On the Wings

This isn’t Red Wings related but I’m still going to mention it. Roger Neilson, the long time coach, died earlier today after a long battle with cancer. He was either a scout or coach for the last 25 years but never won a Cup. He was most recently an assistant coach for the Ottawa Senators, his 10th team. He was a great guy and I think he won a lifetime achievement award for his dedication to hockey. A very sad day for the Senators and all of hockey.

This is Red Wings related: pick #64 of the draft was James Howard, a goalie from Maine. I don’t know anything about him yet.

Sergei Fedorov now considers himself to be “an unemployed hockey player with no contract.” He is disappointed and angry about the contract stalemate and is preparing to play for another team. I don’t know what he’s disappointed about, 4 years, $40 million is plenty of money. He still says he doesn’t want to leave Detroit but he sure isn’t doing much to stay here. He says it’s too bad that he and possibly others on the team will leave this summer because the team “has been like a family.” Way to break it up, Feds. Enjoy the last contract of your career, buddy. Stuck on a non-competitor with all that money but no Cups. His agent says “It’s disappointing that Sergei is being portrayed as a greedy athlete by some, when that’s not true at all.” How can it not be true? This whole episode proves it without a shadow of a doubt, at least in my mind.

The Wings won’t wait for Sergei or McCarty, according to the Free Press, so don’t expect either of them back next year. There will be new Wings on the roster next year, either by trade or by free agent signings. The Detroit News says the Wings will use the money they had been planning on giving to Sergei to pursue Derian Hatcher, unless by some miracle, Sergei returns to Detroit. They also will go after either Vaclav Prospal (Tampa Bay) or Todd Marchant (Edmonton), who are both free agent centers. I would rather see Marchant, personally but I don’t know much about Prospal. Neither one will come close to replacing Sergei but maybe they’ll have better attitudes about playing for the Wings. Hopefully the Wings won’t have to give up too much in a trade, if they have to go that route.

For a pretty good breakdown of the Wings’ overall off-season situation, click here.

The NHL Draft is this weekend and though the Wings don’t have a pick until #64 (the last pick of the second round), chances are good that they’ll get some decent talent. The man who oversees the Wings’ draft, assistant general manager Jim Nill, said “This is one of the best, deepest pools of talent coming into the league I’ve seen. We feel good about our chances of getting a player who can eventually help us.” In addition to the 64th pick, the Wings have the 132nd, 164th, 170th, 194th, 226th, 258th and 289th picks. They gave away their 1st round pick when they acquired Schneider at the trade deadline. Judging by Schneider’s less-than-great performance in the playoffs, that might not have been a good thing, even though no one really had a great playoffs and first round picks aren’t where the Wings have gotten their depth. The No. 1 pick is expected to be Eric Staal, a center for the Peterborough Petes of the OHL, the same team Yzerman played for.

UPDATE - 3:54 PM - The Detroit News says there is likely going to be a lot of trading going on during the draft this weekend. A lot of teams are looking to dump highly paid players and will do so by offering those players for draft picks. The Wings have been getting calls offering deals and are interested but aren’t that likely to do much on the trade market because they aren’t willing to give up the youth they need so badly. There are players that would help the Wings a lot but would still cost them money and that is another reason trades aren’t that likely.

UPDATE - 5:17 PM - Everyone’s favorite hockey player, Sergei Fedorov has gotten into a car accident. He hit a tree on the way home earlier today. He was not hurt, fortunately. I hope he wasn’t driving his $450,000+ Ferrari Enzo that time. That would really, really be awful for Sergei. Maybe this will be enough to humble him into taking the Wings’ offer.

UPDATE - 5:33 PM - Looks like it was his Enzo that Sergei crashed. Unless he has another Ferrari, which isn’t impossible. Either way, he must be in a lot of mental pain right now. Ouch. Who is Vladimire Mirkovich???

Some bad (and sad) news today: Igor Larionov has reportedly turned down a 1 year,$1 million offer from the Wings. He earned $1.5 million last year and if he does in fact continue playing (apparently there is some doubt there on his part), he is likely going to look for around that much again. I’m sorry but who does Igor think he’s kidding? Does he honestly believe he’s worth more than $1 million at this point in his career? He’s lucky the Wings even offered to bring him back, no one else is going to pay more than $1 million for him and I doubt anyone else even really wants him. He is valuable as a teacher to the young players but not that valuable. I’ve been hoping he’d come back, at least somewhere in the organization, maybe as a coach or advisor or something. Doesn’t sound like that will happen now. This saddens me because it seems like there isn’t any pride in being a Red Wing any more. You’d think these guys would want to be on a great team and be successful but we see more bad news every day on how the contract negotiations for Yzerman, Fedorov, MacCarty and now Igor are going. I can’t believe this is happening. Things aren’t looking great for next year. It’s very depressing, especially with the End of the NHL as We Know It coming up in ‘04.

Some slightly shocking news: Dmitri Bykov has signed with a team in Russia, supposedly just in case a deal can’t be reached with the Wings. I totally did not expect this because I had no idea Bykov needed to get a contract figured out. I guess I took it for granted that he’d be back next season. It’s not like he’s an awesome defenseman but he would need to be replaced by someone if he does leave. Any deal the Wings reach by July 15 will override the contract with his Russian team. Again, I cannot believe how badly things look to be going for the Wings this off-season. Pretty scary.

More on the Devils vs. Wings debate. As a Wings fan, I obviously think the Wings are the better team over the last 10 years. Sure, the Devils have been great. I would attribute that mostly to their trapping style of play rather than to their skill level, which is quite a bit lower than the Wings. So in at least that respect, the Wings are better. If you like offensively and defensively balanced hockey. If you like the trap more, the Devils are the better team. Even though I still believe the Devils would be nothing if they couldn’t play the trap…. Really, I don’t think the debate can ever be definitively decided for one side or the other. You can’t compare the two teams. They’re from different conferences, play different styles of hockey, have different management philosophies and have had different paths to the Cup.

I don’t think you can fault the Wings for facing the Flyers, Caps and ‘Canes in the Finals just because the Devils faced the Stars, Avs and Ducks there. The Wings had to go through the toughest teams in the West to get to the 4th round those years while the Devils usually have very little competition until the Finals. Besides, those just happened to be the teams that made it to the Finals those years. They weren’t jokes then. Remember, the playoff powder-puff ‘Canes eliminated the Devils last year.

Anyone who says the Wings have bought their Cups while the Devils haven’t doesn’t really know what they’re talking about. The Wings won the ‘97 and ‘98 Cups on draft picks and trades. The ‘02 Cup was a little different but the majority of players on the team were drafted by the Wings or acquired in a trade. Also, the Devils have been in the top 10 in payrolls for years. Take a look at the Avs if you want a team that buys the Cup, every year they make that big trade deadline defenseman acquisition and use that rent-a-player to go as far as they can. But let’s not go there.

Anyway, the Wings are in a much stronger and more competitive conference and in one of the best divisions in the league. The Devils play mostly in the East against much lesser teams. Not their fault. They can’t help their location. The Wings would probably move to the East if the Sens or Sabres move out West so that could be held against them then. Right now, I think being the West gives them some points.

Overall, the two teams are pretty even but to compare them is like comparing Gordie Howe to Wayne Gretzky. It can’t really be done, even though both sides have good points and can probably argue for weeks about it. If you want to compare teams, compare the Wings and the Avs. They are built to beat eachother and might as well be clones. If I weren’t a Wings fan, I’d be an Avs fan because the teams are so similar in so many ways.

The NHLFA has released their player awards for this year. Three awards are handed out, Most Valuable Player, Best Bang for the Buck, and Best Role Model. JS Giguere won the MVP, Marty Turco won the Bang for the Buck and Steve Yzerman won the Best Role Model. The Captain has won the award three times in the four years since it was established. Members of the NHLFA (like me) voted a few weeks ago and could name any player in the league. I’d argue the MVP and Bang for the Buck. JS definitely wasn’t the MVP and I can think of a couple more players that have more bang for the buck. Like Sergei Fedorov, until next season. His skills for $2 million a season like he’s been getting since all those bonuses….. Yzerman defintely deserves to be called the best role model. There may be better guys out there in the league but I don’t know of them. Congratulations, guys! Everyone, go join the NHLFA. Have your voice heard!

Okay, all I have today is a link to an article by Al Strachan. For once I actually agree with the guy, he really knows what he’s talking about here. I think it’s a little old but it’s still relevant. It’s basically about the trap and how it’s affecting the league.