Roster Coming into Focus

Every once and a while, when I'm alone with my thoughts or zoning out during an exam, I just smile. He's ours, I think to myself. Holy fucking shit.

Wally's all but assured to return. There's that little matter of agreeing on an amount, and I suppose we're not out of the woods yet since the arbitrator could give him some ridiculously unreasonable award. But Holland sounds confident in getting to an agreement beforehand. (God I've gotten lackadaisical about linking sources. I read it somewhere. Trust me.) And we can at least be sure no dumbassed GM throws an offer sheet at him.

Speaking of which, it's a good frigging thing I was on vacation when the rumors surfaced of Mike Gillis "preparing" a sheet for Wally. I don't know what I would have done with myself between hearing about that and the news that Fil filed for arbitration coming down. It likely would have involved keeping matches nearby at all times, however.

There's not much left. Chelios, Mac, Downey. Official word on Drake, the number for Fil. Nothing else til TC, we can be pretty sure. But when Traverse City rolls around? Oh, I'll probably be looking like a genius, on two, well, one and a half counts. First of all Babcock talks here about Jonathon Ericsson as if he's a lock to make the club next season. Well color me excited. I'll pretend I was going on knowledge of Babcock's inner mind and not wanton speculation based on my own excitable imagination.

And an even juicier tidbit, this time from Holland? We may have indeed seen the last of Andreas Lilja, just as we hoped as he lifted the Cup in June. Dave at GC mentioned this one, and with Babcock himself saying that Ericsson is basically assured a spot, Lilja is basically assured to be gone (and even then, the Wings will still have nine and need to deal/waive another D, so Lebda may yet be traded as I suggested).

I didn't expect Lilja to be dealt because the Wings just signed him, but on the other hand, if Lilja knew the score, as you have to think he did, he knows his chances of winning a Top 6 job in Detroit is going to be very tough. He watched Meech and Ericsson excel with big minutes during the injury shitstorm, and he watched them get bigger minutes than him as well. So he signs with Detroit on the hope he can win himself a job, and worst case scenario he gets dealt. Likely to a contender - I doubt a rebuilding team is going to spend draft picks to get a 30 something veteran who doesn't provide offense. More likely an EC contender looking to add a cheap, experienced minute eater. And as much shit as we give Lilja, I can't think of a team in the hunt who wouldn't mind adding him for a 4th rounder.

I'm pretty much going to be winding things down for the summer once I run out of things to say, which should be, I donno, tomorrow or so. Not ruling out random thoughts over the summer, but things should be pretty quiet pretty soon.