Alfie informs Wings he wants to return

[themcityblues 249]

1985 called...they want your movie reference back.

Holland has stated many times over, the old days are over, they will take a wait and see approach. If Detroit signs anyone big, or makes any big moves before training camp, I will be utterly shocked. They will wait with Alfie, because if they resign him they only have $4-5 million left. That means no Iginla, Stastny, Vanek...nobody. And Holland even said they are done giving up prospects. Do the math, tell me what other outcomes do you see, especially with Cleary banging on the door again?

I think you have some good points. And it makes me think that Alfie should not be resigned, period. And if Holland does resign Alfie, there's the huge hidden cost in that he leaves no room for the plethora of awesome UFA this off-season. I hope Holland does not resign Alfie. For me, this is my last straw for Holland's reputation. If he gets Alfie (or Cleary) back and no good UFA then I'm resigned to say he truly is a terrible GM and I'd fear he's going to tank the Wings and kill the streak before he finally leaves office. There's way to rationalize the Franzen/Hossa deal and everything since... kind of... but there'd be no excuse to resign these two washed up guys instead of fishing in this awesome pool.

[LAWings 160]

Haha! Back to the Future is still an awesome movie. And, I think that joke is just about as old.

I don't usually try to predict the future and try to pass it off as fact like it has already happened. But, I agree that they probably won't end up with Iginla, Stastny, or Vanek. I don't think 'nobody' will happen either, though. I think they'll make a good run at Ehrhoff and/or Niskanen... and I think either one of those guys makes more sense to sign than Iginla/Stastny/Vanek. Nothing's written in stone, though, and you never know what could happen.

It is a classic....

History is blueprint / roadmap of where we came from to help determine where we are going.

How I feel whenever Holland / Babs opens their collective mouth nowadays:

Edited June 30, 2014 by LAWings

[LAWings 160]

It is a classic....

History is blueprint / roadmap of where we came from to help determine where we are going.

How I feel whenever Holland / Babs opens their collective mouth nowadays:

I'm quoting my own post, fresh off the press:

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/06/red_wings_mike_babcock_values.html

"We got seven left-hand D. I love (to have a righty), but how do you get it?" Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said over the weekend at the NHL entry draft in Philadelphia. "It's great to have this fantasy; like (general manager) Kenny Holland would tell you, there's no tree. I've been all over him, but there's no tree to grab them off of, so we'll get what we get."

Well, Babs, Babbers, Babbaganoosh... maybe if you guys stopped looking up trees every year for a right handed defensman and talked to other GMs you might find one. The magical place where our competition finds these players is on the end of a telephone, that thing with buttons on your desk, and when you press these buttons, something magical happens, you might get a chance to talk to someone who has a right handed D. If it makes you feel better, the other guy can tell you he grew an extra D on a magical tree.

Right handed D available in some capacity:

Niskanen

Byfuglin

Ehroff

Zidlicky

Boyle

Stralman

While you're looking up that magical tree, maybe you guys can grow a pair of your own little D's and pull off some deals / trades.

[Wings_Toledo 233]

I was messing around on CapGeek and if the Wings re-sign all of their RFAs to reasonable cap hits and get one of Niskanen or Ehrhoff then I just don't see how Alfie could return unless he takes a significant pay-cut from what he made last year. It would be nice to have him back for some extra offense but if he decides to continue playing then it will probably have to be

elsewhere (unless this team fails to upgrade the D).

Edit: And that was even after I put in a trade to get rid of Kindl's salary.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Wings_Toledo

[dirtydangles 1,328]

I'm quoting my own post, fresh off the press:

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/06/red_wings_mike_babcock_values.html

"We got seven left-hand D. I love (to have a righty), but how do you get it?" Red Wings coach Mike Babcock said over the weekend at the NHL entry draft in Philadelphia. "It's great to have this fantasy; like (general manager) Kenny Holland would tell you, there's no tree. I've been all over him, but there's no tree to grab them off of, so we'll get what we get."

Well, Babs, Babbers, Babbaganoosh... maybe if you guys stopped looking up trees every year for a right handed defensman and talked to other GMs you might find one. The magical place where our competition finds these players is on the end of a telephone, that thing with buttons on your desk, and when you press these buttons, something magical happens, you might get a chance to talk to someone who has a right handed D. If it makes you feel better, the other guy can tell you he grew an extra D on a magical tree.

Right handed D available in some capacity:

Niskanen

Byfuglin

Ehroff

Zidlicky

Boyle

Stralman

While you're looking up that magical tree, maybe you guys can grow a pair of your own little D's and pull off some deals / trades.

Ehrhoff is a L-handed D

[krsmith17 7,191]

Taking the wait and see approach with Alfredsson can be nothing but positive for us in my opinion. This way we can still go out and try to sign other UFA's while Alfie determines whether or not his body can handle the grind of another full season. I would be more than happy to have Alfie back for another season at around 2 million, and assuming we don't go out and sign a boat load of players, we should have no problem re-uping Alfie for another season. I'm ok with Jurco starting the season in Grand Rapids because we all know within the first few weeks he will be up due to the inevitable injuries that will occur.

Wings_Toledo - I'm just curious what you and others think our RFA's will get on their new contracts because I believe we have more than enough to sign all of our RFA's, and a top UFA (Niskanen) as well as have plenty of room left to sign Alfredsson. I can see DeKeyser getting around the 1.5M range, Tatar getting around the same and Sheahan around 1M.

[Wings_Toledo 233]

Taking the wait and see approach with Alfredsson can be nothing but positive for us in my opinion. This way we can still go out and try to sign other UFA's while Alfie determines whether or not his body can handle the grind of another full season. I would be more than happy to have Alfie back for another season at around 2 million, and assuming we don't go out and sign a boat load of players, we should have no problem re-uping Alfie for another season. I'm ok with Jurco starting the season in Grand Rapids because we all know within the first few weeks he will be up due to the inevitable injuries that will occur.

Wings_Toledo - I'm just curious what you and others think our RFA's will get on their new contracts because I believe we have more than enough to sign all of our RFA's, and a top UFA (Niskanen) as well as have plenty of room left to sign Alfredsson. I can see DeKeyser getting around the 1.5M range, Tatar getting around the same and Sheahan around 1M.

That's about what I had for the RFAs except I gave DeKeyser $3m. That might be too high, but I figure if he signs a longer term then he'll want more than $1.5m a season. So, I could be very wrong there. Also, I gave Niskanen $6.5m just to go on the high end of his possible deal and gave Gilbert $2m. After that, I traded Kindl and retained 25% of his salary. With all of that done, we still had roughly $3m in cap space. So, signing Alfredsson wouldn't be impossible but he would have to sign for less than last season. Also, I'm not sure how comfortable Kenny feels being up that close to the cap ceiling.

[krsmith17 7,191]

I wouldn't mind signing two guys like Niskanen and Gilbert but I'd also like to keep a spot open for one of our young guys (Ouellet, Sproul, Marchenko or Backman). Alfredsson would definitely take around 2M, especially if we looked like a team "going for it", with two or three big off season signings.

[e_prime 1,936]

I wouldn't mind signing two guys like Niskanen and Gilbert but I'd also like to keep a spot open for one of our young guys (Ouellet, Sproul, Marchenko or Backman). Alfredsson would definitely take around 2M, especially if we looked like a team "going for it", with two or three big off season signings.

I think we will only sign one defenseman, unless we trade away Smith.

...and I agree, I think we can/should sign Alfie to a very small cap hit if there is a roster spot made for him and AFTER we sign another legit top six forward.

[DannyD 79]

Anyone else think they may hold off to see if Mantha makes the team before committing to Alfie?

[krsmith17 7,191]

Nope. I think they will continue to say, and convince some of the naive fans that he will be given every opportunity to make the team out of camp. But I still don't think he makes it. And I think the best thing for his development would be a full year down in Grand Rapid a, with a possibility of a few call-ups. Then he will get a real chance to make it in 2015-16. Just my opinion.

[wings4thecup06 504]

Nope. I think they will continue to say, and convince some of the naive fans that he will be given every opportunity to make the team out of camp. But I still don't think he makes it. And I think the best thing for his development would be a full year down in Grand Rapid a, with a possibility of a few call-ups. Then he will get a real chance to make it in 2015-16. Just my opinion.

Agreed. I think he's going to start in GR no matter how well his preseason performance goes. He'll probably be with the wings by Christmas though, but I think personally it might be better to bring him along slowly at first and if he starts tearing up GR then all the better. It'll further increase his confidence

[gcom007 1,465]

Anyone else think they may hold off to see if Mantha makes the team before committing to Alfie?

I'm all for getting the kids in the NHL a bit sooner than we have in the past, but give him a year in GR. I wouldn't even go out of my way to call him up unless we got desperate. If he's actually good enough to make the team next year, I'd rather see him make the team out of camp and transition to the NHL out of camp, especially considering that making the team next year is still pretty fast by our standards. Let him take it slow out of camp with no pre-conceived idea of what his NHL role could look like and give him a chance to ease into said role without having to hear people comparing his play to little call up stints which can be hit or miss, though almost never a good indication of what a player will look like on a consistent basis.