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MacK_Attack

Brian Rafalski announces retirement after 11 NHL seasons

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Sad to see Rafa go, hell of a career

Ericcsson wants money but he hasn't done enough for me to care about resigning him, bring up Smith, sign Bieksa and Brad Richards

Smith is nowhere near Red Wings ready. I'd give him at least another year in Grand Rapids and call him up as a legitimate Black Ace.

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Well now... this certainly presents an opportunity! So Rafi's $ is 6m, and Hudler's is 2.875$, and we would like to re-sign Lids at 5 or 5.5m$, and the cap is supposed go up at least 1m$ right? That should give us around 9m$ to play with. I would go big and take a run at Richards and Bieksa. Richards at 5m$ for 6 yrs and Bieksa at 3.8m$ for 5 years. Both are under 35 so there's not too much risk with the contracts and I think Bieksa is an upgrade over Rafi anyways. The Kronner/Bieksa pairing would be great as Bieksa could stay back and allow Kronner to rush more as he's our best rushing D'man anyways. Lids/Stuart and then Ericsson/? (Wisnewski would be nice!). Oh, and just trade(give away) Hudler for a pick... and I don't care which round it's in. He's as useless as **** on a bull.

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We never do it, but you see all the other teams do it and their players end up alright after the first year or two. If Brendan Smith is really as good as we all know he is, than bringing him up this year to play third pairing minutes, should not be a hinderance on his development. If anything it's a trial by fire upbringing. Look at Jack Johnson, Drew Doughty, Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Erik Johnson, etc... These guys are all coming into their own, some more than others at this point, but they are all showing they can handle the big league pressure, so what's to say Brendan can't? He would do well to learn from Lidstrom hands on, and bring some youthful enthusiasm to the back end. I am all fine with having him play, but you HAVE to have him play consistently, and either let Kindl play and have a FA be our 7th d-man or have Kindl be that guy again and spot play when a player needs rest or discipline.

Just saying...

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We never do it, but you see all the other teams do it and their players end up alright after the first year or two. If Brendan Smith is really as good as we all know he is, than bringing him up this year to play third pairing minutes, should not be a hinderance on his development. If anything it's a trial by fire upbringing. Look at Jack Johnson, Drew Doughty, Shea Weber, Ryan Suter, Erik Johnson, etc... These guys are all coming into their own, some more than others at this point, but they are all showing they can handle the big league pressure, so what's to say Brendan can't? He would do well to learn from Lidstrom hands on, and bring some youthful enthusiasm to the back end. I am all fine with having him play, but you HAVE to have him play consistently, and either let Kindl play and have a FA be our 7th d-man or have Kindl be that guy again and spot play when a player needs rest or discipline.

Just saying...

agree 100%, PK Subban is another one, throw them in and let them play and learn that way

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Well now... this certainly presents an opportunity! So Rafi's $ is 6m, and Hudler's is 2.875$, and we would like to re-sign Lids at 5 or 5.5m$, and the cap is supposed go up at least 1m$ right? That should give us around 9m$ to play with. I would go big and take a run at Richards and Bieksa. Richards at 5m$ for 6 yrs and Bieksa at 3.8m$ for 5 years. Both are under 35 so there's not too much risk with the contracts and I think Bieksa is an upgrade over Rafi anyways. The Kronner/Bieksa pairing would be great as Bieksa could stay back and allow Kronner to rush more as he's our best rushing D'man anyways. Lids/Stuart and then Ericsson/? (Wisnewski would be nice!). Oh, and just trade(give away) Hudler for a pick... and I don't care which round it's in. He's as useless as **** on a bull.

You are trying to tell us that Richards at $5 million would be even a remote possibility? That's laughable at best as this guy was among the top point producers the past two seasons and was previously making over $7 million. Why would he take a $2+ million paycut when he can just as simply go to a contender who will pay him at least what he makes now?

Same can be said for Bieksa, he'll be looking at minimal to potentially hefty pay-increase after his playoff performance this year and possibly winning a SC.

Wisniewski is a more likly pickup for Holland. He will come at around $4 million, is right handed, is under 30 but has an uptick in point production, and is fairly responsible defensively. Nothing Babs and the new D-coach can't work out once he arrives. Oh and I know this is over-used, but he is a Michigan native. He played for the Whalers and was actually the Captain back in 03-04, so me thinks he has some leadership qualities at least that could contribute to our locker-room.

I'm not the wiz on this guy though, so if someone can school me on this information mash-up, have at it.

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Guest Heaten

I find it highly unlikely that Holland would let four 1st round picks get away for Weber.

I also find it highly unlikely Nashville let their franchise player go...

That said, maybe Holland can work some magic to discourage Nashville from matching due to their internal cap. Front load the contract @ $20 million for the first 2 years, then taper it off so it comes out to about an $8 million cap hit. I am kinda thinking $8 million is too much for Weber, but with the cap going up, it could be a fair price in 2 years (compared to what the market will become)

5 year deal:

$10

$10

$8.5

$7

$6

($41.5 for 5 years)

Cap hit: $8.3

That said, I still can't see Holland willing to let his draft picks go. He said it before, drafting is gold in the Nu:NHL. I don't expect to see Weber wearing red and white anytime soon.

Though it would be killer if Lidstrom played for one more year, sign Weber to the scenario above, and then land Suter next season. So our top paring would be: Weber/Suter for 2012/2013

Edited by Heaten

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Smith could not do any worse then Salei did this season so why the hell not, im all for getting some young guys into the line-up, im tired of having 26 yr old rookies. I know everyone likes leaving these guys down in GR but you can only get so good and learn so many things playing with guys at the AHL level, if we want guys like Smith,Kindl,Murisak,Tatar,Emmerton,McCollum to improve they need to be playing and practicing with the big boys.

Lets go with this were younger and if things don't workout it leaves just over 3MILL to make some moves at the deadline

FORWARDS

Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m)

Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Jiri Hudler ($2.875m)

Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Tomas Tatar ($0.840m)

Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m)

Cory Emmerton ($0.533m)

DEFENSEMEN

Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Nick Lidstrom ($5.900m)

Christian Ehrhoff ($4.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m)

Shane O'brien ($1.900m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)

Brendan Smith ($0.875m)

GOALTENDERS

Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Thomas McCollum ($0.816m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)

(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)

SALARY CAP: $59,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $56,223,710; BONUSES: $260,000

CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $3,176,290

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Guest Crymson

Smith could not do any worse then Salei did this season so why the hell not

Yes, he could.

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Guys.....lets be real here.

Let's assume the following:

*Hudler will return next season

*Weber will resign with the Preds

*Bieksa & Erhoff will resign with Vancouver (Salo will not be brought back freeing up money)

*Montreal will resign Markov, Gil & Sopel

That leaves the Wings this group of Defensemen to go after.

Jovanovski

McCabe

Hamerlik

Hannan

Kaberle

Pitkanen

Rivet

Salo

Wisniewski

White, Ian

Wallin

O'Brien

Would you guys be OK with Wisniewski @ 4 years; $3.75m per year & Pitkanen @ 3 years; $4.15m per year?

Lidstrom-Stuart

Pitkanen - Kronwall

Wisniewski - Kindl

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Would you guys be OK with Wisniewski @ 4 years; $3.75m per year & Pitkanen @ 3 years; $4.15m per year?

Lidstrom-Stuart

Pitkanen - Kronwall

Wisniewski - Kindl

Love the part with Wiz in it. Get Pitkanen the hell out of there though. The love that dude is getting on these boards is super unwarranted currently. But hey, we all love looking for our next whipping boy but there is always Kindl and *gasp* Hudler still?!?!

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Yes, he could.

Agreed. Salei wasn't great, but it's not like he was a wasted signing. Just easy to be the whipping boy when you're likely on your way out.

Watching Smith the handful of times I did, I don't see him as NHL-ready let alone Red Wings ready. He improved markedly throughout the season, but it's not a matter of 'over-ripening' - it's a matter of professionalism.

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Guest Heaten

Smith could not do any worse then Salei did this season

Did you go to any Griffins games? Smith isn't very good defensively, makes a lot of bone head mistakes and has been known to take bad penalties. Unless Smith has a monsterous camp, he's gonna be in GR next season. Even if he does have a monster camp, I still expect him to be in Grand Rapids. They guy is really overrated right now. I know he is projected to become great, but I don't see him to become a better defenseman than Kronwall is now. But if he is a Kronwall 2.0 (in the skill department), then that is fine by me. But he isn't the savior of this team.

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Love the part with Wiz in it. Get Pitkanen the hell out of there though. The love that dude is getting on these boards is super unwarranted currently. But hey, we all love looking for our next whipping boy but there is always Kindl and *gasp* Hudler still?!?!

Pitkanen for the right price could be a huge deal, he would fill an offensive defenseman slot pretty well, hes young, and i dont know if you've ever seen him but hes not too shabby in his own end. Pair him with a more defensive defenseman signing and the combo could fill both the wings needs on the back end, and with Rafi's cap hit off the books, will do it for close to what the wings are saving with him retiring.

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Guys.....lets be real here.

Let's assume the following:

*Hudler will return next season

*Weber will resign with the Preds

*Bieksa & Erhoff will resign with Vancouver (Salo will not be brought back freeing up money)

*Montreal will resign Markov, Gil & Sopel

That leaves the Wings this group of Defensemen to go after.

Jovanovski

McCabe

Hamerlik

Hannan

Kaberle

Pitkanen

Rivet

Salo

Wisniewski

White, Ian

Wallin

O'Brien

Would you guys be OK with Wisniewski @ 4 years; $3.75m per year & Pitkanen @ 3 years; $4.15m per year?

Lidstrom-Stuart

Pitkanen - Kronwall

Wisniewski - Kindl

I'm not crazy about signing Wisniewski, personally. Seems like he gets himself in trouble a little more than I'd like. I've never been a huge fan of Ian White, but he's played well with San Jose. Kaberle is an attractive name, but hasn't really lived up to all the hype as of late.

Anyone like White / O'Brien as 2nd (or 3rd) and 4th (or 5th) D-men?

Edited by Travis

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The Detroit Free Press has a little poll of who Holland should go after for a replacement....Kevin Bieska is in the lead with...JOVO RIGHT BEHIND HIM <_<

Freep story and poll

Bieska with 43% and Jovo with 36%...followed by Kaberle with 8%

I really don't understand the attraction with Ed Jovanovski? Even Helene St. James, who wrote the article, seems to think its a good idea.

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I would rather go with Wisniewski & Montador (costs a little less - still can put up 30+ pts).

That would give us two right handed shots on defense which is one more than we've seen the past several seasons. I'm not sure what kind of shot Montador has from the point, but I am pretty sure Wiz has a good hard shot that is also deflectable.

Other right handers available would be:

Bieksa, Salo, Rivet, White, Staios, Sopel, Martinek, Babchuk.

Bieksa is the only standout, White is intriguing but some on here say he is terrible defensively, Babchuk would be an interesting pick-up (he could quarterback the PP)

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The Detroit Free Press has a little poll of who Holland should go after for a replacement....Kevin Bieska is in the lead with...JOVO RIGHT BEHIND HIM <_<

Yeah, I saw that earlier. Kind of proving the actual amount of hockey people have watched as of late; he is just a name. In round 1 he looked absolutely worthless out there. The Bieksa thing is legit, though. Just hope that this doesn't produce a gross overpayment, which it's almost certain to do.

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It's official.

http://redwings.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=563626

This SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!!

:crybaby:

This whole "discussing his playing future," even though it's all but been confirmed that he's retiring signals to me that he will be immediately moving to the front office in some capacity.

The really intersting thought, that some will hate to hear, is could he be a candidate for assistant coach? Haha! This would warrant the smoke-screen that Kenny is putting up around his retirement tomorrow.

Bring on the hate!

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CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS

Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m)

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

Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m)

Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.000m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m)

Tomas Fleischmann ($3.000m)

DEFENSEMEN

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

Nicklas Lidstrom ($5.500m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)

James Wisniewski ($3.950m) / Joni Pitkanen ($4.400m)

GOALTENDERS

Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Chris Osgood ($0.750m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)

(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)

SALARY CAP: $62,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,958,711; BONUSES: $0

CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $2,041,289

So you have 13 forwards and 6 defensemen with just over 2 mill left in cap space to spend on a 7th d and call ups and what not. If we had this lineup personally i would run these lines...

Fil- Dats- Homer

Huds- Z- Cleary

Franzen- Fleish- Bert

Eaves- Helm- Abby (Mursak)

Mursak can be subbed in for any of Abby, Eaves or even Big bert to give some much needed rest for older players. As well there will almost always be an injured therefore we wont have 13 healthy forwards.

My D-core would be paired as this...

Lidstrom- Pitkanen

Kronwall-Kindl

Stuart- Wiz

How do you guys feel about this lineup? I know we dont add much size up front but we do add speed with mursak and a ton of good skill with Fleishman. On the back end we add depth and a physical presence in Wiz, while we add the skill, puck moving ability, and pp play in pitkanen to try and replace what we lose in Rafalski. what do you think?

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This is how I can see next years team.

Zetterburg-Datsyuk-Homer

Franzen-Filppula-Bert

Cleary-Helm-Hudler

Mursak-Abs-Eaves

O Reserves: Miller, Draper

Lidstrom-Stuart

Pitkanen-Kronwall

Wisniewski-Kindl

D Reserve: ?

Howard; Budaj

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CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS

Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m)

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

Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m)

Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.000m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m)

Tomas Fleischmann ($3.000m)

DEFENSEMEN

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

Nicklas Lidstrom ($5.500m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)

James Wisniewski ($3.950m) / Joni Pitkanen ($4.400m)

GOALTENDERS

Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Chris Osgood ($0.750m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)

(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)

SALARY CAP: $62,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,958,711; BONUSES: $0

CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $2,041,289

So you have 13 forwards and 6 defensemen with just over 2 mill left in cap space to spend on a 7th d and call ups and what not. If we had this lineup personally i would run these lines...

Fil- Dats- Homer

Huds- Z- Cleary

Franzen- Fleish- Bert

Eaves- Helm- Abby (Mursak)

Mursak can be subbed in for any of Abby, Eaves or even Big bert to give some much needed rest for older players. As well there will almost always be an injured therefore we wont have 13 healthy forwards.

My D-core would be paired as this...

Lidstrom- Pitkanen

Kronwall-Kindl

Stuart- Wiz

How do you guys feel about this lineup? I know we dont add much size up front but we do add speed with mursak and a ton of good skill with Fleishman. On the back end we add depth and a physical presence in Wiz, while we add the skill, puck moving ability, and pp play in pitkanen to try and replace what we lose in Rafalski. what do you think?

I don't think it's wise to put Fleischmann on a team that already employs the likes of Hudler and Filppula... it's just asking for trouble. If you are trading Hudler away and bring in Fleish, then that would be fine as you would be upgrading the position there. You're putting too many guys who have skill together and not really bringing any bangers.

I like Wiz, as I have said numerous times because I think he can put up 50+ points consistently and be a PP staple here. He also seems to play with a little bit of an edge that we could mold into a more disciplined style. Pitkanen, I'm not as sold on. He's young, but has had his ups and downs. He seems to be okay but another left handed shot? I mean if you are going to pay him 4.4 million, wouldn't you rather make a strong push for Bieksa for that same amount? Or you could save money on someone like Montador, Salo, Sopel, etc... since they'll more than likely be a 5-6-7 d-man. If Salei can fit in on the third pairing and do an okay job, I'm pretty sure any of those FA's can do the same, if not better.

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This is not the year to retire, based on the FA talent pool. There just isn't a lot out there, and unfortunately those few players that are available will be high in demand and be subject to a bidding war that will drive up the cost to acquire them.

I wonder if there are any stud defensemen in the draft this year that Holland could trade up to grab.

Adam Larsson :thumbup:

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This is how I can see next years team.

Zetterburg-Datsyuk-Homer

Franzen-Filppula-Bert

Cleary-Helm-Hudler

Mursak-Abs-Eaves

O Reserves: Miller, Draper

Lidstrom-Stuart

Pitkanen-Kronwall

Wisniewski-Kindl

D Reserve: ?

Howard; Budaj

Really?!? Budaj?!?

He is a terrible goalie, even as a back-up. For the same amount of money, you could potentially get:

Hedberg, Osgood, Turco, Conklin, Harding, Theodore, Auld... even Nabokov possibly.

All of these guys are better than Budaj and I would much rather see them backing up Jimmy.

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