Drake_Marcus

NotPavelDatsyuk had a great birthday tweet:

Notbirthday plans tonight! Plan includes "going Wild". I will bring friend and together we will do something we regret for 14 years.

Mixed messages, if Holland was content with his roster, why the comments of "we are stepping outside of our comfort zone" and why go after Parise and Suter...

Actions speak louder than words...

That's why people need to take the things NHL executives tell the media with a grain of salt.  Great negotiators treat the media as just another negotiation tool at their disposal.

I know this is an extreme example but let's look at the impact of 4 years of 1st round picks for teams in recent years:

Pittsburgh:
2003-- Marc-Andre Fleury (1st overall, lol)
2004-- Evgeni Malkin (2nd overall)
2005-- Sidney Crosby (1st overall)
2006-- KJordan Staal (2nd overall)

Washington:
2004-- Ovechkin (1st overall)
2005-- Pokulok (14th overall, bust)
2006-- Backstrom (4th overall)
2007-- Alzner (5th overall, bluechipper)

Chicago: (03 was Seabrook at 14th overall)
2004-- Barker (3rd overall)
2005-- Skille (7th overall)
2006-- Toews (3rd overall)
2007-- Kane (1st overall)

Edmonton: (this one isn't fair because somehow they got 3 first overalls in a row, but hey it's not too far off of Pitts' situation)
2009-- Paajarvi-Svensson (10th overall)
2010-- Hall (1st overall)
2011-- Nugent-Hopkins (1st overall)
2012-- Yakupov (1st overall)
(Edmonton's firsts in 07 and 08 were Gagner and Eberle, so even if you cut out the last two years it's a significant haul)

If Weber ends up in Philly and gets the C does he assume the kiss of death Lindros, Primeau, and Pronger all have with careers ended via concussions? Hes already had 2 ... one or two more good bell ringers and he could be counting to potatoe as well. Just saying.

I didn't even think about that but you're right.  I wouldn't touch the C in Philly with a ten foot pole if I were him!

<sup>We all know that Preds will match this offer sheet, so that is not the point. But Weber would easily be worth 4 first round picks in my opinion. It is not like the Red Wings have a fantastic draft record for defensemen taken in the first round the past 20 years -and it is not like they aren't trying. Detroit used 8 of 10 possible picks on defensemen and traded ten 1st picks (in 97, 99, 01, 02, 03, 04, 06, 09, 11 and 12). The exceptions are McCollum in 08 and Sheahan in 10.

1993 Anders Eriksson
1994 Yan Golubovsky
1995 Maxim Kuznetsov
1996 Jesse Wallin
1998 Jiri Fischer
2000 Niklas Kronwall
2005 Jakub Kindl
2007 Brendan Smith</sup>

Hold on a sec.  Weber's definitely worth 4 Detroit 1st rounders if we're talking the past.  BUT with Lidstrom gone and our superstars all getting older we can't assume the future will be paved in low 20's draft positions.

An offer sheet was the only chance we had of getting Weber.  I'm sure I don't know a whole lot about how the whole front office thing works but I'd be willing to bet there was no chance in hell that Poile was trading Weber to us.  I'm hoping Kenny would be smart enough to realize that as well.  I understand he doesn't like the whole idea of signing other team's RFA's but I feel like if there was ever a time to go for broke and do it, this was it.

Weber's not worth our next four 1st rounders.  For all we know those could be four lottery pics.

I lol at Howson.  I'm so happy he isn't taking the Wings' offers if these rumours are true.

I want nothing to do with overpaying for a habitual underachiever who is being paid top 10 money for the next 6 years to produce at the same freaking level as Franzen.  Fuuuuccckkk that.  I'd take Nash if the asking price wasn't so so inflated.  Keep waiting the Jackets out.... there's a reason why the entire league is declining their absurd price.

We would of lost a guy who has never scored more than 66 points himself and who disappeared in the playoffs last year, and a player that at times has shown promise, but more often than not has just looked so-so. We improve by having an unstoppable 1st line, even if teams focus on them. The 2nd line?? Not so sure about them. I agree about the defense, but...

And scoring a point for Columbus is like scoring two points for a good team. I'm not saying he would score 160 points in Detroit, but he would sure as hell put up more than 80. And Nash doesn't float, which would only make Datsyuk's job easier.  

But it's not going to happen, so it's a moot point.

lol wut?  I love when people ignore the fact that Nash gets paid almost twice what Franzen does to produce at the same level.

I could give two s***s if people speculate what he'd produce like here.  All you can do is evaluate him based on what's he's actually done lately.

Place Hank at the #2 slot, and #3 goes to Helm.

We lack scoring wingers; Franzen isn't what many have expected, and I'm thinking the  chances are likely that Filppula will go back to being a 40 something pts guy, and not the 60 plus pts guy he was this past season.

Getting a talent like Ryan comes along only so often.

Hey if Filppula came back to Earth I'd feel real silly, no question.  But what if Filppula's year wasn't a fluke?  That's the problem.

And the other thing is we're getting old and definitely past the prime window for winning a Cup.  If the deal was to trade for Ryan 3 years ago you'd have to take it... but with Dats and Z both exiting their primes...

Ryan for Filppula, and Franzen - I'd accept that in a heartbeat.

Really?  That's hard to swallow because Fil is a good centre and we don't have another young centre to replace him right away.  If Dats or Z were 3 years younger I could live with it.

Don't underestimate how important it is to have good centres.

Good stuff.  Holland re-signs an RFA and people mock it as his 'big splash'.  If he let Q go the same people would lament the wasted draft pick we traded for him.

That's my sincere hope.  But with it public that Kenny was pursuing Nash, he's probably pursuing Ryan too, as well as waiting on Doan, it seems that forwards are more of Holland's priority at the moment.

Indeed.  Holland wants the entire NHL to know loud and clear that he's happy with his defense going into this season and won't overpay for that trade he's been searching for.  That being said-- we all know he's kicking the tires on every possible 1st pairing d-man out there.  Holland isn't a moron-- I'm sure he's well aware the defense needs a big gun right now and he'll get one if it makes sense for the long-term success of this team.

The Wings aren't one above average d-man and forward away from being Cup favourites.  If we can't get some improvement from within this team is going to be painfully average.

Holland needs to either embrace the suck and get a respectable draft position or make a savvy trade.

Players strike when they've got nothing to lose, owners strike when they've got everything to gain.  Neither is the case this year.  I'm predicting a new CBA with relatively few holdups, though it will probably carry on for while so that both sides can posture a little bit for next time.

Agreed.  The big issues I'm guessing will be address are:

1) Lowering the current cap ceiling and floor
2) Addressing the burying of players in the minors or loaning them overseas to effectively circumvent the cap (this is something I imagine the NHLPA isn't happy about)
3) Changes to the way the cap ceiling/floor is calculated from year to year
4) Changes to the way contracts can be structured with respect to the tack-on 1mil years gms like to stick to the end of deals to bring the hit down.  One solution could be to simply make the contracts count against the cap if players retire over 35 no matter when they signed the contract.

Now that the bluster's out of the way I'm interested to see what the real offers on the table will look like.

Larionov's daughters are a little less ****-tastic in appearance.

I'd take Larionov's daughters over the Gretz girl any day of the week.

Well Holland's not an idiot.  He won't tell the media "HOLY s*** I'M DESPIRATE! I'LL PAY ANY PRICE".

He's obviously going to lean towards tank/youthgrowth or find that perfect trade.

Kneejerk reactions won't replace Nick Lidstrom.

There is a difference between fans of other teams who come here solely to bash the Wings and fans of other teams who have a differing opinion on the state of the team.  Those who come strictly to troll are dealt with swiftly; those who opine something other than the party line are welcome to express their opinion.  If you see blatant trolling, please report it.  If you simply disagree with them, by all means, discuss it.  That's why we're all here!

The one person we're all tiptoeing around naming here is pretty clearly only around to troll.  The only type of posts he makes are derogitory towards the Wings, Holland and posters here at LGW.  That's what really gets my goat.

I'm proud of how many great fans from other teams we have on LGW.  Just off the top of my head I can think of posters from the Sharks and Preds community who've come here and made very intelligent, constructive posts while dodging the odd attack here or there based on their obvious love of another team.  MacAttack used to post regularly from the position of a win-deprived Leafs fan who respects the Wings.  For each of our playoff opponents in recent years I'd say we've had good cross-forum posters who I hope will come back for future games day threads.

My point is that those of us who are tired of CentCougar aren't taking that position simply because he's a Wild fan.

Edit: does anyone know how I can get the spellcheck functionality built into my Firefox browser to work with the new forums?  This is the first time I've had this problem with the current FF.

Cougar is speaking some harsh truths.

Cougar's a Wild fan speaking out of his ass.  Two very good players aren't going to push a team who can't even win a playoff round into Cup contenders.

6 million a year for 6 years and you get a soft player who scored 4g 34a in 82 games this season?  One more silly contract Holland didn't offer.  Thumbs up for me.

The Lightning can have him at that price.  

Someone needs to file a missing person report.

What the f*** is Holland doing?

Not handcuffing himself to good players who want great player money every year for 13 years.