RUMOUR: Detroit and Zetterberg near a massive deal

dennycrane wrote:They won't pay Zetterberg more than Lidstrom.

Sure they will. We paid Spezz and Heater more than Alfie. Zetterberg is one of the best two way forwards in the game, if not the best. This is a deal that works for both parties.

dennycrane wrote:They won't pay Zetterberg more than Lidstrom.

7.4 then, it'll be really close, but yes, this was a primary issue going forward. They set the cap precedent with Lidstrom and they would like all salaries to be below his.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=DET

add that zetterberg salary and they will have like 8 million, if the cap stays the same, to sign:
HOssa
franzen
samuellsson
hudler
a goalie

is it safe to say marian hossa will be in another jersey next season?

Why do they need a goalie? isnt Howard ready?

marakh wrote:http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=DET

add that zetterberg salary and they will have like 8 million, if the cap stays the same, to sign:
HOssa
franzen
samuellsson
hudler
a goalie

is it safe to say marian hossa will be in another jersey next season?

My guess is that they will not only lose Hossa, but also one of Franzen (who should command $4.5 mil+) or Hudler (who should command $3.5 mil+).

Like I've been saying forever: DET has been lucky to avoid the cap issues most teams have -- they've gotten a lot of mileage out of their guys on entry-level contracts and bargain deals -- but, ultimately, no team is immune to problems the cap raises in the long run. Playoff success costs you cap dollars, plain and simple. Next year, DET will be spending just as much, if not more, on forwards as other teams (like the Sens) do. The people who say that we are an aberration in terms of how much money we spend up front aren't paying attention.

jamvan wrote:

dennycrane wrote:They won't pay Zetterberg more than Lidstrom.

Sure they will. We paid Spezz and Heater more than Alfie. Zetterberg is one of the best two way forwards in the game, if not the best. This is a deal that works for both parties.

First of all, that wouldn't be paying him more than Lidstrom.
Second: Detroit has a strict internal rule that they will not pay any player more than they pay Lidstrom (cap-wise, anyways). Assuming that remains true, Zetterberg will likely get his 7.5, which serves as an indication of the "heir to the throne"

Detroit has NHL ready players in the AHL already, and they will fill the void and probably do just as good of a job as Franzen, Hudler, so on.

Its the way Detroit does things, they build, and build, and build.

Tukker wrote:Why do they need a goalie? isnt Howard ready?

Not good enough.

I suspect Hossa will sign with Edmonton since he was close to signing with them before heading to Detroit.

rooneypoo wrote:

marakh wrote:http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/team.php?team=DET

add that zetterberg salary and they will have like 8 million, if the cap stays the same, to sign:
HOssa
franzen
samuellsson
hudler
a goalie

is it safe to say marian hossa will be in another jersey next season?

My guess is that they will not only lose Hossa, but also one of Franzen (who should command $4.5 mil+) or Hudler (who should command $3.5 mil+).

Like I've been saying forever: DET has been lucky to avoid the cap issues most teams have -- they've gotten a lot of mileage out of their guys on entry-level contracts and bargain deals -- but, ultimately, no team is immune to problems the cap raises in the long run. Playoff success costs you cap dollars, plain and simple. Next year, DET will be spending just as much, if not more, on forwards as other teams (like the Sens) do. The people who say that we are an aberration in terms of how much money we spend up front aren't paying attention.

Aberration or not, Ottawa's problem is that it needs to balance the payroll. More needs to be committed to the back end. I would be fine with carrying 3 $6-7 million contracts, as long as it's spaced out differently. A G, D, and F would be fine.

This team is too top heavy relatively speaking I would say. It's not just the big 3 either. Add Fisher's anchor contract, along with Vermette and Kelly, and we have too much up front.

Specifically, too much down the middle:

Spezza - 7
Fisher - 4.2
Vermette - 2.7
Kelly - 2.1

That is approximately 16 million at the center ice position. That is fine if you have two top guys around 7, but you can't have the 4th best at a position making over 2 million in a cap system. I know Vermette is on the wing, but he shouldn't be.

Neely4Life wrote:Detroit has NHL ready players in the AHL already, and they will fill the void and probably do just as good of a job as Franzen, Hudler, so on.

Its the way Detroit does things, they build, and build, and build.

Watch out for Leino...that kid is a player.
And obviously we all know about Abdelkader, Helm, and Howard. Other than that, though, I don't know a whole lot about their prospects. Anybody have some insight?

hemlock wrote:I would be fine with carrying 3 $6-7 million contracts, as long as it's spaced out differently. A G, D, and F would be fine.

There's no hard-and-fast rule on how to properly structure a team and its payroll. Even that F,D,G system you propose isn't any guarantee for success. Until this year, it wasn't exactly working for Calgary.
This subject is way too complicated to simplify like that...

cash wrote:

Neely4Life wrote:Detroit has NHL ready players in the AHL already, and they will fill the void and probably do just as good of a job as Franzen, Hudler, so on.

Its the way Detroit does things, they build, and build, and build.

Watch out for Leino...that kid is a player.
And obviously we all know about Abdelkader, Helm, and Howard. Other than that, though, I don't know a whole lot about their prospects. Anybody have some insight?

Dick Axelsson is one guy Wings fans seem to be pretty high on.

Jonathon Ericsson is another.

Two more names to remember are Jakub Kindl (who was their first rounder in 2005, good defenceman) and Joakim Andersson, who we saw at the WJHC and I believe who is a Frolunda player (or Frolunda property).

And obviously McCollum. Still blows my mind that they took him over Markstrom. Sometimes I just don't get why some players fall so low when almost everyone recognizes how good they are. A similar situation occured with Shea Weber and with Anze Kopitar.

asq2 wrote:Two more names to remember are Jakub Kindl (who was their first rounder in 2005, good defenceman) and Joakim Andersson, who we saw at the WJHC and I believe who is a Frolunda player (or Frolunda property).

And obviously McCollum. Still blows my mind that they took him over Markstrom. Sometimes I just don't get why some players fall so low when almost everyone recognizes how good they are. A similar situation occured with Shea Weber and with Anze Kopitar.

At least Kopitar went in the 1st round. Wasn't Shea Weber a 3rd round pick?

cash wrote:

hemlock wrote:I would be fine with carrying 3 $6-7 million contracts, as long as it's spaced out differently. A G, D, and F would be fine.

There's no hard-and-fast rule on how to properly structure a team and its payroll. Even that F,D,G system you propose isn't any guarantee for success. Until this year, it wasn't exactly working for Calgary.
This subject is way too complicated to simplify like that...

I realize that. My point was that I'd prefer to spread the big contracts around instead of concentrating them in one area.

You're right though, with the parity in the league, many different models have won. TB won with a loaded front end, while Anaheim did it with a loaded backend.

hemlock wrote:

Aberration or not, Ottawa's problem is that it needs to balance the payroll. More needs to be committed to the back end. I would be fine with carrying 3 $6-7 million contracts, as long as it's spaced out differently. A G, D, and F would be fine.

This team is too top heavy relatively speaking I would say. It's not just the big 3 either. Add Fisher's anchor contract, along with Vermette and Kelly, and we have too much up front.

Totally agreed. But that's my whole point: it's not the $20 mil we have invested in 3 forwards (or the $24 mil we have invested in 4 forwards) that's killing us (although I agree, I don't like Fisher's deal) and preventing us from spending on D and G -- it's all the money we have tied up in middling contracts (especially at forward) that is. Look around the league at teams who spend as much as we do, annually, and you'll see that this is true:

SJ spends almost $18 mil on 3 forwards (and almost $21 mil on 4 forwards), but still has the cap space to pay 2 D (Boyle and Blake) $5 mil+ a piece (almost $12 mil combined) AND Nabokov $5 mil+.

DET spends over $17 mil on 3 forwards (and almost $20 mil on 4 forwards -- and two of them are Filppula and Cleary!!!), but still has the cap space to pay 2 D (Lidstrom and Rafalski) $6 mil+ a piece (over $13 mil combined).

PHI spends $17.5 mil on 3 forwards (and $22.5 mil on 4 forwards), but still has the cap space to pay Timonen $6 mil+.

WAS spends $19 mil on 3 forwards (and $23 mil on 4 forwards), but still has the cap space to pay Green $5 mil+.

NYR spends $18.5 mil on 3 forwards ($21 mil on 4 forwards), but still has the cap space to pay 2 D (Redden and Rozsival) $5 mil+ a piece ($11.5 mil combined) AND Lundqvist almost $7 mil.

DAL spends $17 mil on 3 forwards (and $21 mil on 4 forwards), but still has the cap space to pay 1 D (Zubov) $5 mil+ AND Turco almost $6 mil.

And on and on.

How DO these other teams do it? The key difference between OTT and these other teams -- besides the fact that their stars are playing like stars, and/or they have a few bargain deals (like Zetterberg), and/or they've gotten more mileage out of their guys on entry-level deals -- is that they've all got a *significant* number of guys who they pay less than $1 mil or so a year, especially up front, AND that there is, by and large, only two types of players on their teams: those who make big, big bucks ($4 mil+), and those who get close to the league minimum (under $1.5 mil). Compare our rosters with those of the above teams: one big difference you'll note is the disproportionally large number of guys we pay something like $1.5 mil - $3.5 mil in comparison with those other teams.