RUMOUR: Detroit and Zetterberg near a massive deal

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.

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.

Thanks. I knew the names MCCollum, Kindl, Andersson, and Ericsson, but they weren't front-and-center in my mind... I didn't know about Axelsson, though. I'll keep an eye out.

Whats even crazier to me is that Markstrom went 15 spots after Pickard. I don't think I've ever seen a player live off the success of a former teammate the way Pickard lived off Price. I will be shocked(!) if Pickard ever has more than a 6 month impact on this league.

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.

I have a terrific man-crush on Andersson. He's such a neat player.

I have a man-crush on Detroit's scouting system.

We have Anders Forsberg now, so we should be seeing some sexy scouting as well.

504Heater wrote:We have Anders Forsberg now, so we should be seeing some sexy scouting as well.

Not quite the same as Detroit's entire scouting team, but a damn good start nonetheless.

PKC wrote:I have a man-crush on Detroit's scouting system.

It's not just the scouting, though.

They develop the heck out of their players. And when they finally do arrive on the team, they have a number of mentors to learn from.

That's why I think they'll be fine going forward. Filpulla has the ability to become another Datsyuk or Zetterberg for them.

PKC wrote:I have a man-crush on Detroit's scouting system.

I have a man-crush on San Jose's Goalie scouting staff.

asq2 wrote:

PKC wrote:I have a man-crush on Detroit's scouting system.

It's not just the scouting, though.

They develop the heck out of their players. And when they finally do arrive on the team, they have a number of mentors to learn from.

That's why I think they'll be fine going forward. Filpulla has the ability to become another Datsyuk or Zetterberg for them.

This is obviously true but I will also say more has changed in the Scouting Department than just Forseberg.

We are on the right direction though. Murray said the other day on team 1200 that last draft was terrific and the 3 years before were not good. I think what he wanted to say was, the new personnel he added after he was named GM had a full year to work on the 2008 draft, and in 2007, they didn't have enough time to work on it. Add to that the fact that we traded the 5th, 6th and 7th in 2007 for a 4th in 2008 (Andre Petersson).