Roberto Luongo declined Wings offer sheet prior to the 06-07 season

[PelagicJoe]

Brendan Smith, Tom McCollum, Landon Ferraro (we traded back 3 spots at the draft), and Riley Sheahan if we assume four 1sts. Oh darn.

We really couldn't draft for shit for the most part from 2005 until Holland left.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Yea complete crap.. They obviously should have blown up all the “future” to really go for it those years they had Datsyuk/Zetterberg. Hearing this story maybe Holland was trying various bold things that just didn’t pan out. A big RFA signing seems like one of the most un-Holland like moves

I definitely wanted the Wings to make a bold move while they still and Dats, Z and more importantly Lidstrom even though it would mortgage the future. And that was before I knew what Holland would do with that future.

When you have one of the greatest Dmen of all time on the roster and centers like Dats and Z as well as nothing in the cupboard, you go all in.

 

[Peter Tosh]

What was the cost back then? He made 6,75 M$ in Van, and claims that Wings offered more. So let’s say 7,5

 

[SirKillalot]

Im still going to blame Babcock for this

Just wait until Mike Commodore states this and BizDude adding it was because of throbbing dick picks and such...

Would have been interesting to see how that would have affected those future Red Wings-years though. I believe one of the most underrated trades is the one for Brad Stuart. Even though the time aspect of that impact overall was relatively short, it was a crucial trade that put the team over the top to win.

 

[redwings8831]

What was the cost back then? He made 6,75 M$ in Van, and claims that Wings offered more. So let’s say 7,5

Yeah probably four or five years at 7.5/8 per. At the time anything over 5 mil required four first round picks as compensation.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

Just wait until Mike Commodore states this and BizDude adding it was because of throbbing dick picks and such...

Would have been interesting to see how that would have affected those future Red Wings-years though. I believe one of the most underrated trades is the one for Brad Stuart. Even though the time aspect of that impact overall was relatively short, it was a crucial trade that put the team over the top to win.

Is it underrated?

I'm asking seriously because in my book that was a huge trade for the Wings and one of Holland's best trades. Stuart was key in the making the Wings better and was generally one of those players who performed better in the playoffs.

Suddenly the Wings have Lids-Rafalski and Kronwall-Stuart. Holy hell that's a great top four.

And Holland got him for a 2nd and 4th rounder.

 

[Sadekuuro]

I definitely wanted the Wings to make a bold move while they still and Dats, Z and more importantly Lidstrom even though it would mortgage the future. And that was before I knew what Holland would do with that future.

When you have one of the greatest Dmen of all time on the roster and centers like Dats and Z as well as nothing in the cupboard, you go all in.

Totally. 2010, 2011, 2012 were so immensely frustrating, knowing all along we were just a piece or two away and never even trying to make that move.

 

[SirKillalot]

Is it underrated?

I'm asking seriously because in my book that was a huge trade for the Wings and one of Holland's best trades. Stuart was key in the making the Wings better and was generally one of those players who performed better in the playoffs.

Suddenly the Wings have Lids-Rafalski and Kronwall-Stuart. Holy hell that's a great top four.

And Holland got him for a 2nd and 4th rounder.

I agree with you. I think it was very crucial to have two top d-pairs.

For me it seems very underrated, maybe in hindsight it has become "less impactful" historically given how the end of his tenure was, even though number wise wasn't much worse, but people perceived him to be worse and his physicality went a bit down.

I think it was bigger at the time that what's being said about it now, thus a bit underrated.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I agree with you. I think it was very crucial to have two top d-pairs.

For me it seems very underrated, maybe in hindsight it has become "less impactful" historically given how the end of his tenure was, even though number wise wasn't much worse, but people perceived him to be worse and his physicality went a bit down.

I think it was bigger at the time that what's being said about it now, thus a bit underrated.

Honestly for me it's slightly under the Shanny trade in terms of getting the team over the hump.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Seems odd because IIRC he signed with Vancouver pretty quickly after that trade and before free agency officially opened up. But perhaps it was something the Wings had floated to his agent prior to the trade or signing that they would've eventually sent over after 7/1?

In a way, it would've made sense for the Wings cap wise... at least for that incoming season.... The cap went up by $5M, they knew they had Yzerman and Legace coming off the books freeing up around $2.5M, the league was trying to figure out what to do with Fischer's $1.5M cap hit and eventually Shanahan left too freeing up another $2M+. IIRC, during the previous season they had given some guys like Osgood, Lilja, Samuelsson, Cleary, Franzen, Lebda, etc. raises that kicked in for 06/07 season, but the increase totaled maybe less than $2M. I think eventually they used somewhere around $4.5-5M to sign Markov and Hasek and give Jason Williams a decent raise and held onto the rest for when they made the Bertuzzi and Calder trades.

It would've been the next few seasons where things get dicey adding another player making similar money to Lidstrom at the time... I assume they still find ways to give Datsyuk and Zetterberg their big raises, but can they still sign Rafalski at $6M AAV? Trade for and sign Stuart? Make some tough choices when it comes to guys like Franzen, Cleary, Hudler, Filppula, etc.? By 09/10 they were in complete cap hell with Osgood and Howard combining for barely over $2M in cap. Their roster in front of Luongo could've been measurably worse with another $5-6M invested in goaltending.