Biggest mistake Red Wings have done

[Nightfall 871]

The Devils have 3 cups and 5 cup appearances since 1995. Not too far behind.

We can also nitpick the crappy mistakes they have made as well. Trust me, there are just as many as the Wings have.

Franzen over Hossa is probably one that Holland would like back. Bringing Sammy back and Coliacovo in does not make any sense to me. Coliacovo is made of glass and is not that great of a D- man to take the chance on. I think he was brought in because Holland shot for the moon on Suter and when he missed there was nobody else left. Sammy on the other hand must be a golfing buddy of Kennys because I can't see any other reason to bring him back.

Letting Stevie go to TB was a huge mistake. Holland has done nothing since Yzerman left anyways.

Hrm, Holland made the team that won the cup in 2008 and his decisions helped take the team to the finals in 2009. Yzerman was an influence, but not the decision maker.

I still hold the opinion that if there would have been a full season with a full training camp & pre-season with it, the team would look significantly different. Instead of ragging on Kenny, I think he deserves credit for bringing in some known-qualities veteran players to in essense enhance the organizational depth they'll need to make it through the season.

I agree. Its a shame that a majority of fans here won't.

Edited February 13, 2013 by Nightfall

[Red Crazy 201]

If we don't see a reason, it must not exist. It can't be that there are things we just don't know.

That's not possible.

That is true we don't know what Holland is thinking but this is a topic about bad moves. Bringing Sammy back appears to be just that. I hope I am wrong.

[Red Crazy 201]

Sammy and Coliacovo definitely felt like patchwork moves at best after the Suter/Parise madness.

Some of them have certainly worked out but Holland's penchant for bringing back former wings is almost pathological. I don't know if it's a lack of imagination or he's just overly fond of former Wings.

I mean, Jason Williams. Really?

LOL I had forgot about Williams! I could see Sammy on a one year deal if Holland was still unsure on the development of Gus and Tatar but for 2 years?

Edited February 13, 2013 by Red Crazy

[Guest Playmaker]

That is true we don't know what Holland is thinking but this is a topic about bad moves. Bringing Sammy back appears to be just that. I hope I am wrong.

My guess is Sammy was brought in to be a depth forward who can chip in 10-15 goals per year and can play the point on the PP. How is it that this deal is already doomed to be a failure when he has only played one game?

Every GM on every team in every sport has made what looks to be bad moves. Its the nature of the business. I think the Red Wings' success speaks for itself. Deals that look like no brainers can be utter failures and deals that look totally ridiculous can turn out to look absolutely brilliant.

I mean really, who thought trading for Jimmy Carson would be a bad move? We rid ourselves of underacheiver Joe Murphy, aging malcontent Petr Klima and some nice kid, but destined to be career 4th liner Adam Graves. We got a hometown kid who was a proven 50 goal scorer and still very young. The Wings looked set for years to come.Well, we all know how that turned out. It's soooo easy to make trades and moves on paper.

[haroldsnepsts 4,826]

My guess is Sammy was brought in to be a depth forward who can chip in 10-15 goals per year and can play the point on the PP. How is it that this deal is already doomed to be a failure when he has only played one game?

Every GM on every team in every sport has made what looks to be bad moves. Its the nature of the business. I think the Red Wings' success speaks for itself. Deals that look like no brainers can be utter failures and deals that look totally ridiculous can turn out to look absolutely brilliant.

I mean really, who thought trading for Jimmy Carson would be a bad move? We rid ourselves of underacheiver Joe Murphy, aging malcontent Petr Klima and some nice kid, but destined to be career 4th liner Adam Graves. We got a hometown kid who was a proven 50 goal scorer and still very young. The Wings looked set for years to come.Well, we all know how that turned out. It's soooo easy to make trades and moves on paper.

The two Adam trades were probably the most painful in all my years of watching the Wings. Graves and Oates.

[Guest The Axe]

The two Adam trades were probably the most painful in all my years of watching the Wings. Graves and Oates.

Funny thing is when you think about scenarios where you get every good player in a lot of successive moves and dont miss out on opportunity. The Oilers might be still developing, but damn. They are not meshing all their fortune well at all.

[Guest Playmaker]

Funny thing is when you think about scenarios where you get every good player in a lot of successive moves and dont miss out on opportunity. The Oilers might be still developing, but damn. They are not meshing all their fortune well at all.

Understood the reasoning with the Graves trade...but when the real reason came out about the Oates trade, that was unforgivable...

[nyqvististhefuture 1,002]

absolutely loving tonights game ! the kids are everywhere tonight! its unfortunate that it took all these injuries for them to get a chance but im hoping its opening up holland and babcock's eyes

[LeftWinger 4,935]

Our desire for new toys doesn't negate the fact that the loyalty we show is very appealing to players. We don't treat our players like video game characters or trading cards and that makes us look very good. We take care of our guys.

Obviously not anymore...it is not as appealing to UFA's when you don't Have Lidstrom's, Shanahan's, Yzerman's or Hasek's on your team anymore...that was well apparent this off season. NOT ONE top UFA signed here. Not one. Used to be, everyone had Detroit on their short list...those days are gone. Long gone.

[Guest mjtm77]

waste the last couple of years of the greatest d-man of this generation with a middling roster.

!

[ltgator333 3]

I always go back to the trade that was suppose get a SC,the trade for Robert Lang.The propect went on to score 20goals a year and the draft pick wound up being Green(who we all know has made the all star team a couple of years).Lang was a wash!

[Buppy 1,720]

I always go back to the trade that was suppose get a SC,the trade for Robert Lang.The propect went on to score 20goals a year and the draft pick wound up being Green(who we all know has made the all star team a couple of years).Lang was a wash!

That's a pretty big stretch. Green and Fleischmann went on to become good players, but not until 3 years after the trade. They wouldn't have helped us at all the years Lang was here. They couldn't have helped in 08, since we won the Cup anyway. Not possible to do better than that. 09 is debatable, since we did as well as possible without winning a Cup. After that came the cap crunch, and we most likely lose both or lose other good players instead.

That trade was a good example of trading expendable future assets for help in the present.

[Petrafire 8]

at the time of the trade for Lang he was leading the NHL in scoring everyone was in aww how cheap detroit got him needless to say he didnt work out and fleishman is a very good player as Green

[Z and D for the C 712]

Franzen over Hossa will go down as Holland's biggest mistake. And it's not a "hindsight" is 20/20" thing, it was obvious his priority should have been Hossa.

[Guest Playmaker]

Franzen over Hossa will go down as Holland's biggest mistake. And it's not a "hindsight" is 20/20" thing, it was obvious his priority should have been Hossa.

It wasn't just a matter of Hossa or Franzen...keeping Hossa would have also likely have meant not having someone else on the team...Hossa's cap hit is like 1.4 million more than Franzen's...who that would have been...who knows...Being a GM is easy sitting behind a keyboard...

[Holmstrom96 347]

The biggest mistake the Wings have made is signing Jonathon Ericsson to that contract. He sucks. He sucks bad. He takes bad penalties. He makes horrible passes in the defensive zone. He'd also never hurt a fly.

Ericsson sucks. Joey Kocur and Stu Grimson would have made better defensemen.

[Guest Playmaker]

Obviously not anymore...it is not as appealing to UFA's when you don't Have Lidstrom's, Shanahan's, Yzerman's or Hasek's on your team anymore...that was well apparent this off season. NOT ONE top UFA signed here. Not one. Used to be, everyone had Detroit on their short list...those days are gone. Long gone.

There were only two free agents the Wings pursued this past offseason, and both signed with a team that have far less talent than the Wings solely because of having friends and family in the area. I don't see how that indicates anything. The Wings were on the short list for both Parise and Suter. Who does the Wild have that is enticing to a free agent? In addition, the Wild are currently out of the playoff hunt, while the Red Wings are in it.

[GoWings1905 2,694]

Franzen over Hossa will go down as Holland's biggest mistake. And it's not a "hindsight" is 20/20" thing, it was obvious his priority should have been Hossa.

Exactly. I hate the "hindsight" thing. A lot of us here wanted Hossa over Franzen at the time. Hossa was and still is a better player. For the deal Hossa signed with Chicago, it's not like the Red Wings couldn't have found a way to make that work compared to Franzen's. Holland chose the wrong guy.

[Guest irishock]

at the time of the trade for Lang he was leading the NHL in scoring everyone was in aww how cheap detroit got him needless to say he didnt work out and fleishman is a very good player as Green

Fedorov's fault. Turning down 50 mil, 5 yrs to go to the team that swept him. He felt he was bigger than the team.

[Buppy 1,720]

Exactly. I hate the "hindsight" thing. A lot of us here wanted Hossa over Franzen at the time. Hossa was and still is a better player. For the deal Hossa signed with Chicago, it's not like the Red Wings couldn't have found a way to make that work compared to Franzen's. Holland chose the wrong guy.

Better player, sure, but hardly impactful enough to call it a huge mistake. Goal production has been similar. Hossa has more assists, but also would have created a bigger cap problem in those first two years. Better defensively, yet he's been on the ice for a lot more goals against. Kills penalties, but Chicago's PK has been even worse than ours prior to this year. Their PP has been bad as well. They've finished behind us in the standings the past two years and lost twice in the first round.

They're playing great now, and look capable fo winning a Cup, but it's not because they have Hossa instead of Franzen. Over the life of their deals, Hossa will very likely produce more, but it's hard to quantify the impact of the extra cap hit. If we spend the next several years a couple million under the cap that choice will look worse, but if we spend to the cap who's to say.

[Andy Pred 48 337]

drafting Nik jnr in 2000 over Ilya Nikulin, sure Ilya hasnt come over but he got drafted by the Thrashers and lets face would you have signed for them back then? We still had the Igor, Feds, and a young Pasha on the roster the year after Im sure he'd have been persuaded to come over on that roster

[Guest The Axe]

drafting Nik jnr in 2000 over Ilya Nikulin, sure Ilya hasnt come over but he got drafted by the Thrashers and lets face would you have signed for them back then? We still had the Igor, Feds, and a young Pasha on the roster the year after Im sure he'd have been persuaded to come over on that roster

Id say this might not even be a mistake at all.

[Andy Pred 48 337]

Nikulin's draft notes;

A large defensive defenseman with good physical game. Takes a lot of offensive
responsibility. Good on powerplay.

yeah your probably right Axe, doesnt sound like the sort of guy the Wings would have wanted !

on a side note Mozykin just signed a 6 year ext with his KHL side so we wont be seeing him here either.

[Serratoni 49]

My guess is Sammy was brought in to be a depth forward who can chip in 10-15 goals per year and can play the point on the PP. How is it that this deal is already doomed to be a failure when he has only played one game?

Every GM on every team in every sport has made what looks to be bad moves. Its the nature of the business. I think the Red Wings' success speaks for itself. Deals that look like no brainers can be utter failures and deals that look totally ridiculous can turn out to look absolutely brilliant.

I mean really, who thought trading for Jimmy Carson would be a bad move? We rid ourselves of underacheiver Joe Murphy, aging malcontent Petr Klima and some nice kid, but destined to be career 4th liner Adam Graves. We got a hometown kid who was a proven 50 goal scorer and still very young. The Wings looked set for years to come.Well, we all know how that turned out. It's soooo easy to make trades and moves on paper.

Some nice kid who won multiple Cups and scored over 50 goals one year. Snepsts is right. Painful indeed.

The biggest mistake the Wings have made is signing Jonathon Ericsson to that contract. He sucks. He sucks bad. He takes bad penalties. He makes horrible passes in the defensive zone. He'd also never hurt a fly.

Ericsson sucks. Joey Kocur and Stu Grimson would have made better defensemen.

You must not have watched many games this year.

[Nightfall 871]

4 Stanley Cups in the last 15 years and here we are mulling over the Wings biggest mistakes. Oh how spoiled we are.