Confirmed with Link: Wings re-sign Cleary, 1 yr $1.75 MM

[BinCookin]

He's not the 17th guy. In Babcock's eyes he's the 8th or 9th forward. Sad but true. And if Helm can't go, he may be #7.

No one really knows who Babcock is fighting for.

Public statements to the media is not the whole truth.

(Cleary had no contract... positive statements to the media say "someone sign him")

Holland got Cleary for a very low number, Good.

BUT he better have a GD plan on how to jettison 3 forwards permanently from this team!!

OR ELSE... If I see Nyquist or Tatar on another team... putting up Brunner like numbers from last year.... OH man, im pissed.

I am also pissed that Brunner didn't take a 1.75 Million contract for one year... God, at least we could say we have a 26 year old signed and 17 forwards.

Either way. Nashville please take Tootoo back (you can have him for free)
Ottawa please take Eaves back (you can have him for free)
Anyone take Emmerton (you can have him for free)

As much heat as Burke got in Toronto, he always got something for his assets.

Holland is getting NOTHING for ANY of his... we just sign people for free, or let them walk for free.

 

[FlashyG]

FlashyG

I'm very disappointed in Holland's moves with the big club as of late overall. Some of the terrible moves outweigh the positives. Some of the points you made though didn't have much to do with Holland. Hossa called Kenny. Datsyuk had nothing to do with Kenny etc. But you're spot on in pointing out some of the sly moves and picks he has made at the draft. Definitely more positive than negative.

Agreed on the Hossa signing, but Holland does deserve credit for Datsyuk. He loves playing there, and that has a lot to do with the atmosphere that Holland has created. (some refer it it as country club in nature, but its been one successful country club)

I was mostly attempting to show that a list can easily be slanted in the other direction from Zetterberg4Captain's post.

 

[BinCookin]

Problem is, why would any team give away even a 7th round pick for these guys. Check out the UFA Market. Why get a Tootoo for $1.9M when you can sign Brenden Morrow around that price.

Tootoo is very misused in Detroit. He was a third liner in Nashville.

You are right though. Even if we try giving them away.... Emmerton and Eaves will have suitors...

Tootoo maybe not. He is paid too much.

So who else goes.... Tatar/Nyquist.

If that is done however... I think this board is going to LOSE IT!

 

[Flowah]

If anyone didn't read the others post it was you.

If you want to just limit it to the past 5 years, then Snow has finished last all but 1 year of his career as GM. Everything else in my post still stands.

You want some more good from the past 5 years?

Signing Nyquist to an incredibly team friendly contract.
Signing Andersson to a team friendly contract
Signing Smith to a team friendly contract.
Getting a extra 2nd round pick for nothing.
Using Filppula and Brunner's money to sign Weiss and Alfredsson
Assembling a group of prospects that won the Calder Cup.
Extending Datsyuk for 3 more years
Using Hudler's money to sign Brunner
trading down from 24th overall for 2 extra picks (Ouellet and Jurco)
Hiring Jeff Blashill
Moving Blashill from Assistant coach to Head coach of the Griffins
Getting Backman for Leino
Claiming Miller off waivers
Signing Hossa in the first place.
Making the playoffs in every season
getting to within one game of the Cup

bad
- Didn't do what Zetterberg4Captain would have done.

I'm not saying he's been among the best the last 5 years but he's been better than most and nowhere near the worst.

I'm sorry but how many of these are deals that even a dead monkey could have done? A dead monkey that when it was alive, was deaf, dumb, mute, paraplegic?

Nyquist was RFA.
Andersson was RFA
Smith was RFA. I don't see how signing RFA's to a bunch of good contracts is some kind of godly GM maneuver.
Alfie's GM treated him like garbage and ruined their chances. If he doesn't try to lowball him, he's still a Senator. Period. And we have like the most Swedes in the league. Of course he's coming here.
Prospects is all for Holland now? He drafted and developed them? He coached them? Sorry Hakan! Sorry Blashill! All Kenny baby! I mean good for him for hiring good guys, but let's not heap all the results of that on Kenny. Those guys he hired did the work.
Brunner, another giftwrapped signing. Thanks Roest.
Datsyuk extending? The guy who said over and over he was going to stay in Detroit until he retired from the NHL? Wow. What a deal. Congrats Kenny. You signed the guy who said he wouldn't ever sign with another team than Detroit. Allow me to plan the parade.
Hossa came to us. He said "I want a cup and I think you have the best shot. Give me this more than reasonable number and let's make a run." Again. A dead monkey could do that.
Yes. Making the playoffs. Amazing. Over 50% of the teams do it every year.


Good job on Blashill.
Miller good pickup
2009 was a while ago, but good job there I guess.

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

The Blackhawks had to dump Dave Bolland for salary which opened a spot for Saad. Nyquist and Tatar will probably crack the Wings lineup on opening night.

Saad played top line LW all of last year until playoffs when he dropped down too 3rd line at times

Bolland had nothing to do with Saad

Bolland was dumped because Shaw and Kruger outplayed him as #3 and #4 C and he failed miserably as a our #2 C that Bowman went and got Handzus for playoffs. Cant have a 4th line C making 3.375M in the NHL

Hawks fans are hoping Pirri makes it as #2 C and gets chance with spot still open (Been open since Sharp stopped playing C after 2010 cup). Pirri just won AHL scoring title ,, The kid cant do anything else offensively to prove himself in AHL (His D will always be issue but rather he learn it in NHL)

But Q hates Pirri and now there is talk that Saad is working on playing C and might be tried as #2C (Q really hates Pirri)

Any prospects in Wings system that no matter what they do cant get a chance to play like Pirri with Hawks because of your coach?

 

[Run the Jewels]

For some people, the second Lashoff hits the ice he will at least for me take that position. Man does he stink.

As bad as Andersson?

 

[RedWingsNow*]

Tootoo is very misused in Detroit. He was a third liner in Nashville.

You are right though. Even if we try giving them away.... Emmerton and Eaves will have suitors...

Tootoo maybe not. He is paid too much.

So who else goes.... Tatar/Nyquist.

If that is done however... I think this board is going to LOSE IT!

I don't think Emmerton has any value whatsoever. He's a 4th line center who can't win faceoffs. He's 1/2 the player Mursak and Mursak couldn't get claimed on waivers... at a time when the NHL UFA market wasn't stocked with capable 3rd and 4th liners.

Eaves MAY have value.
Emmerton could get waived and demoted.
Tootoo? I don't know. I don't see anyone taking that on.

So if Helm is on IR, Emmerton demoted and Eaves traded for a 7th -- are we good to go?

 

[Run the Jewels]

They have guaranteed contracts, this isn't football. They could waive him, doubt that is being seriously considered at all.

Oh, how cute. If you're going to reply please respond to the larger point regarding Cleary and Brunner and try not to focus on the inconsequential difference between being cut and waived.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

As bad as Andersson?

Much worse than Andersson.

Oh, how cute. If you're going to reply please respond to the larger point regarding Cleary and Brunner and try not to focus on the inconsequential difference between being cut and waived.

They didn't sign him to just waive him, so your larger point doesn't make a whole lot of sense. This isn't a saving face situation, he would have signed in Philly if the promises were not already here. Especially since at 1.75 million he would be instantly claimed by one of the bottom feeder teams.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

I've defended Holland more than most but this is purely indefensible.

This is almost as bad as signing Sammy last year.

Other than loyalty and Babcock's love for him what reason was there to re-sign him? They have plenty of depth both on the roster and in GR, that they had to cut 2 NHL caliber players anyway. Now that number is 3.

The average poster on HF Boards can tell that Danny Cleary is nothing close to the player he once was. How on earth can the coach and GM not see it? If we had 12 guys under contract and he was gonna play on the 4th line, then fine. But we have 16 (now 17) and Babs' is gonna play him waaaaaayyyyyy more minutes than he deserves.

Tootoo and Eaves, who are all but gone, are both more useful than him. Tootoo can fight and is a solid forechecker, Eaves PKs and has a decent shot. Cleary? Well, he trips over the blue line, takes offensive zone penalties, turns the puck over frequently and drags down the top six. Watching him and Abdelkader weigh down Datsyuk like a couple of anvils last year was tragic.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Saad played top line LW all of last year until playoffs when he dropped down too 3rd line at times

Bolland had nothing to do with Saad

Bolland was dumped because Shaw and Kruger outplayed him as #3 and #4 C and he failed miserably as a our #2 C that Bowman went and got Handzus for playoffs. Cant have a 4th line C making 3.375M in the NHL

Hawks fans are hoping Pirri makes it as #2 C and gets chance with spot still open (Been open since Sharp stopped playing C after 2010 cup). Pirri just won AHL scoring title ,, The kid cant do anything else offensively to prove himself in AHL (His D will always be issue but rather he learn it in NHL)

But Q hates Pirri and now there is talk that Saad is working on playing C and might be tried as #2C (Q really hates Pirri)

Any prospects in Wings system that no matter what they do cant get a chance to play like Pirri with Hawks because of your coach?

It would seem like Tatar is that guy with Babs.

Find it curious they won't put Tatar-Andersson-Nyquist together in camp. Why? Well be awfully hard to split them up and their cases would be much stronger. I am not kidding when I say that is honestly what I think is happening. Those guys have dynamite chemistry together, especially Tatar and Nyquist, they even rolled quite nicely with Sheahan in the middle for a while in the AHL as well. Not putting them on the same line is silly.

 

[Vladdy84]

I've defended Holland more than most but this is purely indefensible.

This is almost as bad as signing Sammy last year.

Other than loyalty and Babcock's love for him what reason was there to re-sign him? They have plenty of depth both on the roster and in GR, that they had to cut 2 NHL caliber players anyway. Now that number is 3.

The average poster on HF Boards can tell that Danny Cleary is nothing close to the player he once was. How on earth can the coach and GM not see it? If we had 12 guys under contract and he was gonna play on the 4th line, then fine. But we have 16 (now 17) and Babs' is gonna play him waaaaaayyyyyy more minutes than he deserves.

Tootoo and Eaves, who are all but gone, are both more useful than him. Tootoo can fight and is a solid forechecker, Eaves PKs and has a decent shot. Cleary? Well, he trips over the blue line, takes offensive zone penalties, turns the puck over frequently and drags down the top six. Watching him and Abdelkader weigh down Datsyuk like a couple of anvils last year was tragic.

Every Stanley Cup contender needs a Jerry Gergich to take em down a peg or two right?

 

[Lord Stan 2020]

Saad played top line LW all of last year until playoffs when he dropped down too 3rd line at times

Bolland had nothing to do with Saad

Bolland was dumped because Shaw and Kruger outplayed him as #3 and #4 C and he failed miserably as a our #2 C that Bowman went and got Handzus for playoffs. Cant have a 4th line C making 3.375M in the NHL

Hawks fans are hoping Pirri makes it as #2 C and gets chance with spot still open (Been open since Sharp stopped playing C after 2010 cup). Pirri just won AHL scoring title ,, The kid cant do anything else offensively to prove himself in AHL (His D will always be issue but rather he learn it in NHL)

But Q hates Pirri and now there is talk that Saad is working on playing C and might be tried as #2C (Q really hates Pirri)

Any prospects in Wings system that no matter what they do cant get a chance to play like Pirri with Hawks because of your coach?

The amazing thing is not TATAR. I get he is small and defense wise leaves something to be desired.

The NYQUIST situation is INSANE and can only think.

Well its insane I DONT GET IT the guy does play defense lol. So yes we got two guys being held back who no matter what they do doesnt make any sense when you have abby shooting blanks and cleary getting more time and not scoring etc..

Nyquist should have had his shot two years ago. So no I have no idea what babcock thinks. A lot of this just doesnt make any sense.

If running into other guys and hitting them was worth goals than abby could be a first line guy but he should have been done in that regards after his first three months. Is now going to be third year and one of cleary or abby is going to be first line.

This actually causes me to have an headache.

Maybe trevalian hope that is right spelling is your third line center next year

I feel for you with the pirri thing. I said he should win calder this year if got the right time.

 

[FlashyG]

I'm sorry but how many of these are deals that even a dead monkey could have done? A dead monkey that when it was alive, was deaf, dumb, mute, paraplegic?

Nyquist was RFA.
Andersson was RFA
Smith was RFA. I don't see how signing RFA's to a bunch of good contracts is some kind of godly GM maneuver.
Alfie's GM treated him like garbage and ruined their chances. If he doesn't try to lowball him, he's still a Senator. Period. And we have like the most Swedes in the league. Of course he's coming here.
Prospects is all for Holland now? He drafted and developed them? He coached them? Sorry Hakan! Sorry Blashill! All Kenny baby! I mean good for him for hiring good guys, but let's not heap all the results of that on Kenny. Those guys he hired did the work.
Brunner, another giftwrapped signing. Thanks Roest.
Datsyuk extending? The guy who said over and over he was going to stay in Detroit until he retired from the NHL? Wow. What a deal. Congrats Kenny. You signed the guy who said he wouldn't ever sign with another team than Detroit. Allow me to plan the parade.
Hossa came to us. He said "I want a cup and I think you have the best shot. Give me this more than reasonable number and let's make a run." Again. A dead monkey could do that.
Yes. Making the playoffs. Amazing. Over 50% of the teams do it every year.


Good job on Blashill.
Miller good pickup
2009 was a while ago, but good job there I guess.

How many of the things on the list I quoted are "negatives" that every other GM in the league hasn't duplicated or surpassed? Letting UFA's hit free agency, signing a player that doesn't work out, being forced to cut a guy because the cap dropped, or making a trade that didn't work. All kinds of teams have signed RFA's to expensive contracts, why shouldn't Holland get credit for batting .1000 on them this offseason?

The contract we bought out will cost the team 950k for 2 years. Garth Snow (the guy put forth as a superior GM) is paying DiPietro 1.5 million for 16 more years. Yzerman, the guy many around here think should be doing Holland's job is paying 32 million over 14 years to Lecavalier for him to play against them. There are 23 teams in the league who are currently paying buyouts to players more expensive than Colaiacovo and yet that is being held against Holland.

To your last point, while 53% of the league makes the playoffs every year only 25% (7) have made the playoffs in all of the past 5 years (Zetterberg4Captain's timeframe), and none of them are even halfway to the Wings streak of 22 years.

It seems that on this board everything that goes right should be credited to Nill, Babcock, Hakan, Blashill, or luck, but anything negative that happens is all Holland's fault. Those guys certainly deserve credit for much of the good in my list, but so does Holland. On the other hand Babcock and the others also deserve some of the criticism for the things that were listed in Z4C's negatives. Bert, Cleary, and Sammy are all personal favorites of Babs while Hudler and Flip were constantly in his doghouse, and if you believe Z4C that we aren't Identifying, drafting and developing enough talent then some of that blame would have to fall on Nill, Hakan, Blashill and luck as well.

You can't have it both ways

 

[aar000n]

 

[RedWingsNow*]

Hmmm

 

[aar000n]

the ultimate no is better but its gets the message across. Dan Celary is the most usless player we had. The only thing I can think is maybe he is healthy again. He cant pass, or skate, or shoot the only thing he was good at was interfering in the playoffs last year.

 

[Bench]

Over 10,000 views of this thread. It's official, Cleary is our most popular player.

 

[Squirrel in the Hole]

In a nutshell, this:

He really played this wrong.

 

[Classicnamesup]

Yzerman, the guy many around here think should be doing Holland's job is paying 32 million over 14 years to Lecavalier for him to play against them.

Not sure what your point is but that awful contract was years before Yzerman had anything to do with it. He was still playing!

To your last point, while 53% of the league makes the playoffs every year only 25% (7) have made the playoffs in all of the past 5 years (Zetterberg4Captain's timeframe), and none of them are even halfway to the Wings streak of 22 years.

This is critically close to ending, and the reason people are upset is because it is clear as day which players should be on the team and which shouldn't, but it appears Babcock and Holland cannot see it.

 

[Flowah]

It seems that on this board everything that goes right should be credited to Nill, Babcock, Hakan, Blashill, or luck, but anything negative that happens is all Holland's fault. Those guys certainly deserve credit for much of the good in my list, but so does Holland. On the other hand Babcock and the others also deserve some of the criticism for the things that were listed in Z4C's negatives. Bert, Cleary, and Sammy are all personal favorites of Babs while Hudler and Flip were constantly in his doghouse, and if you believe Z4C that we aren't Identifying, drafting and developing enough talent then some of that blame would have to fall on Nill, Hakan, Blashill and luck as well.
s

Not every GM has the luxury of the Wing's reputation, upon which Holland has skated on for some time now. Their rep and the generous owner means they have an intangible benefit of players coming to them. We saw it with Hossa and now Alfie. But that's something largely not within Holland's control. He only became GM in mid 97. The team's winning ways were already in place by that point. Most of the key players were here already. There was no cap and Illitch was rich as hell and wanted a cup. How is that Holland's doing?

7 teams? That's a lot in a 30 team league. About 23% of the teams. And again, a lot of that is coasting. Datsyuk and Zetterberg were already signed. We still had a prime Lidstrom. Those three? How can you not make the playoffs all the time? You'd have to be Feaster level incompetent to mess that up. The 22 year streak? Meh. Pre-salary cap is totally different. This is a whole different ball game now.

Certainly yes, Holland does not work alone. I think the Griffin's championship victory shows how much Blashill and AHL development have contributed. Hakan clearly deserves a ton of credit for unearthing guys like Datsyuk, and the rest of the Swedish contingent. I don't even begin to understand how you credit Holland for that. Let's say I'm the boss of a company and an employee I hired just comes up with a great idea to save us a bunch of money. How stupid and unfair would it be for everyone to come up to me and say "Man, you really deserve the credit for that one. You hired just the right guy!" No. Obviously, my employee deserves the lion's share of the credit. So does Hakan. Anything less is selling him incredibly short.

I give credit to Holland for a few things.

1. Not being a complete idiot and letting the easy stuff fall through. I suppose in some universe we let Hossa slip through our fingers in 09. I suppose in some universe, Datsyuk doesn't re-up. Good for you Holland. You signed on the dotted line of an already done deal.

2. Extending E. I thought it was a good value that E would grow into.

3. Finding Miller. I like Miller a lot and he's dirt cheap and reliable.

4. He's hired the right guys mostly. That's good. I give him credit for the hires and the promotions. I don't give him credit for everything they do. They do that on their own.

5. Getting a pick for Stuart.

6. Kronwall's extension I guess.

7. I liked the Alfie and Weiss signings.

Overall, I see him having done more bad than good over the past 5 years in terms of difficulty. He made the right calls on the super easy stuff. "Durrr do I extend Datsyuk?" But when he's had to make tough calls, he's made very few. And most of his big moves have been bad. I still can't get over Q for a first and then an extension. Or Sammy. Or Tootoo without wondering if maybe "will this guy even sniff the playoffs with Babcock? Then why would I spend 1.9M on a rotating 4th liner. For 2 freaking years?"

And a couple of notes:

1. Yzerman inherited that Lecavalier contract. It's hard to say he didn't make the right call with the buy out, but it's not like he created the problem.

2. I *think* what Z4C was trying to say, and I haven't gone back to read it, is that we use very few of our prospects from the past 5 years in our top9. And if we can't produce those guys, then something is seriously wrong with our system. But what he really means is "We've produced top9 players for sure. We're just too dumb to use them and instead bring in and sign geezers for millions and multi-year terms." I absolutely agree. I love our drafting and development. I see a ton of amazing players. I am ****ing befuddled that we refuse to use them.

 

[RedWingsNow*]

At least Yzerman had the balls to buy out Lecavalier.

 

[Tomas W]

I really wanted to se Nyquist from start. It's difficult to get established by getting yo-yoed to the AHL back and forth.

I guess Cleary could be worth 1.75 by himself, but I really wanted DRW to start a mini rebuild. DRW have a lot of promosing youth, but they need time with the big leauge to develop.

 

[FlashyG]

Not every GM has the luxury of the Wing's reputation, upon which Holland has skated on for some time now. Their rep and the generous owner means they have an intangible benefit of players coming to them. We saw it with Hossa and now Alfie. But that's something largely not within Holland's control. He only became GM in mid 97. The team's winning ways were already in place by that point. Most of the key players were here already. There was no cap and Illitch was rich as hell and wanted a cup. How is that Holland's doing?

7 teams? That's a lot in a 30 team league. About 23% of the teams. And again, a lot of that is coasting. Datsyuk and Zetterberg were already signed. We still had a prime Lidstrom. Those three? How can you not make the playoffs all the time? You'd have to be Feaster level incompetent to mess that up. The 22 year streak? Meh. Pre-salary cap is totally different. This is a whole different ball game now.

Certainly yes, Holland does not work alone. I think the Griffin's championship victory shows how much Blashill and AHL development have contributed. Hakan clearly deserves a ton of credit for unearthing guys like Datsyuk, and the rest of the Swedish contingent. I don't even begin to understand how you credit Holland for that. Let's say I'm the boss of a company and an employee I hired just comes up with a great idea to save us a bunch of money. How stupid and unfair would it be for everyone to come up to me and say "Man, you really deserve the credit for that one. You hired just the right guy!" No. Obviously, my employee deserves the lion's share of the credit. So does Hakan. Anything less is selling him incredibly short.

I give credit to Holland for a few things.

1. Not being a complete idiot and letting the easy stuff fall through. I suppose in some universe we let Hossa slip through our fingers in 09. I suppose in some universe, Datsyuk doesn't re-up. Good for you Holland. You signed on the dotted line of an already done deal.

2. Extending E. I thought it was a good value that E would grow into.

3. Finding Miller. I like Miller a lot and he's dirt cheap and reliable.

4. He's hired the right guys mostly. That's good. I give him credit for the hires and the promotions. I don't give him credit for everything they do. They do that on their own.

5. Getting a pick for Stuart.

6. Kronwall's extension I guess.

7. I liked the Alfie and Weiss signings.

Overall, I see him having done more bad than good over the past 5 years in terms of difficulty. He made the right calls on the super easy stuff. "Durrr do I extend Datsyuk?" But when he's had to make tough calls, he's made very few. And most of his big moves have been bad. I still can't get over Q for a first and then an extension. Or Sammy. Or Tootoo without wondering if maybe "will this guy even sniff the playoffs with Babcock? Then why would I spend 1.9M on a rotating 4th liner. For 2 freaking years?"

And a couple of notes:

1. Yzerman inherited that Lecavalier contract. It's hard to say he didn't make the right call with the buy out, but it's not like he created the problem.

2. I *think* what Z4C was trying to say, and I haven't gone back to read it, is that we use very few of our prospects from the past 5 years in our top9. And if we can't produce those guys, then something is seriously wrong with our system. But what he really means is "We've produced top9 players for sure. We're just too dumb to use them and instead bring in and sign geezers for millions and multi-year terms." I absolutely agree. I love our drafting and development. I see a ton of amazing players. I am ****ing befuddled that we refuse to use them.

Holland has a pretty big hand in the Wings reputation. He has been GM since 97, but he's been part of management for the previous 10 years and part of the organization for 30 years, long before the winning started. He's directly responsible for the drafting Lidstrom and was a huge part of all 4 cup wins the team has in the modern era of the game.

Lots of teams had rich owners when the Wings were at their peak, the Leafs have never been anything but filthy rich, neither have the Rangers...how many cups did they win during Hollands tenure as GM? You don't run a franchise for 16 years based entirely on other peoples work and pure luck, the guy is very good at his job.

I'll definitely concede that he hasn't been anywhere near as good in the past 5 years, but that is a timeframe that was conveniently set by Z4C so he could discount the cup he won the year before.

When someone is calling him the Worst GM in all of professional sports I think pointing out Holland's in a category of 23% of NHL teams and 13% of all major North American Sports teams is a pretty good piece of evidence to counter his point.

Yes Datsyuk and Zetterberg were both part of the team for all 5 of the years in this artificial timeframe, but both were drafted and retained by him. If either of them had left as free agents you can bet that the blame would be placed squarely at Holland's door so why is it against the rules to give him credit for not only drafting them, but creating an environment where they don't even consider playing for another NHL team?

As far as Hakan he absolutely deserves the credit for unearthing Datsyuk and many other prospects, but using your example the CEO would absolutely get the credit for the successes of his staff...just like he takes responsibilities for their failures. The Wings have had far more busts drafted out of Europe than Datsyuks and Zetterbergs, I don't see anyone laying blame for them on Andersson, they only get mentioned when pointing out Holland is overrated at drafting.

The last part of your post I agree with, I also find it frustrating how we promote players within our team, most of that falls on Holland with an assist to Babcock based on how he uses them when they are at his disposal.

I think Blashill definitely deserves the lions share of the Calder Cup credit, but so to does Holland since his biggest weakness was also the reason a lot of those Cup winning players were still in the AHL rather than in the NHL like most of us wanted.

Also I didn't say Yzerman signed Lecavalier, he did however make the decision to buy him out without really exploring any trade options. Either way there is plenty of evidence to support Yzerman being a worse GM than Holland.

This has gotten way off topic and much too long winded for me to continue...my point was just to counter the ridiculous argument that Holland is the worst GM in all of professional sports, I think if you polled NHL players, fans and executives from around the entire league he'd without a doubt be in the top 5, and would be ranked 1st more often than out of the top 5.

We're just all emotional because he made a signing we all hate today.

 

[FlashyG]

At least Yzerman had the balls to buy out Lecavalier.

I guess it is pretty ballsy to make your team worse by buying out your captain and leaving your already cash strapped owner with a 30+ million dollar bill for a guy who is now playing against you.