Bannedforlife

I wonder if Babcock is pissed about this one?

My question is, how did this take until the day before free agency starts to reach that cap hit? What number did Ericsson's agent start at, $8 million per? I think we should call this off-season, "The Nightmare Before Free Agency".

How's the that Montador contract looking right about now?

Such as?

I have a feeling that this is just the way it is now. If you can't sign your guy and are going to lose him to free agency, why not get something for him? Holland should get on board with this, because sitting around waiting for July 1st isn't getting it done. It goes both ways too, so the 6th round pick we could get for Ericsson could offset the 5th round pick we would've given up for Wisniewski.

I say we do a sign and trade with Ericsson for 2 reasons. 1) As we know, the demand for defensemen is very high right now, lots of teams looking and not enough quality free agents to go around. He's big, young, developed by the Red Wings, and could be signed to a hometown discount (relatively). He could potentially fetch us something nice. 2) To punish his punk ass for dragging out this signing and turning down our very generous 2M offer. Holland could stand to dirty up his nice guy image a bit.

Mr. T?

I've been wanting to mention this for awhile. I'm one of the guys that doesn't really mind seeing a ton of line combos thrown around and I'll even participate from time to time, but I can't stand it when the poster doesn't bold or highlight anything that is different/speculation. It sucks to have to re-read your post 4 times before I figure out that you traded Hudler for Ovechkin and signed Brad Richards to a league minimum contract. Is there any way we can make that a rule? If you're going to post a line combo, you have to either explain what you did differently or bold all the contracts that are speculative.

I don't understand why he doesn't file for arbitration??

If that's true he'd be an idiot not to accept it right away. There's no way he'll get anything close to that from another NHL team. For the record, I hope it's not true. I'd like to see closer to 2M, not 4M.

What's wrong with that?

I think you're reading too much into it. Its more likely that they decided that none of the remaining players in the 7th round had any shot of ever making it to the NHL anyway and decided it was better to take the risk on Marchenko on the off chance that he could be persuaded to come to the NHL someday. Im not saying he'll never play for the Red Wings, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

I agree that Wings fans are spoiled and it's funny/embarrassing when they freak out over transactions where we really have very little information as far as what went on behind the scenes, but I have to point out a couple of things. First, the title of this thread is that Babs got pissed off when he learned that San Jose traded for Burns, so yea, there is a little justification for fans to be disappointed. If Babs thought it was in the realm of possibility enough to be upset about it, then I believe it was more possible than the nay-sayers are painting to be. Number two, Burns is damn good defenseman and addresses a lot of the needs/wants that this team has right now. Unless Smith pans out to be the next Lidstrom, it's better to have Burns now than a guy who might be a shade better than Burns 5 years from now.

I'm over getting upset about things I have no control over. Either Holland will get his s*** together this off-season or at some point in the future, or he won't. If he doesn't, we'll either ease comfortably into a decade or so of middle of the pack mediocracy, or we'll bottom out and pile up some nice lottery picks. Either way, I'm done skipping my Friday night plans to stay glued to my TV to watch the draft, or endlessly pressing the LGW refresh button on July 1st and on deadline day and whatnot. It's too sunny outside for this s***.

Holland trades down every single one of our picks. We end up with all 30 7th round picks, and draft the entire Swedish pee-wee league championship team. Then, he re-signs Ericsson, Eaves, Miller, MacDonald, and Salei. Finally, on the last day before training camp, Holland completes the roster by signing the wily veteran Joe Skrubz for his invaluable "experience" and "leadership". Holland proclaims the off-season to be the busiest and most successful in Red Wings' history. When asked why the team was barely able to clear the cap floor, Holland cites that free agent prices were "too high" and his desire to save cap space for injuries and make trades at the deadline. LGW members rally in support of their GM, arguing that signing any free agent for anything close to fair market value is ridiculous, insisting that we must save cap space to re-sign our own free agents the following off-season. They then proceed to mock all other NHL GMs for their gross overpayment of trade and free agent acquisitions, and declare Ken Holland the greatest general manager in the history of professional sports. Not surprisingly, a dejected Nicklas Lidstrom decides to announce he will retire early after reporting to training camp to learn that he is expected to lead this team to the Stanley Cup. Nevertheless, the Lidstrom-less Wings hit the season in full stride, shattering league records for wins, points, and shootout losses while coasting to their 21st consecutive playoff berth. Then, despite most analyst's predictions of an evenly matched, hard fought 7 game series, the President's Trophy winning Red Wings manage to pimp-slap the lowly Albuquerque Desert Mongrels back to the stone age in a savage 4 game beatdown. Puppy dogs and ice cream rule the day as LGW erupts with jubilation, spawning countless "We believe" and "This is the Year" threads. Rested and confident, the Red Wings advance to the second round to face their arch-rivals, the Golden State Toilet Fish... However, confidence quickly turns to apprehension when it is discovered that the Red Wings might have to break a sweat on their preordained crusade for the Stanley Cup. Though unpleasant to watch, Babcock is not concerned when the Red Wings break an NHL record during their game 1 loss after they suffer the most fatalities in a playoff home game (4), reiterating that "the power play is our enforcer". Holland appears unfazed as well, announcing that the team will promote young players to replace the deceased; Cleary (head trauma), Bertuzzi (complications from bite wound), Holmstrom (natural causes), and Hudler (decapitated while attempting to skate onto the bench, running into the door that has been inadvertently stuck shut. Eva maintains that he is still a top 5 playmaker in the world). LGW reaction is mixed and violent, but all are soothed when they learn that Franzen will return after missing 81 regular season games and the entire first round with a torn Anterior Nejrav Flavin. Their faith is rewarded when Franzen leads the team to a game 2 victory by effortlessly scoring 60 goals in 60 minutes. Replays of the game-winning goal show Franzen yawn as he skates into the neutral zone, deke all 3 Golden State forwards, skate onto the opposing bench, pull out Pavelski's mouth guard and throw it to the ice, pause to text message Bjork back in the Fjordland, jump back onto the ice, split the defense, and deftly flip it in top shelf. The play is featured at #10 on Sportcenter's top 10 plays of the night, followed by 9 different ways LeBron James managed to dunk a ball that night. Unfortunately the victory is short-lived, as the Toilet Fish manage to eke out a pair of 1 goal games on their home ice. Though the series shifts back to Detroit with the Red Wings facing elimination for the third straight year, confidence amongst the faithful remains high. After all, the Wings have out-scored the Fish by nearly 60 goals throughout the series! Game 5 starts off fast and exhilarating, with both teams exchanging huge saves and momentum-shifting goals. Things couldn't get any more exciting when Zetterberg ties the game at the buzzer and sends it into overtime! Fond memories flood the arena as images of Stevie Y jumping and flailing his arms after his double overtime game winner against St Louis flash on the jumbo-tron. Then the unthinkable happens. As both teams return to their benches at the end of intermission, fans are stunned as they watch Ryane Clowe, sidelined since game 1 with a severed arm, walk down the tunnel and take his seat on the bench. The crowd at the Joe is horrified as they watch, as though it were scripted in a movie, Ryane Clowe manage to single-handedly (!!!) power his way through Ericsson and Kindl (shocking) and jam home the series clinching goal. LGW plunges into agonizing despair for about half a day, until a consensus is reached that injuries and travel are to blame, in addition to Brad McCrimmon, despite the fact that he hasn't been seen in over 8 months after disappearing in a Siberian Gulag. This rationalization allows order to return and gloating over our 4th Stanley Cup in, ummmm, 16 years now??? to resume. Or something like that.

That's true. I suppose it is comforting to know exactly where our scorer will be for years to come (IR)

I bet he secretly follows LGW and now he's been brainwashed by eva. He tried to push Hudler on every single trade proposal and now no other GMs will return his phone calls.

Mine too. I didn't seriously think he would be coming here, but San Jose is the last place I want him to go. f***

I'd rather have to replace 1 goal scorer through free agency than have to sign and/or trade for 2-3 stud defensemen over the next couple years. Dozens of times? Maybe in the 80's. Seriously, when was the last time Detroit wasn't able to re-sign a free agent that they REALLY wanted to? Fedorov? Shanahan? I'm not saying it would be a sure thing, but it's not like we're Columbus over here.

Yea, San Jose has a long way to go before they catch up with us...

I don't know, maybe Franzen. Bear in mind, we'd have a year and a week to re-sign him.

San Jose's first round pick last year (28th). Basically Setoguchi and 2 late first round picks for Burns and a 2nd round pick (most likely early 2nd round)

Yea, but I'm a big believer that you put together the best team possible right now and worry about next years free agents next year. If Holland were able to pull off a trade for Burns AND sign Richards AND sign Wisniewski, you've given yourself a great chance to win right now. Next summer you might have some hard decisions to make as far as who gets a new contract, but isn't it a good problem to have too many defensemen to re-sign than not enough? And if you were Holland and you only had money to sign 3 out of Lidstrom or Burns or Kronwall or Stuart, which 3 would you choose? Stuart's great, but he's no Burns and he for sure ain't no Lidstrom.

I don't know where you're getting $8 million from. Our UFA/RFAs next year are Hudler, Bertuzzi, Holmstrom, Helm, Abdelkader, Lidstrom, Stuart, and Kronwall (assuming everyone we sign this year is a multi-year deal) The only guys from that list that will be getting raises are Kronwall, Helm and Abdelkader, and maybe Stuart. Holmstrom will probably retire and could be replaced by someone younger and cheaper, Bertuzzi will get either the same or less money or retire and be replaced by someone cheaper, Hudler will probably get a pay cut (if he isn't traded or let go). That leaves Kronwall ($2.5 million raise at the very most), Helm ($1 million raise) Abdelkader ($1 million raise). I could see giving Stuart an extra half million, anymore than that and he could be easily replaced for someone younger and cheaper. Even if the cap only goes up $2 million next year all we would have to do is let Hudler go and we'd be able to spend all the way up the cap this year and re-sign all our free agents next year. Lidstrom's only retiring if and when he's ready.

You said the Jack Adams was the only trophy worthy of second guessing, but Corey Perry as league MVP is probably least deserving winner of the last 20 years.