Possible Deals for Cleary, Lilja on the way

[Kp-Wings 3]

Why the f*** do they want to sign Lilja? Are his constant blunders not enough of an indication that he sucks?

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

Why the f*** do they want to sign Lilja? Are his constant blunders not enough of an indication that he sucks?

Ask Neil, Begin, Phaneuf, Moen, and Sharp. Those are the victims on his fight card so far, and they'll tell you why the Wings signed him.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Because his size won't ever improve...again I am not saying he is a problem or has to be gone tomorrow I am just saying that if we are looking to upgrade the team, he's one of the players I would look at.

and thats stopped Steve Sullivan? Paul Kariya? Martin St. Louis? Marty St. Louis was waved and barely got the time of day at the beginning of his career. Now hes a bona fide first line winger. Hudler is in his 2nd year getting squat ice time and is still a really young guy. With a regular 2nd liners ice time, this guys got 60 points in the bag easy at slight over 1M. And you make his size out to be a lot more of an issue than it actually is. I could give you names of guys who are over 6'3 and get pushed off the puck. Happens to the best of em. Hudler has a great work ethic and has skill and unless some sort of trade comes along where we are getting a guy of equal skill and more size coming back in return for a cheap price, then I dont know why the hell youd want to move him. Every teams got its small players. If Im making room for a bigger guy, itll be at the price of Samuelsson, not Hudler, and itll come via free agency, not in a trade.

[shannyfan1414 0]

Lock up cleary and Babs for sure. Don't care what happens with Lilja.

Do you think Lilja is worth anything in terms of trades?

I would guess not but you never know right.

[Kp-Wings 3]

Ask Neil, Begin, Phaneuf, Moen, and Sharp. Those are the victims on his fight card so far, and they'll tell you why the Wings signed him.

Seriously... as a fight fan, do you really believe Lilja is that good of a fighter? I mean, Moen layed the beatdown pretty good on him in his first fight. Lilja took a swipe at his legs at the very end to not look as bad, but it didn't really work. The only fight Lilja ever looked good in was against Sharp last year, and that's because Sharp is a pansy.

Besides that, Lilja is not at all a willing fighter. He only does it because because other guys make him. The only time he actually started a fight himself was against Phaneuf, and he was quickly overmatched. Last time he'll probably ever do that.

Lilja is extremely frustrating, because he'll give you 5-10 solid games, then go 30 games while playing like crap. For as big as he is, he isn't very physical, and he's a terrible fighter for his size as well. He's the Wings own version of Dan McGillis or Jassen Cullimore, but even those guys are more physical than Lilja.

If the Wings want a terrible hockey player using that spot, for whatever reason, then at least sign someone who is physical, fights on a regular basis, and can win fights. At least then they'd have a quality of something they'd actually bring to the team, which is something Lilja doesn't have.

I was looking forward to Lilja being finally gone after this season, but now apparently they actually want to keep him...

Edited January 21, 2008 by Kp-Wings

[Grittzkey 1]

KP Wings is a friggin beast i lovvit.

[Booster313 138]

With any luck, if Lilja gets signed long-term, he'll be forever considered right up there with other great Wings enforcers like Probert and Kocur. Also, I'll always have plenty to write about on LGW as long as the "PAIN TRAIN" is around. Get it done Kenny.

He has to win a fight first GMR!

[YoungGuns1340 1]

Lock up cleary and Babs for sure. Don't care what happens with Lilja.

Do you think Lilja is worth anything in terms of trades?

I would guess not but you never know right.

Honestly, Im far from a Lilja fan, but its probably a safe move to make for several reasons.

1) Chelios is getting up there. Who knows when his age will finally catch up to him, hell sustain a serious injury, or hell only be able to play every other game. Imagine this season not having Lilja and having to go with a bottom pairing of Meech and Quincey when a Dman goes down. Thats a really scary thought.

2) Any Dman available in the free agency pool will either be more expensive than Lilja, or not as good. If he is better than Andreas and less expensive, hes not gonna be available via free agency as hell likely be an RFA or similar youngster. Believe it or not, Lilja is a good #6 Dman that can play Detroits system. There may be other #6 Dman out there who are very physical, but wouldnt know what to do with themselves in Detroits puck posession system.

3) Lilja, as the article suggests, will likely re-sign for around 1.25-1.5M. Thats hardly a substantial chunk of change, which makes him VERY tradeable. Will we be able to trade him straight up for something decent? No. But if we found a trade for a better Dman, a good forward, etc, and we needed his roster spot/salary freed up, he could easily be traded for a pick. Id take Lilja over Hnidy, and he was traded with ease already this season.

4) The Wings management know their players very well. If they thought one of the youngsters was ready to have a full time spot, theyd make that known. And if some young player really wows them in training camp, it wouldnt be too much of a loss to have Lilja take up the 7th spot. Management could very well be banking on trading Meech at the deadline and you wouldnt want Kindl, Ericsson, or Quincey wasting their time sitting on the bench as the 7th forward. Its very possible that management is locking up Lilja because they think theyll be rotating between Quincey, Lilja, and Chelios for those 2 bottom spots over the season. As mentioned above, if the Wings are looking from within to add another Dman, itd be really scary to go with a bottom pairing of Quincey and Ericsson, for example, if Chelios went down and the Wings let Lilja walk only to replace him with a youngster.

Bottom line, this is a safe no-risk move that secures a cheap, reliable depth player. If it turns out that re-siging Lilja is a mistake, then its one you can easily get rid of. Absolutely no reason to get your panties in a wad over this news.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

Seriously... as a fight fan, do you really believe Lilja is that good of a fighter? I mean, Moen layed the beatdown pretty good on him in his first fight. Lilja took a swipe at his legs at the very end to not look as bad, but it didn't really work. The only fight Lilja ever looked good in was against Sharp last year, and that's because Sharp is a pansy.

Besides that, Lilja is not at all a willing fighter. He only does it because because other guys make him. The only time he actually started a fight himself was against Phaneuf, and he was quickly overmatched. Last time he'll probably ever do that.

Lilja is extremely frustrating, because he'll give you 5-10 solid games, then go 30 games while playing like crap. For as big as he is, he isn't very physical, and he's a terrible fighter for his size as well. He's the Wings own version of Dan McGillis or Jassen Cullimore, but even those guys are more physical than Lilja.

If the Wings want a terrible hockey player using that spot, for whatever reason, then at least sign someone who is physical, fights on a regular basis, and can win fights. At least then they'd have a quality of something they'd actually bring to the team, which is something Lilja doesn't have.

I was looking forward to Lilja being finally gone after this season, but now apparently they actually want to keep him...

Wow! I don't know what to say. Lilja slipped in the Moen fight just when he was getting ready to open things up a little bit, and that's how he wound up at Moen's feet. Phaneuf, Begin, and Neil went for the takedown to avoid getting beat up. As for Sharp, he's the only one who had the guts to open up with "PAIN TRAIN" and look what happened to him.

[Kp-Wings 3]

Wow! I don't know what to say. Lilja slipped in the Moen fight just when he was getting ready to open things up a little bit, and that's how he wound up at Moen's feet. Phaneuf, Begin, and Neil went for the takedown to avoid getting beat up. As for Sharp, he's the only one who had the guts to open up with "PAIN TRAIN" and look what happened to him.

Haha, I can't even tell if your being serious or not anymore.

Let's leave it at that then.

[Booster313 138]

and thats stopped Steve Sullivan? Paul Kariya? Martin St. Louis? Marty St. Louis was waved and barely got the time of day at the beginning of his career. Now hes a bona fide first line winger. Hudler is in his 2nd year getting squat ice time and is still a really young guy. With a regular 2nd liners ice time, this guys got 60 points in the bag easy at slight over 1M. And you make his size out to be a lot more of an issue than it actually is. I could give you names of guys who are over 6'3 and get pushed off the puck. Happens to the best of em. Hudler has a great work ethic and has skill and unless some sort of trade comes along where we are getting a guy of equal skill and more size coming back in return for a cheap price, then I dont know why the hell youd want to move him. Every teams got its small players. If Im making room for a bigger guy, itll be at the price of Samuelsson, not Hudler, and itll come via free agency, not in a trade.

I agree with you on moving Sammy first but I think that Sammy has far less trade value. As far as the other players with Hudler's size, those are good point but all of them are much faster and better skaters than Huds. That assists them in overcoming their size difference. As far as ice time he's averaging about 13minutes a game, that's not too bad for a second line forward considering he doesn't PK.

[YoungGuns1340 1]

I agree with you on moving Sammy first but I think that Sammy has far less trade value. As far as the other players with Hudler's size, those are good point but all of them are much faster and better skaters than Huds. That assists them in overcoming their size difference. As far as ice time he's averaging about 13minutes a game, that's not too bad for a second line forward considering he doesn't PK.

Oh I didnt mean moving Sammy in a direct trade. I meant like, trading Sammy for whatever in order to gain cap space to sign a player in free agency. Like, sign malone in the off-season and then trade Sammy to whoever for picks, prospects, what have you. Suddenly you have the possibility of creating a line thats Malone-Cleary-Hudler and just like that Hudlers size isnt as big of an issue since he can focus more on being the sniper and less on taking the body, carrying the puck, and digging in the corners which could fall to the bigger guys in malone and cleary.

[kylee 727]

Umm becuase he's a good PKer, has a crap load of blocked shots, and is a semi-physical guy. I'm glad Kenny's resigning both of them. Now he just needs to lock up Fil too.

in all seriousness, ive been quite impressed with Lilly pads the past season and a half.

Granted, he has had a few bone-head moments (the most glaring of which the giveaway in OT against Anaheim last spring)

if he can cut out those few big turn-overs, he can become a real good stay at home d man. signing for two years sounds good to me.

[Booster313 138]

Oh I didnt mean moving Sammy in a direct trade. I meant like, trading Sammy for whatever in order to gain cap space to sign a player in free agency. Like, sign malone in the off-season and then trade Sammy to whoever for picks, prospects, what have you. Suddenly you have the possibility of creating a line thats Malone-Cleary-Hudler and just like that Hudlers size isnt as big of an issue since he can focus more on being the sniper and less on taking the body, carrying the puck, and digging in the corners which could fall to the bigger guys in malone and cleary.

That's a really good point, however I think the Wings are going to make a move before the trade deadline. Forsberg would be a freebee, but Hossa or Sundin would cost us something of value and I don't know if Sammy or Lilja would cut it.

[detroitdan 0]

I just got Cleary put on the back of my jersey...they'd better re-sign him!!!!!!

[HockeyCrazy3033 168]

Rag on Lilja all you want but who the hell cares whether or not he's a good fighter. All that matters is that he sticks up for his teammates. That is what he does, and you can't ask for more than that.

[Lou_Siffer 1]

With a nice raise Lilly can buy himself a much better pad.

*smashes tomatoes over my own head*

[Sergeiwasmyfav 0]

I like Lilja overall. Yeah, he makes some bad plays at times, but I don't think he is as bad as some people here make him out to be. He plays more physically and with more toughness than most of the other Wings, and he seems to have picked up his play lately. I think he is just one of those players that some people will never give any credit to no matter what he does or how well he plays. The Wings could win the Cup and Lilja could get the Conn Smythe and there would still be people on here saying he sucks. I know that this is an extreme exaggeration as far as Lilja ever winning the Conn Smythe trophy, e.g., it will never happen. However, I don't think it's an exaggeration that if he did there would still be people saying he is terrible. There are some people who cannot get past their dislike of a player to give them any credit for what they do well, and Lilja does do some things well. He is not elite, but he is decent. He is not paid to be elite, he is paid to be decent. He brings a physical element, and as someone else said, he sticks up for his teammates. He also blocks shots all the time on the PK. I like Lilja but I am able to notice the things he does wrong, and I acknowlege them. I don't understand why people who dislike him, which by itself is fine, can't acknowledge the things he does well.

[IceMunkee 15]

To date, his size has never been an issue. His skill is what matters and he has LOTS of it.

Quite the opposite. His size is his only issue. He gets pushed around alot and loses the puck becuase of it.

With any luck, if Lilja gets signed long-term, he'll be forever considered right up there with other great Wings enforcers like Probert and Kocur. Also, I'll always have plenty to write about on LGW as long as the "PAIN TRAIN" is around. Get it done Kenny.

That has to be the most ridiculous statement I have ever read! First you said Probert and Kocur without including Mac and then actually tried to put lilly pad in the same ball park. Rule #1 You have to have alot of fights, so many that you can't actually list them by name and the outcome 1/2 through the season. Rule #2 You will not be considered for Great Enforcers, unless you win fights.

Rag on Lilja all you want but who the hell cares whether or not he's a good fighter. All that matters is that he sticks up for his teammates. That is what he does, and you can't ask for more than that.

I partly agree with you, it is nice to have someone to stick up for our guys but if noone is afraid to fight him they are not afraid to run our players? That is like Screech fighting Tyson. If Screech was guarding a snickers bar and you had to kick his ass to get it, if Tyson wanted that snickers bar he is not gonna think twice about kicking Screech's ass. I do wonder if Lilja could kick Screech's ass... That may be a good fight.

[Donaldjr2448 43]

When i first saw this I thought that The Wings were looking to trade Dan Cleary!! I now have to clean the crap out of my boxers!! Don't scare me like this people, but yes, resign them all. Lilja has been awesome this year, and he has improved over the last two seasons. If the Wings trade Lilja for Rob Blake that could be the worst trade ever. I like what we got, we would have to give up too much to get a second line scorer, so stick with what we have!!!

[Lou_Siffer 1]

I partly agree with you, it is nice to have someone to stick up for our guys but if noone is afraid to fight him they are not afraid to run our players? That is like Screech fighting Tyson. If Screech was guarding a snickers bar and you had to kick his ass to get it, if Tyson wanted that snickers bar he is not gonna think twice about kicking Screech's ass. I do wonder if Lilja could kick Screech's ass... That may be a good fight.

If Lilja were kicking his ass, he would be dustin' Diamond.

[IceMunkee 15]

If Lilja were kicking his ass, he would be dustin' Diamond.

LMAO!!! That is all I can say to that!!!

[up2here 41]

Love to see Cleary locked up and as long as Lilja is paid like a 5th or 6th defenseman I have no problem with that either.

[Lou_Siffer 1]

Dare i say Screech would have to be saved by the bell? Or is that just too obvious

(if that happened, i'd say the fight didnt end until we heard the bell ding!)

Did you hear how Jessie died?

A.C. slayed her!

Now i cant stop

Edited January 21, 2008 by Lou_Siffer

[IceMunkee 15]

Dare i say Screech would have to be saved by the bell? Or is that just too obvious

(if that happened, i'd say the fight didnt end until we heard the bell ding!)

Did you hear how Jessie died?

A.C. slayed her!

Now i cant stop

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA LOL!