Ville Leino signs a 2 year extension

[wingfan1991 221]

great signing holland! i have no doubt this guy will score 25-30 next year easily if healthy.

[jeff48109 474]

awesome awesome awesome!!!

[spydrwebb 0]

ville signed and rasheed to the celtics... today is a good day.

[LeftWinger 5,153]

ville signed and rasheed to the celtics... today is a good day.

Just waiting to hear another, either;

Hudler says goodbye and signs in __________ for $3.5million!

-or-

Hudler to stay in Detroit for a Hometown discount allowing Detroit to find another UFA to fill their roster...

[sibiriak 84]

The salary amount can't be right. Just to retain Leino's RFA rights, Detroit was obliged to offer 5% raise.

Why would Leino not accept that offer instead of signing for less?

[Frozen-Man 144]

wut? $778,825 + $775,825 / 2 =/= $800,000.

hmm...looking at the article it says "almost" $800,000. not that that extra $23K-ish is going to do a whole hell of a lot, but still. even better!

Yeah, not that much difference but still any little bit will help. The difference in the salaries for the two years seem odd to me though, there is exactly $3,000 less the second year. I wonder why, $3,000 in the first year doesn't exactly seem like enough to consider it front loaded . I wonder what the different amounts, why not just split between the two years? Maybe to help find housing or something?

[LeftWinger 5,153]

The salary amount can't be right. Just to retain Leino's RFA rights, Detroit was obliged to offer 5% raise.

Why would Leino not accept that offer instead of signing for less?

Its totally up to Leino if he wanted to sign that 5% raise contract. Holland probably said you can have your 5% raise on a one year two-way contract or you can take a two year one way contract at $1.6 million combined....

...which would you rather sign? A 1 year $919,000 contract with no guarnatee you'd be in Detroit all season if at all

-or-

A 2 year $1.6 million contract GUARANTEED to be in Detroit for the entire contract?

[Frozen-Man 144]

The salary amount can't be right. Just to retain Leino's RFA rights, Detroit was obliged to offer 5% raise.

Why would Leino not accept that offer instead of signing for less?

There could be a couple of reasons, one (the one I think most likely) is that the 5% raise is for one year and there is no requirement (that I know of) that the contract be a one-way contract. Leino however, signed a two year, one-way contract. Perhaps it was worth a little less money to him to get a multi-year deal and a one-way contract. You have to consider more than just the amount that he is paid for a specific year.

[LeftWinger 5,153]

Yeah, not that much difference but still any little bit will help. The difference in the salaries for the two years seem odd to me though, there is exactly $3,000 less the second year. I wonder why, $3,000 in the first year doesn't exactly seem like enough to consider it front loaded . I wonder what the different amounts, why not just split between the two years? Maybe to help find housing or something?

He is in debt to the Finnish Mafia for $3000 over an old gambling debt.... (maybe he bet on the Wings! )

[Wingseroo 0]

Just waiting to hear another, either;

Hudler says goodbye and signs in __________ for $3.5million!

-or-

Hudler to stay in Detroit for a Hometown discount allowing Detroit to find another UFA to fill their roster...

Ok lets get some clarity here... Chris Higgins signed for 2.25mil per with the Rangers... Do you believe Hudler is viewed as better or worse then Him? (using a some what comparable RFA)

Look I am pro keeping Hudler... I do not think there is anyone in the Wings system right now they have spent more time on developing then him... At a certain point you have to pay when the time comes... I would prefer he doesn't get 3.5 mil a year for the Wings sake, but I also realize that in the midst of all this he was Holland's fallback plan for Hossa not coming back... The guy to move into the top 2 scoring lines to generate offense... Why develop guys with that much time and effort just to let them squirt away when they become RFA's... Why are you afraid of what the arbitrator will say? You develop good players have to pay for them eventually... I am going to go out on a limb and guess they give Hudler a 1 year 2.75 mil deal and either revisit next off season or the end of this season... I don't think he will sign multi years for that price, but 1 year sure...

[Finnish Wing 110]

Ok lets get some clarity here... Chris Higgins signed for 2.25mil per with the Rangers... Do you believe Hudler is viewed as better or worse then Him? (using a some what comparable RFA)

Look I am pro keeping Hudler... I do not think there is anyone in the Wings system right now they have spent more time on developing then him... At a certain point you have to pay when the time comes... I would prefer he doesn't get 3.5 mil a year for the Wings sake, but I also realize that in the midst of all this he was Holland's fallback plan for Hossa not coming back... The guy to move into the top 2 scoring lines to generate offense... Why develop guys with that much time and effort just to let them squirt away when they become RFA's... Why are you afraid of what the arbitrator will say? You develop good players have to pay for them eventually... I am going to go out on a limb and guess they give Hudler a 1 year 2.75 mil deal and either revisit next off season or the end of this season... I don't think he will sign multi years for that price, but 1 year sure...

I think Huds will sign a 1 year deal with something like 2,25M. Then after Homer, Maltby (maybe Lids, Draper too) there will be more cap space to play with.

[sibiriak 84]

There could be a couple of reasons, one (the one I think most likely) is that the 5% raise is for one year and there is no requirement (that I know of) that the contract be a one-way contract. Leino however, signed a two year, one-way contract. Perhaps it was worth a little less money to him to get a multi-year deal and a one-way contract. You have to consider more than just the amount that he is paid for a specific year.

Holland must be a master in messing with players/agents heads. Looking at it objectively, Leino is virtually guaranteed to play most of the season with the Wings, be it on 1 or 2 way contract. Given that the Wings need to cover 4 forward roster spots, who else would they call up? Instead, likely playing on Leino's insecurity, Holland got him to accept less in return for one-way contract in exchange for something Leino would have most likely gotten anyway. Scary.

[skyphoenix 153]

This should leave some more for Hudler, should we need to use it. I am pretty happy Leino didnt demand a raise. Since he demanded to be on the team in the NHL this season, he probably agreed to take less than what he was originally planned to get to do so.

[LeftWinger 5,153]

Ok lets get some clarity here... Chris Higgins signed for 2.25mil per with the Rangers... Do you believe Hudler is viewed as better or worse then Him? (using a some what comparable RFA)

Look I am pro keeping Hudler... I do not think there is anyone in the Wings system right now they have spent more time on developing then him... At a certain point you have to pay when the time comes... I would prefer he doesn't get 3.5 mil a year for the Wings sake, but I also realize that in the midst of all this he was Holland's fallback plan for Hossa not coming back... The guy to move into the top 2 scoring lines to generate offense... Why develop guys with that much time and effort just to let them squirt away when they become RFA's... Why are you afraid of what the arbitrator will say? You develop good players have to pay for them eventually... I am going to go out on a limb and guess they give Hudler a 1 year 2.75 mil deal and either revisit next off season or the end of this season... I don't think he will sign multi years for that price, but 1 year sure...

It's called CAP SPACE! You have to assume that Lilja will be healthy because there is no indication otherwise. We HAD $3.3million in CAP SPACE with 9 forwards signed (that three lines for you slow people) Today Leino signed for a cap hit of $800,000. Do the math now, whats 3.3 - 8? Right, $2.5Million left. Now we have 10 forwards. (if your keeping up with all this, I know it's hard, thats 3 lines plus 1) Now, you want to give Hudler the remaining CAP SPACE (plus you even suggest going over by $250,000) so that is now 11 forwards (we're getting close but STILL only three full lines.) Uh oh! Now what do we do? We don't have 12 forwards (let alone the 13 to cover injuries) and we are over our cap by $275,000. Well, we gotta sign someone or bring a couple up. Where do we get the money? Trade Ledba? Alright, thats $650,000 more, now we are up to $375,000. Hmmmm, can't sign anyone for that, lets trade Meech thats another $483,000, that brings us to $858,000. Cool! We can bring up Abby if we want, or better yet, lets bring up Ouhelan he (assuming he re-signs at a modest $500,000) now we have 12 forwards (yee haw four lines!) and that brings our CAP SPACE down to $358,000! So we have 12 forwards and, uh oh, only 6 defensmen, and NOBODY to fill in for injuries and no CAP SPACE to call anyone up either! Ok, ok, lets re-evaluate this here, lets keep Lebda and Meech and trade Lilja, ya! Thats it! Ok, so, now going back to our origianl deficit of -$275,000, that give us $975,000 in CAP SPACE. Ok, now we're talking! We have 11 forwards (oh we can still bring up Oulehan) thats 12 forwards and $475,000 in CAP SPACE. But we have 7 defensmen and one of those can be a forward if we need him.

To sum it up, you have 12 fwds, 6 dmen +1 utility guy for injuries and only $475,000 in CAP SPACE so barring any LTIR, we can NEVER bring up anyone from GRR in case we have an injury on the "O" and "D" at the same time.

I don't care if Hudler is worth $10 million per season, if he doesn't give us a huge discount he is going to handcuff the Wings the entire season. Now, if Holland is willing to do so then more power to him, but I guess that is why he is Holland and we are not!

Signing Hudler to more than $2.0 (and for the CAP SPACE that is being generous) would not make ANY sense financially...

[LidsFan 68]

I am really excited about seeing Leino play with the Wings, I hope that he has a great year. I want Hudler to stay and I hope that he is willing to take a one year discount to stay with the team.

I am so happy that we finally got someone to sign with the team, it was kind of depressing to see all of our other free agents go to other teams.

[Zetts 236]

Best news all summer. Besides this Chicago RFA issue.

[teebo 22]

great news

[Snazzy 0]

It's called CAP SPACE! You have to assume that Lilja will be healthy because there is no indication otherwise. We HAD $3.3million in CAP SPACE with 9 forwards signed (that three lines for you slow people) Today Leino signed for a cap hit of $800,000. Do the math now, whats 3.3 - 8? Right, $2.5Million left. Now we have 10 forwards. (if your keeping up with all this, I know it's hard, thats 3 lines plus 1) Now, you want to give Hudler the remaining CAP SPACE (plus you even suggest going over by $250,000) so that is now 11 forwards (we're getting close but STILL only three full lines.) Uh oh! Now what do we do? We don't have 12 forwards (let alone the 13 to cover injuries) and we are over our cap by $275,000. Well, we gotta sign someone or bring a couple up. Where do we get the money? Trade Ledba? Alright, thats $650,000 more, now we are up to $375,000. Hmmmm, can't sign anyone for that, lets trade Meech thats another $483,000, that brings us to $858,000. Cool! We can bring up Abby if we want, or better yet, lets bring up Ouhelan he (assuming he re-signs at a modest $500,000) now we have 12 forwards (yee haw four lines!) and that brings our CAP SPACE down to $358,000! So we have 12 forwards and, uh oh, only 6 defensmen, and NOBODY to fill in for injuries and no CAP SPACE to call anyone up either! Ok, ok, lets re-evaluate this here, lets keep Lebda and Meech and trade Lilja, ya! Thats it! Ok, so, now going back to our origianl deficit of -$275,000, that give us $975,000 in CAP SPACE. Ok, now we're talking! We have 11 forwards (oh we can still bring up Oulehan) thats 12 forwards and $475,000 in CAP SPACE. But we have 7 defensmen and one of those can be a forward if we need him.

To sum it up, you have 12 fwds, 6 dmen +1 utility guy for injuries and only $475,000 in CAP SPACE so barring any LTIR, we can NEVER bring up anyone from GRR in case we have an injury on the "O" and "D" at the same time.

I don't care if Hudler is worth $10 million per season, if he doesn't give us a huge discount he is going to handcuff the Wings the entire season. Now, if Holland is willing to do so then more power to him, but I guess that is why he is Holland and we are not!

Signing Hudler to more than $2.0 (and for the CAP SPACE that is being generous) would not make ANY sense financially...

I'm not optimistic that Holland gets Hudler signed, but Holland could keep Lebda and trade Lilja. That would free up some money.

With that said, I am NOT optimistic that Hudler signs.

[spydrwebb 0]

Just waiting to hear another, either;

Hudler says goodbye and signs in __________ for $3.5million!

-or-

Hudler to stay in Detroit for a Hometown discount allowing Detroit to find another UFA to fill their roster...

and this has relevance to my post how?

you quoted me so you must think that it does. please elaborate.

[LeftWinger 5,153]

I'm not optimistic that Holland gets Hudler signed, but Holland could keep Lebda and trade Lilja. That would free up some money.

With that said, I am NOT optimistic that Hudler signs.

I am with you, we just don't have the money that he wants AND be able to ice a complete team...

That being said, if Hudler does what every former Hossa fan on here EXPECTED Hossa to do, and play for less than half his market value, then Holland can sign him and have room for Joe UFA AND a call up to help cover injuries...

It can be done, Hudler just has to want it to be done. Holland was being generous with his cap by offering Hudler $2.5m, he should have taken it, it would have crippled this team, but he should have jumped at it. Now, well, like I said, I am with you...

[titanium2 867]

http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2009/07...-cap-dance.html

So the Wings have 1.683 of cap space left.

That includes the contracts of Andreas Lilja as if here were not on LTIR, Darren Helm, Jimmy Howard, Justin Abdelkader, Derek Meech, Jonathan Ericsson and the newly signed Conan O'Brien or Ville Leino or whatever we're calling him today.

In terms of Abdelkader, the Wings' preference is that he plays 20 minutes a night in GR developing his scoring touch so that he'll have more versatility as a third line player when he becomes a full time Red Wing. So let's say we don't count his contract (.850). That allows for a cap space of 2.533

Helm has to be on the roster next season. I mean, come on. I'm counting his. Hungry Howie is supposed to back up Ozzie as of now. Never know what can happen in training camp but I'm still going to count his.

Meech, Lebs and Lils: A defenseman will be traded and it seems very likely that it will be one of these three. In addition to Abby in GR, if it's Meech, 3.016; if Lebda, 3.183; if Lils, 3.783.

In summary:

-They'd prefer that Abby play one more year in GR

-They plan to trade one (?) defenseman.

-They plan to resign a bottom six forward.

-They expect Hudler to get 3-4 million.

That's the situation. If Hudler receives 3-4 million I actually don't see how he stays a Red Wing.

[Drake_Marcus 890]

wut? $778,825 + $775,825 / 2 =/= $800,000.

hmm...looking at the article it says "almost" $800,000. not that that extra $23K-ish is going to do a whole hell of a lot, but still. even better!

The poster who put that up was mistaken. Mlive quotes the contract like so:

Leino will earn $775,000 next season and $825,000 in 2010-11.

http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2009/07...-cap-dance.html

I'll repost my response to that blog post here on LGW:

"I don't understand why you'd suggest paying for a 13th forward then dumping Meech.

Using Meech as the 13th forward AND 7th defenseman is clearly the most economical option.

Abdelkader isn't going to get a chance to play more than 8 mins a night, so send him to GR. Oulahen is out of options in the minors, so re-sign him to the minimum salary increase according to the CBA-- $574,750.

Give Hudler 2.5 million for 3 years and trade lebda. You've got a full roster and $153,382 of cap space. A tight fit, but trading Lilja and keeping Lebda opens a huge gap and allows either 750k of space of 250k and a salary of 3 million for Hudler."

[LeftWinger 5,153]

http://redwingscorner.blogspot.com/2009/07...-cap-dance.html

So the Wings have 1.683 of cap space left.

That includes the contracts of Andreas Lilja as if here were not on LTIR, Darren Helm, Jimmy Howard, Justin Abdelkader, Derek Meech, Jonathan Ericsson and the newly signed Conan O'Brien or Ville Leino or whatever we're calling him today.

In terms of Abdelkader, the Wings' preference is that he plays 20 minutes a night in GR developing his scoring touch so that he'll have more versatility as a third line player when he becomes a full time Red Wing. So let's say we don't count his contract (.850). That allows for a cap space of 2.533

Helm has to be on the roster next season. I mean, come on. I'm counting his. Hungry Howie is supposed to back up Ozzie as of now. Never know what can happen in training camp but I'm still going to count his.

Meech, Lebs and Lils: A defenseman will be traded and it seems very likely that it will be one of these three. In addition to Abby in GR, if it's Meech, 3.016; if Lebda, 3.183; if Lils, 3.783.

In summary:

-They'd prefer that Abby play one more year in GR

-They plan to trade one (?) defenseman.

-They plan to resign a bottom six forward.

-They expect Hudler to get 3-4 million.

That's the situation. If Hudler receives 3-4 million I actually don't see how he stays a Red Wing.

Lets go with your $3.783 figure. Hudler turned down $2.5, so he will get more if he goes to arb. But lets say he signsfor $2.5, now your have $1.283 left and still only 11 forwards. Ok, you can probably get a servicable UFA for that, but then you only have Meech backing up both Forwards and D-Men... Now you also Lose Ryan Oulehan, he is an RFA, andout of GRR options, so if you re-sign him, he has to play in Detroit or risk losing him to waivers. Unless you bring him up for the 13th forward and his modest salary knocks basically another $600,000 off the cap. Now you are down to $600,000. I supposed that could work, but you won't be able to bring Abby up at all with that cap space...

IF Holland is ok with that, then fine, I guess.... But that is assuming Lilja is traded, of course if Lebda or Meech are, this will not work, for we will not have enough forwards. IF they are BOTH traded to make room for another forward, we will only have 6 d-men, with not room for call ups....

My hope is Hudler either walks or realizes that there is not enough cap room for anything over $2.5, and ideally he should take less to ice a better team and give him the best chance at the Cup...

[titanium2 867]

Give Hudler 2.5 million for 3 years and trade lebda. You've got a full roster and $153,382 of cap space. A tight fit, but trading Lilja and keeping Lebda opens a huge gap and allows either 750k of space of 250k and a salary of 3 million for Hudler."

I like this but I don't see how Huds accepts anything below 3 million and I rather the Wings not trade Lilja, the former soccer goalie who loves to place his body in front of 90 mph shots.

Either way...

Pav-Z-Mule

Leino-Fil-Cleary

Whoever-Helm-Homer

Whoever-Drapes-Malts

Nick-Rafi

Kronner-Stewie

Jonny-Whoever

Whoever

Ozzie

Hungry Howie

Call me crazy, but I'm actually pretty happy with that roster to start the season.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

Great to have Leino back! And what a price!

great signing holland! i have no doubt this guy will score 25-30 next year easily if healthy.

What's wrong with a bit of realism? 25-30 goals, easily?

He went through long periods in the AHL where he couldn't score and yet he's going to net this many in his rookie NHL season?