Dan Cleary: Why?

We all know the roster situation with the Red Wings forwards right now.  The Wings had 16 forwards and planned to carry 14 on the roster.  Math tells us that two forwards needed to go.

The truth, by some genius.

Then Dan Cleary signed a one year deal for $1.75M.  With the Red Wings.  And not the Flyers.  And Red Wing nation collectively jumped off all of the bridges and died.  And Holland was having such a great summer too...

If the Wings didn't have a roster crunch, I wouldn't hate this signing.  I mean, I wouldn't like it, but you'd get a third line/power play front net/penalty kill guy for a rather decent price.  Not going to set the world on fire, but he'd be able to get 30-40 points and play 13-15 minutes a game.  Not bad for $1.75M.

Now let's step out of fantasy land where the Wings have too many forwards.  And add Cleary.  Ugh.

I think everyone knows that I'm a huge fan of Tomas "The Souse" Tatar.  Based on certain things that happened today, I would say that this is probably the end for him in Detroit.  I hope I'm wrong, but we're all thinking it.  Buck falls.

I guess the only positive is that it's a one-year deal.  But we both know that Holland is loyal (probably too loyal) and will look to sign Cleary to an extension as soon as it's allowed (January 1st for one-year deals).  Happy Winter Classic Day!

Okay, hopefully tomorrow will bring good news out of camp.  I'll update with anything important.

Ugh.

Yell at me on the twitter: @KevinN37