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Is This The Wings Right-Handed Shot?
by Paul on 08/04/09 at 02:35 PM ET
Comments (33)
via TSN,
The Detroit Red Wings signed free agent forward Patrick Eaves to a one-year contract on Tuesday, financial details were not disclosed.
Over his 74 games with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2008/09, the 25-year-old scored six goals with eight assists and a plus-7 rating. Eaves has played in 242 career NHL games and has score 45 goals and added 45 assists.
added 3:47pm, Here is an old story on Eaves when he was a sophomore at Boston College…
from Jay Hedstrom of BC Heights (Boston College),
Patrick Eaves, and brother Ben, had a somewhat different childhood than most. The Eaves family had moved 15 or 16 times by the time the boys went off to college. No matter where the family moved, however, the hockey sticks were always packed away.
“It started out in St. Cloud,” recalled the younger brother. “I was three years old, Ben was five. My father built a rink in our backyard. We had a little piece of ice out back. We went out there for about 10 minutes at a time and had to come warm up then go back out.”
To say that the Eaves are a “hockey family” would be an understatement. Patrick’s father, Mike, punched his time card with the NHL for eight seasons, playing for the Minnesota North Stars and the Calgary Flames.
added 4:45pm, According to Wings beat writer Bruce MacLeod, salary is $500K. Also, don’t forget he was recently bought out by the Bruins for $1.1M.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Patrick+Eaves,
Comments
Another Dan Cleary project?
At least the Wings didn’t sign Jason Williams (the villagers rejoice).
Posted by Aphaea from Pennsylvania on 08/04/09 at 02:59 PM ET
Sounds kinda like Cleary’s story. I like the potential.
Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 08/04/09 at 02:59 PM ET
Here’s The Hockey News’ scouting report on him:
ASSETS: Is an excellent skater and fore-checker. Anticipates plays well at both ends of the ice, and displays all-around ability. Owns intriguing scoring upside.
FLAWS: Still needs more bulk in order to thrive at the NHL level. Could use more fine-tuning in all aspects of the game.
CAREER POTENTIAL: Top six winger.
http://forecaster.thehockeynews.com/hockeynews/hockey/player.cgi?3484
Posted by Red Winger from Sault Ste Marie on 08/04/09 at 03:06 PM ET
Totally agree. This is a best case scenario pickup. WAAAY more potential than most of the aging grinders that we’ve passed up. Hopefully Chelios retires so he can become our official off season “trainer” and can immediately get Eaves biking in the sauna. That regiment was, after all, a huge part of Dan Cleary’s resurgence.
I’d love to see Eaves have a 20 goal+ year just to hear the chorus of “the Wings have done it again.” I love it when that happens.
Posted by perfection from LaLaLand on 08/04/09 at 03:08 PM ET
Sign Dandenault and have a good coupla weeks off, Kenny.
I like it. Eaves will produce…not exactly Hossa-like numbers, but I’m willing to bet he’ll replace Sammy, if not more.
Posted by mrfluffy from Long Beach on 08/04/09 at 03:25 PM ET
I wanna know what the hell Malik is drinking. I want some of that mixed with Guinness and Jameson’s. That bastard knows his shit.
Posted by SYF from a "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on 08/04/09 at 03:47 PM ET
I also wonder what the Canes fans have to say about him after seeing him for 74 games last year because honestly? I didn’t even see him play in last spring’s Cup playoffs…at…all.
Posted by SYF from a "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" on 08/04/09 at 03:49 PM ET
Only 500K? Something tells me Kenny’s not done yet.
Posted by Hippy Dave from Portland by way of Detroit on 08/04/09 at 03:51 PM ET
Something tells me Lilja is heading to long term IR, which gives us the money to make Prospel a 1 year deal
Posted by VegasMike on 08/04/09 at 04:10 PM ET
If you count Lilja as LTIR (which, let’s face it, if he’s STILL having symptoms…), then capgeek has the Wings with about $2.5M in space. I’m guessing this means we sign someone more for $1.6M or less, so that we have Meech up as the 7th defenseman and we have enough room to bring up Abdelkader or someone else, if need be.
For a half mil, I really like this signing. He could very easily be a Cleary-esque pickup, as others have noted.
And even if he doesn’‘t give us THAT, we’re only asking for him to be a 3rd or 4th liner, so there’s not a lot of downside…
Posted by Garth on 08/04/09 at 04:27 PM ET
potential gets people fired…3rd team now? not that that’s a lot, and if any team can pull the most out of it’s players Detroit would be near the top of my list, and if i wasn’t a pens fan i’d probably have to admit they’re the top of the list.
after watching the playoffs this year though, if i were a wings fan, there are already a couple guys who i’d want to have that ice time over Eaves. He was very unimpressive with the Sens…Hopefully Helm gets the ice time he deserves this year…
Posted by greg on 08/04/09 at 04:29 PM ET
Is Abdelkader’s figure included in cap numbers? His salary can also be used as Holland wants him to play in Grand Rapids for the whole season to get top 6 minutes. If/when Lilja goes on LTR, that’s 2mm right there and I thought we already had $1.6mm to begin with (Including Abdelkader’s salary) so it looks like we have close to 3mm to play with, no?
Posted by bababooey on 08/04/09 at 04:37 PM ET
Sorry, they have $2.5M apart from Abdelkdader’s contract (when you put Lilja on long term reserve). So they can sign someone for $2.5M, have Abdelkader play in GR and still have enough room to bring Abby up if they need to.
That said, I’m sure they don’t want to spend right up to the cap. They’ll want a little wiggle room in case they have a big injury or in case Eaves/other signee doesn’t work out like they want it to.
And I can’t imagine any scenario in which they sign Dandenault. Sure, he can play forward and defense, but they’ve got 8 defensmen signed and I’m sure Holland would much rather have a forward playing forward fulltime rather than a defenseman playing forward.
I look at the available list and yeah, there’s Tanguay and Afinogenov and Prospal who are the bigger name guys, but there are also Grier, Malhotra, Moore who could be good signings (although with Moore’s demands in Toronto, he may have gotten a little too big for his britches.).
There are a lot of options, but I’m guessing we’re done until training camp. If you sign someone now for $2M and then Abdelkader comes in and blows everyone away, then you’re in a bit of a pickle. Last year, Helm was ready but didn’t get the chance because they had Marian freakin Hossa. You can’t argue with that, whereas if Abdelkader is a monster but you have to make him play in GR because of Alex Tanguay, Vinnie Prospal or Mike Grier, that’s a bit tougher to swallow.
Posted by Garth on 08/04/09 at 05:15 PM ET
Kyle at BabcockDeathStare has suggested a third line of Cleary-Helm-Eaves and I…well…I just like that a lot!
Posted by Garth on 08/04/09 at 05:27 PM ET
Without Lilja and with Eaves and Abbi, the Wings will have 21 roster players and $2,449,347 in cap space with which to sign one more forward…
FORWARDS
Pavel Datsyuk: 6,700,000
Henrik Zetterberg: 6,083,333
Johan Franzen: 3,954,545
Valtteri Filppula: 3,000,000
Daniel Cleary: 2,800,000
Tomas Holmstrom: 2,250,000
Kris Draper: 1,583,333
Kirk Maltby: 883,333
Justin Abdelkader: 850,000
Ville Leino: 800,000
Darren Helm: 599,444
Patrick Eaves: 500,000
DEFENSEMEN
Nicklas Lidstrom: 7,450,000
Brian Rafalaski: 6,000,000
Brad Stuart: 3,750,000
Niklas Kronwall: 3,000,000
Jonathan Ericssonv900,000
Brett Lebda: 650,000
Derek Meech: 483,333
GOALTENDERS
Chris Osgood: 1,416,666
Jimmy Howard: 716,666
ROSTER SIZE: 21
SALARY CAP: 56,800,000
PAYROLL: 54,350,653
CAP ROOM: 2,449,347
Take Abbi out and the Wings will have $3,349,347 with which to sign two forwards, so keeping Abbi in GR doesn’t open up that much cap space. The only argument for doing so is to give him another year in which to get “over-ripe” as Tick Tock likes to call it.
My guess is, Kenny tries to get another “potential producer” at about $1.5M so that he’ll have some cap space available at the trade deadline. I’m also guessing that Danny Clearly has a sit-down with Eaves before training camp starts and explains to him the “upside” of working his ass off. Maybe he’ll even show him a copy of his $2.8M-per-year contract for extra motivation. 
Verification word: why69. I’m surprised anyone would ever ask that question. 
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/04/09 at 05:37 PM ET
Take Abbi out and the Wings will have $3,349,347 with which to sign two forwards
Why would they sign two forwards? All you have to do is sign one for $2.4M or less (I’d guess about $1.5M so that you have a little extra wiggle room, just in case) and you have 12 forwards, plus the ability to call up Abdelkader if you need to, in order to cover and injury or whatever. Best of both worlds: you have a full roster and give Abdelkader the chance to hone himself some more playing big minutes in Grand Rapids AND you can give him the occasional taste of the big boy club when you need to.
That way, Abdelkader is essentially the traditional 13th forward only, instead of spending his time in the box above the ice not playing, he plays everyday for the Griffs and gets better and more consistent and plays better for us when we DO call him up than if he was just watching the games in the press box.
There’s no reason for us to belly right up to the edge of the cap when we don’t have to.
Posted by Garth on 08/04/09 at 05:46 PM ET
Why would they sign two forwards?
Because if Abbi goes back to GR, the Wings will only have 20 roster players, 11 of whom are forwards. Personally, I don’t think they’re going to play with just 21 guys and only 12 forwards, even if Meech can play forward if needed. In fact, I don’t know any team that played with just 21 guys on their regular roster last year. Anyone know of one?
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/04/09 at 06:04 PM ET
Anyone know of one?
Yeah, I know of one team. It was the Detroit Red Wings.
As long as they have enough cap space to call up Abby, they don’t need 13 forwards. Why sign a guy who’s just going to play a handful of games when you have Abdelkader who can play everyday in GR as well as playing for Detroit when we need him? At least if you call him up you don’t have to worry about him being rusty and un-used to playing every day.
It doesn’t make sense to sign someone JUST to ride the pine when you’ve got someone who can fill in on a temporary basis who has some NHL experience.
Posted by Garth on 08/04/09 at 08:41 PM ET
It doesn’t make sense to sign someone JUST to ride the pine when you’ve got someone who can fill in on a temporary basis who has some NHL experience.
Isn’t that what Meech is for anyway?
Posted by mrfluffy from Long Beach on 08/04/09 at 09:00 PM ET
Isn’t that what Meech is for anyway?
Pretty much, so why would you want to sign someone else for the express purpose of doing the same? We’ve already got one prospect essentially wasting away riding the pine and playing a position he isn’t used to playing. We don’t need another.
Posted by Garth on 08/04/09 at 09:39 PM ET
Yeah, I know of one team. It was the Detroit Red Wings.
At what point during any season in recent memory did the Wings go with a regular line-up of 21 guys? They may have done it for a day or two at various points because of injuries, but when have the Wings had a regular roster of just 21 guys?
It doesn’t make sense to sign someone JUST to ride the pine when you’ve got someone who can fill in on a temporary basis who has some NHL experience.
Really? Then why haven’t the Wings done that? Are you that much smarter than Tick Tock? If you are, then please let us know when you’ll be taking over an NHL team that has a regular roster of just 21 guys.
The amount of fantasy nonsense that gets displayed online never ceases to amuse me.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/04/09 at 10:22 PM ET
At what point during any season in recent memory did the Wings go with a regular line-up of 21 guys? They may have done it for a day or two at various points because of injuries, but when have the Wings had a regular roster of just 21 guys?
Yeah, you’re right, I was mistaken. I was thinking that they had 12 forwards and mis-spoke.
I hope the EMTs got there in time to resuscitate you from the coronary it apparently caused you.
I know you’re worked up about it, but calm down, here’s a tissue. Blow your nose. And here’s the little button you can press in case you need a nurse to administer your heart medication or you need your pillow fluffed.
In the mean time, take your daily low-dose aspirin, take it easy and relax.
I’m a young guy, I can afford to make a mistake, but you’re older than Chris Chelios, so you might want to make sure you don’t injure your heart any more than you already did with your reaction.
Posted by Garth on 08/05/09 at 10:08 AM ET
I’m a young guy, I can afford to make a mistake, but you’re older than Chris Chelios, so you might want to make sure you don’t injure your heart any more than you already did with your reaction.
Well, “young man”, if I didn’t have to repeat myself three times to get the facts through to you, I wouldn’t have had to use bold type in my last message. But please don’t confuse typographic emphasis with a physiological reaction.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/05/09 at 02:38 PM ET
if I didn’t have to repeat myself three times to get the facts through to you
Really? Interesting because I mentioned once that I thought they had 21 players last year, and the time you responded to it, you responded to two parts of my comment as if they were separate responses.
See, you didn’t NEED to repeat yourself. You asked a question, I answered, you pointed out that I was wrong (then argued against the second part of my comment as if it were a separate comment) and had your coronary, and I accepted that I was wrong.
Posted by Garth on 08/05/09 at 05:37 PM ET
...you pointed out that I was wrong (then argued against the second part of my comment as if it were a separate comment) and had your coronary, and I accepted that I was wrong.
You’re starting to sound like a Pens fan, Garth. You just keep repeating something that isn’t factual (there was no “coronary”) and soon it “becomes” factual. You really don’t listen/read very well.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/05/09 at 05:49 PM ET
Wow, you cry a lot for an old man.
Posted by Garth on 08/05/09 at 09:30 PM ET
And you continue to sound more and more like a Pens fan.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/05/09 at 10:13 PM ET
And you continue to sound more and more like a Pens fan.
Good one, gramps.
Posted by Garth on 08/06/09 at 08:05 AM ET
Sorry, I’m not a grandpa. Looks like you’re wrong yet again.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 08/06/09 at 08:16 AM ET
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Posted by George Malik from South Lyon, MI on 08/04/09 at 02:53 PM ET