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Salary Cap Reality He knows he'll never have the Cup again.

f***in Pat... Now none of us can take cabs...

If this league did happen, would blueadams put the lines together?

The question is, would we have an enforcer?

I dont know... It may look weird but I think it looks real good...

We could have spent that money to sign a top 6 forward and a grinder.

I think he's going to blow us away next season to be honest. He knows he has something to prove and I have faith in him to prove it. It'll be a sad day if that work horse leaves Detroit for me. He's one of the hardest working players this team has seen in a long time

Not enough?

Have a feeling uk wing would be afraid of all of those that may have negged him to death and eva would break down every stat of the game down to amount of times Lidstromboli tosses out a sarcastic rant toward something that anyone says. Would be classic s***.

Phoenix has never been great for attendance nor have they had great success. But this season is only the third time in the Coyotes' 13-season history that the team has averaged below 13,500 in attendance. Sure, that's not a terribly high number compared to teams like the Wings, Rangers, Canadiens, or Leafs. But for comparison? The Jets played 17 NHL seasons and only averaged ABOVE 13,500 in attendance twice. So overall, the franchise has played 30 NHL seasons, averaging above 13,500 in attendance 12 times. Ten of those times were after the team relocated to Phoenix. Before the 1979 merger, the Jets never cleared 9,500. So the Coyotes have had significantly more success drawing fans. As far as success, the Jets made the playoffs eleven times in 17 seasons. The Coyotes have made the playoffs six times in 13 seasons. Total playoff record for the teams is Jets 19-42 (.311), Coyotes 13-24 (.351) so as you can see, the Coyotes have also been more successful in the postseason. The Jets' regular season winning percentage is .442, which is pretty terrible. The Coyotes, OTOH, come out at .485, if you factor all shootouts as ties, and take away the extra point for non-shootout OTLs. They haven't had a great team, but they have still provided better support than Winnipeg. Canadians like to push the "Put a team anywhere in Canada and it will be sold out every night." line. The Jets never managed that. They probably would the first couple seasons if they got a team back, but who knows what happens after that? Ottawa? Winnipeg? Vancouver? Quebec? Montreal and Toronto, sure. They've been around for 100 years and have fan bases that have been passed down through generations. The Nucks, Sens, Jets, and Nords aren't/weren't even as old as a large number, if not majority when the Nords and Jets moved, of fans of the Leafs and Habs. The Sens haven't even been around as long as 75-80% or more of Leafs or Habs fans. And I will say it again: relocating a team is not Bettman saying "You know what, let's take this team and move it." It is the owner of the team deciding to move the team to another location. This is usually the result of a sale. The Jets, Nordiques, and Whalers were sold because they were hemorrhaging money worse than the Coyotes are. The new owners already had destinations in mind, and because they followed the proper procedures for purchasing and relocating a team, there were no problems with the sales or the relocating. Expansion is a similar process. Bettman does not decide "Let's place teams in these cities" but rather the league decides to expand by a number of teams, and seeks bidders for those teams. They decide based on financial stability of the market and the bidder, proximity to other markets, and how well the bidder would serve the BoG, among other things. Of course then there is the unusual situation which happened in 1991. The Gund brothers had owned the California Seals, which eventually moved to Cleveland. The Cleveland franchise was failing financially, as were the North Stars, due to both teams having little on-ice success. As the North Stars were put up for sale, the league allowed the Gunds to purchase the North Stars and merge the two clubs in 1979, forming a much deeper and more successful franchise, which would reach the Finals in 1981. In 1991, a group led by Howard Baldwin was seeking an expansion franchise in the Bay Area. After again suffering financial difficulty, the Gunds asked the league for permission to transfer the team to the Bay Area. The league sought a compromise; the Gunds would receive the Bay Area expansion team, in exchange for selling the Stars to Baldwin's group, which in the final moments of the negotiations would see a 51% majority share bought out by Norm Green. A dispersal draft between the two clubs was held, followed by an expansion draft in which both teams would select players from other teams around the league to fill out their rosters. To my knowledge, this is the only situation of this sort where two teams merged and then split apart again; as the Sharks are basically the successors to the California Seals. /random rambling

This article mentioned it, so of course, I went and found it - I find it kind of funny that it embarrasses him - it's pretty impressive, at bare minimum the control with one hand... especially considering he was only a kid when the video was taken... anyway, here it is:

I cannot think of a single reason for the Red Wings to sign Maltby -not even for depth with a two-way contract. He is finished and his spot is best filled by some youngster. Expereince is terribly overrated in a organization like the Red Wings. They have all the expereince they need. It is not a big deal if a rookie make a few mistakes in the regular season, it will be compensated by the energy and enthusiasm they usually bring to the lineup. I don't have particular high thoughts on Lilja either, but an extra veteran defenseman at the right price is always nice to have come playoffs. I would however prefer to see the Red Wings pursue a Boynton or McKee type if possible, but the price tag would likely be higher. Modano, I think would be an excellent fit in Detroit. The Red Wings have a history of succesful veteran signings and the center postion has in my opinion been a key factor for the winning teams of the past half-decade at least.

if tampa is interested he should go don't let the door hit u on ur way out. he doesn't do much anymore

At least it will be a 2-way contract it it happens

More like he's a force at running his mouth.

Kirk Maltby? I want some of what you're smoking.

" I hate looking at this F%$king cup because of all the Detroit Names on it!"

not if your dad is danny tanner

To the victor go the spoils! esteef

Kenny gets paid in Euros

"Is this kid my new winger?"

"This bus driver better give me my 20 cents, I'm sure Patty will have a word with him if he doesn't"

When Stan said we had to give up the plane and take a team bus because of the cap, I had no idea THIS is what they meant!

Not illegal, and that wasn't the first or last time a goal was scored like that. ESPN article

Hmm.. Hudler centered the first line in Grand Rapids at 21 and carried his left winger, a 28-year old Donald MacLean to a 56 goal, 88 point season, with Tomas Kopecky's 32 goal, 72 point season on the opposite wing. Hudler posted 60 assists and 96 points that season to lead the team. MacLean retired 3 years later, having played only 41 NHL games in his career. The next season Hudler played the same number of games for the Red Wings, with 15 goals and 25 points. By comparison, Ritola was fourth in scoring on the Griffins behind Jeremy Williams, Pat Rissmiller (started season with Hartford), and Jan Mursak. Justin Abdelkader and Michael Nylander also played partial seasons in the AHL (20+ games) and had better PPG than Ritola. Kris Newbury played most of his season with Grand Rapids, finishing with Hartford and more points than Ritola. So among all of Ritola's teammates last season, he was the seventh best offensive player. Doug Janik even had a comparable PPG, as did Tomas Tatar and Brad May. So yes, Ritola would likely perform better with better teammates, Abdelkader's AHL offense projects to 28 goals and 60 points over 82 games, while his NHL offense from the same season projects to 5 goals and 10 points over 82 games. You can say all you want about "Ritola's the next Filppula!" and "He'll do better with better teammates!" but you have to realize something; Filppula put up 70 points as the second line center in Grand Rapids at age 21; the same year Hudler posted his 96; and was in the NHL at 22. It was his first season in Grand Rapids, and he played 74 of the 77 games he played there, playing 3 the next year. Filppula put up 17 in his rookie season at age 22, and 36 the next year. If Ritola is "the next Filppula" he's either going to suddenly have an explosion in development, or he's a few years behind Flip's development age-wise. Ritola is a good prospect, but Filppula is a 26 year-old top-six forward. Ritola has a lot of work to do if he wants to be more than a role-player at the NHL level, and it's unlikely he'll be a Red Wing a year from now given his size, style, and the forward prospects in the Wings' system. So now that we've analyzed Ritola far more in depth than was necessary, let's look at the rest of this trade. Dan Cleary. Useful all-around winger, makes almost $3m. Contract ends in 2013. Can play all forward positions if needed. Chicago may or may not even be interested in him if offered because of his contract. They've already traded away two wingers who made $3m, why would they then take one on? We'll assume that Bowman realizes that they have to take some salary back to make the trade work, and as Cleary can be fit into several spots they now have holes, it's not such a bad idea if he would waive his NTC. Derek Meech. Meech can play forward and defense, which would be useful if the Hawks are forced to play a 21-man roster due to the cap. He provides speed and a good outlet pass, but he is capable defensively. The only question is...how much is he going to sign for? Assuming he signs for $650k, the Hawks actually increase their cap hit ever so slightly. Taking the existing roster after the trade, and adding Beach, Kruger, Dowell, Cullimore, and Toivonen to fill a 13-7-2 roster gives the Hawks about $2.29m in cap space. So with this trade, the Hawks would have about $2.8m to sign Niemi. Without it, a maximum of about $1.8m left. So this trade really doesn't help the Hawks at all with their cap issues as much as they need it to if they are trading Sharp. They are basically getting Cleary and two cheap depth players for Sharp. They can get comparable players by trading Sharp for a forward who is as good or better than Cleary and makes less, plus picks and/or prospects, and then signing two cheap UFAs or bringing guys like Bickell onto the roster full-time.