Richdg

Wow....that, THAT (maybe u need to go read it again), is the most arrogant statement you ever seen? Apparently you havn't seen many ignorant fans as you so claim...I sir deserve no such prestigious awards I am but a loyal fan lol. But you may have claimed the overreaction of the year award haha.

1. Lol nobody said Holland was the god of hockey dude, exaggerate much? His track record has shown time and time again that we will be fine, he gets the job done. History and evidence points to this, and not the contrary. Saying Holland is going to have an epic fail and screw the team up this year is like saying Lidstrom is going to come out and play terrible defense all season. If there is one thing we can say for certain about Holland it's that he thinks 10 steps ahead into the future....he's no Holmgren....you really think he didn't anticipate and plan for the loss of Lidstrom? Guy's going to have multiple plans and tricks up his sleeve....which one he uses we have yet to see.

2. More exaggeration eh? I said we have one of the best prospect pools, not THE best. Shaman knows this and made fair evaluation of them. I also didn't say any of them will be a D, Z, or L.....And you don't need 3 of the best players in the league to win cups anyway. 1st round picks really don't matter, many 1st round picks and even top 10s never pan out.....plus the Wings are notorious for taking 1st round caliber players in the 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th. Half the players on our team right now would have gone in the top 20 of their draft classes if their was a redraft of their years.

3. Your hyperbole is amazing....of course Detroit is not the ONLY place FA's want to sign, don't be silly. However, we were voted by the players themselves as the team most desirable to play for. We are on the tops of lists for many FA's.

IIRC hpckeysfuture has us at 15th. Middle of the road. Most of which have yet to play a single professional game. This is not a deep talented pool.It is a bunch of names that we hope become prospects.

Yes there is a step, but top young talent is just that. You can never have enough. as for the roster spot thing, we are giving Smith a spot that he has yet to earn. Granted everyone expects him to play well. But he has what, 8 games at the NHL level and hasn't beaten anyone out.

I think this is one of those things where size doesn't matter as much as how you use it. I could watch Datsyuk check Chara all day long.

Or you can watch Doan check our whole team into the boards with no reaction like he did a couple years back in the playoffs. Or like the Preds did this playoffs......

This type of stuff is kinda funny, and to be expected. According to capgeek, larich has a no trade clause. Which then brings about the questions on the source of this trade rumor. But this is what the off season is for. So let's play along for a few.

green is a 26 year old 6-2/210 RH shooting Dman, that is a RFA. When healthy he is good for 25+ goals and 70 points.
Larich is a 29 year old 6-2/210 LH shooting C/LW. he is signed through the 2016/2017 season. While not a fighter, he does play a pretty tough style of hockey.he is good for 20+ goals per year and about 50 points.

Now what would we be losing?

Kindl. he is a 25 year old 6-3/215 Lh shooting dman, that might be max'd out as a #7. No real loss here.

Helm. A 25 year old 6-0/180 LH shooting checking C. yes he is a good penalty killer. Might be the fastest man in the NHL. He also has his own injury issues. No not long term ones, but misses 10-15 games per year, including this years playoffs, with nagging injuries due to his lack of size.

Franzen. 33 year old LW/RW that is 6-3/220. When he is hot, he is the best player in the NHL. Problem is the other 55-60 games of the season when he does nothing. He also is signed for 8 more seasons!

Now it really would be a matter of health for green. What where his injuries? Are these injuries a product of the change in style the past 2 years? Or something more chronic and long lasting? I have not idea. Green is at his best, with the puck on his stick, which means his style fits us to a tee! If the doctors give the ok, i would do this deal. We would pick up about 3-4 million in salary. But we would still have plenty of money left to add some more.

Let's not confuse opinions and facts. Not one of us know what any of those 3 are going to make. I think it will be higher than most of you expect for several reasons. 1. We need to get Abby and helm signed long term. We do not want Abby, helm, Howard, White, Filppula etc to all be FA's next year. In fact i hope all get extended and soon. 2. Now that we know there is going to be a new CBA worked on (please no strike) things will change. 3. Unlike many, I expect Quincey to be resigned, and maybe moved later if the need arises. yes we have money to spend, but so does everyone else. Heck 20 teams have 15+ million to spend this offseason, and the pool of FA's is shallow. There are no sure things in FA. There is as good of a chance we get none of the top FA's as there is we get 4 of them. Without Quincey we have 5 Dman and no one ready in the minors. Far to big a risk to let him walk.

ha ha wow, there is no way those 3 cost $8M

Ummm yes. Quincey alone made 3.3 million this past year. he will go up. Helm and Abby will be pushing 1.5 to 2 million each. So ya, around 8 million for those 3.

Hey look, Khan throw out he very same names i did 2 weeks ago. Ok guys go flame on him now..... LOL

Nicky retiring is his last great gift to the RW. Frees up a ton of money. We need to spend about 8 million to keep helm, Abby, and Quincey. That will leave 12-17 left to spend, and provide depth that we lack. Yes we could shoot for the stars at Suter and parise, or go for numbers and get 4 guys out of the second teir. Not sure how it will play out, no one is. But think about these 2 groups. Current roster plus Suter and parise OR current roster plus say Wideman, garrison, Doan and Jones. OR we focus on the blueline only this year, and load up on the forward lines next year which is a very deep class. Take the current roster and add Suter and Wideman. That is a very deep blueline, that also frees up players of value to trade for forwards that are pending UFA's in the 2013 class. Point is, while Nicky retiring may suck emotionaly, in the long run it can and should be to our great benefit.

Sad? hell no. I have 20 years of great memories and 4 cups because of nick. he is one of the best ever to play the game. It is time to say THANK YOU! as loud as we can, and look forward to the next chapter. can we get a waiver and hang Nick's jersey in the HOF on Friday?



Thanks Nick for all the time, effort and memories!

The prospect game is one of the biggest traps fans fall into. Every teams site has the same thing going on. these 5, 10, 15 whatever players are going to be great in a few years. maybe 1 out of 10 every turns into anything. There are towns in the northern part of the US and in canada, where just about every man played junior hockey, yet none make it to the NHL. You have to remember, Juniors is for 17, 18, and 19 year old KIDS! High school age players. Even moving up to the AHL is a major step.

If we return to the days on building only through the draft, we will become the Dead Wings once again. Then after 3-6 years of drafting the top talent we can move back up. I don't ever want to see that type of hockey from the Wings again! I still have nightmares from the late 70's and early 80's....... 20 win seasons........ YUCK!

I'd take another Franzen a thousand times over. You can throw away that pretty piece of metal from '08 if he's not there.

Yes, 1 great post season. but hey, we get to watch and remember that for 8 more seasons...... length of the terrible contract he is signed to........

Smith has the best shot. he could end up as high as a #2 or never make it. Sheahan will be a 4th line checking guy, Nyquist-who knows. yes he has talent, but he is also only about 175 pounds. Tatar is not really a legit NHL player, and the rest are still in juniors. No way anyone can tell on them.

The people are more negative,because of our(another) early exit,which is reasonable.

Shouldn't be negative about our prospects though,based on the last wjhc (jurčo,mrazek,backman,pulkkinen)or recent whc(jarnkrok,tatar).
The majority of them are not NHL ready yet,but it's hard to ignore theirs good development.

You have just stumbled on the point. They are all playing in the Juniors. That is equal in age to HS and the first year of college. All of them are 3+ years from seriously pushing for time in the NHL. If they ever do. History is filled with good junior players that never work out. Or guys that score a lot in the Juniors that never become more than 4th line checkers.

In the past we never really had a stacked farm....yet we always had amazing players trickling through the system....but now for once i can say im actually really excited about our farm....so many good players, so much potential there, im like a giddy school girl lol....if worst came to worst and only a few trickled through i would still be thrilled!

The brilliant mind of Lloyd Christmas + The positive outlook of Friedrich Nietzsche + The cool headedness of Chicken Little = Richdg

So funny. Clearly you have no idea what you are talking about. But that is ok. Sooner or latter you will understand that I am right. Just make sure you post it as much as your bile.

Stamkos, Staal (Eric)-hurt, Crosby-said, he needed to finish rehab, Giroux, Hartnell, Pietrangelo, Weber were still playing, Thornton, Iginla, St.Louis, Boyle are too old, considering Sochi, Campbell - if that is a Boston one, you must be joking, Lupul, Parenteau, Couture are not obviously better than the forwards who were there. I agree that D and to a degree G could be better with the players you mentioned, but Cam Ward is no slouch either.

Thomas is too old for Sochi, Miller is not better than Howard this season.
E.Kane was there, I don't know if P.Kane was healthy.
Stafford, Kesler, Cole (Carolina one)  were either hurt or fresh out of rehab.
Byfuglien had legal issues.
Wheeler, Foligno, Malone, Umburger, Leddy, Gardiner were not obviously better than the players already there,
Carlson(IIRC), Suter, Shattenkirk, Oshie, Legwand, Backes were still playing.
So that leaves Kessel, Pavelski, maybe P.Kane, Higgins. All good players but hardly any more valuable to their team than the players other teams were missing. More notable ones: Backstrom (G), Kiprusoff, Pitkanen, Hamrlik, T.Ruutu, Edler, Murray, Paajarvi, Enstrom, Hossa, Visnovsky, Jurcina, Meszaros, Halak, Hornquist, A.Markov, Radulov, Voynov and I'm sure i forgot many more.  

That's true, but it's really your own internal problem. If Hockey USA or Hockey Canada can't assemble the best team possible, who's to blame?



http://www.tsn.ca/ca...ature/?id=63060
According to this, Yzerman is an executive director, and Lowe is just one of a large
management group.
And I remember Yzerman saying that WHC participation will be an important consideration when determining the Olympic roster. After this WHC there's only one more left before the Olympics, and who knows what players will be able to go in 2013. They may be going deep into the playoffs, have injuries, or they just may not be picked next year. That's what I mean when i say this may have been the last chance at an Olympic audition for many NHLers.

Just a quick example. STL and Wash lost in the same round. Semin went and backes did not.

So you're saying the Wings are a little too young?

Looking at top 15 forwards, top 8 defensemen, and top 3 goalies in games played:
8 players 26 or under
12 players 27-32
6 players over 32
4 out of 6 optimal positions are 27-32

Taking out the injury replacements:
7 under
10 prime
6 over

Prior to adding Quincey and moving Commodore, we were perfect though. Guess it's no wonder things went south right after that...

I wasn't talking about the RW yet. But since you brought it up, lets. Currently the RW have 21 returning players from last year returning. Here they are by age groups, with their age in 2012.

26 and under:
Abby 25
Emmerton 24
Helm 25
Mursak 24
Nyquist 22
Kindl 25
Smith 23

27-32:
Eaves 28
Filppula 28
Miller 28
Zetterberg 32
Ericsson 28
Kronwall 31
Quincey 27
White 28
Howard 28
MacDonald 32

Over 32:
Bert 37
Cleary 34
Dat 34
Franzen 33

Then there are the old UFA's Lidstrom and Hommer. 42 and 38 respectively.

On the surface the roster is balanced fairly well. Majority of the team in the 27-32 year old group. 4 of the 6 premuim positions covered in that group. But that is also were some of the questions arise for the team. Filppula and Howard are UFA's after this coming season, and Zetterberg moves out of it due to age. Now we are down to just 1 of the 6 premium postions covered by this group. White is solid as a #4 D, but can either Quincey or Ericsson become a #3 D? Both are going to be/are paid like one. eaves, Miller, and MacDonald are just backup role players and that is fine. The question is: where do our next group of stars come from? History says this is the make/break years for Ericsson and Quincey. Most of us feel good about Smith. The rest of or prospects are several years away. this is also why everyone is talking so much about signing(insert your fav. UFA here) free agents. We need a youthfull talent infusion.

Now look at the roster via lines and budget amounts. yes this is just my opinions and everyone has their own versions of this.

top line: LW(3m budget): open, C(6m budget) Datsyuk, RW(3m budget) Franzen, this line needs a new LW
2nd line: LW (3m budget) open, C(6m bidget) Zetterberg, RW(3m budget) open, this line needs a new RW and LW
3rd line: LW(3m budget) Nyquist, C(4m budget) Filppula, RW(3m budget) Cleary, this line is set for the year.
4th line: LW(2m budget) Abdelkader, C(2m budget) Helm, RW(2m budget) Bertuzzi, this line is set for the year.
13 and 14th forwards: Mursak and Emmerton. Both are under the 1m per year budget.

Defense:

top pair: 1D(6m budget) open, 2D(5m budget) Kronwall, we need  a new #1, ideally a RH shot.
2nd pair: 3D(4m budget) Quincey?, 4D(3m budget) White, can Quincey be a number 3d?
3rd pair: 5D(2m budget) Ericsson-overpaid? or can he become the 3D?, 6D(1m budget) Smith
7D: Kindl, under the 1 million per year budget

Goalies:

starting G: Howard, budget is 5 million and he is under that
backup G:MacDonald, budget is 1 million and he is at it

Now looking at the roster this way, we have 2 guys that don't really fit: Miller and Eaves. Neither one is good enough to fill any of the 3 open forward positions. We also have a hole at the #1 D. That is 4 opens to be filled via trade or FA. With the current contracts and budgeting, our total payroll would be 65 million. Leaving 5 million (based on an estimated cap of 70 million) leftover to bank for next season. After this season we have the following UFA's: Howard (should resign for 5 m or less per year), White (should resing for about 3 m per year), Cleary-needs to be let go and free up his 2.8 million cap hit, and Filppula who maybe should be let go, freeing up his 3 million per year. With those 4 contracts expirering, and a modest cap increase to 72 million, we will have 18 million to spend. 5 goes to Howard, 3 to White, leaving 10 million left to fill the #3 C and the #3 RW position. If, and we can hope Bertuzzi retires, that adds another 1.5 million to spend, if Sheahan is ready to take his spot on the 4th line.


By doing all of this, you can start to see something of a 2 year plan, to keep us moving forward, without a huge drop off. I am not going into the 100$ guessing game of naming FA's or trades, that horse has been beat to death already. But there are several UFA's this year that stay in budget and fill our 4 holes, while improving our team. Then we get to the loaded 2013 class of UFA's and can find a potentail super to help at C.

Honestly, nothing you've ever posted needs to be repeated here, or anywhere. Ever.

Way to show a complete lack of class. But you have to live with yourself, not me. To bad you can't engage your mind. Good to see the old commie trick of: "if you can't refute the message, attack the messager", is alive and well.