Free Agent Wish List

[Guest EZBAKETHAGANGSTA]

Paul Martin played in 22 games this year, had 2 goals, 9 assists for 11 points and was a +10. Only had 2 penalty minutes as well. I have not seen tons of play from him but he seems like he would fit in here nice. I do agree though that NJ will no doubt attempt to resign him.

Didn't know he was going to be a FA, He would be a nice addition.

[Mitchmac33 103]

wait so no one wants j williams back?

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Didn't know he was going to be a FA, He would be a nice addition.

Ian White seems like a good option too.

[Guest Lidstromboli]

damn i forgot about White. the wings need so heavy mustache action

[king_malice 17]

Coliacovo has been out with legit injuries knee on knee 2 times. So is Franzen made of glass ?

(fight)

(hit)

(hit)

Everybody has some bad luck sometimes but at his salary he is a steal if we got him good playmaker for a D, hits hard and is a quick skater

[eva unit zero 271]

1. ) Assuming Lidstrom, Holmstrom, and Bertuzzi come back, its imparitve they sign for around the following prices. If theyre serious about winning, I dont see why they wouldnt.

2.) As far as Drew Miller goes, to me you have to make a choice between him and Ritola. We have to many grinder type forwards. Ritola is out of options and isnt going back to GR. He'll be with the Wings next season or somewhere else.

3.) I think we sign a 7th defenseman for the minimum such as Janik. Maybe if Lebda wants to come back for the minimum, we give him a look.

4.) We could potentially hand out a $2 million contract to a depth forward to play on the third line. Maybe you can steal Andrew Ladd from Chicago being they are in cap hell.

FORWARDS

Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m)

Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Jiri Hudler ($2.875m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m)

Kris Draper ($1.583m) / * Todd Bertuzzi ($1.500m) / * Tomas Holmstrom ($1.500m)

* Justin Abdelkader ($0.850m) / * Darren Helm ($0.750m) / * Patrick Eaves ($0.650m)

* Mattias Ritola ($0.511m)

DEFENSEMEN

Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) / * Nicklas Lidstrom ($4.500m)

Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m)

Jonathan Ericsson ($0.900m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)

* Doug Janik ($0.500m)

GOALTENDERS

Chris Osgood ($1.417m) / Jimmy Howard ($0.717m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS

ROSTER: 22; PAYROLL: $54.424m; CAP ROOM: $2.376m BONUSES: $0.000m

1) I realize your lines were auto-completed based on salaries, but here are two realistic suggestions for forward lines:

Franzen/Zetterberg/Hudler

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Bertuzzi

Cleary/Filppula/Eaves

Draper/Helm/Abdelkader

Ritola

Filppula/Zetterberg/Franzen

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Eaves

Cleary/Hudler/Bertuzzi

Draper/Helm/Abdelkader

Ritola

2) If the Wings keep one of their current defensemen at the league minimum to be the 7th d-man, it's almost a certainty that it will be Meech. Lebda is out at the end of the postseason, Janik is only in the system as a fill-in. Lilja could get 4x that amount from a lot of teams and possibly a top-four spot on some.

Ian White seems like a good option too.

I have wanted White on the Wings since he was fighting for a third-pair spot in Toronto. Too bad he's an RFA, so we'd have to trade for him, and he would actually cost what he's worth in cap space now.

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

Ian White would be golden, I'd love to get him even if Lidstrom stayed.

[puffy 97]

I'm not sure if you're aware how overpaid and overrated Kaberle is. He's fairly good in the offensive end, but he's atrocious on defense. Don't be fooled by his seeming similarities to Lidstrom in play style; whereas Lidstrom is excellent defensively and compensates for his lack of physicality via an extremely intelligent playing style, Kaberle is a defensively-irresponsible wuss.

He's is NOT worth that sort of trade value, especially given that he has only one year left on his contract and will probably head back east after next season.

Toronto fans can't wait to get rid of him.

WRONG!!! Sorry, but as a former Toronto Maple Leafs fan I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that the majority of Leafs fans actually love Tomas Kaberle.

The key issue here is that the team is going through a re-build! They don't want to get rid of Kaberle but they realize the fact that they NEED to in order to survive. F.Michael was correct when he said that Kaberle has 3-4 good years left and Leafs fans would be foolish to think that he will be part of Burkes "final plan".

Edited May 8, 2010 by puffy

[FunkedUp 29]

link

This is the first time that I've seen, in writing, that Holland wants to resign Bertuzzi. I know Bert wants to return, and I even remember him saying, "I don't know why I ever left in the first place," earlier in the season.

The Wings signed Bertuzzi last summer for $1.5 million, hoping he'd get them 40 points. He came through with 44 and was one of just three Wings to play all 82 games. General manager Ken Holland has said he'd like to re-sign Bertuzzi, and Bertuzzi has said that if he continues to play, he'd want to stay in Detroit.

Reports are indicating Lidstrom will resign. If all this is true, then I'm not anticipating anything different for the Wings next season. Basically, it will be Hudler in and Williams out.

[Guest Lidstromboli]

WRONG!!! Sorry, but as a former Toronto Maple Leafs fan I can confirm without a shadow of a doubt that the majority of Leafs fans actually love Tomas Kaberle.

what happened to being a leafs fan

[eva unit zero 271]

I would love to maybe swap Brad Stuart and Daniel Larsson for Ian White and Greg Nemisz. Throw in a 2nd or 3rd rounder on one side or the other if necessary.

White should get in the range of probably $2.5m-$3.5m for maybe 2-3 years, so that deal would work out nicely for the cap.

[Buppy 1,720]

...

Franzen/Zetterberg/Hudler

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Bertuzzi

Cleary/Filppula/Eaves

Draper/Helm/Abdelkader

Ritola

Filppula/Zetterberg/Franzen

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Eaves

Cleary/Hudler/Bertuzzi

Draper/Helm/Abdelkader

Ritola

...

This is the main reason I don't want both Homer and Bert back next year. The only combos that make much sense give us one good scoring line and 2 mediocre ones. And in NHL terms, 'mediocre' translates to 'gets shut down far too easily'. Datsyuk deserves far better than what you're giving him, and even though either of your 3rd lines could be decent, they'd also have huge potential to suck.

We're not likely to re-create the 3-deep offense from 2008-09. Trying is only going to hurt. Bring Miller back, make 2 solid scoring lines, 2 checking lines. When Draper is done, either someone like Tatar could be ready, or we look for a FA then who maybe has some scoring touch. The only way to get great scoring depth in the cap era is with young guys out-performing their early contracts.

Hudler-Zetterberg-Franzen

Filppula-Datsyuk-Homer or Bert

Eaves-Helm-Cleary

Miller-Abdelkader-Draper/Ritola

Cleary can move to the 2nd line if we need better defense, or a little more jump/speed

That bottom 6 combined for 58 goals this year (though some of it was done playing in the top 6 due to injuries). That isn't bad by any stretch. Our bottom 6 in 08-09 scored 72. That third line might not be as good as Happy-Flip-Sammy, but the 4th is a sizable upgrade over Maltby-Draper-Kopy.

[king_malice 17]

i would not trade Stuart...id rather trade lilja or ericcson before him

[king_malice 17]

Bertuzzi-Zetterberg-Holmstrom/Hudler

Franzen-Dastyuk-Filppula

Cleary-Helm-Hudler/Holmstrom

Eaves-Abdelkader-Ritola

Draper

Rafalski-Stuart

Kronwall-Lidstrom

Ericcson-Coliacovo

Kindl/Lilja

[eva unit zero 271]

This is the main reason I don't want both Homer and Bert back next year. The only combos that make much sense give us one good scoring line and 2 mediocre ones. And in NHL terms, 'mediocre' translates to 'gets shut down far too easily'. Datsyuk deserves far better than what you're giving him, and even though either of your 3rd lines could be decent, they'd also have huge potential to suck.

We're not likely to re-create the 3-deep offense from 2008-09. Trying is only going to hurt. Bring Miller back, make 2 solid scoring lines, 2 checking lines.

If you had read my actual post, you'd have seen that I was using the roster posted, and not what I actually expect. I expect to see exactly what you are stating; one but not both of Homer and Bert returning, as well as Miller returning. For one, that's what the cap allows for. Lines based on that exchange, assuming Homer is the returnee, could be as follows:

Filppula/Zetterberg/Franzen

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Hudler

Cleary/Abdelkader/Miller

Draper/Helm/Eaves

Ritola

Hudler/Zetterberg/Franzen

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Cleary

Eaves/Filppula/Miller

Draper/Helm/Abdelkader

Ritola

Filppula/Zetterberg/Cleary

Holmstrom/Datsyuk/Eaves

Franzen/Hudler/Miller

Draper/Helm/Abdelkader

Ritola

Edited May 8, 2010 by eva unit zero

[Guest Lidstromboli]

Boogard - Rypien - Orr

Carkner - Thornton - Prust

Koci - Konopka - Godard

Parros - Laperriere - May

This will be our team eventually. Get it done Kenny

[titanium2 867]

They certainly could package Hudler and Kindl/Ericsson or Ritola/Bottom Six forward for an unquestionable top-six forward but it's pretty unlikely Holland will do that.

But how will they trim the bottom six? If they were to resign Helm, Abdelkader, Eaves and Miller then they would have at the very least Draper and Ritola as healthy scratches, not to mention the possibility of retaining Maltby and May. Yes I know they're unlikely but just bear with me.

With all the talk about class and whatever, I do have a hard time seeing the Wings simply cutting Maltby loose. Though I do remember that they decided to work with Steve Duchesne in that manner. And what about Brad May? The Wings will always need somebody to keep the flies off and I don't think that's something they can expect from Justin Abdelkader. He's going to want to play as many minutes as he can. How can he do that when he's in the penalty box?

[eva unit zero 271]

They certainly could package Hudler and Kindl/Ericsson or Ritola/Bottom Six forward for an unquestionable top-six forward but it's pretty unlikely Holland will do that.

But how will they trim the bottom six? If they were to resign Helm, Abdelkader, Eaves and Miller then they would have at the very least Draper and Ritola as healthy scratches, not to mention the possibility of retaining Maltby and May. Yes I know they're unlikely but just bear with me.

With all the talk about class and whatever, I do have a hard time seeing the Wings simply cutting Maltby loose. Though I do remember that they decided to work with Steve Duchesne in that manner. And what about Brad May? The Wings will always need somebody to keep the flies off and I don't think that's something they can expect from Justin Abdelkader. He's going to want to play as many minutes as he can. How can he do that when he's in the penalty box?

May is done as a Wing. Maltby has probably already played his last minute as a Wing. Just FYI.

[king_malice 17]

List of upcoming UFA/RFA in 2011 not sure if its updated fully. I highlighted some guys i think would be a good fill in after Lids is gone at least alot more options in 2011 then this off-season

Chara, Zdeno 35

Jovanovski, Ed 36

Markov, Andrei 33

McCabe, Bryan 37

Hamrlik, Roman 38

Hannan, Scott 33

Weber, Shea 26

Brewer, Eric 33

Kaberle, Tomas 34

Pitkanen, Joni 28

Bieksa, Kevin 31

Phillips, Chris 34

Poti, Tom 35

Rivet, Craig 37 B

Salo, Sami 37

Seabrook, Brent 27

Doughty, Drew 22

Ehrhoff, Christin 29

Witt, Brendan 37

Schenn, Luke 22

Preissing, Tom 33

Bogosian, Zach 21

Staios, Steve 38

Sopel, Brent 35

Edited May 8, 2010 by king_malice

[titanium2 867]

The needs of the Wings in my view:

Top six forward.

Right point man on the PP.

More strength and sandpaper within the bottom six.

Bogosian, Zach 21

I kind of wish the Wings could steal him away.

[king_malice 17]

i think the Wings will/do need.

1. Someone to replace Lids when he reitres obviously

2. A Lucic type of player like Bertuzzi in his younger years, someone who wont cost us while he's out there, can scrap and chip in with points ( Abby could be this guy though)

3. A sniper either by trade/draft/in the system already someone who can just put the puck in the net

4. I wouldnt mind i big D man, the West seems to get bigger and bigger every year, so just someone to match up in size and doesnt get pushed around so easily.

[redwings1926 0]

This is my first post on this message board, huge Wings fan. What about getting Alex Tanguary? He would come some what cheap and is only 30 and could play on the third line. Could add some scoring and experince. I wouldn't mind seeing Bert leave, takes a lot of penalites, Homer has had a really good year. Maltby and Draper have to go, sucks, both have been there so long and were great contributers.

[puffy 97]

what happened to being a leafs fan

They Hiroshimad my Nagasaki for way too long.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

The needs of the Wings in my view:

Top six forward.

Right point man on the PP.

More strength and sandpaper within the bottom six.

I kind of wish the Wings could steal him away.

Agreed.Although i like Miller,there are plenty other guys i'd rather have here.