The Free Press’s Helene St. James answered mailbag questions today, and she clarifies the Mike Green situation:
HSJ: Green was the Wings’ top source of offense from the back end among the regulars, and it’s meager after him. Green had a .50 points-per-game average this past season, with Niklas Kronwall coming in second at .34. Trevor Daley was third at .21. If Green is not on the team, who is going to help with the points? Prospect Filip Hronek had a very good first year of pro hockey with 39 points in 67 games with Grand Rapids, entrusted with running one of the power play units. He played well at the World Championship. Dennis Cholowski (drafted 20th overall in 2016) is a smooth skater with good offensive instincts who is headed into his first year of pro hockey. Maybe one of them can make the team out of camp.
Green had neck surgery in April, so I know there’s a wariness there about his health. I’d expect the sides to talk sometime in June, see if there’s a fit.
Kenny said our defense is old. We need to rebuild it.
So naturally let’s bring back a 32-year old coming off neck surgery rather than actually leave an open roster spot for Hronek and Hicketts and Cholowski to fight for.
And don’t even mention something like completing a trade to add a younger top 4 guy. No. Easier to just re-sign Mike Green.
Legitimately tank with the young guys. They get NHL development opportunities and the franchise gets a better draft ranking on 2019.
Also, we can more quickly weed out the duds in the young guys.
I think I’m in the minority, but I’m fine with bringing Green back at a 3-years-or-less contract.
So then we’ll have the following under contract:
Dekeyser (NTC)-Green
Ericsson (NTC)-Daley (NTC)
Kronwall (NTC)-Jensen
Ouellet/Hicketts/Hronek/Cholowski
How is that rebuilding the defense? How is that getting younger? What message does that send to guys like Hronek, Hicketts, Cholowski – hey guys, come to camp and do your best. We already have 8 guys on NHL contracts, but we might move Ouellet so that makes 7. You’ll be one injury away from being called up, although if you’re just going to be the #7 in the pressbox, we might just bring Lashoff up again so that you can play big minutes in Grand Rapids.
It’s ludicrous. If you sign Green then you better have a plan to move out 1-2 more bodies. Although the 4 NTCs complicate that…
I with you, I wouldn’t mind Green back either but you gotta move a couple contracts out to do it. When though has KH told the truth about roster decisions in the beginning parts of the summer?
Drop or trade a couple of D-men and I’m all for bringing Green back.
oh my! Now HSJ is no longer a bunk journalist…..Look at the crows circling for the acorn.
You were asked to stop this acorn reference. We get it. My grandfather was a racist and I’m the acorn. Sigh. Please stop.
Not even about you.
You need to get lost with you childish BS.
George enough is enough with this guy and BIV. Please.
We were also asked to not turn every article into a personal narrative. We get it, sigh…please stop.
Also we were told “We don’t need to be reminded in EVERY TOPIC that the GM has been a dolt” we get it, sigh…please move on…
As well as “hammering an opinion into the ground and resuscitating it in every topic like you’re scraping the mush you’ve beaten off the floor to throw at people is NOT COOL” sigh…you make your point 20 x’s a day…MOVE ON!!!
This on repeat.
Sorry Benzo. The article was about bringing back Mike Green. That’s exactly what my post was about. Not going off-topic about any of Kenny’s other mistakes.
My reply was to
“You were asked to stop this acorn reference. We get it. My grandfather was a racist and I’m the acorn. Sigh. Please stop”
If you’re going to demand others following the rules set forth by George you need to follow them yourself.
Benzo, if you feel my comments about Mike Green and where he fits on this roster are off-topic, in an article about Kenny potentially signing Mike Green…then please raise this with George. If he feels my comments aren’t relevant then he will inform me of that. Thanks and have a great day!
Green will be 33 going into next season. I would assume he will want as long of a contract as he can get. I like the dynamic he brings to the defense but there is simply absolutely no room unless a miracle happens.
Cholowski,Hickets,Hronek. Does another year of Junior help Cholowski? Then what? Bounce around in the AHL? IDK, I’m a fan. Hronek is going to make mistakes but here is a prospect with upside. Hickets? Let him play, If he ends up a a bottom pair..he does..if not then there is only one way to find out.
A guy like Kronwall. If he’s going to be a mentor like he’s claimed to be and I’m not challenging that at all. He needs guys to mentor.
Last time we brought in a guy with a Neck Problem it didn’t end to well: Erik Cole.
I like Green, but I don’t see where he fits at this point on this team. A mentor? Pretty expensive for a mentor.
The Wings already have a logjam of defensive prospects and players throughout their system at every level, why not weed them out during this “rebuild on the fly” or now “rebuild kind of” and just plan for the future.
Also, not signing Green leaves the door open for money better spent elsewhere. Be it Tavares or whomever when the time is right. The Wings cap predicament will be much better a few years down the road, why add to the issue for a 32 year old one dimensional D man?
In addition to the aforementioned dmen, it seems likely that the Wings will select a dman with the 6th pick….one that should immediately challenge for a roster position. From what I saw in the World Championships, Quinn Hughes looked like he could immediately be the Wings #1 prospect. Not saying that’s who they should pick, just that I watched him playing against NHL-caliber competition and he looked pretty damn good.
I just can’t see re-signing Green. Let Hronek and Hughes, for example, run the power play. And no one has even mentioned Sulak. He looked good at the WC as well. We have such a logjam on defense….there’s no need to make it worse with a veteran signing.
Those are great points Steve. The Wings should be able to get a very good defensemen at number 6. zach werenski went number 8 a few drafts back and look at his play. 16g 21 assists this season. Funny thing is you don’t hear a lot of chatter about him.
The only way he should be re-signed is if its on a 1 year deal to get a second chance at trading him at the deadline. Green is only a good d-man when compared with an atrocious back end like Detriots. IMO he would be a bottom pair d-man on a lot of teams in the league and is not worth big dollars or big term at this point in his career.
I agree too. If Green comes back it should be for only one year and probably at a very good value. It would be nice to get something back for him at the trade deadline, but I wouldn’t count on it. I really think Ken Holland was only saying he’d resign Green to lure another team into thinking Green is still a worthwhile player…..kind of how he duped the Rangers into thinking Smith was worth something by making statements about resigning him. I realize that kind of trickery might be hard to fathom by some.
Personally, I think both Jensen and XO are the odd men out. Both likely have reached their top potential and we all know Detroit has a glut of 5-7 Dmen. I’d rather have Hicketts and Hronek playing with veterans who have “seen it all” and can project on them what needs to be done to be a winner. Those two can then become the next leaders on D.
Kenny didn’t just say he would consider re-signing Green before the trade deadline to boost his value…he repeated that after the trade deadline, and then after exit interviews, and then right after the lottery. So if Kenny didn’t really mean it and was just trying to boost his trade value…then why does he keep talking about it after the deadline when we don’t benefit at all from pumping Green’s tires? If it was just a trade tactic, then why hasn’t Kenny just declared that we’re moving on from Green, or better yet, just offer no comment. So yeah, not understanding your theory after these comments have persisted long after the trade deadline. But maybe others can fathom your point and I can’t?
I thought this was supposed to stop.
FS is really short as obviously George’s post went right over his head.
FS—you’ve demonstrated no skill whatsoever as a psycho-analyst, so get off your in-depth analyses about others & settle on your own personal analysis needs!
I’m really having a hard time comprehending why grown men do not have the will to use the ignore function on FS that George graciously installed? It seems you all need him as much as he needs to be the center of attention. Very weird cyclical behavior.
I’m really having a hard time comprehending why a grown man does not have the will to use the ignore function on grr rah rah that George graciously installed? It seems he needs us as much as he needs to be the center of attention. Very weird cyclical behavior.
“I’m really having a hard time comprehending why grown men do not have the will to use the ignore function on FS that George graciously installed? ”
Men? That’s an assumption.
“It seems you all need him as much as he needs to be the center of attention.”
Also, an assumption.
Oh, BTW, “have the balls” is a sexist thing to say. As if only a person with balls is capable of doing something…. But I bet you don’t care.
Did I offend your fragile ego BIV? I am truly sorry. Have some balls and ignore FS.
Let’s get back to hockey folks. I know Biv or HoweandHowe have such a fascination for FS that they cannot let him go (very Linus like), but come on, this is not the place for such weaknesses. It’s supposed to be fun to talk about OUR favorite team and listen to other peoples perspectives if we think they are correct or not.
Someone stated Kenny’s public hints about signing Green was just a smokescreen to boost his trade value. Like he really wasn’t that interested in Green and this was just a tactic.
That made a lot of sense pre-deadline. I’m simply questioning that logic since the hints have been repeated multiple times after the deadline. I feel like that’s a valid question. Sorry if that offended so many people.
Look FS it’s not so much that some are offended by the question, I see how it’s valid I really do. Personally, it’s not the question, it’s as George stated “We don’t need to be reminded in EVERY TOPIC that the GM has been a dolt” and even then that can be o.k. when it’s not made in such a snide way, for me that is. That’s honestly what gets under my skin the most. You have knowledge but you present it very snidely. Also the “hammering an opinion into the ground and resuscitating it in every topic like you’re scraping the mush you’ve beaten off the floor to throw at people is NOT COOL” is another thing you tend to do that turns me off. It’s not for me a disagreement with you we’ll say? As I tend to agree with some of the things you say and we’ve had conversations in the past that we’re good. It’s the afterwards where even if it’s not heated and we agree to disagree it still tends to get pounded into the ground over and over and very snidely. That’s my beef, I don’t mind constructive conversations with you but when you get on a roll it makes it very hard to accomplish and I’m just as much at fault as well. These are my observations and I am in no way trying to speak for others against you. Just explaining my side of the things. I like the potential you have the ability to bring but I will not hesitate to say some when you get fatsavage like?
The article was speculation about Kenny re-signing Mike Green. My comments have been about:
-questioning Mike Green’s role on the team given the public comments about needing to rebuild our defense and get younger
-responding to other reader comments about Mike Green
I feel this is right on topic. Moreso than many of the other posts above. If you feel like I’ve gone off topic then please notify George and he will communicate that to me. Also funny that others on this thread have brought up names like Erik Cole, Zach Werenski – but nobody is accusing them of being off topic. In an article about Mike Green, someone brings up Pronman’s review of Evan Bouchard, with a reference to FS. How is that related to Mike Green? You’ll notice that I didn’t take the bait. I’m done with defending myself. Not going to post on this article again. It was about Mike Green. I shared my views. I stayed on topic. Hope others can as well.
Awe. Look at you….name calling.
Who tf is howeandhowe
Like mentioned.. If you bring in Green it needs to be short term and you need to remove Jenson, Ericcson and Oulette, allow the young guys we have a shot including who we draft at 6 this year. Then evaluate at the TDL, are we competitive, if so shore up the D with a potential trade, are we still out of the playoff picture, now if healthy we move Green to a contender and our defence takes a short term hit but we have started a good rebuild to set it on the right path
Why did The Athletic’s Pronman rate Bouchard as the #7 defenseman available [18 overall]?
Pronman’s analysis did not convince.
[Can’t wait for an FS response. :-)]