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The cap sucks anyways. Teams like ours that do their jobs to rake in the money get punished just for being a well-run organization.

TBH, I don't have a problem with Kovalchuk's contract. Yes, it's ridiculously long, and no, he probably won't play to the end of it. But it fits within league contract rules, and Ilya is really the first player on the UFA market to have multiple suitors for such a deal. Hossa didn't have multiple teams offering him long-term deals like the one Chicago did. Perhaps restraining long term contracts to rules such as "ten years or less" or ruling that if a player retires with 5 or more years remaining on his contract after he has passed the age of 30, his cap hit will remain. The second statement would of course have an injury provision. But I don't see a "need" to stop these deals. Yeah, maybe it reduces some of the excitement on July 1st. But think of it this way. Teams will retain star players. Fans will get to know the team's stars. NHL markets with fans who say "who?" when you name half the team because there is so much turnover on the roster will have teams with identifiable players who the fans know and love.

...well, then you'll pardon us for laughing our asses off as we watch your championship team get dismantled... because it's just harmless fun, right?

What harold meant was "Zetterberg not having two or three Selke wins is pretty ridiculous given the fact that his primary use is as a shutdown center against the opposing team's top line, and he executes that role better than any other player in the league"

They can get a 6th dman, sign abdelkader, helm, AND modano for 1.25, make a few trades and be under the cap and have 500k over for injuries.

Its too late for them to do that IMO. They let everyone else have their long contract's and some with a history of getting injured. If they try to do something about his contract then they would have to do something about every one of these 10+ year contracts.

Comrie isn't anything near a power forward,but he's more physical than Modano (Not saying much).He'll fight here and there,but he's pretty small.A good well rounded 3rd line option would be Bill Guerin (Yes,former Penguin) or Owen Nolan.Both are old yes but they'll both bring more grit than Modano and put up near the same amount of points.

I know what you're saying; a player reaching 44 years old is much less likely than a player reaching 40 years old. I'm not saying that's not true; I'm simply saying that, either way, both scenarios are unlikely and probably involve these silent agreements - cheating. It's happening all over the league now, including (and partially pioneered by) our own team. The Red Wings are taking advantage of the same loophole that everybody on this forum seems so outraged about. Also, I would argue that Kovalchuk is almost certainly going to be considered for the HOF. He just turned 27 years old and has already accumulated 642 points (338 being goals) in 621 games. He's top-15 in goals per game in the history of the league, and hasn't had a sub-40 goal season since 2002-2003. He definitely has a chance of reaching the 600-goal and 1,000-point milestones by the end of his career. EDIT: BTW, in case anybody wanted to know, 47 players have ever reached 40 years of age, and 6 players have reached 44 years of age.

I have typically been clumsy in the past, but I haven't tripped lately The person below me started a new job today

Or is the reason why you don't watch football because of the lack of passion? They could, so I will take the rather out... But I still don't see Modano winding up here. I think he will either retire or go to Minnesota and try to get a cup for the city he started with...

You don't need passion to play football at the highest levels? Really? I mean really? You may think hockey is a better sport than football. Cool. That's fine. I don't like watching some sports like baseball or soccer as much as I enjoy watching hockey and football. Soccer requires ridiculous conditioning to play at a high level running around for 90+ minutes straight, and baseball is a grind for 160+ games in hot weather. I may not fully like those sports but I respect the wear/tear and grind that it takes to play those games if you want to be fully committed to it. Just like football, an intense off-season/in-season grind of weight training, hitting, and thinking nearly an entire year. But you need passion to play any sport or do your job to the best of your ability, regardless of the sport or career. To say you don't need passion in football or any profession to do well in it is plain idiotic, no matter how much you might not like a sport/job.

Ya think Zetterberg is gonna play til he is 41 or Hossa til he is 43? f*** NO.

I went to a bar here in Detroit to watch Philly-Chicago, Chicago ended up winning that game and there was a table full of Blackhawks fans, in sweaters with no name on them. They cheered and I booed them and the Hawks. When the game was over one of them came over and asked us if we were from Philly. We said no, Detroit. He asked why are you rooting for Philly then? I said why would I root for a team that chants Detroit sucks when we play them? He said, well Detroit does suck. I am not one for a bar fight, but if I were ever to get into one it would have been over that. I left immediately, as I would get fired from my job for one punch to that guys face. I say let their reign be the shortest ever. Let their misery last twice as long next time. To hell with Chicago, and to hell with their team.

I must say that's a nice little feather in Stevie's cap. But considering the tutors that he had to learn from, I'd say he did alright.

They should make it so if you sign a player past age 40, his cap hit stays on salary until the deal is over.

Not before Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin sign deals like these.

unless their last name ends in 'elios seriously though, this is ridiculous, these long term deals should only be allowed to take a player to 40, as that is still a realistic age to be able to compete at a pretty high level in today's game and generally speaking, even if a guy does retire early, he's probably only shaving 3 years off his cap hit at most - not 6+... kinda defeats the "hard cap" EDIT - for the record, I love these long term deals and think they are genius from a GM standpoint and perfectly within the rules... but they should still have SOME sort of regulation on it...

That was my point, he wasn't given a chance to prove himself when he did not get consecutive starts. I understand they wanted to go with the hot goalie because of the position we were in, but Babcock is very lucky that Howard didn't have an injury late in the season because we didn't have a reliable back up goalie to go to and that was not Osgood's fault. He could only do what he could at practice, it's not the same as playing in games.

A game. He had a stretch of 20+ games where he did not see the ice. Last I checked, that's not "getting a start to prove himself" and more "let's shut up the Howard haters".

IMO, that's likely to happen if he doesn't get sat 20+ games in a row.

Marc Andre Fleury is so overrated it hurts. For starters a 2.65 GAA is hardly something to brag about, especially when you play on a great team. Lets forget GAA for a second though because I know people like to bring up SV%. MARC ANDRE FLEURY 2005/2006 .898 2006/2007 .906 2007/2008 .921 2008/2009 .912 2009/2010 .905 JEAN SEBASTIEN GIGUERE 2005/2006 .911 2006/2007 .918 2007/2008 .922 2008/2009 .900 2009/2010 .916 (With Toronto) Does anyone see the irony here? JS Giguere is a past his prime pile of puke according to many people and yet Fleury makes the Top 10 in some cases? Give me a break!!! Put Marc-Andre on the Leafs and see if he can pull off a GAA lower than 3.20 and a save % higher than .900. I highly doubt he can.

Well duh. They are our rivals, they won a Cup, sure we're upset… especially when their fanbase grasp a name eerily similar to ours. And put it on their championship video. Sorry that bothers you. Stop chanting "Detroit sucks" when we aren't in town, and we'll look into getting over this.

CapnSmitty is right. The Griffins are independently owned (by a group headed by Dan DeVos). They have had a Primary Affiliation with the Detroit Red Wings since 2002. Prior to that, it was with the Ottawa Senators. The newest agreement was signed in the Spring of 2007 and extends for a 5 year period - if I remember correctly. As part of the 2007 agreement, the Wings acquired responsibility for the GR coaches, and immediately fired Head Coach Greg Ireland who was the winningest coach ever for GR. I think this responsibility was negotiated back the following year after a horrible season with the new coach that Detroit picked. He was released too. Also based on the agreement, Detroit must provide a minimum number of players to GR - I want to say its like 16 or 18. The rest are GR's responsibility. They sometimes sign a secondary affiliation with another NHL team - like with Dallas when the Stars were without their own primary AHL affiliate. As part of the affiliation agreement, GR works with the NHL club to determine how much playing time a player gets and on any individual development issues. It is not common for employees of the AHL affiliate to graduate up to the NHL affiliate since they are usually independently owned. However, often the AHL coaches and equipment managers become like Black Aces similar to the players when the AHL season is done if the NHL team is still in the playoffs.

I know for a fact that Illitch Holdings does not have any part of ownership of the Griffins, I am also mostly sure that the players signed by the Wings (as in have a wings 2 way/1 way contract) are on the Wings payroll, anyone who is on an ATO or Griffins contract are on the Griffins Payroll.