Free Agent Names to Look At

[akustyk 84]

some of you just seem to have stopped in 2004/05, that is about the time Holland used to sign every single player who had 15+ years of NHL experience. read: old fart.

Peca is a short-sighted investment, and one that doesn't necesarilly has to pay off. why sign him if we can pick younger players with good set of skills instead?

and Sykora? no f* way, man. this is a huge noshow with demand for big bucks. forget about him

and finally... hell freezes over on the day Forsberg joins Wings. Jesus Christ, don't even mention it!

Blake is a cancer. Pass.

care to give more details? I mean, I know he's no saint, but if I'm not mistaken he's been captain for

Islanders a while ago, and you don't give this duty to a guy who doesn't come along with other

players.

Edited May 23, 2007 by akustyk

[FirstSamuel1745 0]

I'd like to have Jiri Fischer back...

[kozac 10]

Here's a great site to look at when looking for free agents and their salaries:

http://www.nhlnumbers.com/

[Kp-Wings 3]

care to give more details? I mean, I know he's no saint, but if I'm not mistaken he's been captain for

Islanders a while ago, and you don't give this duty to a guy who doesn't come along with other

players.

There is a member here (The Outsider) that is an Islanders fan. If he ever shows up again, ask him, as I believe he explained it pretty good once before.

[BigTex 1]

I'm going to ask Buccigross what to do with this roster and UFA's. Hopefully it'll make it in the mailbag next week.

My opinion is this - we have a great group of players, but none of them are really big difference makers outside of Lidstrom, Zetts and Pavel. We have a bunch of really hard working and likeable players, whom I really got into cheering for.

But especially with our forwards, we have a glut of average to slightly above average NHL players. I'd like to clear a few roster spots for the youngsters and bring in a really great player, prefereably a RW or LW. Someone who can raise our first two lines to the quality that the Euro Twins line had this year. We need two lines that can really light it up. The rest of our roster is stacked well.

[al48 1]

The Wings biggest problem was their problem at the beginning of the year. They need more skilled wingers. Defense, when healthy, can remain the same as far as I'm concerned.

The biggest thing that killed the Wings against the Ducks was a lack of a good 2nd line. Everytime that Lang line got paired up against the Perry/Getzlaf line they got into trouble and it eventually ended the season. They need to solidify 2 scoring lines before they can move that extra step forward.

EDIT:

I'm going to ask Buccigross what to do with this roster and UFA's. Hopefully it'll make it in the mailbag next week.

My opinion is this - we have a great group of players, but none of them are really big difference makers outside of Lidstrom, Zetts and Pavel. We have a bunch of really hard working and likeable players, whom I really got into cheering for.

But especially with our forwards, we have a glut of average to slightly above average NHL players. I'd like to clear a few roster spots for the youngsters and bring in a really great player, prefereably a RW or LW. Someone who can raise our first two lines to the quality that the Euro Twins line had this year. We need two lines that can really light it up. The rest of our roster is stacked well.

Interesting post while I was typing my post. I agree!

Edited May 23, 2007 by al48

[BeeRYCE 2]

Two words: Sheldon Souray.

Unfortunately he wants to go to the Kings.

[ZAMBONI 0]

I think Sykora would be nice for the price, he has Awesome talent and would be fairly cheap, put him with Dats and good things would happen

Sopel would be a cheaper alternative to Schneiders spot, he has a good shot, maybe a little better defensively

(I still say sign schneider)

I know some have already mentioned Sykora being pricey,but he also is one of the strekiest players going and doesn't back check well at all. He would be a serious detriment to the wings. If he goes into a goal less streak you guys will eat him alive.

[akustyk 84]

I know some have already mentioned Sykora being pricey,but he also is one of the strekiest players going and doesn't back check well at all. He would be a serious detriment to the wings. If he goes into a goal less streak you guys will eat him alive.

you just defined another Robert Lang it seems

[dustin35 0]

we need ryan smith. drop lang and bert and get this guy

[scotzman 29]

Let's see where we have spaces to fill...

Zetts-Dats-Homer

Cleary-Flips-Bert (sign him)

Malts-Drapes-Franzen

Sammy-*Open*-Kopecky, Hudler, Grigs

Lids-Kronwall

Cheli-Lebda

Lilja-*open*

Quincey, Kindl, Ericcson

*Open*, Osgood

Drury 5'10" 200 lbs.

Gomez 5'11" 200 lbs.

Briere 5'9" 177 lbs.

All those guys make me ask, why? We already have enough skilled guys under 6'... I think all of them would make the team better in certain areas, but we need speed and SIZE... Bert would add some of that (size) and I would love to take a chance on him. I also would love to see Smyth here as he would fit Babcock's style pretty well and will set up camp in front of the net.

As far as the 'D' goes, Schneids would be okay with me for the right price, but I would love for the Wings to start bringing along some young guys... Same goes for Markov...

The Goalie situation is always going to bug me... I loved having Hasek, he makes us way better, but when do we get to see Howard? He needs to play someday, unless he is not the answer. I also hate to say this, but if Hasek bolts (then comes back again most likely), I think taking a stab at Giguerre is not a bad idea. He is a Babs guy too.

[BigTex 1]

Howard needs at least one more year in GR before he'd be ready. But that makes me ask, if he's going to be so great why does he need so many freekin years in GR?!? 2 yrs in the minors is usually enough for a goalie that's going to be really good.

[omnipotent_hudler 0]

I wouldn't mind Zubrus... He plays RW, has size and put up decent numbers this year( his +/- was a bit low because he was playing on Washington for some time). I'm not sure Buffalo is going to be able to resign him with the cap issues they are going to have trying to sign Drury and Briere.. Zubrus made $1.85 million this year and will likely ask for more next year.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

I know Ill probably get flamed for this, but I keep on thinking about it, and RYAN SMYTH sounds like a better and better idea. You can NEVER have too many guys on your team who are fearless to go to the net. I know hell cost a lot, but hes a natural winger and he is a scorer first before a set up guy. IMO, this team messes around making too many passes and Ryan Smyth would be a great guy to take the puck to the net. Had he been healthy this year, he wouldve been a 40 goal scorer.

Wouldnt mind seeing Roman Hamrlik replace Schneider either. Not quite as offensively talented, but a great passer, a great point guy, and about 3x the physical presence Schneider is while the younger of the two as well.

Two words: Sheldon Souray.

Unfortunately he wants to go to the Kings.

Sheldon Souray is a pylon on defense. Hes basically a more physical, worse defensively version of Schneider. Id rather just keep Schneider and sign Sarich or Witt for the physicality factor. Probably cost the same price for the two as it would for Souray anyways.

[Sech 0]

We all know that certain guys most likely are not coming back, guys like langer...With that said, Flip is gonna be a hell of a player, but I would like to see some more depth down the middle. Who wouldn't love to see a guy like (Briere, Drury, or Gomez) added to the lineup. Someone that can play in the middle, or also on the wing if we decide to put both Pavel and Hank at Center.

All of these guys will come with a hefty pricetag, so it'll be difficult to ****** one of them up, but god id love to see Drury or Gomez in a Wings jersey.

At D I think even if we let Schneids walk we should be okay. Hopefully the injury bug isnt as bad as this year. With Lids, Kronwall, Chelli, Lilja (played pretty well this playoffs...other than the giveaway), Lebda, then you have guys like Quincey and Kindl fighting for a spot. On the PP, we'd have Lids, Kronner, Lebda, Sammy, and maybe Kindl, so I think were ok there...

as for goaltending, well i guess we will have to see...

[Captain_Yzerman19 1]

I know it's just Eklund, but he thinks Nichol will come to Detroit... he also thinks Forsberg is going home, so... yeah...

[YoungGuns1340 1]

I know it's just Eklund, but he thinks Nichol will come to Detroit... he also thinks Forsberg is going home, so... yeah...

Nichol? Scott Nichol??? Eklund is a moron. Why the hell would Detroit need one more borderline 3rd/4th line guy who can play the PK? Weve already got guys like him. If we want to get a tough guy, he might as well be able to contribute something else other than being useless. The guys 5'8 to boot. No thanks.

[Johnny Diamonds 25]

I'd like to see Nagy, Peca and Rafalski.

[SweWings 45]

I know it's just Eklund, but he thinks Nichol will come to Detroit... he also thinks Forsberg is going home, so... yeah...

People still listen to this guy?

[Ashenden 0]

Does anyone know about Peter Tenkrat? He's unrestricted, but I didn't watch many Boston games this year, but the ones I saw he was pretty good. Also, what about Slava Kozlov? He's UFA, and made less than Lang this year.

[al48 1]

Does anyone know about Peter Tenkrat? He's unrestricted, but I didn't watch many Boston games this year, but the ones I saw he was pretty good. Also, what about Slava Kozlov? He's UFA, and made less than Lang this year.

Kozlov would certainly fit the bill of a Holland signing. I was disappointed when he was traded, but it was just a no-brainer.

[eva unit zero 271]

I would evaluate this playoff year as such:

[/font]

The Wings made it to the conference finals.

Calder was invisible in the postseason.

Bertuzzi was invisible until the conference finals.

Lang, one of three key UFAs, was invisible until late in the conference finals.

Schneider, one of three key UFAs, was injured at the end of the second round.

And the long one:

Hasek, one of three key UFAs, started the playoffs great but got progressively worse.

He outplayed Kiprusoff by a noticable margin, Kipper performed the best against Detroit of any goalie we faced.

He outplayed Nabokov by a slim margin. Nabokov was the next best performer against Detroit of goalies the Wings faced.

He was outperformed by Giguere. Giguere performed the worst vs Detroit of the three goalies faced.

Also something I noticed; Hasek seemed to wear out at the end of the run. Those last two road games were easily his worst performances of the postseason. Not even statistically--just in terms of playing badly. Making bad decisions at bad times, and being out of position at the wrong time. Nothing else even came close.

I'll post more later when I get a chance.

[Superman54 91]

We dont need anymore talented players we have enough already...Franzen,Flippula, and Hudler are only getting better. What we need is depth. God would I love to see Mcarty back! We need bigger and tougher guys and we would rock it!

[redwingsgirl 0]

I would take a different approach to the team. We gave it one more shot with our older core and it didn't work out. Time to refresh our team a little. Hasek's style just doesn't work as well as it used to. He was not as good as he should have been, particularly in games 4 and 5. Our goaltending tandem next season should be Osgood and Howard. I also agree with Kindl and Grigorenko should get a chance. Quincey did good and he should also stay up. The Wings need to continue to get younger and stop trying to patch up an aging team.

Yeah I see Lang and Schns leaving, but other than that I see the team staying the same. I think we have a great core of guys and I think if we pick up a D-Man and a sniper we'll be even better and it better not be Karyia (he is not a sniper HE SUCKS). Would love to see Ryan Smyth. Smyth would give us 3 guys to go to the net. We'll see. I ahve a good feeling about next season. I hope that Dom hangs is up though I don't think he has it anymore, he just is not as great as he use to be, I know he had a great playoff but I don't think he can last an entire season and I'm sick of walking on eggshells with him. If Jiggy is out there then lets give him a try, you can beat him, sign him. He Loves Babs so we'll see.

I don't blame the loss on Dom, but don't like his style and wasn't really thrilled to have got him back at the beginning of the year. It seems as though some softies always found the back of the net and too many goals were scored with him on his back leaving the entire top 3/4ths of the net open. But, he made some saves and we got farther this year than previous years, so I'm not bashing him either. I don't see how Howard will ever be ready if we don't let him play...I think Giguere will be too much $$$

I'd hate to see Schneids go and don't see him leaving. Lang is the only one I really see us cutting loose.

Ryan Smyth might be nice, but I kinda see Edmonton fighting to get him back and I think he'd want to go back "home". Size and grit added to our team. We tried to get some of that with Bert, but I just don't think he'll ever be his "pre-moore" self again.

Edited May 24, 2007 by redwingsgirl

[Kp-Wings 3]

We dont need anymore talented players we have enough already...Franzen,Flippula, and Hudler are only getting better. What we need is depth. God would I love to see Mcarty back! We need bigger and tougher guys and we would rock it!

Oh my God. Well... here goes...

McCarty should just hang his skates up already. He's a dinosaur. You figure the way it was for him this season. He played in only 32 games, usually playing on a line with two other guys (Jeff Friesen and Jamie Lundmark) who, when McCarty was still healthy, were about as bad as he was. He didn't get a single point in that time frame. Then came his injury. A sports hernia, causing him to basically miss the entire rest of the season from December on. He's damaged goods now. There would be no point in bringing him back.

All bringing McCarty back would do is clog up a roster spot that would normally go to someone better like Flip or Kopecky. In his old age, and his injury history, he really can't be a consistant fighter/tough guy anymore either. There are basically no positives for bringing him back. I know the guy was great here and all, and trust me, he'll always be one of my favorite Wings, but there is just no room for him here anymore.

edited for grammar

Edited May 24, 2007 by Kp-Wings