Detroit Red Wings

[ridinryan44]

Hudler and a first for Bogosian?

[Dean Youngblood]

I don't think that Holland will just roll with the kids (Smith, Kindl) and hope they can replace Rafalski. Holland will be in the market for at least one defenseman and I really think that Kaberle fits nicely. I could see Kabs signing a 2 year deal worth something like $8 million

Pitkanen is another option.

I am really interested to see what Lidstrom does and his decision will determine what direction Holland goes.

Either way, Kronwall and Kindl will be getting more responsibility.

[Shake]

I don't think that Holland will just roll with the kids (Smith, Kindl) and hope they can replace Rafalski. Holland will be in the market for at least one defenseman and I really think that Kaberle fits nicely. I could see Kabs signing a 2 year deal worth something like $8 million

Pitkanen is another option.

I am really interested to see what Lidstrom does and his decision will determine what direction Holland goes.

Either way, Kronwall and Kindl will be getting more responsibility.

Agreed.

Detroit does not panic or make knee jerk reactions, so I also highly doubt they'll rush Smith. I'm with you, I see a vet coming in. Maybe Kaberle, maybe not, but it will be someone.

[Shake]

McCrimmon won't return as asst. coach

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/news/s...e=NHLHeadlines

[ross10019]

I don't think that Holland will just roll with the kids (Smith, Kindl) and hope they can replace Rafalski. Holland will be in the market for at least one defenseman and I really think that Kaberle fits nicely. I could see Kabs signing a 2 year deal worth something like $8 million

Pitkanen is another option.

I am really interested to see what Lidstrom does and his decision will determine what direction Holland goes.

Either way, Kronwall and Kindl will be getting more responsibility.

Separate thread going on this, but I think Pitkanen's well-known quirky personality, coupled with the fact that he's Finnish, means that he won't even be considered by the Wings. I think they'll try to sign Ehrhoff but will settle on Kaberle because the Canucks will probably find a way to lock up Ehrhoff (and he'll have every incentive to stay in Vancouver, especially if they win the Cup as they will go into next year with the same core team essentially).

[Jouko-Pouko]

Would this be realistic?

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
UFA Winger ($4.500m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m)
Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m)
Jiri Hudler ($2.875m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m)
Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m)
Drew Miller ($0.750m)

DEFENSEMEN
Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) / UFA D-man ($5.500m)
Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m)
Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / Brendan Smith ($0.875m)
Doug Janik ($0.512m)

GOALTENDERS
Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Joey MacDonald ($0.600m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $62,200,000; CAP PAYROLL: $60,296,211; BONUSES: $0
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $1,903,789

That UFA D-man could be someone like Ehrhoff, Kaberle, Pitkanen, McCabe, Jovanovski etc. and that UFA Winger could be someone like Gagne, Laich, Leino, Jokinen etc. Would that D-core be too inexperienced for Detroit? They would still have nice cap space (1.9M) left if they don't want to rush Smith.

[ross10019]

Would this be realistic?
That UFA D-man could be someone like Ehrhoff, Kaberle, Pitkanen, McCabe, Jovanovski etc. and that UFA Winger could be someone like Gagne, Laich, Leino, Jokinen etc. Would that D-core be too inexperienced for Detroit? They would still have nice cap space (1.9M) left if they don't want to rush Smith.

I imagine it's either Kaberle or Ehrhoff on D. Jovo is intriguing but I don't think Holland's going to take the risk due to his injury history and age. I already made the point about Pitkanen.

Gagne would be awesome on the Wings, especially after this strong showing in the playoffs, but I think he ends up re-signing in Tampa. Leino back after being discarded? Stranger things have happened, and he would come alot cheaper than $4.5m. Laich, he;ll cetainly have lots of options, but something tells me he goes elsewhere and makes a huge payday given his size/skill combo. Jokinen, again not to make a big deal of it but the Finnish thing. Not that the Wings don't have Finns (Filppula, Leino before him) but clearly they are a Swede-centric squad and there is never often no love lost between Swedes and Finns.

[Jouko-Pouko]

Jokinen, again not to make a big deal of it but the Finnish thing. Not that the Wings don't have Finns (Filppula, Leino before him) but clearly they are a Swede-centric squad and there is never often no love lost between Swedes and Finns.

People seem to overestimate the "hatred" between the Finns and the Swedes. We like to compete against them but I think it's mostly in a friendly matter more than anything. There's nothing nicer than to win against the Swedes and there's nothing worse than to lose to the Swedes but there's nothing wrong with working/playing with them.

Those names I threw were just examples. The thing I was wondering more than anything was if they need more than 2 UFA players.

Btw, it was rumored that Leino is looking for over 4M per season, so that 4.5M is not that far off. But it wasn't even supposed to be an exact number for any of them, just a number that would be close to reality. It could be between 3 and 4.5M for any of those wingers.

[Shake]

http://detnews.com/article/20110527/...434/1128/rss16



Wings sign Almqvist to ELC

( Don't know a thing about him, but wanted to share the news.

[Jouko-Pouko]

I just realized Detroit doesn't have any d-man shooting from the right side anymore. It would help a lot on the power play if they had one. But if they want one, only UFA options would be Bieksa and Wisniewski. Do they go after those players?

[Shake]

I just realized Detroit doesn't have any d-man shooting from the right side anymore. It would help a lot on the power play if they had one. But if they want one, only UFA options would be Bieksa and Wisniewski. Do they go after those players?

Those guys might be plan B options. I think they aim higher before they take either Bieska or Wisniewski. IMO

[Jouko-Pouko]

Those guys might be plan B options. I think they aim higher before they take either Bieska or Wisniewski. IMO

Yeah, but my point was there are no better d-men available who shoot from the right side. And since Detroit doesn't have any forwards shooting from the right side either, how do they work their power play without a d-man like that?

[tgraveline]

They should go after Bieksa. Wisnewski will probably get resigned unless the Markov deal is huge, which I think they will sign him, but I've no clue if its going to be high or not. I hope they Habs get a reasonable deal with him.

They need to balance out that attack, but then again, they would do just fine with all lefties, lol.

[Shake]

Sproul, awesome pick for Detroit, him and Smith in the near future.

[Cloghaun]

Are the Wings going to spend some cash or what?