Hear, hear on any Lang/Williams trade.

The problem is, the size of Lang’s salary makes him hard to move for the same reason the Wings would want to move him.

As for Williams, the new man-behind-the-throne, Mike Babcock, would have none of that. Williams is Babcock’s pet, remember? He’s the team’s new power play specialist! Woo hoo for shorthanded breaks! Good thing the Dominator will be in net (or will he? He wanders a lot, if you remember… Aw crap, bad memories…) when Jason coughs it up at the blueline.

Howard is likely to see some NHL time this season if for no other reason than that Hasek is likely to go down sooner or later and Osgood will need a backup. Howard can play sometime during that 20-30 game stretch. Or Liv.

If Dom is healthy for the playoffs, yes, the Wings would be the favorites to most people. But would they be the same favorites they’ve been since the ‘03 playoffs (i.e. dominating season but anemic playoff performance)? Unless they secure some offensive firepower, that’s what they’ll be, Hasek or not.

Well, I wouldn’t have minded a trade for Toskala ($1.375 M). If it was Lang ($3.8 M), I’d expect San Jose to give us a forward as part of the package. Jason Williams is another candidate, and that’d be a 1-for-1 deal (with picks to SJ). Trading Lang means losing playoff consistency on offense (at least relative to the rest of the team) but we gain cap space to shop for possible two forwards then with our $4 million already free. Biron could be had as well, probably cheaper if we wait till mid-season and no one else moves on him. But I don’t want Biron as much as Toskala.

Yes, Holland may have changed his mind on which direction to go, but he’s never strayed from a commitment to winning. He is trying to improve the team. Again it is a minimal risk and maximum reward.

Just because everybody and their brother is using the word ‘backstop’ doesn’t make it any less true, you know. No, ten games probably wouldn’t hurt Howard’s development. It could help him. So, hypothetically, say Howard plays ten games, Liv plays ten games…then what? You say swing a trade. Who you gonna trade? Remember, we’re looking for a starter here. They don’t come cheap. Why would we trade away one of our stars or future stars so we could have a goalie for one year, when those players may have played here for years? I can understand Holland’s hesitation to do so.

Have you followed Holland’s quotes from the past three months at all? He’s been changing his mind on a weekly basis of who he wants to go after and the direction the club is going. He started the post-season saying the Wings would be scrambled up, multi-player moves, and become a younger team. And lately he’s been saying he wants to stick with the team from last season, and make a few minor tweaks. And he signed Hasek, 42 in January. He’s changing the mission statement as he goes.

signing Dom proves that they want to go all the way, and they’re willing to take risks to try and get there.

Signing Dom proves the Wings have no gumption on the trade block and can only sign a guy who nobody else realistically wants. Even Hasek was surprised the Wings wanted him - and that makes you confident the Wings are going to go all the way? It’s an ill-fated risk.

Second, Dom is a backstop

I like how terms like this grow out of the ground when the media starts using them. I don’t need to hear ‘backstop’ for the 1001st time. Like I said, 10 games apiece to Liv and Howard. And then back to GR for Howard, when the Wings can trade for a starter mid-season. 10 games can’t hurt his development that much. It’s like three weeks. Sheesh.

Second, Dom is a backstop. He’s here for the one year that Howard still needs (I can’t speak for Liv, as I’ve never seen him play and I don’t know where he’s at) before he comes up to the NHL. I think we are somewhat going with the youth movement, but slowly. We’re rebuilding the team around the young guys, but it’s not happening instantly. Howard is their baby. They’re giving him everything he needs in hopes that one day he becomes a franchise goaltender. Let’s not forget, as well, that had he finished college, this would only be his first year.

As far as the trade goes, I don’t know about Holland refusing to part with third line players. Apparently he had investigated trade options. The teams we could have traded with probably would have wanted more than a couple third/fourth line players for a starting goaltender.

Now, we still have approx $4 million. We’ll sign Franzen and one more forward, and have some cash left for cushion. I really don’t think giving Dominik Hasek $750,000 is going to hurt us.