Drake_Marcus

"Modified NTC"... means what exactly? We've seen over the last few weeks that the NTC is virtually worthless at detering a trade (does anyone believe Brian Campbell wanted to go to Florida?). GM's seem very comfortable burying players in the minors now. So the reality seems to be this: If a GM wants to get rid of a player with a NTC they can give them these options: A) Take this trade to the following NHL team with whom I have a deal in place, B) Go through waivers and have any team choose you (with priority going to the worst teams) or C) Pass through waivers and end up playing in the AHL where you'll be riding the bus for 6 hours to your back-to-back-to-back road games Given any of those options a player is going pick A but if they're fine with B/C the GM will be too. What would be scary is if it was a NMC (no movement clause). A NTC doesn't prevent waiving players.

Oh, and the Wings have 21 players under contract right now (only the back-up goaltender space is open) and they have 9.9 million dollars in cap room left. Considering that they're actively trying to move Hudler (2.875 million dollar cap hit) it's hard to believe Holland is done right now. Pretty much anyone in the league who's looking to move a big contract is going to be calling Holland right now. I wouldn't be surprised if the Wings made a significant trade at some point before Christmas.

For the record: Bogo isn't half the player Yandle is right now. Last year he posted 17pts. I know he's only 20 but he'd still be a 6th or 5th defenceman at best on the Wings. Because of Bogosian's upside the Wings would have to pay a step price for a guy who's yet to prove he's better than a 3rd pairing d-man. That kind of deal just doesn't make sense unless they can make a guy like Hudler the centre-piece of the trade (which is unlikely).

Anyone think there might be a reason why none of the legit contenders were willing to sign Ehrhoff, Wiz or Kaberle to big contracts?\ Wiz doesn't have the body of work to justify a 6 year 5.5 million dollar cap hit on a real team. I wanted the Wings to sign him but not for a deal like that. I'm glad Holland isn't the kind of dumbass GM who makes a signing in the summer just so he can have a big, exciting press conference to make all the fans happy. If there isn't a piece that fits the Wings in terms of the team AND the salary structure the smart move is to look for other options. I just checked the calendar and it's not October. I also checked NHL.com to see where the Wings were in the 2011-2012 standings... looks like we're fine there as well. Let's not flip out just yet.

I believe the strategy was something along the lines of "We're a year out from our 6 game SCF loss... Change everything."

Eaves obviously has a worse agent than Ericsson. This is a great deal for the Wings. I thought Eaves would get at least 1.5 million and up to 2 million at the high end. 1.2 mil is fantastic.

If the current defence core doesn't play up to Holland's expectations I certainly expect Kenny will make a move or acquisition to rectify the problem. We should be happy Holland didn't sign Errorhoff to a 40 million dollar 10 year contract.

Rafalski was the second d-choice on the PP and we'll certainly see Kronwall moved into that role. Rafi didn't play a second on the PK while Ericsson certainly will. I don't think it's fair to say E is Rafi's replacement in any sense of the word. Ericsson's going to be the 4th d-man on the Wings where-as Rafi was the 2nd best offensive defenseman. The Wings will expect growth from Kronwall (a fair bet) as he shows whether he can be the legit #1 option on the PP and PK. There really wasn't a player of Rafi's offensive calibre on the UFA market his year. Rafi is certainly one of the best offensive defensemen to come out of the US.

I'm still trying to make sense of this contract so I'll re-post here what I wrote in the Wiz thread (since this is probably the better place to put it anyway): Look at what everyone got this week. Ehrhoff, the playoff's worst +/- (-13), is going to make more money next season than Crosby. Leino, Laich and Fleischmann are signed to a cap hit of 4.5 million over the next 4-6 years. Jovocop had 14pts in 50 games last season... He's 35 years old and the Panthers signed him to a 4 year contract with a 4.125 million cap hit. Brewer was very solid for the Lightning in the playoffs he actually had a significant drop in offensive production after they got him from St. Louis (2pts in his 22 games with TB compared to 14 in 54 games in St. Louis). But did he deserve 3.85 million a season for 4 years? While I'd rather have Brewer on the Wings for that price, Ericsson's numbers are virtually identical to Brewer's but E's 5 years younger and trending upwards. Brewer's numbers have declined since his peak season in 06-07. Like I said-- if we're talking about next season in isolation I'd take Brewer over Ericsson. But Brewer will be 36 when his deal ends and Ericsson will be 30. I doubt at that point E will be the worse choice. Ericsson will have to get better to justify his contract by growing as a player. However, we can safely assume he's got a better shot to grow at this point than Brewer does (who's 32, declining and has 12 NHL seasons under his belt). When word filtered out that E's contract was worth 3.25 million it felt like a punch in the gut. Now that I've looked at the signings that went down so far I don't feel quite as bad. Frigging Barker was waived by Minny and bought out after posting 5pts and a -10 in 52 games last year but he got 2.25 million from Edmonton (yeah I know he scored 40pts once in Chicago but he's obviously not that player anymore... at least he wasn't that player in Minny!). I mean s***... a 37 year old Hamrlik got 3.5 mil a year for 2 years with Washington. How much tread could he possibly have left on his tires?!? Is Hamrlik going to get 2:33 mins of pp time per game in Washington? He got 15 of his 34 points on Montreal's PP. He'll have to get comparable time on Washington's pp to replicate those numbers. This year's cap increase really messed the market up (in my opinion).

Look at what everyone got this week. Ehrhoff, the playoff's worst +/- (-13), is going to make more money next season than Crosby. Leino, Laich and Fleischmann are signed to a cap hit of 4.5 million over the next 4-6 years. Jovocop had 14pts in 50 games last season... He's 35 years old and the Panthers signed him to a 4 year contract with a 4.125 million cap hit. Brewer was very solid for the Lightning in the playoffs he actually had a significant drop in offensive production after they got him from St. Louis (2pts in his 22 games with TB compared to 14 in 54 games in St. Louis). But did he deserve 3.85 million a season for 4 years? While I'd rather have Brewer on the Wings for that price, Ericsson's numbers are virtually identical to Brewer's but E's 5 years younger and trending upwards. Brewer's numbers have declined since his peak season in 06-07. Like I said-- if we're talking about next season in isolation I'd take Brewer over Ericsson. But Brewer will be 36 when his deal ends and Ericsson will be 30. I doubt at that point E will be the worse choice. Ericsson will have to get better to justify his contract by growing as a player. However, we can safely assume he's got a better shot to grow at this point than Brewer does (who's 32, declining and has 12 NHL seasons under his belt). When word filtered out that E's contract was worth 3.25 million it felt like a punch in the gut. Now that I've looked at the signings that went down so far I don't feel quite as bad. Frigging Barker was waived by Minny and bought out after posting 5pts and a -10 in 52 games last year but he got 2.25 million from Edmonton (yeah I know he scored 40pts once in Chicago but he's obviously not that player anymore... at least he wasn't that player in Minny!). I mean s***... a 37 year old Hamrlik got 3.5 mil a year for 2 years with Washington. How much tread could he possibly have left on his tires?!? Is Hamrlik going to get 2:33 mins of pp time per game in Washington? He got 15 of his 34 points on Montreal's PP. He'll have to get comparable time on Washington's pp to replicate those numbers. This year's cap increase really messed the market up (in my opinion).

How'd Holland go from a top flight GM to a terribad monster who kills kittens? And how'd this happen over night. It's a mystery for the ages...

Fair enough. Should have said second most.

Kovalev's contract was higher than that!

Sounds like somebody wants to spend just to have a press conference... I wonder how that usually works out?

That's about the most retarded thing I've read all day. Congrats

This doesn't feel like a Kenny signing. For f***'s sake. If this is true we just have to hope E grows enough over next few seasons to justify it. Hands down, though, the single worst part of this signing will be sorting through the vitriol and dead-horse beating on LGW for at least the next 3 years.

Not a ton of impact players in this drying market... I'm not terribly concerned that it's drying up. Vancouver signed our most likely UFA d-man target. Carolina bummed me out too. I guess Wiz is our last UFA hope. Ehrhoff would be a mistake at the money he wants and White's suddenly a journeyman (which may speak to his true value). At this point it's Wiz or a trade as far as I'm concerned. I don't think it'd be a tragedy to give Smith and Kindl a shot at real mins instead of making a panic signing.

Finally! Hudler's been mentioned in the RFA Stamkos thread.

The Wings have less than 50 mil in salary on the roster right now. Kenny will spend as much as he needs too... he's just good at convincing people to take less than market value to play for the Wings. I'll come right out and say this now-- I'm willing to play for the Wings for less than the league minimum. Indeed, I'll do it for $50,000 Canadian a year. Give me a ring Kenny!

I got that on my twitter feed too but I'm a bit put off since it Erik Erlendsson (the big twitter guy for Lightning coverage) mentioned earlier today that Stamkos and Yzerman's camp would be meeting tomorrow instead of today. Exactly! If there's one thing the Garth Snow school of management's taught us it's: keep plugging away withe same methods until it works! Go Islanders!

The Islanders should offer Stamkos a 200 million dollar 20 year contract. Would he sign it? He'd be signing away his chance at a Cup but on the other hand it's two hundred ******* million dollars (and his agent would probably force him to sign it at knife point just for the commission).

I have to call bulls*** on that. I believe you that you heard the rumour but I don't buy for a second that Holland would offer him that much (unless that number includes performance incentives).

Who knows-- some of those first round picks could be lottery picks (assuming Lidstrom retires next summer). If Lidstrom wasn't close to retiring I'd be more comfortable gambling on 4 first round picks. Ask Leafs fans what happens when you gamble with 1st rounders. Not that LA wouldn't match any offer Holland made, but you see what I'm getting at. We can't assume this team will be a top team after Lidstrom retires.

He seemed to fall because of his inconsistency. I've read scouting reports that called him mature so I'm interested in where you got your "cocky ****** bag" info. Here's a snippet from a Red Wings scout: Like I said-- I'd like to see where you read that he's a ******.

And we can officially call Filatov a bust.