What is blashill doing with Howard and Mrazek?

[Run the Jewels]

I agree, I don't like paying most goalies over 4m regardless, but the term, like usual, was terrible.

I said after Mrazek won the Calder Cup he should have been in Detroit competing with Howard for the starting spot. People whined about how he would be damaged and needed way more time in the AHL. If Mrazek was allowed to compete he would have proven to be every bit as good as Howard, likely better. Ever since he's been up he's clearly been the better goalie. People will complain about 1 or 2 bad outings as if Howard, Osgood and Hasek never had stinkers. It's funny how "consistency" only gets brought up to protect favorites.

It was the completely deviod of thought process of over-ripening every prospect that resulted in Howard getting that awful contract. And signing stiffs like Mikaek Samuelsson, Jordin Tootoo, Todd Bertuzzi, Dan Cleary and Carlo Coliaicovo. At least the policy seems to be changing a bit with Larkin making the Wings in his first pro season.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

I think Howard's contract looks worse because the Wings have so many bad contracts. One bad contract isn't a big deal, but 3-4 and that cripples a roster.

I'm definitely not a fan of the contract now, but we all see how Holland will waste 1st round picks on David Legwand just for the privilege to lose in the first round. No way was conservative Kenny gonna roll the dice on some random FA goalie or bring up Mrazek until he had paid his dues in the AHL. Kenny isn't a proactive GM.

 

[ArGarBarGar]

I said after Mrazek won the Calder Cup he should have been in Detroit competing with Howard for the starting spot. People whined about how he would be damaged and needed way more time in the AHL. If Mrazek was allowed to compete he would have proven to be every bit as good as Howard, likely better. Ever since he's been up he's clearly been the better goalie. People will complain about 1 or 2 bad outings as if Howard, Osgood and Hasek never had stinkers. It's funny how "consistency" only gets brought up to protect favorites.

It was the completely deviod of thought process of over-ripening every prospect that resulted in Howard getting that awful contract. And signing stiffs like Mikaek Samuelsson, Jordin Tootoo, Todd Bertuzzi, Dan Cleary and Carlo Coliaicovo. At least the policy seems to be changing a bit with Larkin making the Wings in his first pro season.

Mrazek should have gotten the chance up last season. Not before that.

Also the bolded is used more in favor of Mrazek than it is used against him, so there's that.

 

[Actual Thought*]

I think Howard's contract looks worse because the Wings have so many bad contracts. One bad contract isn't a big deal, but 3-4 and that cripples a roster.

I'm definitely not a fan of the contract now, but we all see how Holland will waste 1st round picks on David Legwand just for the privilege to lose in the first round. No way was conservative Kenny gonna roll the dice on some random FA goalie or bring up Mrazek until he had paid his dues in the AHL. Kenny isn't a proactive GM.

Signing players to contracts is proactive. Just sayin

With your method of GMing we should probably dump Mrazek off for a draft pick and bring up Coreau. That would be really "proactive".

 

[WingedWheel1987]

Signing players to contracts is proactive. Just sayin

With your method of GMing we should probably dump Mrazek off for a draft pick and bring up Coreau. That would be really "proactive".

Proactive would be not waiting to call up prospects until they run out of waiver exemption status.

Signing players to contracts is not proactive when you don't look for any alternatives. It's lazy and shortsighted.

 

[Actual Thought*]

Proactive would be not waiting to call up prospects until they run out of waiver exemption status.

Signing players to contracts is not proactive when you don't look for any alternatives. It's lazy and shortsighted.

Holland has been absolutely brilliant. Can't believe you are unable to see that.

 

[HockeyinHD]

holland didn't walk away from filppula. he left. holland made him an offer of 7 years at 4.75 mil per just before UFA. can't remember what kind of offer they made for hudler but iirc, it was more hudler wanting to leave. and iirc, holland made identical or similar offer for brunner as he got from the devils. brunner/his agent made a bet that they could get more on the open market.

So we're now narrowing the definition of not retaining a FA to never even extending them an offer? Under that definition, around what % of FA's do NHL GM's actually 'walk away from', then? 10% tops?

also abdelkader should be on the bad contract list.

Why? It hasn't even started yet. If after a couple years he's still putting up 20's in goal column and the cap keeps going up, his 4.25 cap number will be like a 3.5ish cap number the past couple years.

 

[HockeyinHD]

Proactive would be not waiting to call up prospects until they run out of waiver exemption status.

A) They call up the better players before their exemption status lapses. E, Fil, Kronwall, Mrazek, Larkin, Tatar. They don't tend to call up (or keep up) the mediocre prospects before their expiration. Howard, Hudler, Kindl, Smith, etc.

B) You're playing the result and blaming the strategy for the non-performance. That's backwards. The performance drives the strategy.

Signing players to contracts is not proactive when you don't look for any alternatives. It's lazy and shortsighted.

Perhaps, but you have no actual idea what the team did or did not look for. What you're doing here instead of recognizing that the team may just not agree with you is try and say they didn't even consider other possible plans, and then criticize them for doing the thing you've just made up.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

The performance drives the strategy.

That's good...real good.

Gustav Nyquist earned his spot and had it taken away by an inferior player.

He performed and his reward was another 26 game stint in the AHL so Dan Cleary's feelings weren't hurt.

Looks at Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson getting market value contracts in the middle of November. BUT RIGHT...the Wings definitely did their due diligence before giving those two players those absurd contracts.

Proactive GM's don't put themselves in the position where they feel like they have no choice when it comes to signing players like Gator and Ericsson.

 

[Actual Thought*]

The performance drives the strategy.

That's good...real good.

Gustav Nyquist earned his spot and had it taken away by an inferior player.

He performed and his reward was another 26 game stint in the AHL so Dan Cleary's feelings weren't hurt.

Looks at Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson getting market value contracts in the middle of November. BUT RIGHT...the Wings definitely did their due diligence before giving those two players those absurd contracts.

Proactive GM's don't put themselves in the position where they feel like they have no choice when it comes to signing players like Gator and Ericsson.

You start and end with some very strange conclusions. The way you describe Holland he is a mouth breather just sitting and drooling on himself with no clue whatsoever about team building. How can you begin with a conclusion and ignore all context for every argument you make?

 

[InjuredChoker]

So we're now narrowing the definition of not retaining a FA to never even extending them an offer? Under that definition, around what % of FA's do NHL GM's actually 'walk away from', then? 10% tops?

you said ''walked away''. if it were up to holland, they would have been retained. he didn't walk away from them.

Why? It hasn't even started yet. If after a couple years he's still putting up 20's in goal column and the cap keeps going up, his 4.25 cap number will be like a 3.5ish cap number the past couple years.

kesler contract is terrible and it hasn't even started yet. same with seabrook.

the cap number isn't as bad as the term. players who have one (or 2 if/as he does it this season) +20 goal/+40 point season at 28/29 shouldn't be signed to 7 year deals. i haven't found one comparable player in terms of career trajectory to abdelkader in recent NHL history who was still even nearly as good in his mid-30s. finding guy who can score 20 goals playing with 1C and getting #1 pp time isn't that hard. no need to risk it on a 7 year contract.

even if in best case scenario he provides good value most of those 7 years, holland got taken to the cleaners on negotiations as similar but better player signed 4 year deal at 4.3 mil just last summer.

 

[InjuredChoker]

He had a peak year last year. Prior to that he sucked. If the Wings would have signed him when they signed Howard he would have gotten universally panned for it.

dubnyk had almost the same sv% as howard the year howard was signed.

 

[Frk It]

Mrazek should be getting Vezina consideration, IMO

 

[Hammettf2b]

Dude is killing it.

 

[smtevo]

I'm just coming back here to stroke my ego, Mrazek is killing it. Let's see how Howard does tonight. Make or break game for him, he's needs a 50 save shutout.

 

[FireBird71]

Ill take the 2 points

 

[14ari13]

I'm just coming back here to stroke my ego, Mrazek is killing it. Let's see how Howard does tonight. Make or break game for him, he's needs a 50 save shutout.

Howard has always played lights out vs kings. Unfortunately the team is tired and he could suffer a big loss. Or maybe he can steal the game.

 

[skate skate skate]

 

[14ari13]

And earned as many SOs as Broduer would have in his best years, while facing double as many shots. Many of his SOs came when he faced well under 20 shots, while Mrazek faces often 25+

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

dubnyk had almost the same sv% as howard the year howard was signed.

Jimmy Howard had the same sv% as Pekka Rinne when he was signed, what is your point exactly?

Dubnyk would have been killed here hard to argue otherwise. Howard was arguably our best player in a couple of seasons. The contract made sense and they protected the years for him before Mrazek would be up and then his security disappears. Now it is a matter of moving him if they do want to go with Mrazek. Jimmy doesn't have a full NTC and he isn't likely to nix a trade anyway if it means he can be a #1 again.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Mrazek had a .978 save pct?

I'll buy him a mansion. He's gonna be the player people talk about that we stole late in the draft

 

[HockeyinHD]

Mrazek should be getting Vezina consideration, IMO

Ordinarily, maybe. Here's how crazy goaltending stats have gotten now though:

1) There are 7 goalies with a better GAA than what Kipprusoff led the NHL with in 05-06.

2) There are 19 goalies with a sv % as good or better than the 5th best sv % in 05-06.

Goalie numbers are insane. Mrazek's 10th in GAA and 6th in sv%. He's been awesome, and he won't get a single top 3 Vezina vote.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Mrazek should be getting Vezina consideration, IMO

Right now he's like 3rd in the league. Holtby and Lou are ahead of him

And I bet Lou will calm down soon. Mrazek jumps to 2nd.

Hellybuck and neuvirth (probably messed those up) don't have that many games. Don't know why they are at the top of the league right now

 

[HockeyinHD]

The performance drives the strategy.

That's good...real good.

Gustav Nyquist earned his spot and had it taken away by an inferior player.

That's just nonsense re-writing of history. He stunk in two long callups. He had a good camp, but a good camp doesn't (and shouldn't) wipe out 40+ games of dramatic under-performance at the NHL level. You're only playing NHLers half the time.

And Cleary was as responsible for Nyquist being sent down as Tatar or Emmerton or Andersson or Bert or Sammy or Weiss was. You're just outrage shopping so you can rip Holland and rip Cleary at the same time.

Looks at Justin Abdelkader and Jonathan Ericsson getting market value contracts in the middle of November. BUT RIGHT...the Wings definitely did their due diligence before giving those two players those absurd contracts.

What would Abdelkader have to do to earn 4.25 per in your opinion? He had 23 last year and is on pace for 20+ this year. Putting in 20+ a year from a big forward doesn't do it?

I think I've already explained what the external pressures were that drove up E's value.

Proactive GM's don't put themselves in the position where they feel like they have no choice when it comes to signing players like Gator and Ericsson.

Ah. So, you're just looking for omniscient GMs.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

I'm the one re-writing history while you try to tell me he stunk it up during two call ups. I guess when Ken Holland said Nyquist had earned a roster spot after the Chicago series, he really meant he stunk it up...

I guess while Nyquist was stinking it up, Cleary was literally decaying on the ice.

I do love how hard you try to argue that Dan Cleary, who at the time was a UFA, was not the reason Nyquist was demoted. Keep up the good fight. You are completely wrong, but i commend you for sticking with it.

Dan Cleary did not deserve a roster spot. Not at the NHL level or AHL level.

As for Gator, don't sign 40-45 point players whose production is 100% reliant on being on the same line as Zetterberg or Datsyuk for SEVEN YEARS. How you can defend such a ludicrous signing is a testament to your fanatical devotion towards Holland.

What external pressures drove up E's value? Holland basically only having a plan A and expecting Suter to just fall into his lap? Was it Lidstrom's completely "unexpected" retirement that came out of "nowhere"? Whoa man that 42 year old Lidstrom retiring really caught me by surprise. I expected another decade at least...

If by external pressure do you mean, The Wings couldn't draft any defenseman that were even remotely good?