OT - What should the Red Wings do next?
NHL.com has a list of the Top 25 remaining free agents, and it got me thinking, do the wings persure any of these guys?
What are your thoughts? Should the Wings be done for the offseason, sign another Free Agent or two, or are you calling for a blockbuster trade (i.e. Boston trading Seguin to Dallas)?
http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=677016&navid=nhl:topheads
My thoughts...
1. I would like to get Brunner back on the team. I think he got his whits back about him late in the season last year, and will push to be a top 6 forward on this team.
2. Brad Boyes is a name that jumps out at me. I love his playing style, and he put up 35 points last year on a line with Tavares. I think he could help the wings on the top two lines in scoring and in the physical dept as well. Personally, any Ex-Blues player is welcome on my team. Those "Pesky Blues" have been a thorn in the Wings side for years. I like the type of players that team puts on the ice, and how those guys play the game. Boyes is no exception.
3.Other names that intrigue me are Nik Antropov and Simon Gagne. They are older and coming off injuries, but if they were to have a healthy season, either one could contribute to make this team better.
4. Whatever they do, please do not bring back Cleary!
5. If we don't sign anyone, we need to get young in a hurry. Bring up some kids before they are ready if need be. From what I hear, the likes of Farraro, Jurco, & Riley "the Drunken Teletubby" Sheahan are a year, to a year and a half away. I think bringing a kid up early could speed up the process. Spell them with the likes of Eaves and Miller, and get them some experience in the League.
6. I don't think we should go defense. That is all.
7. PIPEDREAM!!!! Trade everything for Stamkos!! And while we are at it, trade Ken Holland for Yzerman too. That would be a great way to spice up this new-divisional rivalry with Tampa.
Obligatory Hockey Meme
At least we aren't going to have this happen too often anymore...
You sir would make an AWFUL GM. Learn the depth chart, understand we have too many forwards on contract at this point before you start talking like you know anything. Sheesh the RED WINGS LITERALLY CAN NOT MAKE ANY MOVES UNTIL THEY CLEAR A ROSTER SPOT!
And my two cents ;) - Brunner is overpriced and overhyped. We have enough young guys to push the top 6 and his playing style on the lower lines is NOT awesome nor what we need. If we can clear out a couple old forwards to sign cleary for leadership, than great. If not, the only thing we need now is a depth defenseman or stud defenseman. That is it.
1 or 2 at the most. I am assuming the Wings will cut/buy-out/amnesty Burt and Samuelsson. Maybe Tootoo as well, seeing as Babcock refuses to use him as anything but a depth player.
I too would not turn down a stud defenseman, but I don't think we can get one. Who knows, maybe we already have one in DeKeyser.
Props to you MGOBARAN for taking the abuse and calmly answering the issues.
I think even if we get rid of those 3 guys, we should prolly play the young guns over old free agents. If we save money, I would love to find a way to get a defenseman, but we are probably going to wait to do that until next year.
Limited to two amnesty buyouts. So Wings have to do this wisely. Bertuzzi isn't a terrible contract 1 year remaining $2.075mil. The ones that seem to be the "worst" are obviously Samuelsson 1 year $3.0 mil. Then Tootoo's contract, 2 years remaining at $1.9mil per.
Also I wouldn't be surprised seeing one or two of Tatar, Ferraro, Jurco, Sheahan being involved in some sort of trade to aquire a top pair defensman.
Edit: Also Wings already bought out Carlo Coliacovo and only have 1 amnesty remaining. So doubt it will be used this year unless Samuelsson gets healthy enough to pass the physical.
Don't get me wrong I love Stevie Y but Ken Holland is one of the best if not the best GMs in the game. I know that it was under your pipedream request, but personally I think it would be crazy giving up Ken Holland.
I'm right with you on Cleary, but Brunner I wouldn't mind sticking around. He's got a lot of potential and showed flashes of being a solid day in/out top 6 forward in the NHL. His inconsitency last year could have been predicted as a guy making the jump to the NHL from Swiss league (very different style of play, smaller rink, more physical, longer season, more travel, etc.).
I do, however, love the Morrow idea. He doesn't fit the young and fast mold that Detroit is going towards, but he would be a hell of a replacement for Bert and Cleary.
The Wings were a few horrendous calls away from beating the eventual Stanley Cup Champions in a rebuildilng year. Whatever they are doing, I trust them. They look like a Babcock team for the first time since he got there. My guess is that the small moves that fly under the radar will be the ones that mean the most by the playoffs next year.
I hate when people who use the "horrendous calls" card. How about the Wings getting that call at the end of regulation which would have been the game with Chicago scoring under a minute? Did you forget about that call?
[I'm a Wings fan BTW I am just not looking through things with my Red Wings goggles like you good sir.]
Many candidates to be cut or traded for a bag of pucks: Sammy, Tootoo, Bert, Emmerton, Eaves.
Assuming that can happen, I'd like to see the Wings continue to improve the roster which may even required trading a valuable player or two (ie guys not listed above).
That does not seem like it is in Holland's DNA, however, so I expect them to dump a couple of the youngs guys for peanuts (i.e. Emmerton, Tatar, Anderson) and resign Cleary for way too much money and too many years.
IMO, is Coach Blashill (sp?) whom I believe is being groomed to replace Babcock in the next few years. Great coach whose voice and demeanor is the spittin' image of Babcock's.
Of course the 5 Griffins that will be Wings next year are pretty good too - Tatar, Almquist, Nyquist, DeKeyser and Andersson
dude, someone hook me up with the OPs dealer's number.
1. Don't sign cleary.
2. Don't sign another forward.
3. Don't sign a defensemen.
4. Do sign all of our RFAs.
5. Don't bring anyone up because we don't have the roster space.
6. Don't trade anything for Stamkos and tell your dealer you got a bad stash if you want to trade Holland for anyone.
Our D is vastly improved with another year of Seasoning for Smith, I think DeKeyser can slip into the top 4 and help keep Smith OFF the top 4 (because he's just not ready yet). DeKeyser, Ericsson, Kronwall Kindl is a nice top four and you can throw whomever you want with Smith in pairing three (or swap DeKeyser and Quincey, whichever) The thing us arm chair GMs forget to realize is that we had an almost entirely new Defense core (only the top two D were used to playing withe each other) and D is such a chemistry position...with no offseason and barely any training camp/pre-season its hard to manufacture chemistry out of thin air.
I would also like to see Bert, Sammy, and Tootoo go bye bye.
Dats/Abby/Weiss
Z/Alfie/Franzen
Andersson/Nyquist/(pick someone fast)
Helm/Miller/Eaves
Roster space is a fluid notion. With injuries and whatnot. I would rather have the young kids sitting at the end of the bench than Bert, Tootoo and Sammy. If you're going to have healthy scratches every game, I would rather it not be Eaves and Miller rotating, I'd rather have a young kid who can provide a boost.
As for Stamkos, he is just the one player in the league I want on the Wings. Guy is a pure goal scorer and could take the pressure off the likes of Datsyuk and Zetterberg. If you could trade a top six forward, some young pieces, and draft picks, and make it under the cap, I do not see why you wouldn't want that.
And I think Holland is getting stale. Detroit isn't the FA destination anymore, and Holland seems weak in the trade market. I like bold moves, and I was hoping we would have given Yzerman a chance earlier. Holland got the extension and has had nothing but crap offseasons. This year we got two good players, but he has made mistakes as well. Not trading Filppula for a first round pick at the deadline if you weren't going to resign him was a big one IMO. (not that I wanted him resigned).
Name me three GMs who are available and better than Ken Holland. I'll wait.
Holland just flipped this roster from old and decrepit to young and fast and on the verge of exploding. I'm not sure you nderstand the nature of the NHL anymore...the Wings aren't a destination for FAs because they're one of the few franchises (like Boston and Chicago) who aren't throwing around absurdly stupid money on bad investments and 'names.' He's built a core and he's constantly looked to find complementary pieces to that core.
This isn't 1988 anymore. you can't trade all your high end talent in the system and magically replenish it in the next draft because no one has European scouts. You have to draft and develop your talent...sometimes that takes patience. Its INCREDIBLY hard to rebuild on the fly and bide time while your next wave of talent comes together. Look at the top of this league right now: Chicago and Pittsburgh...their talent came from VERY high draft picks in multiple years. they were horribad. The wings aren't prepared to do that (and they wont, they're too good in the front office). IF we're lucky...we'll see Nyquist, Frk, Ferarro, and the rest of the young talent on this team overlap with a year or two of the Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Kronwall/Howard wave of talent. Watch the next three years while Chicago and Pittsburgh struggle to not crumble to pieces because of their inability to retain 5-6 superstars....I'll trade 22 years of consistency with a shot to win it every year over 3-5 year alternating runs of good then bad.
Not to mention: you can't trade Fil at the deadline and make the playoffs. would not have happened period case closed. You really would have traded a playoff run for a 2nd-4th round pick? (you weren't getting a 1st. VAN got a 1st for their best goaltender, not their 2nd or 3rd line center).
You sure gotta purty type!
If anything happens it'll be a trade, and then a signing of cleary. Babcock likes cleary so don't be surprised if that happens. Brunner wants to get paid (3.5-4 mil a season). If they sign anyone besides cleary I would guess its be Morrow. The only way they're getting a dman is via trade and it'd have to be a top 3 guy. I'm pretty happy with the D. If smith would stop being a turnover machine that be great.
This team is going to have a pretty good mix of veterans and youngsters. IMO Weiss is a nice upgrade over Fil, and Alfie will replace Brunner. I liked Brunner as well, but he wants to his as he's 27-28. I'm looking forward to October already
Maybe I'm the only one, but I'd like to see a healthy Todd Bertuzzi get ice time. He still has some of the best hands on the team, is tough, and is great on a line with Datsyuk or could be an asset when on a line with younger, inexperienced forwards. Injuries suck, but if he had been healthy, I find it hard to imagine him not playing every playoff game and contributing to the team.
I am sure of this. He is way too slow. Especially in the East, where every team has speed instead of playing physical hockey. Bertz doesn't fit in the East...nah...fit in the NHL anymore. If he can't forecheck (too slow), can't backcheck (too slow), never has the puck on his stick unless someone like Dats gets it for him, then what good is he? For shoot-outs only?
First a healthy Todd Bertuzzi is a guy you play in today's NHL. He's so big and tough on the puck that he causes all kinds of problems for opposing defense. As to you other point about the Eastern Conference, I think you are 100% backwards. The common belief is that the Eastern Conference is MORE Physical than the West. Teams like Ottawa, Montreal, Philly, NY-Rangers, Boston and now Columbus all are big physical teams rather than the "speed" teams you referenced.
There was a fight at the Red Wings development camp (first day, mind you) and one Tyler Bertuzzi was apart of it. I guess they weren't lying about his Shaw quotient.