This brings up memories of that officiating travesty playoff round against San Jose a few years ago. Remember when Setoguchi high sticked Franzen in the face, drew blood, and they gave the penalty to Franzen instead of Seto?
This guy is a POS, its a shame the rules in the NHL are so pointlessly written that when a player gets fined the "maximum amount" it equates to less than a slap on the wrist.
He is tradeable, yes, but if the Wings lose him to improve the D, they have literally NO one to replace those goals. Streakiness aside, 25-30 goals is not easy to replace. Its not like the Wings signed an elite scorer this off season.
Unless a lot of scoring is coming back the other way in a trade, the Wings need Franzen this year.
If Lidstrom hadn't retired no one would even be questioning him. So we lose one Dman to retirement and another to uncontrollable family circumstances. How does that in any way reflect upon his abilities as a GM?
Oh dear Im being tracked Auntie D on the interwebs, Ill be there!
Back on topic I wouldn't be surprised to see him sign in the khl either but I hope he comes here:)
It does seem like if Kenny hasn't signed him yet, it is getting less likely he will. Even with the unstable CBA situation, signing Semin still seems like a complete no brainer to me. Wings still have a mountain of cap space, even if the cap drops fairly significantly. With a one year deal, there's very very low risk involved, but I'm not an NHL gm and in Kenneth, I still trust.
I'm willing to accept that the defense will not be as good as it was last year, but only if the Wings improve in other areas.
I DO think that our goaltending situation is the best it has been in years, especially if Jimmy stays healthy.
And I'm in the minority that actually believes our forward group improved somewhat (Sammy>Hudler, Tootoo>Holmstrom), but so far not enough to negate the deficits on defense, which is why we need that an impact scorer like Semin (or Doan, or both ).
I've always wanted a player like Tootoo, and received my share of negs for it. I like this signing. He brings energy and speed and is by far the toughest guy we have now.
He has shown good offense instincts in the past, hopefully he can contribute a bit.
So... Crosby just helped everyone out a little bit in terms of the Parise sweepstakes. Gonna be really hard to justify paying anyone over 9 million if that's what Crosby's making.