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Columbus seemed to have a striaghtforward ask in terms of Patrik Laine. From the article:
Any other deals we’d talked about were all about retaining half, and our goal was to get out of the whole contract. So, we’re happy it worked out. I called him and wished him the best of luck. Sometimes, you’ve got to make decisions that are better for your hockey club, and gaining cap (space) and cash means a lot for two years
You now have the newly minted Hab saying he will push to be a 40 to 50 goal scorer. Does this shift the dynamic within the Atlantic significantly? Here’s the lineup:
* Boston Bruins
* Buffalo Sabres
* Detroit Red Wings
* Florida Panthers
* Montreal Canadiens
* Ottawa Senators
* Tampa Bay Lightning
* Toronto Maple Leafs
Go south, and you have 3 recent Stanley Cups and 5 recent playoff appearances between Tampa Bay and Florida. Walk across the bridge in Detroit and you’ve got a regular season scoring machine. Boston put up a huge pre season and that essentially left Detroit, Buffalo, Montreal and Ottawa all “hoping” for the last wild card spot. This division has some hardware in it, and a team in Toronto that very nearly saw CMD skating the cup.
Buffalo has a good deal of frustration. 13 years without a playoff appearance and some fairly high picks in that time. Ottawa seems to have had leadership/ownership issue that was recently resolved. Now they want to avoid the “Calgary” effect where players move on once they’re able. There’s a lot of pride on the line and internal frustrations after the Panthers hoisted the cup.
We’ve spoken ad nauseam about Detroit’s upcoming roster. Other outlets are now talking about Mazur’s potential to grab a bottom six spot and many of you seem to agree with that take. We still don’t have a firm grasp on where Berggren factors in or what is holding up the final three RFA deals. We know now why Detroit wasn’t a likely candidate for Laine. No retention for a CBJ team looking at an “internal cap”.
in the midst of several interesting stories that include Edmonton passing on matching offer sheets, Ryan Johansen is now on waivers for contract termination due to “breach of contract” issue. This is going to bring about a challenge involving the NHLPA. Get the popcorn. The once highly paid and sought after centerman is now drifting into the realm of “any takers?”
At this point, most of you are not highly interested in reclamation projects. There’s a trio of young forwards heading to camp in Mazur, Kasper and Danielson that seem to have drawn the eye and the interest of many. The defense is a high spot of contention within the comments along with the goaltending. Though many of you have some general malaise in terms of what the current lineup looks like.
Without moving out a contract or two, it’s nearly impossible to see Johansen don a winged wheel. A PTO? Anything’s possible in that realm. Still, the enthusiasm remains in the pipeline with Augustine, Sandin-Pellikka and an interest in seeing Buium play in Grand Rapids. There seems to be little appetite for more veteran players, but that’s could be a misread of the tea leaves on my part.
So, let me know your thoughts. Should Detroit have tried to make room for Laine and will he make a tough Atlantic division even more difficult? Would you PTO RJ if that were an option? Thanks again to all who stop by.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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