I Can't Watch 8 More Years of Franzen

Should’ve edited that poll.

I love how smug he is about how much money he earns.

And honestly, I don’t think I have the imagination to dream up a trade scenario that would work because of two things:

1. the length (and dollars) still on his contract
2. his true value to a hockey team

We all know Franzen can score goals. And he does a pretty decent job of it. But, as you say, he’s never played a whole season, and, again as you say, the last time he played an almost complete season he was still a role player.

Is he a 30 goal scorer? Because if he is, that production is hard to replace. Or is he a 20-25 goal scorer? Because those guys aren’t exactly the hardest piece to find.

In my ideal world, Franzen would be our second line winger. He would still be on the team, but he wouldn’t be “the” goal scorer, just because I don’t think that he’s reliable enough. I do value his playoff production, and if the Wings make the playoffs this year, I’m excited to see if he can replicate it.

But back to my ideal world, I would keep Franzen, but I would get someone else. Trade a ton for someone like Parise or (and this is really ideal) Bobby Ryan to play with Datsyuk.

But sadly, like all youth of today, video games have sapped my ability to imagine, and the only trade scenarios I can dream up are:

TO DET: Bobby Ryan
TO ANA: $200 Little Caesar’s Gift Certificate, Doug Janik, and a framed picture of the Wings shaking hands with the Ducks in 2009.

Because I think Franzen’s most comparable player is Phil Kessel.

Both lazy as hell when the puck isn’t on their stick, both extremely lethal when it is.

Only problem is…Kessel is 24 and still can improve, Franzen is 32 and will no doubt be on the decline.

Does it by chance involve Bat Country?

Our lines should look like this:
Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Hudler (or whoever we can trade for Hudler and Bert)
Filppula, Helm, Franzen (Helm lacks finish, Filp is finnish….trust me on this one)
Cleary, Abby, Mursak (When healthy hopefully Mursak performs like we think he can)
Eaves, Emmerton, Miller (Best 4th line in the league…you know it and I know it)

Rotating in – Holmer and Conner

I wish him numerous Kronwallings and many embarrassments by Datsyuk and complete rejection and denial by Jimmah.

We lose Holmstrom and Bertuzzi (and likely Hudler) this summer, but have to think about Nyquist, Tatar, Mursak, and Emmerton. Nyquist and Tatar are already NHL-ready. Mursak showed flashes of something great int he preseason (and hopefully will begin showing it again). Emmerton showed flashes of a Maltby type player early on in the season. With the odds of Lidstrom returning growing smaller every season, I sincerely doubt we will spend that much money on our forward corps; it will have to be on the defense, even with Brendan Smith more than ready to make the jump

Hossa’s cap hit is ~$1350000 more than Franzen’s

We couldn’t have had both. But we could have had the better one for a smidgen more money. Which would have meant, probably, no Bertuzzi (like you said) or guy like Abdelkader. OR no Ericsson and yeah.

This will always make me sad.