Power Post III

Written by Kyle Kujawa

Sunday, 13 June 2010 16:20

Hello there and welcome to Power Post. For those unfamiliar, Power Post is what happens when I disappear for a few weeks, but hockey news doesn't disappear. Folks have been talking about all these fantastic things, but were left to wonder: "what does that guy who runs that Death Stare site have to say about this?"

For those looking for an excuse, here's what happened. I was recently diagnosed with a respiratory condition that has really started to rack up the medical bills. Faced with the prospect of putting a son with cerebral palsy through college with a second, unplanned, child along the way to a really, really awfully unbearable wife, I decided I needed to raise money for my family if I were to, you know, not make it. Since my day job as a high school chemistry teacher and part-time job at a car wash, working for a guy with eyebrows that won't quit, weren't paying the bills, I decided to start cooking crystal meth. To make a long story short, after several failed dealings to move my chemically-excellent product, I got in contact with a distributor who went by the name Tuco. Only it turned out that Tuco was insane, and, fearing that I would rat him out after he killed his brother-in-law "No-Doze," he kidnapped my partner and I, taking us to a location out in the desert where he lived with his uncle. We waited for his cousins to come so he could smuggle us into Mexico, where we could start new lives and cook meth free of consequences due to our connections with The Cartel. However, a DEA agent out looking for my partner got into a shootout with him and ended up killing him. I did not want him to know I was at the scene, so I fled before he saw me until I ultimately returned home, faking a "fugue state" as an excuse for my absence, having recently been released from the hospital after medical and psychiatric evaluation determined that it was an isolated incident and it would not happen again.

This is what I look like now:

Anyway, we'll start with the biggest news first.

DOUG JANIK SIGNS

Doug Janik somewhat unexpectedly signed a two-year deal with Detroit. This is unexpected because Janik was mostly just depth for Grand Rapids, and those types of players typically make a living off one-year deals. Play a year somewhere, then try to cash in a strong season with an AHL team for an opportunity with a different team where you might get an NHL look. If you don't make it, repeat the cycle -- with some players eventually giving up and heading to Europe for more money. Janik, who is 30 now, has been in this cycle for a long time and is coming off his best AHL season ever with 37 points. I predicted that he wouldn't be back, because the Wings haven't really brought back anyone they've ever signed just for Grand Rapids, but he is. He will get a chance to compete for the #6 job along with Jakub Kindl, and the UFA defenseman Detroit is apparently targeting that may or may not be Andreas Lilja, but definitely not Brett Lebda.

The news-worthy part is the deal's structure. He is on a two-way deal for the first year, and a one-way deal for the second year. This was likely a big selling point of the contract to get him to stick around, since you don't see this often for players slated for AHL depth. Obviously, Janik is good in the AHL and decent in the NHL. This says that they're comfortable using him full-time in the NHL for that second season, the 2011-12 season, because even if they send him to the AHL, he'll be making his full $513,000 salary in the AHL, opposed to the 15-20% of it that players on two-way deals usually get. Also, he'll need to pass waivers to be sent back down to the AHL if and when he's ever called up. Interesting to note is that Janik was claimed off waivers two different times in the 2008-09 season, so there's no guarantee Detroit can hold on to him if they intend to bring him back and forth for the next two years.

I'd personally prefer Janik to stay in the AHL, as he's looked uncomfortable and unbalanced when he's in the NHL. He might be a decent #6 defenseman, but Detroit doesn't "settle" for those types -- they look for players who are too good to fill the role they're given. I wish him luck and hope he has a good camp, but he is excellent in the AHL and I hope he can mentor some of the young defenseman down there, like Brendan Smith, who some people still believe is the worst and most misbehaved hockey prospect in the history of existence.

CHICAGO MAKES EAST LOOK GOOD IN CUP WIN

Short and sweet: I wanted Chicago to win. I know I'm in the minority of Wings fans on that one, but, as much as Chicago would like to be considered a heated rival (and their fans want it too -- everyone heard that they chanted "Detroit sucks" in the street after Game 6), they just aren't. They're just the little annoying brother at this point. I don't hate any of their players aside from Tomas Kopecky because he's awful, and Brian Campbell because he's terrible, and Cristobal Huet, because he insists he's NHL-employable. They're just neutral, Joel Quenneville is a terrible coach and Jonathan Toews is merely just boring. But I just hate Philadelphia so much more. The fans of both teams are terrible, but Philly takes the edge. I hate Chris Pronger. I hate Scott Hartnell.

I hate them both. I was hoping for a repeat of 1918-19 when the flu canceled the finals, but that didn't happen. If I were held at gunpoint (and I was) I'd take Chicago. Primarily because the city of Philadelphia doesn't deserve it. But also because the Flyers barely made the playoffs and were the 18th best team in the league overall. And the Eastern Conference sucks. It sucked all season and it was even worse in the playoffs, with a 7th seed advancing to the Finals after having home ice in the Conference Finals, having made the playoffs in a shootout. No team who does that deserves a Cup. The fact that that team was in the state of Pennsylvania, where my two least favorite Eastern teams are, just made it all the easier to root against them. The hockey fan in me saw that Chicago paid their dues, kinda. They "lost before they won," as much as I hate that cliche, they actually deserved to be in the playoffs, and they played well all year long. The Detroit fan in me didn't like to admit that, but at the very least, it's going to taste even sweeter now when we beat them back to their rightful place next season.

The Cup-winning goal summed up the series perfectly: terrible. I waited for the series to get good and it just didn't. There were very few goals that weren't the result of extremely incompetent goaltending or just bantam-level defense. The Conn Smythe winner didn't even score in the Finals -- shows you how well these two teams were playing. The downside to all of this is now we have to hear more about how brilliantly the Hawks were built. Which, to sum it up, was like this: being terrible enough to accumulate an amazing number of high draft picks (Toews, Kane, Seabrook), get lucky that a few minor deals really panned out (Sharp, Versteeg), overpay for complementary pieces (Campbell, Huet, Hossa, Sopel), and have just a few shrapnels that everyone can fawn about as evidence of actual, real development (Keith, Byfuglien, Niemi). It's too bad that Dave Tallon left them in such a terrible place where they're already over the cap for next season with just three forward lines, four defenseman, and one terrible French goaltender. The repeat is clearly already in the works.

FORMER WINGS SUCK IN FINALS

Like in most hockey games, the Wings got a fair amount of publicity because of the number of their ex-players in the fold. The media acted like Detroit just gave up on all these players and there's no such thing as a salary cap. To recap:

Ville Leino -- Is back to being a star much in the way he was last season after a brief stint in the NHL and a decent few game playoff where he played on the 4th line. I'm officially tired about hearing how his career turned around in Philly and Detroit was crazy to get rid of him. Clearly, it has nothing to do with the fact that Detroit didn't want him ragging the puck all the way up the ice and losing it half the time, giving him 1st and 2nd line minutes but getting no points out of him, and actually wanting him to backcheck. Give him a situation where he mess around with the puck, get big minutes despite not earning them, and not having to play defense, and he can succeed. Nobody remembers the turnovers when he can get a highlight reel goal or two. I'm happy for him, but tired of hearing about him like there was no salary cap and he didn't have 8,000 chances here. But whatever. Good luck getting him going in the regular season.

Marian Hossa -- Did a little more in the Finals than last season, but overall this season I didn't see the Hossa that I saw last season. I'm happy that he won his Cup, because I'm tired of Wings fans ragging on him for wanting to go to a good situation. And because I don't want him for 11 more seasons. Good luck getting that to hold up -- apparently he played with a hurt knee this year too after the shoulder thing last year.

Tomas Kopecky -- Just absolutely terrible, can barely skate, hands are awful, thinks he's a scorer but plays nothing but the 4th line. Just big and Slovakian. Yet, some people suggested Detroit made a mistake letting him and his $1.2 million cap hit go just because of that one goal in Game 1 of the Finals.

Brent Sopel -- Yes, you may notice that Sopel never played for the Wings. But he did come to camp on a tryout once, and then Chicago jumped in and signed him to a ridiculous contract despite him being awful. And then he had an awful first season, and they signed him to a three-year $7 million extension. Yet... Detroit somehow missed out on a golden opportunity for a #6 defenseman.

NICK LIDSTROM? NICK LIDSTROM

This bit makes me realize how long I was away, since it happened a while ago. Nick Lidstrom decided to return and signed a one-year $6.2 million deal.

What else do you say about this besides "thank you hockey gods"? There's really no analysis needed the way there is with a high-profile Doug Janik signing. I'm not being radical or acting like I'm the only one saying this, but I'm assuming this is going to be his last season given his deliberation on the deal. I had him begged in the $5-6 million range so this is a tad high, but the news that the cap may be going up as much as $2 million makes this no issue. Then you consider that he made like seven mistakes all season and was still among defensive leaders in scoring despite not scoring a goal for like 40-something games, and you realize this is an absolute steal. More than happy to hear the news.

But of course, he should be traded for a second round draft pick at the deadline if it doesn't look like Detroit is going to be a contender when half their roster is out with injury.

TOMAS HOLMSTROM'S TWO, TOO

I talked about this prior to the 2007-08 season -- how much longer can Tomas Holmstrom fill the role that he fills? He misses his fair share of games already, and it takes quite a bit to get him out of the lineup. Yet, here we are, talking about the two-year, $3.75 million extension that he signed. The money is balanced in favor of the first year meaning there's a chance this could be his last, but it seems unlikely.

I'm very happy to have him back, but I expect this season will see more of Johan Franzen and Danny Cleary in front of the net and Holmstrom reserved more for the powerplay, as he's gradually phased out. He'll still see top six minutes most nights, but I don't expect we'll see him relied upon as heavily unless the game is on the line.

BERTUZZI MIGHT BE CRAZY

Only because he hasn't already taken the two-year deal at salary that sounds like it is, at best, only equal to the $1.5 million he made this past season. It sounds as if he might be looking for a bit more, but it seems he's stated his destinations are either Detroit or retirement.

I made my pro-Bertuzzi stance clear all season, but let's be clear on this: it's stupid to give Bertuzzi a raise on a two-year deal. This is security through a guy with emotional baggage on top of a body that has already been injury-riddled the past few seasons, though he did appear in all 82 this season. If his agent thinks that means he's healed, he's foolish. That won't happen again. He's bound to get hurt. His production is definitely worth more than $1.5, but it's a near guarantee that Jiri Hudler is going to eat into his ice time, and overall, he won't get the first line minutes he saw mid-season because there's just no way injuries can cripple the Wings like they did last season.

When they signed him, I thought he was a player who was looking for an opportunity with maybe one or two good seasons left in him. Physical players tend to hit the wall hard which is why I'd like to see him take a pay cut if he signs a two-year deal, so it's not an albatross contract if he ends up as a third line winger for the next two years. For this reason, I won't be devastated if he walks. However, if he signs, I'll pull for him next season the way I did this season -- as a physical presence who can clog the net and chip in a few, timely goals. Anyone expecting anything else -- like some who seemed to rag on him if he was anything less than a 25-30 goal scorer that he was five years ago -- is crazy, in my opinion.

YZERMAN RAIDS THE CUPBOARD

I wrote about Stevie leaving and I'm still thrilled for him, excited for the moves he's already made in bringing in a young coach like Guy Boucher, who I'm familiar with as a strong coach in the QMJHL prior to this season. However, he did sign scout Pat Verbeek away and it seems likely he'll make Red Wings capologist Ryan Martin his assistant GM.

Other than noting that it happened, there isn't much to say about it. People always talk about how rich Detroit is in the front office so it's ridiculous to assume these guys won't get poached eventually. I'm more than happy to see Yzerman get them, not just because I like him and want him to do well, but because he's in Tampa Bay and this won't come back to bite Detroit.

Losing the capologist (potentially) is weird -- seems likely he played a bigger role than most people think in the structuring of the complicated Zetterberg and Franzen deals. But obviously, Holland knows the CBA and knows how to structure a contract. I'm not too worried about it, just curious to see how quickly Detroit will go out and find a replacement.

HOLLAND STATES THE OBVIOUS

Jason Williams and Brett Lebda won't be back. Lebda apparently turned down an offer from a KHL team. Good for him, but it's not a foregone conclusion that he's going to get NHL offers. I hope he does, just so I can see if he was actually a decent player on a stacked team, or if he was just Brett Lebda on a stacked team.

The Williams news is weird considering Detroit traded Williams in 2007-08. So, like, of course he won't be back, Holland. Why say anything? I know, tons of fans are probably devastated that Bobby Lang, Kyle Quincey, and Manny Legace won't be back either but you don't need to talk about them in the press. Just seems like a cheap shot to talk about a player you got rid of years ago.

What? Oh... so he did.