Nunnayahs gits yer wish!

[WingNut722]

So it looks like nobody on this discussion forum will get their wish with a compliance buyout of Jimmy Howard or John Franzen.  As of this morning, Jordin Tootoo has been put on waivers, the first step in the buyout process.  This will give them another $1.9 million to work with.  Also, Jonas Gustavsson has also been re-hired for another year, putting to bed the question of whether Petr Mrazek is ready for a full time backup job.  

 

Daniel Alfredsson is still going to be the hot item this summer, as he decides, in Nick Lidstrom fashion, whether or not he'll go for another year.  I hope he does.  That would be great to have him back. 

 

The bad news is that the Red Wings are also talking again to Mr. Dan Cleary, who is desperately trying to scrape together some kind of smoke-and-mirrors light show to land himself another year on the ice.  In all likelihood, if he wants to stay with the club, he'll probably have to accept a two-way contract.

 

 

[WingNut722]

Not only that!  I just read that the Red Wings have recently called over to San Jose to inquire about Joe Thornton!  Nothing has been decided or even discussed at length, but it looks like the Wings are at least interested enough to pick up the phone and try to pry away the face of that franchise.  I guess it's an interest dividend on Coach MacLellan?

[yave1964]

@WingNut722

 

Kicking the tires on Thornton is not a bad idea, though from what I have read the only club he has interest in waiving his full non movement deal to go to is the Rangers. We have what the Sharks want, young kids with a ton of upside. I could see being a major player, but truthfully, do we really need a center?

[yave1964]

@WingNut722

 

I just hope that we do a better job in free agency than we have for the past four or five years, our rating has to be an F or even F minus.

Good signings:

Alfredsson, though truth is he kind of demanded that he was coming to the Wings, not like we went and got him

The Monster. But he is really just a backup goalie.

 

Bad signings:

Cleary. Though truth is, he begged to be allowed to stay.

Samuelsson. Ugh.

Weiss. What is worse than Ugh?

Tootoo. Really.

 

Essentially, other than a backup goalie and a 40 year old future hofer who demanded he was coming to Detroit, the Wings have bombed in pretty much every signing lately.

  We have the most important July in God knows how long, the past few years have been pointing towards this season as the Wings have treaded water and waited for the bad contracts to come off the books. It is time for Holland to prove he still has it.

[WingNut722]

@yave1964

Everybody likes to rag on Weiss and I'm not sure why.  "Well he was hurt all year!"  Yeah..?  which means he didn't get the chance to make a name for himself. Groin injuries are the worse.  A slow start, sure, but if he pulled out of that and scored 25 goals nobody would have said anything.  I never passed any judgement on him for that reason alone, so I'll give him another shot.  

 

I didn't mind Tootoo so much because we needed a gritty, energy player for the fourth line.  It used to be Abdelkader (and to an extent, it still is).  But Abby is more than that and he needs to concentrate on making points.  Tootoo just didn't work out and I suspect there were some off-ice issues between him and Babs that got him benched for life.  

 

You're right about Thornton.  We'd lose a lot of good young guys trying to snag him...for a center we don't need.  After signing DeKeyser and some other returns, Holland will have about $20MM to play with.  Time to shine!