What’s the Hold-Up, Carlo?

Posted by on — 12 comments

Oh, yeah, it’s that you want 3 years. Chuck Pleiness (snarkily?) points out young Colaiacovo hasn’t played more than 67 games in a season, due to injury. Apparently, the Wings offered him one year at the start, which makes sense. You don’t want to commit too hard to a guy who hasn’t shown he can hack a full season yet.

But Carlo is banking that we’re past the point where the Wings can ask guys to prove themselves before rewarding them with a longer deal. The market is that thin.

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12 comments on “What’s the Hold-Up, Carlo?”

  1. Jay on said:

    He’s been offered two years, which is more than reasonable given his weak history. If he doesn’t take it he’s a moron and we’re better off without him on the team. I’d anticipate some big names becoming available when a new CBA starts anyway.

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    • Matt Saler on said:

      If those names are available under a new CBA, it’ll mean the cap is much lower. I wouldn’t get too excited—the Wings may not have room to land anybody in that case.

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  2. Brad on said:

    The first two games of this year’s Blues-Kings semifinals series were on the NHL Network this morning. I watched a few periods to see how he played and I was not impressed. He looked small, made many bad passes, and fell down a lot. Did I mention the bad passes? Maybe the problem was he wasn’t playing with his regular partner. Maybe it was that the Kings’ forecheck in the playoffs was tenacious. Maybe he just had a bad couple of games. But I’d much rather have Kindl on the blue line than pay 2.5MM for Coco. I know he looks lost at times, but when Kindl is good, he’s very, very good.

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    • Matt Saler on said:

      That is not encouraging, for sure.

      Yeah, Kindl has a higher projected upside. He just needs to find consistency.

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    • Matt Saler on said:

      I should add that the idea here is likely that the Wings’ usual magic fairy career turnaround dust will fix Colaiacovo. It’s worked before! Why not him?

      Well, maybe because Nick’s not here any more. I think the dust supply took a hit.

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  3. Garth on said:

    How about, instead of offering multi-year contracts to oft-injured nobodies, someone in Wings management grows some balls and makes someone an offer he can’t refuse on an actual, good defenseman who can play top-four and who will be able to play the entire year?

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  4. Matt Saler on said:

    Like who? There’s no one on the free agent market. A trade?

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    • Garth on said:

      Sorry, I should’ve been more specific.

      Making a trade is what I mean. To me, Holland is clearly starting to panic. The theory has been that he’s waiting for the CBA to be resolved, but if that’s so then why is he making an offer to an injury-prone defenseman who has only come near playing a full season once in his career?

      If you’re going to wait then why not wait until the CBA BS is over and teams start thinking about hockey again?

      And when that time does come, stop thinking about picking up a broken player and hoping that he’ll be successful reclamation project and make a real, hockey offer to a team with either a surplus of defensemen or would be willing to give up a defenseman in order to address another need.

      They went the cheap and easy route with Ian White last year, which was OK because he was playing with the best defenseman to ever play the game, but that guy is now gone and Ian White is the #2 guy…bringing in another Ian White-level defenseman is not going to do it.

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      • Matt Saler on said:

        Looking at the Colaiacovo effort again now, I wonder if it’s not just an attempt to shore up the defense rather than an attempt to land a top four guy. They’ve said they’d like to add a couple guys on the blueline, so Colaiacovo doesn’t have to be Holland’s best shot at this point.

        We’ll see what happens when the CBA is signed, but I wouldn’t expect to to be the opening of floodgates as far as the Wings are concerned. If there’s a cap reduction, they’re right around the number being bandied about, which means they’d be in no position to easily sign another team’s cast-offs. There are just too many unknowns about the future cap number and/or salary reduction/lack thereof to have any level of confidence of anything happening then.

        If he can swing a trade now, great. But I suspect the trade market has dried up and that as far as it’s flowing, the prices are ridiculous.

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        • Garth on said:

          The problem with the Colaiacovo thing is that signing a guy who regularly misses a fair number of games isn’t really “shoring up” your defense. On top of that, adding one defenseman gives them 7, which is what most teams go with. Sure, they could pick up another along the way, but all that would do is make sure that neither Kindl nor Smith play regularly enough to develop further than they already are.

          As it is they’re going to have to unload a couple of forwards, so why not wait until the uncertainty is gone and package a couple forwards and draft picks for someone good, who isn’t just a stopgap solution.

          Nevermind that what Detroit really needs is a defensive defensman, not an inconsistent offensive defenseman.

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          • Matt Saler on said:

            In theory, he’d offer some experience to partner with Smith or Kindl, but you’re right—they’d miss out on valuable time.

          • Garth on said:

            I’m not against having a veteran defenseman on the line, I would just prefer someone who is better in his own end. The big need right now is a reliable defensive guy who can, if needed, cover for the younger guys who will be prone to making mistakes as they learn and develop.

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