Murder Eyes: Worth an extra quarter mill

The Red Wings are allegedly close to signing shootout specialist (LOL) Todd Bertuzzi to a two-year contract extension worth $2.2M per season. The deal was first reported by The Detroit Free Press and Helene St. James.

Bertuzzi is currently 7th on the Red Wings in scoring (and dead last among the Top 6 forwards). He’s on pace for 16 goals and 23 assists — which would be his lowest point total since the season he was first acquired by the Red Wings (2006-07) when he only suited up for 15 games.

It’s important to note that, because of Bertuzzi’s age, any multi-year deal would be a 35+ contract under the current collective bargaining agreement. While these rules may change with the upcoming CBA negotiations, any cap hit in years two and beyond of a multi-year deal that began after the player’s 35th birthday will count against the team’s cap no matter what happens with the player: if he’s demoted, injured and can’t play, or retires suddenly, Todd Bertuzzi’s cap hit will count against Detroit’s salary cap.

The Wings and Bertuzzi’s agent, Pat Morris, have been working on an extension for the past month or so — and both sides were clear that they wanted to remain working together and allow Bertuzzi to continue his playing career in Detroit. First acquired by the Red Wings at the trade deadline in 2007 (for Shawn Matthias and some conditional picks). He played the rest of the season and the playoffs for the Wings and bolted for Anaheim, where he signed a two-year deal. They only wanted one year of the Tuzz and bought out his contract over the following summer. He signed a one-year deal to play in Calgary before returning to the Red Wings in 2009-10. The second of subsequent one-year contracts was set to expire on July 1st of this upcoming summer.

With Niklas Kronwall and Todd Bertuzzi already signed to extension, cross two pending free agents off of the list. The remaining upcoming free agents are Mike Commodore, Tomas Holmstrom, Jiri Hudler, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brad Stuart (all UFAs); Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Kyle Quincey (all RFAs); Fabian Brunnstrom, Ty Conklin, Chris Conner, Garnet Exelby, Doug Janik, Jamie Johnson, Chris Minard (UFAs who are currently playing in Grand Rapids); Travis Ehrhardt, Tom McCollum, and Logan Pyett (RFAs playing in Grand Rapids).

Photo Credit: Dave Reginek, NHLI via Getty Images

So in response, I present you ladies with both a disappointment (the first of many for those females just now getting to know me) and a challenge.  There will only be one loss candy candidate tonight: Kate Upton.  She’s everything that’s right and hot in this battered universe we live in, and even my girlfriend thinks her tits look real.  She’s also famously gracing the pages of this year’s SI Swimsuit Issue, so this is all very newsworthy and timely.

The challenge to you ladies is to put forth a suitable contender…a proper mate…for Miss Upton.  You must come strong here.  No random shots of some one-off, has-been Calvin Klein model in a back lit Mexican toilet chamber.  If there’s a suitable suitor tabled and agreed upon in the comments below, I agree to feature him once/day for the rest of the working week here on these hallowed TPL pages.  If we win against Vancouver, I’ll throw in a weekend of hunkiness.  If we lose, the joyride stops on Friday.

We’re nothing if not fair and just.

Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

*Insert caption here about tonight being a wobbly affair for Hank and the fellas…

SCORE: 2-1 Hawks (hey, Mr. P)

THE SKINNY
Lot of action in player movement land today. Q back to the Wings, Pavel under the knife, Jimmy and Buckets into the lineup. The good guys came our roaring, playing as good a first 10 minutes as you’ll see the rest of the season. The next 50 were a different story. There were flashes of brilliance…big hits by Stu, amazing saves by Tiberius…but in the end, we just didn’t have it. Game, Blouses.

NOTES BY PERIOD
First…

• The Wings drew blood early in this one with Flip cashing in a power play opportunity after some very strong work by “no you can’t have #4 back” Jake Kindl. Kindl, for his part, played amazingly well all night.  That’s not a typo. With Quincey coming back into the Detroit orbit, Kindl’s strong game felt a bit like your girlfriend’s super-successful high school ex boyfriend stopping by for a drink because he’s in town on a high profile work assignment/contract modeling job. Time to raise the game.
• We followed that up with a fantastic PK (Holmstrom, tripping). Tons of pressure, totally disabled the Hawks’ ability to get into the zone. One of the better sights of the night, it was great to see Cleary out there on the PK1 unit. First game back, right into the thick of it. Well done, Loins. Cleary made a fantastic pass to Scuttles later in the period…could have been 2-0 Wings and an entirely different game….but the little Czech couldn’t convert the wide open one-on-one against Crawfrord.
• In less essential news, we reaffirmed that on the list of “guys you want breaking out of the penalty box for a breakaway when his 2 minutes expires,” Holmstrom still isn’t your man. He almost got sprung when the aforementioned penalty ran out, but…stumbling and flailing…couldn’t connect on the outlet pass heading into the Chicago zone.

Second…

• If the first 10 minute of the game was all puppies and hookers, the second half of the first was all beat salads. That carried into the second period, and in general, it seemed like the Wings never quite regained their initial form. Things started to unravel with a late first Hawks PP that looked leagues more threatening than their first PP and carried into the second, where Chicago easily shut down a wobbly Detroit PP to start the segment and then settled in for a dominating effort.
• On what has to be the ugliest moment of PP hockey I’ve seen all year, Ian White blew a tire at the blueline, which led to an incredibly clean Frolik break in on Jimmy. Jimmy…being his typical Big Jim Slade self…shut that nonsense down hard and kept the game at 1-0, but it was a sign of things to come: the skaters blowing assignments and Tiberius bailing them out.
• The Hawks g0t on the board when Jimmy Hayes (no relation to our starting goaltender) tapped in a goal midway through the period after beating out Kronwall. I hate to agree w Pierre on anything other than evening wear selections, but you could see this coming. We looked tired…we were scrambling. Unfortunately, it never really got better. Just a strange period. Felt like one of those classic “fat, drunk and stupid” segments where up is down, down is sideways and Kindl is playing like a guy you actually DON’T want to cash in a future first rounder to cover up.

Third…

• The third period was essentially Second Period, Redux. We started off chasing our tails and eventually coughed up a tally when Kruger scored on a nice play by…again…Jimmy Hayes. I won’t spend any more time blowing Hayes here because the NBC team did enough of that, but suffice to say, the young man (did you hear he was over 6 foot?) had a nice evening.

OF HORSECOPS AND ASSES
Horsecop tonight goes to the pair of guys fresh off the injured list – Jimmy and the man from Newfoundland, Danny Cleary. Nice efforts out of both guys. I’m struggling to find one non-Ericsson guy to pin tonight on, just because it seems so cliche by now, so I’ll go with Babs. I’m generally loathe to pin anything on Babcock, but there were a number of things that happened tonight that fall to the bench to get right….things line changes…things we didn’t do well and that cost us.

NEXT UP
…we get Vancouver back at the Joe. Thursday night. I’ll be scouring the town for a red lycra outfit to wear while I watch in front of my tv so I can show those green-clad bitches in British Columbia how a real playa does spandex.

TSN’s Bob McKenzie has confirmed that the trade is final and that the Red Wings are now the proud owners of Kyle Quincey’s contract, which will be expiring on July 1st. His cap hit is $3.125M. He will be an improvement on the current third blueline pair, which consists of Jonathan Ericsson and Jakub Kindl. Mike Commodore will likely remain on the roster in an 8th defenseman capacity.

On July 1st, Quincey will be a restricted free agent.

Going the other way is Detroit’s first round draft pick in this upcoming draft and part-time Griffin/part-time Walleye defenseman Sebastien Piche. Piche, has not been able to elevate himself in Grand Rapids’ system after being signed as an undrafted free agent in 2009.

Quincey was originally drafted by the Red Wings in the fourth round of the 2003 Draft. He played in 13 games for the Red Wings before being waived (to keep Chris Chelios on the roster) in 2008. The Los Angeles Kings claimed him and he spent the rest of the year in Hollywood. He was traded to Colorado, where he’s been playing since 2009-10.

The 6-2, 207 lbs gritty defenseman has 5 goals, 18 assists, and 60 penalty minutes in 54 games played this season.

TO DETROIT: Kyle Quincey D
TO TAMPA BAY: Sebastien Piche D, Detroit’s 1st Round Pick in 2012
TO COLORADO: Steve Downie F

One's out. One's in.

Here’s an odd, out-of-left-field story for your Tuesday afternoon: Pavel Datsyuk had minor arthroscopic surgery to remove some bone fragments removed in what was dubbed “an old thing” by coach Mike Babcock. It was done now to make sure that he’s back to 100% for the playoffs.

Datsyuk comes out of the lineup, and Dan Cleary goes back in. Cleary is expected to play tonight in Chicago after missing the last five. He twice had a cyst in his knee drained to take some pressure out of the joint — a similar situation to the one that essentially removed me from the game altogether. I also had a cyst in my knee joint — but it was wrapped around the tendons and both inside and out of the joint — and had it removed. That he’s back after five games is pretty amazing considering it took me 18 months to walk to the bathroom without pain.

The new lines look a little something like this, per Babcock:

Franzen :: Zetterberg :: Bertuzzi
Cleary :: Filppula :: Hudler
Miller :: Helm :: Abdelkader
Mursak :: Emmerton :: Holmstrom

With twelve healthy forwards, no one will be recalled for now. If it becomes apparent that Cleary isn’t in game shape, or another forward is lost to injury, the top candidates for recall are Gustav Nyquist, Chris Conner, and Tomas Tatar — who has been called up twice, but scratched at the last minute both times.

You likely won’t be seeing Conklin in Detroit again — he’d have to clear re-entry waivers to be called back up to the parent club. If a player were to be picked up off of re-entry waivers, the claiming team would only be responsible for half of his salary and cap hit (the original team, in this case – Detroit, would be responsible for the other half). When the regular season ends and the playoffs begin, those rules go out the window, so expect Conklin back as a Black Ace. Unless the Griffins are in the playoffs, too, which — sadly — doesn’t look too possible at the moment.

If someone had claimed Conklin over the past 24 hours, his contract would have come off of the books. Currently, the Wings are at the limit 50 contracts, and would need to lose one (or more ) to complete a trade at next Monday’s deadline. Something to keep in mind is that unless players (prospects included) are going the other way, the Red Wings are not able to make any trades or acquisitions of any kind. Trading draft picks won’t cut it this year.

Nicastro at his arraignment. Photo by Mark Garfinkel.

Who’s ready for some bad news?

Detroit Red Wings draft pick and current Boston University Terrier defenseman Max Nicastro has been arrested in Beantown for allegedly raping a woman in a dormitory on campus. He is being held in Brighton while awaiting arraignment (scheduled for tomorrow). Nicastro is the second BU hockey player to get into trouble this year: Corey Trivino was thrown off of the squad in December for breaking into a woman’s home.

For his part, Nicastro has been suspended by the hockey team until it can conduct a full investigation. He is currently a juinor, and was a third round draft pick of the Wings in 2008. He’s 6-3, 200 pounds, and didn’t need to be signed until August of 2013 — provided that he stayed in school and continued playing for the Terriers hockey club. His suspension and potential dismissal will obviously throw a wrench in any future plans he had with the Red Wings and free society. Also keeping him off of the MENSA list is the fact that his Facebook page is unlocked, and something tells me the prosecution will enjoy the fodder (two notes: the link no longer appears to work, which can only help his chances, trust me; and the young lady in the photo we posted at the top of the page earlier has asked that it be removed. Of course, we don’t want to disrespect her – the story isn’t about her so we honored that request).

We’ll keep you posted with developments, but something tells me that Max Nicastro may have his name scratched off of the prospects list pretty soon here…

***UPDATE, 12:04pm***
The team has made the move officially — formally waiving Ty Conklin as of noon.

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The goaltending conundrum that we explored yesterday has been solved: the Detroit Red Wings have chosen to keep Joey MacDonald in Hockeytown, and waive Ty Conklin, The Production Line learned from a source within the organization late last night.

Following a string of strong play, MacDonald has become the clear-cut second string goaltender within the organization. He would not have to be waived to be sent down to the Grand Rapids Griffins, but it appears that he’s become too valuable to the big club to explore sending him to the AHL.

Ty Conklin, on the other hand, has not played well in the games that he’s been given the opportunity to prove he should be the backup goaltender to Jimmy Howard. With his waiving, other teams have until noon on Tuesday to put in a claim. If a team picks him off of the waiver wire, his contract would transfer to the new team, and the Red Wings would receive nothing in return. If no other team puts in a claim for the veteran netminder, he can be assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the American Hockey League, who will have a decision to make of their own: both Jordan Pearce and Tom McCollum are currently on the roster in Grand Rapids.

With Joey MacDonald’s contract elevating to one-way status next season, the Red Wings will use the remainder of the regular season to see what may be the goaltending tandem for 2012-13.

The Production Line wishes Ty Conklin nothing but the best in Grand Rapids, and sincerely hope that he can bounce back from a tough season to secure employment for next season. A quick aside: a few weeks ago, after Joey MacDonald started a few games for the Wings and was running low on sticks, licensed pilot Ty Conklin flew him to Grand Rapids to pick up a few extras. Speaks to the character of a man like Conklin to go out of his way to help a teammate, even one that may be taking your job.

Likewise, congratulations to Joey MacDonald, the newest full-time Detroit Red Wing, who has more than earned his shot over the last two seasons.

Photo Credits: Justin K. Aller, Getty Images; Dave Sanford, Getty Images

On February 2nd, Jimmy Howard suffered a broken finger against the Vancouver Canucks. He finished the game, earning his league-leading 32nd win on the year. Nothing was mentioned during the broadcast regarding the injury, but Joey MacDonald was called up the next morning, and flown out to meet the team in Edmonton.

Ty Conklin, who has played poorly all season, got the start in Edmonton and lasted exactly one period. Joey MacDonald took over and hasn’t looked back. He started seven games in a row, winning the final six — including the NHL record-tying 21st in a row at the Joe, not to mention the 22nd and 23rd this afternoon.

With Jimmy Howard set to return Tuesday night in Chicago… it’s decision time. Do the Wings demote Joey MacDonald, allowing him to play some games in Grand Rapids — or waive Ty Conklin, who has proven ineffective time and time again?

SCENARIO A :: JOEY MACDONALD GOES DOWN
Joey MacDonald cleared waivers at the beginning of the season. As a result, he wouldn’t have to clear waivers again until after playing ten games or thirty days on the NHL roster. He’s played in 8, and has only been up from the AHL for 16 days, so he could go back down to the Griffins without any risk of losing him to another team that’s also noticed his hot streak.

I think it’s fair to say that the Red Wings have found their #2 goaltender for the playoffs, when the best players will dress no matter what. But perhaps Ken Holland and Company are thinking that they’d rather have Joey get in a few games in Grand Rapids (as opposed to sitting on the bench while Howard plays — because Howard plays an awful lot). But Matt Saler makes a good point: having missed time earlier this season with a concussion, playing in the minors increases the chance that MacDonald could get run over and re-injured… and it also opens him up to the farm clubs of teams that the Wings might have to play in the post-season.

Sending MacDonald down to Grand Rapids would be painless to the team as a whole. Nothing would be lost, aside from — maybe — MacDonald’s confidence. Taking a risk like waiving Ty Conklin (not that anyone would claim him) is against the Red Wings’ management mantra of stockpiling NHL talent and letting the chips fall where they most obviously may.

However, one could argue that Joey MacDonald has earned his NHL dollars. He’s on a two-way contract this year (but not next year — more on that in a minute), meaning he’s paid $2,973 for every day that he’s on the NHL roster. Compare that to what he earns in the AHL: $568.

SCENARIO B :: WAIVE TY CONKLIN
As mentioned above, it’s not generally how the Red Wings operate — waiving a veteran player that’s been given a contract to play in the NHL this season. The team prides itself (and sells itself to other veterans in the off-season) as being universally loyal to their players, and Ty Conklin is one of their players.

By all accounts, Conklin is a great teammate, a great man, and a great influence during practice. Also by all accounts, however, is that Ty Conklin has been one of the worst goaltenders in the National Hockey League this season, after playing so well in his first go-round with the Wings.

Conklin cannot be assigned to the Grand Rapids Griffins without first being exposed to the rest of the league on the waiver wire. Speculation arose during the Red Wings game that the Wings were going to waive Conklin tomorrow morning. When a player is waived, the other 29 teams have 24 hours to put in a claim for his services and take over his contract. It’s doubtful that any team would put in a claim for Conklin, but it’s a risk that doesn’t need to be taken. 

If (when) Conklin clears waivers on Tuesday (or whenever), he could be assigned to Grand Rapids, where he’d improve their goaltending situation and would be able to regain some of the confidence it’s clear that he’s lost over the course of the season in the NHL. But losing a player for nothing isn’t the Red Wings way, most of the time, especially when it’s possible to avoid.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE…
Joey MacDonald is on a two-way contract this season, but it elevates to a one-way next season. What that means is he’d be paid the same paycheck regardless of where he’s playing — Detroit or Grand Rapids. What it also means is that since he will be making more than the AHL maximum of $105,000, he’d be subjected to re-entry waivers should the need arise for his services in the NHL.

It happened last season with Derek Meech. He cleared waivers at the beginning of the season, but when the need arose for a defenseman, he was passed over because the Wings didn’t want to expose him to re-entry waivers. If a player is claimed on re-entry waivers, the Wings would still be responsible for 50% of his salary (and cap hit) without the use of the player.

Has MacDonald played well enough to earn himself the backup role full-time next season? Some of us thought he played well enough last season to earn that right for this year, but it’s never a bad thing having more NHL-caliber competition for any roster spot, but particularly in the crease.

If the Wings treat the rest of this season like an extended audition for Joey MacDonald to be the backup, and send Conklin down, it might be a calculated risk to look into the crystal ball. Is that alone worth the risk of waiving Conklin? When coupled with the fact that he hasn’t played well enough to earn a good look, then maybe… but there are a lot of teams looking to improve their goaltending.

SO WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN?
The decision will have to come soon — I’m certain that all three goaltenders won’t be traveling to Chicago, although there’s no real reason they couldn’t. The Wings aren’t at the roster limit, considering that Dan Cleary and Patrick Eaves are on short-term IR (meaning their roster spot is made available). So they could carry all three with them, but why draw this out any further? We’ll let you know as soon as the Red Wings make an announcement one way or another. Stay tuned…

Photo Credits: Andy Mead, Icon SMI; Rex Larson, the Grand Rapids Press

Today, the Wings take on the Sharks in an attempt to stretch their record home win streak to 23. The goaltender that’s won the last five is none other than Joey MacDonald — who, after having taken over for Ty Conklin in Edmonton on the 4th, has played remarkably well. Jimmy Howard had this game circled on his calendar as the one he’d return for, but it looks like they’re going to ride the hot hand and give Howie’s finger another day or two to fully recover after being broken against Vancouver on the 2nd.

After the game, there will be decisions to be made. Should the Wings hang onto MacDonald, or send him back down to Grand Rapids? If they opt to keep MacDonald in Hockeytown, they’ll have to decide what to do with Ty Conklin. Conklin can’t be assigned to the AHL without first being subjected to waivers — and although no one would dare put in a claim for someone playing as poorly as he has this season, it’s a risk that the Wings usually don’t take. Expect MacDonald to be demoted until the playoffs, when he’ll absolutely be the #2 guy behind Howard.

Would Joey MacDonald be better served playing more games in Grand Rapids than he would playing second fiddle to the clear-cut starter in Jimmy Howard? Whatever the case may be, the Wings only have a few more hours to make their decision. Howard is the scheduled starter Tuesday night in Chicago, and they likely won’t fly with three netminders.

What would you do if you were Ken Holland? I’m a big proponent of allowing the best players to be in the NHL, so I’d like Joey to stick around. That said, I see the other side of the argument, too: why risk losing an asset for nothing, and maybe it’d be nice to have MacDonald playing games more often than he would in Detroit. I expect to receive the press release immediately following the game saying that MacDonald has been assigned to the Griffins.

The puck drops at 12:30pm. We’ll keep you posted with any official word from the team.

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I had a “Red Wings acquire Pavel Kubina” post all typed up and ready to go. Looks like I won’t be able to use it.

It was revealed on Friday night that the Red Wings made a formal trade offer to the Tampa Bay Lightning for their hulking defenseman Pavel Kubina. Kubina, who had been pulled from practice and games until a trade could be completed, had drawn interest from several teams around the league.

However, late last night, the Lightning announced that they had traded Kubina to the Flyers in exchange for a 2nd round draft pick, a 4th round draft pick, and Jon Kalinski.

The Flyers are also in the running for Columbus Blue Jackets’ star Rick Nash. Rumor has it that the asking price — so far — is James van Riemsdyk, Sergei Bobrovsky, and either Brayden Schenn or Sean Couturier. That’s a hell of a package… too much, even for Nash.

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Speaking of potential trade targets, it’s clear that Holland is after a defenseman to shore up the third pairing. He pushed hard, we’ve learned, for Montreal’s Hal Gill (now a Predator), as well as Tampa’s Pavel Kubina (now a Flyer). It’s no secret that the Wings are always looking to improve their scoring ranks, as well, so perhaps the search for a top six forward is underway, as well.

In addition to the Stars, Canadiens and Lightning (who have already started moving players), it looks like the Hurricanes, Sabres, Islanders, Blue Jackets, and Oilers are sellers. Certainly, more teams may be added to that list by the end of the week, but start perusing their rosters for players to poach. At one quick glance, guys that may be on the radar include:

• Ales Hemsky (Edmonton F) even if I’m not sold on it.
• Tuomo Ruutu (Carolina F), but Hurricanes’ GM Jim Rutherford said that he’d prefer to re-sign him.
• Chad Larose (Carolina F), a two-time Red Wings’ tryout that has another year on his deal after this one.
• Bryan Allen (Carolina D), a 6-4 blueliner that was drafted 4th overall in 1998 (one after Brad Stuart).
• Paul Gaustad (Buffalo F), a gigantic alternate captain for the Sabres.
• Jordan Leopold (Buffalo D), who has been on FIVE teams since 2009. Wut?
• Travis Moen (Montreal F), the gritty former Duck.
• Chris Campoli (Montreal D), whose girlfriend would IMMEDIATELY have to fight Emma Andersson for hottest Wings WAG.
• Brian Rolston (Islanders F), a Michigan-native and veteran whose name hasn’t been in any trade rumors, but fits the M.O.

Knowing Ken Holland, it’ll be none of these guys. Plucking some dude that no one even knew was available. That’s how Tick Tock rolls.

Photo Credit: David Guralnick, Detroit News