The State Of Quin-Sanity

Remember how Kyle Quincey was supposed to dominate this season and unleash the wrath of Quin-Sanity? Yeah, me neither and at this point I certainly don't see that happening, or at least in a positive way.

While the season is young and not too much should be said of the Wings 1-2 start, a lot should be said about how extremely below average Quincey is playing right now. He currently has a team worst -4 +/- rating and has 6 penalty minutes to go along with that. Furthermore, he has been directly or indirectly involved in giving up many of Detroits goals so far, especially against St. Louis where he was involved in giving up quite a few goals.

To tell you the truth, I am really starting to get fed up with this guy. Not so much in terms of his skill, as he no doubt has the skill to be a proper NHL defenseman, but rather, the fact that he has not lived up even near to the expectations that were set upon him when he arrived, and let me tell you, these expectations weren't that high. Quincey has shown me nothing that proves that he is worth the 1st round draft pick that we gave to Tampa in order to acquire him. He wasn't asked to fill the role of Nick Lidström, instead he was asked to play in the bottom two defensive pairings while providing some offense on the power play. It currently seems that the only thing he is good at is giving up breakaway goals and taking stupid, inopportune penalties.

So my question is, what do we do with the guy?

With everyone healthy this is how our D core currently shakes up:

Kronwall - Ericsson

Smith - Quincey/Kindl/Lashoff/Huskins

Colaiacovo - White

As you can see, two of our lines are set in stone however there is one spot on the other line which is still up for grabs. 4 players will be competing for it, although Huskins has no chance of winning it and is merely on there because he is on the team. However, we have yet to see Kindl play and he may surprise us (don't have your hopes up) and Brian Lashoff has played better than any defenseman this season except for Kronwall. The decision isn't easy and while I do believe that Quincey will remain with the Wings for the rest of the season, lets take a look at what could potentially happen in the Quincey department.

Kyle Quincey currently has two years remaining on his current deal that he signed this past summer. His cap hit is 3,775,000 for both years. Now, considering the current market for defenseman, this isn't a bad price if he plays up to his potential and that is a big if. If the Wings would in fact decide that enough is enough and that they want to get rid of him, here are some of the realistic possibilities in which they could do so:

- Trade him at the trade deadline

- Trade him during the offseason

- Buy him out during the offseason

We could also send him down on waivers but he will most likely be claimed which means that we will have to take on half of his salary for the next two years and since that would be a little under $2 million, I doubt the Wings would consider this as an option.

So, the question becomes, out of the three options, which one do the Wings consider? Personally, I want the Wings to buy him out. Let him finish out the season and hope that he can improve but if he keeps playing at the level at which he is at then we should have no reason or obligation to keep him. Another reason for buying Quincey out is that I doubt many teams would be interested in trading for him, let alone giving up something that could be worth it for us. As of right now, all I see the Wings being able to get for him is either a mid-range prospect, a borderline NHLer, or a mid-round draft pick. Not something that makes you jump up out of your seat.

Hopefully Quincey improves over the course of the season so if for nothing else we can get more out of him in a trade and not feel that the 1st round pick we spent on him was a total waste.

Also, I maybe have been a bit harsh on the guy but for anyone who has watched every game he has played in since he joined, I think you can all agree with me in saying that it hasn't exactly been spectacular.

Let me know what you guys think about this whole situation and if he finishes the season with Detroit.

UPDATE: Changed Quincey's +/- rating from a -6 to a -4, thanks to Brion for noticing the mistake. Also, disregard what I said about when a player is claimed his former team takes on half of his salary, since that apparently isn't the rule anymore.