{re-signing} Dan Cleary

[Dakkster]

a million and a half bucks to sit in the press box, and be put in the line-up in a pinch? Yes, please.

Two and a half million. He gets a one million bonus when he plays ten games. What a joke.

[plug]

Nothing more to say about this idiotic move, is there? Pretty succinct IMO.

If you want a rand, here's a mini version:

Holland has been talking about a youth movement for years, yet every single ****ing offseason he goes out and gets mediocre veterans who stand in the way of the kids for no good reason. And if Holland can't find mediocre FAs on the market, he goes back to alumni guys like Samuelsson, Cleary or Quincey instead of rolling the dice on someone who is at worst a lateral move and may be even better. He hasn't gotten a prime free agent to Detroit for five years or so and he contradicts his words with his actions. Any talk here about how Cleary is good in the room (reports say he's pretty stuck up and not at all very well-liked), yet we've seen for TWO YEARS that his body is crumbling and the Wings are better in every way measurable with him out of the lineup. If Holland actually went out and said that yes, we know this isn't the best move for our hockey team, but we're making it out of loyalty, it would be a bit easier to swallow, but Holland lies his goddamn face off. Some honesty would be appreciated. Tatar and Nyquist both had candid interviews last year at camp when Cleary was inexplicably re-signed and they said they didn't exactly appreciate Holland putting unnecessary players in front of them. Tatar even talked about KHL or requesting a trade. We've also seen Jarnkrok saying that he wants to go back to Sweden, which is why the Wings traded him, and Mursak and Almqvist have both gone overseas because they know it's damn near impossible to crack the roster when Holland is stacking the deck against them with worse players who get a pass because of ****ing loyalty.

Another weird thing is that Draper, Maltby and Holmstrom were all told that it was time for them to stand aside for the kids or take a two-way deal. What has Cleary done for the team to make Holland NOT tell him the same thing? It's insane! It's a waste of resources.

On one hand I'm not worried about next year as some other Wings fans are. If the Wings get 5-10 more games out of Z and Dats, just a half of a healthy season out of Weiss, a not sucky season out of Howard, then that's 5-6 losses that are turned into wins and the Wings have 105+ points and a safe spot in the playoffs. On the other hand I'm pissed that the youth movement happened this year because of one single reason: Holland and Babcock didn't have any other choice. If they could control injuries and waiver conditions, they would have stuck with Bertuzzi, Samuelsson and Cleary all year long and we would never have seen Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco and Sheahan. Weirdly enough Lashoff, our seventh guy, played 70-some games instead of letting Ouellet, Sproul, Almqvist and Marchenko take a bunch of those games to get more experienced and to see where they are in terms of NHL readiness. The youth movement talk from Holland is nothing but lies and a ton of Wings fans are tired of it.

Yep, the blank you holland said it all.. Thanks for the rant, I do find them enjoyable.