Rumours...

[Nick]

We need a dman so Lebda can retire... or w/e.... the guy is a gliding give-away machine, never in position to cover for komi's brutal give-aways, and is basically a PKer during our PP.


Signing Clark is a must, what a valuable piece he's been for us! I hope it doesn't break 3M annual cap hit though.

[inferno31]

We need a dman so Lebda can retire... or w/e.... the guy is a gliding give-away machine, never in position to cover for komi's brutal give-aways, and is basically a PKer during our PP.


Signing Clark is a must, what a valuable piece he's been for us! I hope it doesn't break 3M annual cap hit though.

not many people want to admit this earlier but.. Finger >>> Lebda.

Lebda was on pace to set the worst +/- per ice time for any player, since they started recording +/-. That was in january don't know how it is now, but shit hes suppose to be offensive but he has ONE point this year. ONE! Henrik Lundqvist has 4 points..

[Nick]

I remember him being quick in detroit... he's slow now.

He was supposed to be soft but reasonable positionally... he's soft and shit in zone coverage.

How did we sign this guy for 2 years? Finger is way better then Lebda, and that's sad.

but your point is well made, if we don't bring in another dman in... time to call Jeff up... though the foot speed on a Komi-Finger pairing is downright scary.

[MSP4LYFE]

I'd like to see Burke make a move for John Michael Liles, similar to Kaberle, just not as good, but younger with some potential for chemistry with Phaneuf, and if I'm not mistaken he plays the LS.

[Nick]

Hmm if we don't sign King Arthur sounds like Burke will be moving him.

Also said very, very clearly that Luke is not for trade as long as he's the GM.

[Shep]

There's already a rumour about Liles

[Scott]

No thanks to JML.. way overrated imo. Very soft and worse then Kabs defensively. He's a solid offensive Dman but I believe Dion will get back on track next year and Gunnarsson can do a sufficient job until Gardiner's ready to step in. Well, I guess it all depends what it would cost but I'd much rather keep our good assets and build from within.

[Shoalzie]

I remember him being quick in detroit... he's slow now.

He was supposed to be soft but reasonable positionally... he's soft and shit in zone coverage.

How did we sign this guy for 2 years? Finger is way better then Lebda, and that's sad.

but your point is well made, if we don't bring in another dman in... time to call Jeff up... though the foot speed on a Komi-Finger pairing is downright scary.

Lebda was kind of a product of being on the Wings and playing with future Hall of Famers on defense tends to make a guy look better than what he is. I thought the signing was careless by Burke...not just the amount but the fact it was multiple years. His best asset when he was with the Wings was his shot...a fairly potent slapper and did well in spot duty on the power play. He never was going to be a top 4 guy and had a hard enough time cracking the top 6 consistently when they had Ericsson ready to be full-timer and Kindl was ready to "graduate". He was a guy that you could plug in for 13-15 minutes but any more would be too much.

I had thought that Derek Meech was a better player than Lebda and he's been buried in the AHL all season and will likely sign with another organization next year because he has no hope of being a regular for the Wings. The Wings went through several defensemen last year and it wasn't like Lebda was the odd man out. Lilja was let go as well but that had a lot to do with his recent concussion problems and a decline in play. Meech has essentially been fazed out of the team's plans as well with what they have now and the likes of Brendan Smith in the AHL showing promise in his first pro year.

The Wings simply chose to go in another direction and Lebda never appeared to be in their plans because was pretty much was a depth defenseman with marginal NHL talent. He was at his best when he played with his boyhood idol, Chelios but after he left, he really didn't make any improvements when he was given a slightly bigger role. He was one of several defensemen last year that battled through injury and it gave the Wings a chance to see more of what they had in the organization and he just wasn't going to be an option after last year. They chose wisely to cut him loose and look at what guys like Kindl can offer them going forward.