Detroit Red Wings & the NHL

[madootra]

Too much $$

[Optimus Prime]

Free agent forward Zach Parise and defenceman Ryan Suter have both agreed to terms on 13-year, $98 million contracts with the Minnesota Wild.

The deals carry an average annual salary of just over $7.5 million.

[Hannibal]

We screwed up not trying to get Weber last year.

For $7 Million a year, I'm glad that we stayed out of that feeding frenzy.

[Optimus Prime]

Getzlaf, Perry and Weber are UFA' s next year, screwing up is Nashville.....losing Suter and potentially Weber next year and getting nothing in return. Suter was the best UFA defenseman available this summer but not top-10, Minnesota overpaid severely, which makes you wonder how many teams were simply driving the asking price up with no intention of seriously signing?

If the asking price for Nash remains high it will force teams to shift their focus toward more affordable options, including Detroit. My fear is that they sign Semin, sure he will score but his lacking defensive play and a questionable work ethic spell more trouble.

[Hannibal]

Suter isn't worth that much with the salary cap being what it is. IMHO Parise and Suter aren't worth enough to spend a full quarter of your cap space on.

[Optimus Prime]

Dallas will have $40M in CAP space but are a budget team and will not necessarily spend it all, plus the CAP has been raised from $58M to $70.2M, which begs the question, why even have one now?

If I were Holland, find the best 1 or 2 D-men available, take your lumps next season then take a serious run at the bumper crop of UFA's next year.

[madootra]

I completey agree. See who works hard during a tough season.

[geo weidl]

Funny, you guys were ready to sell your left nut to get these two last week and now its meh! Detroit paid Cujo 8mil to ride the bus in the AHL and 7.5mil is too much?

[Hannibal]

Interesting strategy. Sort of risky, though, if those guys get re-signed before the UFA period starts.

[Optimus Prime]

In the end, Suter & Parise went to the highest bidder making Minnesota at 68 million, the second highest team salary in the League. Nashville and NJ failed to match and retain, if a player does reach free agency, a fresh start with a contender seems to be the norm.

At present there are still plenty of UFA options. D-man Jay Bouwmeester out of Calgary seems doable.

Stud Defenseman Keith Yandel & Captain Shane Done must be dying to leave Bettman's Coyotes and Rick Nash's return to the Blue Jackets is untenable thanks to their GM Scott Howson. There is tremendous pressure to trade him and at 27 yrs, 6-4, 220 he is a freight train and he is one of only four players to score at least 30 goals in each of the past five seasons. If the Wings have the guts to pull the trigger, he scores 50+ playing with Datsyuk, easily eclipsing his career-high of 41.

There is now talk that Columbus will sit him out for the season if a trade is not forthcoming, should cost Columbus' GM his job. How is the team captain that asked to be traded supposed return to the lineup in a toxic environment? He's been a "one-man-band" in Columbus, surround him with a strong supporting cast and he's a superstar in the waiting.

Howson has had Nash on the trading block since January and is looking REALLY bad on this one.

[Hannibal]

We have nothing to trade (or nothing that we would be willing to trade) for Nash. There's no chance whatsoever of us getting him.

[Optimus Prime]

Come on Hanni, there's a little of armchair GM in all of us.

Three-way trade, 30M in CAP space, Nash has 4 years left at 7.8M a season, leaving the worst team in the NHL (Blue Jackets) to start fresh with the contender Wings, seems logical. Howson may have been reluctant to trade to a rival but at this stage, he's looking like a serious fool and needs to move this along asap.

Wings should of held Hurdler as trade bait as well as Pittsburgh's Jordan Staal to Carolina? These players were Nash trade material.

[Hannibal]

What would we trade? Our draft position isn't very good and we have no exciting young prospects. Columbus probably wouldn't let Zetterberg go for anything less than Zetterberg.

[Optimus Prime]

He's 32 in October, only 20+ goal scorer over the last three seasons, criticized for a dropoff in offensive play after the big contract, NASH on the other-hand, true power forward, 27-yrs old and a serious goal scorer. 185 lbs v. 220 lb?

I pull the trigger in heartbeat, Nash as played with NO ONE his entire career, Zetterberg has already played his best hockey on very strong perennial contender.

Zetterberg has been good, Nash would be better IMO, nothing but upside in that deal for Detroit.

[Tony G]

July 6, 2012 at 1:00 am
Best bet for the Red Wings: Play waiting game

• 
• Gregg Krupa

Accustomed to a bumper crop almost every season, it may be difficult for fans of the Red Wings to get used to a fallow field.
But, having lost in the grand scheme to secure the two players who would have instantly restored an increasingly depleted roster, the wisest thing for the Red Wings might well be standing pat.
It could be the most direct path to the partial reconstruction they require.
After a third consecutive early-round exit from the playoffs, the Red Wings lost veteran superstar Nicklas Lidstrom to retirement and Brad Stuart to the Sharks — their top two defensive defensemen — and one of their four 20-goal scorers, Jiri Hudler. The packaged, free-agent acquisition of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter would have fixed things in a hurry, supplying the scoring punch and physicality the Red Wings sometimes lack from their current crop of forwards, and shoring up the back end.
What the Red Wings could have accomplished in one move may now take a couple of seasons or more to realize: Assembling a bona fide contender for the Stanley Cup.
With Parise and Suter going to the Wild for more money than the Red Wings offered, Detroit is unlikely to rank as prime contenders, regardless of what it does this summer. The players likely are not available now, even through a few trades.
Worth the wait

But next summer will bring another crop of free agents, who — like Parise and Suter — could provide a couple of essential ingredients to create, once again, a big-time contender.
When team-changing free agents like Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf, Shea Weber and Jarome Iginla become available, perhaps a year from now, the Red Wings need to position themselves precisely as they did this summer: With ample cash available for shopping and owner Mike Ilitch's plane idling at the airport.
It took tons of money to sign Parise and Suter, and the Red Wings fell a bit short. For all of the talk about their desire to play at home and play for a perennial winner, Parise and Suter also took the best money.
Considered as a package, which they were, Parise and Suter reportedly landed a total of $196 million. The Red Wings likely offered something in the neighborhood of about $170 million-$180 million.
Regardless, the Wild outbid the Red Wings.
Did the additional money seal the deal? It is unclear.
But, by Tuesday evening, it appeared Parise took the Red Wings off his list.
And if the Red Wings were not going to get Parise, the likelihood of signing Suter decreased, drastically. In fact, it probably vanished.
The point? If the Red Wings want the shortest path to their next Cup, they must have ample money available next summer and be willing to patiently play the bidding and courting game — and, yes, risking losing, again — in the hope of signing two players who are among the cream of the crop.
Hoarding cash, continuing to develop their younger players and hoping the veterans step up is probably the best to which the Red Wings can aspire in 2012-13.
Pickings slim, price high

It is spare solace, especially for fans so used to perennially having the Red Wings among the few prime contenders for the Stanley Cup.
But there are only four potential difference makers out there right now:
Keith Yandle of the Coyotes, who rivals Suter, Weber and Drew Doughty as the best, complete young defenseman in the game.
Weber, whom the Predators might trade eventually if they cannot sign him to a long-term deal.
Rick Nash, for whom the Blue Jackets are asking the sun and sky.
Bobby Ryan, the sniper-of-a-forward with whom the Ducks will not part easily.
Shane Doan, the admirable captain of the Coyotes, who is showing signs of growing tired with the instability in Arizona, but may realize in the next several days ownership has, at long last, stabilized.
Doan is the only free agent in the group. Yandle, Weber, Nash and Ryan are available only through trade, and any of the deals could cost the Red Wings a lot.
Right now, the Red Wings are not among the NHL franchises that can part with one or two of its big pieces, along with some smaller ones, to acquire the last part of a puzzle. I do not perceive a good reason, for example, to lose Valtteri Filppula, a top-four defenseman, a legitimate prospect and a draft choice or two for Nash, when they clearly need more than just Nash.
Time to practice patience

The blame for these circumstances does not lie with the Red Wings brain trust. Viewed objectively, the prime cause is, in fact, all of the success the Red Wings have enjoyed for so long that, if only by course of nature, the team now requires refurbishing.
The partial reconstruction must be done under a salary cap, amid a trend of at least two years of players often garnering more money than their worth and the prospect of a new collective bargaining agreement.
Like it or not, the Red Wings must patiently play that game.
Does it mean they will not win the Stanley Cup in 2013? Having just observed the Kings and the Devils play in the Finals, never say never. But it is likely to be a longer shot than it has been in at least 17 seasons.
Regardless, it all argues for Detroit lying fallow, for now.
There may be some slack nights for attendance and television viewers this season, while $17 million in cap space is unspent. But the discerning fan base must come to understand it is a means to an end.
And then, the best front office in the game must again prove its worth, amid some of the most strained circumstances for the Red Wings in two decades.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/2...#ixzz1zr1CbbgW