OT: NHL free agency begins WINGS UPDATE
Wings owner Mike Illitch, GM Ken Holland and head coach Mike Babcock will be among Detroit contingent headed to Newport office today
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) July 1, 2012
Good Twitter follows for FA period:
Also, I picked up a nice little fact about Chelips' connection to Suter: Suter's uncle, Gary, apparently played with CheliosWho hasn't played with Chelios?
Who hasn't met or doesn't know Chelios personally!?!? I was at a restaurant in Chicago called Pizano's and the waiter we had spent a solid hour and a half at our table talking about Chelios and hockey. Quite possibly the best restaurant experience I have ever had.
They played together in Chicago, and their kids played club hockey together as silver mites, along with Brent Sutter (Brandon is now in the league, obviously), and Eddie Belfour.
Somehow they were all selected to the same team (with black and red jersey colors), imagine that...
Parise and Suter need to be Red Wings becuase I need them to be Red WIngs
I really hope we don't take Semin, he is extremely inconsistent and plays one-way hockey...
I'll take him if we can't get Parise or Nash. Dats and Babcock won't let him pull the shit he pulled in DC. Did you guys see the TSN commentators ripping on him? He was clearly disgruntled in DC. he needs a change of sceneary.
I just hope we know whe destinations of Suter and Parise soon because then the Wings will know what they have to do via trade and have more time to figure it out.
I hope that the Wings' goaltending coach is very talented given his roller coaster like performance over the past several years in Toronto. Any Wings fan who sees this as a quality signing (even at that money) is drinking the kool aid. I like Ken Holland but I've watched Gustavsson for 3 years...enough said.
Gustavsson without the sort of pressure that is involved in playing in Toronto and as a confirmed #2 might work out. Twelve to twenty games a year, no more.
Heard a rumor on hockeybuzz.com (I know, I know) that the Wings would target Nash if they lost out on Parise. As much as I love Parise, Nash would give the Wings something that they haven't had since Shanny in his prime. An elite power forward.
Nash and Suter would provide some nice protection to a team that badly needs it.
All in all, I don't really care who they get to play wing, as long as they get Suter to anchor the blue line. Suter is the most needed UFA right now.
I don't think it's the contract that will scare off the Wings, but trading within the division that will scare off the Jackets. I don't think it's going to happen, but it would be nice. I'm guessing that in the end Semin is a Wing.
Nice. At least there is hope.
Do you guys think Suter is the real deal, or just merely a good solid defenseman who reaps some of the benefits of playing with Weber? Do you think the Wings will go after a different defenseman or sign two fairly high level D-man instead of spending a lot of cap space on one player? Anyone have thoughts on Jason Garrison? Where do you all think Brodeur ends up?
My bold prediction is that the wings get both Suter and Parise. We have 24 Million In cap space and are in perfect position to make a play on any free agent on the market, and more than 1 or 2 at that. Suter and Parise have grown up playing together through USA hockey and have expressed interest in playing together. They both want to win NOW so it's almost a NY Yankees situation, why not sign with Detroit.
My wildcard is Shane Doan, he's one of those players you hate playing against but love to have on your team and is exactly the type of power forward we need. I trust in Holland and Jim Dev more than any other GMs we got.
Not to be a debby downer, cause I think it is very possible...however...Pittsburg is now in the same situation as the Wings....great team with alot of cap space...To be Continued
I had to upvote that as funny, due to the irony of your grammatical error.
The apostrophe. It's not used to denote possession with it.
Here's some help from the oatmeal:
Actually, I believe they can start negotiations with other teams today, they just can't sign until the 11th.
Told Red Wings no longer going to Newport offices.... not sure what to read into that....
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) July 1, 2012
Sort of lost in the shuffle, but Brodeur is testing free agency for the first time in his career. Not saying that he won't be back in New Jersey next season, but that was an interesting development yesterday.
Their ownership is a mess right now and they are once again in danger of losing their best player to free agency. I highly doubt Marty leaves, but I think he will gauge interest and see where it is at this point of his career. Considering the pay cuts he has taken over the years so the Devils could sign better players, though, the Devils would be total dicks to let him walk instead of offering him a good deal.
I can't believe that NJ would actually let him go. Hedberg is not a starting goalie, and Brodeur, though he had his off nights, played really well in the playoffs. Can't blame him when you fail to score more than one goal with OT in the first two games of the finals.