The Pursuit of Agent-ness

Khan(!) has been talking to Ol’ Kenny Boy, and Mr. Holland has apparently been disagreeing with some of my free-agent choices.

Holland declined to comment on Jason Williams' revelation that the Red Wings offered him a one-year contract, saying only that he has had conversations with several player agents, including the one for Williams.

Jason's “excitement” to come back and play for Babcock may have been as well grounded as Sportsnet.ca’s story about Hudler staying in Detroit (they fixed the website if you didn’t notice).

"We're exploring the market," Holland said. "We don't have a lot of (salary) cap space. We'd like to add a forward or two between now and September."

September? Are you REALLY planning on making us wait until September, Tick Tock? This has already been the slowest of slow seasons in recent memory. And most news has been bad news. Come on, Kenny…throw us a freakin’ bone here.

Taylor Pyatt, who played for Vancouver last season, and Manny Malhotra, who played for Columbus, do not appear to be on the Red Wings' shopping list.
Pyatt's agent, Todd Christie, said he has had no conversations with anyone in Detroit.

Squashed. Pyatt was one of the guys I thought might be a good fit. He has good size and strength and the youth factor. “Excuse me, Mule…could you show me how to do that?” Oh well, looks like Kenny’s not interested.

Malhotra's agent, Paul Krepelka, said he made a pitch to the Red Wings on July 1 but hasn't spoken to anyone in the organization since then.

HE made the pitch? It’s been 30 days and we’re not even giving this guy the time of day to even speak? The Detroit brass must have been entirely un-impressed with what they saw in this guy. Maybe it was the whole ‘goal off the glove’ incident (?)

Let’s recapitulate some of the free agents we have discussed on here on how they currently stand with the Wings organ-i-zation:

Jason Williams: No comment
Todd Bertuzzi: Heading East (refuses to play for another Canadian team)
Taylor Pyatt: No calls made
Manny Malhotra: Call received, but made no call back
Petr Sykora: Contacted
Mike Grier: Contacted…”interested”
Blair Betts: ???
Andy Hilbert: ???
Maxim Afinogenov: ???

Okay, if not Williams…Sykora?

It has been made pretty clear that most Wings fans do not want the services of Jason Williams (again). But what about Petr Sykora? According to Khan(!), he is another player that the front office has contacted. You may remember him as the guy who stayed our Cup run with 35 seconds to go in Game 5 of 2008’s Cup Finals (for one more game).

He’s only 32 (three years older than Williams) but has accumulated 300 goals and 674 points in 921 games. He has contributed just about everywhere he has gone. Yeah I know, we don’t have a good history with for Penguins, but look; this guy would be an almost be guaranteed 50+ points wearing the red and white if played an entire season. Sure he scored that one low-down-dirty-stinkin’ goal against us to force game 6 in the Pens’ ice water palace, but other than that, do we really have a reason to hate him? Because he played for Pittsburgh? Perhaps, but if he signs with Detroit…is all forgiven?

Would you rather have him over Williams?