on how many times the Wings have ever asked somebody to waive their NTC?

He'd be an idiot to sign there. The Preds, according to Cap Geek, now have $18,870,833 in space although I know the owners aren't willing to spend to the limit. A team on a small budget probably won't be shelling out for a big name either though.

Wow, that's odd. Well at least the Central will be a little bit easier next year.

Not to be "that guy" who nitpicks...but does anyone else appreciate the humor of these two comments?

The defense last season was in fact an pretty big upgrade from 2008/2009. Although I think how poor the defense was in 08/09 was a bit overlooked because of how good the offense was. 2006/2007 - 199 GA 2007/2008 - 184 GA 2008/2009 - 244 GA 2009/2010 - 216 GA It's hard to jump back from 244 GA to 184 GA, but it looks like they're hopefully moving back towards better defense. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

All of the line combo threads from blueadams were kind of funny at first, but now it's just getting annoying. We're at what, like 5 or 6 in under a week? It's getting old and just cluttering the forums. Also, there's already (at least) one other thread clearly about Cleary.

Hopefully something like this doesn't happen: (I'm aware that wasn't an awards show.)

I stopped taking the NHL Awards Show seriously when Lidstrom's name was misspelled. I'm still interested in who gets the awards, but I won't be watching the show.

It's interesting to see that they seem pretty high on Abdelkader. I'm curious as to how our third/fourth lines will look next year.

My response to Pronger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb_fmWpcbag

The important point of that poster was at this point in his career. If you've watched the Devils recently in the playoffs, Brodeur has been quite bad.

Capgeek doesn't show that, so I don't think so. Regardless, I think he's more valuable than people here give him credit for. When he retires or leaves, we'll have a definite hole to fill.

I definitely disagree. He has a NTC and 3 years left on his contract. How often do teams ask players to waive those? More to the point, how often do the Detroit Red Wings ask players to waive those?

I'm certainly not going to argue that he was good by any means, but Lebda takes far too much hate on these forums. He played like a number 6/7 defenseman, which is exactly what he was. God knows, whoever replaces him is going to be hated just as much here, because those types of players make mistakes. It's why he had a cap hit of $650 000. Best of luck to him wherever he ends up.

I don't think too many people are angry that he didn't re-sign. In fact, I'm quite happy that he didn't. We would have given up depth for a choker. What a lot more people are angry about is that he came to a winning roster for a cup, took 7.4 million, top line minutes, and didn't play like he deserved either.

He came to a winning roster in Detroit saying that he wanted to win a cup. He took large amounts of money, and used top line minutes and couldn't produce. Maybe he wanted us to carry him to a cup. Or maybe he just sucks. Either way, he's a leach. Yes, he wasn't terrible. But we had just won the cup and he wanted one. Our roster was fine. I don't hold him solely responsible. But I sure as hell don't like him. And for 7.4 million you'd damn well better do more than "look good". For that sort of money and top line ice time you'd better be scoring. And for anyone who says he was injured, he got 40 goals during the year with the same injury. He had the injury all year. Besides, this year's playoffs just confirm it. He's sucking it up again.

I think that could be awfully difficult to do successfully given the amount some of the top players are paid. To go for a scoring third line, you'd be getting Williams-caliber scorers. That's all we can afford. I'd much rather have a half-ass grinding line than a line full of Williams.

Beacuse you can't expect to stay at the level of firepower we had that season. We had contracts with stars being undervalued. Most notably, Zetterberg's contract was 2.8 or so I believe? The salary cap doesn't allow you to keep it. The best way to get back to that level is draft high end talent and win while they're still on entry-level contracts. Unfortunately that's not particularly easy to do, especially with how late we draft.

Uh, Filppula has improved every season over the past 3 years. 07/08 was a ppg avg of 0.46 08/09 was 0.5 09/10 was 0.64 His pace over 82 games this past season would have made him a 52 point player. Then factor in the fact that returning from injuries slows you down, the Wings sucked for stretches of the season and he's likely still improving. It is in no way unreasonable to expect a 55-60 point performance from him. And combined with fairly solid play all around the ice, I don't know what more people want from him. As for Cleary, he did have a step-up year three years ago. Then he admittedly had a bit of a setback year in 08/09 and we all know what happened this year. My point is, I agree that we don't need more offense. I'd be very happy if we can get a good fourth line player and a good sixth/seventh defenceman.

Kindl. I don't know if it'll work out, but he's guaranteed to at least get a shot. He's also out of options. As for the OP, at the moment I'm not ecstatic, but it could be an interesting season. It'll be nice to have Hudler back. Hopefully he can handle top 2 line minutes all season this time around. But we haven't even hit the first day of free agency, so I'll wait until later for a final verdict. We don't have room for a lot, but our 3rd and 4th lines could look a bit different.

While I agree that I want a bit more change than Hudler for Williams, getting rid of Lidstrom is not the answer. Say he asks for 7 million, which you would not want. What possible additions could we make that would actually be an upgrade for that money? If Lidstrom's gone, while that might mean change, it would be a change for the worse.