Detroit Red Wings a year in review

[yave1964]

PRESEASON OUTLOOK

 The Wings opened up the wallet adding Stephen Weiss and Daniel Alfredsson to get the scoring depth that was desperately needed. That and finally moving to the East gave for a fresh excitement to the fans.

 

FINAL RECORD 39-28-15 8th in the East

 

STRANGE STAT OF THE YEAR

Kyle Quincey was a sad -11 at home but a solid +6 on the road.

 

HIGH POINT OF THE SEASON

Looking past the obvious of simply making the playoffs, it would be winning game 1 against the Bruins 1-0 on a goal by Pavel Datsyuk late in the third period.

 

LOW POINT OF THE SEASON

  Again, looking past the postseason, a six game losing streak in December which was highlighted by 24/7 on HBO. A brutal stretch of the season that was so bad that the Wings actually lost to Tim Thomas and the Panthers twice. 

 

WHAT WENT RIGHT

 Gotta start with Gustav Nyquist who began the season in Grand Rapids because of cap issues but wound up with 28 goals in 57 games. Tomas Tatar began the year in the press box but finished with 19 goals. The kids, Riley Sheahan, Tomas Jurco and Danny Dekeyser established themselves. Nick Kronwall (8-41-49) led the team in scoring. Alfie (18-31-49) was a solid signing. Jonas Gustafsson (16-5-4) was a Godsend as a backup.

 

WHAT WENT WRONG

 Stephen Weiss had 2 goals and 2 assists in 26 games before a sports hernia derailed his season the rest of the way. Rivals David Clarkson for the worst contract of the summer. Injuries to Franzen, Datsyuk and Zetterberg threw the rhythm off all year. Daniel Cleary should have retired a year ago. Same with Mikael Samuelsson. Same with Todd Bertuzzi. Jimmy Howard was bad for large stretches of the season.

 

MVP

 Nyquist is the number one reason the Wings made the playoffs with his play down the stretch but I have to go with Kronwall due to his consistent play all year.

 

OFFSEASON OUTLOOK

 Lots of worthless contracts coming off the books, plus uncertainty if Alfie is coming back. Lots of money to spend. Can the aging vets manage a healthy season together next year? Will the kids have a sophomore slump? Is Jimmy Howard a champion caliber goalie?

[flyerrod]

For so many years now, Detroit has been able to win with average goal tending. With Lidstrom gone, the defense just has not been able to find anyone to step up and plug the  huge hole he left. Jimmy Howard is no more the answer in goal than Bryzgalov. Both seem to have a penchant for letting in ill timed or soft goals. Detroit has several young players that will be assets for years to come but they really are going to have to find a better tender if they want to be consistently competitive.

Edited April 27, 2014 by flyerrod

[Old School Hockey]

It's obvious this team was not prepared for Lidstroms retirement. And when they lost out on Suter the disarray started. Here's my quick fixes.

Keep Tatar, Nyquist, Gledenning and Sheahan up on the big team.

Let go Cleary, Samuelsson, Quicney and Bertuzzi

Now the unpopular part of my post!

Trade Howard and Franzen. Franzen has struggled since 2009 when he signed the big contract. And to think Holland picked Franzen over Hossa. Howard????? Where to start? He's not a 5m goalie. His stats this year put at the bottom of the NHL. Would the team be any worse off with Mrazek in net full time? I think not!

Now with all of that said I'm not sure you can find partners to trade those contracts?

[yave1964]

It's obvious this team was not prepared for Lidstroms retirement. And when they lost out on Suter the disarray started. Here's my quick fixes.

Keep Tatar, Nyquist, Gledenning and Sheahan up on the big team.

Let go Cleary, Samuelsson, Quicney and Bertuzzi

Now the unpopular part of my post!

Trade Howard and Franzen. Franzen has struggled since 2009 when he signed the big contract. And to think Holland picked Franzen over Hossa. Howard????? Where to start? He's not a 5m goalie. His stats this year put at the bottom of the NHL. Would the team be any worse off with Mrazek in net full time? I think not!

Now with all of that said I'm not sure you can find partners to trade those contracts?

Franzen has driven all of us wing fans nuts for years, he does just enough to keep us coming back and then he disappears. His contract is not THAT bad to where he would be untradeable to a team like Florida for instance who is trying to get to the cap floor but compensation would be minimal. I don't think we could get much back and with so many other vets leaving it might be a good idea to hold onto him another year to let the kids continue to develop. As the man, no not so much. As an inconsistent second liner, sure, he is worth holding onto.

Howard is another story. Gustafsson is an UFA and almost certainly gone. Mrazak has earned the right to be the backup. He has won the Calder cup, has been brilliant in his limited NHL time, and deserves the right to play. I would rather trade Howard, give Mrazak the starting job and keep Gustafsson as the backup. Again, a team trying to get to the cap floor could afford Howard, maybe Calgary, but compensation would be slim. I agree with you tho, if we can deal Howard I would do it.

[SpikeDDS]

Now the unpopular part of my post!

Trade Howard and Franzen. Franzen has struggled since 2009 when he signed the big contract. And to think Holland picked Franzen over Hossa. Howard????? Where to start? He's not a 5m goalie. His stats this year put at the bottom of the NHL. Would the team be any worse off with Mrazek in net full time? I think not!

Now with all of that said I'm not sure you can find partners to trade those contracts?

I'm gonna disagree with you on one point: as good as Mrazek is, I don't think we would have made the playoffs with him this year. Promising future. Kid's certainly got skills and (over)confidence. And he absolutely shows signs of brilliance. However, he also showed a few rookie mistakes, and he didn't have any wins between his two shutouts. Not all his fault, but still as you have said before, great goalies steal games. He's not there...yet.

[Old School Hockey]

I'm gonna disagree with you on one point: as good as Mrazek is, I don't think we would have made the playoffs with him this year. Promising future. Kid's certainly got skills and (over)confidence. And he absolutely shows signs of brilliance. However, he also showed a few rookie mistakes, and he didn't have any wins between his two shutouts. Not all his fault, but still as you have said before, great goalies steal games. He's not there...yet.

Bad tendencies? Like passing the park directly on the stick of the other team? Like being able rebounding machine? Like giving up extremely soft goals at the most inopportune times? I'm sorry I just don't see it being any worse than what we saw this year! Crap he had as many shutouts as Howard Did?

[SpikeDDS]

Bad tendencies? Like passing the park directly on the stick of the other team? Like being able rebounding machine? Like giving up extremely soft goals at the most inopportune times? I'm sorry I just don't see it being any worse than what we saw this year! Crap he had as many shutouts as Howard Did?

His mistakes weren't as obvious as Howard's gaffe in the playoffs, but he was making some more fundamental positioning errors. It takes time to build a confidence that is backed up by experience. As good as he was, he was only able to win those two games, his first and his last. This was not all his fault, of course, nor are Jimmy Howard's losses. But we still didn't win his other games. We didn't have any games to give (maybe 1 in the end?) for the team to build their confidence in Mrazek. He's gonna be a very good goalie, and there's no way to know if I'm right or you are, but if Mrazek was playing lights-out, they would have kept him up. If they really thought he was giving them a better chance to make the playoffs, they'd have kept playing him. They didn't.

I want to make sure that I am not being misunderstood: I am NOT poopooing Mrazek AT ALL. Only saying that this would have been a learning season for him, and that we didn't have any games to give to let him learn without missing the post-season.

[jammer2]

@SpikeDDS   Wow, are the Wings ever STACKED at RW prospects. Already have Jurco at the NHL level, but I expect Anthony Mantha, Pulkkinen and Frk to get LONG looks in training camp. Those are some quality young RW's right there!  Kenny set up the offense for the next decade or so, by FAR the best young prospects in hockey IMHO, followed closely by the Wild.

[OccamsRazor]

OFFSEASON OUTLOOK
 Lots of worthless contracts coming off the books, plus uncertainty if Alfie is coming back. Lots of money to spend. Can the aging vets manage a healthy season together next year? Will the kids have a sophomore slump? Is Jimmy Howard a champion caliber goalie?

 

Found this this morning just to perk your interest or not.........

 

  Red Wings 'Ask Ansar' questions: How aggressively should club pursue Matt Niskanen?

DETROIT – When the Detroit Red Wings' front office and scouts gather Monday for their annual pro scouting meetings, they'll spend a lot of time discussing the merits of Matt Niskanen.

One of the Red Wings' primary needs is a right-handed shooting top-four (or top pair) defenseman who can boost the power play. Niskanen, coming off his best season with the Pittsburgh Penguins, likely is at the top of their wish list.

Niskanen is young (27), mobile, moves the puck and can quarterback the power play. If he hits the market on July 1 he'll be the most sought-after defenseman in a thin free-agent class.

General manager Ken Holland, assistant GM Ryan Martin, senior vice president Jimmy Devellano, coach Mike Babcock, Grand Rapids Griffins coach Jeff Blashill and the organization's pro scouts will go over every potential free agent and trade possibility from Monday through Wednesday.

 

The Red Wings will have ample salary-cap space; they're roughly $20 million under the projected ceiling of $71 million (before signing restricted free agents Tomas Tatar, Riley Sheahan and Danny DeKeyser). How aggressively will they pursue Niskanen? Will they opt to focus on lower-cost, shorter-term alternatives while waiting for some of the young defensemen in their system to reach the NHL?

 

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/06/red_wings_ask_ansar_questions_19.html

 

Have no idea of you guys needs.....what say you?

[J0e Th0rnton]

Antonio Stralman on a pairing with DeKeyser?

[yave1964]

@OccamsRazor

 

Sorry, I don't know how I missed your post, thanks for putting it in here!

 

 The Wings were saved by the kids last year, Tatar, Dekeyser and Nyquist were as good as advertised or better, and guys like Jurco and Sheahan were thrust in the fire and acquitted themselves quite well. Now Pulkinnen and Anthony Mantha are in the Wings as the next two top six forwards.

 

 So much fat has come off the books, Bertuzzi will no longer be lumbering down the wings reminding everyone of a glacier, Samuelsson is mercifully gone, same with Tootoo, I loved Cleary but his knees are shot and now his contract is up too. Essentially the Wings replaced all of these old slow banged up vets with kids who can fly.

 We need size, a true power forward among the top six, and we have yet, in two years since Lidstrom retired to get another d-man from outside the organization. Our defense is slow and boring, only Kronwall has any consistency. Dekeyser has upside but more as a second pair guy, which as much as I love Kronwall, that is really what he is best suited to as well.

  So wel have 20 million in cash, a pressing need along the blue line and a hope to upgrade at forward but not as pressing.

 Niskanen is the number one need, he will likely cost in the neighborhood of 6 million a year. Is he worth it? No, not really, 27, career year, huge risk in offering him the contract but lets say he would normally command 5 million, to get him on board you do what you gotta do.

  If you swing and miss on him you have to add either Markov or Boyle. Have to. No questions asked.

 

 At forward, Resigning Daniel Alfredsson if he wants to come back is priority. I never knew the old guy was so slick, his on ice vision is remarkable, he takes over a game when the puck is on his stick. He led the Wings in scoring last year. 4 million or so gets him aboard. He is perfect for us, he allows the Wings kids another year in Grand Rapids without rushing the next crop, Pulkinnen and Mantha are going to be studs (possibly Athanasiu as well) but all need seasoning. He is a perfect bridge player.

 

  So there is my solution, sign the best offensive d-man out there, bring back Alfie, tweak a little here or there and let her rip. Leaves almost ten million for the year to add thru trades when injuries occur or at the deadline.

 

  Another name nobody seems high on is Brian Campbell. He has two years left at 7 million a year and supposedly wants out of Florida. Way overpaid and for that he gets a bad rap but the sucker can still run a power play and has speed to burn. I think with the Wings young forwards he would go crazy. It would have to be a contract deal, they would need salary back to reach the floor and we would have been better suited for that type of deal last year than this but although I wouldn't want his salary I would love to see him on our back end.

[yave1964]

Antonio Stralman on a pairing with DeKeyser?

Yeah yeah yeah, you just don't want us going after Niskanen, lol.

[OccamsRazor]

Another name nobody seems high on is Brian Campbell.

 

That is alot of money for you guys to fork out for him. I read two guys yall will be interested in is Dan Boyle and/or Stralman. But since Richards has been bought out now i'd expect the Rangers to resign Stralman.