Drake_Marcus

GR hasn't been a contender in a long, long time so why waste time playing kids who aren't developing as Red Wings? If you're a legitimate Cup contender it's worth having guys like Janik and Exelby in GR as NHL depth but now that we're officially a team in at least partial rebuild we might as well use those mins in GR to develop young players.

Interesting that you've allowed the Wings to carry a roster larger than the league maximum. Being able to roll 5 lines with a spare forward is true depth on the bench! Hudler out performed Sammy last season so it's not fair to call that switch an upgrade (25g/50pts for the little guy vs a pro-rated 21g/46pts for Sammy). Sammy has better size and a right hand shot, which is helpful, but he's injury prone and almost 10 years older than Hudler so I'd call Hudler-->Sammy a lateral move at best. The age factor makes it potentially a slight downgrade (based solely on age, one expects that Hudler should still be trending upwards and Sammy downwards, one being significantly more durable is an important distinction as well). Mr. Conn Smythe begs to differ. Is the reality that we may just need to stand pat with the young guys and sink or swim? Picking in the lottery would really be a treat for once. I'd rather miss the playoffs and get a good pick than go out in the 1st/2nd round.

Nope. The Wings didn't extend him a qualifying offer by choice. They were happy to see him move on.

Wait, so you're advocating Holland mortgages the team's future to provide short term buzz? No thanks. Leave it to Vladdy to inject the forums with some realism. Agreed 100% man.

So now that Suter and Parise are signed to life-time contracts with shockingly high average cap hits relative to their abilities (remember when people did 13 year contacts just to keep the cap hit low?) it's time to think hard about where the team should go next. I see three options: 1.) Sign the remaining FA scraps and try to stich a competitive team together. 2.) Make trades to acquire a young #1 dman (think Keith Yandle) 3.) Push forward with an internal youth movement and let the chips fall where they may. If the kids can't step up next summer will be very interesting. If they can step up we'll see just what this team has in terms of the next generation. One benefit of this plan is it will leave the Wings with a lot of cap space that could be useful if the new CBA drops the cap by an appreciable amount (in which case you'll see some serious panic from the teams who are up against the temporary cap). Personally, I'd take option #3. I'd rather gamble on the kids and get them minutes to grow than wash out in the 1st round again. At least we'd be in line for a decent 1st round pick for the first time in more than 20 years. With that in mind here's my proposal: Sign: Quincey (if and only if a better player can't be had for his spot and he's willing to take 4 mil or less, otherwise release him) Release: Abdelkader (Tootoo does everything he does but better and Abs is a terrible face-off guy) Holmstrom (only so many roster spots left, it'll be a shame to see him go) Emmerton (let him pass through waivers) Trade: Miller (no room, need the roster spot for one of the kids) Joey Mac (find him a legitimate back-up job, trade him for future considerations if necessary) Conditional: Eaves (if he's ready in training camp and earns his spot keep him as the 4th line center since he's got NHL experience in the circle and is fast as hell, otherwise slot Andersson or Sheahan up into his spot) Mursak (he's the 13th forward in my mind) On deck: Tatar, Andersson, Sheahan. All three should get an extended look through the entire pre-season and if any of the three beat an NHLer on the roster for his job make the trade that brings them onto the team. It's time to give the kids a chance to drive. Obligatory line-up from cap geek: FORWARDS Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) Damien Brunner ($1.350m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Mikael Samuelsson ($3.000m) Danny Cleary ($2.800m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) / Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Kyle Quincey ($3.750m) Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) / Brendan Smith ($0.875m) Ian White ($2.875m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $70,200,000; CAP PAYROLL: $55,746,212; BONUSES: $462,500 CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $14,453,788 Notes: Subtly probe the market to see if there's interest in Cleary from one of the Canadian teams. Float the idea of a trade with Cleary. He's got the NTC (assuming it came back after the window that opened this past trade deadline) but there's always a chance he'd be excited to come home to Canada. Longterm outlook: Give Smith, Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan and Andersson every opportunity to make the team and earn a perminant spot. If they can bump an NHL player off the roster who is performing at or very close to their level then so be it. The #1 priority should be to fully evaluate just what the team has in the cupboard. If the kids are found lacking it's time to make some bold moves. This plan very well may reduce the chances this team has to make the playoffs but I believe that it is in the long-term interests of the team. Edit: seriously, can we please have spell-check functionality with this new UI? My normal Firefox spellcheck doesn't work here anymore.

More organizational depth. You can't complain about that.

Someone should tell Howson that Nash isn't even a borderline hall of fame player... maybe he should stop asking for a Gretzky ransom.

The Wings can't play 5 lines of forwards. Abdelkader hasn't grown or shown the potential to grow past his rookie season. It's time to move on and give his spot to someone who is actively getting better. Talent wise, Tatar and Sheahan aren't mid-level prospects nor are they home-runs. Both have a shot to be very good NHL players. And again, this isn't about the Red Wings making a run for a Cup in 2013. This entire thing is about giving the kids a shot to prove their worth. If the Wings miss the playoffs and end up with a respectable draft posiiton for the first time in decades then so be it. Our current roster isn't a few FA signings from being a legitimate Cup contender unless we see some serious growth from the young guys within the organization. The worst thing that can happen here is if we see the WIngs turn into a team that constantly swaps a bit of talent in here or there to get them just at the level a 2nd round washout team is at. We should be Cup contenders or lottery pick hopefulls. There's no room for something in between those two extremes if you want to build a future Cup winner in the current NHL.

A youth movement on teams who aren't trying to tank is typically a careful injection of young prospects. The Wings don't have to replace everyone with a twentysomething.

6 million a year for 6 years and you get a soft player who scored 4g 34a in 82 games this season? One more silly contract Holland didn't offer. Thumbs up for me. The Lightning can have him at that price. Not handcuffing himself to good players who want great player money every year for 13 years.

Here comes the panic and doomsaying. We can't possibly succeed as a team now that we missed out on two free agents. (Thank you Holland for not handcuffing the team with two 13 year contracts that didn't come with a discount in exchange for the absurd term)

Having to give up 50 1st round picks.

How is he better today? Do you mean the Nash who once scored 79pts or the Nash of the last three seasons who averages 64pts and gets paid almost 8 million a year? I don't care who he plays with in Columbus, Crosby is getting less than a million more a year than Nash. W. T. F.

One guy who had the same points per game as Nash + One guy who had MORE points per game + Random floatsam + a pick

It's worth noting that the twitter feed in question is a Minny sports feed.

I wouldn't be surprised if Parise signs with the Pens. I'll be saddened but not surprised. "Hey, wanna play on Crosby's wing?" is a pretty strong sales pitch to an elite winger who went to the same hockey prep school as Sid.

Holland certainly has the pieces to trade for Nash but he's not retarded so he won't pay the hilarious price Howson's been asking for Nash. The only way we trade for Nash is if Howson pulls his head out of his ass.

Abby's not good enough at face-offs to justify leaving the 4th line centre spot in his hands.

The big problem with that line of reasoning is that we don't have a centre prospect in the AHL that's showing himself to be a lock as an NHL player. The hope is that Jarnkrok is that guy but it's hard to gamble on a kid you haven't even seen play a season in the AHL.

Philly has 3 big RFA forwards who will have to be signed in the summer of 2014. Giroux, Schenn and Couturier are only signed until next season and will be in line for big raises. Voracek is an RFA this summer while Hartnel and Timmonen are UFAs next summer. And to top it off they can't get rid of Pronger's massive contract (ends in the summer of 2017) because he signed after his 35th birthday and all signs are pointing towards his retirement. Oh, and we have no idea what the cap will be when the new CBA is signed this summer/fall. The moment that CBA is signed the cap will likely fall (it's already climbed so high that the minimum cap number is now higher than the post-lockout maximum). The real shame is that the Blackhawks were able to so skillfully dump their terrible signings a few years ago (a lone to a European team here, trade to Florida there and poof their stupid FA choices were erased). GMs no longer seem to worry much about throwing contracts with huge term around. The best solution to this issue is for the minimum cap values to drop significantly so garbage teams don't take terrible contracts in trades just to reach the floor.

Eklund? No one in the league will pay that price for Nash's bloated contract. Nash produced the same points per game as Franzen last year but was among the top 10 forwards in cap hit. There's a reason why Nash has been sitting on the block for so long... the seller is asking for a lot more than any of the buyers are willing to pay. I expect that when Nash is finally traded he won't get nearly what the Jackets were rumoured to be asking. The other option is that Howson is smart and he's waiting until the big free agents are signed and the GMs left without a dance partner get itchy to make a move.

Which is sad because some stupid team will actually give Vancouver assets for the privilage of providing them with cap relief.

Give him a shot... worst case he's still infinitely better than Emmerton. Edit: and I mean in terms of potential. No offense to Emmerton, he's a stand up guy and I hope he has some success at the NHL level.

Nope. Sorry. If you want to get big boy money you should have to have big boy production. Look at the numbers Crosby, Ovechkin, Heatly, Hossa and Kovy put up on worse teams than the BJs in their past. The year Nash produces like a top 10 forward is the year he deserves to be paid like one (so yes, that one year he was a coleader in goals scored he would have earned this contract but now he's getting paid Crosby money to produce like Franzen).

Emmerton won't be anything more than a 14th forward at most. Hopefully they won't bother with Abdelkader unless it's to trade him for whatever we can get.