GDT: Free Agent Frenzy

[Axel Sandy Pelikan]

Honestly the Walman trade and the Gustafsson signing really annoy me. We traded a 2nd round pick to make space on the roster and get some cap space. Fine. We then used that space to sign a worse player, bloating our terrible defense with another fringe NHL D. We have 2 guys on the roster that I'm confident belong on NHL ice and one of them has 25 career games. We could make moves to upgrade that or we could roll with the kids. We're choosing to do neither, and we're paying to do it. I don't see why.

Gustafsson is a better hockey player than Walman. Full stop.

If anything came out of this FA period, it needs to be that people overrated the f*** out of Walman based off of like 40 games of looking competent with Seider.

Once upon a time, Jakub Kindl didn't look like warmed over dog-shit when he played with Kronner either. And Ian White looked like a f***in legit top 4 D playing with Nicklas Lidstrom.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Gustafsson is a better hockey player than Walman. Full stop.

Man then our D was do bad as Gus was the #6 in NY and they tossed him aside

 

[datsyukfan]

If we're giving more roster spots to unproven prospects, as it seems might be the case, then the regression is expected. That's a scenarion that was discussed at length on this forum since the close of the season. One year of regression so the kids can step in and secure their roll on the team and adjust to NHL hockey. Does it really matter, in the big picture, if we regress or get a little better and become a first round casualty team in the playoffs?

We're building for a more long term future as a competative team. A couple points in the standings next year really has no bearing on that. He spent on free agents the last two years for the gradual improvement of the team from season to season. At some point you have to stop doing that and give that responsibility to the next batch of players who will, hopefully, become the new core.

I guess how those kids perform will, for the most part, determine if the upcoming season's team is better or worse than last year's.

I get it but why not slowly graduate players in. Bergy and Ed should have already been up all season last year. Now you are bringing in what 5 rookies this year? Imo we should have gotten 1 top 6 forward and 1 top 4 D and filled the rest out with kids. If we regressed from last year I would be surprised but okay with that. The walman deal looks worse and worse by the day

 

[Perfect Human]

Barring a miraculous trade, we’re a vastly worse hockey team today than we were last season

I understand this perspective, but I ask why and how do the players lost with young players moving in make the wings a worse team?

20-30 more games with Kane in the lineup.
Full season of Edvinsson.
Better goalie situation.
Berggren replaced Perron.One of Kasper, Mazur, Danielson replaces Sprong.
Ghost is replaced by Gus and Edvinsson’s production.

 

[Hugh Mongusbig]

The brass wanted Walman gone. It had nothing to do with his cap hit, that much seems clear by now.
It wasn't a cap dump, it was clearly a player dump.

 

[lhsgolf19]

Wait people are still pissed about the Walman thing? There’s a reason he was healthy scratched down the stretch…. He wasn’t the same player, he wasn’t any good.

 

[Axel Sandy Pelikan]

Man then our D was do bad as Gus was the #6 in NY and they tossed him aside

That is correct.

Seider is very good.
Edvinsson will be really good.

But then Ghost, Petry, Maatta, Walman? They are all the same level player. Either very flawed with one great skill or just a whole lot of below-average skill.

Like Ghost is great on the PP. But he's complete dogshit elsewise. And Maatta is just a warmed over body. Now, at least the guys we had last year were just below average or were good in one area and flawed otherwise. Because the 19-20 defense was full of never ares, never weres and never will bes.... and Moritz Seider.

 

[HisNoodliness]

Gustafsson is a better hockey player than Walman. Full stop.

One guy had 65% offensive zone starts against bottom pair competition, the other guy had 65% defensive zone starts against top competition. Sure Gustafsson did better in his baby soft minutes than Walman did playing some of the toughest minutes since they started tracking QoC, but if we think Gustafsson is going to be able to survive those minutes, we have a very rude awakening coming. By eye test, he's a poor man's Ghost. Fine in the offensive zone and a total headache everywhere else.

And even if we're willing to accept "Walman is the worst D in the league" like we're supposed to all of a sudden, is Gustafsson remarkably better than Chiarot, Holl, Petry and Maatta? I think he's very much like them. They're all okay on the third pairing and get embarrassed by top 6 NHL forwards. It's not that we NEEDED to upgrade the D. If we wanted to just roll with the kids, that was fine by me. But then we should be leaving roster spots for those kids instead of adding a fifth third pair defenseman.

 

[Hugh Mongusbig]

Montreal just gave Slaf $7.6/8yr deal. yikes.

That sure isn't going to help our case with Raymond.

 

[better Red than Dead]

Wait people are still pissed about the Walman thing? There’s a reason he was healthy scratched down the stretch…. He wasn’t the same player, he wasn’t any good.

Then why not waive him instead of giving up a draft pick

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

One guy had 65% offensive zone starts against bottom pair competition, the other guy had 65% defensive zone starts against top competition. Sure Gustafsson did better in his baby soft minutes than Walman did playing some of the toughest minutes since they started tracking QoC, but if we think Gustafsson is going to be able to survive those minutes, we have a very rude awakening coming. By eye test, he's a poor man's Ghost. Fine in the offensive zone and a total headache everywhere else.

And even if we're willing to accept "Walman is the worst D in the league" like we're supposed to all of a sudden, is Gustafsson remarkably better than Chiarot, Holl, Petry and Maatta? I think he's very much like them. They're all okay on the third pairing and get embarrassed by top 6 NHL forwards. It's not that we NEEDED to upgrade the D. If we wanted to just roll with the kids, that was fine by me. But then we should be leaving roster spots for those kids instead of adding a fifth third pair defenseman.

The Walman sucks crowd sure came out on que when instructed to...

 

[JohanFranzenstein]

Gun to head fellas:
Theodore, Pietro or Ekblad?

 

[better Red than Dead]

Gun to head fellas:
Theodore, Pietro or Ekblad?

Theodore

 

[Ricelund]

Why are people acting like the offseason's over?

Marner, Necas, Pinto, Faulk, Theodore, Zegras, Buchnevich, Ekblad, etc. are still out there... and those are just some of the guys that have already been rumored to be on the move.

We know Yzerman was looking to add via trade with Trouba. Almost all of the contracts handed out yesterday didn't make sense for the Wings.

I also should add that if Yzerman signed virtually any of those contracts yesterday, we'd mostly be hearing:

"This just blocks the kids from coming up!"

"This just makes us an 8 seed that's first-round fodder! What's the point?!"

Gun to head fellas:
Theodore, Pietro or Ekblad?

Theodore.

 

[lhsgolf19]

Then why not waive him instead of giving up a draft pick

no one would pick him off waivers and in turn take his entire salary… that’s why

 

[Ricelund]

The Walman sucks crowd sure came out on que when instructed to...

I repeat again: Walman was scratched for 15 of the most important games this team has played in almost a decade.

 

[datsyukfan]

Gun to head fellas:
Theodore, Pietro or Ekblad?

They won’t get any of them

 

[HisNoodliness]

The Walman sucks crowd sure came out on que when instructed to...

Seriously, no one had that opinion a month ago. The team/league evaluated him differently and the personality problems have more weight with management than they do with fans. I can live with that I guess. But regardless, he's at least a fine third pairing guy, on a reasonable deal. If we're going to replace him with someone good? Great. Pay a second to open up his spot if that's the price. If we're just going to bring in stop gaps as we hope for the kids to take over, why not Walman? Or why not just send him to the AHL if he can't win a roster spot over Maatta. We didn't need the cap space and wasted assets to get it so that we could sign more warm bodies. Pay to upgrade the roster, or don't. Don't pay to arguably make it worse, and at best, make meaningless improvements.

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

Gun to head fellas:
Theodore, Pietro or Ekblad?

None are being moved...Vegas was looking into to free up cap to resign Marsh or Stephenson...that's no longer an issue

 

[HisNoodliness]

Gun to head fellas:
Theodore, Pietro or Ekblad?

Theodore

 

[Zetterberg4Captain]

I repeat again: Walman was scratched for 15 of the most important games this team has played in almost a decade.

Yup after being injured I 100%agree.. the previous 150 games no longer count for anything? I assume you were advocating we trade him last summer or back in Dec and attach a 2nd to do it?

 

[Henkka]

Yup after being injured I 100%agree.. the previous 150 games no longer count for anything? I assume you were advocating we trade him last summer or back in Dec and attach a 2nd to do it?

This 2nd rounder is starting to remind me of the next Franzen vs. Hossa.

Still talking about it at the year of 2034.

 

[LongTimeDRWF]

With about 14M increased cap hit for two of our players, I did not expect this year to be big leap forward.

If long term deals are given out, it might be closer to 17-18M, this year was always going to be another playoff fringe team year, SY will go dumpster diving on the teams that overspent, and hopefully extract useful items, not the castaways the teams want to dump, unless getting good value.

He set a value for cap casualties before FA started, let's see if that now pays off.

 

[Hen Kolland]

If you are gonna hang your hopes on a trade based on some vague rumors that guys might be moved (and not even that the Red Wings are in talks), you're gonna have a bad time.

I also don't know what we would do with a defenseman if we were to trade for them

The old quality vs. quantity deal. Hey, please take these 3 lightly used defensemen that shouldn't be in the NHL and in exchange we will take your good defenseman.

 

[HisNoodliness]

Wait people are still pissed about the Walman thing? There’s a reason he was healthy scratched down the stretch…. He wasn’t the same player, he wasn’t any good.

When the trade happened, the defense of it was "Wait and see. Yzerman has more cooking. After we upgrade the roster it will be clear why we needed 3.4 mil in cap space and the roster spot." That answer was Erik Gustafsson. So now the only defense is just "Walman is a below NHL caliber D and needed to be moved out ASAP because that's just how bad he is." But even if that's the case, we didn't need to move him. We could just waive and bury him. We paid assets to accomplish nothing. That's annoying.