OT- Red Wings Free Agency/Off Season

Are you crazy?

There is a lot about this all over the interwebs.
Parise and Suter, hopefully added.
Homer, retiring.
Stuart, gone to Sharks.
Hudler, bye bye.
Hello Smith, Nyquist. Possibly Tatar, this leading to either emmerton or mursak possibly being traded to clear room.
I would love to see u.f.a. D from wisconsin who won't sign with the ducks heavily pursued. Think another Smith or better in skill. Name is Schultz.

Wings WILL NOT PURSUE.
He's a rfa.
Signing him would cost the wings like 3 first round draft picks. Don't have the table available, but it would kill the draft for years, due to cba.

1. It depends on what your definition of "physical skater" is. Rick Nash is a big guy, but he's also a prolific goal scorer on a horrible team. Traditionally, your "checking lines" are your third and fourth lines, with the top six forwards out there to put the puck in the net. I don't think anyone argues that our defense is physical enough, they just can't handle the puck in their own zone sometimes *coughKindlcough*. I don't think they need to seek out a checking forward for the sake of having a checking forward.

2. The names on everyone's short list are Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. With the Devils' (and to a lesser extent, the Preds') deep run in the playoffs, luring those guys away will be harder than we thought. As far as Suter goes, he's apparently in extension talks with Nashville, who really wants to lock him down before the start of free agency. If he doesn't sign an extension before the free agency period, expect the Wings to throw an exorbitant contract offer at him. Parise is more of an enigma, just because his team is still playing. He won't touch on his contract or free agency until the off-season. I will say that he has played good, but not great, hockey for the Devils during the playoffs. Get Rick Nash out of your head, though. He's still under contract, so the Jackets are trying to trade him. In order to pick him up, you'd probably have to ship two or three starting players and a few draft picks, and nobody is worth that much.

3. Suter is your best/flashiest bet to step into the lineup. There is also a young defenseman in L.A. whose name escapes me that might be worth kicking the tires on. Even if you only sign one off-season defenseman (and assuming Stuart leaves like everyone thinks he will), you'll still have Kronwall/Ericsson/Kindl/Quincey/Smith. With Suter in there, that's not a bad blue line at all.

4. He's not going anywhere, and nor should he.

5. Honestly, you're just butthurt. You don't fire a coach when he gets you to the playoffs every season. Look what happened to the Pistons after they fired Larry Brown when he took them to four straight conference finals.

6. Look for one of Hudler, Franzen, Filppula, and Abdelkader to get shipped in a mid-to-high-level trade. If they sign more than one defenseman, you could see Ericsson, Kindl, or  Smith get moved as well. I'd love to see them ship Zetterberg for two or three players, but his contract makes that somewhat prohibitive.

Interesting question about Babcock.  I thought that his greatest strength from '07 through '09 was his ability to get extremely hard work and discipline out of a team that was already good enough to win lots of games just on sheer talent.  The past few years, that hasn't happened.  The decline actually started somewhat in the '08-'09 regular season.  I think that the team is tough enough, but they don't look hungry.  The Wings are also finally suffering the inevitable consequences of trading away first rounders and drafting at the bottom every year for almost two decades. 

To be honest, I want d-men like Ryan Suter and Jack Johnson (even though he's under contract).  Big, physical, have booming slapshots to replace a pretty good one in Nick.

I also think we could get a good forward in exchange for Franzen.  He's worn out his welcome.  

Jimmy still have time to prove himself.  Let's put more pieces in place in front of him.

Untouchable players should be:

1.  Franzen

2.  Zetterberg

3.  Howard

4.  Kronwall

5.  Datsyuk

Everyone else should be on the table. 

Re: point #1 - I think this has less to do with big, physical teams that hit and more with the parity that now exists in the league thanks to the salary cap.  Gone are the days of the 2002 Wings who could just steamroll people.  Seriously, go look up that roster. 

Ship franzen out trade hudlers rights. Hell send them both to Nashville for webers rights.

I disagree with a few of your points but overall enjoyed your post.  A few comments:

1.  I don't like it when people try to "model" the team after whoever is in the finals for a given year.  When the wings won, people said you need two-way centers and puck possession.  When the Pens won, people said you need two scoring superstars.  And so on.  There are many different styles that win.  Don't copy the last guy and think you will magically wind up in the finals.

2.  I think the Wings need a premier scorer so for me it's Parise first, then Semin as a fall back.  Others might work but those are top 2 targets for me.  I would let Huds walk unless he wants to come back without any pay increase.  Nash is very unlikely to be realistic for the Wings and I would rather sign guys than trade assets.

3.  Agree that the Wings need a #1 or #2 Dman.  Too bad the pickings are slim outside of Suter, maybe Schultz (FA from Wisc), Wideman or Carle.  Really it's Suter or bust for Plan A.

4.  I am fine with Howard.  He's maybe not top 5 but I think he is top 15 and perfectly fine to win you a cup if you otherwise have a very good team.  And he's relatively cheap for a top 15 goalie.

5.  I like Babs and think he is a very good coach.  His message may be old right now but I don't see any replacement I like near as much.

6.  I would let Huds go, might not sign Quincey if Suter was signed (otherwise you have to I think).  Mule I would trade IF I could get back equal value but that's unlikely so I would probably stick with him.

My optimal plan would be to sign Suter, Parise (or Semin) and 1 other borderline 2nd/3rd line forward.  Plus a relatively cheap backup goalie.

Franzen was our leading scorer despite being lazy. I don't get why everyone wants to ship him out. I Especially don't get why people suggest trading him for Semin who is just as lazy and not as big of a scoring threat.

If C-bus would trade Nash for Franzen, Filpulla, and Kindl i'd pull the trigger. The Wings haven't had a power forward like Nash since Shanahan IMO. I like Franzen, but he isn't as good as Nash. I think Nash would be a very good fit on this team. I believe Filpulla would easily be replaced by one of the young guys, and I'd rather see the team hold on to Hudler, then Filpulla. Hudler showed me way more then Fil did during these playoffs. Hudler got into the dirty areas, while Fil was easily pushed to the outside. He needs space, and his space was easily defended during the playoffs.  Fil looked like a different player during the Worlds, but he had way more space.

Weber is not going to happen since he is a RFA. Parise and Suter are very much in play, as long as they don't sign with their current clubs. Holland has said that he will trade for negotiating rights to players they want. Knuble wants to be in Detroit next year, but does Detroit want Knuble? I wouldn't mind seeing him back in the D again. I was hoping he'd be someone they picked up the last time he was available.

Jimmy Howard is fine. He was a Vezina canidate up until he got hurt. IMO Howard is better then Ozzie, and Ozzie was one of my favorites.  They need a capable backup. Everyone thought Conklin was going to be that guy last year, but he was far from it. Joey Mac is on a one way next year, so he'll be an option, but his back problems are a big question mark. I don't know who they'll look at there.

1. You can be physical without throwing a bunch of bone crushing checks.  And you can win too, see Wings 4 cups.   That said, the Wings were missing a lot of speed and physical play with Cleary, Helm, and Eaves all out of the lineup and a guy like Hudler getting pushed around like a mini mite.  I do think the wings will look to add a larger 3-4th line grinder agitator that can skate.

2-3.  List starts and ends with Parise and Suter.  Thats the dream.  If that can't or doesn't happen the Wings will get creative and maybe look to next years class of UFRs.

4. Best bargain in hockey and the reason we can have Hank, Pav, and still be talking about 2 more max(ish) deals.  You can win it all with a goalie like him.

5. No coach is 100% safe, but he is close.

6. Deals very rarely work out Veterans for Veterans.  You need to get one thing and give another, something both teams think they need.  Wings might need a Nash type, but can we give up what columbus needs?  That would be young not yet big contract guys like Nyquist, Smith, Kindl, Tatar.   They are not going to take guys like Z or Franzen.  Huds is not worth a used puck bag and he is an UFA anyway.  So I just don't see a trade happening unless we ship out some extra pieces for late round picks, and as of right now we don't have a lot of extra pieces.

Keep your eye on Jason Garrison of the Panthers,  the Wisco kid not signed by the Ducks AND the Western Kid., an undrafted FA.