Good post. I'm sick of all the bulls*** speculation from everyone so this topic/post is refreshing on here thank you. Going to be interesting to see what Kenny does now. Still IMO i dont want us signing older players we need to get younger...
Not sure I agree... We have 'young guys' like Kindl, Mursak and Emmerton who it's time to either fish or cut bait... We have some 'young guys' that are potentially solid NHLer's, or more, and need playing time... Smith, Nyquist and maybe Brunner... And we have other 'young guys' waiting for their turn: Tatar, Jarnkrok, Sheehan, Jurco, Pulkinnen and so on...
There are zero 'young guys' left in the FA market that are worth pushing aside any of the 'young guys' the Wings already have. Mueller... maybe, but he's injury-prone. Brule, maybe worth the risk, but at whose expense? The rest of the FA market are not 'young guys'... That's the whole point of Free Agency... you're not a 'young guy' anymore.
The only riskless choice at forward... Doan... is 35.... Maybe Arnott at 37... As for the risky options at forward: Semin is 28, Kostitsyn is 27, Huselias is 32 and so on. But will Semin take a 1 or 2-year contract? Probably not. I wouldn't if I were him. So are you willing to commit $30 million to Alex Semin for 5 years? I might, but it's not my money, and I don't get paid to make sure the wings are both competitive AND profitable over the long-run.
Everyone's been screaming, "give the 'young guys' a chance'... Well... next year we'll see what they've got. Should be exciting!
In my opinion, the options left in free agency are: (1) sign an 'old' D, or 2, for stability (and to give us a solid chance to make the playoffs)... Colaiacovo, Rozsimval, Kubina, Hannan, Jurcina... (2) try to convince Semin to take a 1-2 year contract (unlikely)... and if he decides to leave Phoenix, go after Shane Doan.
Frankly, the better option is the trade market, either this summer... or at the trade deadline. But if we do that, we'll lose one, or more, of our 'young guys' we all want to see play...