Wings’ best and worst moves this summer
Cory at Canes Country, a great Hurricanes blog, has a new post up where he lists each NHL team’s best and worst moves of the offseason.
Best move: Signing Marian Hossa to a one-year Cup-quest deal was a brilliant move by the Wings’ management. A line of Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Hossa could very well be unstoppable.
Worst move: Getting Ty Conklin was a decent move in my opinion, but passing over Jimmy Howard again has got to have Detroit’s goaltender-of-the-future (for what seems like 10 years running) somewhat frustrated. Still, GM Ken Holland & Co. got Howard to re-sign through 2010-11.
I don’t think any hockey fan would argue with the best move being the signing of Marian Hossa. And with the Wings this year, it’s hard to determine what their worst move was. Personally, I’m quite content with Jimmy Howard getting another year to develop and having a steal of a deal Ty Conklin as the team’s back-up. So if that’s the case, what would be the worst move of the summer in my opinion? Re-signing Andreas Lilja for two more seasons. Now, I do realize that GM Ken Holland has commented that some players may be moved at training camp and has said that Lilja could be trade bait. However if Lilja stays with the team this season, that re-signing would be my pick for the Wings’ worst move this summer.
What do you guys think?
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7 Responses to “Wings’ best and worst moves this summer”
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August 15th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Thanks for your take on the topic. I can definitely see the Lilja signing being up there. But, as someone who was at Game 1 when Ty Conklin threw away the Cup opener on a turnover behind the net to Rod Brind’Amour, I’m not much of a believer. LOL!
Thanks for reading!
August 15th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I would not be disappointed if we didn’t sign Lilja. Or Samuelson for that matter.
August 16th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Best Move:
I think that there were two really good moves - signing Hossa and Stuart.
Worst Move:
I think that in hindsight the worst move to date was re-signing Lilja. However, at the time the team was not sure Stuart would resign at a reasonable rate. Therefore, KH gets a bye on this one.
I think that at the end of the summer the worst move will be if KH does NOT move both Samuelson and Lilja - preferably for high draft picks or prospects as the Wings have some depth. Trading Samuelson and Lilja frees up ice-time for other players and cap-space in case there are injuries and the Wings need to bring someone up.
August 16th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Signing Hossa was a brilliant move. Conklin seems more like a move to motivate Jimmy Howard and have some insurance. Lilja I also see as an insurance signing. If Ericsson isn’t ready, the Wings still have Lilja. If Ericsson looks good in camp, then Lilja has trade value. I’m not ready to call signing Lilja and Conklin bad moves just yet.
August 18th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Cory- I certainly remember that boneheaded move by Conklin. But he was one of the reasons that the Penguins played as well as they did in February when they faced numerous injuries so I think he may have left that behind him. But I guess we’ll see!
Ben- Sammy seems to have his streaks. He’s either hot or cold. When he’s hot, we love him. Unfortunately, he tends to be more cold than hot. Lilja is just lukewarm all season it seems.
DH- The Stuart move was certainly a great one and Holland did play more of a role in that move. The Hossa signing was more Hossa calling Holland saying he wanted to come and then accepting Holland’s terms. And you are right, re-signing Lilja wasn’t awful.
Michael- I don’t think any of Holland’s moves this summer were bad, but if you had to pick the worst signing of the summer I would go with Lilja. And if that’s the worst move anyone can come up with for the Wings, that says a lot about our organization.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:52 pm
The biggest disappointment is that Jimmy Howard has plateaued as an AHL starter. He’s 24. He didn’t rank in the top 20 of AHL goaltenders in any significant category - albeit on a losing team.
Drafting and developing goaltenders is just not the Wings priority. Assets properly managed, you can buy a good goalie and improve your team dramatically. It is much harder to add one forward or one defenseman that will have as much impact, which is why the Wings scouting and development agenda will always remain focused on skaters with unrefined but demonstrable skills.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
SA Angove- It definitely has been disappointing/frustrating to have the hype of Jimmy Howard and then seeing him not grow too much with the Griffins. And you certainly bring up valid points about the Wings focusing on drafting and developing skaters rather than goaltenders.