I think both Hudler and Flip were undervalued here ...
I think most of us viewed the Wings tiers like so ....
D/Z >>>>>>Mule>>FLIP>>Hudler
In fact, I think it's becoming clearer to me that Flip and Hudler were probably on the same tier as Mule, with Flip ranking higher because of his faceoffs and defense.
I pretty much always thought Hudler got the short end of the stick in Detroit. Mostly because Babcock was an idiot -- and fans like to defend the coach, so they bashed Hudler. We're going to see this play out all over again with Tatar, IMO.
It says something about this team that we keep Cleary and bring back Sammy but let Filppula and Hudler walk. And I don't like what it says. It says we don't value puck possession. We value "heavy" and size.
When Hudler left two years ago and signed a reasonable deal in Calgary, I was disappointed to see him go. But I sincerely believed that Nyquist was going to take his spot.
I never imagined that two seasons later, Nyquist would be sitting in Grand Rapids.
If you would have told me 2 years ago that we were going to let Hudler and FLip leave via UFA for no return, and that we would resign Sammy and Cleary, and that Tatar and Nyquist still wouldn't be in the lineup --- Not even I would have imagine that Holland and Babcock could be that stupid