centcougar07

In all seriousness...this is what I'm expecting next season.  For some reason, I think we're going to get both Parise and Suter.  I hope that there will be some additional moves to bring more size and toughness to the bottom team, but who knows.  Also, it sounds like Joey Mac will be in GR.

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR ROSTER
My Custom Lineup
FORWARDS
Zach Parise ($7.000m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m)
Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m)
Danny Cleary ($2.800m) / Darren Helm ($1.400m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m)
Drew Miller ($0.838m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.300m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m)
Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) /
Jan Mursak ($0.550m) /
DEFENSEMEN
Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Ryan Suter ($7.000m)
Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m)
Brendan Smith ($0.875m) / Ian White ($2.875m)
Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) /
GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($2.250m)
Joey MacDonald ($0.550m)
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CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $66,742,045; BONUSES: $37,500
CAP SPACE (23-man roster):- $2,442,045

Getting Parise and Suter = pipedream

Agreed.

I gotta be honest here...The Wings have been on a steady decline these past few years...UFA's will take notice, and for some - the grass may look alot greener elsewhere.

Good to see there are still some knowledgeable hockey fans out there that realize the team is aging and declining. We're going to have to rebuild in 2 or 3 years when Datsyuk and Zetterberg aren't producing much anymore and Lids is gone. Dislike my comments all you want but it's the reality and I'm glad to see I'm not the only fan who isn't afraid to be realistic.

I wasn't referring to our roster. If I was, it's a roster with the likes of Suter, Prust, and Lucic.

My mistake. And yeah.. Those would be fantastic additions but you actually have to get them. Getting them all is close to impossible, getting two is unlikely and getting even one is going to be no easy task especially if we're talking Suter. He's going to have a ton of teams after him.

To be a key part of a killer roster that looks poised to win the Cup in 2013?

Mind you, I don't think he'll end up settling for 6.5. But, well, you asked why he might do it.

Yeah I can't possibly see him settling for so little. Especially because your opinion and my opinion of the roster are different. You see a killer roster, a see a roster that will have to claw to make the playoffs next year let alone contend for a cup. We just have too many old players and a lack of stellar NHL ready prospects with which to replace them like we did last time around. We still have a couple years of possible contention but in 2-3 years we're going to drop out of contention and we're going to have to rebuild through the draft.

How do you think a front-loaded long term deal works?

First of all, love the name/picture. Tombstone.. Great movie. Secondly, I think he'll get a 5-6 year deal with 7-8 Million throughout. He'll be 34 at the end of his new deal if he signs a six year contract.. No need to front load it, especially for teams who will have a lot of cap space in the years to come.

Ok Jimmy...
CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR ROSTER
My Custom Lineup
FORWARDS
Zach Parise ($7.000m) /    Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) /    Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m)
Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) /    Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) /    Johan Franzen ($3.955m)
Danny Cleary ($2.800m) /    Darren Helm ($1.500m) /    Justin Abdelkader ($1.500m)
Travis Moen ($1.500m) /    Zenon Konopka ($1.500m) /    Brandon Prust ($1.500m)
Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) /    Drew Miller ($0.838m)
DEFENSEMEN
Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) /    Ryan Suter ($7.000m)
Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) /    Ian White ($2.875m)
Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) /    Brendan Smith ($0.875m)
Matt Carkner ($0.900m)    
GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($2.250m)
Josh Harding ($1.500m)
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CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $70,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $69,550,379; BONUSES: $37,500
CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $449,621

Problem with this is that you're assuming Parise takes a million dollars less per year just to come here. I don't see that happening. And I think were Parise goes, Suter goes. That's the ***** of it; and we know Kenny Holland won't pony up the dough that other teams will.

And Minnesota has a good track record with prospects panning out?  Is that why they make the playoffs EVERY year?  If they have all these great prospects that are ready to go, why don't they get them in the lineup and make the playoffs?  Nyquist/Smith are better now than any Wild prospect purely because they've already proven that they belong in the NHL and are good enough to play top 6/4 and produce.

If I were Parise and Suter, I'd choose the team with the better track record and compete for the cup, not the playoffs.

I can't stress this enough: You HAVE to do your research before you make comments. If you want to talk about their prospects not panning out that's fine, but you should know that all those picks in the first round that never panned out were all drafted by the previous GM. Their current GM was the one that helped build the Anaheim stanley cup team and the Pittsburgh cup team. The draft picks HE has taken are all projected to come to the NHL next year, it's taken a few years for them to clean out all the s*** from the last regime and restock the shelves. And even though none of those prospects were pro this year, Minnesota probably would have made the playoffs had they been able to stay healthy. Look at them when they were healthy, they were winning like every game even without their touted prospects; and winning against the best teams. They beat us multiple times, they beat Nashville, New Jersey, Boston, Vancouver multiple times.. I'm not here to bash the wings' prospects or anything but as someone who follows the NHL closely, you're kidding yourself to think that Minnesota doesn't have one of the top 3-5 prospect pools in the league. And what the wings have is great, they have one guy who I think is top 6 for sure and then a couple other quality guys, but it's a far cry from what Minnesota has built, which only makes sense. Finally they get a competent GM and with all the high picks he's had, they are finally hitting on a lot of those. They of course have to prove themselves just like everyone else, but they are so deep with prospects that even if one or two are busts, they still have a bevy of other guys that will be home runs. Granlund alone is already scoring over a point per game as a youngster in a league full of men. It's just preposterous to compare Minnesota and Detroit in the area of prospects. Just as it would be to compare Mikko Koivu and Pavel Datsyuk. They are both good, but one is CLEARLY better than the other. With all that in mind, it's an absolute fallacy to be thinking that Parise and Suter with immediately sign with the Wings on July 1. Minnesota is not a team to be taken lightly in any sense.

Yeah, I don't see it either. I guess I don't see much difference, and pretty much all of the prospects mentioned here have "top-six" potential, but you don't win Cup with potential. I don't see how the Wild have a brighter future than the Wings based on prospects alone. Factor in that basically anything can happen with these young developing players, and its often a crap-shoot.

Nyquist looks like top-six talent at the NHL level and he still has a ways to go as far as physical development is concerned. Smith could land anywhere from 2-5 on the back-end. Counting all the prospects from both teams, do the Wild have more promising prospects than just those two soon-to-be regulars on the Wings?

As I said, its most likely a wash. More than likely, the Wild will continue to be the same franchise they have been: not bad enough to be gifted a game-breaker in the draft, not good enough to make a serious run.

Of course, if they can add a player like Parise, that may all change.

Could not disagree more. Don't get too arrogant with how you compare our team to others in the league; its not a wash, not at all. As of now, Minnesota is superior in terms of young talent. Prospects are unproven and anything can happen but they have a lot of prospects considered the best among the league. Granlund and Brodin are considered "can't miss". We have to be honest here in our evaluation of franchises and their futures.

I doubt it. Granlund is really good, but I'm not sure how much better he will be than Nyquist who is further along. Coyle is impressive, but so is Jurco albeit I like Coyle more for his more physical play, but on just pure potential Jurco might have a higher ceiling. Brodin is a really good young defenseman, but I don't know if I'd take him over Smith. Hackket is looking good after a season in the AHL, but Mzarek had much better numbers at his point in his career. Phillips, Bulmer, Haula, and Zucker aren't significantly better than Sheahan, Jarnkrok, Pulkinnen, and Tatar. I don't know I don't quite see how their prospects are much better, but that's just me I guess.

You have to do a little more research before you go and say that Detroit is anywhere close to what Minnesota has. It's just simply not true. Detroit has QUALITY prospects. Minnesota has OUTSTANDING prospects.

If Parise signs here, that's who he'll be playing with.  Everyone associated with the Wings who has commented on the search for a top line scorer has said they would be a winger for Datsyuk.

I'm sure he would. I'm saying I don't think Parise will sign with the Wings.

I'd like to see these competent authors. I don't really rely on THN, HFboards, Espn etc. Just going through the prospects with my own research and don't see how the Wild's prospect pool is top 3 material Hackett and Granlund are great but the depth seems to be lacking.

I agree about the other factors with Parise though.

I do a lot of my own research too. But I talk to scouts and other people who know a lot about western conference teams. I have to get most of my stuff on the East on my own accord, but I digress. Ah you are right about Granlund and Hackett. They are very good prospects. But there's WAY more than that. Charlie Coyle and Zach Phillips are two players the Wild picked up in the draft last year and they both play together for the Saint Johns Sea Dogs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The numbers in that league are slightly inflated based on style of play but those two absolutely tore it up. Coyle had almost 2 pts per game and they haven't slowed down in the playoffs. Coyle has great speed and size and is a pure scorer. Phillips is a great offensive forward. He makes passes that he has no business making and is on the same line as Coyle and regularly sets him up. The one knock on him is that his skating needs to improve. Jonis Brodin was their first pick in last years draft and it looks like once he adds a little size he's going to be a fantastic defenseman. He can really skate and move the puck. He played for Farjestads in the Swedish Elite League. Johan Gustafsson is another goalie prospect that looks really promising. He won gold with Sweden in the WJC. The captain of that team was Johan Larsson and he is probably the most underrated prospect in the organization. All he does is win everywhere he goes. There's a ton more.. Bulmer, Zucker who played the last few games with them this year,  Mario Lucia is a raw prospect but has a huge upside and serious star potential. Tyler Cuma, Marco Scandella, Haula and theres more but I don't wanna get too deep. Plus they have the 7 overall this year and  will likely end up with one of the defenseman that scouts are salivating over. And this new regime they have is really really good at drafting. They've rebuilt the prospect pool in like 3 years and considering they had absolutely nothing before that it's impressive that they now have really an embarrassment of riches.

Our prospect pool isn't bad hell I believe it's in the top half of the league, I'll definitely take our prospect pool over Minnesota's for sure. Red Wings have the most respected front office in the league and to go along with a great coach. On the ice. The track record speaks for itself. I'm not saying we will get whoever we want, but a free agent isn't going to just cross out the Red Wings.

Wow that would be a horrible decision. There's not a GM in the league that would take the Wings' prospects over Minnesota's. After the draft the wild took an average pool and made it a great prospect pool. I've seen them ranked in the top 3 in the league by a few scouts. I'm friends with a couple NHL scouts I met a while back and we talk hockey every now and then and they have said that Minnesota's prospect pool is still a little bit underrated even though they are ranked high in virtually every updated list by a competent author. The Wings have a very average prospect pool. I'm not saying it's certain that Parise and Suter won't sign here but let's be honest with ourselves, it's going to be tough to get them both here. Kenny will probably offer around 7.000Mil a year for each. I think Minnesota is going to be the stiffest competition for the Wings given everything I've said about the prospects and a number of other factors. They both have strong ties to Minnesota and Parise was born and raised there. Toss in the fact that Minnesota will probably go as high as 8.000Mil per year on Parise and maybe 7-7.5 for Suter and it's going to be tough to get them in red and white.

Parise wont be doing much watching (of Datsyuk) next season as they'll be on the ice together

Doubt it

I don't know if its so much confidence as it is optimism.  We have lots of caps space, for a change, and these two players bring something we're lacking right now, so one would have to think that we're at least going to be pursuing them.  Personally, I don't think we'll get both, but one would be great.  We need a new stud defenseman with Lidstrom getting near the end and Parise would fit so well on this team its ridiculous.  I wouldn't be surprised to see the Wings get neither, but they have to do something.  I really don't want to hear Holland say in September "Darren Helm coming back from injury was our big off season acquisition".

Optimism is fine, but in reality I don't see why either one would sign with the wings. What we have to offer here is a tradition of winning (which is great but doesn't mean much), an aging group of core players, and some modest talent as far as prospects go. We have to be realistic here and realize that Parise and Suter are just about to enter their prime. They are going to want to go to a team that is going to be getting better and better every year. I'm sorry to say that I see Detroit going the exact opposite way and in the end, I think that will be why they don't sign with the wings.