Drake_Marcus

To me they just look amateurish.

-Bickell for 1 million is hilarious. He's going to demand 3 million or more. I don't think he's worth that but he certainly will demand it. -Mursak already signed with a KHL team. -Jarnkrok will likely be in the AHL most of the season. He doesn't appear to be physically ready for the NHL based on the WC. -I just don't see Holland doing that many buy outs. The Wings are an organization that tries to avoid buy outs and burying veterans in the minors. That being said I do think Holland will use at least one compliance buy-out and likely make some trades. -I think the Wings will think very hard about retaining Cleary after his post-season play this year. I wanted him gone in the regular season too but he was great in the playoffs. Here's what I put together on Cap Geek: FORWARDS Gustav Nyquist ($1.788m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Damien Brunner ($3.150m) Tomas Tatar ($0.840m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Joakim Andersson ($1.605m) Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) / Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Danny DeKeyser ($1.350m) Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) / Brendan Smith ($1.827m) Jakub Kindl ($2.050m) / Brian Lashoff ($0.725m) Carlo Colaiacovo ($2.500m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.292m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) OTHER Buyout: Mikael Samuelsson ($0.000m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $56,997,254; BONUSES: $1,010,000 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $8,312,746 I traded Quincey rather than buy him out. He's definitely someone you could get a pick for as he's capable of playing 20mins a night, big and can play the pp/pk. A 4th round pick is way better than a buy-out bill. If the Wings sign anyone I'd like them to go after Nathan Horton and offer him 5 million a year (a decent raise for him). He offers size, a right-hand shot, scoring and has been a solid playoff performer for the Bruins.

Ahh you could be right. I was under the impression that we had the 23rd at the moment based on having made the Semi-conference finals while having the smallest pt total of the teams that lost in that round.

Which is why Babcock played him less than Smith in the playoffs? Is your argument that Babs wasn't basing that on performance?

As time goes by the NHL will likely have to address situations like that of Pronger. Philly is guilty of a pretty blatant circumvention of the intention of the cap (note that circumventing the intention of the contract rather than the letter of the contract is a much different thing, and likely not something you can penalize). As it stands it's pretty clear Pronger isn't actively moving toward anything but retirement and the only reason he hasn't retired is to keep his contract off the books. Now because he couldn't likely pass a physical (not that most active NHL players his age likely can pass a standard physical) the NHLPA could easily protest any action taken against him the NHL's hands appeared tied. What I'd like to see is this: if a player misses an entire season due to injury without retiring their contract slides forward another year (the team would still have to pay them for the injured year but that's something they insure contracts against anyway so owner complaints would fall on deaf ears). This should definitely be appealable based on circumstance. In Pronger's case I could imagine a legitimate appeal based on the fact that his contract is so obnoxiously long sliding it forward another year would be a significant penalty in terms of having to pay a player farther into their declining years. On the other hand it's hard to feel bad for Philly when the sign a player that old to such a long term contract that is so clearly designed to circumvent the cap. The Pronger and Luongo contracts really stretched the premise of Holland's Franzen/Zetterberg contracts thin. With the Z/Franzen contracts they were signing a relatively young, pending UFA they drafted to contract the player would likely play out (expiring as a 40 year old). With Pronger and Luongo it was pretty clear neither player would be playing until they were 43 years old. That extra 3 years is a huge difference. Hell, in Pronger's case he signed the contract as a 35+ meaning the team would be on the hook no matter what. And by "no matter what" I mean "unless they pretend he's just working through an injury for five and a half straight years". Pronger played 13 games last season and zero this season. It's pretty absurd at this point to keep pretending he's going to make a magic come back as a 39 year old player next season who hasn't played in almost 2 years. Each team gets 2 amnesty style buy outs of contracts signed before the current CBA.

Only Colorado's expressed an open desire to trade their pick (1st overall) and you can bet it'd be a smaller drop down than all the way to 23rd with our pick. They probably want Seth and are willing to hedge their bets that he'll go 3rd overall (the likely thing). I think they're beginning to realize the gamble they made with the Johnson trade was stupid and he's just not going to be the elite d-man he was projected to be.

Your explanation would be reasonable if Smith only managed to crack the 5th or 6th spot, however, he was able to push himself ahead of Kindl and Colo (a veteran who's at least comparable to Salei).

Yeah, the biggest problem with soft tissue injuries is it's sometimes very difficult to diagnose non-invasively and when it comes to back injuries the idea of exploratory surgery isn't trivial.

*lol* That's some pretty hilarious stuff right there. Kronwall, Ericsson and Kindl were all defensive whipping boys their first years. Kindl wasn't even able to hold the #6 spot down until late this season. Smith is most like Kronwall of any recent Wings rookies. The horrible defensive plays Kronwall authored as a new NHL player are still seared into my mind.

Helm suffered a significant set-back during the Anaheim series. While he was doing on ice work-outs in the 1st round his back flared up so badly the doctors shut him down completely. Apparently since then he's only been able to use an elliptical trainer for cardio. If this was something doctors had a clear understanding of how to fix the Wings and Helm would have already moved forward with any necessary surgeries. The fact is that in this type of situation you need to know what's wrong and how to fix it before you consider a surgical solution. At this point Helm's been struggling with his back since early January and his quality of life has been significantly impacted. When the injury flares up he can't even sit long enough to ride a bike. Back pain is no joke.

By "don't know anything" do you mean "clearly understand the cap value of scoring wingers in today's NHL"? He has a sub 4 million dollar cap hit and has averaged 0.37 goals per game since signing the contract (0.37, 0.37, 0.38 and 0.34 goals/game in the seasons from 09-10 to 12-13). That is a pro-rated 30 goals per season over 82 games. Simply said- you can't get 6'3 30 goal scorers for that cheap anymore unless they're on an entry level or short-term RFA contract. Calling Franzen's contract a 'bad contract' displays true ignorance of the reality of contracts in today's NHL.

The adage that 'everyone's banged up this time of year' is certainly true but it doesn't mean everyone is equally impacted by injuries. If anything I think the biggest problem for Datsyuk was how much his wingers struggled and how terrible our defense is on the PP. Kronwall was a non-factor on the PP... It speaks volumes when your best offensive defensemen are Smith and Kindl. I don't know what was up with Kroner but he just wasn't the impact player he needed to be offensively.

He looked like he wasn't right the last two games but it's also worth noting that Z and Dats expended a huge amount of energy shutting Kane/Toews down and were likewise the focus of Toews' defensive prowess. Don't forget that Toews and Datsyuk are both Selke candidates. Given how many big offensive threats the 'Hawks have it shouldn't be too surprising that Datsyuk and Zetterberg were a bit overburdened defensively.

Sheahan is still finding his offensive consistency. I'd be fine with him starting next season in GR (which will likely be the case anyway). Plus, with his well documented off-ice issues I can't help but feel that the organization is hesitant to reward him right now over some of the other guys who can make the same type of impact.

Agreed. Caps fans are pissed and if I were them I'd be after McDerp's head. This message brought to you from the summer of 2012.

Holland would have to be a meth addict to think this team is a couple of deadline moves away from winning the Cup. Thank god he didn't do something moronic like McPhee did.

Agreed. If he had put the same scoring pace this year as last it'd be justified but whether it was the injury or not, Val still struggled this season and that will impact his signing value.

Dumb trade by the Lightning... the Sens fleeced them. I'm happy Holland stood pat-- this Wings roster isn't a trade or two away from winning the Cup this spring. If we can't win now it'd be stupid to pick up rentals. With the cap dropping things will be wild this summer, might as well retain as much flexibility and as many draft pics as we can.

If this is true I find it very depressing. I just hope the Wings can convince Datsyuk to stay until he's 40. One more thing: this rumour was pretty prevalent coming out of the lock-out based on how much Dats said he enjoyed his experience in the KHL. I'm hoping the time he spends back in Detroit and the NHL reminds him how much he loves this league.

Oh and as to why they're sending Tatar down instead of Andersson- they like Andersson's size and grit on the 3rd line.

Seems a bit silly but this must mean Filppula is ready for Wednesday. Add Filppula to Datsyuk's wing in place of Cleary or Abdelkader (although Babcock likes anchoring Datsyuk with Abs because he's big and strong which apparently means he might fill Holmstrom's role some day). Holland's said they don't want to bring Nyquist up without a top 6 spot to put him (see: Datsyuk's wing) which means someone on the 3rd line has to get slotted farther down. They'll bring Tatar back up from GR soon enough-- they just don't want to have to put someone on waivers right now and Tomas is still exempt. Yeah you usually see a prospect's max in their first NHL action...

If the players weren't employees being paid millions of dollars a year to work I'd agree that to some extent it's a personal choice. But let's be honest-- each of these guys represent a pretty sizeable financial investment by the individual owners and in the end it's reasonable to want to protect that investment. You can't tell your boss you refuse to wear a hard hat on the job site because it violates your personal liberty-- you're welcome to quit with your liberty intact but if they're paying you to work on site they have the right to require you to take reasonable safety precautions.

Is this team a deadline trade away from the Cup? No. So let's get a good draft pick for once.

This is a fantastic deal for Detroit. Locking him in for 3 years at $725,000 per is a bargain. He's slipped in and quietly proved he can be a Brad Stuart type of player for the Wings. Not many defensemen walk in on their first call-up and average 18:54 each night as a top 4 d-man. Just look at where Lashoff's managed to fit in among the defense... His stats after 15 games, ranked against the other Wings defensemen: 1g 2a 3pts (4th) 2:56 SH TOI/G (3rd) 18:54 TOI/G (4th) 21 Blocked Shots (3rd) 23 Hits (1st) 4 PIM (5th, and pretty impressive given how physical he is and that he's a rookie) -4 +/- (worst-- tied with Kronwall) He's managed to completely outplay Quincey as a rookie with no previous call-up experience.

Brilliant! One of the coolest 'personal' masks we've seen in a while.