Echolalia

I agree that his chances are essentially zero, but I think I read Holland mention something about willing to play him in the top 9 in the NHL, not top 6 like was originally thought.

The way you started this response got my hopes up for a Chelios meme comeback. I is dissapoint.

Maybe it will bring him a little more luck than 71

There was an interesting idea floating around a while back to just alternate which team gets the top pick each year. I still don't know how I feel about it, but considering the wings haven't had any top ten picks in like 100 years, our cupboards would have been quite a bit more stocked had this been the set up. Actually thinking on it a bit more I really like this idea. Depending on how the numbers are arranged, each team could get a top ten pick every three years, regardless of how they perform. I think this would also increase the amount of trading as well, because a team with a solid core, already up against the cap could get a top ten pick and not have any room for the player they draft.

Would you prefer Setoguchi over Alfredsson?

The contract that Cleary signed includes a bonus if he plays ten games with the Wings. Because this whole contract renewal thing has to do with honoring Holland's word that the Wings will take care of Cleary this year, a lot of us suspect that Cleary will get 10 games with the Wings (unless he's absolutely terrible or injured). In those 10 games the organization can determine whether Cleary will be an asset to the team for the remainder of the season, and Cleary gets the money he left on the table last year. My prediction is he plays 10 games and that's the last we see of him.

I like how it looks, actually, given the roster we have. I would switch Nyqvist and Alfie, though.

That plaque put 15 years onto him. Still cool honor, though.

Calgary sounds like the place for him, if he wants to be with his besties.

So initially the idea was you either donated money to ALS research organizations, or you poured a bucket of water on your head. I love how this is catching like wild-fire, but I hope some of these people are sending a check in the mail, too.

I think this has been one of the most essential problems the Wings need to address. Bad breakouts lead to turnovers, and more time hemmed in. They also don't give forwards a good opportunity to establish the offensive zone. I'm hoping that with Dekeyser and Smith both with a year experience under their belt they will be more effective at moving the puck. Also considering so much of the team's success last year rested on the shoulders of Tater, Nyqvist, Sheahan, and Jurco, I want to think they'll be smarter about breakouts as well, cuz they will also be coming into this year with some nhl experience. It would still be nice to somehow get a quarterback defensman to start the charge.

All i see when I read this "Holland's plate is clear so he can start working on locking Babcock up"

Good point on the power play, but you're still vastly overrating his puck possession ability and ignoring his defensive short-comings. There's only one puck and ten guys on the ice. The puck possession skills of one guy, whether that's Wayne Gretzky or Brett Lebda, can only do so much, which is why +/- is generally a tricky stat to interpret. But your argument is that Gretzky's puck possession game would lead to huge gains for the team both offensively (which everyone should agree on) and defensively "which would be better by virtue of never having to actually play in their own zone". That quote is yours, and I understand the concept of exaggeration but you make your point quite clear, and +/- is an excellent way to see just how much Gretzky's presence kept the puck out of his own zone. Again, those last ten years at even strength, Gretzky's line, regardless of who his linemates were, was fairly consistently outscored, which means that his puck possession skills didn't do much to keep the puck out of his own zone. And even if I were to concede the point that having Gretzky on the ice means that the puck will rarely be in your own zone (despite plus minus clearly saying otherwise), Yzerman was also no slouch at the puck possession game, and I don't think the difference between the two of them would have compensated for Gretzky's overall lack of a defensive game compared to Yzerman's.

His plus/minus would imply otherwise. The guy was a consistent minus player throughout the last decade of his career (ie the 90s), which at the most fundamental level tells me that the strength of his possession game wasn't enough to keep the puck out of his own zone, nor out of his own net. The opposition consistently outscored his line. And I know +/- is a team stat and blah blah blah, but you'd think for someone who holds almost every offensive record in the books, and continued to produce at an elite level up until his retirement, he would have been able to have at the very least a decent plus minus for half those seasons, especially because that negative +/- was pretty consistent over three different teams (and who knows how many linemates) in the 90s. The guy was an offensive god, but his defense was little to non existent. The real question is had the Wings acquired him, would he have been Bowman's example for the Wings to adapt a two-way game as Yzerman did, or would he have continued to do what made him famous? The last part is why in retrospect, I would have stuck with Yzerman (although in 1989 I would have made the trade 10 times out of 10).

Ahem there are only seven #1 defensmen in the league, thus Kronwall is a #2 at best.

Actually I could believe it. I do a fair bit of waterskiing and wake boarding, and even just getting pulled around the lake destroys your back. I'm in pretty good shape, still young, and can only go around our lake a few times before I'm spent. Doing it with someone on my back is a whole different level.

Definitely crazy

Gretzky retired before 2002, but the first two years, yes.Actually thinking on it a bit more I don't know if we would be much better in 97 or 98. Bowman had Yzerman playing a solid two-way game, which is one of the big reasons those cups ended up in Detroit those years. Even playing defensively, Yzerman scored only 12 points less than him in 97, and 21 points less in 98 (although Yzerman also played seven fewer games). If we have Gretzky for those years instead of Yzerman, maybe Bowman can get him to play more of a two-way game, maybe not. If he does, I think his numbers would have ended up being much closer to Yzerman's, but I don't know if Gretzky would even succeed at the two-way style. I don't recall him being a strong back-checker, or all that solid in his own zone. I know that +/- is a shaky stat, but this guy was a minus player in seven of his last nine seasons. Despite consistently being among the lead leaders in points, those last nine seasons Gretzky was a combined -86. As for whether I would make the trade looking back now, it's tough to say. I don't think we would have won a cup in the early 90s even with Gretzky putting up 160 points simply because the Wings weren't built to win a cup until a few years later. After 96 or so, I think I would take a defensively responsible Yzerman and 10-20 less points than Gretzky. Especially because Yzerman lead us to a third cup in 2002, a couple years after Gretzky retired.

I vaguely remember reading/hearing that Gretzky was looking to come to Detroit, but his wife absolutely hated the idea of coming here, so she pretty much eliminated that possibility. I might just be making this up, though, but if anyone else knows more about this, I'd love to hear the whole story.

I can't speak for anyone else but I wouldn't be that happy with anything over 7, and I wouldn't be able to tolerate anything over 8.

This cap hit seems like they used Quincey's contract as comparison.

No one ever knows much about any of the assistant coaches Babcock picks out, until 3 years later when they're the most desired coaching candidates in the league.

The only think Leftwinger can burst is my blood vessel from laughing too hard.Just kidding Lefty I love you. But seriously. Lol. But really seriously: keep the info coming from the sources.

If Cleary somehow manages to play more than 10 games i would be shocked.

Two things I noticed when I watched that video that Hockeytown posted: 1) Almost all of Tatar's goals came within 6 feet of the net. Tatar may have Hudler's size, but he has Helm's heart. 2) Several of those goals came in the third period, during a tie game or the Wings down by a goal. I wasn't sure whether there was any statistical significance so I rewatched the vid and came up with these numbers: Tatar scored 4 first period goals, 7 second period goals, and 8 third period goals. This is especially impressive because the Wings only scored 8 third period goals all year (joke). Anyway, of those 8 goals in the third, the Wings were down or tied in 6 of those occasions (more specifically meaning his goal either tied the game or put the Wings in the lead. The one exception was when the Wings were down 3-1 to the Habs, when Tatar scored to make it 3-2. Then again to make it 3-3. I originally wasnt going to include the first goal, but because he scored the second one to tie it as well I decided to keep it in.) I didn't do any actual statistical analyses so take what you want from these values, but at the very least there may to be a trend that this kid gets better as the game progresses. I don't know how to statistically analyze "clutchness", or more specifically what the actual definition of clutch is. Scoring anytime in the third? Last 10 minutes? Down by 1? By 2? Anyway, someone with a better grasp of stats and clutchness can tackle this one.