Red Wings

[jaadam4]

Thats not even true. Its not like the Wings were big time free agent players. Most of their players were homegrown or they traded their homgrown players for them. The one time they did do a free agent frenzy was 2002 and most of those guys came for cheaper.

The WIngs were always a high salary team because they kept their players and they accumulated good players but it was mainly due to trades and draft picks. Their free agent acquisitions were a little sketchy at times.

Exaclty. Rarely did any of the FA's really pan out. It generally came form insane drafting and trades.

Say what you say but the Wings still are a top notch franchise. You'd figure to have a leg up on most even with a level playing field because of the Winged Wheel.

[jaadam4]

Had the kid picked the Canadians or the Leafs I could understand.. But the f'ing Oilers? Seriously?

[froot loops]

The Oilers make a lot more sense than the Leaves or Canadiens. The Leaves are a franchise thats going nowhere. The Oilers have a lot of young talent. Plus Schultz wanted to stay in Western Canada.

[lions&tigers&wings...yea]

The Wings will be just fine as they are the only team to make the playoffs the last 20 years and still have a top 10 prospect pool.

We could have really used 1 more year of Lids to tide us over until next fall when Oullette and Sproul go professional and Backman and Marchenko come over from EU. Right now our prospect pool is deeper than it has ever been in my lifetime (due to them not trading any of them away). Those were just the d-men coming over too, Jarnkrok is going to make the team right out of camp ALA Zetterberg when he finally came over from Brynas.

This guy is the biggest boom or bust of the D-men listed above but I am most excited about him as he's a smooth skating 6'4 defense-man who leads the OHL in scoring clip for D and has a cannon of a shot. He patterns his game after Mike Green and is a great PP QB.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fil5eZGVyb0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fil5eZGVyb0[/ame]

[Topweasel]

Yeah thats false as well. Most of those teams were making money, the owners have no incentive to say that however. Its always more profitable to cry poor.

Not completely while it was true that most teams wanted it to seem like they were going broke, I do remember TB losing substantial money the year they won the cup. On the reverse end of that, was the fact that they won the cup. Most owners would be willing to lose tooons of money if they knew the cup would be theirs.

The point is that its 2-3 teams that made enough money to be like the Yankees of Hockey. With the Wings being one of them.

[froot loops]

In te real world if your business continues to lose money for years on end, you go bankrupt and fold. Yet in pro sports owners lose money for decades and have the amazing ability to stay in business.

[Topweasel]

In te real world if your business continues to lose money for years on end, you go bankrupt and fold. Yet in pro sports owners lose money for decades and have the amazing ability to stay in business.

Besides the fact that teams regularly don't include several forms of income as "team" income. Sports team owners aren't always "profits" sure they don't losing money but it is more of a prestige thing than anything else. Beyond that there is an ebb and flow to "losses" when it comes to resigning and FA's. One year they could spend millions over the cap in bonus's that at least in the NFL wouldn't be included in actual expenditures in future years.

So this can go back and forth a bit more. Again the major point is that the Red Wings without a cap were one of the haves and not one of the have nots. Much like the the Tigers are now. Just obviously the Wings have always (in the last 15 years of no cap) did a better job with it.

[Topweasel]

As for Business losing money. Look up AMD. They have only had about 1.5 years of profitability for the last 13-15 years but still alive and kicking.

[froot loops]

Nope sports teams are always profiting and the majority of the time they sell the owners sell the teams for far more than they paid. A lot of these owners love to pocket the money and complain to the public that they are losing cash. It helps them extract more subsidies.

The Wings have successfully evaded a downturn for 20 years. The cap has a little to do with it, but really they had an inordinate amount of homegrown players that kept for two decades and were very good at finding vets. And for those 20 years they had one of the greatest defensemen of all time. Find a couple of young studs and its back to business.

[CaptainBlue]

Red Wings are tied 3-3. Z with 2 goals and an assist so far.

[CaptainBlue]

Now 4-3 Wings in the third. Hopefully they can hold on. The Wings really need a win tonight to lessen the gap in the central.

[CaptainBlue]

Hattrick for Z. Wow, that was sweet. This one is over. Huge win for the Wings.

[froot loops]

wings are doomed

[Tony G]

life is meaningless

[chemiclord]

Wings will be fine.

*watches them get destroyed by Columbus*

Oh. Guess not.