251 replies to this topic

[sleepwalker]

Good signing at a good price. No complaints here.


I can't believe we're giving Ericsson more money than White... lol Ridiculous.

[Cali-Wing-Nut]

We have Bobby Orr. His name is Nick Lidstrom

Nicky, Kron and Stewie need some real pairings.

Kindl is a solid bottom pairing and could be a 2nd pairing in an emergency.

Merzzy is a bottom pairing but we could run him a full season and be happy.

As far as Erhoff is concerned, I never wanted him.

As far as the bad blood goes with Wiz, every man hs his price and his snub sounded to me like he was offered a joke of a contract. Conjecture about his family being let go with a pink slip stapled to his last check is one thing but hockey players first need a job and second want to win at their present job. He knew he had a good chance to win here but also knew that hes a pro hockey player that deserves a good paycheck.

Nobody even talks about trading with other teams just FAs. We have a deep list of forwards that are definitely worth something to another team. Not just the starters but our GR guys as well. Culling the herd and grabbing up a signed player or two isnt that bad of an idea.

Holland reminds me of my dad, stuck in a certain decade and stuck in his routine. Thats when you know you need to retire and let the kids play without you.

White is an affordable guy but he is doing nothing for our team to replace Raffy. Ericcson is definitely not replacing Raffy even if he gets his spot on the rotation. We are grabbing up a lot of bottom or third pairing players, no one that is a starter or someone that will fill anyones shoes as Nick retires and other guys move up to newer spots.

So Ill say it again Holland is a carp. Hes bottom feeding all the leftover Dmen. Its a waste of money and makes me question how well our D is going to be.

We woulda won the cup last year if we had healthy Dmen. The injuries to our Forwards could have ben dealt with but we had too many GA due to shoddy D which was a result of injuries and sub par replacements.

Im expecting similar results this season, I hope I wrong.

[UKWING]

good signing by holland and a great price too.

white is not as good as a healthy rafalski, but he is much better than the rafalski that we saw in this year's playoffs.

now if the wings could just manage to shift hudler, they would have the space (and plenty of $$) for the top 6 forward they need.

[Jusek]

[Heinz]

I am quite happy with our Free Agent activities so far. Obviously White and Commodore don't replace Rafalski, but both come at a very good price with short term contracts. So not much risk there. The FA Pool didnt really offer much this year, so there is no sense at all in signing a and badly overpaying an average guy to a 6 or 7 year contract and thereby making us unable to act in next years free agency, where we might find someone worth to spend big $ on and who would a much better fit than the top FAs this year.

[xtrememachine1]

He was pretty good in SJ's system which is very similar to ours. This is a great signing especially at that price. His style of play fits our system.

[ben_usmc]

Yet you didnt name Kindl.

Im well know for hating Ericcson. And we signed him

I actually made comments about picking up Wiz back in January thinking that would be a good grab, wouldnt pay him.

Im no bandwagon fan sir. What Holland is picking up now is a result of his lack of dealing earlier on.

RFAs are overpriced ie: Weber. UFAs need a bit of wooing and at the very least a good reason to consider the job. Holland isnt doing a good job of wooing .


We shall see how things play out but I have a bad feeling about our defense.

The only other dman of any merit who wasn't overrpaid this off season was Eric Brewer. I think Holland got the most bang for his buck as far as defensive spending (White, Commy, Big Rig). I say this and I HATE Ercissons contract but in respect to the entire situation we are better defensivily than we were last year, younger and bigger. Plus we don't know how much of a negative effect McCrimmon had on our defense and with a new D coach a lot of people will probably be quite pleased. Like I said last page though, I'd love for a big mean son of a *****, if that happens, helm/Murzak/Abby will be running people through the freakin boards.

[Z Winged Dangler]

You don't know anything about hockey, do you? Leafs fans, and especially Sharks fans LOVED having White. He's a very, very solid d-man and for this price, it's an absolute steal. Terrific signing, one of the best of the FA period considering how short the term is and how cheap the amount is.

and he can play the PP... and now we have more than one right handed defenceman for the first time in a decade or so... and yes, this is a good price and leafs fans were choked to see him leave cause he was one of the only dmen that earned his paycheck in TO. good signing as far as i'm concerned. and we don't need to replace rafalski, we need grit (commodore) and puck moving (white) so good job by holland. now dump hudler and i'm happy.

and another big plus is that he has a style that'll fit in with the wings pretty easy i think. but that's just my opinion.

Edited by Z Winged Dangler, 03 July 2011 - 10:00 AM.

[esteef]

Merzzy is a bottom pairing but we could run him a full season and be happy.

Who the hell is Merzzy?

esteef

[Rivalred]

So the one mustache that we lost and went to Ottawa has been replaced?

Edited by Rivalred, 03 July 2011 - 01:20 PM.

[wings1110]

Well said. You gotta love a guy that's 5'10" and fights....that's heart and character.

he rarely fights, like red wings rarely, thats veryf****** rarely.

[The Noodle 39]

I like both signings of White and Commodore! Solid stuff I know everyone wants to replace Rafalski but you cant... IMO this can be a good thing cause Kronwall gets more ice time and he is our second best defensemen and i think is really coming on! Our D is solid and Erricson may surprise us guys! I think our D is set i want another forward and i think thats what we need maybe at the deadline we could add a goal scoring forward? Thats what we really need cause yes our whole team is solid but sometimes we have a hard time scoring goals in the playoffs and it would be nice to have a legit goal scorer but that is not in our cards this free agency but hopefully at the deadline? I think our D is solid and our goalie Howard good enough back there we need someone who can SCORE! Because we have too many playmakers on our team and no goal scorers lol. I like our team and there playmaking ability just wish we could fit in a brett hull like player in there heh be nice.

Edited by The Noodle 39, 03 July 2011 - 02:07 PM.

[Cali-Wing-Nut]

..

Edited by Cali-Wing-Nut, 03 July 2011 - 02:45 PM.

[SwedeLundin77]

he rarely fights, like red wings rarely, thats veryf****** rarely.

Because fighting a ton wins you games? The correlation is as outdated as disco.

[newfy]

he rarely fights, like red wings rarely, thats veryf****** rarely.

White is actually a pretty physical player though and can handle himself in a fight. He will be one of the first guys to back up a teammate and jump into a scrum, something the wings could definitely use. He will clear the crease too which is niec to have. Definitely not a big bruiser but hes no ***** either.

Add Commodore on top of that with Stuart already and the wings defense is quite a bit tougher this year

[Cali-Wing-Nut]

Who the hell is Merzzy?

esteef

I meant Smith, I was talking with my brother at the same time about Merzack and typed his name instead of Smiths. My apologies.

Im only happy about White in that we have a right handed shot.

Hear me out why Im upset about some of these signings. We are assured to lose Nick next year and as such we need a veteran to lead the defense (Nick does that and some ). Once he is gone who could you look to on the D for that after hes gone?

Second is that we needed to bolster our size, Ericcson may be physically large but hes proven that hes unwilling to use it. Commie is a step in the right direction but Ericcson wasnt the answer to that issue.

Third we need blue line scorers. We have none after Nick is gone. We shall see if White can run the point as effectively as Raffy did, I know Pylon sure as hell wont.

We need two-three guys that embody two of these three traits: Speed, Strength, Leadership. Nick and Raffy held on to the first and last of those traits, Kronner the first two. E doesnt embody any, Stewie the last two. Kindl the first two.

I dunno about White and Commie till I see them in our system. We need some leaders to reassemble a core that is retiring and picking up guys cause theyre cheap isnt gonna get us where we need to go. Its a stopgap method of just getting by till later.

My other issue is that Holland still has 16m in cap space, who the hell is he trying to pick up by penny pinching on our defense??? If Huds and Flip are gonna get moved we better be getting someone that meets or exceeds Dats skills for that kind of space to be left open.

[Agalloch93]

This is the greatest thing I've ever seen.

[Hockeytown0001]

Pavel - "Hey White, remember that one game where I schooled you and made you look like a fool? Good times."

[wingsfanincan]

I saw White a lot with the Leafs and thought he was pretty good on a lousy team. Don't know why Calgary and Carolina gave up on him but he looked good with the Sharks last year.

As for his attitude, which some said was lousy as a junior player, a writer for the San Jose Mercury wrote recently that he was the first player he ever recalled who went out of his way at the end of the season to say goodbye to the PR staff and the writers who were around.

In any case, the price was right. You don't want a bunch of expensive long-term contracts when the current CBA expires especially if the the NFL and NBA owners hammer out hard caps with their players. That would mean the NHL owners would want similar concessions and a much lower cap. I can believe how much some NHL teams paid long-term for average players. I guess it was because of the law of supply and demand and because the minimum cap is now $48 million forcing poorer teams to spend money.

[Hockeytown0001]