Bertuzzi placed on waivers.

[Probert 5 For Fighting 0]

...I agree with you, Matthias was a good prospect, but really, when was he ever gonna make this team? WIth Z and D gonna be here for life, then Flip, Helm and Emmerton (even that kid out of Finland they just signed,) Matthias would be a career AHL'r here until we couldn't send him down anymore then we'd probably would've have lost him to the Waiver wire. At least the 'potential' was there for Bertuzzi to work out here, but as we witnessed it didn't and we pretty much gave up a player that wouldn't have played here in a long, long time!

...and no offense to the Panthers, but my 4 year old son would get solid playing time there, I feel sorry for Matthias that it had to be Florida he got traded to!

You're kidding, right? If you're good, you'll make the team. Darren Helm went from average prospect to playoff dynamo. Matthias would have been the highest ranked prospect in our system if he were around(way the hell ahead of Emmerton and Leino that you just mentioned). A career AHLer? Please. The slate is anew every season. Detroit's forwards are essentially two superstars and a bunch of guys jockeying for positions, so Matthias would absolutely compete.

[Guest Crymson]

Holland ultimately made a mistake by giving up Matthias for him... Burke took that mistake, threw more money at it and knocked it out of the park of sanity.

People ***** when Holland refuses to give up prospects and players at the deadline, and then they ***** when he does.

[eva unit zero 271]

It's too bad we gave up a top 10 overall NHL prospect for this guy. Matthias will be getting some solid playing time now in Florida, and could turn out to be a point producer like that Statsny kid - but with even more potential with that 6'3" frame. One of the few bad moves we've made lately.

Matthias wasn't one of the top ten prospects in the Wings system. He is projected as a second or third line two-way center. He's not that good. Yes, he scored 2 goals in his first four games and played a significant amount. Yes, he scored pretty well for Belleville in his last year of juniors. But he's not going to be a star at the NHL level. Matthias will be lucky to be a Dallas Drake type of player; a skilled defender, a feared hitter, and capable of potting 15-20 goals on a season. If you are expecting more from him, you are expecting too much.

I would have preferred to not have given up Matthias for Bertuzzi...but that is due more to the fact that I think Bertuzzi was an unneccessary acquisition and didn't want to give ANYONE up for him.

[LeftWinger 4,936]

You're kidding, right? If you're good, you'll make the team. Darren Helm went from average prospect to playoff dynamo. Matthias would have been the highest ranked prospect in our system if he were around(way the hell ahead of Emmerton and Leino that you just mentioned). A career AHLer? Please. The slate is anew every season. Detroit's forwards are essentially two superstars and a bunch of guys jockeying for positions, so Matthias would absolutely compete.

...well then that is the best bunch of guys jockeying for position to ever play for and Win the Cup! Matthias was expendable, he would have been another Stacy Roest another Greg Johnson or Jason Williams, he would have seen VERY limited roles in Detroit. Just too deep right now, which isn't really a bad thing...

...But, heck, just like the draft itself, these guys are crapshoots. Maybe, just maybe he could have landed on the #2 line. We'll never know, but he'll het more playing time right now in Florida...

...if you're a Matthias fan, then good for him, if you're a Wings fan, then crap, we could've just kept him...

...either way, it obviously didn't hurt this past season and something tells me, we aren't going to suffer too much for years to come. In other words, expendable...

[Opie 308]

...well then that is the best bunch of guys jockeying for position to ever play for and Win the Cup! Matthias was expendable, he would have been another Stacy Roest another Greg Johnson or Jason Williams, he would have seen VERY limited roles in Detroit. Just too deep right now, which isn't really a bad thing...

...But, heck, just like the draft itself, these guys are crapshoots. Maybe, just maybe he could have landed on the #2 line. We'll never know, but he'll het more playing time right now in Florida...

...if you're a Matthias fan, then good for him, if you're a Wings fan, then crap, we could've just kept him...

...either way, it obviously didn't hurt this past season and something tells me, we aren't going to suffer too much for years to come. In other words, expendable...

You had me at Stacy Roest!!!

[AUWingsFan 0]

I am not going to lie, I liked seeing the guy in a Wings uniform and I still wouldn't mind seeing him again for the right price (i.e. he clears waivers and we can get him for much less than he made last year), but as others have said where would he play?

I think he'd give us another huge body around the net....imagine how great it'd be to put him out with Franzen and Holmstrom every now and then to bang around and cause some matchup problems.....

I trust Holland to do what is best....he thought Bert was worth going after a year ago, but who knows what he'll do now that we won the Cup.....

Go Wings!

P.S. If Holland is looking for a veteran to replace Drake I don't think Bertuzzi would be a bad idea at all, he brings size and more of a scoring touch...at least in my opinion

Edited June 28, 2008 by AUWingsFan

[Yemack 1]

I must admit, when KH traded Matthias for Bertuzzi, I thought it was the deal of century.

[eva unit zero 271]

You had me at Stacy Roest!!!

Stacy Roest...outperformed both members of the Joe Thornton/Rick Nash combination in Swiss League play during the lockout. Imagine if that level of play could have translated to the NHL? Roest would have been UNSTOPPABLE.

[Probert 5 For Fighting 0]

Matthias wasn't one of the top ten prospects in the Wings system. He is projected as a second or third line two-way center. He's not that good. Yes, he scored 2 goals in his first four games and played a significant amount. Yes, he scored pretty well for Belleville in his last year of juniors. But he's not going to be a star at the NHL level. Matthias will be lucky to be a Dallas Drake type of player; a skilled defender, a feared hitter, and capable of potting 15-20 goals on a season. If you are expecting more from him, you are expecting too much.

I would have preferred to not have given up Matthias for Bertuzzi...but that is due more to the fact that I think Bertuzzi was an unneccessary acquisition and didn't want to give ANYONE up for him.

Matthias was ranked as the 12th best prospect OVERALL by The Hockey News. Your prognostication is complete rubbish - offering nothing but your own uninformed opinion in your analysis. Somehow, eva knows more about the talents of Shawn Matthias than anybody qualified to say so - a player scouts are unanimous in saying that we screwed the pooch by trading. Matthias is a very good prospect. He's not Kyle Turris or Steve Stamkos, but he is a tier or two below.

I'm not riding the guys jock or upset we lost him. In hindsight, it was just a horrific decision considering Bertuzzi's even farther fall from grace and Matthias evolvement into one of the top prospects moving up to the NHL next season. A guy with a similar skillset to Johan Franzen, packaged with a mean streak. But hey, what do scouts know? eva concluded he's Dallas Drake. Move along.

Edited June 28, 2008 by Probert 5 For Fighting

[Probert 5 For Fighting 0]

...well then that is the best bunch of guys jockeying for position to ever play for and Win the Cup! Matthias was expendable, he would have been another Stacy Roest another Greg Johnson or Jason Williams, he would have seen VERY limited roles in Detroit. Just too deep right now, which isn't really a bad thing...

...But, heck, just like the draft itself, these guys are crapshoots. Maybe, just maybe he could have landed on the #2 line. We'll never know, but he'll het more playing time right now in Florida...

...if you're a Matthias fan, then good for him, if you're a Wings fan, then crap, we could've just kept him...

...either way, it obviously didn't hurt this past season and something tells me, we aren't going to suffer too much for years to come. In other words, expendable...

I don't completely disagree with you as far as Matthias being expendable considering the organizational depth - but the reality is he's considered a better prospect than any forward we've moved up in recent years. Is his loss going to kill us? No. Not by longshot. But we essentially gave away a top prospect, which is not something Detroit can often be accused of doing. I'll give you props for even uttering the name Stacy Roest, but definitively saying he Matthias would have been just another Roest is ridonkulous.

[Guest Dump-N-Thump]

I liked the trade and i would of done it every time.. You cant see into the future to see how trades workout.. Only reason it was a bad trade was because we didn't win the cup. and he didn't re-sign with the wings..

Who wouldn't trade away a the time budding PWF for an already proven PWF? Expecialy when all you really need is a little more sand paper to make the extra push into the Cup Finals..

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

Rock \ Bertuzzi + Burke / Hard Place

[Dabura 12,206]

People ***** when Holland refuses to give up prospects and players at the deadline, and then they ***** when he does.

Does egroen typically ***** when Holland refuses to give up prospects and players at the deadline? Somehow I doubt it. You're crying about a truism: some people swing one way, others swing another way.

Just saying.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

I liked the trade and i would of done it every time.. You cant see into the future to see how trades workout.. Only reason it was a bad trade was because we didn't win the cup. and he didn't re-sign with the wings..

Who wouldn't trade away a the time budding PWF for an already proven PWF? Expecialy when all you really need is a little more sand paper to make the extra push into the Cup Finals..

Yep.

And while it is easy to say it was a bad trade now when we are well into playing Monday Morning Quarterback AFTER the trade happened, I bet that there were plenty of people that were very excited that this trade happened when it did around the end of the deadline two seasons ago and thinking that we didn't give up much to get Todd Bertuzzi.

If you could have predicted the future on this one and predicted that it would have, at least been bad for the Wings in terms of just having a "rental" player underperform and everything else, I'd like you to predict my future by telling me I will marry Jessica Biel or Anne Hathaway, as well as predict I win $5 million in the state lottery.

[egroen 384]

Matthias was not ranked nearly as high when he was traded by the Wings.

It certainly seemed like a good trade at the time... it turned out not to be, with the aid of hindsight. That's all.

[akustyk 84]

let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Bertuzzi was somehow suspect with his health when we shopped him from Florida.

but Wings were in huge need for a physical forward with skills and this is exactly

what Bertuzzi brought. sure, we lost Matthias who is very promising but back in 2007

we had to make the deal to increase our chances to go deep into playoffs. and just

to remind you - we were right there in WCF with good shot on reaching SCF. and no,

it was not Bertuzzi who was the reason we didn't get past the Burke's pest.

back then it was a good deal. and if it was $2M per year now he's also worth picking.

give him a full season with Wings and you'll see a solid playoff player who gives the

team extra hunger to reach the cup. and still, notwithstanding his psychic incidents,

and fading career, a good set of skills.

he has frame, skills and may still want to prove his place in the league. let's evaluate

him for what he is today and what he can bring for those $2M (or even less). this

ain't bad, actually

Dan Cleary had a chance and become great player for the Wings. and Bertuzzi can

bring even more. at least he deserves some consideration.

personally, I don't want him with Wings. he's epitome of league's bad handling of

the situation. he should be out of the league for a number of years now. as this

dirty bastard Crawford who holds big chunk of responsiblity for Moore accident.

but... despite the fact that I don't like Bertuzzi I can see him being a valuable

player on Wings roster. if that's what it gets for my Wings to edge great team

and possibly even repeat as champs - I'll take it.

[chrisdetroit 189]

let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Bertuzzi was somehow suspect with his health when we shopped him from Florida.

but Wings were in huge need for a physical forward with skills and this is exactly

what Bertuzzi brought. sure, we lost Matthias who is very promising but back in 2007

we had to make the deal to increase our chances to go deep into playoffs. and just

to remind you - we were right there in WCF with good shot on reaching SCF. and no,

it was not Bertuzzi who was the reason we didn't get past the Burke's pest.

back then it was a good deal. and if it was $2M per year now he's also worth picking.

give him a full season with Wings and you'll see a solid playoff player who gives the

team extra hunger to reach the cup. and still, notwithstanding his psychic incidents,

and fading career, a good set of skills.

he has frame, skills and may still want to prove his place in the league. let's evaluate

him for what he is today and what he can bring for those $2M (or even less). this

ain't bad, actually

Dan Cleary had a chance and become great player for the Wings. and Bertuzzi can

bring even more. at least he deserves some consideration.

personally, I don't want him with Wings. he's epitome of league's bad handling of

the situation. he should be out of the league for a number of years now. as this

dirty bastard Crawford who holds big chunk of responsiblity for Moore accident.

but... despite the fact that I don't like Bertuzzi I can see him being a valuable

player on Wings roster. if that's what it gets for my Wings to edge great team

and possibly even repeat as champs - I'll take it.

There is no need to waste all our time and money. The Ducks did it for us. They basically signed him to see if he had anything left in the tank. The answer was a resounding no. It was so much a no that the Ducks are willing to eat 2/3 of the 4 Mil a year that they would have to pay him.

If we want to see what he has left, we can watch the films of the Ducks games. If we brin him back, that means that Kenny feels that he will somehow be BETTER playing for us than playing for the Ducks. That makes no sense. The Ducks are a perfect match for his playing style. The Wings style is condusive to fast forwards that can handle the puck well. That isn't Bert.

Besides, we have filled his role with Franzen now.

[chrisdetroit 189]

I am not going to lie, I liked seeing the guy in a Wings uniform and I still wouldn't mind seeing him again for the right price (i.e. he clears waivers and we can get him for much less than he made last year), but as others have said where would he play?

I think he'd give us another huge body around the net....imagine how great it'd be to put him out with Franzen and Holmstrom every now and then to bang around and cause some matchup problems.....

I trust Holland to do what is best....he thought Bert was worth going after a year ago, but who knows what he'll do now that we won the Cup.....

Go Wings!

P.S. If Holland is looking for a veteran to replace Drake I don't think Bertuzzi would be a bad idea at all, he brings size and more of a scoring touch...at least in my opinion

Sorry, I must have missed something. Bert has lost his scoring touch, that's why the Ducks are dumping him. And the size thing. We are not going to sign him just because he's big although many of the people on LGW think that size is the most important part of the game.

So he's lost his scoring touch, he's slow and he doesn't have great hands. What's that leave. Size... Sorry that's not enough in my book.

[Guest Dump-N-Thump]

Sorry, I must have missed something. Bert has lost his scoring touch, that's why the Ducks are dumping him. And the size thing. We are not going to sign him just because he's big although many of the people on LGW think that size is the most important part of the game.

So he's lost his scoring touch, he's slow and he doesn't have great hands. What's that leave. Size... Sorry that's not enough in my book.

Filpulla = 36 Points in 78 Games

Bertuzzi = 40 points 68 games

Yup he's lost his scoring touch alright.. Outplays the wings beloved Filpulla.. Im sure you will have an excuse though.. Thankyou come again.

[chrisdetroit 189]

let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Bertuzzi was somehow suspect with his health when we shopped him from Florida.

but Wings were in huge need for a physical forward with skills and this is exactly

what Bertuzzi brought. sure, we lost Matthias who is very promising but back in 2007

we had to make the deal to increase our chances to go deep into playoffs. and just

to remind you - we were right there in WCF with good shot on reaching SCF. and no,

it was not Bertuzzi who was the reason we didn't get past the Burke's pest.

back then it was a good deal. and if it was $2M per year now he's also worth picking.

give him a full season with Wings and you'll see a solid playoff player who gives the

team extra hunger to reach the cup. and still, notwithstanding his psychic incidents,

and fading career, a good set of skills.

he has frame, skills and may still want to prove his place in the league. let's evaluate

him for what he is today and what he can bring for those $2M (or even less). this

ain't bad, actually

Dan Cleary had a chance and become great player for the Wings. and Bertuzzi can

bring even more. at least he deserves some consideration.

personally, I don't want him with Wings. he's epitome of league's bad handling of

the situation. he should be out of the league for a number of years now. as this

dirty bastard Crawford who holds big chunk of responsiblity for Moore accident.

but... despite the fact that I don't like Bertuzzi I can see him being a valuable

player on Wings roster. if that's what it gets for my Wings to edge great team

and possibly even repeat as champs - I'll take it.

I agree with most of this but the Dan Cleary part. Dan was a young guy whose career never got on track. Bertuzzi is and old guy at the end of his career who has had serious health problem. Most recently he was lost for almost an entire season to back surgery and since coming off of the back surgery has not looked anything like his former self. I don't think you can compare the 2.

If we can get Bert cheap Kenny might be interested as a 4th line guy like Drake, but I doubt that Bert is interested in being a 4th line guy for $1mil a year. That's a big step down from what the "best GM in the league" was paying him.

[akustyk 84]

There is no need to waste all our time and money. The Ducks did it for us. They basically signed him to see if he had anything left in the tank. The answer was a resounding no. It was so much a no that the Ducks are willing to eat 2/3 of the 4 Mil a year that they would have to pay him.

that's not 100% true. dumping him doesn't mean they think he has nothing

left in the tank but rather: $4M is not what they want/can pay him. where

"him" is about as important as "$4M".

my point is: let's think of signing Bertuzzi for Wings team and for no more than

$2M. that's a price which would situate him between Draper and Homer now.

has Big Bert enough for this price? and my answer is: yes, I think so. back in 2007

he was recovering from injury and was still a solid factor in our playoffs despite

the fact that he didn't have much time to develop some chemistry within Wings

team. there's reasons to believe he may be valuable contributor to the 2008-09

Wings. he has a skill/size package that would suit our needs. at a good price -

why not?

I'm not gonna cry if it doesn't happen but I most certainly like this option.

Edited June 28, 2008 by akustyk

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

:rotflmao:

Does anybody remember his comment after he inked Bert? It was something almost idential to: When you have a chance to sign Todd Bertuzzi, you do it.

Good call Burke. Throw away your future because of cap limitations so you can get your precious Bert only to put on waivers the very next season.

Moron.

[GMRwings1983 8,793]

Whoa, am I missing something here? An enforcer? WTF or who TF did he ever enforce? A replacement for Dally? Dally is a very well respected veteran hockey player who hits. Bert once in a while gets upset with somebody and gets a bad penalty for hitting late or slashing. More often than not he skates around like he could give two s***s and ends up pulling out somebody's rebound and putting over the goalie's glove with his soft hands. Not too much work for ya was it, Bert? Would hate to make ou sweat or over extend your physical self. Sheesh.

Sure he could work in Detroit, but Detroit can say that for 50% of the players in the league.

Oh well, if Detroit picks him up, I'd cheer for him and want him to do well. Personally I think Huddler has a lot more guts and tuffness than Bertuzzi.

Steve Moore, if that counts.

Stacy Roest...outperformed both members of the Joe Thornton/Rick Nash combination in Swiss League play during the lockout. Imagine if that level of play could have translated to the NHL? Roest would have been UNSTOPPABLE.

His name was Stacy. That's all you need to know about him.

Filpulla = 36 Points in 78 Games

Bertuzzi = 40 points 68 games

Yup he's lost his scoring touch alright.. Outplays the wings beloved Filpulla.. Im sure you will have an excuse though.. Thankyou come again.

That's a good point, because Flip did have a disappointing and inconsistent season. I guess his numbers weren't that bad in the playoffs, but I'd be looking for something more in a 2nd line center.

As far as Bert goes, his injury troubles are not worth pursuing, not for any hefty price that is. If he's willing to sign for less, than maybe, but I still want someone younger and better like Ryan Malone.

[Swede40 0]

Matthias was ranked as the 12th best prospect OVERALL by The Hockey News. Your prognostication is complete rubbish - offering nothing but your own uninformed opinion in your analysis. Somehow, eva knows more about the talents of Shawn Matthias than anybody qualified to say so - a player scouts are unanimous in saying that we screwed the pooch by trading. Matthias is a very good prospect. He's not Kyle Turris or Steve Stamkos, but he is a tier or two below.

I'm not riding the guys jock or upset we lost him. In hindsight, it was just a horrific decision considering Bertuzzi's even farther fall from grace and Matthias evolvement into one of the top prospects moving up to the NHL next season. A guy with a similar skillset to Johan Franzen, packaged with a mean streak. But hey, what do scouts know? eva concluded he's Dallas Drake. Move along.

Not at the time of the trade he wasn't.

[glasgowcelticwing 18]

for a salary of 2 million or so i'd take back Bert to the Wings .