He wanted too much. He was offered what KH believed to be a fair deal, and he wanted more. If he would have accepted the deal here I would have wanted him back. He scores goals and is a hard worker - two traits this team is sorely lacking in. Biggest knock on him was his lack of size - he simply could be pushed around at will no matter what.
As far as center goes we have Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Helm (who I'd rather be our fourth line center...but whatver), and for some unknown reason they insist on treating Abdelkader as a center.
I imagine our lines will look something like this:
Nyquist - Datsyuk - Franzen
Filppula - Zetterberg - Sammy
Brunner - Helm - Cleary
Miller - Abdelkader - Tootoo
Depending on how well Brunner does I can see him being put on the second line in place of Samuelsson, but I'm not entirely sure.
What I'd like to see for that 4th line is Gator - Helm - Tootoo, but that leaves us with a hole on the 3rd line for center and seeing as how I doubt the organization sees someone such as Jarnkrok, Sheahan, or Andersson as ready for the big boy ice.
EDIT: And what I wouldn't mind doing is putting together a trade to get Bobby Ryan from Anaheim. He is a proven goal scorer, right handed shot, big body, etc. It'd take a lot to get him, but I imagine that since they're looking for a #2 center that we could put together a package of Flip + top prospect + a early draft pick and have it be a decent shot - if need be throw in another roster player.
It'd give us a top 6 of
Nyquist - Datsyuk - Ryan
Brunner / Samuelsson - Zetterberg - Franzen
I'm liking that a lot. It takes the immense goal scoring pressure off of Franzen and fills our goal scoring hole.
EDIT: I keep forgetting about Bertuzzi too, though with good reason. I imagine he'll be on the third line though.
