yave1964

According to his agent last fall  Amirov came to Toronto where doctors gave him six months to live. Kyle Dubas wanted to fulfill the kids dream of playing in the NHL in a preseason game against Ottawa, both sides were informed that contact would be forbidden. In the end he was too weak to lace them up and play.  

 Kyle Dubas just went up about ten notches in my book. 

  I remember the draft in 2020, Mariner introducing the pick. I remember Amirov looked like a baby. 

 F&$# cancer. Life does not have to be fair but it doesn't have to suck.

  Sadness.

 Former first round pick Rodion Amirov lost his battle to brain cancer at the tender age of 21. 

  He was starcrossed with injuries and Covid while playing in the KHL the brain tumor diagnosis occured in February of 2022. He missed all of last year, the Leafs had agreed to loan him to his hometown team for 2023-24 as he planned his comeback before his symptoms came roaring back 

  Dead at 21. Jesus. A first rounder with life by the bolls cut down in his prime. Sometimes life just sucks, this was one of those times. 

  2022-23 RECORD 37-38-7 81 points, 14 points out of a playoff spot. minus 38 in goal differential

ADDITIONS  Kevin Hayes comes over from the Flyers to replace Ryan O'Reilly. Oskar Sundqvist comes back to bring grit and hardness to the 4th line. Joel Hofer comes up from the AHL to push Binnington in net as a B rated goalie prospect. 

SUBTRACTIONS Greiss retired. The big ones were Taresenko went to rhe Rags at the deadline, O'Reilly and Acciari went at the deadline to the Blues. Barbachev was dealt to the Knights. 

PROSPECTS tHE TOP BOYS ARE years away from providing help, Bolduc may make the team as a goal scorer on the wing but if so will be raw and score about 15 goals and be a negative defensively at least at the start of the year. Zach Dean came over from the Knights in the Barbachev deal and looks like a potential 3rd line center but again, very raw.

SO,,,,,, WHERE ARE THEY? On the way down.  Hayes is not O'Reilly. Vrana is not Taresenko. Binnington no longer is Binnington. Faulk sure as Hell is not Pietrangelo. It has only been four years since the Blues shocked the world with a Stanley Cup, only four players are still here from the improbable run. The rookies ready to step in now are pedestrian, save possibly Hofer and the few prospects they have who are good to very good are several years away.

tHEY WILL HAVE 79 POINTS and finish 7th in Division. They are essentially irrelevant for the next several years. 

22-23 RECORD 42-33-7 91 points missed the playoffs by a single point  continuing the leagues longest missed playoff streak. minus four goal differential

ADDITIONS Connor Clifton and Erik Johnson, a couple of veteran stay at home guys were brought in to hopefully righten up the defense. Thats it. End of list.

SUBTRACTIONS Jack Quinn will begin the year on IR and miss most of the season. Craig Anderson retired. End of list.

This team has a talented bunch of young forwards led by Tage Thompson, Cozens and Mittelstadt. Two number one picks in Power and Dahlin lead the blueline. They also have 22 first rounder Savoie and 23 first rounder Benson who fell to them at 13. Both are outstanding forward prospects but wont be on the roster for a few years. The talent here is simply scary and their time is going to come.

  So the question, do they make the playoffs?

  My answer is no. I feel the teams who they are fighting with, Ottawa and Detroit both significantly improved while buffalo essentially stood still, and Boston took a step back but is still better.. Skinner has hot/cold years and scored 35 last year, he will slip. Tuch and Thompson had surprising career years and will likely slip as well. The defense was a clown show, bringing in Clifton and the five hundred year old Johnson does not change that. I like Levi, like really like him, I have him rated as one of the top five goalie prospects in the league but my opinion is Buffalo takes a small step back due to career year players finding their level and Levi going through growing pains. They had holes that needed filled and did nothing about them.

7th place 90 points, the best 7th place team in Hockey but the missing the playoff streak will continue. 

22-23 SEASON 46-33-3 95 points. plus 22 goals for/against. Lost in first round in five very quick games to the Golden Knights.

ADDITIONS Iafello, Vilardi and Raspari came over from the Kings, all are forwards, different levels of talent and expectations. Niederreitter came aboard as a third line winger. Namestnikov joins as a 4th line winger who can play up the lineup a bit. 

SUBTRACTIONS Longtime original Jet Wheeler was unceremoniously bought out and left for the Rangers. PL Dubois made it clear he was not coming back and went for a huge package to the Kings.

PROSPECTS 2020 fIRST ROUNDER Brad Lambert and second rounder Daniel Torgersson are two very talented middle six forwards but will likely have to wait a year as the team has plugged five forwards in while losing two. Both are solid prospects. Ville Heinola seems to have been a prospect for a decade but is only 22, he is out of options, he either must stick or will be claimed on waivers. 

WHATS THE PROBLEM? The problem is simple, nobody wants to play or live in the frozen tundra of Manitoba. Dubois is gone, the heart and soul of this team is Mark Scheiiele and Connor Hellybuyck. Both are entering the final year of their contracts, both have made it clear that they plan on not only playing out their option but neither will return. The Jets are in the unenviable position of being forced to trade arguably their two best players at some point during the season or lose them for nothing.

  PREDICTION A sad year for the Jets, whose ship has sailed. The return for Dubois was deep but not particularly great. A bunch of average forwards. Vilardi is currently listed as the 2C on the team in spite of being a winger in all but name. He cannot play center on any team that is to be taken seriously. 

  They also have eight NHL defenseman, will lose either Stanley or Heinola if they try to sneak them through waivers and send them down.

  I see the Jets finishing in 7th place with 82 points and be the subject of trade rumors all year as the deadline aproaches. Before the year is over the team will be in full rebuild with Hellboy and Scheifele gone and prospects picks added to the roster. 

51 minutes ago, Icechipper said:

Ducks have signed Alex Stalock, journeyman goaltender who played collegiately at Minnesota-Duluth, for a time with the Wild, for $800,000.

Saw that. I think he replaced Stolarz as a veteran backup allowing Dostal to get 75 percent of the starts in the aHL until Gibson is traded.

  IMHO the most overrated player in the game is Gibson. Two years ago he had 28 games in a row of giving up at least 3 goals. He looks like a goalie, like Carey Price he was announced as a great but really has not been. He is league average at best, most seasons his backup puts up better numbers so you cannot simply say it is the team. At his term/salary nobody should give anything for him. He is an overpaid underperforming average goalie nothing More. Period . 

11 minutes ago, ruxpin said:

 

This has buyout before it's over written all over it.  And that's a lot to write on it.

 

Great write up, yave.   Can't disagree with any of it.

Well you know what they say about great minds lol....

LAST SEASON 42-31-9 93 points, made playoffs. Lost in first round to Hurricanes in six games. plus 21 goal differential

ADDITIONS None. Absolutely none to speak of

SUBTRACTIONS Long time Islander Josh Bailey was let go. Zach Parise is likely to retire. Thats it.

Other than that, the entire team returns

TOP PROSPECTS No GM in the NHL in the past twenty plus years has drafted anywhere near as poorly as Lou consistently. None. He took over the team in 2018, five years ago, he drafted Noah dobson when he slipped to him in 2018, other than that not a single Lou player has played significant minutes since he took over the club. The cupboards in the minors are near empty. According to Insidetherink who do a fantastic job of ranking prospects, the Isles top prospects are Matt Maggio and William Dufour who are a couple of former fifth round picks who are considered 'late bloomers' who 'might help in a small role. No GM in history is as overrated as Lou Lamoriello. He won a few cups in Jersey because of two words- Martin Brodeur. He has gotten by on reputation for literally decades.

  OFFSEASON HEADSHAKERS They signed the entire team to long term contracts essentially crippling any chance of ever getting better or worse. They are a 90ish point team for the forceable future. A good year is nipping someone out for the last playoff spot and losing in the first round. A bad year is missing a playoff spot by a year or two. This offseason signings

Horvat signed 8x8.5 million

Pullock 8x6.125 million

Pelech 8x5.75 million

Mayfield 8x3.5 million

Varlamov 4x2.75 million

Sorokin 8x 8.25 million

Engvall 6x3 million

Seriously, those were the Islanders moves. a team in desperate need of offense signed a bunch of veterans who are all fine players but other than Sorokin none are what I would call needle movers (maaaaybe Horvat) to long term contracts, half of which will age badly. Meanwhile, they have exactly zero cap space left, ZERO. And looming on the horizon, arguably the teams two top players along with Barzal (who is also signed to an eight year deal) Brock Nelson, the teams only goal scorer and Noah dobson have their own contracts looming over the team in the next year and with these deals at least one will almost certainly have to be traded.

  This team disgusts me. They are happy being in the middle, nothing will change. They hope that a full season of Horvat will help the offense and it might, a bit, but the cost was a decent winger in Beauvillier, a decent prospect in Raty and a first round pick. 

  I say 90 points, 6th place in the division. If things break right they lose to Jersey in six in the first round and Lou calls it a good season and goes back to sleep. 

Move along. Nothing to see here.

LAST SEASONS RECORD 28-40-14 70 points minus 71 goal differential. 13th in the West, 25 points out of a playoff spot.

OFFSEASON SUBTRACTIONS Ghost was dealt at the deadline, as was Chychrun. Christian Fischer took his heavy game to Detroit. Nobody else of any consequence was moved out

OFFSEASON ADDITIONS  Logan Cooley signed his ELC contract and will make the team as a sniper capable of winning the Calder as the leagues top rookie. Jason zucker brings his 27 goals and solid 200 foot game to Arizona. Nick Bjugstad came back after a deadline move to Edmonton to center a bottom six line. Matt Dumba comes aboard on a one year show me deal. Sean durzi replaces Ghost and should score 50 points quarterbacking the power play. Alex Kerfoot comes over from Toronto and IMHO will be a surprise top six forward with 50 points. 19 year old Conor Geekie will be given a chance to bring his highly skilled game to the second line and if given a chance could be a fantastic player for the Yotes this year. Soderstrom, Crotty and Maveric Lamoreaux are all skilled young blueliners, at least one or more of them will get a shot at top four roles in the blueline.

  Holdovers that are being added to are Hayton who finally showed signs of developing into a top six center last year. Crouse and Keller are brilliant young top six wingers to build around. Schmaltz is a solid forward who can play any position in the top six. Mattias Maccelli came out of nowhere and was a fantastic playmaker on the wing. Dylan Guenther took his lumps last year but people love him. The forwards are young hungry and their top nine could be among the leagues best if the breaks go their way. Moser surprised a lot of folks last year running the point on the power play. 

  Weaknesses are simple but glaring. Even with Moser, Dumba and Durzi, the defense is porous and does a very poor job keeping pucks out of the net. The goaltending is below league average but really not terrible. Vejmelka and Ingram return as a not so dynamic duo in net, but not the worst ever. 

  They drafted hulking defenseman Dmitri Simashev in the first round, he is several years away but is the goods. They also drafted Daniil But 12th overall, a six foot five sharpshooter. Most pundits rank the Coyotes draft in the top three or four in the league this year,

  My point is the Coyotes are deeper and more talented than they have been in a decade. They will be very, good, not that anyone will notice as they inexplicably remain in Phoenix/Flagstaff/Prescott/Turscon or wherever the Hell they are playing these days. 

  My prediction for the Coyotes is that they finish in 5th in the division, outside of the playoffs but with 90 points and a deep pool of young talented players. They are absolutely tracking the right direction; 90 points is a realistic expectation for a team without an arena.

  Worst nightmare for the league would be for the Coyotes to actually play slightly better than I think they will and make the playoffs and the team/league actually has playoff games in a college arena. 

  I like this team. I think they are a year away from being a consistent playoff team for half a decade or more. I see them pretty much exactly where I saw the Kings/Rangers a couple of years ago. They are on the rise, tons of young talent, glaring deficiencies but enough assets to move out to fix the defense and the goaltending isnt as bad as some think.

Maybe the Hoffman's can rent out the Karlsson home......

28 minutes ago, OccamsRazor said:

Done deal.

 

 

San Jose a first, Hoffman (who if you remember had a wife feud with Karlsson) Granlund and Rutta. Basically they got very little in return, three overpriced vets not only a year to go on both forwards who they can move at the deadline for assets. The big thing is getting rid of Karlsson and his massive contract. 

Montreal in exchange for taking on salary they get the overpriced but capable petry a second, a decent mid level prospect in legare and a quality backup goalie in DeSmith. Honestly I like their return quite a bit more than what San Jose got.

 Lastly Pittsburgh got Karlsson,  third, a 13th forward in pitlick and a middle ng prospect.

  Honestly I think San Jose did a poor job, this more or less offer has been on the table for literally two months. Grier has swung two Massive deals, I felt he did ok in the Meier deal but I felt he got killed in this one.

  Montreal has to be grinning IMHO they killed this one. As the third party to help make the deal happen they did a great job.

  Pittsburgh got the best player, got rid of bloated contracts and other than a top ten protected pick gave up nothing they could not live without.  This deal adds yet another aging star as the Pens have a three year window at most at the end of the Crosby/Malkin era.

22 hours ago, pilldoc said:

 

Especially if he is on the line with Stutzle.   Me likey as I have Stutzle as one of my keepers.  

I had him in very thick pencil Carolina bound to play with Aho and Svechnikov thought it was a perfect fit, love Ottawa top six now. Great get. 

Great get. Aggressive Taresenko should offset loss of debrincat nicely. 30 goals very realistic.

2 hours ago, Brewin Flames said:

 

 

Hurts man....hurts.

I feel your pain bro, I remember when Datsyuk left with two years still in his deal, broke my heart. Honestly bergeron has always reminded me of Datsyuk with his beautiful two way game. Condolences one hell of a player, simply a class act.

He did not deserve the selke this year, not even close by far the games best defensive forward counting anyone is the Devils incredibly gifted Nico Hischier. Watch an entire Devil game once and concentrate on him and you will come away wowed. He plays the game like a young...... Bergeron. Bergeron winning was a combo of lazy voting and the equivalent of giving an employee his gold watch as a send off. 

  I hate Boston, I loathe Brady and the Pats, if Fenway sunk into the mire taking all Sox fans with it I would not shed a tear. When the Celtics underachieve in the postseason year after year I raise a glass . The Bruins made my decade with their epic collapse last year. I feel we should give Boston back to the British lol. 

  All that said, bergeron was and is a class act who I have grudgingly admired, he played the game the right way every night. One of the smartest and skilled players ever who never took a shift off. He played through injuries that a lesser player would have been on the trainer table for weeks. 

  I just woulda liked/loved him better in about any other city. I now literally have absolutely nothing to admire about Boston now that he is gone which for me is the silver lining. 

1 hour ago, SpikeDDS said:

 

That's the only part of your analysis that I disagree with. Ghost is solid, but Hronek is gonna be better than a push. But that's OK, because Hronek didn't fit our timeline, and the return for him was excellent. Ghost fills in short-term until our young talent is ready to displace him or whomever else follows him. He might be better for teaching our kids how to QB a PP.

 

As usual, you and I are never too far away from one another. You know, more than most others on here, that I've been holding off on getting my hopes up these past few seasons, but I am very interested to see if we can remain relevant to the playoff discussion beyond the deadline. I think it is definitely a possibility, and I'm ready to allow myself some additional hope for this season. I have plenty for years to come. And other than being slightly more patient than I want him to be--buying one too many role-playing vets this offseason--I think Yzerman is running the show beautifully. Small-potato differences. All forgivable.

 

Really looking forward to training camp. I'm actually hoping one of the kids makes Stevie's job really hard!

Hronek will never win a Norris for his defense, but he is better defensively than Ghost. Hronek can also score slightly better than the average defender. Ghost has clear defensive deficiencies. What he brings to the table is he is better offensively than any defender we have had for years. He has had offensive seasons of 46 points (65 games) 51 points, 42 points and 65 points. Hronek broke 40 points just once in his career.  Here is why i feel Ghost is a better fit for us for this season 

Ghost 106 power play points in 381 games, average of 22 per season. Average points of 47 per 82 game season

Hronek 63 PPP in 309 games, avg of 15 per year.  Average points of 42 per 82 game season. 

  So more offense on a team that needs offense. A power play specialist on a team that struggled mightily to score on the power play. With no offense to Hronek who i feel did a damn fine job for the Wings in his Detroit career, I believe Gostisbehere will have a defined role with the Wings and fill a role that we need filled. I often thought that Hronek was misused out of necessity because for several years he was the only defender who seemed to be able to move a puck so we threw him out there too much which led to him wearing down by seasons end. 

  So a player who is ten percent better offensively and more so on the powerplay, for a traded player who is five percent better defensively. Some teams would prefer Hronek, some would prefer Ghost, I just feel Ghost is exactly what we need and Hronek while talented was a bit of a square peg in a round hole. Throw in the fact that the actual return for Hronek was a first round pick which we used for the top offensive defender in the draft,  Axel Sandin Pellikka. 

At the deadline steve Yzerman traded Hronek to the Islanders and Bertuzzi to the Bruins, removing two of the few remaining pieces from before he took over the God awful shell of a club that was left when he took over before the 2019-20 season. It means that in four seasons the entire roster has been turned over, in some cases and positions more than once save for

Bottom six former first rounder Michael Rasmussen'

Captain of the club Dylan Larkin.

  Thats it. In four years, everyone has been replaced.

Yzerman took over a team that was awful, dreadful approaching biblically bad with a stench coming from the farm system as well. Ken  Holland, may he forever remain in Edmonton proved that Jim Nill was indeed the brains behind so many great Wings drafts by blundering time after time

Svechnikov. Givani smith two picks ahead of Carter Hart. Zadina over Hughes.Cholowsi. Martin Frk. Jurco.

 Ugh. some of the absolute worst drafting by any team ever, Lou Lamoriello aside (most overrated GM in history. Just look at his last ten drafts in Jersey). 

  So no talent on the roster, long term deals for guys like Ericsson, Abdelkader, Helm, Nielsen, Dekeyser and Howard. Overpaid underperforming veterans, kids who were dreadful, Yzerman left the penthouse that he had built in tampa to come home to Detroit on a white horse to save the day.

  He said it was not going to be easy. He said it was not going to be quick. He said it was going to get worse before it got better.

  He hid none of that- and he was right.

 some smart trades. a few dumb ones. intelligent signings with a plan. Drafting with a game plan.

 His first pick was off the board Moritz Seider who has been fantastic. Second draft he led off with Lucas Raymond who has top six, probably top line for a decade written all over him. Simon Edvinsson will be another massive tp pair defender with offensive skill ala Seider, possibly as soon as this year. The following year he drafted Marco  Kasper who has Ryan Kesler skill written all over him. This year he went off the board chosing Danielson early, first pick Connor Bedard says Danielson is the only forward who kept him up worrying about playing against in Junior, his two way skill is fantastic.. Later in the first he took offensive gem Axel Sandin Peliikka who many say may/will be the best offensive defenseman in this years draft including anyone. On top of that Wallinder, Dylan James, Carter Mazur, Soderblom, Cross hanas and goalie Sebastian Cossa help round out a farm system that has moved from ranking 32nd (dead last) to third in the Hockey news most recent rankings according to GMs and scouts from around the league.

So the Wings fans suffered, a new arena that i have visited three times (the wings lost all three times by a combined 12-2 scores) that is meh, it seems better suited for concerts than for Hockey but thats alright. Get the game worth watching that will change. Rather than short term attenpts to make the team more interesting, we took our lumps until the last of those contracts was finally gone and off the books. No longer paying for the Stephen Weiss debacle. Two years of hell, two years of baby steps and this year with 30 million in cap spacethe Wings did this

Reimer for Nedjelcovic Big Ned crapped the bed badly last year and ran himself out of town. Reimer a steady solid backup- improvement

Holl for Oesterle Say what you want about Holl's three year deal, he is miles and miles better than Oesterle or Pysyk. Big improvement

Compher came aboard as the much needed 3C. Five year deal, home town boy comes home. Simply tons better than Pius Suter who still cannot find a contract a month into free agency Massive upgrade

Ghostisbehere to replace the since traded Hronek. At worst a push, probably slight upgrade

Debrincat, another local boy wanting to play in Detroit came on a short 4 year deal for 70 cents on the dollar. Enormous upgrade over Kubalik

Gritty hard to play against Christian Fischer who is a sneaky god scorer replaces hopelessly lost Zadina. Upgrade

Klim Kostin brings his hard nasty game and potential 12-15 goals in to replace Adam Erne. Big upgrade

Daniel Sprong a hard working net presence brought his 20 gritty goals aboard. Big upgrade

  Lots of folks say the Wings didnt do enough this offseason, but it is part of his plan, dont overpay for one player, tinker, improve the team with every signing, draft extremely well and restock the once empty farm system and build, build, build.

 Are they a playoff team? Man it is hard to say, Boston will certainly slip some, if Krejci and Bergeron both retire possibly a lot. Tampa showed signs last year of being tired. Florida may come back to earth after a magical playoff run. But Ottawa and Buffalo both have their sights on knocking off a big boy as well and both are well tooled to do that as well. This is as deep and talented division in the game top to bottom. Even Montreal has a pulse.

  So playoffs are possible, at the least they will be fun to watch and interesting most nights and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter. Plus as of right now the Wings have a bit over 31 million in cap space for next year so the rebuild will be complete by next season.

  Future very bright. If not right now, certainly in the very immediate future. 

On 7/13/2023 at 9:51 AM, SpikeDDS said:

 

Kane is coming off of hip surgery, one which normally takes a bit of time--sometimes a LOT--from which to recover. Not sure our short-term need is long enough to get return on a deal for him. I prefer the Tatar deal over Taresenko if we are going to do one. Leave more play room for future deals as the potential of our talent comes into better focus, as will our future needs.

 

I already kinda think we are a bit too veteran-role-player deep, which is decreasing the chances for our young talent to get real NHL experience, though. I'd like to see Kasper get a serious opportunity to make the squad; Soderblom too; maybe even Mazur or Lombardi if they continue to impress. (Not to mention Wallinder on D and maybe Johansson). That's a LOT of young talent. If I was being critical of Stevie, I would say one too many veteran role players. Yes, we are a deeper team, which is good. It's certainly not an egregious sin. But I would have liked one more potential slot for a young player to be able to shoot for without having to be perfect. No gimmies, but more of a chance. I don't think we want to put the rebuild into overdrive, but a little acceleration would be good, IMHO. All of his moves definitely make us better for this season, but I still want our talent making its way to the show. Detroit tends to be on the slow side for doing this.

Perron, Sprong, Fischer, ghost all free agents after the season. All are talented placeholders for the kids who will burst onto the team in 24-25. With injuries we will see edvisson, mazur and Kasper get their feet wet in a low pressure spot and ready to rock next year. I hope

  The wings made a huge trade for Debrincat the other day, following a flurry of signings during the frenzy. Still, with nearly eight million in cap space the Wings May still look to add one more forward.

   The name that makes sense to me is Tomas Tatar. He is a solid middle six winger, plays both ends of the ice well and had 21 goals and 48 points last season. He has not gotten the offers he has hoped for, would be a great get on a two year deal.

   Taresenko has been linked everywhere but only two or three teams can afford him. He fired his agents after only getting a 4x5 offer from Carolina as his best deal. He sounds more or less resigned to betting on himself with a one or two year deal. Ottawa wants him but by taking kubalik back in the Cat deal has less than five million in cap space and would have to move someone out. Would be a great fit.

  My dark horse is Patrick Kane. Coming off his surgery he goes to be ready by the opener, he and the Cat were magic on a line in Chicago. They would be fun together with Larkin centering them.

  Anyway you look at it, the Wings can financially afford one more big move, the back end is set, the net is three deep, another scoring winger would be ideal. Yzerman in his presser said he was going on vacation but he was not against spending to the cap if the deal made sense. I think any of these three would look great in the winged wheel on a two year deal. 

I posted it two weeks ago lol. I literally know one guy in hockey and he is right about 75 pct of the time he told me this two weeks ago and while some pieces were different I am glad it finally happened so I don't have too much egg on face lol.

  Veteran forward Josiah Slavin has left the Ducks and signed with the Marlies where he will spend most of the year as a fill in for the big club for occasional injuries. Why does this merit a mention let alone its own thread?

  Because the hot rumor now the Debrincat domino has fallen is that Taresenko will choose Ottawa over Carolina. Carolina desperately needs to add a top tier goal scorer and is crazy strong on defense. There is a very real chance they make a move from that depth and the white hot rumor involved little Willie Nylander to Carolina for incredibly talented younger brother, blueliner Jaccob Slavin. 

  Ryan O'Reilly signed with Nashville and they brought older brother Cal along on a two way deal on a very expensive Ahl contract. A couple of Staal boys played in Florida last year. It's kind of a thing right now. 

  Rumor makes sense for both. Nylander will not budge on giving leafs a discount, Carolina can afford him, Slavin balances roster and has two years left on his deal. 

  I saw the elder Slavin signing today and thought, yup, this is happening.

Love the trade

Kubalik a decent middle six winger, solid player but no upside. Debrango does not crack the wings top ten prospects, and the pick is the worst of Detroits two that we have.

  Oh and the Cat wanted Timo Meier money/term (8x9) and came in at five years at 7.8 million. 

  Simply overwhelmingly a great deal for the Wings. Did not mortgage our future giving up top prospects, did not risk an eight year deal. Just a great deal.

  As far as Dorion and Ottawa they did the best that they could but they had no cards. Debrincat made it clear he was leaving after the year, and Detroit was the only team he wanted to go to. A late first, a Cplus prospect and a 20 goals scoring winger was the best they could do.

14 hours ago, jammer2 said:

Unless the Detroit Free Press is wrong ....

"Clearing termination waivers means no penalty to the Wings and no money for Zadina. He becomes a UFA". 

It has to be mutual between player and team which this was. It relieves Detroit of any monies owed, saving a smidge less than 2 million per. It allows zadina a fresh start and the ability to negotiate with the teams of his choice. IMHO the wings come out great, zero cap retention, and zadina gambles on his abilities.