Same thing different year.

[kindlwillbegreat 0]

i think rafalski got way too much , hes a good defensemen but no way is he worth 6 million per and 5 yrs ?? i just hope we dont regret it

i think kenny is gonna look to bring in some guys who can end up being a bargain

anson carter

jeff o'neill

eric lindros for dirt cheap ( dont shoot me for bringing him up )

todd fedoruk ( would be nice )

i wouldnt mind chris simon as well , i know that cheap shot wasnt a smart move but he only made 1 mill last season , still got 10 goals and hes a big intimidating bastard lol and we need those

Edited July 3, 2007 by kindlwillbegreat

[Superman54 91]

The only concern I have is the lack of grit, And with Bert not coming back It really stings. But Kenny has already stated that he was now going for that. So I trust in him to get it done.

[HkytwnND 0]

I agree with the original poster.

Yea the signings sting a little bit when they go to other teams, Like Shanny going to NY, I named my kid Brendan for christ sake. I still like the guy as a player, and he wants to play in NY more power too him.

As far as losing the people we have lost so far, I say good riddance. We don't need them, yes it would have been nice to have some of the size or grit. But when was the last time we were disappointed? And why does everyone solely pllace all of this on Holland? You don't think he discusses this stuff with anyone and makes all these decisions on his own?

I as someone said earlier, we have an excellent core. We do not need a bunch of high priced players to make our team great. Look where we picked up Pavel and Zetterberg in the draft.

I am sure things are in motion, have no fear we will go deep into the playoffs this year again.

I will step off the soap box now.

[DaWingsin071 4]

I don't believe I said anywhere that Markov is better than Rafalski, I just made the point about Rafalski being small and a puck handler. We already have Brett Lebda, the definition of a small Dman. Sure Markov may not be sniping the top shelf from the blue line, but ask any guy in the NHL and they'll tell you that he is no treat to play against. By the way, I'm not saying Rafalski doesn't hit or anything, but he just isn't as feisty as the M man.

As I stated I read your post wrong, said sorry about that in my second post..

[LeftWinger 4,961]

Adam Hall, Mike Comrie, Bill Guerin, Dom.

Drop Markov!

[b.shanafan14 733]

Here we go again, I don't understand some of you. First off Bertuzzi, damaged goods and over payed. Holland smart move in my oppinion. Way to not pay 4 mill for a loafer who is way past his golden years. Second we lost Lang why all the bitching, he slow as hell and has no passion, have fun in Chicago. Calder went to L.A. over achieved just after playing 12 decent games. And Schneider isnt getting any younger and Rafalski wants to be here and wants to win with Detroit. I feel tomorrow we will see Hasek resign. And by ends week will see another forward or two dawn the Winged Wheel. And for the whining ******* shut the hell up we got rid of slow waste s of space players. Holland will make you all choke on your words once again.

GO WINGS

About time some one else stepped up and said it, Go Wings indeed... we are sitting so pretty and few realize it...

http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.ph...t&p=1114368

My thoughts on Bertuzzi are long winded....

finally someone with some sense. the core of this team is intact.

Word

[KrazyGangsta 79]

Yup ... I also agree that Markov is more physical and more of a getting under the skin of the forwards type of defensemen, by re-signing markov ... our defense would get better then last year :

Lidstrom Markov

Kronwall Rafalski

Chelios Lebda / Lilja

and I hope hasek does re-sign cause if he doesnt our only other options are emery and lunqvist ... wich i wouldnt mind having either of those and we could use howard for trade

[canadienhater 0]

About time some one else stepped up and said it, Go Wings indeed... we are sitting so pretty and few realize it...

http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.ph...t&p=1114368

My thoughts on Bertuzzi are long winded....

Word

Im sort of on the fence it is way to early two days in to see were sitting great or s***ty

[GiantRobot 0]

Yup ... I also agree that Markov is more physical and more of a getting under the skin of the forwards type of defensemen, by re-signing markov ... our defense would get better then last year :

Lidstrom Markov

Kronwall Rafalski

Chelios Lebda / Lilja

and I hope hasek does re-sign cause if he doesnt our only other options are emery and lunqvist ... wich i wouldnt mind having either of those and we could use howard for trade

How are they options for us? Emery is an RFA and he isnt going anywhere, and Lundqvist...lol...he is going to be a 5 million $ goalie this year, and thats bit out of our range even if there was a chance in hell that NYR would not re-sign him themselves....

And were trading howard....no.

[RockyMountainWingGal 108]

Agreed. Wings will be fine. Looking at our division schedule, we will be in a great position in the spring. I really think we'll be in a great position to make a trade next year. Some of these other teams will not. No need to panic in July.

I disagree on Hasek, he'll come back for one more year. He did say he would make up his mind on retirement BEFORE FA began - can we trust him? Am I going to read tomorrow he's Giguere's backup?

Seriously, what's up with the Ducks though? I guess they think we are such a great organization they need our players - lol.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Here we go again, I don't understand some of you. First off Bertuzzi, damaged goods and over payed. Holland smart move in my oppinion. Way to not pay 4 mill for a loafer who is way past his golden years. Second we lost Lang why all the bitching, he slow as hell and has no passion, have fun in Chicago. Calder went to L.A. over achieved just after playing 12 decent games. And Schneider isnt getting any younger and Rafalski wants to be here and wants to win with Detroit. I feel tomorrow we will see Hasek resign. And by ends week will see another forward or two dawn the Winged Wheel. And for the whining ******* shut the hell up we got rid of slow waste s of space players. Holland will make you all choke on your words once again.

GO WINGS

Whining about other whiners makes you a whiner.

Me whining about you whining about other whiners makes me a whiner.

Hence, we are all whiners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I don't get all that hyped over stuff like this during offseason, it's stupid. No point in getting heartburn until the actual season starts (mainly postseason ).

[OsGOD 3]

^^ that be yer quote of th' week lad!

[MIN8TV 0]

[VM1138 1,921]

Again, people can bash the players we lost all they want. But the question still remains:

Who are you going to replace them with? There's not many quality options.

[Guest DetroitIan]

Im completely and TOTALLY disappointed that we werent able to retain Bert. Now that being said. I would NEVER have wanted Kenny to pay Bertuzzi 4 mill a year. That is vastly overpaying. Yes Im pissed and disappointed. But not at Kenny. Because Kenny made the best decision for the team. No way In hell Bertuzzi should be getting 4 mill. No way.

[Guest jaytan]

i think rafalski got way too much , hes a good defensemen but no way is he worth 6 million per and 5 yrs ?? i just hope we dont regret it

Everyone's getting too much, so that redefines what their market values are. Therefore, I think Rafalski definitely deserved that contract. He was the best defenceman available and I can't wait to see him play for us.

[JayUp88 1]

Everyone's getting too much, so that redefines what their market values are. Therefore, I think Rafalski definitely deserved that contract. He was the best defenceman available and I can't wait to see him play for us.

Agreed, lest just wait and see what happens for the other forwards

[Wingsfan4life19 26]

Just for everyone to know... Shanny will resign with the Rangers... he's already stated... And Eklund( I know) is reporting we are interested in getting shane hnidy ( Eklund, I know)

As a previous poster said Hall, comrie, Guerin, Dom... would be very good additions.. I think.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Theres being ok stats wise , which we are. 16 games agasint Chicago and Columbus are gonna be toast.

We are not safe in the sense , People are gonna go after Zetterberg and Datsyuk. Who do we have to protect them? Chelios can throw a cheapshot or 2 , thats about it.

If Kenny wants to prove me wrong , he'll trade for a big top 6 winger. And sign Brad May , and Fedoruk/Asham/McCarty. I dont want anyone taking libertys with our stars. We need them to be healthy.

[regwinguofmfan 0]

Paying 4 mil per year for Bert is just dumb.

I hope Kenny is good to his word and we sign a big physical forward now, so we dont have to trade for one later.

[Superman54 91]

http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/ he is waiting

[Guest jaytan]

I don't know how dumb $4 million for Bert is. I mean, sure it's risky, but there's still the possibility that he'll return to form. The guy was arguably the best winger in the league just a few seasons ago, and he's not very old. Four million dollars could look like a bargain two years from now. Just think about how stupid everyone said the Wings were to bring Hasek back. Now most of the same people want to see him re-signed for '08, with a big raise.

Even if Bert doesn't rediscover his game, he should still be a decent performer and he'd fit in pretty well (and with less pressure on his shoulders to be the physical face of the team) on the Ducks. He's very familiar with Burke, and obviously, being on a surefire contender is a bonus.

Finally, the Ducks get to potentially make us worse even if they don't make themselves that much better. Weakening other top teams in your conference never hurts.

[Hank 0]

Here we go again, I don't understand some of you. First off Bertuzzi, damaged goods and over payed. Holland smart move in my oppinion. Way to not pay 4 mill for a loafer who is way past his golden years. Second we lost Lang why all the bitching, he slow as hell and has no passion, have fun in Chicago. Calder went to L.A. over achieved just after playing 12 decent games. And Schneider isnt getting any younger and Rafalski wants to be here and wants to win with Detroit. I feel tomorrow we will see Hasek resign. And by ends week will see another forward or two dawn the Winged Wheel. And for the whining ******* shut the hell up we got rid of slow waste s of space players. Holland will make you all choke on your words once again.

GO WINGS

Good post. I'll admit that I was a major Holland basher last year. I thought we were really thin up front and didn't have the horses to play Babcocks type of game. But some of the kids got a chance and Kenny made some excellent trade deadline moves.

He'll do the same this year. Without spending too much on a UFA it will give players like Hudler, Grigorenko and Filpulla to show what they can do. And then we'll have plenty left over in March to bring in a prospective UFA.

But you won't see me ***** if we get Guerin. I think he'd be perfect here.

[Chase 0]

Here we go again, I don't understand some of you. First off Bertuzzi, damaged goods and over payed. Holland smart move in my oppinion. Way to not pay 4 mill for a loafer who is way past his golden years. Second we lost Lang why all the bitching, he slow as hell and has no passion, have fun in Chicago. Calder went to L.A. over achieved just after playing 12 decent games. And Schneider isnt getting any younger and Rafalski wants to be here and wants to win with Detroit. I feel tomorrow we will see Hasek resign. And by ends week will see another forward or two dawn the Winged Wheel. And for the whining ******* shut the hell up we got rid of slow waste s of space players. Holland will make you all choke on your words once again.

GO WINGS

Cheers to that my friend. :beerbuddy:

GO WINGS

[Valas19 50]

i think rafalski got way too much , hes a good defensemen but no way is he worth 6 million per and 5 yrs ?? i just hope we dont regret it

i think kenny is gonna look to bring in some guys who can end up being a bargain

anson carter

jeff o'neill

eric lindros for dirt cheap ( dont shoot me for bringing him up )

todd fedoruk ( would be nice )

i wouldnt mind chris simon as well , i know that cheap shot wasnt a smart move but he only made 1 mill last season , still got 10 goals and hes a big intimidating bastard lol and we need those

At least one person that I can agree with about the Rafalski contract. I am darn glad we got him but $6mil is pretty steep. I wouldn't have resigned Schneider for the money he got so I agree with Holland but it almost seems like this was a panic move on his part. We lost our #2 guy on D so he goes and grabs the next best guy on the list, price be darned. What about Sheldon Souray? Is he really that bad on defense? I would have been tempted to offer him that kind of money mainly because he's much younger. Not that Rafs is old, but a youth movement would be nice.

I'm sorry but if for that money I'd rather have Ryan Smyth. Who knows, maybe he had no interest coming here. It still sucks. This guy is Yzerman like in putting his heart and soul (and body) into the game. Dan Cleary showed that kind of grit in the playoffs, too bad he didn't have the talent of Smyth.

As far as Bertuzzi, I can't argue against letting him go either. It stinks but tying up that money for a questionable situation is not cool considering you have to resign Zetterberg next year for around $6 - $7mil. What is frustrating is there doesn't seem to have been a contingency plan for losing Bert or missing out on Smyth. Holland jumped at Rafs but is sitting back on the O. Is that our glaring weakness?? I don't seem to recall the D suffering last year, even through the injuries in the playoffs. Yes, our top line was killer, but what about everyone else? The 2nd line sucked. The 3rd line has their role and if they happen to score well that's a major bonus. I loved the passion and zip of the 4th line but it was rarely used.

Ok great, we got rid of the scrubs from the 2nd line and some other deadweight. What is left? If you wait too long you have to pick from everyone else's scrubs. Sometimes you'll find a Cleary but more often than not you'll find a Calder. We could have had Anson Carter last year but Holland doesn't like dishing out multi year contracts to new free agents so he turned down the 1 year offer. Funny how he wound up in Columbus with a 1 year offer.

It's tough to hear the rhetoric of a GM saying how they are going to go out and try to nab some top guys and come up a bit short. Again, good job on Rafalski, don't agree with the money but what can ya do? Now that the top guys are gone for the most part, guys like Fedorov and Yashin are on the radar? Seriously? I guess it's better than nothing and maybe they can regain some of their old form but if that's what you are counting on to make a difference I just don't know what to say. I just don't want to turn into the Leafs in relying on guys nobody has heard of and old guys who used to be great and just can't quite cut it anymore.

I still have faith in Holland regardless of what I may say in a moment of disgust but to sit back and say you aren't even a little concerned is somewhat startling. I want to win Stanley Cups, not just get to the playoffs and fizzle out. We already have the Pistons for that and that act has now become old. Yeah, we almost had the Ducks but almost and a quarter will get you a bus ride to the other side of town.