Update (4:17 PM): Clark has pointed out a major brain cramp on my part: Rouse’s number was 3. Ugh. Sorry about that. Lame joke replaced with another one. – Matt
Red Wings Central via George Malik via Detroit Hockey: Salei’s keeping his #24 and symbolically further cementing his role as aged mentor, Kindl’ll try to live up to Rouse’s legacy with #4 clear #4′s name of the Krupp stain, Smith gets Jiri’s #2 (a little sad), MacDonald’s going with a not-so-great #31 (just don’t cry when talking to the media), and Tomas Tatar is taking on the baggage that comes with #21.
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This interview with Behind the Net’s Gabe Desjardins had the Eurotwins popping up in some great places.
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Ted Kulfan asked the Wings about that Swedish blog interview with Kronwall. Evidently Nik may have stepped off the party line somewhat with his talk of possible surgery (assuming the validity of the interview, as Kulfan seems to).
Holland confirms Kronwall’s discomfort (so that part of the interview is legitimate, at least), but doesn’t say anything more about what that might mean for his upcoming season. Here’s hoping things clear up soon.
By the way, kudos to Kulfan for checking in on this. Good journalism.
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Update (10:52 PM): Been away from the computer all night, so I’m a bit late on this, but Chuck Pleiness has the cap hit at $787,500, with the yearly breakdown at $750,000 this year and $825,000 next year. - Matt
Update (2:11 PM): At the post linked in the headline, Paul has it from Custance via a tweet: $787,000 annual salary. That, according to CapGeek, has the Wings under the cap by just over $75,000 with the “bonus cushion.” But they have 24 players (not counting Ritola), which means someone (Meech) has to go. – Matt
No word on how much he’ll be making yet, but that’s sure to come out soon. Great news, for sure. Now the question is what the Wings will do to become cap-compliant. We may not know the answer to that until the end of next month.
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Am I the only one who is slightly annoyed with Kronwall for waiting until nearly a month before the season to say, “Meh, my knee’s not 100%. I’m going to go to Detroit to discuss possible surgery.”?
I mean, if it’s not 100% now, it probably wasn’t two months ago either. If surgery is involved, he’d be missing time regardless, but a June operation has him back in the lineup much earlier in the season than a late August or early September one does.
Of course, nothing is settled yet. He may not have an operation. But why wait until now to raise the question?
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Newly-married Michael Petrella (a very belated congrats, dude) hosts this one at The Production Line. Topics included possible sophomore slumping on Jimmy’s part, Jakub Kindl and Todd Bertuzzi, as well as guessing on PP units.
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VooX’s work at the NHL’s R&D camp this week has been awesome to read. I love the little details that come out of his interactions with guys like Jim Nill, Gary Bettman and others in Toronto. Really great stuff, VooX. This is blogging at it’s best.
The headline above goes to his latest. His previous posts on the camp are here, here, here and here (reverse chronological order.
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Malik Edition. I think the schedule has been adjusted, so The Production Line should be next.
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If you were like me and wondered where Dan Cleary was last year, you owe him an apology. Sorry, Dan. Glad you’re able to go up stairs normally again…
Can you imagine playing on a knee you can’t even use to go up stairs?
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Masterful work by George Malik. Two of the four weren’t my first choices, but George makes such such good cases for Lindsay and Lidstrom that I may have to rethink my position.
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