hockey23

This has "Ville Leino" written all over it...

Except Brunner can actually skate. Leino is a pretty bad skater and can't stay on his feet if anyone lays a finger on him. Brunner is praised for his speed and his willingness to forecheck and play gritty.  

Also, Leino had a bit of a one hit wonder season the year before he came to NA, but Brunner has played at a high level for 3 straight years including 2 good world championship performances.

I really don't see any glaring weaknesses in Brunner's game. His booming right-handed shot fills a need along with his speed. If you believe in NHL equivalences he's a 40 point NHL player based on his numbers in Switzerland. Seems like he's a safer bet than Leino and might have more upside.

They can still add that many incentives?

I've never fully understood what was acceptable in terms of incentives and bonuses under the current (and now expired) CBA.

There are Schedule A and Schedule B bonuses for entry-level contracts. Schedule A bonuses have a max of $850k and they're for games played mostly, but I believe they can include other stats like ice time, points, and plus/minus. Schedule B bonuses have a max of $2M and are pretty much for trophies such as the Hart, Norris, Calder, and Conn Smythe. The Schedule B bonuses seem pretty much impossible for players on ELCs to actually earn , other than the $212k Calder bonus. So, realistically, Schultz can only earn his $875k salary plus $850k in schedule A bonuses.

Yeah no doubt, I'm not suggesting that the kid doesn't have skill.  I'm just saying there's a pretty significant step up from college hockey to the AHL, let alone from college hockey to the NHL.  I see people recommending guaranteeing this kid a spot on the Wings next year (in one case someone suggesting offering him the top pairing in the future) and he's never even played a game in the AHL.  I'm just saying let's not get ahead of ourselves.  Sign him if you want, but it better be to a two way contract and see what he's got in camp, but make no guarantees about spots on the big club.  You never know if you've got the next Brunnstrom on your hands.

Then the Wings won't get him. He will have multiple full-time NHL offers. If you want to get a potential top pairing defenseman then you have to take the chance and guarantee him a spot in the top 6 from day 1.

I've seen a couple Montreal sources (never heard of them so probably unreliable) today say that the Wings are interested in Markov. This comes just a couple days after the GM meetings where Holland said he had some trade discussions. Sounds like Montreal just wants to dump him because of his injury concerns.

Overall Detroit was the better team tonight.  They deserved to win.

With that said...I had some issues with a couple things.
Detroit's two power play goals probably shouldn't have happened...I'll explain.

1)  I don't think Stewart should have gotten an instigator penalty.  Yes, he approached Stuart and wanted to fight...that's obvious...but Stuart dropped his gloves first.  Stuart was a willing participant.  Stewart didn't drop his gloves and jump on Stuart.  I disagreed with that call.  You see fights start all of the time where one guy goes over to another guy and gives him a shot and says let's go, and the other guy agrees and the gloves come off.  That's the way I saw this...Stewart just went a long way to fight Stuart.

2)  Helm's hit on Pietrangelo late in the 3rd was textbook interference.  Petro was skating for the puck and he seemed to be a good 5 or 6 feet from the puck, hadn't touched it yet, and Helm destroys him.  If Petro would have had the puck, it would have been a great hit...but the only problem was he didn't have the puck.  Assuming Carlo still retaliates, it should have been 2 minutes on Helm and 2 minutes on Carlo.  It should have been 4 on 4 with 3 1/2 minutes left instead of a Detroit PP.

My first point is debatable.  I'm sure you can make a case that Stewart should have gotten the instigator and argue that...we could debate that all day since it comes down to rule interpretation.  But I don't see the 2nd point being debatable at all.  It's clearly interference on Helm, and just not called.

Congrats on the win.  Like I said, Detroit was the better team in this game.
Maybe we can even up the season series on the next game in St. Louis...and hopefully we beat Pittsburgh tomorrow to get right back to within 1 pt. of the Wings.

Completely disagree. From the rule book...

An instigator of an altercation shall be a player who by his actions or demeanor demonstrates any/some of the following criteria: distance traveled;... obvious retribution for a previous incident in the game or season.

Stewart came off the bench and went all the way across the ice directly to Stuart. Perfectly fits under "distance traveled." And the retribution was even more obvious.

Seems pretty obvious to me that he met the criteria of an instigator.

Looks like they gave him another assist last night so he's at 30p in 20gp.

Also, he has 4g+5a=9p in 4gp since Huberdeau went out with an injury so it's pretty clear that his good start wasn't just a product of playing on a line with a top-3 pick.

kronwall was not elbowed, it was a clean hit form the 3 angles i saw in hd slow mo.

Koivu jumped into Kronwall and he didn't even have the puck. Charge, interference-take your pick.

I understand the Wings' philosophy in developing prospects, but there comes a point where you have to consider putting a prospect on your team because he makes the team better. Even if he's not as ready as he's going to be, I really think Nyquist would help this team with depth scoring.

Nyquist=NHLer. I wish there was a spot for him on the Wings this year.

Conference call seems to indicate that there is no retirement.  Also not having a contract doesn't equal not playing.  A relationship like that could indicate a gentleman's agreement they will have a contract in place soon.  At this point in my career, I would even consider not using the agent to save some money.  What negotiating has to be done for a bare bones contract with a father like figure?

I definitely thought conference call = re-signing, but the Khan article seems legit. It's not just the agent quotes, because I agree it's possible the agent may not know/ be involved, Khan also says that the Wings plan to give Ozzie a job helping out the young goalies and that they plan to sign Conklin. It's much more detailed than St. James' article which basically just says Ozzie is coming back. If I had to bet on which one is correct, I'd take Khan's.

The reaction to E's contract was very similar to the reaction of Datsyuk's, and we all know how that turned out. If you want a good laugh, I dug up some reactions when Datsyuk signed in '07...

I still can't believe it.

Luongo 6.5 million.
Datsyuk 6.7 million.

Which would you rather have?

Holland is an idiot. Not only has he just absolutely _BRICKED_ Detroit's salary structure for the next 7 years but he's probably pissed of Zetterberg who signed a super low contract two seasons ago.

7 yr deal for $45 Mill............. DISGUSTING

I love Datysuk, but thats gotta be one of the most pathetic contracts every given out.

It's not even that Datsyuk's unproven - he is a proven choker. Giving him this contract is like...giving Dan Cloutier a $6 million extension before he plays a single game for you

one of the most ridiculous contracts I've ever seen !

Wow, what a horrible deal for the Wings. I wouldn't give him four million a year. He's extremely soft and his play in the playoffs is horrendous.

I still can't understand the stupidity of Ken Holland; I mean I can understand it if he gives 6.5m+ for a short term 2yr deal with the player sacrificing stability for money. And getting him to sign a 7 year deal didn't even get him a discount like 5m or something.

What the hell was he negotiating all this time? What cake to order for dessert after meetings?

A few summary points to this discussion;

1. YES, Yandle would make perfect sense for this team long term.
2. YES, Holland can put together a package that would make sense for both teams.

3. YES, Our biggest problem to any of this may very well be the man(men) behind the curtain who are running the show in the desert. Who or whom are actually running the team(Bettman, BOG?) and with the current situation(staying, going?) just what exactly is the motive they're using.

They could what the best all out team that can compete for the cup asap(fans choice). A competitive team with a fair amount of prospects(potential buyers choice) or something else completely. I just don't see Bettman or the BOG giving us the next possible Lindstrom for around fair market value. This is the situation that would worry me the most in term of mischief considering the league still owns the team.

You better have a good excuse

I'd like to see where everyone thinks the big FAs will end up, or just some general predictions about free agency.

My predictions-
1. Holland doesn't sign anyone tomorrow; LGW goes into all out panic mode
2. Wisniewski signs with CBJ before noon tomorrow

VPD making sure these idiots can't reproduce...go to 0:18...

check out this moron...http://yfrog.com/nnkq4z