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Many hockey fans gravitate toward the prog rock group “RUSH”. Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and the now departed Neil Peart. The insanely catchy “The Spirit of Radio” and “Tom Sawyer” will still occasionally rock some rinks, giving a much needed respite from the homogenized auto tuned pop that has taken the 1-4-5 progression and buried it. Amongst the faithful, you will often hear “2112” as the gateway album that sucked people in. A concept album that dabbled with self reliance and commitment to work and, well, anarchy. It became the album that changed it all for the power trio.
So, what would Detroit’s concept album be? This year, it would be “7117”. 71 games, and only 17 wins. It’s pretty much a deep dive into what an organization looks like when they push off a rebuild for almost a decade. In essence, the season looked and felt like the first half of “The Bad New Bears”, “The Mighty Ducks”, “Major League” and any other sports movie where a team low on talent and high on problems wants to compete. Except, in this case, there was no turn around. It feels much more like a French film where you leave feeling horrible and confused. “7117” will not be on blu ray or digital download any time soon.
Red Wings Free Agents and Trade Candidates Lyle Richardson brought this to the forefront in his article on 4/12 (see the link above). Of course, the title piqued my interest. There are a few places where Lyle and I part company. He believes Yzerman can sign Bertuzzi, Mantha, Fabbri and Erne for a combined 12 million. In my estimation, Mantha and Bert will take the better part of 12 million. He does acknowledge it could be more than that, but I was surprised at the initial statement. If Erne is re signed, it would have to be near league minimum, but Bert and Mantha could both be looking at contracts near what Larkin signed (6 ea). That right there is almost 13 million. Fabbri? You may be able to get something done for 2 or 3 million, but we’ll have to see.
The assumed re signing by many in the Detroit media of Erne is bothersome to me. It may well be the case, I’m just not sure why it is assumed. Ernie seems to be a younger Abdelkader. Is he any better than Givani Smith? Regardless, it feels like he will in fact be in the fold.
my wished for buyout My last article was met with disgruntled malice by some. For those who don’t understand the compliance buyout, it lays down as such. The players often get around 75% of their contract spread out over 2x the remaining term. If someone is owed 20 million for 4 years, they will end up getting 15 million over 8 years on the buyout. Yes, you’re paying for someone not to play, but the benefit of inflation causing a devaluation in the money as well as the time to pay it back minimizes that impact. No one knows for certain if this will be offered again, and for sure, we don’t know who will be bought out. Everything is a guess right now.
To Lyle’s credit, he targets the trade route for cash strapped teams. He brings to light the potential of Tampa Bay having to let go of Cirelli, Sergachev or even Killorn. Any of these three would be welcome additions to Detroit’s roster. Obviously the return would have to be draft picks and/or prospects. I like Killorn, he had a breakthrough year with 26 goals in 68 games. Even if he couldn’t perform at that level, he’s probably a solid 20 goal guy for the next few years anyway. (He’s hovered around that mark since around 2014 with 14 goals being his lowest total). He’s also tough and can skate. Some have also suggested that Tyler Johnson could be made available just because of cap constraints. He’s a thorn in Detroit’s side and would be another welcome addition.
In short, Detroit’s strongest bartering tool is cap space. Much like Arizona not too long ago, when they took Pavel Datsyuk’s contract and moved up in the draft taking Chycrun whilst Detroit ended up with Cholowski (so painful). Yzerman also turned Kyle Quincy (via Colorado) into into Andre Vasilevsky. (Ouch X2). It would be nice to see Detroit on the winning end of these deals going forward. The luxury of cap space can facilitate a number of bizarre circumstances including 3 team deals where the $ need to be trimmed via a third party (the NHL equivalent of money laundering). Here’s to future moves from the GM who has shown he has the moxie to do it.
On a more somber note, most of you know that Colby Cave passed away several days ago. He was far too young and has a young family as well. In Sean Maloughney’s last post, he reveals the creation of a “go fund me” page for Colby’s family. If you are able, please consider even a small donation. The family is going to have a lot to deal with. Apart from the money itself, the support of the hockey community means so much to everyone involved. Times are hard for many, so it is understood if you can’t contribute. Thoughts and prayers are obviously welcome as well. You can find about the “go fund me”
here 
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