Steven Stamkos

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Plus, Toronto isn't saddled with bad contracts. These are the worst deals on their books:

- Bozak at $4.2 million for 2 more years
- Michalek at $4 million next year (which they'll probably trade for assets at the deadline)
- Gardiner at $4.05 million for 3 more years
- Kessel at $1.2 million for 6 more years
- Gleason at $1.33 million for 2 more years

...compared to:

- Datsyuk at $7.5 million next year
- Zetterberg at $6.03 million for 5 more years
- Kronwall at $4.75 million for 3 more years
- Ericsson at $4.25 million for 4 more years
- Abdelkader at $4.25 million for 7 more years
- Howard at $5.3 million for 3 more years
- Weiss at $1.675 million for 4 more years

datsyuks will be gone if we are in on stamkos

only reason why it wouldnt be gone is if the organization decides to throw in the towel which is what not filling datsyuks production/role and cap space would indicate

if thats the direction then we wouldnt even be interested in talking with stamkos

howard is very likely to be traded/ask for a trade

 

[FireBird71]

We don't sign Richard + Quincey (8mill right there) and we also might get rid of Howard..

I think we should everything we can to sign a superstar like Stamkos.

That money will go to Dekeyser and Mrazek

 

[HisNoodliness]

Here's a question for the group. My personal opinion is we don't sign Stamkos because he's not worth the money. But if we were to sign him would you be willing to then trade Larkin for a similarly skilled defenseman (elite potential. Safe bet to be top line, still young, about 1 year NHL experience)?

I don't think such a defenseman would be on the market. But I'm wondering if you guys truly believe Stamkos will be a 1C for more than 3 seasons. I don't think he will be.

 

[Eggberto]

Here's a question for the group. My personal opinion is we don't sign Stamkos because he's not worth the money. But if we were to sign him would you be willing to then trade Larkin for a similarly skilled defenseman (elite potential. Safe bet to be top line, still young, about 1 year NHL experience)?

I don't think such a defenseman would be on the market. But I'm wondering if you guys truly believe Stamkos will be a 1C for more than 3 seasons. I don't think he will be.

Right. He'll flame out at the ripe old age of 29. :|

I would rather not trade Larkin regardless. He's the future, and as badly as we need to rebuild the defense I'm not sure trading Larkin is a good long-term strategy because true #1C's (if he develops to that level) are almost as tough to find as defenseman.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Here's a question for the group. My personal opinion is we don't sign Stamkos because he's not worth the money. But if we were to sign him would you be willing to then trade Larkin for a similarly skilled defenseman (elite potential. Safe bet to be top line, still young, about 1 year NHL experience)?

I don't think such a defenseman would be on the market. But I'm wondering if you guys truly believe Stamkos will be a 1C for more than 3 seasons. I don't think he will be.

nope not at all

stamkos as #1 centre for 3 years
larkin assumes #1 centre after that and stamkos become #2 centre

still worth every penny

 

[Ingvar]

Here's a question for the group. My personal opinion is we don't sign Stamkos because he's not worth the money. But if we were to sign him would you be willing to then trade Larkin for a similarly skilled defenseman (elite potential. Safe bet to be top line, still young, about 1 year NHL experience)?

I don't think such a defenseman would be on the market. But I'm wondering if you guys truly believe Stamkos will be a 1C for more than 3 seasons. I don't think he will be.

I wrote it in another thread and I'll repeat it - I expect ~4 years of production from Stamkos that would warrant his #1C position. Afterwards he'll be a "former superstar who was signed to a really big contract when the salary cap was lower which is totally reasonable now".

 

[TheRatPoisoner]

No idea why he'd want to jump aboard a sinking ship.

Then again, most people think he's going to Toronto, and that teams been already sunk since forever, so who knows I guess.

I'm thinking he stays in Tampa if I had to bet one way or the other.

 

[Retire91]

Stamkos will stay in Tampa and on an Yzerman Discount. Book it.

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

 

[TheRatPoisoner]

Stamkos will stay in Tampa and on an Yzerman Discount. Book it.

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

Why not? He steps on to the team and is immediately the best player. I think it's pretty obvious why fans are hopeful KH can sign him, even if the team still has issues on the back end after the fact.

At the end of the day though, it's pretty much an offseason pipe dream. I think he stays in Tampa also.

 

[Vladdy84]

Stamkos will stay in Tampa and on an Yzerman Discount. Book it.

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

A guy who is awesome on the PP and can score 40 goals a year would help the **** out of this team. Especially with the increased scoring production of Tats, Nyquist, Larkin, AA, Mantha, and Riley.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Stamkos will stay in Tampa and on an Yzerman Discount. Book it.

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

the ONLY reason "that" defence remains intact is if holland intentionally and deliberately chooses for it to be so

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

Stamkos will stay in Tampa and on an Yzerman Discount. Book it.

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

Yzerman already offered Stamkos at 8 years for $8.5M per and he's yet to sign it.

So i seriously doubt that he resigns there, Kucherov will get close to Tarensenko money and having to sign Johnson, Palat, Kilorn and Hedman next year i seriously doubt that Yzerman can afford to resign Stamkos.

 

[Datsyukian Deke]

We really need to focus on trading Howard. Letting Q, Richards, and Helm walk pretty much clears our cap space for Stamkos.

Can we throw in Franzen, Smith, & Ericsson in that mix also, please?

 

[MTU hockey]

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

Probably because this team has struggled scoring goals for the past 4 years and he would instantly be our best forward (and goal scorer) and he's still in his prime. There is also no longer any elite forwards on the team currently, Dats will be gone, Z will most likely regress more next season, and Larkin is still learning the NHL game. Would you rather start next season with your 3 best forwards being Stamkos, Larkin, Z ? or would you rather your 3 best forwards be Larkin, Z, Tatar/Nyquist ? seems pretty obvious why Stamkos wouldn't be a bad idea

I agree we need to still fix the defense, but we also have no elite talent at forward unless Larkin keeps progressing (which I expect he will, but it will take some time). But Larkin is still only 19 and he can't carry the load himself for the next few seasons, unless we plan on tanking which Holland doesn't seem to want to do. Stamkos would help soften the loss of Dats (production wise) while also occupying other teams top defense pairs/checking lines. That would allow our next wave of forwards (AA, Mantha, Bert, and Svech) to be brought in without being thrown right into the fire.

Basically Stamkos, given his age and history of production would be a good way to bridge the gap between the old guard of Dats and Z and the new generation of Larkin and whoever else.

 

[Electric Eric]

Can we throw in Franzen, Smith, & Ericsson in that mix also, please?

Why Franzen? He's LTIRetired.

 

[Tatar Shots]

Stamkos will stay in Tampa and on an Yzerman Discount. Book it.

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

But FA defensemen will stop seeing a declining Datsyuk and Zetterberg and instead see a prime top goal scorer leading the team. I doubt Stamkos is interested, but if he does come it will draw the interest of better defensemen.

I would offer him 7 years 77 million. People fret about giving star players that extra 1 or 2 million, but what teams actually make good use of that marginal savings? Every team has overpaid depth players on bad contracts so why not offer a bit more to the actual star players to secure their services?

 

[Pavels Dog]

But FA defensemen will stop seeing a declining Datsyuk and Zetterberg and instead see a prime top goal scorer leading the team. I doubt Stamkos is interested, but if he does come it will draw the interest of better defensemen.

There aren't many high-end d-men hitting FA anyway. The one luxury that signing Stamkos would grant us is that we could feel better about trading Nyquist/Tatar or even Mantha/Svechnikov for a d-man.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Can we throw in Franzen, Smith, & Ericsson in that mix also, please?

trading away smith would be a bigger mistake than signing weiss, colo, tootoo, bertuzzi and sammy combined

 

[PelagicJoe]

Stamkos would help our non-existent offense immensely. Letting Helm, Richards, and Q walk will give us more than enough space to land him, as well as alleviate some of that logjam we have at forward.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Here's a question for the group. My personal opinion is we don't sign Stamkos because he's not worth the money. But if we were to sign him would you be willing to then trade Larkin for a similarly skilled defenseman (elite potential. Safe bet to be top line, still young, about 1 year NHL experience)?

I don't think such a defenseman would be on the market. But I'm wondering if you guys truly believe Stamkos will be a 1C for more than 3 seasons. I don't think he will be.

I would probably trade Larkin for an ekblad type ( but worse)

 

[19 for president]

I would trade Larkin for Ekblad, Karlsson, or Doughty. That is it and since none of them will be available for trade, I'm happy to keep him. You win cups by being solid down the middle. Stammer, Larkin, Sheahan would give us amazing center depth. It's a no brainer to me.

 

[VM1138]

Here's a question for the group. My personal opinion is we don't sign Stamkos because he's not worth the money. But if we were to sign him would you be willing to then trade Larkin for a similarly skilled defenseman (elite potential. Safe bet to be top line, still young, about 1 year NHL experience)?

I don't think such a defenseman would be on the market. But I'm wondering if you guys truly believe Stamkos will be a 1C for more than 3 seasons. I don't think he will be.

Stamkos is still younger than most of our prospects were in their rookie seasons the past few years, haha. He'll be a prime level superstar for at least five years, probably many more. And no, I wouldn't trade Larkin for an elite defenseman. Then we'd be putting all our eggs in the Stamkos basket. You should never do that. We need Larkin, too.

 

[Moatorious]

Stamkos will stay in Tampa and on an Yzerman Discount. Book it.

Not sure why people are after Stamkos so hard. If Stamkos signed here we still have 'that' defense.

Opposing players know that the Wings aren't real contenders, and that for some reason Holland is going for a playoff appearances record.
Signing Stamkos would change the way good players view the team, it makes the Wings contenders or at least one very large step closer.

 

[The Zermanator]

I would LOVE to have Stamkos on the team, he and Larkin would have us set for many years. With our aging (more like aged) franchise centres on the way out, I don't understand how anyone wouldn't want a ready-made replacement. And before people bring up what it'll cost to sign him, that's just the way things are, especially nowadays. You pay the market rate, or you walk home empty-handed. Simple as that. That's been the Ken Holland special for a while now, time for a philosophical change. You don't overpay the Ericssons, Abdelkaders (like the cap hit but term is another form of overpayment), etc. If you're going to overpay someone, make it the Suters and Stamkos'. 10-11M? I don't care, this team needs someone like Stamkos.

Anyway, with the 1C spot wide open, an 06 franchise, and with a lot of good young forwards coming up, this offseason is a prime opportunity to jump at the chance for Stamkos. Like it was meant to be. I'll be pretty disappointed if Stamkos isn't wearing a Winged Wheel next season. Holland said in his presser, repeatedly, that you need stars in this league. Well, there's a superstar available this summer. Your move, Ken.

 

[waltdetroit]

Trying to figure out the money - Doesn't Mules salary count against the cap until after the 1st day of the season? We would have to either have players on waiver or bring them up from GRG after the 1st day?