Confirmed with Link: Brad Richards signed with the Wings in 2015, so chat about it

[The Zetterberg Era]

Also on Richards, he is a very good point guy on the PP. Still is right now, that is a trait he will really offer the second unit. Hopefully Blashill puts him and Smith together.

 

[Vladdy84]

This signing does one thing too. Doesn't it all but slam the door on Dan Cleary.

It provides Datsyuk insurance, but if we get to pushing towards the cap I think that hard conversation with Cleary happens without the heartache for Holland.

I sure hope so. At the very least offer him a PTO. He can go play for Babs if he doesn't like it.

 

[Vladdy84]

Also on Richards, he is a very good point guy on the PP. Still is right now, that is a trait he will really offer the second unit. Hopefully Blashill puts him and Smith together.

I wouldn't be opposed to that if the first unit is

Kronwall-Green

 

[DanZ]

It's not the end of the world or anything. I just don't think Kenny is building this roster the correct way.

And I guess we'll see, but my gut tells me the Green signing means neither XO or Marchy starts the year in Detroit, once again.

Well Green is better than both of them, so it's not his fault. Who does XO and Marchenko deserve to play over? Maybe Smith and Ericsson. Neither XO or Marchenko fill the gap in the Wings lineup right now... and RH offensive defenseman.

 

[Roy S]

They did need another center. Anderson was slated to center a line and he shouldn't even be in the top 12. Z should be a full time winger and Pavel misses 15-20 games a year. So, rather than having Andersson center a line and no depth, they signed a #2 center from a cup winning team to a 1 year deal. I don't see the big deal.

No other moves need to get made. Franzen or Datsyuk will start on LTIR and they'll have cap room. Larkin could still make the roster and stick if Pavel misses the start of the year. Centers can easily shift to wing.

Also, Holland's quotes are meaningless to the media. Anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt. Sports execs and coaches lie all the time and fans still try to pick apart their words for some reason.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

I was ripping Holland on a lot of things, none of them involved Weiss. Your imagination needs to settle down.

My approach to every season is to have the best possible team on the ice for game 1/82. Holding back better players in case of injuries to inferior players is probably one of the dumbest things i have ever heard.

Andersson isn't going anywhere.

No i am not equating a shot to make the team to mean a guaranteed 82 games on the roster.

If an NHL team typically has 1-2 available roster spots at the start of training camp, using even one spot on a veteran is a huge waste. It's an even bigger problem for the Wings who have way too many prospects who need to get NHL ice time to determine what kind of player the Wings have.

Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan all end up not making the Wings roster until much later if Holland's string of FA signings don't end up being complete disasters. Holland only promotes prospects if the garbage vets holding their spots are playing like complete garbage. If they are playing mediocre hockey, they keep their spots.

 

[Bench]

By the way, all the cool kids call him Brichards.

 

[Frk It]

By the way, all the cool kids call him Brichards.

Pretty sure like all hockey guys, his nickname is a shortened version of his last name + a y (or y sound).

So I think the guys will probably call him "Richie". Like Millsie, Howie, Glenny, Smitty, and just about everyone else.

 

[Bench]

Pretty sure like all hockey guys, his nickname is a shortened version of his last name + a y (or y sound).

So I think the guys will probably call him "Richie". Like Millsie, Howie, Glenny, Smitty, and just about everyone else.

That's fine and all, but do you want to be a cool kid or not?

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

I'm very content with this move. One year with Richards? Should be fine. I used to love the guy, and him as a 2 or 3 c with Helm and Pookie would work pretty well. Put him on 2nd PP point and we're good.

 

[steafo]

Dont forget that Datysuk will start the season on IR then LTIR. I think they can go over by 10% until the season starts.

If Franzen gets healthy again someone will have to move when Datsyuk comes back, but I don't think they are in a position where something has to be done now.

I get that Holland probably knows more about Datsyuk and Franzen's injury than we do, but he is also talking out of both sides of his mouth saying that he expects Franzen back. Which one is it Kenny? Datysuk's agent has denied that he will miss time, and he expects him to be back in October.

Are contracts pro-rated over the course of the regular season? If so...we gain what from Datsyuk's contract 7.5mil/7 months = 1.07 million per month spent on IR. If he misses enough time to recover enough cap space that everyone is not worried...then I am more worried at him missing significant time than I am the cap space since we NEED him.

I assume we need to be cap compliant by the time the regular season starts right? If we use the extra 10% to re-sign our guys we will be over the cap when the season starts when we lose the extra 10%. I'm likely looking at this incorrectly since I have little to no knowledge on how LTIR works. I'm just thinking about long term when Datsyuk comes back (at the start) I still see us in cap trouble.

Bottom line is, we have too many players again.

 

[Frk It]

That's fine and all, but do you want to be a cool kid or not?

Lol, that's all I've ever wanted to be Bench.

 

[HockeyinHD]

I was ripping Holland on a lot of things, none of them involved Weiss. Your imagination needs to settle down.

Well...

http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?p=102514259&highlight=weiss#post102514259

"Bought out or traded, Weiss cannot still be on the roster next season."

Then Weiss is bought out and...

My approach to every season is to have the best possible team on the ice for game 1/82. Holding back better players in case of injuries to inferior players is probably one of the dumbest things i have ever heard.

Then I'm particularly glad you don't have any control of the roster because in about two seasons you'd have a flaming trainwreck on your hands.

Andersson isn't going anywhere.

Oh, I don't think that's a sure thing at all. If it's Andersson or Pulkinnen for the last forward spot on the roster?

No i am not equating a shot to make the team to mean a guaranteed 82 games on the roster.

Yeah, you are. When your strategy is to strip away all organizational depth so you can make sure that the best player is on the NHL roster, even if they are only better by 1%, that's exactly what you are saying. How, in your strategy, can anything else be the case?

If an NHL team typically has 1-2 available roster spots at the start of training camp, using even one spot on a veteran is a huge waste. It's an even bigger problem for the Wings who have way too many prospects who need to get NHL ice time to determine what kind of player the Wings have.

Unless you're a) wrong about how good those prospects are, and b) wrong about how a team can assess talent absent playing in the NHL.

I mean, if your opinion is that the only way to know if a prospect is good enough is to play him 25 or so NHL games I can see why you're so frantic about the roster spots. After all, the team has to schedule in 25 games for Nosek, Aubry and Tvrdon sometime soon or else they'll never know how good they could be in the NHL.

Nyquist, Tatar, Sheahan all end up not making the Wings roster until much later if Holland's string of FA signings don't end up being complete disasters.

Que? Nyquist played 40 games before 2014. Tatar played 27 games before 2014.

Sheahan was up early, but it's not like he's some kind of revelation, either... some talent that the Wings just couldn't replace. He tops out as a 3rd line dude.

Holland only promotes prospects if the garbage vets holding their spots are playing like complete garbage. If they are playing mediocre hockey, they keep their spots.

So then your strategy is that if a prospect is playing as well as a vet the vet should get waived?

 

[hot dog]

That's fine and all, but do you want to be a cool kid or not?

Brichy it is. Or maybe Britches.

 

[zecke26]

So then your strategy is that if a prospect is playing as well as a vet the vet should get waived?

in the cap world, shouldn't it be that way? or maybe simply if two are equal, play the cheaper guy and get rid of the other.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

I feel like if Richards doesn't wear 91, it means that we'll retire Fedorov's number sooner than later.

 

[Hammerheart]

Three million...So bad...

Anything in particular we would have done with that 3 million before next summer? No, probably not.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

Weiss couldn't be on the roster next season if he was just going to sit in the press box. Now explain to me how that post was criticizing Ken Holland? I have never criticized Holland for signing Weiss. If i had known Weiss was going to be replaced with Richards, i would have just elected to keep him for another season. Weiss needed to be bought out because he was wasting a roster spot. Now that roster spot is being wasted by Brad Richards. Hooray!!!!!!!!

I'm surprised you wouldn't love my team if that were true. You love teams that are built to go nowhere in the playoffs. Flaming train wreck's definitely don't even get to the playoffs. That must be even better for you.

Prospects that look good in the AHL need NHL experience to determine exactly what you might have. There is no way around that. Excellent AHL production doesn't equate to excellent NHL production. Otherwise Brendan Smith would be amazing right now.

Wow Nyquist played 18 and 22 games over the span of two seasons. Meanwhile Dan Cleary was still being brought back by the Wings and Mikael Samuelsson was wasting a roster spot. Two signings that should have never happened.

Yeah if a prospect is playing as well as a vet, you play the prospect. You are getting more value out of every point, since they are cheaper than vets. That's how you succeed in the NHL today. You should love that. I know how much you care about seeing the Wings make money for Mr.Ilitch.

 

[Heaton]

in the cap world, shouldn't it be that way? or maybe simply if two are equal, play the cheaper guy and get rid of the other.

It should. In a cap world, you want to have a full rotation of depth, while you keep your star players. Look at the Patriots, they keep figuring out ways to find bargain basement guys who fill a role at a high level, while not paying their non-essential players huge $$ for long periods of time. Getting too old and make too much money? Bye. We can find a replacement.

Seems like the best teams can find a way to plug and play without getting roped into huge/constant albatross contracts.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

Anything in particular we would have done with that 3 million before next summer? No, probably not.

Yeah, not spend it on Brad Richards, and give Sheahan an opportunity to earn that spot or one of the prospects like Larkin.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

By the way we have a big moment of truth here on the organizations intentions on #91.

Richards has always worn #19 or #91

 

[Fugu]

By the way we have a big moment of truth here on the organizations intentions on #91.

Richards has always worn #19 or #91

I say no way. Feds just got elected into the HOF, and one cannot take away from him what he did for the Wings and winning three Cups.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

I say no way. Feds just got elected into the HOF, and one cannot take away from him what he did for the Wings and winning three Cups.

Well I hope they retire his jersey. But was just pointing out we get a very quick glimpse into that.

The fact both Modano and Weiss avoided the number is encouraging for people in the retire his # camp.

Richards will be telling in this regard in my opinion as he will request it and have to be told no.

 

[DanZ]

Yeah, not spend it on Brad Richards, and give Sheahan an opportunity to earn that spot or one of the prospects like Larkin.

They still have that opportunity. What happens if they aren't able to grab that 2C spot and run with it? It's better to have depth.

 

[SimplySolace]

Sort of on-topic, but Bill Roose doesn't seem to think they'll retire #91.

https://twitter.com/Dnowaczykk/status/616408977555894272