On the Wings

Update (4:00 PM): Taking a page from James Mirtle’s book, I’ve added a section the sidebar (”Other reading”) that will display links to hockey-related items of interest that don’t get blogged here (or that I haven’t yet had time to mention). It’s through Google Reader and is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but it wasn’t very easy to implement on WordPress blogs until recently. - Matt

… Chuck Gormley continued his “Forsberg watch” for the Courier Post yesterday with another installment. Nothing very new, though Gormley expands on his idea that Forsberg would like to come to Detroit, saying that it’s because

“two of the Red Wings’ top four scorers, defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom and left wing Tomas Holmstrom, are from Sweden.”

I see your point, Mr. Gormley, but three of their top four scorers are from Sweden. Not sure how you missed Henrik Zetterberg.

Anyway, he goes on to say that the Wings may be interested in dealing either Andreas Lilja or Niklas Kronwall as part of the package. Personally, I think that if the Flyers are dumb enough to take a Lilja package (perhaps with Williams), it wouldn’t be such a bad deal. But if they demand someone like Kronwall or Hudler, I’d hope they’d say “no.” There is little use in throwing away two key pieces of the future for a player who may only be with the team until July 1st.

The story that was being reported earlier in this saga was that the Wings would demand that Forsberg sign a contract with them as part of any deal, and that may still be one of their stipulations. However, it doesn’t look like Forsberg would be willing to do so, as there is talk that he’d look to return to Philadelphia after a playoff run with another team. The Wings may decide Forsberg is worth the short-term benefit and hope that they could convince him to stay afterwards, but I think it would be foolish to give away one or more of their future stars in exchange for a player that could retire (if he does sign a long term contract) or bolt (if he doesn’t) at any moment.

Peter Forsberg certainly has the ability, if healthy, to make a huge impact on the team, as Nick Lidstrom told Ted Kulfan yesterday, but, given the likely asking price, it doesn’t seem to me that the Wings have the organizational depth to pursue a deal without really hurting their future.* Now, if Forsberg works out some kind of Hasek-like deal with Philly (”Don’t take too much from them, I want to be able to win.”) or the Flyers get conned into taking Lilja and Williams, it’d be worth it, if he were healthy. That’s a pretty big “if,” in my mind, even though he seems to have found a solution. My question is: will it last or will it be like the other “solutions”?

… George Sipple reports that Joey MacDonald will get another start in the coming back-to-back series. It will almost certainly be Monday night in Philadelphia as Dominik Hasek ough to be in net tomorrow against Calgary. Joey is still looking for his first NHL win and hopefully his teammates will show up to play this time around. He’s played extremely well in almost all his games this season, but hasn’t gotten the support he deserves from the skaters.

… Sipple also says that the Wings are concerned about their slow starts in the last nine games. I am too, though I have been impressed by their comeback ability and determination not to give up. Still, they’ll have a much harder time pulling off such comebacks in the playoffs, so hopefully they’ll find motivation to play hard from the first drop of the puck to the buzzer at the end.

… There is some variety to the reports on the nature of Danny Markov’s injury: The Freep calls it a “contusion in his middle back” and claims Piet Van Zant’s authority; the News calls it a “sore shoulder, ribs”; and TSN just calls it a shoulder injury. All three say he’s listed as day-to-day.

*There are those fans who dislike Niklas Kronwall, Jiri Hudler and even Valtteri Filppula for mistakes they make and for their lack of production. This is because we were spoiled by Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg making an immediate impact. We have forgotten that most young players need years to develop and that they aren’t likely to be stars right off the bat. Kronwall, Hudler, and Filppula are very likely to be big names in the League in years to come, but they aren’t going to be that immediately, though I personally think they’re pretty good even now. So, that’s why I say the Wings would be mortgaging their future if they trade any of them away, even though they might not seem so valuble now.