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He's definitely not good enough to puncture this years roster. I know you're probably adding to some running joke, so correct me if I'm wrong..... But Maltby does deserve a little respect for what he's done, no?

#8

Fine by me. The guy scored 50 goals in junior.

What does Grant Fuhr have to do with this?

Dude Zetterberg is nowhere near a power forward. To be a power forward, you need to score, hit, and fight. But again, just because he's fought once in his career doesn't make him a power forward..

Can't find the video on YT but he did make TSN's Top Ten goals by Red Wings.

Correct. We live about 30 miles away from downtown Austin. We love it here, and I wasn't sure I would. Good ol' boyz and mesquite didn't sound like too much fun. But there's a lot going on around here, even if you're not a football fan. And yeupp, I haven't read Loo's post yet but she does live in Austin; and I don't go to bars as a rule, but I know even where we live they have sports bars. WELCOME!! Betchyer buns, girl.

Cap hit of $6.66 million.....on the Devils?!?!

redwings 2015 top line tatar/sheahan/pulkinen

Vladifan too I think... Right?

They'll honor him by getting in 24 fights this season. Wouldn't that be something?

Here's hoping he's just a year or two away from defensive coach... *crosses fingers*

Dick Axelsson shouldn't be anywhere near the top 20.

1. I think it's crappy not to let Russian players play in their home country when they might not get another chance. 2. There is probably less chance of them getting injured at the Olympics that there is at an NHL game. 3. I think this is basically all about NHL rinks sitting empty and not making any money, end of story. As for the exposure issue, I agree that these Olympics will probably bring less exposure than Vancouver's, but I still think the Olympics creates a certain amount of at least a temporary awareness of any sport. I also think that if they want the people who did watch hockey for the first time and liked what they saw to transition over to the NHL, it would behoove the NHL to have their players there to give these people a preview of what they're going to see. So when somebody watches and thinks, "I wonder who that Russian guy is who fakes out the defense with those crazy cool moves," he can look up #13 and find out that it's Pavel Datsyuk, who plays for the Detroit Red Wings, and gee, maybe he should start watching the Wings after this thing is over! Much better than finding out it's some random college kid from Minnesota whom you'll probably never hear from again. Also, from a fan perspective, I hear a lot of people say this should be the time for amateur players to shine, but...I don't know. I like seeing my favorite players change it up and play with different people (even if it doesn't exactly pan out...it was still cool seeing Datsyuk play with Ovi, for instance), and it's better than the All-Star game because it's an actual tournament, and they're playing for national pride. It's like the soccer World Cup - they've got to have SOMETHING that's special to everybody and is a place where the players can play for their countries, and since the World Championships are every year and kinda lame, it's got to be the Olympics. The only thing I will say is that it does kind of break a team's momentum. Well, except it helped ours this year, but that's because we got so many players back from injuries right after that. In general, though, I can see how a team not practicing or playing together for a couple of weeks could mess up your rhythm. I think it's worth it, though, and I'd feel really bad if all the Russian guys didn't get a chance to play. It's only once every 4 years, after all.

Read the rules next time before you go in. Max is 200mm.

up close and personal of our boy. click on that bad boy.

I had no idea.

lolz at Babcock ringing him while he was partying in Vegas I bet he $hit himself!! :lol:

The power forward. A skilled, strong offensive player capable of grinding in the corners, screening in front effectively without being easily displaced, and using their size and strength to overwhelm the opposing defensive players. For one, I've never considered fighting a required part of being a power forward. And to require it now, when fighting in general is rare, is even more ridiculous. How many fights happen per season? Probably fewer than happened per-TEAM in 1993. So physically powerful scoring forwards (maybe that's where the name "power forward" came from?) are basicallywhat we're looking for. Well for one, Shayne Corson wasn't, not did I ever consider him, a power forward. Excellent defensively? Sure. Great Grinder? Definitely. Power Forward? No way. He wasn't good enough offensively to get that title. Some guys in the league now who could be called a PF? Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Lucic, Iginla, Jokinen, E.Staal, Nash, Hossa, Morrow, Franzen, Zetterberg, Holmstrom, Kopitar, Latendresse, M.Richards, Doan, Downie, Backes, Malone, Lecavalier, Ovechkin, Malkin, Horton, Thornton A lot of those guys don't fit the "Score 30 goals, hit a ton, fight, get 200 PIMs" mold that a lot of people seem to have. I know some people wouldn't consider a lot of those guys power forwards. But these are all examples of players who will regularly use their physical presence as an offensive tool To compare based on my definition; yes Kevin Stevens was a good player, yes he had a good shot. But realistically, Jokinen has to use his body more to create offense, while Stevens could simply sit back and take the incoming pass from Mario Lemieux. Lemieux is another example of a power forward. He was physically large even for today's NHL, and played in a much smaller league, so a majority of his offense came from simply skating right through-over?-the defense and doing whatever he wanted. Granted, even in his later years, Lemieux was still far more offensively dominant than anyone else could hope to be.

The year before he performed quite well, though in a limited role on a stacked team. And what can you say about last year? He played with Brett 'hey guess what im gunna pinch in at the stupidest times' Lebda, he needed to be playing with someone who was more of a veteran presence to keep his game more in line and to cover for any mistakes. Rookies make mistakes, every last one of them, its the guys around him and the coaching staff that make or break a kid with this kind of potential.

I said before, I was going by the definition of a forward who uses his strength and size as his primary tool to create offense. Jokinen doesn't rack up the PIMs like Stevens did, but if you take away the "you have to have a ton of PIMs" definition and just make it a big strong guy who uses his strength as a major tool, then Stevens wasn't even the primary PF on his line. He was secondary to Lemieux and he received a lot of offensive help from not NEEDING to crash through guys. Jokinen has spent almost his entire career playing solo, and using both his size and skill to post impressive offensive numbers. If he fought 3 times a season, he'd be universally considered an elite power forward.

Compare Datsyuk's style of carrying the puck through the neutral zone or into the offensive zone to Zetterberg's. Datsyuk typically skates away from opposing players and attempts to open up passing lanes. Zetterberg, on the other hand, will use his body to shield the puck as he pushes through opposing players to move forward. While both are capable of performing the other's style, it's a fairly consistent difference you will see. If he is capable of pushing through opposing players to gain offensive position while carrying the puck, and does this consistently, that is a strong argument that he could be considered a power forward. Now let's see all the responses from the enforcer slappies.

Now to be fair, he said he has to perform well this year if he wants a contract. He didn't say "I'm going to try harder this year because I want a contract" or "Last year I was terrible because I was busy thinking about Z's wife when the other team was rushing the puck" so to lay the label on him of only playing when it gets him extra money might not be accurate.

In my initial post I defined what I was calling a power forward, and named some players who fit that definition. Saying those players don't fit other definitions doesn't mean they don't fit the VALID definition I gave.

Fighting is something that happens in hockey, that you have to be willing to do. Zetterberg is willing to fight. Fighting is NOT a measure of skill or something necessary or required to win championships. Hopefully you can get this through your cro-magnon frontal bone to your cerebral cortex.