Brunner Contract Talks

[Guest The Axe]

I'm done raging. I'm now sitting in a corner in the fetal position and rocking back and forth murmuring, "Damien, please."

Id like to see Holland sign Brunner.

This gets complicated since I'm doing the same thing about keeping Tootoo.

[Travis 576]

Implying Alfredsson is worth 5.5 million at age 40. I won't watch if I don't like what I see or hear. Unlike some fans I have other stuff to do with my life than waste 2-3 hours on crap I don't like or am disappointed in. I haven't watched the Tigers since mid May for that same reason. The only thing worth noting for them is that Scherzer is undefeated still, but when that ends it's Cabrera or what?

I hated last offseason and the lockout so I didn't watch the Wings until the playoffs.

Yeah, those first-place Tigers really suck.

[Lazerbeam 13]

I agree thanks to his deal or even Sammy or berts or even quincey we couldn't sign who we needed and will get stuck with Alfie and cleary.

Alfie is totally, completely worth 5.5m hell cleay is worth at least 7m.

Alfredsson is only getting 3.5 Mil, the other 2 mil are incentives he has to earn this coming year and if he gets them, then the 2 mil will count against the 2014-15 seasons cap--so RELAX!

[Rivalred 630]

Don't even know why Alfredo is even bein mentioned in a Brunned thread.

Simple as this, firmly believe Brunner may find out was his real value is soon

[Serratoni 49]

You just copy/pasted Websters definition of 'bandwagon fan'.....strap in, we are expecting some turbulence ahead and it may get a little bumpy for ya.

Bull. Bandwagon fans follow a team when they're winning championships or close to it, not when they're losing in the 1st and 2nd round year after year and enduring lockouts/strikes.

[Guest The Axe]

The funny thing is this guy is abandoning ship when the Tigers and Wings are about to be champs!!

[Jersey Wing 1,521]

[13dangledangle 968]

I dont even know what's going on in here anymore...All I know is I like Brunner and thought he was the euro triplet...It's not over yet though...

[Hockeytown0001 7,652]

I really hope he doesn't believe he's worth $3.5 million after half of a rookie season. He could be there eventually, but not quite.

[Louisville 112]

Forget Brunner, this wins the thread.

[RusDRW 155]

Everyone here seems so upset of not signing Brunner.... I would even like to question what is the reason? Just because he is 27 y.o.? Have you seen the regular season and play-offs? He is a definition of a floater, never goes to the boards implying that he does not bettle for the puck his defensive coverage is non-existant. Hell, he makes Johan Franzen a guru of defense. Our game is based on hardwork first and that is exactly what Babcock asks from any player. Even skill comes second. Brunner was consistently getting point playing with Zetterberg but anyone can do it playing with world-calss center (see Abdelkader). One can tolerate such style from someone like Brett Hull or Luke Robitaille but not from a rookie who wants to establish himself in this league.

Want to see a comparision? Nyquist vs. Brunner or Tatar vs. Brunner. Those two players are what exactly we need, Brunner? Not so much...

I don't like Cleary much at this point of his career but I understand why we try to sign him first. He is a warrior on the ice and sometimes that additional effort pays off big time.

[frankgrimes 1,836]

I think people are upset, because this could have been done way before. During the last seasons most fans complained about the lack of a pure goalscorer, well here is 27 year old pure goalscorer playing his first season in the NHL and even a shortened one.

For sure there is room to growth and he will make mistakes, because basically he is just an older rookie so no surprises here. Is he worth 3,5 m ? Probably not, will he be worth it soon? maybe if the Wings are offering 2,5 I wouldn't sign for that either if I were hi. Give him 3 x 3 or 7 over 2 years if he pans out, fine if not move on.

At the end of the day, the Wings are paying Sammy exactly that and Brunner IS better, worth more than Sammy at this point in his career, also a 40 old Alfredsson at 5 million? I understand why Brunners camp is pushing for a better deal. Time to face reality here, the Wings aren't the powerhouse they once were so paying heavily under market value will not get the job done.

Tatar, Nyquist, Brunner would really be a good round up for a top 9 bottom 3 type of style.

[Wingsfan72 198]

Uhh...have you seen the regular season and playoffs? He the definition of a natural goal scorer. The puck always found him. He's one dimensional in that he basically has zero defensive game but his purpose on this team would be to shoot and score goals. I think the term "floater" gets thrown around too often in these forums.

I'm not saying I think he's more valuable than Tatar or nyquist, it goes without saying that he is not, but how many successful shoot first players do we have? None.

I agree he is worthless defensively, but what he can bring to the table for the Wings is pretty valuable. We have enough Clearys, we need more brunners.

[RusDRW 155]

At the end of the day, the Wings are paying Sammy exactly that and Brunner IS better, worth more than Sammy at this point in his career,

Sammy was a huge mistake and it seems our menegement wouldn't like to repeat it. From my POV Brunner's deficiencies are too big to be correctable. If a player in his rookie season do not go to the boards you have a huge problem. There are only few exceptions of good development of such players. Well, our beloved Cleary is coincidentially one of them ...

[matthewdanna 143]

I dont hate him. I like him. For 2.5 mil max.

This

[RusDRW 155]

Uhh...have you seen the regular season and playoffs? He the definition of a natural goal scorer. The puck always found him. He's one dimensional in that he basically has zero defensive game but his purpose on this team would be to shoot and score goals. I think the term "floater" gets thrown around too often in these forums.

I'm not saying I think he's more valuable than Tatar or nyquist, it goes without saying that he is not, but how many successful shoot first players do we have? None.

I agree he is worthless defensively, but what he can bring to the table for the Wings is pretty valuable. We have enough Clearys, we need more brunners.

Wings tolerated players like Hull or Robitaille that had shoot-first mentality. Those guys were established and had reputation of scoring big goals though. Babcock's Red Wings are all about hardwork and so we can't allow a rookie to be THAT lazy. It may have a huge effect on other players.

[kylee 727]

Brunner is definitely not a floater. He's a natural scorer. We have enough 2 way players. It's not like he's THAT bad defensively anyway.

[frankgrimes 1,836]

Wings tolerated players like Hull or Robitaille that had shoot-first mentality. Those guys were established and had reputation of scoring big goals though. Babcock's Red Wings are all about hardwork and so we can't allow a rookie to be THAT lazy. It may have a huge effect on other players.

Ever since Yzerman transformed into the 2 way genius, everyone is expecting pure forwards/goalscorers to become superb two-way players, guys like Toews, Zetterberg and Datsyuk are the exception not the norm. So expecting people with less god given talent to have such a great two-way game is just asking too much. if the guy can score around 30 - 35 goals a year I couldn't give less about his defensive responsibilities, primarely this should be the job of the defenders.

[VM1138 1,921]

Really, Alfie's contract is like 2.9 with deferred bonus, and the cap hit is 3.5. Can we please stop pretending his cap hit is 5.5 and saying it's an overpayment? He is still an effective scorer. Tgis isn't like the Modano signing. There are no questions about his desire or ability to keep up and okay the game. Sports fans are so obsessed with age. 40 is just a number. He plays better than most of the 30 year olds.

[Spongewingredpants 75]

i really thought the offeseason was about getting a top 4 d-man, resigning our guys minus Cleary and dumping Sammy....oh well, i was wrong

turns out we need to sign more forwards

[LeftWinger 5,130]

Really, Alfie's contract is like 2.9 with deferred bonus, and the cap hit is 3.5. Can we please stop pretending his cap hit is 5.5 and saying it's an overpayment? He is still an effective scorer. Tgis isn't like the Modano signing. There are no questions about his desire or ability to keep up and okay the game. Sports fans are so obsessed with age. 40 is just a number. He plays better than most of the 30 year olds.

I thought the same, but capgeek shows the caphit at $5.5M....now whether or not that is his actual cap hit, that is why the folks are yelling about it. They look at capgeek, see the caphit at $5.5M and then react. If $5.5M is not his caphit, then why doesn't capgeek show his hit correctly?

[skyphoenix 153]

I thought the same, but capgeek shows the caphit at $5.5M....now whether or not that is his actual cap hit, that is why the folks are yelling about it. They look at capgeek, see the caphit at $5.5M and then react. If $5.5M is not his caphit, then why doesn't capgeek show his hit correctly?

There's a star next to it that says $2mil in bonuses. It's also not counted in our total salary as we still have $2.3mil in cap space when we'd actually be over the cap if it counted.

[ogreslayer 1,069]

I thought the same, but capgeek shows the caphit at $5.5M....now whether or not that is his actual cap hit, that is why the folks are yelling about it. They look at capgeek, see the caphit at $5.5M and then react. If $5.5M is not his caphit, then why doesn't capgeek show his hit correctly?

How to read capgeek 101:

The cap hit shown on individual players is the total potential impact if bonuses are fully paid out & charged against the year they were earned. Remember, teams can elect to defer bonuses (up to 7.5% of the cap's upper limit only) to the following season depending on their cap situation. That is why Alfredsson is showing $5.5m ($3.5m salary/$2m in bonus), Tatar at $840k ($680k salary/$160k bonus), & DeKeyser $1.35m ($500k salary/$850k bonus). As mentioned already, hover over the star next to the player's cap payroll hit to see the bonus figure. That puts the total possible cap payroll for the Wings as the roster stands right now at $65,002,879. Capgeek assumes deferral up to that 7.5% limit so subtract out the total possible bonuses that could be deferred to the next season ($3,010,000) from the cap payroll (total possible hit of $65,002,879) for the Wings' current cap space of ~$2.3m.

I assume the reason capgeek shows the full potential per individual is that they don't necessarily know if a bonus trigger will be reached & with the total limit of 7.5% of the upper cap per team for deferral in place, anywhere from all or none of an individual player's bonus might be eligible for deferral until the next season. The only number then that they can accurately report on an individual basis is the full potential hit in the year the bonus was earned.

Edit for TL:DR: Capgeek can't make the call on whether an individual's bonus will be paid or deferred until the next season so they just reflect the total potential hit if the bonus is paid in the year it's earned.

Edited July 7, 2013 by ogreslayer

[brett 1,029]

i dont see brunner resigning i also dont see the wings replacing him with tatar. i can see sammy replacing him

[13dangledangle 968]

Im not sure if this has been said but I just saw it now, Brunner is/was asking 3.5 a year?

Quote "Also, the reason forward Damien Brunner is exploring the market is the Red Wings declined to meet his asking price of $3.5 million per season"

linky (very bottom)http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2013/07/veteran_forward_daniel_cleary.html

Do you want Brunner at 3.5? I would not mind in his third year 3.5 but not after 48 games...