Red Wing Frustrations

Submitted by United Football on
Ok Wings fans, when are the Wings ever going to truly rebuild? This rebuild on the fly bullshit has never been a long term solution. Hell look at Toronto, they threw in the towel and started an all out rebuild and 3 years later are one of the NHL's best. So what does old Kenny boy do now? It's even harder to have succes when we have numerous players signed for long contracts and big $ and are not even close to producing were they should. I'm as big a wings fan as they come but it's just hard to watch a bad hockey team with nothing but what seems to be bullshit on ice for the next 5 years or so. This organization does not seem to be evolving with the new NHL. And for the love of god can we please stop signing these useless end of career players! (Modano, Commadore, Wiess, Richards, Vanek, and Booth). Instead of giving these useless old goats ice time why not dip down and give some of these talented kids on Grand Rapids some ice time with the Wings( Russo, Svechnikov, Nosek,oh wait exposed Nosek to Vegas even though he was a good young talent, Coreau, and Bertuzzi. It's seems like the only thing this organization cares about is a cool new organ at LCA. And I know it's been said already but Kenny boy needs to go. We need a modern GM like mmmm I don't know....... Stevie Y? Their are shades of the Harbaugh madness coming to Michigan a few years back. I honestly think Stevie's heart in still in Detroit and if offered I would hope to come back to Detroit as our new GM. This would be a home run for the organization and not to mention the fans.If I'm not mistaken I believe this is Hollands last year under contract but I could be wrong. I think perhaps maybe a coaching change as well would be needed. I've been a Blashll fan since watching him coach Western Michigan but he doesn't seem to be able to motivate and out coach anybody. Who would be a perfect fit for the new coach? My pick, Gerard Gallant, another former Wing who did very well with Florida who never should have fired him, and is doing wonders in Vegas right now. How realistic is it that Stevie will come back? Who knows but I'm hoping the man who helped bring Stanley back to Detroit can come back home where he belongs. That's my only hope. Stevie's Lighting are the model of what a team built to win a cup looks like, the perfect culmination of speed, size, tough defense, goal scoring, and great goaltending. ( Side note, Andrie Vasilevskiy Tampa's goalie was drafted with a Red Wing first round pick that was traded away to get the great Kyle Quincy, that worked out real well.) So to all you Wings fans I say have hope even in times of bullshit and hope Stevie comes back. Stevie is our only hope. I pray Kenny boy will retire and be the new head of bathroom advertising at LCA, after all he knows a thing or two about taking a shit in the NHL and letting things drop to the bottom. Come home Stevie!!!!!!!
MGoBoard
Hockey

Navy Wolverine

December 10th, 2017 at 9:52 PM ^

Holland and Blashill receive their share of the blame and justifiably so, but where is Chris Illitch in all of this? Sure Holland has chosen to this point to "rebuild on the fly" but how do we know that is his vision? Holland very well could be executing the marching orders of the Illitches. We don't know much about Chris Illitch but he strikes me as the sort of owner who is more concerned with the bottom line. Those extra 3-4 home playoff games every year probably generate a fair amount of revenue. I'm sure they were also hoping to avoid having a half empty Pizzarena with a crappy team in 2017-2018 (so much for that plan). I would sure like to hear from Chris I that he will settle for nothing less than a Stanley Cup.

As far as how to get there......you need elite players to win in the NHL. Not a lot but at least an elite top line and top defensive pairing and a very good goalie. The problem in today's hard cap NHL is it is extremely difficult and rare to acquite these players via trade or free agency. When teams get their hands on top talent they then try to lock them up with long term deals with no trade/movement clauses. That means the best way to acquire elite talent is through the draft.

The NHL draft lottery makes it very hard to tank your way into a top pick. The team that finishes last in the league only has about a 50% chance of picking in the top 3. That means the Wings will need some luck and since that seems to be in short supply since they picked Zetterberg (back in '99) they will have to stockpile picks and draft a lot better than they have in the last decade plus. I suspect we will see Holland try to trade away as many players as he can after the new year to try and stockpile picks if we sustain the current trend. The fact that the Tigers started doing that this year could be a good sign.

Because these elite players are expensive and the NHL operates in a hard cap world, the Wings are going to have to start embracing the Entry Level Contract and bridge deal. Players in their first 2 years in the league make much less than veterans - think $800K per years vs. $5M per year. Players on the second contract still usually make less than $2M. Winning teams build their supporting casts with players in these two contracts along with 2nd and 3rd tier veteran free agents who they pick up from the bargain bin. Of course if they don't draft well, their young players won't be good enough to make the team.

As well documented, this has been Holland's biggest flaw - resigning too many of his veteran players past their second contracts. Looking back, some of those deals seemed reasonable at the time when compared to that player's worth in the overvalued free agent market but you can no longer build a team of support players on what are essenitally free-agent long-term contracts with no trade/movement clauses. Unfortunately, it will take 3-4 years to get out of the cap hell we find ourselves in. The only problem is our cap issues will make it much harder to resign Larkin, Mantha and Athanasiou - the only valuable pieces this team has right now.

Gonna be a long and bumpy road I'm afraid.

LGRW

 

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