A few days ago we kicked off a series about the Red Wings top-10 prospects. Last time we covered #10 ranked prospect Brian Lashoff and today we’re back with another defenseman, 19 year old Ryan Sproul.

In case you missed our last article you can head over to the Red Wings section of Prosportsblogging.com to check it out.

#9 : Ryan Sproul, D, 19 –  Last year Sproul was one of the Wings 3 2nd round picks together with Tomas Jurco and fellow defenseman Xavier Ouellet. Sproul was the Wings 3rd choice in the draft as he was picked 55th overall.

Ryan Sproul has over the course of the past 2 seasons been playing with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the OHL where he last year put up an impressive 54 points in 61 games. In March of 2012 Sproul signed a 3-year entry level deal with the Wings, however, he will return to the Greyhounds next year which will be his third and final season with the club.

Sproul is continuing to improve his play and in an interview with the Detroit Free Press in July he said he hopes to net 60 points next season, which would be really impressive to say the least.

At 6’3″ Sproul is a big defenseman, however, it doesn’t show and like a certain current Red Wing(Ericsson) he needs to learn how to throw around his body much more. At about 190 lbs. he also needs to bulk up quite a bit before making the jump to the NHL.

Despite his inability to use his body correctly this guy is an offensive monster and is a nightmare for opposing defenses. Sproul has a killer shot and is great on the PP, he also has great vision and makes smart decisions. In addition to that he also shoots right which is a characteristic that is always sought after among NHL teams.

Ryan is still a ways off from being a full-time Red Wings, however, he has much more upside than a guy like Brian Lashoff or Max Nicastro. He has the potential to become a top-pairing defenseman which is something that the Wings really need right now so I’m sure that they would be interested in his services a few years down the line.

If he improves his defensive play and bulks up a bit, Ryan Sproul will no doubt be a guy to keep a close eye on in the future.

According to Capgeek.com, the Detroit Red Wings have sign forward Tomas Jurco to a 3-year entry-level contract worth $2,127,500.

Jurco was the Wings first pick in the 2011 draft where he was selected 35th overall. Jurco will be playing with the Grand Rapids Griffins in the upcoming season.

Jurco hasn’t been allowed to sign with the Wings in the past due to an issue in the transfer agreement between the Slovakian hockey federation and the NHL although this deal hints that the issue has been resolved.

Due to his incredible stick handling ability Red Wings fans have been ecstatic about the idea of Jurco playing on a line with Pavel Datsyuk and I can’t blame them. He truly has the ability to develop into a quality NHL player a couple years down the road.

Despite his skills he still has a while to go before being a full-time Red Wing. However, I wouldn’t be totally shocked in the Wings called him up at some point during the season to just see what he is all about.

With literally nothing going on in the hockey world right now I thought that it would be best to do a breakdown on the Red Wings top-10 prospects starting today with #10.

One little note is that I don’t count Brendan Smith or Gustav Nyqvist as prospects anymore as they both have played quite a bit of NHL games and will be with the Red Wings this season no doubt. However, if they were on the list they would be #1 and #2 respectively.

# 10: Brian Lashoff, D, 22 – To kick off the series we have Brian Lashoff who went undrafted before being signed by the Wings after training camp back in ’08. During the past season, which was Lashoffs second full season in Grand Rapids, he played 76 games while managing to score 19 points.

Lashoff was never really considered a future Red Wings or an elite prospect however after a phenomenal training camp this summer all that would change. While playing great, Lashoff started to really turn heads while drawing multiple comparisons to former Wing Brad Stuart.

Lashoff is the type of defenseman who, like Nick Lidström, tries to make the right play at the right time. Brian is a shut-down defenseman in the making and he also has a really hard shot and is very mobile. He is a physical defenseman and has been getting bigger and bigger as every year passes. Lashoff also isn’t afraid to drop the gloves which he has done quite a few times.

The big negative on him is that he has struggled with injuries his entire career and missed half of his rookie campaign in Grand Rapids to a separated shoulder.

During the past two seasons Lashoff hasn’t had the pressure of guys like Brendan Smith but that will change dramatically this season with Smith playing in Detroit and players like Garent Exelby leaving. Brain will have a much bigger role this season and he will most likely play second or maybe even first pairing duties down in Grand Rapids this upcoming season.

Going forward Lashoff will be a welcomed addition to the Wings. I don’t see him breaking the roster for another two seasons but if he continues to improve he no doubt has a shot. Considering that after Brendan Smith the Wings have very few quality young defenseman Lashoff will no doubt get some call-ups during the next two seasons.

With Lashoff set to become a RFA after the 2012-13 season he will no doubt have to prove that he is worth a new contract. However, considering what he has done so far I would be shocked if the Wings didn’t tie him up for a few more years.

The Detroit Red Wings have announced via their twitter feed that they have signed their first pick in this past draft, forward Martin Frk. Frk who was the 49th pick in the draft signed a 3-year entry level deal with the Wings.

The Red Wings liked what they saw from him during the prospect camp so they didn’t hesitate to ink the forward to a deal.

Bill Roose of Detroit Red Wings.com spoke to Kenny Holland about the decision:

“He came to camp and our guys liked him in Traverse City,” Red Wings general manager Ken Holland said. “He competes hard and has a good shot and he has one year of junior remaining and then he’s pro eligible. So based upon his age, based upon what we saw in Traverse and what our scouts have seen out of him the last couple of years, we decided to sign him to a contract.”

Frk will remain with the Halifax Mooseheads who play in the QMJHL for the next season.

According to Roose, this is the first time in 4 years that the Wings have signed a prospect during the year that they were drafted so signing Frk shows how much the Wings really like this guy. The last guy to get signed during the year he was drafted was goalie Tomas McCollum who was drafted 30th overall in 2008.

Personally I am really excited about this guy and I believe that 4-5 years down the road this guy will be a solid contributor for the Red Wings.

HockeyInsiderr (Yes, I spelled that right) is back at it again with another crazy rumor that he claims to be true. According to multiple tweets by him, the Red Wings have a deal on the table with the Phoenix Coyotes regarding defenseman Keith Yandle.

According to his tweets, the deal would send Filppula + Nyquist + 2013 first round draft pick to Phoenix in exchange for Keith Yandle.

When I heard about this I laughed. I mean that is the most crazy offer ever to get Yandle. I wouldn’t even trade Filppula straight up for Yandle and throwing in Nyquist and a first is just ridiculous. Doing that trade would give Detroit one of the worst forward cores in the league while our defense would marginally improve. Which is not worth it.

Obviously this rumor isn’t true and you shouldn’t believe a word that HockeyInsiderr says. He is a fraud and shouldn’t be given any credit.

Malik made a good post regarding HockeyInsiderr and the Yandle situation. 

Even CBS has made their opinion about HockeyInsiderr known.

Honestly, this guy just has to stop.

My message to HockeyInsiderr

In other news, head over to Wingingitinmotown and check out their post about if their was the ability to dump one contract in the new CBA who should the Wings cut if they even use it at all.

I put Todd Bertuzzi as I believe that his two-year extension was useless, however,  I do see why people have good cases for Cleary and Franzen.

Last night the world watched on as London put on a spectacle that will be remembered for decades. They hit all the correct notes that were required to make it a night to remember by incorporating culture, comedy and a bit of magic to create a warm environment that the entire family could enjoy.

I haven’t lived through many Olympic games, however, for those that I can remember I have to truly say that this was hands-down the most amazing. Everything from Sir Paul to James Bond and the Queen to a group of anonymous teenagers that would shock the globe as they lit the Olympic torch, London would bring together not only Great Britain but also the world as they kicked off the 30th Olympic Games.

As soon as I turned on the TV last night I noticed one thing, that this was going to be one hell of an event. It wasn’t going to be like Turin, or Athens or even Vancouver. No, this was going to be a ceremony were London would go beyond traditional boundaries and invoke a feeling inside of us that will remain for another 30 Olympics.

Led by director Danny Boyle, thousands of volunteers and British icons like Rowan Atkinson, Daniel Craig, Sir Paul McCartney and J.K. Rowling would put on a show that would capture the energy, history and creativity of not only London but Great Britain.

To start off the ceremony, Boyle took us on a tour through British history. From the early days of farming to the industrial revolution to even the movement for women’s rights, Boyle managed to show case what Britain was truly about.

The one thing that I will remember from this opening ceremony is the use of comedy and making it a family friendly event. Boyle took us on a journey through British literature where figures like Lord Voldemort and Mary Poppins showed up. He also got Mr. Bean(Rowan Atkinson) to do a brilliant parody about the Chariots of Fire that really was astonishing.

After the first half was over the Olympic teams started to parade out and this year each team had with them a leaf-like vase that during the end would be used to light the Olympic flame. A clever and interesting way to bring together all the countries during the ceremony.

204 countries would pass by before finally the Great Britain team would enter the stadium. Greeted by cheers the Great Britain team looked proud and excited that the Olympic Games were finally back in London.

After a few speeches the million dollar question would finally be answered, who would light the torch? Together with Jade Bailey, David Beckham would bring the torch to the stadium on a motor boat where it would be handed over to Olympic legend Steve Redgrave.  Redgrave would then take it into the actual stadium where it would shockingly be handed over to 7 young aspiring athletes who would go on to light the torch.

In an event that would captivate the world all the vases that were brought in by the 205 countries would light up in the most magnificent and unique Olympic torch ever.

Just as the beginning had left us with a good feeling the end would as well as Sir Paul McCartney brought together the crowd during a great performance of the legendary Beatles song “Hey Jude”.

There is no way I can truly put into words the extraordinary event that just occurred, however, I think Danny Boyle put it best as he tweeted that he was “Proud to be British”. 

The Nashville Predators have matched the Philadelphia Flyers offer sheet to RFA Shea Weber that was worth $110 million dollars over 14 years. The defenseman will remain with the club that he has captained for the last 2 seasons.

Nashville won’t be able to trade their star defenseman until the end of the 2012-2013 season. This means that Weber may very well stay in Nashville for the next 14 years and considering the Wings have to face them 6 times per year(If Weber stays healthy) which could end up in 84 regular season meetings between Weber and the Wings. Couldn’t he just have gone east?

Although I am no doubt a biased Wings fan and would have loved to see Weber leave the Western Conference, I do recognize that had Nashville not matched the offer, they would have within a year turned into Columbus 2.0. After already losing Ryan Suter, Alexander Radulov(Again), and probably Andrei Kostitsyn they couldn’t afford to lose another player, let alone a player of Webers skill level.

The Flyers now join the Wings as one of the teams that are in search for a top-4 defenseman and some of the names that will no doubt be thrown around are Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle and Winnepeg Jets defenseman Tobias Enström who is set to hit the open market at the end of this season.

Weber will be having an annual cap hit of $7,857,143 which gives him the 5th highest cap hit in the league only behind Eric Staal, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Alex Ovechkin. Also, Ilya Kovalchuck(15 years) and Rick DiPierto(15 years) are the only players in the league to be signed to longer terms than Shea Weber.

More to come on this developing story.

Wow!

Breaking news out of Philadelphia today as Shea Weber has signed the Flyers offer sheet worth $100 million over 14 years. However, this doesn’t mean that Weber is a Flyer yet, the Nashville Predators still have 7 days to match the offer.

If the Predators chose to not match the offer made by the Flyers then they will get some sort of compensation that has to do with the yearly salary that Weber receives. If not matched it is expected that the Predators will get 4-first round draft picks from the Flyers.

 According to Darren Dreger, the Predators were in serious trade talks regarding Weber with multiple teams including the Rangers, Red Wings and Sharks. It is nice to see that the Red Wings did make a push for the defenseman because as I have previously stated, he would be a great addition to the squad.

Now the question becomes, Will the Predators match the offer? It is a very tough question to answer but I think it is a yes. They just lost Ryan Suter to Minnesota and losing Weber would turn their team from a legitimate playoff contender into Columbus 2.0. Weber is their captain and the Predators have plenty of cap space. They actually have the most in the entire league with their $29,345,833 available. One thing to note however is that they only have 18 players signed at the current moment so some of that cap space will have to be spent on plugging some of the holes on the Preds roster. Nonetheless, if they were to match the offer, Weber’s cap hit would be around $7.1 million dollars which leaves the Predators with about 22 million dollars in cap space. More than enough room to resign players like Sergei Kostitsyn.

As for the Wings, I am happy that they were atleast in talks with Nashville and I wished that they would have done what the Flyers did, however, I am not too angry with the Wings.

More to follow on this developing story.

The Detroit Red Wings have resigned Kyle Quincey to a two-year deal worth 7.55 million according to MLives Ansher Khan. By resigning Quincey the Wings didn’t just bolster their defensive core but they also avoided the painful process that is salary arbitration.

Personally, I love the cap hit, it is a slight raise and it is a lot lower than what I expected. Most people, including myself, were thinking that he was going to get way north of 4 million per season so seeing this cap hit is quite the sigh of relief. I also love the amount of years for the contract. 2 years is enough for Quincey to prove himself to the Wings and on the same point the Wings haven’t locked him up to a long term deal. No news yet on whether there is a NTC involved.

With Quincey the Wings currently have 6 defenseman, which is still one short of the 7 defenseman the Wings will need. Nonetheless, I am glad this got done now and that he wasn’t awarded a new contract by a judge. Both Quincey and the Wings can move on now which will no doubt appease both sides. It will no doubt be interesting to see who the Wings chose to sign to fill their last defensive slot. Pavel Kubina is still available and I am still very much on the trade for Keith Yandle bandwagon.

The Wings still need to resign RFA Justin Abdelkader, a deal which should be done very shortly according to multiple sources. Abdelkader is wanting a hefty raise and some people see him wanting as much as 2 million per season, a salary that I would like to avoid. The Wings still have $13,057,955 in cap space, per capgeek.

On a different note, UFA Shane Doan may not pick a team in weeks according to Coyotes GM Don Maloney. Current front runners to sign the 35-year old forward are the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Updates to follow.

The first set of demands by the NHL for the new CBA agreement have been released, and to say the least they are some really strict demands. Renaud Lavoie released the demands via twitter and straight away fans from across the globe started to take shots at the NHL and commissioner Gary Bettman.

Many sources see a “War” between the NHL and NHLPA a very strong possibility. The sides seem far off and a lockout is possible.

Demand #1: Reduce Hockey Related Revenues from 57% to 46% – This is probably the most criticized demand and rightfully so. This would drop the amount that players make by 11% which is not chump change to say the least. If this proposal wen’t through(Which It Won’t) the players would be making over 360,000,000 million dollars less per year. It would also bring the cap hit down to around 58 million dollars, 12 million less then the current cap. That would mean mean that the Wild would be 11 million dollars over the cap while the Wings would still have 4 million dollars in cap space, enough to make a move at a player.  In the end, which is quite far away, I see the revenue sharing ending up around 52% to players and the other 48% to the owners.

Demand #2: 10 seasons in the NHL before becoming a UFA – This is certainly an interesting proposal and something that I wouldn’t be all too much against. Currently players usually become UFA’s when they are around 25, if this wen’t through players won’t hit unrestricted free agency until they are about 28. This is certainly a drastic change and something that I very well could see going through. It would mean that most players that are UFA’s would be entering their prime making them much more lucrative targets.

Demand #3: Limit Contracts to 5 years – I think that we all knew a contract limit proposal was coming but 5 years is way too drastic. I am in favor of the idea as dishing out 13-year contracts is very risky and very costly, however, limiting contracts to 5 years is way to low. The limit should be between 8 and 10 years as this way franchise players can still get tied up long term however no mega deals would be dished out.

Demand #4: No More Salary Arbitration – Most people view this as a good thing and I am one of those people, however, Salary Arbitration does have its pros as well. It forces teams to make a move and would avoid lengthy salary holdouts that we see all the time in the NFL(Brees, Avril, CJ2K, etc…). I do in the end see this proposal going through but it won’t be without its share of controversy.

Demand #5: Entry-level contracts 5 years instead of 3 – A proposal that is very interesting to say the least. This would mean that players won’t be RFA’s at the ripe age of 21 instead at 23-25. It also helps teams as players will be on their cheaper deals for a longer time. I do see this one going through and I also think that this is the best of the proposals by the NHL.

Over the next couple of weeks it will be interesting to see the NHLPA’s counter proposal. The sides seem to be very far off and a lockout may be lurking in the future.