HFNHL Red Wings
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Detroit fans and critics alike will be watching tonight to see how the diminished Red Wing team will fair in their first game of the season against the Blackhawks.
After going 3-0 in the preseason GM Niece shocked observers by announcing the team was going to begin a retooling process effective immediately. “Why?†most asked.
The team had reached a crossroads where it either had to make some significant acquisitions to compete with the likes of the Blues, Ducks, and Blue Jackets at the cost of it’s future players or settle for another year of mediocrity with many pending UFA’s leaving at the end.
GM Niece swears he explored several possibilities to make the team more competitive but felt the cost for a one time shot was too high and too risky.
With several players looking to make the team next season (Miettinen, Jokinen, Boyes, Lundqvist, McClement, Niitymaki, and some others) the GM decided instead to bolster the farm and build for the future.
Here is a summary of the roster changes from the past week:
Out – Bill Guerin, Bob Boughner, Stu Barnes, Patrick Boileau, Ramzi Abid
(in short if you had a ‘B’ in your name you were in trouble)
In – Mark Parrish, Dominic Moore, Derek Boogaard, Steffan Kronwall, Denis Wideman, Patrick Boileau, STL 2006 3rd, BOS 2006 5th, PHX 2006 6th, CBJ 2007 5th
UFA’s signed – Jason Doig and Jamie Heward
Poor Patrick Boileau has now moved onto his 4th HFNHL team in 2 weeks (Nashville - Columbus - Detroit - Phoenix). In fact this was Boileau's second brief stint with the Wings without playing a single game for them. The Wings had originally signed him as a FA to his first HFNHL contract back in 2003 and traded him to Nashville within a week.
Aside from Parrish, none of the acquired players are expected to play with the team this season and therefore the team signed Jason Doig and Jamie Heward to provide some insurance against injury on the blueline. While many of the younger players are not expected to play large roles now or in the future they will be expected to contribute.
The team is expected to make a couple of more moves yet to improve the player mix for the current season but no additional large moves are anticipated at this time.
The lines are now as follows:
Roberts – Stumpel – Parrish
Lehtinen – Draper – Knuble
White – Walz –Hunter
Verot – Brown – Clark
Lidstrom – Sarich
Malik – Sopel
Van Ryn – Fisher
Kolzig
Markkannen
While the team has certainly sealed it's fate as an 'also ran' for this season the team still expects to remain competitive enough to make the playoffs and hopefully give some of the contenders a headache.
After going 3-0 in the preseason GM Niece shocked observers by announcing the team was going to begin a retooling process effective immediately. “Why?†most asked.
The team had reached a crossroads where it either had to make some significant acquisitions to compete with the likes of the Blues, Ducks, and Blue Jackets at the cost of it’s future players or settle for another year of mediocrity with many pending UFA’s leaving at the end.
GM Niece swears he explored several possibilities to make the team more competitive but felt the cost for a one time shot was too high and too risky.
With several players looking to make the team next season (Miettinen, Jokinen, Boyes, Lundqvist, McClement, Niitymaki, and some others) the GM decided instead to bolster the farm and build for the future.
Here is a summary of the roster changes from the past week:
Out – Bill Guerin, Bob Boughner, Stu Barnes, Patrick Boileau, Ramzi Abid
(in short if you had a ‘B’ in your name you were in trouble)
In – Mark Parrish, Dominic Moore, Derek Boogaard, Steffan Kronwall, Denis Wideman, Patrick Boileau, STL 2006 3rd, BOS 2006 5th, PHX 2006 6th, CBJ 2007 5th
UFA’s signed – Jason Doig and Jamie Heward
Poor Patrick Boileau has now moved onto his 4th HFNHL team in 2 weeks (Nashville - Columbus - Detroit - Phoenix). In fact this was Boileau's second brief stint with the Wings without playing a single game for them. The Wings had originally signed him as a FA to his first HFNHL contract back in 2003 and traded him to Nashville within a week.
Aside from Parrish, none of the acquired players are expected to play with the team this season and therefore the team signed Jason Doig and Jamie Heward to provide some insurance against injury on the blueline. While many of the younger players are not expected to play large roles now or in the future they will be expected to contribute.
The team is expected to make a couple of more moves yet to improve the player mix for the current season but no additional large moves are anticipated at this time.
The lines are now as follows:
Roberts – Stumpel – Parrish
Lehtinen – Draper – Knuble
White – Walz –Hunter
Verot – Brown – Clark
Lidstrom – Sarich
Malik – Sopel
Van Ryn – Fisher
Kolzig
Markkannen
While the team has certainly sealed it's fate as an 'also ran' for this season the team still expects to remain competitive enough to make the playoffs and hopefully give some of the contenders a headache.
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