Best and worst Wings decisions in the last 10 years.

[Barrie 900]

drafting Primeau when Jagr was still on the board

Think of it this way, if we didn't draft Primeau, we may not have been able to get Shanahan.

The best move we made was trading for Shanahan. All the other trades, i.e.) Chelios, Hasek, Schneider, Lang, etc. and Free Agent signings, i.e.) Hull, Robitaille, Hatcher, etc., were made possible because we won back-to-back Championships. Shanny was the missing piece of the puzzle.

[betterREDthandead 58]

worst: letting shanny go so easy

trading away avery

signing hatcher

buying out dmac, trading kozlov and marty

best: drafting zets and dats,

bringing back ozzie

1 - Again: Shanny wouldn't have stayed for any amount of money. He decided it was time to move on and that was that. NOTHING Holland could have done would have kept him here.

2 - Trading Avery was a no-brainer. He has the PIM of a heavyweight fighter but he doesn't step up to the plate for his teammates, he just hurts his team with dumb penalties. Getting Schneider out of that deal was one of Holland's best moves, not his worst.

3 - What has McCarty done since he left that makes you want him back? Trading Kozlov brought us Hasek and a Cup - 'nuff said. Holland didn't trade Lapointe, he left as a free agent for way too much money. Outbidding the Bruins to get him back - THAT would have been dumb.

So basically the only move on your worst list that I even remotely agree with is Hatcher.

[BringHomeTheCup! 0]

worst: letting shanny go so easy

trading away avery

signing hatcher

buying out dmac, trading kozlov and marty

best: drafting zets and dats,

bringing back ozzie

Seriously?! 13 points in 99 games after getting bought out, none of which came in his final year, and it was a bad move?! Wasn't he scheduled to make about $2 per when the Wings bought him out? Not buying him out would have been a bad move.

Edited October 20, 2007 by BringHomeTheCup!

[Kp-Wings 3]

Best:

1. Drafting Zetterberg

2. Aquiring Chelios for Eriksson

3. Aquiring Hasek for Kozlov

4. Aquiring Larry Murphy for "future considerations" (which ended up being nothing)

5. Letting Manny walk

Worst:

1. Trading Knuble for a draft pick (Kopecky)

2. Signing Hatcher

3. Trading for Lang

4. Letting Fedorov walk

5. Screwing Cujo by signing Hasek back

There are a variety of others that I currently can't think of right now. I'll post some more later.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Best:

1. Drafting Zetterberg

2. Aquiring Chelios for Eriksson

3. Aquiring Hasek for Kozlov

4. Aquiring Larry Murphy for "future considerations" (which ended up being nothing)

5. Letting Manny walk

Worst:

1. Trading Knuble for a draft pick (Kopecky)

2. Signing Hatcher

3. Trading for Lang

4. Letting Fedorov walk

5. Screwing Cujo by signing Hasek back

There are a variety of others that I currently can't think of right now. I'll post some more later.

That one surprised me. Did you want Feds re-signed back then KP? You dont really want him now, guess I just got the wrong idea.

[Kp-Wings 3]

That one surprised me. Did you want Feds re-signed back then KP? You dont really want him now, guess I just got the wrong idea.

At that point, I did. Fedorov was still a dominant player after the 2002-2003 season, and as an important part to this team, I definitly wanted him back.

Now, well, you know the answer to that.

[norrisnick 1]

That one surprised me. Did you want Feds re-signed back then KP? You dont really want him now, guess I just got the wrong idea.

He was our best forward by far. Why wouldn't anyone have wanted him back? I still don't know how or why Kenny thought it was a good idea to push him out the door with his ever shrinking contract offers. Much like Joe Torre today, the offers were designed to be turned down.

[T.Low 1,011]

Karen Newman bad???!!!

She could mumble the phone book for all I care...she's smokin'!

Great line my Neighbor to the North. Props from Bellingham.

As much as I miss Darren McCarty (and believe me, I miss the DMac & The Grind Line), did Holland and Co. see the writing on the wall, or am I giving them too much credit for even considering that they saw that his best days were behind him. Everything runs it course, had he run his?

Shanny walked on his own. To his credit, he knew all good things must come to an end. You can bet that he would not have left Detroit had he began his career here, but that not being the case, why not be a millionaire professional athlete checking out new scenery in the Big Apple for a few years. Sounds like a lot of fun to me. My buddy grew up with Scotty Gomez and goes out to visit him and always returns with incredible stories from the New York/Jersey sports night life scene. Oh yeah.

So far the Canucks and the Canuck media are not too impressed with Isbister. And they laugh at the contract the Ducks gave Bertuzzi. Too bad, physically the guy has it all (back issues aside); mentally and emotionally the guy is a mess. Good decision for the Wings not to pay him what the Ducks offerred.

[daniel1 32]

He was our best forward by far. Why wouldn't anyone have wanted him back? I still don't know how or why Kenny thought it was a good idea to push him out the door with his ever shrinking contract offers. Much like Joe Torre today, the offers were designed to be turned down.

Afte

I often wonder if Feds didn't wear out his welcome with management here in Detroit. There was the "Sam Jones - I"m not appreciated cause I'm Russian" incident and the fact he signed an offer sheet from Carolina as well. There were nights that he seemed to float out there too, but others when he was by far the best player on the ice. His move to defence was a real PR nightmare for him as well as his comment that doing so was a "career highlight" rather than saying he'd do whatever was best for the team or something more supportive. I think his stat rape relationship with Anna also caused some anxiety in the front office as I'm sure that they were more than just friends well before she reached 16 if you believe the rumours anyway; and I do know how locker room talk goes after a hockey game, lol

That being said, maybe there were other reasons for the way the Wings handled his contract offers, or maybe they saw something in his game that led them to believe he was "on the decline". As good as we remember Feds to have been even in his prime, he only ever scored over 40 goals once in his career and only cracked the 100pt plateau twice. Defensively he was among the top two way forwards but I would have to say he never really "maximized" his potential. With the kind of talent he was capable of showing on certain nights when he wanted to, you would think he could lead the league in scoring every year if he really wanted to. "Enigmatic" might best describe his personality when he played here.

After he left Detroit for Anaheim he had one decent season, 31goals and 65 points, but has never cracked the 50pt plateau since then. Would he have declined as fast or as dramatically had he stayed in Detroit? I guess we'll never know. I agree however that the offers that were made to him at that time made it seem like we didn't really want him back and preferred that he sign elsewhere.

[therock48880 14]

Ahhh no. They changed the contract offer at the last minute to be of a shorter duration AND refused to give him more time to think about it or consult a new agent (he had to fire the old one). Oh and they showed little sympathy to the fact that he had just gone through a divorce and had no real council aside from his narcesistic father who constantly gave Feds terrible advice.

He was offered a 5 year, 50 million dollar contract. That's more than he signed for with the Ducks. The contract was offered during the season and changed by the end of the season. However, offering someone 50 million dollars isn't what I would call letting him leave. My memory is getting bad but I believe the final contract they offered him was very similar to the one he signed with the Ducks.

[HomeNugget 2]

best move: trading for shanahan

there isn't really a worst move that sticks out in my mind. i disagree with anyone who says that trading kozlov was bad. i love kozlov. he was always one of my favorites. the only wings jersey i own is a kozlov jersey, but saying his trade was a bad move is like saying it was a bad decision to win a stanley cup in 2002.

[therock48880 14]

The idea that the wings pushed Fedorov out the door is ridiculous. Here's a site that outlines the negotiations.

http://nhlstars.kulichki.ru/players/fedorov/79.html

Timeline:

5 year, 50 million contract offered in November, 02

changed to 4 year, 40 million dollar contract in June. (50 million dollar contract was on the table for 8 months)

In late June the offer was reduced to 4 years, 32 million.

July he signes a 5 year, 40 million dollar contract with the Ducks.

His Ducks contract was for 8 milliion a year which is exactly what the Wings final offer was and 2 million less per year than the contracts that were on the table from November until the end of June.

Poor guy, yes he was pushed out the door.

Interesting quote:

"He has talked about wanting a larger role and more ice time. But he's mostly addressed the issue by simply saying it was time to leave. And that hasn't changed."

[interminded 1]

Good:

Getting Ozzie back where he belongs.

Getting Chelios.

Getting Shanny.

Getting Coffey.

Getting Robitaille.

Getting Schneider

Getting Lang (still like him...)

Not signing stupid-ass mega-deals like DiPietro or some other glamouresque BS..

Getting rid of Avery

Not that good:

Making Legace the scapegoat for our playoffs bust. (which doesn't mean whe should have re-signed him..)

Tim Cheveldae deserved better too..

Just awfull:

Signing Hatcher

Letting Kozlov go.

The way Cujo was treated !

Uwe Krupp... nuff said

[Barrie 900]

1 - Again: Shanny wouldn't have stayed for any amount of money. He decided it was time to move on and that was that. NOTHING Holland could have done would have kept him here.

2 - Trading Avery was a no-brainer. He has the PIM of a heavyweight fighter but he doesn't step up to the plate for his teammates, he just hurts his team with dumb penalties. Getting Schneider out of that deal was one of Holland's best moves, not his worst.

3 - What has McCarty done since he left that makes you want him back? Trading Kozlov brought us Hasek and a Cup - 'nuff said. Holland didn't trade Lapointe, he left as a free agent for way too much money. Outbidding the Bruins to get him back - THAT would have been dumb.

Good post, I agree.

[norrisnick 1]

The idea that the wings pushed Fedorov out the door is ridiculous. Here's a site that outlines the negotiations.

http://nhlstars.kulichki.ru/players/fedorov/79.html

Timeline:

5 year, 50 million contract offered in November, 02

changed to 4 year, 40 million dollar contract in June. (50 million dollar contract was on the table for 8 months)

In late June the offer was reduced to 4 years, 32 million.

July he signes a 5 year, 40 million dollar contract with the Ducks.

His Ducks contract was for 8 milliion a year which is exactly what the Wings final offer was and 2 million less per year than the contracts that were on the table from November until the end of June.

Poor guy, yes he was pushed out the door.

Interesting quote:

"He has talked about wanting a larger role and more ice time. But he's mostly addressed the issue by simply saying it was time to leave. And that hasn't changed."

It's not ridiculous.

Ilitch offers the 5 year $50M contract. Fedorov asks for time because of his divorce and the firing/hiring of his agents. A perfectly reasonable request. He never saw a 5 year offer from the Wings again. That deal was NOT on the table for 8 months. Fedorov would have signed that deal, or even a lesser 5 year deal as was evident with his contract with Anaheim, but Kenny didn't offer it up again. That was the hold up from his end and that's when Kenny's offers kept shrinking. Fedorov was upset by the loss of that extra year and probably overreacted, but it doesn't seem like Kenny was trying all that hard to retain him. In what other negotiations does the offer from the team keep shrinking?

[daniel1 32]

Bad moves - Adam Oates traded, Adam Graves traded, Randy McKay traded (more neutral on this), signing Uwe Krupp, signing Hatcher, not being able to find guys to replace Dmac & Lapointe

Good moves - trading for Shanny (and we dumped a disgruntled Primeau) , dumping Kozlov for Dom , signing Hull, & Robitaille, adding veteran D in Murphy, Rouse, & Macoun , trading for Vernon (though we did give up a good Dman in Chaisson - RIP), Chelios for Ericsson & picks was a great move

Hey you remembered some moves that I had totally forgot about! What was the Graves trade? If I recall we sent him to Edmonton, but what was the return? As for Primeau, what was he disgruntled about? I always thought he was happy here but had to be sacrificed to bring Shanny aboard.

I remember the Oates/Federko trade and and even at the time I thought the Wings were on glue for doing this trade. Federko was done in St. Louis and Oates was just starting to get recognized around the league. I remember one Wings player being interviewed a few weeks before the trade and saying that Oates was the second best passer on the team next to Yzerman. That player (whoever he was?) was a pretty good judge of talent. Federko for Oates was probably the worst trade we have ever made considering how great Oates went on to be and how long (short) Federko actually played and how little he contributed before he hung them up.

I am also curious as to the particulars of how Klima went to the Oilers as well. Was he part of the same trade that sent Gravy over? Or was it a free agent/him leaving thing?

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned the McGillis for Maltby trade. That one has worked out well for the Wings even though Dan went on to have a few productive seasons after we dealt him.

[therock48880 14]

It's not ridiculous.

Ilitch offers the 5 year $50M contract. Fedorov asks for time because of his divorce and the firing/hiring of his agents. A perfectly reasonable request. He never saw a 5 year offer from the Wings again. That deal was NOT on the table for 8 months. Fedorov would have signed that deal, or even a lesser 5 year deal as was evident with his contract with Anaheim, but Kenny didn't offer it up again. That was the hold up from his end and that's when Kenny's offers kept shrinking. Fedorov was upset by the loss of that extra year and probably overreacted, but it doesn't seem like Kenny was trying all that hard to retain him. In what other negotiations does the offer from the team keep shrinking?

My bad. The 5 year contract was on the table for 7 months, not 8 months. It was offered in November and changed in June. I guess that wasn't enought time. He was offered a longer contract paying 4 million dollars more per year than the iconic Yzerman and you're suggesting he was pushed out the door. OOOOOKKKKKKKKK.

Yes, the offer was reduced in June when it became apparent what the market value was for him and that the CBA would be expiring in a few years. Simple fact is, he signed with the Ducks for the exact same amount of money (1 year shorter contract) that the Wings offered in their final offer and millions less per year than the offer that was on the table for 7 months.

I understand that you like Fedorov. He was one of the best two way players in the game and to be honest, I'd like to see him come back. But to suggest that was pushed out by the Wings is insane. He wanted to have the chance to be "The Man" and knew it wouldn't happen in Detroit. Read the article again, maybe you missed the quotes by him and his agent.

http://nhlstars.kulichki.ru/players/fedorov/79.html

[Barrie 900]

You have to think the declining offers by the Wings had something to do with the upcoming CBA. I'm sure the Wings wouldn't have wanted to add another huge salary one year away from a Labor disagreement. If Fedorov re-signed, it would have been interesting to see what else the team would have done to get under the cap before the 2005-06 season.

Edit: I've always thought with Zetterberg and Datsyuk ready to emerge, that not re-signing Fedorov was the right thing.

As for Primeau, what was he disgruntled about? I always thought he was happy here but had to be sacrificed to bring Shanny aboard.

He wanted more ice time, but was hard with Yzerman, Fedorov, Larionov, and Draper here as well. Bowman tired to put Keith on RW, but he didn't really like playing there.

Also, the team was disappointed with his production in the 1996 Playoffs, 1 goal, 4 Assists, in 17 games. His only goal was an empty netter. Add to that McCarty and Lapointe were coming into their own, so there was no room for Primeau. Trading him and Coffey for a LW Power Forward named Brendan Shanahan made perfect sense.

Edited October 21, 2007 by Barrie

[norrisnick 1]

My bad. The 5 year contract was on the table for 7 months, not 8 months. It was offered in November and changed in June. I guess that wasn't enought time. He was offered a longer contract paying 4 million dollars more per year than the iconic Yzerman and you're suggesting he was pushed out the door. OOOOOKKKKKKKKK.

Yes, the offer was reduced in June when it became apparent what the market value was for him and that the CBA would be expiring in a few years. Simple fact is, he signed with the Ducks for the exact same amount of money (1 year shorter contract) that the Wings offered in their final offer and millions less per year than the offer that was on the table for 7 months.

I understand that you like Fedorov. He was one of the best two way players in the game and to be honest, I'd like to see him come back. But to suggest that was pushed out by the Wings is insane. He wanted to have the chance to be "The Man" and knew it wouldn't happen in Detroit. Read the article again, maybe you missed the quotes by him and his agent.

http://nhlstars.kulichki.ru/players/fedorov/79.html

Where are you getting 7 months? It says the deal was offered in November. He asked for time. By January (we don't know if this is fhe first time after asking for time that he re-entered negotiations, but I'd guess it likely was) it was down to a 4 year deal.

Stevie was making $8.5M at the time. And Fedorov was significantly better at that stage in both of their careers.

Can you give me one other example where the offers from a team keep shrinking?

I don't care what his agent said. Agents live in their own little worlds. After the ink was put on paper anything and everything out of his mouth is designed to appeal to the Ducks and their fans. And when it became clear that the Wings weren't going to sign him anything out of his mouth was designed to appeal to the other teams interested.

[Lamothe 5]

The Good:

-Drafting Zetterberg

-Drafting Datsyuk / 7 year deal

-Hasek in 2001-02

-Trading for Shanahan

-Trading for Chelios

-Signing Brett Hull (I loved that for the time it lasted)

-Cleary's contract

The Bad:

-UWE KRUPP (F*** THAT GUY)

-Drafting Golubovsky, Kuznetsov, and Wallin in first rounds

-Hatcher

-Devereaux

-Trading Tomas Fleischmann for Lang

[Barrie 900]

The Bad:

-UWE KRUPP (F*** THAT GUY)

-Drafting Golubovsky, Kuznetsov, and Wallin in first rounds

-Hatcher

-Devereaux

-Trading Tomas Fleischmann for Lang

Are you talking about bring Devereaux here or letting him go? I would assume it's bringing him here. Honestly, what did you expect from him? He did a decent job for the amount of ice time he got. It's not like we were needing him to score 15-20 goals every year.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

I dont see why people think Lang was such a bad trade. We arent paying for what we gave up, and he was basically the only reason we made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs once he came here. If anything, it should be a neutral. Nothing spectacular, but nothing to ruin the organization. He still showed up in the playoffs and helped us win those games more or less..

[Lamothe 5]

Are you talking about bring Devereaux here or letting him go? I would assume it's bringing him here. Honestly, what did you expect from him? He did a decent job for the amount of ice time he got. It's not like we were needing him to score 15-20 goals every year.

I was just not impressed by the void on the ice he created. I think while in Detroit he had 1 good year and 1 decent year out of the 4 (I think 4?) he was here. No, he didn't cost much. Yes, he performed decent for what he was expected to do, but I would've rather seen a younger guy at that time step up that getting Boyd. I guess maybe it wasn't a HORRIBLE decision by the Wings Brass, but I just didn't like it.

[Heaton 1]

Tomas Fleischmann would be doing what to help us right now?

[Lamothe 5]

I dont see why people think Lang was such a bad trade. We arent paying for what we gave up, and he was basically the only reason we made it to the 2nd round of the playoffs once he came here. If anything, it should be a neutral. Nothing spectacular, but nothing to ruin the organization. He still showed up in the playoffs and helped us win those games more or less..

I'm not saying Lang didn't perform well here or that I didn't think the trade was worth it, I simply like Tomas Fleischmann and wasn't happy to see that kind of player with his potential traded to the Caps.