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Time to move Howard?

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The label "all-star" means nothing. Howard was playing the best hockey of his career early this season for sure. But he has a larger body of work and he is nothing more than a solid goalie that has issues with the shootout and consistency. And the shootout does mean something - it sure would be nice to have a couple extra points from all those shootout losses.

That being said Mrazek has shown enough that I would gamble and see if Jimmy would waive his NMC. He's a lot of salary for someone who isn't the clear #1 on the team and I think you could bring in a veteran for insurance like Jhonas Enroth at a much lower cap hit and use the $ elsewhere on the roster.

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I've seen this on here more times than I'd care to admit. Why in the world would you make this move? Even if Mrazek is ready, who's going to back him up?

Mrazek goes down next year and we see Jared Coreau for 35+ games? Sign me up.

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Mrazek must be doing something right because he wasn't even on the team when the season started and now Babcock has enough faith to go with him in the most important part of the season as the #1 goaltender. What's wrong with an ahl goalie playing well enough to start on a team like the Wings in a heated playoff race? Are we going to send him back down to the GR until he is ready to come up next year and go 20-0 and steal the Vezina away from Carey Price? With our putrid defense? Patrick Marleau was also an all star like Howard and he is one of the best magicians come playoff time as he finds ways to disappear. Howard the same..he disappeared against Boston last year..literally..and Gus came in and didn't play too bad. But surely the bubble wrap wears off and he's m.i.a. yet again. I think people should be happy that Mrazek has a winning record as a backup and certainly isn't playing any worse than the franchise goalie has been nor as injury prone as the backup has been. If there's anyone who should get cut some slack it's the rookie. It's like people want him to fail just because Howard hasn't amounted to what the Wing's franchise has expected from him after that nice contract he signed. Howard alone isn't gonna get us a #1 dman in return and who the hell is gonna take on a guy like Weiss' contract?

I'd say give him one more chance if Mrazek poops the bed the next 2 games and if Jimmy poops too then see if he waves the no movement and we try a nice deal and send him Franzen and Weiss to NJ for Corey Schneider and Andy Greene. Lol

Edited by GoWings!

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Not yet.

First of all, he's going to be difficult to move. He has a NMC, and I doubt he'd want to go to the teams that need goaltending help currently. He also has a couple years where his salary is higher than his cap hit. Plus, having a potential limited field of teams will drop his return value.

Then the question is, what does the team do going forward? Re-signing Gustavsson and running with a tandem of him and Mrazek would be a huge gamble. Also, none of the goalies on the UFA market this summer would be an upgrade over Howard IMO. Won't be many affordable options on the trade market either.

They're going to have to ride Howard until he has a Theodore or Bryzgalov like collapse, or they decide to hit the reset button and go into full rebuild mode.

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Until there is absolutely no doubt in the minds of management and fans that Mrazek is the #1 in Detroit then there's no way they can even think of trading Howard (unless Holland receives an offer too good to refuse). Mrazek is young and confident but when I watch him he looks like Howard did when he first came into the league: talented but prone to rookie mistakes. Howard, on the other hand, is now an experienced veteran who hasn't quite looked the same after a bad injury and needs to get some good bounces to regain his confidence. The shootout win last night could be the start of him turning it around.

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