Nev 1,085 Report post Posted April 4, 2013 (edited) There are only a few ways to get players onto a hockey team. Draft them, acquire them through free agency, pick them up off waivers, trade for them. Only one of these options requires you lose something (RFA also I suppose, but that's still a rarity in this league). The salary cap makes draft picks, prospects, and roster players that much more valuable, so trades are that much less desirable an option to collect players for your team. I understand that its frustrating to get your hopes up every trade deadline expecting to land some star, but in today's hockey league its more important than ever to be economic. That means developing your talent, holding onto your picks, and making big roster changes through free agency, not through trades. Its boring, but its also a smart way to go. I'm in the minority which believes Holland did not make a mistake this deadline by not making any moves. 1000x the boldest part. Good young players on cheap contracts is the way to win cups. It helps if those players are franchise 1st round picks (Toews-Kane, Malkin-Crosby, Getzlaf-Perry) , but we did it a slightly different way. Zetterberg, Filpulla, Kronwall, Franzen, Hudler and Helm were all playing for peanuts in '08. Add in cheap veterans who can do a job like Cleary, Samuelsson, Drake, Hasek and Osgood. Keep your core big money guys like Lidstrom and Datsyuk. Use the spare cash to add marquee players like Rafalski and Stuart. The same template has worked for almost every cup winning roster in the cap era. Edited April 4, 2013 by Nev Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haroldsnepsts 4,826 Report post Posted April 4, 2013 At this point we can move this conversation to one of the other 18 threads discussing Holland, the Wings future, etc. Just trying to consolidate a wee bit. 1 rick zombo reacted to this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
