If Cleary can stay good on his knees, I am ok with him playing bottom six. Alfie can still produce, but with Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, and possibly Mantha fighting for top six winger positions, and all can potentially match or beat Alfie in points, I'd rather Alfie just retire and become a front office guy.
We need to think about what happens next offseason too. Because as it sits, we're still at the same issue we have this off season, not enough room. You had mentioned you're worried about Callahan being picked off waivers. I'm worried about our defensemen jumping ship because of the log jam we have there of mediocre players. By next off season, I'd love to see Kindl, Lashoff completely out of the organization and Quincey possibly traded.
- YzermanIsTheMan
There is 9 spots at forward for guys that can score (3 scoring lines and one checking line is what you want). Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, Nyquist, Tatar, Weiss, Alfie, Jurco, Sheahan would make a pretty good top 9. The problem is they have too many damn 4th liners which is why the Cleary signing is complete garbage. You have Helm, Abdelkader, Miller, Glendening, Cleary, Andersson, Callahan and Ferraro that are fighting for a spot on that line with 2 spare forwards. Take out Jurco because they will send him down just because they can and either put Cleary or Abdelkader in the top 9 just because Babcock thinks they work there when they don't.
What I would like to see to start the season is:
Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Jurco/Tatar
Nyquist - Weiss - Franzen
Tatar/Jurco - Sheahan - Alfie
Abdelkader - Helm - Callahan
Miller, Andersson as spares with Glendening, Cleary and Ferraro waived or traded.
Defense I wouldn't mind Kindl and Lashoff gone (either waived or traded). Could trade Kindl in a package for that right handed shooting defenseman. Wings can also afford to trade a defense prospect or two because there won't be enough room for Sproul, Ouellet, Backman, Marchenko and Jensen when they all have to clear waivers at the same time to be sent down if they don't make the team. There will only be 3 spots open at that time unless the Wings traded Smith too because they will still have Kronwall, Ericsson, DeKeyser and Smith likely locked up.
