Ansar Khan: I reckon this is the plan...

[Vladdy84]

I'm not opposed to keeping Smith. Unless the Wings are blown away by an offer. Ideally get rid of Ericsson and Kronwall anyway you can. Keep Smith and Green. Unless you can get a 1st and a 3rd or prospect for Green.

 

[Heaton]

I'm not opposed to keeping Smith. Unless the Wings are blown away by an offer. Ideally get rid of Ericsson and Kronwall anyway you can. Keep Smith and Green. Unless you can get a 1st and a 3rd or prospect for Green.

Smith is a UFA, we're not getting rid of Ericsson or Kronwall, especially since Ericsson is out for the year.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

I'm not opposed to keeping Smith. Unless the Wings are blown away by an offer. Ideally get rid of Ericsson and Kronwall anyway you can. Keep Smith and Green. Unless you can get a 1st and a 3rd or prospect for Green.

I'm not opposed to him at same or less money.

I'm going to be pissed if they give him a raise. Just by the way they've played and treated him. They haven't liked him as a player. They've been healthy scratching him and benching him and running him out on a bottom pair.

At least with Abby and Helm (even though those were not good contracts by any far cry), they liked them enough as players to try to expand their roles and put them in bigger spots. They're not advancing Smith at all.

 

[Reddwit]

People are reading way too much into these tidbits about the Wings re-signing Smith. We all know they don't think much of him, there were rumors he was peddled at the deadline last season, they've been willing to sit him and cut his ice time, and they only started putting him in a spotlight role in the past couple weeks when it became clear they were selling.

The re-signing chit-chat is all about insulating Smith's value. You don't want to market a player that everyone knows you have no intention of re-signing. They'll have their little meeting to discuss an extension and nothing will come of it.

 

[Reddwit]

If that happens, I'll change sides. I'll agree that Holland needs to get gone. They don't even like Smith. At least Abby and Helm, they've been trying to run them up the lineup. Smith they've been trying to bury, seemingly. Want to keep him at $2M AAV? I'm fine by that. If he gets a 1M+ raise... it will be the most inexplicable, indefensible thing that Holland has done. Because, hell, even the Quincey raise that one offseason could be "justified" by saying they needed a D man and they struck out on all their preferred targets. This one... they've got bottom pairing D galore that have been playing more minutes than Smith.

Hell, even the ridiculous Helm contract, you could stretch it and say AA is too raw defensively for him to be the 1 to 1 replacement for Helm. Smith provides nothing that a guy like Sproul doesn't also provide. If you want to keep him on similar or less money, whatever. It will be an embarrassing deal if they give him 4M.

The only possible way that he gets $4M and I don't hate it with the fire of a thousand suns is if Kronwall and/or Ericsson have come out and said they're done and retiring at the end of the year.

I'm not opposed to keeping Smith. Unless the Wings are blown away by an offer. Ideally get rid of Ericsson and Kronwall anyway you can. Keep Smith and Green. Unless you can get a 1st and a 3rd or prospect for Green.

Why? What is the point of keeping Smith? We know how he works with this team and he is a complete non-factor for us. Considering we'll have the benefit of lowered expectations next season, we should use that to our advantage and investigate what we have in our own of-age prospects and/or young-ish FAs. No need to sully up the roster with known commodities that we have the chance to rid ourselves of nor bloat our salary a little more with unnecessary cap.

 

[BinCookin]

I really think we need to prepare ourselves for Holland re-signing Smith at 4-5 years for 3.75-4m/yr, which would essentially lock him into our top 4 for the foreseeable future. Holland hates losing homegrown players, he'd rather overpay to keep them than upgrade with someone who wasn't drafted or developed in Detroit.

I hope the talk of "we are looking to resign him". is actually a bargaining tool. A way to drive up the price on Smith before trading him.

I honestly think our team is stronger by simply WAIVING Smith.

So trading him for anything I think is a bonus.

 

[Dotter]

Smith is a UFA, we're not getting rid of Ericsson or Kronwall, especially since Ericsson is out for the year.

This might be the only reason why KH wants to keep Smith. Plug him while Ericsson is out. Dmen don't grow on trees.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

Why? What is the point of keeping Smith? We know how he works with this team and he is a complete non-factor for us. Considering we'll have the benefit of lowered expectations next season, we should use that to our advantage and investigate what we have in our own of-age prospects and/or young-ish FAs. No need to sully up the roster with known commodities that we have the chance to rid ourselves of nor bloat our salary a little more with unnecessary cap.

I don't like to just "see what we have" in terms of a young player. Earn your way up to the national league or rot in the AHL. If you're worth bringing up, your play should make that obvious. If it isn't... work harder until it does.

Jurco got called up pretty quickly, Larkin spent all of a playoff series down there.

Also, when Smith doesn't have his head up his ass (which it is, admittedly, a lot of the time), he's a pretty damn good D. On a team where Kronwall is a corpse and Ericsson has impinged everything... having a cheap known quantity isn't a terrible idea.

 

[jkutswings]

This might be the only reason why KH wants to keep Smith. Plug him while Ericsson is out. Dmen don't grow on trees.

http://www.spotrac.com/nhl/free-agents/defenseman/ufa/

There's a long list of scrub defensemen. I'd happily take the majority of them before Brendan Smith.

Geez, I'd sooner being KFQ back (probably at a lower price, to boot) than see Smith in this jersey again.

 

[obey86]

I'd like to keep Smith around...not for big money or anything, but I think he's an ok 2nd pairing guy. Just not possible with Kronwall, Ericsson, Green, and Dekeyser's contracts though.

 

[silkyjohnson50]

but I think he's an ok 2nd pairing guy.

How?

 

[Heaton]

This might be the only reason why KH wants to keep Smith. Plug him while Ericsson is out. Dmen don't grow on trees.

Bottom pairing ones do.

 

[Dotter]

http://www.spotrac.com/nhl/free-agents/defenseman/ufa/

There's a long list of scrub defensemen. I'd happily take the majority of them before Brendan Smith.

Geez, I'd sooner being KFQ back (probably at a lower price, to boot) than see Smith in this jersey again.

As much as we all dislike Brendan Smith, he seems to be generating plenty of interest from other GMs around the league. It begs the question "why?" Are GMs dumb or do DRWs fans undervalue him?

 

[Spitfire11]

As much as we all dislike Brendan Smith, he seems to be generating plenty of interest from other GMs around the league. It begs the question "why?" Are GMs dumb or do DRWs fans undervalue him?

Oilers fans couldn't think less of Schultz last year and he turned it around pretty quick once he got out of there. Smith has some talent, he's certainly someone that could be better with a different team

 

[HIFE]

As much as we all dislike Brendan Smith, he seems to be generating plenty of interest from other GMs around the league. It begs the question "why?" Are GMs dumb or do DRWs fans undervalue him?

I think we (the fans) are the greatest DRW scouts in the world. We collectively have watched every good or errant play Smith has ever made. Funny the GM's have to send their scouts to multiple games and try to get a read of where he's at. It's terrific Smith had a good weekend. I feel so bad for the team that picks him up, haha.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

I think we (the fans) are the greatest DRW scouts in the world. We collectively have watched every good or errant play Smith has ever made. Funny the GM's have to send their scouts to multiple games and try to get a read of where he's at. It's terrific Smith had a good weekend. I feel so bad for the team that picks him up, haha.

And I think the great majority of us are full of ****. I think the great majority of people here don't know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to scouting hockey.

 

[jkutswings]

And I think the great majority of us are full of ****. I think the great majority of people here don't know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to scouting hockey.

We aren't paid millions of dollars and given extensive support staff to make these bad decisions, either.

 

[obey86]

And I think the great majority of us are full of ****. I think the great majority of people here don't know their ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to scouting hockey.

I'd agree with this. None of us (well, 95% of us) have a clue what we're talking about when it comes to evaluating players. I admit I'm in that 95% as well.

We all still give our opinions though

 

[lhsgolf19]

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/30-thoughts-red-wings-telling-teams-theyre-open-business/

-Heard through the gossip line that a few teams had reached out to Detroit about Andreas Athanasiou when there were some battles over his ice time. Red Wings GM Ken Holland wouldn’t comment, but another team indicated he told them not to even bother asking unless “a 22-year-old top-pair defenceman†was part of the conversation. The Wings have told clubs they are “open for business,†but won’t consider moving any of their young offensive cornerstones unless that kind of player is potentially available. My sense is the same goes for Petr Mrazek. Thomas Vanek likely goes (and could come back in the summer). They will discuss re-signing Brendan Smith in the next few days before a decision on trading him.

-I’m also not certain Detroit will trade Mike Green. He’s got one year to go on his contract, and they need offence from the defence. He delivers. In fact, it’s possible they discuss a short extension, as he’s eligible for a new deal on July 1.

 

[jkutswings]

I'd agree with this. None of us (well, 95% of us) have no clue what we're talking about when it comes to evaluating players. I admit I'm in that 95% as well.

We all still give our opinions though

True, but most of the fair critiques aren't really saying, "Holland is an idiot compared to how smart I am." They're comparing his decisions and results to his competition.

As in, he makes far fewer trades than other NHL GMs.
Or, he doesn't proactively sell off pending free agents as well as other teams do.

EDIT: Darn spelling...

 

[Heaton]

I'd agree with this. None of us (well, 95% of us) have a clue what we're talking about when it comes to evaluating players. I admit I'm in that 95% as well.

We all still give our opinions though

This is true, but I think trusting the majority of a GM's move is silly as well. Especially since there are more bad moves than good ones that anyone can see before and after they're made. There's a reason why so many contracts during free agency are laughed at, it's because they're terrible.

I also think it's pretty insulting for people to say that 95% have a clue about evaluating players. Hah, yeah OK. I'm pretty sure after people watch hockey for 5-10-15-20 years, have access to YouTube, other archival footage, a plethora of advanced stats that give insight into every situation and social media which spits out more stories than any time in history, lots of fans have a great idea about players. In many cases, fans have a lot of players pegged. But then you have other fans who abuse the stats and try to make Brendan Smith out to be the best defenseman the Wings have had since Lidstrom.

 

[obey86]

This is true, but I think trusting the majority of a GM's move is silly as well. Especially since there are more bad moves than good ones that anyone can see before and after they're made. There's a reason why so many contracts during free agency are laughed at, it's because they're terrible.

I also think it's pretty insulting for people to say that 95% have a clue about evaluating players. Hah, yeah OK. I'm pretty sure after people watch hockey for 5-10-15-20 years, have access to YouTube, other archival footage, a plethora of advanced stats that give insight into every situation and social media which spits out more stories than any time in history, lots of fans have a great idea about players. In many cases, fans have a lot of players pegged. But then you have other fans who abuse the stats and try to make Brendan Smith out to be the best defenseman the Wings have had since Lidstrom.

There's a major difference between watching highlight videos on youtube and scouting attributes and projecting them to the ice in different situations or systems. Most hockey fans scout by points whether they admit it or not. Player A puts up 60 points in a season, so the fan will look for reasons he's good when they "scout."

Yeah, ok.

It doesn't mean GMs and scouts are always right, but I think it's insulting to the professional scout to assume the average fan has any clue how to scout a player.

 

[Heaton]

There's a major difference between watching highlight videos on youtube and scouting attributes and projecting them to the ice in different situations or systems.

Yeah, ok.

Definitely, but more times than not GM's end up being just as wrong about players as fans are at times. I'm sure Holland projected Smith to be better than he has been. I'm sure Holland projected Ericsson to be better than he has been. I'm sure Holland projected Abdelkader to be better than he's been after signing a big deal.

Saying fans have no idea how to evaluate players is ridiculous. Sure, they're probably wrong a lot of the time, but I'd argue some fans are right just as much as their GM is. Doesn't mean a fan is qualified to be a GM, but it does mean that fans of sports can evaluate talent.

 

[Heaton]

Most hockey fans scout by points whether they admit it or not. Player A puts up 60 points in a season, so the fan will look for reasons he's good when they "scout."

It doesn't mean GMs and scouts are always right, but I think it's insulting to the professional scout to assume the average fan has any clue how to scout a player.

Yeah no, that's incredible inaccurate. Although now I have no idea what you're talking about. Do you mean scouting the 15-16 year old prospects? Because I'm talking about established NHL players. It's not hard to evaluate players. We all knew what Nielsen brought to the team, we knew what Abdelkader brought to the team. Are you telling me that you feel like you cannot accurately 'scout' players that you want the Wings to acquire? Or why a player like Nielsen would've been a good fit (assuming you wanted Holland to sign him?)

 

[obey86]

Definitely, but more times than not GM's end up being just as wrong about players as fans are at times. I'm sure Holland projected Smith to be better than he has been. I'm sure Holland projected Ericsson to be better than he has been. I'm sure Holland projected Abdelkader to be better than he's been after signing a big deal.

Saying fans have no idea how to evaluate players is ridiculous. Sure, they're probably wrong a lot of the time, but I'd argue some fans are right just as much as their GM is. Doesn't mean a fan is qualified to be a GM, but it does mean that fans of sports can evaluate talent.

No, it just means that if 50 fans think player A is great and 50 fans think player A is medicore....50% of that total population is going to be correct whether they have any clue what they are talking about or not.