Unfortunate news but not surprising to anyone here. He's a great 3rd line guy and PK'er. Hope he comes back strong and healthy and at this point I would rather him sit the remainder of this year and heal properly. I don't know how much of a difference he would have made overall to this team. I kind of think we would be in the same place or just a little better.
I am so thankful of the injuries to Cola and Sammy which have allowed the kids to play. At some point you have to see what you've got when it comes to young talent. All rookies and young players are going to make mistakes, its allowing them to play through them and learn which shows that a team is dedicated to youth. Players can develop in the AHL but at some point they have to prove it in the NHL.
This youth movement is solely by chance due to injuries and if Cleary went down and Sammy never returned to the lineup I would be happy to see Nyquist and Tatar up full time. I appreciate what Cleary has done for this team but he is done at this point.
I think we've seen Flip's ceiling and he's a guy that should be playing on the 2nd or 3rd line. $5 mil per would be a lot of money for his production and hard to swallow but I wouldn't be surprised for him to get it from a number of teams including the Wings.
Only KH knows what the contract expectations are from Flip's camp but if he wants north of $4.5 per and we could swing a deal for a top 20 pick in the draft I would think Holland would have to seriously consider it. I expect him to remain with the team after the deadline though. I don't know how many teams are actually interested in him as a rental and trading him would damage whatever chances we have of making a cup run.
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