OT - Wings re-sign Glendening
4-year contract extension for Luke G.
Paul McCartney know about this?
Some people are throwing a fit on Twitter but Matt Martin signed for 2.5 a year for 4 years. It's not as bad a deal as some are trying to make it out to be.
4 year extension at 1.8mil AV isn't terrible. What is terrible is that you already signed Ott for 1 year. Miller for 2. Helm for 5. This is just another deal tying us to a player for too long when the future plan shouldn't contain them.
Basically, by year three of this deal Helm and Luke are the same player. 4th line center with speed and GRIT. By year three we could be a lottery team that needs to cut dead weight and build with youth. These contracts only hurt the Wings future.
Helm is a 3rd line center and I would rather have him than Sheahan. The modern NHL game is more about speed than size. Also, people need to stop worrying about contracts three years from now. By then, the salary cap should be much higher especially with Vegas getting a team. They could even lose players like Howard and Ericsson during the expansion draft and there have been some rumors that teams will get an extra buyout.
He had zero business on the 2nd line with Datsyuk. Glendening is a servicable 4th line center. The problem is, he saw more ice time than players he has no business playing over. The Wings used their 4th line to matchup against other team's top line, which meant the 4th line saw a ton of ice time. That cannot and should not happen.
I agree and I hope Blashill learns from the mistakes he made this past season.
I think he is a solid player, not a fancy sign like most Wings fans want...but solid sign.
Also a lot of people pissed at the Ott sign, which I can undersatand, but correct me if I am wrong but we signed him on the cheaper end? I am hoping he comes in and is that enforcer type of player which we need/have needed. Abby is ok at it but he cant bang with the likes of a guy like Boyd on Tampa Bay.
I am hoping the arena puts a breath of fresh air in this organization, i feel like we are just in a stale momement. I am more than happy to miss the playoffs if that leads to us taking a step back and re-thinking our strategy.
Go Wings
For people trying to figure out why some (like me) are disappointed, it boils down a lot fo the salary cap and Holland's curious-at-best handling of it. We re-signed Helm and Glendening, two guys who should never play on a power play or above the second line on a Cup contender, long term contracts that total $6mil. We're paying $8mil to Franzen and Ericsson during the same time frame. Abdelkader and Kronwall are being paid $9mil during the same time frame. Our backup goaltender is making over $5mil the next couple years.
That's $28,000,000 going to a bunch of guys, Abdelkader included, that should not be on your top two lines or considered a top 4 defenseman, plus our backup goalie.
And we're paying Zetterberg (35 years old) and his declining skill set $6mil for the next five seasons.
Larkin, Mantha, AA, DeKeyser, etc are young guys that we hope develop into stars. We will need that eaten up cap space if we hope to retain them all.
The problem is that the Wings aren't a Cup contender, and probably won't be for while; they need a wholesale roster makeover. So as long as they're weighed down by those horrible contracts you reference, I say good for Glendening.
I'm also totally against tanking like the Oilers and Sixers have done. I would rather be middle of the pack and rebuild the right way, than go back to the Dead Wings era and lose on a nightly basis.
It's another thing to continue giving out bad contracts to marginal players so you stay in the middle of the pack. He was a liability in the playoffs against Tampa Bay when there were better options available. AA was a positive factor on the ice. Our PP was pretty decent with Mantha on it.
I like Luke...on the 4th line. You don't extend 4th line players to a tune of almost $2mil a year before their contract runs out.
I'm sick and tired of this argument. Mantha had one powerplay goal against a shitty Montreal team and people act like he was some powerplay specialist.
Glendening has played against some of the best centers in the league, including shutting down Crosby in games. I'm not sure what series you were watching, but Glendening was pretty good against Tampa. The line with him, Abdelkader and Sheahean played a large part in keeping the Tyler Jonnson line off the scorboard in game 3. He was definitely not the reason why the Wings lost the series. If you wanna blame someone, it should be guys in the top 6 who couldn't score.
