My wish list:

Grier
Malhorta
Moen
Nichol
Afinogenov if we can land him cheaply enough

Of course I would welcome Shanny back, too.

Posted by MarkK from Maryland on 07/10/09 at 07:17 AM ET

Grier is old and I’d be surprised if YoungAffinyBustUpInYe didn’t bolt to the KHL.  Nichol seems to fit into a Darren Helm style of play, so I wouldn’t mind him being a silver medal to a Steve Sullivan.  If they can get Malhotra or Moen I’d be pleased as punch.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 07/10/09 at 07:33 AM ET

A Moen and a Nichol would leave us with the room to call up Abdelkader in case of a short term injury instead of having to rely on Meech, who could simply be the fill-in defenceman.

Posted by Garth on 07/10/09 at 08:02 AM ET

Grier would be a complete waste of a roster spot and I’m disappointed so many Wings fans seem to be clamoring for him.  He never has been a really good player, and he’s only gotten worse the last couple years.

I’m also not sold on Moen and not sure I want him.

Malhotra is one I would like.

None of these guys we’re discussing would help in the scoring department though, they’re all 4th liners.  SO it’ s amoot point as it pertains to this thread and story.

Posted by Primis on 07/10/09 at 08:32 AM ET

None of these guys we’re discussing would help in the scoring department though, they’re all 4th liners.  SO it’ s amoot point as it pertains to this thread and story.

It’s a moot point to the article, but the article itself is a moot point.

What confounds me is the focus on scoring.  Does everyone forget last year?  It was great that we had a lot of scoring because our defense sucked.

I’d rather we concentrate on defense than on trying to replace a 40 goal scorer for less than $2M.

We need to round out our bottom 6, not our top 6.  Picking up one or two good defensive players who can play the PK would be GREAT.  And more than that, it would be WAY more affordable and realistic than trying to pull in, say, an Alex Tanguay or a Sundin.

Posted by Garth on 07/10/09 at 09:12 AM ET

Garth, I totally agree.  What the Wings lacked last year was a real shut-down line.  Z and Pav were great in the playoffs at shutting down the top guys they faced off against, but we had a lot more scoring depth last year and could get away with it.  This year we need to re-invent the grind line, let Pav and Z loose around the net a little more, and play a more defensive minded game.  Last year the Wings were a hard team to beat, this year they need to be a hard team to play against.

Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 07/10/09 at 09:21 AM ET

I would think that Grier would improve under the Wings system, but his coach was Todd McClellan who introduced a Wings-like system in San Jose and Grier still only had one more goal that his previous season.  Moen . . . um . . . nah.  ‘Nuff said.  Malhotra is the same as Grier w/ goals but his points were slightly higher last season.  Is Cheechoo still available?  The pickens are slim, indeed.

Posted by TEMO from LANSING, MICHIGAN, U.S.A. on 07/10/09 at 09:29 AM ET

On another note, I would love it if Shanny signed back and I think the Wings would take him back seeing him as a one year plug in the line-up while we wait for more salary cap space to free-up next year.  That’s what my heart tells me.

My head tells me the Wings are going to sign some grinders.

I’m A-OK with either scenario.  What I do not want is the Wings trading away one of our current top six guys to make room for a new one, because I don’t think there is a player left on the market that’s better than any of the forwards we have.  It makes no sense to do that.

Lastly, what is Ansar thinking when he writes that the Wings need more firepower up front?  Sure, we lost 30% of our production last year in free agency.  That’s a big number.  But its not like the new blood isn’t going to score any goals next year, or that whoever else is put on the power play isn’t going to improve their production.  I bet our goal scoring falls off by around 15% which still puts us in the elite scoring teams in the league.

Our defense is deeper than it has ever been, and I think Ozzie is going to be a much better goalie this regular season than he was last year. 

This team is going to make a deep run, and they are still the odds on favorite to win the Cup.  Things are looking good in Hockeytown.

Posted by John from Pittsburgh, PA (Wings fan for life!) on 07/10/09 at 09:30 AM ET

But if Andreas Lilja, out since Feb. 28 with a concussion, is not ready for the start of the season...

Unless he has had multiple concussions in his career (he may have, I just don’t know), why would he not be ready for the start of the season? I’ve seen this written a few times and its puzzled me. I know concussions are difficult to treat, but I would think it would be rare for a player to continue to have concussion-like symptoms 8-9 months after the incident.

Posted by UMFan from Colorado on 07/10/09 at 09:39 AM ET

Unless he has had multiple concussions in his career (he may have, I just don’t know), why would he not be ready for the start of the season? I’ve seen this written a few times and its puzzled me. I know concussions are difficult to treat, but I would think it would be rare for a player to continue to have concussion-like symptoms 8-9 months after the incident.
Posted by UMFan from Colorado on 07/10/09 at 10:39 AM ET

His brain was bleeding.  He himself said he needed to think about his career.  I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we don’t make a signing and then find out Lilja is done wearing the sweater (Jiri Fischer 2?)

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 07/10/09 at 09:45 AM ET

Last year the Wings were a hard team to beat, this year they need to be a hard team to play against.

Well put, John.

Moen . . . um . . . nah.  ‘Nuff said.

Um, nuff said?  No, not really.

One thing that nobody seems to be noting when talking about the Wings’ “lack of offense” is that Zetterberg was moved, for the most part, from the first line to the second and played a shutdown role more than he had in the previous year.  He had almost 20 fewer points last year than the year before because of his changed role.  He’ll almost certainly be on the topline all year again and his point production will go up, so that will take up some of the points lost from free agency.  Leino could come up with a similar point total to what Hudler had, and Helm will get some points too.

I just don’t get this big worry about losing scoring.  The Wings had the most goals for in the league last year.  And we were third overall.

If we lose some scoring and gain a better defense, then would anyone complain?

Posted by Garth on 07/10/09 at 09:46 AM ET

I know concussions are difficult to treat, but I would think it would be rare for a player to continue to have concussion-like symptoms 8-9 months after the incident.

Yeah, but it’s rare for a player to continue to have the symptoms 3 and a half months after the incident too, but he did.

Posted by Garth on 07/10/09 at 09:49 AM ET

Shanahan I think wants to stay in the East as his family is settled in New York now, and it’s disruptive to move kids around all the time if you have other options.

It isn’t unusual for a concussion to take a year or more to fully heal, and the problem is that Lilja can’t even start training until he is not longer suffering from headaches, and if he can’t start training when he usually would in the offseason that might set him back a few weeks or months at the beginning of the season, just as rehabbing from a surgery would.  :(

Improving the defensive play is more important than getting more offense, and totally doable.  This has historically been a solid defensive team, with last year an abberation - it isn’t as though a team that has barely a passing acquaintance with defense is being asked to give up fewer goals, it’s a team that is going to be asked to get back to what they all know has led to success in the extremely recent past.  Not exactly a hard sell or anything, and that will compensate for an awful lot of lost points.

I just don’t get this big worry about losing scoring.  The Wings had the most goals for in the league last year.  And we were third overall.

If we lose some scoring and gain a better defense, then would anyone complain?

The complaints will be loud and angry from some quarters - but some people would bitch if they were hung with a new rope, so they don’t really count. 

I know I wouldn’t complain about it.

Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 07/10/09 at 09:57 AM ET

Grier would be a complete waste of a roster spot and I’m disappointed so many Wings fans seem to be clamoring for him.  He never has been a really good player, and he’s only gotten worse the last couple years.

Hmmm. That’s not what I remember from watching him play against the Wings. He’s always impressed me as being a lot more than just a fighter who plays five minutes a game. He played on the PK for SJ and always seemed to do a good job against the Wings (okay, I know our PP sucked last year, but still...). He’s a big body, he can pot 10-15 goals and he’d be a nice net-front guy on a line with Helm and Leino.

Anyway, I’d vote for Grier simply because he has good skills and he’d be a big upgrade over what Downey (God love him) was able to do as an “enforcer” for the Wings. I really don’t want to play another playoff series against the Ducks without a guy like Grier.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 07/10/09 at 10:08 AM ET

This has historically been a solid defensive team, with last year an abberation…

About January last season I decided I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape no matter what happened at the end of the year...for exactly the reason you state, B. It was obvious by then [except to the Chief ] that we wouldn’t be able to keep Hossa (if we kept Mule), so I looked at the whole season as an abberation.

Now that the one-year rental is gone (along with two guys we really didn’t need), our only real loss is Happy...and he left in such a way that we’ll still hold his rights when he returns to the NHL in two years. That means the Wings can go back to being “a hard team to play against.” Guys like Helm, Abbi and Jonny will help in that regard. And, IMHO, so would Grier.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 07/10/09 at 10:18 AM ET

His brain was bleeding.  He himself said he needed to think about his career.

That is what I didn’t know. I didn’t know it was possible career ender. When the playoffs started coming and Ericsson started playing, Lilja sorta faded in the background and I forgot about him until all these cap-related stories came out with the “if Lilja is healthy” scenarios. Thanks for clearing it up.

Posted by UMFan from Colorado on 07/10/09 at 10:19 AM ET

One more thing Malhotra brings with him—he’s a pretty good faceoff guy IIRC.

Posted by Primis on 07/10/09 at 10:31 AM ET

One more thing Malhotra brings with him—he’s a pretty good faceoff guy IIRC.

Which is not a negative, but we’ve got centres up the wazoo.

Posted by Garth on 07/10/09 at 10:33 AM ET

Thanks for clearing it up.
Posted by UMFan from Colorado on 07/10/09 at 11:19 AM ET

Always happy to help.

You guys see the pile of dog$h!t the league is throwing us into now with the Hudler situation?  Aw boy.

Posted by Animal Drew from A Nightmare on Helm Street on 07/10/09 at 10:38 AM ET

This Hudler situation just got worse.

I could live with Grier.

Tanguay or Comrie would be awesome if the Wings could afford either of them.  Just a pipe dream.

I’d like Dandenault back..

Posted by jennyquarx on 07/10/09 at 11:38 AM ET

General manager Ken Holland said he has interest in some free agents. He also said he might opt to stand pat for now, leaving some cap space for a midseason or trade deadline move.

Oh Kenny...there were some of us who knew you were going to do that.

Posted by SYF from Las Vegas, NV on 07/10/09 at 12:38 PM ET

My take is Kenny will sign at least one forward before the season starts.  Then, possibly, make a trade deadline move for someone else.  Like Kahn(!), I think one offensive forward and one gritty shutdown guy is on the menu.

My wish list (none of these guys for more than $1mil):
- Bringing back Bertuzzi may be a good option here.  He put up 44 points in 66 games last year for the Flames, many on the power play, not bad, if he can stay healthy.  And he’s cheap.

- Brining back Shanny would be nice, but probably won’t happen due to him loving new york and being a little old for the style of play the Wings espouse.  But he’s a cheap option if we could bring him back.

- I like Grier as an option.  He shoots right handed and is a home-town boy.  Also affordable.  Goes well on french onion soup.

- Moen would provide a good amount of grit.

- Dandenault wouldn’t be any more useful than our current AHL players.

- I don’t like Afinogenov’s work ethic; he’s a player who played like a star in the IIHL during the lockout and then got lazy eating cheetos and drinking beer in the NHL the next year.

Posted by Hippy Dave from San Francisco by way of Detroit on 07/10/09 at 03:03 PM ET

That is what I didn’t know. I didn’t know it was possible career ender. When the playoffs started coming and Ericsson started playing, Lilja sorta faded in the background and I forgot about him until all these cap-related stories came out with the “if Lilja is healthy” scenarios. Thanks for clearing it up.

Lilja’s loss for the post-season this year was arguably our most important injury prior to the pitchfork to the second most valuable pair of testicles (I’ll put the guy that’s about to marry Princess Victoria above Lids, grudgingly) in Sweden, or the bent spoke on Datsyuk’s wheels. 

Lilja, when he was healthy, was our best penalty killing defenseman during the regular season and played much better than Stuart in the stay-at-home role as well.  He gave the third pairing strength and solidity and could’ve played enough minutes to spell the other guys in the Anaheim, Chicago and Pittsburgh series where they were having to play too many minutes.  Lilja is also not out of place in a top-4 pairing and could’ve let Rafalski lower his minutes when his injuries started to pile up and taken some of the Crosby shutting down burden off Zetterberg-Rafalski-Lidstrom.

He’s far from a perfect player, and what he doesn’t isn’t very sexy, but Lilja’s the grit guy in the defense that made Kyle Quincey-types a luxury at the first of the season.  That’s what our back end (and more importantly, our penalty kill) was missing in the playoffs.  And, hey, let’s be honest:  It would’ve kept Chelios on the *#$%@& bench and we’d all have loved that..

Posted by shanetx on 07/10/09 at 03:39 PM ET

Ugh, I wish I knew why people are still talking about Bertuzzi.  He didn’t fit on the team when he was here and he’s a dirty moron who takes stupid penalties at the worst time.  How about we bring in someone who will help us defensively and on the PK instead of someone who WON’T help us defensively and will make us spend more time on the PK?

And what basis is there to assume he would sign for less than a mil anyhow?

Re: Dandenault, he wouldn’t be my first choice, because I think there are choices that are as good as him who are full-time forwards, but I think he’d be more useful than any of our AHL players simply because he’s an NHL veteran and the brass have already made it clear that they’d like to have Abdelkader play another season in the A before he’s brought up for good.  Chances are they’re going to have him work at playing on the Wing, since we’re pretty deep at centre, and you don’t really want a guy learning a new position in the NHL when he could just as easily do it in the A (especially since he’s only got one year of professional hockey under his belt as it is).

I like the idea of Moen, Axelsson or Nichol, but of the list in the article, the most interesting one to me is Malhotra.

Defensively responsible?  Sweet.
Kill penalties?  Good, good.
Has underachieved offensively throughout his career?  Hmmm, so had Dan Cleary before he donned the winged wheel, right?  He could be a perfect fit.  Him with a Moen or a Nichol would be nice, I think.

Posted by Garth on 07/10/09 at 03:41 PM ET

I don’t really understand anyone who thinks Shanahan or Bertuzzi have a spot in Detroit, unless they’re talking about playing NHL ‘09.  Bertuzzi doesn’t accept being a third/fourth liner.  He showed that in Anaheim and his bitterness toward them as he left ("I was told I would be playing with Getzlaf and Perry.") and in Calgary he put up decent numbers on a powerplay with Mike Camalleri and Jerome Iginla.

Shanahan is not a grinder.  He needs to be used on scoring lines, where he won’t have a ton of defensive responsibility, nor play too many minutes.  I guess you could slot him as a third liner, first-PP-unit kind’ve specialist but he’s not exactly the kind’ve player that comes in and instantly fills a hole.  You sign a Shanny or Bert and you change how the rest of your roster plays to fit the gaping holes in what they can and are willing to do.

This is what makes the Cleary and Samuelsson types special, which people seem unwilling to heed.  Samuelsson was on the second line of a cup winning team in 2008 and played very well.  He dropped down to the forth line this year and wasn’t really a true liability.  Cleary has the same “first or forth” viability and both work hard- and that’s the big key that’s missing with Bert- anywhere and in any way they’re asked to.

A Grier/Moen type doesn’t have their talent and ability to play up high on the roster like Cleary, but they’ve got the work ethic to put Bertuzzi/Shanny to shame and the effectiveness at the bottom of the roster to beggar Sammy.  Moreover, they’d allow the rest of the roster to play as it should without bitching.

Posted by shanetx on 07/10/09 at 03:48 PM ET

Well, you can forget about Moen. He just signed with Montreal.

Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 07/10/09 at 04:08 PM ET

Don’t get me wrong, folks, I agree that the ships for Shanny and Bert have sailed, Bert especially.  I don’t see much use in Malhotra, personally, but like you said many folks didn’t see much in Cleary, either.

Truth is out of the affordable crop of leftover free agents, there just isn’t anyone that’s ideal.  At the end of the day we’re all going to have to face the facts and realize the Wings just aren’t going to be as good as they were going forward.  We had screaming deals on Pavs, Z, Franzen and our goaltenders for so many years we were able to get away with murder, and now parity has brought its ugly fist down on us. 

I’ll keep watching, though.

Posted by Hippy Dave from San Francisco by way of Detroit on 07/10/09 at 05:14 PM ET

At the end of the day we’re all going to have to face the facts and realize the Wings just aren’t going to be as good as they were going forward.

As good as what?

Dude, without Hossa we WON THE CUP!  And I can’t believe how many people, in hindsight, are bemoaning the losses of Sammy and Happy so much.  They were good components for their prices and the roles they played, but they were hardly key, and they both vastly underperformed this past post-season.

Sammy was a bust who played on half the teams in the NHL before finding some successin our system and Happy’s a good player who’s undersized and like I said, disappeared in the playoffs.

Our defense is intact (sorry, but losing Chelly isn’t even a ripple in the ocean).  If Lilja’s able to play, our THIRD PAIRING is Lilja and Ericsson!  If Lilja’s not able to play then the pairing is Ericsson and Lebda, and they proved themselves pretty damn capable in the playoffs.

And everyone seems to have forgotten that we added two solid, solid talents to the big boy squad in Helm and Leino!  They might not be 40 goal scorers, but they’re replacing Sammy and Happy, not Gretzky and Messier.  Zetterberg will have a bigger offensive role, playing on the first line with Datsyuk again and I think we all believed Ozzie when he said he was committed to being better last year than he was this regular season.

So yes, we lose Hossa.  But we were ALL foolish if we thought we were going to be able to keep him (especially after signing both Z and Mule), and without him we will be forced to concentrate more on defense.

I jsut can’t believe how resigned people are in the middle of friggin July!

Posted by Garth on 07/10/09 at 05:41 PM ET

And everyone seems to have forgotten that we added two solid, solid talents to the big boy squad in Helm and Leino!  They might not be 40 goal scorers, but they’re replacing Sammy and Happy...Zetterberg will have a bigger offensive role, playing on the first line with Datsyuk again

Don’t forget about Filppula.  Two seasons ago the kid had 19 goals and 36 points with some time on the 2nd unit. This past season playing almost exclusively 3rd line (his average ice time actually dropped by about a minute) and precious little PP time, he had only had 12 goals but increased his point total to 40.

He’s going to continue to grow. He will have a consistent top 6 role, PP minutes and penalty killing time. 20-25G, 55+ points is not beyond reach.

Posted by Nate A from Dark side of the moon on 07/10/09 at 06:36 PM ET

Don’t forget about Filppula.

You’re absolutely right, Nate.  I was only talking about additions, but Filpula looks to have a real breakout year if he can keep his play near the level it was in the playoffs.

When Datsyuk was out, he really stepped it up and play really well!

Posted by Garth on 07/11/09 at 12:46 AM ET