I was super excited to see Abby as a one dimensional top 6 minute muncher this year. Instead he's been buried on a 4th line that has done nothing to gain the o-zone all year.
His vision and IQ stink, but he's a good athlete and durable, and this year he hasn't been put in a position to use any of his positive attributes.
You had to keep Helm at whatever price cuz our situation at center is so close to the brink. Same with Nielson. They can both skate well enough, and have enough experience that you know they'll be at least useful for the next 5 years. I'm sure we'll be glad to have these 3 the next time we're in the playoffs with a young team.
I don't have any problem with overpaying established players instead of keeping space for raffle tickets every off season. Cap space hasn't been the Wings issue the last 10 years, the issue is a consistent disconnect between the vision in the front office and what the coaches perceive to be the realities of day to day lineup construction in the modern NHL.
Helm and Abdelkader are the perfect example of this disconnect, because even though I'm defending the move to keep them, the fact is the real value was in keeping all of Hudler, Filppula, Helm and Abdelkader up front, instead we lost the most talented half of our bridge between 13 and 40 and 39,71, and 72.
So I guess I'm saying the Wings did a good job not cutting off their nose to spite their face with these 3 guys, but really they're the end result of shooting the moon on a strategy that they reversed course on when they let long term complimentary pieces get away in favor of journeymen system players.