Wings4Life19

The wings will be a lottery team for the next 10 years because they arnt over paying for Ryan or Parise's rights? Settle down everyone. Holland and Babcock have in one way or another said they will be aggressive on July 1 and see the need to get bigger, grittier, and tougher to play against.

Alex Semin would be great if he felt like playing for a reasonable price or for most of the season

Dear god, make it stop, make it END!! This is NUTS.

no way. I want 4 ot's minimum.

60 years ago, April 15 1952, the Cusimano brothers started the most unique tradition in sports. The Wings better win game 3, if nothing more than just to honor some of the most important Detroit fans ever.

That said, Holland could probably get Pronger for a bit cheaper since he has a bad contract...

Why don't you go sit in the corner.

Don't want either team to win, so i'll say Vancouver loses in 7

Here's something nobody has brought up. Do we really want the Wings to go out and spend a bunch of money on Wiz, Bieksa, Weber, or whoever when the CBA is going to expire after the 2012 season. With the unknown economy the new CBA could have an even more strict cap and could really handcuff the wings future with a bad deal. Not to mention Kronwall and Stuart will both need new contracts that summer. As much as i would love the wings to have a fluid transition from Raffi and Lids to the next breed, the front office will have to walk a very tight rope to make sure that it doesn't blow up in their face.

Would you trade Sheahan, Ferraro, McCollum and Smith for Weber? I would

Smith is about as close to an untouchable as the wings have, and Sheahan has to much of an upside. No deal for me.

This is the first of many moves that will happen over the next 15 months or so as the Wings try and shed the "old, slow, and soft" label and adjust to the ever changing post-lockout NHL. Depending on what happens this summer will obviously affect what the 2012 off-season which will be, IMO, the most important off-season for the wings since the lockout. Current players that have contracts for the 2012-13 season are:

Datsyuk $6.7(ends 2014)
Zetterberg $6,083,333
Franzen $3,954,545
Filppula $3.0(final year on contract)
Cleary $2.8(final year on contract)
*Helm RFA
*Abdelkader RFA

Kindl $883,333(final year on contract, will be RFA)

Howard $2,250,000


Prospects who have a chance to make 2012-13 roster(in no particular order)
Forwards
Andersson $875,000(final year of contract, will be RFA)
Tatar $840,000(ends 2014 will be RFA)
Emmerton $533,333(ends 2014 will be RFA)
Nyquist $762,500(final year on contract, will be RFA)
Ferraro $715,000(final year on contract, will be RFA)
Mursak $550,000(final year on contract, will be RFA)
Aubry $615,000(final year on contract, will be RFA)
Callahan $558,333(final year on contract, will be RFA)
Jarnkrok Unsigned
Pulkkinen Unsigned


Defense
Smith $875,000(final year of contract, will be RFA)
Pyett Current RFA
Fournier $606,666(final year of contract, will be RFA)
Lashoff $523,888(final year of contract, will be RFA)
Almqvist Unsigned

Goalies
McCollum $816,666(final year of contract, will be RFA)
Pearce Current RFA
Mrazek Unsigned

The bottom line is that the wings have plenty of forwards and "should" be set up front for the next decade with big skilled guys and a dusting of grit along with a few free agents.

On the back end something needs to change. Brendan Smith is the only D prospect currently ranked in the top 12 on RedWingsCentral.

In net the Wings look as thought they have a top 10 goalie in Howard. If McCollum can reach his potential the wings will be set in goal for the next 10-15 years.

looked at UFA's on capgeek and I felt like the Wings could afford to give up a bit of offence to help the PK/defensive numbers.

NOTE: I didnt look into weather any of these guys are leaning towards re-signing/retiring/playing overseas/etc....

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m)
Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m)
Rob Niedermayer ($1.000m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.000m)
Fernando Pisani ($0.650m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Drew Miller ($0.800m)
Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Cody McCormick ($0.750m)

DEFENSEMEN
Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) / Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m)
Eric Brewer ($4.500m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m)
Kevin Bieksa ($4.500m) / Anton Babchuk ($1.400m)
Jakub Kindl ($0.883m)

GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Chris Osgood ($0.750m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $60,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $59,483,711; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $516,289

anybody wanna real quick build a time machine and go back a week and let us know that this was going to happen, we could use that decade that has been taken off our lives.

Seriously though, "IF" the wings are able to actually win tonight where will the win rank among the greatest moments in Detroit Red Wings history. Will it be a big enough win to be among the all the cup wins, will it be the greatest moment in wings history not involving the stanley cup, or will it be just another game 7 victory if lord Stanley isnt back in Hockeytown in a month.

"IF" the wings lose, where will the loss rank among heartbreaking losses in wings history. Will it be there with "the game we do not name", will the wings use it as motivation to win next year and then move on, or will we treat it as "the wings were out of it after game 3 lets just be happy we got an extra 3 games to watch our wings this season"

win or lose, this week will be one we will never forget. We will tell our grandkids how the Wings were down 3-0 against the hated Sharks and time after time the wings seemed like they couldnt find a way to win and then howard stood on his head in game 5, and Filppula had the game of his career in game 6, and in game 7........

while game 5 will go down as a game we will never forget and will be something that will make us smile watching the highlights on youtube in august, lets not forget that game 6 isn't a gimme. The wings MUST NOT THINK ABOUT GAME 7!!!! if they do, it's all over. Think back to the 2008 playoffs, WCSF DAL vs SJS: dallas won first 3 dropped games 4 & 5(dallas had 2 goal lead in 3rd) then closed it out in game 6. WCF DAL vs DET: detroit wins first 3 doppped games 4 & 5 then closed it out in 6.

SJ will give us the best effort of the season on tuesday. If the wings start to think that they are in the sharks heads, or have the momentum, or relax because they are at home, or whatever. they are cooked.

play like it's game 7
play like its Lids last game
play like its your last game
play like you've come to far to lose
play like Howard has given you an opportunity to play again this season
play like the first period of game 4
play like Pavel Datsyuk
play like Nick Lidstrom
play like Henrik Zetterberg
play like Darren Helm
play like Nicklas Kronwall
play like Dan Cleary
play like Jimmy Howard
play like Val Fippula
play like Johan Franzen(if you play)
play like Mike Modano(if you play)
play like Justin Abdelkader(minus the penalties)
play like Tomas Holmstrom
play like Jiri Hudler(from 2008-2009)
play like Drew Miller
play like Todd Bertuzzi
play like Kris Draper
play like Patrick Eaves
play like Johnathan Ericsson(from 2008)
play like Brian Rafalski
play like Ruslan Salei
play like Brad Stuart
play like The Detroit Red Wings!