You forgot Eaves...which is another reason Sammy should be bought out. Buying out Sammy and Bert, allowing Cleary and Miller to move on opens spots up for Andersson Tatar, Nyquist and Sheahan if a UFA is not signed, but you can still rotate SHeahan in and out of the lineup even with a UFA star forward.
I still believe you have to let Kindl go and shop Quincey around. Lashoff deserves a spot and you still need a top defenseman. I too believe that Dekeyser will sign here and he wil be on the roster.
Kronwall - Murray
Smith - Ericsson
Lashoff - Dekeyser
Huskins(I guess if you let Huskins go, Kindl can be retained, but Huskins is better)
...or let them both go and start rotating Ouellet and Sproul with Lashoff...
edit: I still frimly believe that Franzen, Filppula, Kindl, Quincey and Nyquist should all be trade bait. I know Franzen would be hard to get rid of, but to the right team (Vancouver) he would be an attractive commodity despite the length of his contract.
I had a feeling I forgot someone. Knowing Hollands MO, I doubt anyone gets bought out or traded. Besides, I doubt Samuelsson or Bertuzzi would even make it through Unconditional waivers.
I do agree that Kindl may get shopped. It seems that he has been jumped on the depth chart by Lashoff, and Lashoff can't go back to GR without hitting waivers after this season.
There's absolutely no way that Sproul and Ouellet or even Sheahan "rotate" in and out of the lineup. The only way the dmen would make the team is if Babcock thinks they can play in the top 2 pairings, and that would be highly unlikely. They will probably spend a full year in GR before they are even considered for call ups. Sheahan won't be on the team full time unless they think he is going to be in the line-up every night, or is out of minor league options (which starts in the 15/16 season).
I don't agree that Franzen should be traded. The Red Wings would have a very hard time finding a suitable replacement for around his cap hit. When healthy the guy pots 25-30 goals a year for less than $4mil a season. That's a bargain.
I don't know how Filppula, Kindl or Quincey can be "trade bait". None of those players are going to bring any real Quality return.
-Filppula has no value unless the Red Wings are deadline sellers (way out of the playoff race). And he'll bring back picks and maybe secondary prospects.
-Kindl can maybe fetch a 4th round pick or an secondary AHL prospect at most.
-Quincey certainly isn't producing up to his cap hit at the moment, and probably wouldn't fetch what Holland paid for him last season. Maybe he'd fetch a 2nd rounder?
The UFA pool is once again going to be thin for quality Dmen. I doubt Holland would look to dump off Quincey when there's no guarantee he'd be able to bring in a quality replacement.
By himself, Nyquist would probably bring in a mediocre playoff rental player. Packaged with some picks, he may be able to bring a slightly better one.
Edited by DSM, 25 February 2013 - 11:03 AM.
