Meech, Lebda, and more
We are currently in the midst of one of the most thrilling, exciting, mind-blowing, gripping, riveting, and dramatic off-seasons in recent memory. Every day, I can't wait to flip open the MacBook Pro and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (face hits keyboard).
Right now I am looking at antonyms for the first word in that list, "thrilling": boring; uneventful; lackluster. One could use those words to describe this off-season for the Red Wings.
This isn't something that's surprising, though. There wasn't going to be a lot of cap space after Nick Lidstrom (one-year, $6.2 million), Todd Bertuzzi (two-years, $3.875 million) and Tomas Holmstrom (two-years, 3.75 million) re-signed, and after that all Ken Holland had on his summer checklist was to lock-up the restricted free agents and explore the possibility of bringing on a veteran sixth defenseman.
Even with Mike Modano possibly coming into the fold, his waiting game is taking almost as long as a Monopoly game. Add all this up, and you get a relatively quiet summer. There still are some subjects that can be talked about:
Mike Modano
Earlier, I mentioned that I would refuse to write about Modano, but it looks like I lied. I only said that because this "situation" has been beaten to death so many times that if something could be beaten to death twice, this would fall into that category. (Also falling into that category: LeBron James, Brett Favre, Ilya Kovalchuk, and Beards of War favorite, J*stin B*eber.)
But if everyone jumped off a bridge, I think I would too, so I may as well throw in my opinion. To be completely honest, I think that the team will be fine with or without the American hockey legend, but if I had to pick a side, I'm like, 51/49 on the side of not wanting him to come to Hockeytown. The extra one percent is in there because if Modano does sign here, like Mike Babcock expects, and if it's a two-year contract, that means Justin Abdelkader would likely not get off the fourth line until he's 25 or 26.
While the Detroit Red Wings obviously value player development, holding Abdelkader back for one or possibly two years of Mike Modano isn't really something I'm interested in.
Reportedly the deal could be worth $1.25 million—way too high in my opinion. And while I've never been that high on Mattias Ritola, it looks like he would be the odd man out if Modano does sign. I'd like to see what he can offer to the big club before he gets shipped off somewhere.
In addition to losing Ritola (while I don't think this would hurt us as much as others do), signing Modano would also leave Detroit unable to sign either Lilja or a veteran defenseman, leaving Jakub Kindl, Doug Janik, Derek Meech, and possibly Brendan Smith to battle for the already unstable (if Jonathan Ericsson can't rebound after last year) third D pairing.
All in all, I just don't think it's worth it.
Brett Lebda
Gone is the player who provided, quite possibly, one of the greatest videos ever.
But it's okay, because gone is a player who scored one goal and seven assists in 63 games last season. And because Brian Burke likes giving money away, apparently, Brett Lebda is now making $1.45 million US next season for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Here now is a list of some defenseman who are paid less than or equal to $1.45 million and got more points than Lebda last season:
Matt Hunwick
Kris Russell
Jack Johnson
Josh Gorges
Andy Greene
Keith Yandle
The point is: Brett Lebda making $1.45 million is insane. I do wish him well, and I don't think he was that bad, he just didn't apply his skills to the fullest extent, which is why he now has a chance to play more minutes and perhaps some power play time in Toronto.
Derek Meech
Despite getting a 3% raise, Derek Meech is still only making $500,000, which is the lowest a player can make under the collective bargaining agreement. Meech has his sights set on making our top six this year. If he is able to accomplish that, I will delete this blog, delete my Twitter accounts, delete my Facebook, and go into hiding. Luckily, I don't think that will be the case. It certainly looks like Meech will be traded after the exhibition games or perhaps sooner than that, so similar to Lebda, I hope he does well if he does in fact get traded. Just even getting a shot to play regular minutes might help him become a full-time starter, but, unfortunately for him, Detroit isn't the place to get that chance.
It was a good move by Holland to get this deal done before they were scheduled to go to arbitration, because who knows how that could have turned out. (The "judge" could be the same person who gave me a 3 on my AP US History exam, and Meech could have walked away making more than $500k.)
Oh...Chicago
I just wanted to give a quick update on Chicago's situation. After matching San Jose's offer sheet to D Niklas Hjalmarsson, the Blackhawks have approximately $.03 to sign 218 players.
There is a downside to this, however. With Tomas Kopecky playing on the second line now, the rivalry between Chicago and Detroit will now be depleted again and it will possibly hu—
Oh. I don't have to be objective here? Okay.
Who am I kidding? Watching this play out is absolutely hilarious.
We should know more answers soon. In Ken Holland We Trust. Is it October yet?
Posted by Nick Barnowski at 7/17/2010 5:04 PM 
Categories: Hockey
Tags: Derek Meech Chicago Blackhawks Detroit Red Wings Toronto Maple Leafs Brett Lebda Mike Modano
Categories: Hockey
Tags: Derek Meech Chicago Blackhawks Detroit Red Wings Toronto Maple Leafs Brett Lebda Mike Modano
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