TITLE CHANGE - 2025 UFA/RFA July 1! (plus summer trades)

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

3 hours ago, Motor City Mullets said:

With what Yzerman's been doing I'll be surprised if he's in on Ehlers...If we're done with UFA/trades then we may as well acknowledge that we'll once again be shy of the playoffs with this current roster.

Then how do you explain this picture of the player agent that Yzerman was cutting deals with today?

 

1 of 3 things must be going on:

1. He's in on one of the big names still left on the market, or via trade.

2. My cocoon analogy. He used players like Chiarot, Copp, Compher etc, as initial insultion for the young stars he drafted early on in Mo, Ed, Ray etc. But now these stars dont need to be insulated any longer, and in fact, they themselves will be the new insulation/leaders for a wave of young prospects coming up over the next 1-3 years. Therefore, he does not want to add anymore overpriced UFA insulation at this time. And instead wants to slowly shed that existing "cocoon" over the next two years to clear the path for his other youngens. 

3. He is punishing this team. I'm actually not joking. SY is golden, and knows he's never losing this job. So he can in theory afford an approach like this. The message he is sending to his team is: "I've done my job. I've assembled a playoff team. The reason you haven't tasted the playoffs is because YOU are not doing your job, and keep shooting yourself in the foot. Are you gonna nut up and finally get there? Or are you gonna cry like Larkin did this spring? Either way the calvary is not coming to save you, but at least I'll know who the baby excuse makers are, and I can ship them out if you dont make it AGAIN." A lil far-fetched, I know... but if you buy into theory #2 at all, this could coincide with that strategy. This type of attitude/approach may also explain his thumb sitting at TDL time.

 

If it's not 1 of those 3, and he's just losing out on UFAs and trades with $15 mil on the table in an expected playoff year, then he's a poor manager and should be fired.

Edited July 2 by Jimmybigrigs69

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

4. This was one of the weakest UFA classes, pretty much everyone re-signed with their respective clubs, the remaining impact guys only wanted to play for certain teams, and those who actually explored the market GOT PAID, and Stevie wasnt gonna add a bad contract at this stage. 

[TLGTrico 663]

1 hour ago, LeftWinger said:

Who is this? Did I miss something?

What the hell.  I don't remember posting that

[Motor City Mullets 315]

28 minutes ago, Jimmybigrigs69 said:

Then how do you explain this picture of the player agent that Yzerman was cutting deals with today?

 

1 of 3 things must be going on:

1. He's in on one of the big names still left on the market, or via trade.

2. My cocoon analogy. He used players like Chiarot, Copp, Compher etc, as initial insultion for the young stars he drafted early on in Mo, Ed, Ray etc. But now these stars dont need to be insulated any longer, and in fact, they themselves will be the new insulation/leaders for a wave of young prospects coming up over the next 1-3 years. Therefore, he does not want to add anymore overpriced UFA insulation at this time. And instead wants to slowly shed that existing "cocoon" over the next two years to clear the path for his other youngens. 

3. He is punishing this team. I'm actually not joking. SY is golden, and knows he's never losing this job. So he can in theory afford an approach like this. The message he is sending to his team is: "I've done my job. I've assembled a playoff team. The reason you haven't tasted the playoffs is because YOU are not doing your job, and keep shooting yourself in the foot. Are you gonna nut up and finally get there? Or are you gonna cry like Larkin did this spring? Either way the calvary is not coming to save you, but at least I'll know who the baby excuse makers are, and I can ship them out if you dont make it AGAIN." A lil far-fetched, I know... but if you buy into theory #2 at all, this could coincide with that strategy. This type of attitude/approach may also explain his thumb sitting at TDL time.

 

If it's not 1 of those 3, and he's just losing out on UFAs and trades with $15 mil on the table in an expected playoff year, then he's a poor manager and should be fired.

How many trades/UFA signings have worked out?

It's a revolving door...I get it - rebuilding, but I gotta say Yzerman hasn't had to deal with such a poor roster construction while he was a player the way Larkin has had to.

Then the wise choices of keeping Blashill too long for my liking and then hiring that moron Lalonde.

For every step we appear to make going forward - we then take a few back...Yzerman has earned his criticism.

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

44 minutes ago, Motor City Mullets said:

How many trades/UFA signings have worked out?

More than not. Yzerman has a pretty great track record with trades. UFA wise only very recently has it been a problem with Tarasenko, Holl, and Gus.

1 hour ago, Motor City Mullets said:

It's a revolving door...I get it - rebuilding, but I gotta say Yzerman hasn't had to deal with such a poor roster construction while he was a player the way Larkin has had to.

Wasnt Yzerman pretty well fuqt until the mid 90s?

Yzerman also wasnt the GM who full on fuqt this team and Larkin for the first 4 years of his career, that lead to Yzerman having to dig ourselves out.

And I could give a fuq less about Larkin actually. Ive said it b4, hes not good enough to lead a team to s cup. And if we do win a cup with him on the roster it wont be with him leading the team in scoring or minutes. 

1 hour ago, Motor City Mullets said:

Then the wise choices of keeping Blashill too long for my liking and then hiring that moron Lalonde.

For every step we appear to make going forward - we then take a few back...Yzerman has earned his criticism.

I agree with all this. He's certainly made mistakes and certainly earned criticism, ive dished out a lot of it. 

Just trying to rationalize his moves or lack there of today. Cause I know he's imperfect, but he's not incompetant.

What my feels are starting to settle on is this: He has a team ready to compete in the playoffs. But he just got burned by Tarasenko, Gus, Holl. UFAs he obviously thought would make us more competitive, but they did not. He's being more cautious now, and this year happened to be the worst UFA class in like 300 years. I mean the contracts handed out today were insane. So many teams overpaying in price and term for scraps. So he didnt play. And would probably rather keep his funds ready to pounce on a trade where the contract coming back is reasonable. He just hasnt found that yet, and may not until a few days from now or not till the TDL. 

But at the end of day, i do think this is a better team. Gibson is a MUCH better goalie than Talbot or Mrazek or Lyon. Thats a big fix for easily our weakest position on the ice. Mclellan seems to know what hes doing and now has camp and a full year to prepare his team. Other than that were pretty much the same. So we improved, just not drastically. And IDK that I want a 7x7 Gavrikov in order to change that into drastic improvement

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

Just realized we qualified RFAs Soderblom and Viro

Released Cross Hanas and Gage Alexander

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

Hanas is ANOTHER failed 2nd rd pick by Yzerman. And honestly SYs inability to find talent outside the 1st rd is possibly the biggest reason this rebuild has taken so long. Especially in the 2nd round, thats a place you gotta find it. Everything after the top60 is crapshoot.

Tuomisto - career AHL

Mastrosimone - dud

Ajo - okay, but not great

Wallinder - needs to show serious improvment soon

Neiderbach - dud

Hanas - dud

Buium - needs to show serious improvvement soon

James - looks like a dud

Buchnelikov - could be amazeballs, wont know until he comes over

Everyone else its to soon too tell, but its not a fantastic track record in the 2nd so far. 

 

 

[stephen-gregory-yzerman 142]

Some great UFAs still remaining...........

Gustav Nyquist

Tomas Tatar

Pius Suter

Jakub Vrana

Daniel Sprong

Klim Kostin

Anthony Mantha

Andreas Athanasiou

Joe Veleno

Robby Fabbri

Christian Fischer

Craig Smith

Tyler Motte

Luke Glendening

Brendan Smith

Jon Merrill

James Reimer

Edited July 2 by stephen-gregory-yzerman

[LeftWinger 5,153]

9 hours ago, Jimmybigrigs69 said:

Just realized we qualified RFAs Soderblom and Viro

Released Cross Hanas and Gage Alexander

They also will lose Red Savage if not signed by August 15th. I am surprised at Hanas, thought he had some upside.

[LeftWinger 5,153]

ALSO:

Still holding out hope that we are in on Ehlers, top line minutes has to be attractive to him. I still think we NEED a top LHD, or if they are going to use Edvinsson there, a least a 2nd pairing LHD. Also a 2nd pairing RHD would be beneficial.

Grzelcyk would be nice for that LHD. 40 points on a crap show of a Pittsburgh team.

We CANNOT go into the season with the D we have. Need TWO legit NHL D. JBD is ok, but he's not that 2nd pairing RHD we need...

Edited July 2 by LeftWinger

[Motor City Mullets 315]

9 hours ago, Jimmybigrigs69 said:

More than not. Yzerman has a pretty great track record with trades. UFA wise only very recently has it been a problem with Tarasenko, Holl, and Gus.

I'd say 50/50 with trades/UFA signings.

9 hours ago, Jimmybigrigs69 said:

Wasnt Yzerman pretty well fuqt until the mid 90s?

Yzerman also wasnt the GM who full on fuqt this team and Larkin for the first 4 years of his career, that lead to Yzerman having to dig ourselves out.

And I could give a fuq less about Larkin actually. Ive said it b4, hes not good enough to lead a team to s cup. And if we do win a cup with him on the roster it wont be with him leading the team in scoring or minutes. 

Yzerman as a player made the playoffs 20 out of 22 seasons while Larkin is 1 for 10...Granted it was a 24 team league when his career started and to get in the post season was 'easier' when compared to todays standards, but my point being is Yzerman had the taste of success,  arguably more supportive Mike/Marian Ilitch, and played meaningful hockey early in his career while it's been a s*** show for Larkin. At this pace DBoss will be retired before the Wings play meaningful playoff hockey.

9 hours ago, Jimmybigrigs69 said:

Just trying to rationalize his moves or lack there of today. Cause I know he's imperfect, but he's not incompetant.

What my feels are starting to settle on is this: He has a team ready to compete in the playoffs. But he just got burned by Tarasenko, Gus, Holl. UFAs he obviously thought would make us more competitive, but they did not. He's being more cautious now, and this year happened to be the worst UFA class in like 300 years. I mean the contracts handed out today were insane. So many teams overpaying in price and term for scraps. So he didnt play. And would probably rather keep his funds ready to pounce on a trade where the contract coming back is reasonable. He just hasnt found that yet, and may not until a few days from now or not till the TDL. 

But at the end of day, i do think this is a better team. Gibson is a MUCH better goalie than Talbot or Mrazek or Lyon. Thats a big fix for easily our weakest position on the ice. Mclellan seems to know what hes doing and now has camp and a full year to prepare his team. Other than that were pretty much the same. So we improved, just not drastically. And IDK that I want a 7x7 Gavrikov in order to change that into drastic improvement

Our rivals are steadily getting better too...So far only Buffalo seems to remain stagnant...If we're expecting draft picks to lead the way - so be it - just don't get your hopes up too high...The trend continues where Cup Champs (and teams going on a long run)  have their fair share of players acquired via  UFA/trade.

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

I'm going to buy a lot of lube to prepare for the upcoming season.  

[mackel 767]

5 hours ago, stephen-gregory-yzerman said:

Some great UFAs still remaining...........

Gustav Nyquist

Tomas Tatar

Pius Suter

Jakub Vrana

Daniel Sprong

Klim Kostin

Anthony Mantha

Andreas Athanasiou

Joe Veleno

Robby Fabbri

Christian Fischer

Craig Smith

Tyler Motte

Luke Glendening

Brendan Smith

Jon Merrill

James Reimer

I see what you did there... 

1 hour ago, GMRwings1983 said:

I'm going to buy a lot of lube to prepare for the upcoming season.  

You plan to watch? I'm going to keep my powder dry for next season.

[LeftWinger 5,153]

12 hours ago, Jimmybigrigs69 said:

And I could give a fuq less about Larkin actually. Ive said it b4, hes not good enough to lead a team to s cup. And if we do win a cup with him on the roster it wont be with him leading the team in scoring or minutes. 

I am intrigued to see if maybe Yzerman can acquire a legit #1 Center, if Larkin would be more suited to play that top line LW. Who that Center is? Dunno. Vancouver seems ok with keeping EP40 and seeing if he bounces back to the 100 point player he was before last season of drama.

anyhow, some interesting FWD UFA's that are still out there (if Yzerman traded away Copp or Compher or Rasmussen) that could help the middle 6:

Jack Roslovic

Mason Appleton

Bring back Pius Suter?

disney.com of course (he'd be a great penalty killer and shutdown C, better than Rasmussen at that. Besides, we need more three letter initial players on this team!)

ASP

MBN

ADB

JVR

JTC

JBD

disney.com!

A Couple of intriguing RFA's that might be available via trade:

Gabe Vilardi

Kappo Kakko

Nick Robertson (especially if his bro is still available via trade)

 

Edited July 2 by LeftWinger

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

5 hours ago, Motor City Mullets said:

Yzerman as a player made the playoffs 20 out of 22 seasons while Larkin is 1 for 10...Granted it was a 24 team league when his career started and to get in the post season was 'easier' when compared to todays standards, but my point being is Yzerman had the taste of success,  arguably more supportive Mike/Marian Ilitch, and played meaningful hockey early in his career while it's been a s*** show for Larkin. At this pace DBoss will be retired before the Wings play meaningful playoff hockey.

Yzerman was a top player in the league superstar from day 1 though. Larkin is a weak 1st C who can't even get 1 selke vote despite wings homers clamoring to tell themselves how gReAT he is at defense... im just saying, there's a difference. And I don't care about the personal accomplishments or immediate desires of one individual player, especially not a non superstar. 

If Larks wants to be dour and glum about all this then let him request a trade. So long. Get a nice kings ransom for him. 

If Larks was the caliber of a late 20's Yzerman I would have a different attitude. But he's not. 

Edited July 2 by Jimmybigrigs69

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

3 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

They also will lose Red Savage if not signed by August 15th. I am surprised at Hanas, thought he had some upside.

IMO I dont see Savage getting signed. His switch to MSU was initally great for him, but he never blossomed into a consistent top6 contributor for them. And he had great guys around him that couldve helped him do that. I'm thinking he may get a strictly GR deal like Truscott did, and we see if theres anymore growth left in him. 

[AtlantaHotWings 1,135]

Elmer in the house

https://x.com/DetroitRedWings/status/1940457853241979297/photo/1

 

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

53 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

I am intrigued to see if maybe Yzerman can acquire a legit #1 Center, if Larkin would be more suited to play that top line LW. Who that Center is? Dunno. Vancouver seems ok with keeping EP40 and seeing if he bounces back to the 100 point player he was before last season of drama.

Kasper 

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

I know everyone is underwhelmed by our lack of moves, but take a look around the league. Lots of teams have also pretty much done nothing. In fact its a lot of the idiot GMs making moves: Holland, Neely, Drury, Carolinas owner.... Kings n Bruins fans are far from thrilled by the contracts handed out. 

Biggest winner by far is Vegas with Marner, and the agents of any Dman that shoots right.

[Jimmybigrigs69 466]

Leddy on waivers - no buyout - probably a gift for the Sharks

[Motor City Mullets 315]

2 hours ago, Jimmybigrigs69 said:

Yzerman was a top player in the league superstar from day 1 though. Larkin is a weak 1st C who can't even get 1 selke vote despite wings homers clamoring to tell themselves how gReAT he is at defense... im just saying, there's a difference. And I don't care about the personal accomplishments or immediate desires of one individual player, especially not a non superstar. 

If Larks wants to be dour and glum about all this then let him request a trade. So long. Get a nice kings ransom for him. 

If Larks was the caliber of a late 20's Yzerman I would have a different attitude. But he's not. 

I’m not questioning the fact that Yzerman was a better player - he clearly was - I’m saying Yzerman had a better team to play with.

Even while he was surrounded by a vastly superior team Yzerman was the center of trade rumors (especially after losing to the Devils in ‘95).

I don’t know how a 20 sumthin Yzerman would have handled things had he been on a team as bad as Larkin has.

Edited July 2 by Motor City Mullets

[LeftWinger 5,153]

3 hours ago, LeftWinger said:

anyhow, some interesting FWD UFA's that are still out there (if Yzerman traded away Copp or Compher or Rasmussen) that could help the middle 6:

Mason Appleton

Copp, Compher or Rasmussen MUST be on the move soon!!

Maybe he can convince his ol' teammate to come here too!

Edited July 2 by LeftWinger

[Motor City Mullets 315]

24 minutes ago, LeftWinger said:

Copp, Compher or Rasmussen MUST be on the move soon!!

Maybe he can convince his ol' teammate to come here too!

Reasonable bottom 6 player.

[AtlantaHotWings 1,135]

and on X the calling for Yzerman's head continues as he hasn't gotten that top D or Top line guy

on HF Boards a more reasonable stance that it might help the PK 

Edited July 2 by AtlantaHotWings

[LeftWinger 5,153]

1 minute ago, AtlantaHotWings said:

and on X the calling for Yzerman's head continues as he hasn't gotten that top D or Top line guy

Defense does look REALLY bad compared to Forwards. He has GOT to make a trade soon, right? I believe he still needs both a LHD and a RHD, and not just depth, actual valuable pieces!