paulwoodsfan

Six out of 14 on that list are "bad contract," "stupid contract" or "overpaid." But here's the thing -- all contracts, including bad or stupid ones, set market rates. Those are all comparables DD's agent will look at. He won't care whether the guy should be paid that much, he'll just care that the guy is being paid that much. If some of those guys are overpaid, maybe DD is better than them and therefore should be paid as much or more. That's the starting point his agent will bring to negots.

Well, we'll see (if he actually follows through on leaving). I will be shocked if we are able to get anything for the contract.

Sorry but I disagree (obviously). I wish that were so but I fully expect we're going to have to offer a sweetener. Teams will know we are over a barrel on this and won't do us any favours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Vq3bQE0K4

LGW is going to go nuts when it is determined that in order to trade the cap hit, the Wings will have to give something of value up to the other team. We're not getting an AHLer for this; we would likely need to trade a decent draft choice or a decent prospect.

Am I the only one worried that Holland's hands may be tied, that the Illitches are no longer interested in spending whatever it takes to win? Mr. I. may be focused on estate planning at this point. Spending below the cap seems contrary to everything the team has done for 30 years, but I don't feel we can safely assume it's business as usual.

We need to find a way to roll four lines to have any chance of winning the first (or any) round. You can't win in the playoffs with a forward playing two minutes a night. If Abdelkader is healthy I expect Jurco will dress over Andersson. I'd like to see AA on a top-three line and Helm down with Glendening and Jurco. That's a fourth line I'd be comfortable giving a lot of minutes to.

So Elliotte Friedman, who was accused earlier in this thread of "lacking class" and engaging in "yellow journalism," turns out to have been accurate in his HNIC report a week ago. Not surprising -- he is one of the best hockey reporters in the business. Like Bob McKenzie, when he reports something, you can take it to the bank.

Tampa is beatable but you can't win in the playoffs with 10 forwards. Somehow we have to figure out which one of Mantha, Jurco and Andersson to not only dress but give decent minutes to. (And AA also needs way more minutes.) If it's Mantha, he needs to go back to a top line, which presumably means moving Helm or Richards down. Probably Helm since Helm/Glendening/Athanasiou is a group that could play legitimate minutes.

"Class" has nothing to do with journalism. It's about providing information that citizens need and/or want to know. A superstar athlete walking away from a valid contract to ply his trade somewhere else is newsworthy, period. The Red Wings might have preferred this story stay a secret (assuming there's some validity to it, which we have no way of knowing), but it's not up to Elliotte Friedman or any other journalist to suppress newsworthy information just because someone powerful might want it suppressed.

It's not up to reporters to show "class" or help orgs suppress stories. If one of the top players in the league for the past two decades is thinking of walking away from his contract, that's a story at any time of year.

I agree Mrazek has gotten terrible with rebounds. He was swallowing the puck in Jan, now it hits him and bounces out into traffic.

Blashill does switch things up. Last night he stapled AA, Mantha and Tatar to the bench in the third. Makes sense if you don't think they can be trusted to protect a lead. I'm not sure I agree with that judgment -- haven't seen enough of AA and AM in lead-protection situations to know if they are up to it -- but he's certainly not the first coach to decide he's putting it on his vets to close out a game.

Need 20 points in the last 16 games to be reasonably sure of making playoffs, IMO -- 95 points should do it this year. Can we go 10-6, or 8-4-4, or some similar combo involving four more wins than regulation losses?

Marchenko did have a terrible game. Ericsson wasn't a lot better. If Smith is healthy I can see Marchenko being a healthy scratch next game.

Stevie was correct. The pre-game highlights package was ridiculously slanted towards the Avs. There were not one but two clips of Roy holding the puck up in his glove, Statue of Liberty-style, but the play where he tried to do that and muffed it -- paving the way for Wings to win the 2002 series -- was noticeably absent. The league missed a real opportunity to make this a national event and instead allowed it to be an Avs event.

How about a rule that a team can't have a top-five pick two years in a row? If you finish in the bottom five two years in a row, the second year you draft no better than sixth regardless of lottery results.

Hicketts plays in the WHL, not the Q, and plays a lot bigger than his size. He has been a force for Canada at two straight WJCs. While lots of guys dominate there and don't end up making the NHL, I think he will be a Wing within three years, possibly two. I think Sproul and Jensen are almost out of our plans at this point. I think Sproul will end up in Edmonton reunited with his junior partner, Darnell Nurse.

So if he was dazed and cross-checked an opposing player from behind, it would OK? If he was dazed, why did he stay in the game and not go through the protocol? Guys are responsible for their actions if they are conscious and aware, and this type of cheap shot with a stick is not OK regardless of who was on the receiving end. The fact it was an official makes a suspension almost a requirement. I'd say 10 games.

I want Larkin to finish second, just like Yzerman, Fedorov, Lidstrom and Zetterberg did. Three HoFers, one likely heading there and one for whom the sky's the limit.

He'll regret accepting those risks some day, I am pretty certain.

IMO Larkin longterm is going to be too valuable to kill penalties. He will need to be on prime power play and I don't want him regularly burning minutes playing a role that requires shot blocking. He is clearly capable of it but he's capable of other stuff that is way harder to find.

I have him not scoring 20-plus in the NHL until 2017-18. He may be here next season but think it would be crazy to count on him to be ready to score that much right away.

It seems to me that Nyquist's original potential ceiling of 40 (based on his first-year pace) has been scaled back considerably, to regularly scoring 20-25. Which IMO makes him expendable as soon as someone new starts to produce at a good pace. Pulkkinen would be the most logical at this point since scoring relief from GR is probably another 18 months away.

1. Kindl plays a bit LGW: Kindl sucks, get rid of him! 2. Kindl drops to eighth on the depth chart, then goes on waivers LGW: We're gonna lose him for nothing! Holland is an idiot for not getting something for him! 3. Kindl clears waivers LGW: <crickets>