Who's going to replace Lidstrom for next season

[Guest mindfly]

It's summer and boredom is killing us all, i was just thinking on who's gonna replace lidstrom when he retires, he will free up alot of space.. i can only think of a few worthy young replacements, they can't just hope ericsson will become a superstar all of a sudden, what's the Free agent class for next summer?

-Weber

-Doughty

Both are RFA though and Nashville even though they're a poor club will probably match anyway, but what if detroit offers him a 10year deal 8million early on and a caphit of 6.8 or something... Doughty will probably get a massive deal too...

Edited July 25, 2010 by mindfly

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Shea Weber

Brent Seabrook

Drew Doughty

Zdeno Chara

My #1 choice would be Shea Weber.I'd really like to see Ian White in a Wings uniform.

[blgillett 48]

No one! Nick Lidstrom's just don't grow on trees. Someone might take his roaster spot but no one will replace him!!,

[Guest Four]

Weber will be a Nashville franchise player.. Doughty would be good though!

[Guest mindfly]

Yeah but White doesn't even have 1/5 of lidstrom's abilities, gotta sign a future star D-amn tbh, with many years in the league left, Chara is getting up there 33 years old and have a massive contract already?

[Guest DatsyukianDeke13]

You can't exactly replace one of the best defensemen off all time

[Guest mindfly]

You wouldn't notice it as much with a Weber/Doughty, some areas of the game would even be better, like down low around the boards, harder slapshot albeit maybe not as accurate, maybe not as possisionally sound...

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

I believe Tim Gleason will be an unrestricted free agent next summer.

[mjlegend 155]

Kyle Quincey anyone?

This is a position that can be addressed via a trade for a team in loads of cap trouble. IE, we send prospects to Chicago, they send us a Keith or a Seabrook. We'll have $6.2 million in cap room if he retires next season, and #1 D isn't a position you want to cheap out on.

[BUHdactyl 23]

I'd love to have Doughty but there's no chance LA lets him go. As for Weber, there's no denying his skill, but even if we could somehow pry him from Nashville I honestly can't stand the guy. I know I'm in the minority here, but he's dirty and every time we play against him he looks like he's trying to injure someone. Having a prick on your team can be cool, and often easy to forgive since his actions benefit your team, but I'd have a hard time supporting that kind of play. If he toned it down a bit, as in playing rough but not with a demonic snarl and the intent to injure burning in his eyes, I'd be all for it. That and he would help our blue line immensely, but he wouldn't replace Lidstrom anywhere near as well as Doughty would IMO since the question is who is going to replace Lidstrom, not who is going to fill the massive hole in our defense.

Unfortunately Lids is one of a kind and the days of running with 2 good pairings and one s*** pairing are over. We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope our prospects are skilled enough to form a really solid 6-man D. Smith, Kindl, Kolosov, Pyett... whoever else. Hopefully they don't end up sucking like Ericsson seems to be.

[pucktividi 472]

Who wouldn't love to watch Weber or Doughty in the Wings sweater?

But Holland will probably bring us some offensive minded guy like Markov

[Guest mindfly]

Replace Lidstrom with a 32year old already reeched max potential and have 4..maybe 5 good years left? Injury prone too... err not likely.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Markov is far too injury prone.I want Ed Jovanovski or Keith Yandle.

[Guest mindfly]

Markov is far too injury prone.I want Ed Jovanovski or Keith Yandle.

I want a top10 defenseman in the league, not over 30years old.

[Jesusberg 1,256]

There's pretty much no way to replace Lidstrom, but next year's pool of defenders is pretty deep.

UFA:

Chara

Markov

Kaberle

Pitkanen

McCabe

Jovonovski

Ehrhoff

RFA:

Doughty

Weber

Bogosian

Johnson

Yandle

Any of those guys would lessen the blow of losing Lidstrom, but I feel as if some of them will already be locked up before Detroit even gets a sniff. I'd love to grab any of those RFA's, and a guy like Chara, Markov or Kaberle would look pretty good in a Wings jersey too.

Once again, no one is going to replace Lidstrom, but someone from this list could surely help out.

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Kevin Bieksa would be a solid pickup for Detroit.Is this Rafalski's last year of his contract too?

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

Shea Weber in a Wings uniform would be awesome.

[Original-Six 254]

Who ever said Lidstrom was even going to retire after this season?

[chrisdetroit 189]

Who ever said Lidstrom was even going to retire after this season?

Wings (with Modano) will win the Cup in June, 2011 and Nick will announce his retirement shortly thereafter. He wants to go out on top, that's why he is coming back this year. He hasn't "accomplished everything that he wants".

[Guest mindfly]

He wants that 5th cup and become the swede with most cups (along with holmstrom) islanders had a couple of swedes during their dynasty so like 4 players with 4 cups from sweden atm

Edited July 25, 2010 by mindfly

[Drake_Marcus 890]

You wouldn't notice it as much with a Weber/Doughty, some areas of the game would even be better, like down low around the boards, harder slapshot albeit maybe not as accurate, maybe not as possisionally sound...

Don't underestimate Lidstrom's impact. There simply isn't a defenseman in the NHL right now who can dominate like Lidstrom did in his prime years.

It's impossible to replace a player who's consistently mentioned as being one of the top 2 or 3 players to play his position in the history of the game (and I can't believe anyone would rank him lower than 2nd, only Bobby Orr consistently dominated his position more thoroughly than Lidstrom).

[Bring Back The Bruise Bros 1,029]

Indeed.Can't replace Nicklas Lidstrom.But there's plenty of talented defensemen that could be available next summer.Losing him will be a huge blow

[Guest mindfly]

Don't underestimate Lidstrom's impact. There simply isn't a defenseman in the NHL right now who can dominate like Lidstrom did in his prime years.

It's impossible to replace a player who's consistently mentioned as being one of the top 2 or 3 players to play his position in the history of the game (and I can't believe anyone would rank him lower than 2nd, only Bobby Orr consistently dominated his position more thoroughly than Lidstrom).

What I really meant was "replacing him in the best possible way" there are nice dmen who can do a very good job so that the team won't get destroyed after lidstrom retires...

[Original-Six 254]

What I really meant was "replacing him in the best possible way" there are nice dmen who can do a very good job so that the team won't get destroyed after lidstrom retires...

yeah but the chances of us landing one of those nice dmen are like 1 in a billion.

[Guest mindfly]

Replacing lidstrom will be the biggest challenge for Holland in his GM-career and he must score a jack pot or the wings would be in a dangerous situation.