528 replies to this topic

[Majsheppard]

And we're not getting Weber or Doughty! They're both RFAs, and franchise players for their teams.

Weber is obtainable if the Preds don't sign him before July 1st. As an RFA they can match anything, but at a certain point they might rather take the picks. I believe he can be an extremely expensive addition that you might not have been willing to take unless your defense sustains a critical loss, and it is possible that Lids running out of time and Brian retiring could be just that.

I still think the only way to get him is to offer him a good one year contract. The Preds might just realize that they will get nothing better from trading him after matching, and with UFA a year away and Weber taking a one year deal they might know they won't keep him.

You are right he is a franchise player, but remember he might not want to stay. The only way to tell is if you let him become a UFA and any team with some balls can offer him a one year contract that will make that certain.

Doughty, however, is too young for that to be an option.

I think it is far more likely we will go to FA for one addition, and this ensures we keep Ericcson and most likely will overpay him now...

The names thrown around aren't that great to be honest, and no one really fills what we would lose with Brian.

I really don't like this.

[Hockeytown_Ryan]

he def isnt worth 6 mil!!

maybe not his D, but his exp, PP ability and puck movement to our forwards and quick first pass...

48 pts in 62 games, not bad! We have a hole in the defense now. I know Holland did not see this coming.
go to work Kenny!

Thank You Brian......Thank You very much for your service and professionalism.

[e_prime]

he def isnt worth 6 mil!!

Who?

[Carman]

Wow totally didn't see this coming. What a great career Rafalski had, it's a shame injuries did him in. Definitely explains his decline, but he was still a great offensive defenseman without one of his knees.

This offseason is going to be a big one, it will be a major factor in the future of this team. I'm glad we have an owner that will spend

[cjm502]

With Raffi gone I think Lids will be back. I also hope that Ericsson does not get signed. I wouldnt mind if Salei returned. I was not happy our defense this season, this is an opportunity for Kenny to help out the team.

[Majsheppard]

I really don't get all the excitement for him leaving.

Every replacement plan has cons that outweigh the pros. Considering that the amount of time left for us to win with Lidstrom... You just cannot expect this to help us take advantage of a closing window. This truly makes for a rebuilding project, one that I really do not want to do at this stage of the game.

I was expecting him to stick around at least two more years, and get a ton cheaper too. Now we have to spend more money to get someone else who will produce less. Not good.

[10 Minute Misconduct]

We can afford two of Erhoff/Markov/Wiz with Rafalski gone and the cap going up.

[Nightfall]

Keep in mind that Rafalski was 12th in the league in scoring and played only 63 games. Look at his place at the end of the season in total points over the last 5 seasons.

10-11 - 12th
09-10 - 21st
08-09 - 5th
07-08 - 7th
06-07 - 12th

People can knock is defensive game, but he is a point producing machine. I see the same upswing from Brendan Smith as he has the same skillset just in a bigger body.

On a sidenote, I am pretty disgusted with some of the comments here. The "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out" comments in specific. He helped bring a Stanley Cup to Detroit. He took a hometown discount to come play here. A little respect would be in order.

[Wings4Life19]

looked at UFA's on capgeek and I felt like the Wings could afford to give up a bit of offence to help the PK/defensive numbers.

NOTE: I didnt look into weather any of these guys are leaning towards re-signing/retiring/playing overseas/etc....

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m)
Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m)
Rob Niedermayer ($1.000m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.000m)
Fernando Pisani ($0.650m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Drew Miller ($0.800m)
Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Cody McCormick ($0.750m)

DEFENSEMEN
Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) / Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m)
Eric Brewer ($4.500m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m)
Kevin Bieksa ($4.500m) / Anton Babchuk ($1.400m)
Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)

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: $60,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,483,711; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $516,289

[wings_fanatic]

I think the best replacement is simply Andre Markov. Yah, he has had his share of injuries the last 2 seasons... but they both happended from sheer dumb luck. Look at his career... when he is healthy he is one of the best Dmen in the game and he racks up the points and is HUGE on the powerplay for the Habs.

I read that the Habs want to try to sign him for a similar contract to the one he has which is 5.4 million I think, so if the Wings offer up a bit more money I am sure that it could work out and he could come to Hockeytown with a chance to play with Nicklas Lidstrom and his countryman Pavel Datsyuk.

Honestly guys, Erhoff sucks... he can NEVER hit the net and turns the puck over more than Ericson does. Bieska would be my next pick, but I truly think Markov is the Wings' best bet at replacing Brian Rafalski, who was a VERY IMPORTANT part of this team since 2008.

[WorkingOvertime]

Sign Peckham and Ehrhoff. This should give the Wings a good core to build on when Lids retires. Peckham is more physical than anyone the Wings need and he is still young. Ehrhoff can make up some of the puck moving that Raffy was responsible for.

[dragonballgtz]

I'll still be surprised if Holland goes after Weber.



Brewer, Kaberle, Pitkanen, Bieksa, or Wisniewski.
Have your pick... all affordable.

Kaberle needs to stay the f*** away from this team.

I'm thinking Holland will have to go after a higher end player. Maybe someone like Andrei Markov or go crazy and try for Doughty.

Markov is to injury prone.

Edited by dragonballgtz, 23 May 2011 - 06:23 PM.

[Nightfall]

I really don't get all the excitement for him leaving.

Every replacement plan has cons that outweigh the pros. Considering that the amount of time left for us to win with Lidstrom... You just cannot expect this to help us take advantage of a closing window. This truly makes for a rebuilding project, one that I really do not want to do at this stage of the game.

I was expecting him to stick around at least two more years, and get a ton cheaper too. Now we have to spend more money to get someone else who will produce less. Not good.

I agree 100%.

People are excited about getting the money to spend. Its like giving a kid $12, and then taking him to the goodwill store to spend it. There isn't much out on the market right now, so you give the kid $60 more. The kid is giddy over the fact he has more money, but figures out that there isn't anything worth buying at the goodwill store right now. Now substitute goodwill store for free agent market.

There isn't anything like Rafalski or Lidstrom on the market right now.

[cjm502]

Kaberle needs to stay the f*** away from this team.

Amen!

[martyrme19]

Honestly guys, I don't think this is the off season to reinvest the cap space. I see Holland signing a couple D-men to 1, maybe 2 year deals just to tie us over.

There is just simply no one out there that you want to latch yourself onto right now. If we throw big money at the FA pool this year, we are only hurting ourself next year when real decisions need to be made.

I don't think its practical next year to plan for a stanley cup - it may just be a season to coast.

But!

Since everyone else is talking about unrealistic ideas (Weber), I'll take a crack at it:

We trade Hudler for a D-man to a team looking to unload a burden. Hell, hows about Souray? I believe he is an UFA the next season so we can unload him if we want.
Then, we sign Richards.
Then we sign Bryzgalov at a discount cus he wants to win the cup and he is friends with Pav. Then we also trade Howard to colorado for JML. yay!

[e_prime]

I really don't get all the excitement for him leaving.

Every replacement plan has cons that outweigh the pros. Considering that the amount of time left for us to win with Lidstrom... You just cannot expect this to help us take advantage of a closing window. This truly makes for a rebuilding project, one that I really do not want to do at this stage of the game.

I was expecting him to stick around at least two more years, and get a ton cheaper too. Now we have to spend more money to get someone else who will produce less. Not good.

Keep in mind that Rafalski was 12th in the league in scoring and played only 63 games. Look at his place at the end of the season in total points over the last 5 seasons.

10-11 - 12th
09-10 - 21st
08-09 - 5th
07-08 - 7th
06-07 - 12th

People can knock is defensive game, but he is a point producing machine. I see the same upswing from Brendan Smith as he has the same skillset just in a bigger body.

On a sidenote, I am pretty disgusted with some of the comments here. The "Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out" comments in specific. He helped bring a Stanley Cup to Detroit. He took a hometown discount to come play here. A little respect would be in order.

With his knee and back. He was not going to stick around for more than his contract.
Thinking otherwise was wishful at best. It may have been a bad move for him to stick around, even if he signed for less.

I'm not sure that I see the "don't let the door hit ya" comments. (Albeit, Raffi has his haters.)
I do admit to a little excitement to the possibilities that his retirement brings, including the possibility of seeing Smith sooner.

His point production will be missed, certainly.
He did help bring a Cup here. Much props.
A Hometown discount is debatable.

I've got nothing but respect for the guy.

Edited by e_prime, 23 May 2011 - 06:28 PM.

[T-Ruff]

Weird, Eklund had a blog earlier today appended with a blurb about a potential surprise retirement, It read "his retirement will have a huge bearing on the UFA and RFA landscape as well as possibly affecting if one of his teammates retires as well", and the first thing I thought was "This sounds like Rafalski.."

[Matt]

I know that at least for me it wasn't an issue of being "happy" that he is retiring -- but despite his point production you knew that his overall health was going to be a serious factor going forward into next season. When he's healthy he's a $6-million defenseman, but when he's not -- and lingering issues this season lead one to believe that he would continue to deteriorate -- he's a major strain on the Red Wings' flexibility.

Looking forward to the offseason, it'll be interesting. One new factor to consider too is that Holland won't be saddled with salary-for-salary player trades. He can afford to take on higher salary players due to the cap space. So the answer may not come via free agency, but by trade.

A Hometown discount is debatable.

It's not. He was offered more than Detroit's $6-million when he hit free agency. (It might've been the Devils to try to keep him at around $6.5-million, but I haven't looked back to confirm.) Regardless, he absolutely took a lower offer to play here. It was a big point made in the press when he signed here.

[Jedi]

Wow, that is some unexpected news.

Certainly gives Holland a lot of money to play with, to match the large roster hole that will be left. At the very least, it makes sure that we're in for a busier free agent season than we originally expected.

[e_prime]

It's not. He was offered more than Detroit's $6-million when he hit free agency. (It might've been the Devils to try to keep him at around $6.5-million, but I haven't looked back to confirm.) Regardless, he absolutely took a lower offer to play here. It was a big point made in the press when he signed here.

I stand corrected.