Emmerton, Mursak or Jarnkrok will NOT be replacing Abdelkader anytime soon...sorry, your 3rd line is a pipedream...Plus Abdelkader is far better than Emmerton or Mursak. Other than that, I like your team, but the more Semin gets demoted, the less I like him. Also, too much money for Lidstrom and not enough for Suter or Parise, unless they sign 10 year contracts.
Bottom line is, Lidstrom needs to tell Holland he will take what's left after going HARD after Suter and Parise and offering them the world to finish their career's here...THEN and ONLY THEN should Lidstrom consider re-signing. No way Holland gets EITHER of Parise or Suter if he waits on Lidstrom and then gives him $6.2M ($4.5M is also too much) again...Nick needs to do right by his fans and this team...retire or take the HUGE paycut to insure the teams future as perennial contenders... without Suter and Parise, they won't be.
1) my whole post is a pipedream. none of this crap is going to really happen. we'll roll out the exact same crappy team next season that we have for the last three seasons.
2) what is it about abdelkader that is "better" than anyone else?
3) agree on lidstrom...that's what should happen. but no, we will give him probably 6.0 mil for another season. and give homer another 1.5 so nick has someone to carpool with.
LOL Abby, Eaves and Kindl are just gone like that? Plus, who is going to trade for Cleary and Bert? I'm assuming those are salary dump deals. An entire line of players that has very little NHL experience doesn't seem like something Holland would do. Its fine that you come up with these plans and rosters and lines, but the theme of this is thread is "what would Ken Holland really do?". I don't see him trading Bert, Cleary, Eaves and Kindl and just letting Abdelkader go. I also don't see us signing both Parise AND Suter. One other thing you're not taking into account is that Filppula, White and Howard will all be UFA's next summer. Datsyuk will be a UFA the year after that. If we're signing all these players for multi-year contracts and spending up to the cap, how do we retain these other players going forward? Its not as easy as, "we can mathematically fit them onto our team next year so let's do it". Its unfortunately a lot more difficult than that which is why Holland will have a tough time this summer.
1a) let abby walk. 1b) trade kindl and eaves for whatever prospects/picks you can get...or for absolutely nothing if you can't get anything...or just put them through waivers and let them make their money in grand rapids next year if you have to.
2) exact same deal for cleary and bert.
3) no, holland wouldn't do that. holland won't do anything. he'll just roll out the exact same crappy team again in another desperate attempt to maintain the status quo that's been dwindling since bowman left.
4) lidstrom finally retiring gives us cap space to pay their raises.
You don't ask the 7 time Norris trophy winning captain and face of the franchise to take a HUGE paycut. Maybe he just makes $5.5 this year or $5, but anything less, unless suggested by Lidstrom himself, is insulting. I mean, I understand he didn't have a great year, but he didn't have a great year in 2004 either. Everybody's numbers were down this year and he was no exception. If Lidstrom decides against retirement, Holland needs to give him a Lidstrom worthy contract.
As for being with Suter and Parise, they're not getting both. That's not realistic. As I mentioned in another thread, someone will drastically overpay for Parise and he'll be out of our price range. Suter's a defenseman and defense is really going high the past couple years, so it wouldn't surprise me to see him get out of our range too. For them to come here, we would need them to WANT to be here. If they chase the money, we'll have neither.
Realistic moves by Holland would be signing Scott Hannan, a defensive minded defenseman that helped Calgary's PK this past season. Michal Rozsival, a puck moving defenseman with good hockey sense. Maybe they get Matt Carle from Philly. Dominic Moore, a good two way center with some offensive upside. Sammy Pahlsson or maybe we go after Paul Gaustad since we saw first hand how effective he can be in the playoffs. Maybe they take a chance on Brad Boyes, a former 40 goal scorer, I'd imagine he'd come cheap. These are the types of moves Holland will realistically make. Its not Holland's style, since the cap was put in place, to go after the crown jewels of the free agency class. It IS his style to go after low priced players and get a lot out of them.
boy, isn't that an exciting team with stanley cup potential!!
to hell with lidstrom's mega-millionaire feelings.
i love Lids, but if he does intend on signing for another season he should do the Org a fav and take a big paycut. How would it go down if Lids demands $6m again and we lose out on Suter by not having enough to offer him to come here, after all its a business. I say try and tie up Suter long tem first and then tell Lids this is what we have to play with and can offer you $?m's. Hopefully Nic will help out before any of this came up. I can't imagine us losing out on a guy who could be the cornerstone of the team for the next 10years because we wanted to keep our exsisting one for another season. Just something to think about eh.
unfortunately, that's exactly what's going to happen.
