Who Loves Justin Abdelkader?

[19 for president]

The Wings are simply devoid of talent and true grit, so they are pushing the Michigan connection. Abby is a poor man's Mac. The Wings are going to shove Larkin, Abby, and DD down our throats until they actually have a non declining superstar again. Maybe even Glenny enters this group. It's all they got. We have no real core.

 

[Winger98]

The best case scenario is that Larkin starts to emerge as a driving force and Abby can find some chemistry with him. I could see that at least being an upside, maybe?

Obviously I hate the Abby deal and am very, very outspoken about it. Most of you are probably sick of me harping about it. But hey, I'm looking for some positive things to come. Prove me wrong out there Abby. And Larkin. Please? Pretty please?

If we're hoping to deal him. Better would probably be for all of the kids/Tatar/Nyquist to meet expectations allowing us to bury Gator on the fourth line. It's a role he'd be vastly overpaid for, but if the rest of the lineup is pushing him there it means the team is playing pretty well. Or he's just turned into a total disaster.

 

[Jaromir Blogger]

Great post by Reddwit. I, too, think that the Wings' marketing brass was off-base if they ever thought that Abdelkader was going to be some massive draw for fans. I like the guy and have loved the passion he's shown at certain moments, but it's true: he's a poor man's McCarty. He simply isn't a great player and, fair or not, his likability has taken a big hit with that horrendous contract (and you can complain all you want about it as far as I'm concerned, Bench - it's one of the worst, most incomprehensibly stupid deals I've ever seen in pro sports). Whether we can intellectually separate him from his deal is almost irrelevant in the world of marketing to sports fans - our initial gut reaction makes it hard to get past that albatross of an agreement.

 

[Retire91]

Yeah its a pretty big marketing flop and they are pushing it hard. Like at the Joe Louis ceremony where they put him on stage with red wing legends and asked him about how when he was in grade school he wanted to grow up to be a red wing.

Cute story but its a lot cuter on a 3 year 2 million dollar bottom line contract.

Maybe they can find a goalie another D and another winger and instead of the Russian 5 we can have the Michigan 5.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

It's amazing and stupefying how many Red Wing players this organization has made me dislike because of all the ****** contracts and ****** line/icetime choices.

 

[ZDH]

It's amazing and stupefying how many Red Wing players this organization has made me dislike because of all the ****** contracts and ****** line/icetime choices.

Agreed.

And i hate the "you cant get mad at x player bc he signed x contract", i would agree in a non-cap world - I wouldn't give two ***** but in a cap world where your salary eats a significant amount of the cap and limits a franchise's ability to ice a competitive roster than you should expect some backlash from fans for not living up to your contract.

 

[Jaromir Blogger]

And i hate the "you cant get mad at x player bc he signed x contract", i would agree in a non-cap world - I wouldn't give two ***** but in a cap world where your salary eats a significant amount of the cap and limits a franchise's ability to ice a competitive roster than you should expect some backlash from fans for not living up to your contract.

It's only natural to feel a kind of resentment about it; we're fans, not their friends. And contracts like Abdelkader's are indefensibly horrendous.

 

[Pavels Dog]

And i hate the "you cant get mad at x player bc he signed x contract", i would agree in a non-cap world - I wouldn't give two ***** but in a cap world where your salary eats a significant amount of the cap and limits a franchise's ability to ice a competitive roster than you should expect some backlash from fans for not living up to your contract.

Well a big reason to go long-term from the team's perspective is to lower the overall cap-hit and help the team save money on the cap, as well as ensuring that the player's cap hit becomes a smaller % as time goes on instead of a bigger %.
Abby's contract is bad but the cap hit doesn't really limit us much. Loui Eriksson makes 6 million and had 3 more points than Abby and brings less in other areas of the games. Corey Perry had the same number of goals as Abby did last season and he makes twice the money. Andrew Ladd makes 5.5M and had 30 points.
All players can have garbage years. Many bounce back. Let's hope Abby is one of them.

 

[Retire91]

It would be nice to see Abby click with some line mates and be a garbage goal kinda player like Matt Moulson that can also get rough when necessary. It is kinda cool that he is liven the dream and if Illiches want a home grown team so be it. The contract is pretty bad and its existence uncovers a lot of symptoms that this organization is suffering from but it is also not as bad in and of itself as a lot of critics say.

 

[8snake]

When I read posts like "Justin Abdelkader is better than Marty Lapointe" it boggles my mind...wow.

 

[Jaromir Blogger]

When I read posts like "Justin Abdelkader is better than Marty Lapointe" it boggles my mind...wow.

Agreed.

 

[InjuredChoker]

Well a big reason to go long-term from the team's perspective is to lower the overall cap-hit and help the team save money on the cap, as well as ensuring that the player's cap hit becomes a smaller % as time goes on instead of a bigger %.
Abby's contract is bad but the cap hit doesn't really limit us much. Loui Eriksson makes 6 million and had 3 more points than Abby and brings less in other areas of the games. Corey Perry had the same number of goals as Abby did last season and he makes twice the money. Andrew Ladd makes 5.5M and had 30 points.
All players can have garbage years. Many bounce back. Let's hope Abby is one of them.

maybe i'm reading this wrong but abby has never scored as many goals as perry.

i'm pretty sure many players in comparable situation to abby haven't bounced back.

 

[HockeyinHD]

When I read posts like "Justin Abdelkader is better than Marty Lapointe" it boggles my mind...wow.

Perspective is helpful.

 

[Pavels Dog]

maybe i'm reading this wrong but abby has never scored as many goals as perry.

i'm pretty sure many players in comparable situation to abby haven't bounced back.

Perry had 19 goals this year, same as what Abby had last year. It's just an example of how even the best players can have bad years and putting Abby's cap hit into perspective. Maybe Abby doesn't bounce back, but it's too early to say. The whole team had a bad year, powerplay was abysmal, Abby missed some time and didn't look 100% a lot of the time.. I mean in a year where Sheahan scores 0 goals in the first 81 games it feels like we're not seeing the best version of a lot of players.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

It's not too early to say Abby won't bounce back.

Abby was carried by better players and being handed close to 20 minutes a night in ice time.

This roster has no talent and Gator won't be getting 20 minutes of ice time next season either.

20-25 point Gator is the real Justin Abdelkader.

Then there is also the fact that he is only going to get worse as he gets older.

 

[InjuredChoker]

Perry had 19 goals this year, same as what Abby had last year. It's just an example of how even the best players can have bad years and putting Abby's cap hit into perspective. Maybe Abby doesn't bounce back, but it's too early to say. The whole team had a bad year, powerplay was abysmal, Abby missed some time and didn't look 100% a lot of the time.. I mean in a year where Sheahan scores 0 goals in the first 81 games it feels like we're not seeing the best version of a lot of players.

all of those contracts you mentioned are kind of bad, though perry's deal is at least defensible.

 

[Dotter]

Yeah its a pretty big marketing flop and they are pushing it hard. Like at the Joe Louis ceremony where they put him on stage with red wing legends and asked him about how when he was in grade school he wanted to grow up to be a red wing.

Cute story but its a lot cuter on a 3 year 2 million dollar bottom line contract.

Maybe they can find a goalie another D and another winger and instead of the Russian 5 we can have the Michigan 5.

Wait, you think Gator could have/should have been signed for 3 years @ $2 million?

On the open market there's no doubt in my mind Abby would have gotten the same contract or better. Wings didn't get a home team discount. Boo-hoo!

There were no better options available to fill his role on the team and Wings should not/will not ice an AHL team and purposely tank when they had a 25 year playoff streak going. No chance Mike Ilich and family accept that. None what-so-ever.

 

[Winger98]

Wait, you think Gator could have/should have been signed for 3 years @ $2 million?

On the open market there's no doubt in my mind Abby would have gotten the same contract or better. Wings didn't get a home team discount. Boo-hoo!

There were no better options available to fill his role on the team and Wings should not/will not ice an AHL team and purposely tank when they had a 25 year playoff streak going. No chance Mike Ilich and family accept that. None what-so-ever.

wasn't that roughly his deal before his most recent one? I don't think Pizzarena is necessarily saying Gator couldn't have been re-signed at that, but that we should have let him walk when his price was clearly going to take a significant jump. I don't think that's an argument that should be dismissed outright, either.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

Letting Gator walk was the only correct choice to make if the alternative was a seven year contract where the Wings don't get any positive value for the entire duration of the contract.

Any alternative where Gator signs with a different team would have been better for the Wings in the short and long term.

Then there was also the fact that Holland knew prior to Gator getting his idiotic contract, that Datsyuk wasn't gonna stick around for more than one more year, so common sense should have prevailed. Sadly it did not.

 

[Fynn]

Hard to hold any ill will against Abby. He's a bottom 6 player being forced into a top 6 role with other bottom six talent. It's all on Holland.

 

[Wood Stick]

Hard to hold any ill will against Abby. He's a bottom 6 player being forced into a top 6 role with other bottom six talent. It's all on Holland.

Some bottom six players play in the top six if there's a fit. I think Abdelkader is that at times. His play with Zetterberg and Larkin/Nyquist during long stretches was really quite good. He's tough along the boards, is a good defensive guy and when he retrieves the puck he gets it back to the skill. Almost like Sheahan's rookie season with Tatar but better.

Thing is, Zetterberg seems to make everyone look better than they really are. Look back previous years and major outputs have come with guys playing with Z. Gustav Nyquist plays better with him, started his outbreak with him (was playing high level hockey with everyone, Gus that is), Tatar's hot streak came with Z, Larkin's best hockey has come with Z, Mantha's best hockey has come with Z, Val had a breakout season with Z, Huds' last year he thrived with Z, etc.

Justin Abdelkader is a player you love to cheer for, but he won't be that guy now or in the future because everyone will solely look at the 7 year 4M+ AAV. I think Abdelkader can be a fit in the top six. He's serviceable in that aspect. I get him for stretches on the fourth line but yeah, it does make me question everything. Going into free agency Detroit definitely didn't need to re-sign BOTH Helm and Abdelkader.

I still like Abby. He's not the only one pushed as the face of the franchise. When they show players going to events on snapchat/Youtube it does however seem to be the same guys based on living in the area. Those are Justin Abdelkader, Riley Sheahan, Danny DeKeyser, Luke Glendening and Dylan Larkin.

 

[Heaton]

Wait, you think Gator could have/should have been signed for 3 years @ $2 million?

On the open market there's no doubt in my mind Abby would have gotten the same contract or better. Wings didn't get a home team discount. Boo-hoo!

There were no better options available to fill his role on the team and Wings should not/will not ice an AHL team and purposely tank when they had a 25 year playoff streak going. No chance Mike Ilich and family accept that. None what-so-ever.

I can find at least 5 players every offseason to fill Abdelakder's role for half the price and a fraction of the term. He's not a special player, he's a dime a dozen. Abdelkader lucked into his contract since Holland overvalues his homegrown talent and he got the Michigan boy boost. For some reason Holland thinks players from Michigan deserve lifetime contracts, Miller had to be extremely useless to be let go.

 

[Bench]

I can find at least 5 players every offseason to fill Abdelakder's role for half the price and a fraction of the term. He's not a special player, he's a dime a dozen. Abdelkader lucked into his contract since Holland overvalues his homegrown talent and he got the Michigan boy boost. For some reason Holland thinks players from Michigan deserve lifetime contracts, Miller had to be extremely useless to be let go.

I posted the stats a few times, and I can't remember the exact numbers, but the Wings had more tenured players over 7 or so seasons than any other team. The only team even close was San Jose.

Next year since they've moved on from Smith and Miller the Wings overlap will slip a bit, but the point remains they have been painfully slow to change the roster at basically every position.

 

[Jaromir Blogger]

Does anyone remember Rob Brown? The guy had a 49-goal, 115-point season and finished 5th in league scoring in 1988-89. He must have been a big talent, right? Nope. He just played on a line with Mario Lemieux. The guy never came close to that kind of production again, and sort of fell off the face of the earth once he left Pittsburgh, bouncing back and forth between the NHL and the IHL for the vast majority of his time as a pro player.

Having an elite linemate can make you look a lot better than you really are.

 

[Jaromir Blogger]

I posted the stats a few times, and I can't remember the exact numbers, but the Wings had more tenured players over 7 or so seasons than any other team. The only team even close was San Jose.

Next year since they've moved on from Smith and Miller the Wings overlap will slip a bit, but the point remains they have been painfully slow to change the roster at basically every position.

Good stuff, Bench - I didn't know that. And unfortunately, in the cap era, that kind of approach simply can't work because of the general size of these deals. And it really doesn't work when those players aren't actually playing like a good team.