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Filppula has almost 50% more points than Fischer and makes 1.2 million less than him. AND you want to give away a pick/prospect with Filppula? Does your obsessive fascination with men touching each other blind any logic or reason from your mind completely, or is it only 90%?

My bad. I was too cough up in the lulz. I can just imagine. Nabokov: Hello? Snow: Hi Evgeni. This is Garth Snow. Nabokov: "SLAM" Snow: Hello? Evgeni you still there? Hello?

Sorry if this is a repost, but I have recently started to see this pop up around the web... but I think this is just a kick @$$ photo.. Go Wings! And God Bless America!!!

the old wings had fighters that also contributed, and avoided the "stupid" penalties. while i do enjoy the cup wins, i also favor the gritty edge a "smart" enforcer brings and would sacrifice a role player to fill this gap. lucic, and konopka come to mind. every year we get abused in the late season and playoffs, and this takes its toll. what if someone jumped malkin after his attack on Z and beat him down, causing the mandatory game suspension for both? malkin had 2 goals in the game 6 that changed the momentum. or what about the spearing of lidstrom during the blackhawk game? enforcers change the game to a degree, they don't prevent injuries, but they keep the cheap shots at bay. players don't run goalies all game long if we have an enforcer watching over the herd. would kostopolos have run stuart if he knew he was going to get run down later that game? who knows. but i think his mindset would have been slightly altered if D-mac was rotating shifts and collecting teeth. i love the domination of our wings team, but i hate seeing cheap s*** hits to wear down or sideline our players for the long haul. checking is designed to wear players down by nature, but the little extra, needs to stop. so, to summarize...the wings don't need a goon, they need a heart and soul with a big bag of knuckles and a knack for scoring more than once every 9 months. these players don't grow on trees, i know, but they still exist, and we need to step up and get one.

Get Chris Neil or Carkner. How is it the sens can find 2 good tough guys who can play the game well but Detroit can't find any

http://www.freep.com/article/20110124/SPORTS18/110124007/1053/SPORTS/Red-Wings-have-to-toughen-up-soon sure this is one person with his own opinion, but i call derp on this article. first off, i am pro-enforcer and i do get tired of watching the players i love get smacked around. even players who don't normally play with a chip get a lot chippier against the wings (jordan staal, you so tough). kostopoulos should have been pounded into pulp. but that didn't happen and won't - this year, and maybe next, and maybe never. and that's a shame. but to say that these players have no heart is ridiculous. sure, we don't have an extreme example of somebody playing on a knee with no cartilage, needing to use his stick to prop himself up off of the ice. that's symbolic. but i'd say this team has plenty of heart - more than most if not all other teams. brad stuart comes immediately to mind. he takes a slapshot off of the back of his head, misses a few games, comes back, has his jaw broken by a nasty hit (insert enforcer rant here). while walking off of the ice he slams his stick not because of the pain but because he knows he'll be out for a long, long time. these guys want to play and win, and yeah they can be frustrating to watch sometimes when it seems they forget how good they are, but they're hustling their asses off on both ends of the ice. toughness is another thing. i think the idea of what is consider "tough" gets blurry in a game where fighting is allowed and expected. this team throws their weight around plenty, leading games in hits very frequently. after-whistle scrums and stupid roughing penalties are not tough. i grew up watching the wings kick the living crap out of everybody and it was fun to watch! but they sure didn't win much. now, they're perennial contenders and the envy of every team in the league as far as management and work ethic. can we have both?

Good for Nabokov. This isn't just about being claimed by a perennial bottom feeder, it's about being claimed by one of the most poorly managed franchises in all of professional sports. How can anyone blame the man for not wanting to deal with the consistently bad decisions made by Garth Snow and Charles Wang? Of all the teams to possibly be claimed by, the Islanders are definitely a nightmare for any player.

The whole "having a fighter/tough guy stops players from taking cheapshots on your team", is just a myth. I'm all for a guy who puts up 20+ points, isn't a defense liability, and fights on occasion. But just cause a player fights, it doesn't mean it should should give that guy an extra million ala Neil. Stuart would still be injured whether this team had Tie Domi or the Stay Puft Man. Stupid players are going to do stupid things regardless of who is on the other team. And yes, players of the opposing teams aren't scared of being hit by any Wings, but they are scared or having the puck picked right of their stick and having that puck go the other way for a goal. Forechecking doesn't have to be be about hitting, all it has to do is force the other team to cause turnovers, and a healthy Wings team does that almost as good as any other team in the league, if not better due solely to Datsyuk with great forecheckers Filppula/Zetterberg/Cleary/Helm etc. This team doesn't need toughness. It may want it, but it doesn't HAVE to have it. They needs guys who want and need to compete night in and night out.

Nice post. Agreed with everything said here. Does this guy realize that this is year and last year (i think) are the first couple of seasons in a while where we havent had an enforcer? Weve had may, and downey around the last few years to help keep the cheap shots away. I believe the wings will have some enforcer type players coming up in abby (who also brings skill to the table) and callahan. nothing to worry about here. Im sick of these teams who come in with 4 roster spots of goons and think theyre the s***. ill take the banners over PIM all day long baby.

Good for Nabokov. He's a 35 year old goalie who has never won a cup, why the heck would he want to waste precious time with the New York Islanders? If a playoff bound team would have picked him up there is no doubt in my mind that he would have played for them, but to go from Wings to the Islanders is just ridiculous. It's like a pimp offering you a Jenny McCarthy lookalike and 48 hrs later he delivers Rosie O'Donnell. WTF!!!

Sorry but this made me laugh quite a bit, haha.

you are right...why bother trying to have a discussion about anything on these boards...seems to be a waste of time

It sure sounds like the Islanders are going to retain his rights... http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slug=ap-islanders-nabokov That's a pretty dick move to claim a player that never wanted to sign with you in the first place and then not give him a chance to go elsewhere... can't look good to other players for management to operate that way... If Snow was smart(to save face and maybe get something out of the deal), he would try and trade him and if Nabokov gets claimed via waivers again, so be it - he was a "free" asset in the first place, that has no intention of playing for them anyway... and at least this way, he's not the bad guy anymore... this would also force Nabby's hand to report to wherever else he got claimed by, unless he wants to get a bad tag and would likely keep bottom feeders from making a claim the second time around...

I agree on some points and dont on others. Do I think it would be worth taking Miller and Drapers salary coming off the books next year and invest in someone like a Chris Neil, Jared Boll, Rupp or Kenopka? Yeah I really do, but I dont think we should have an Eric Godard. People say the wings dont have that type of a team, but replacing guys on the lower lines like Miller with this type of player could really only help the team, I wish we would draft a Chris Stewart type player sometime just to see how it works out but I dont see the wings doing that sadly. Callahan, Smith and Abdelkader should be on this team for a good chunk of the future, Abdelkader isn't really playing that tough lately but I think he has potential. Smith and Callahan are both tougher players then Abby so they will really give this team a boost. This is how I feel about the topic exactly. I think it needs to be clear here, NOONE IS SAYING ENFORCER. Just a bit grittier in the bottom 6 will help this team in the long run, no team is perfect. Guys that can play the game and play tough aren't as hard to find as everyone tries to say. Konopka is making peanuts and I really wanted the wings to sign him last year, same with Rupp the year before that.

Your entire take on this entire thread is asinine - This was, and has been, nothing more than a discussion on the "what ifs" - Something that message boards are intended for... With half the other crap that flies on this board that is actually out in left field and almost merits no discussion, this topic is actually legit and worth, if nothing else, DISCUSSING Just as Maltby was "coming back" last year, Osgood has now had his groin operated on twice and is a GOALIE, to just assume he WILL be back is ignorant and closed minded... Furthermore, no one in this thread has even even hinted that Holland "sell the farm" for a backup, so to say it has ANY connection to a "one and done" move is ridiculous, it would most likely be a low pick and/or low level prospect in exchange for a BACKUP goalie, we're not looking for a young Martin Brodeur in his prime here... If you want nothing to do with a thread, ignore it, but your continual take on this topic has been myopic at best and has added nothing of context to this thread...

Babcock calls him Filpoolla. I'll go with the coach on this one.

Maybe Wang was going to interview the aging goalie to replace Snow as GM. Nabby's got this all wrong...

I like Wangs delusional response; "I don't see why somebody who has this opportunity would not want to play and fulfill his contract. It's nuts, right. I don't understand any of it" Uh...you really don't see why an aging goalie who wanted to make, what, who knows, could be one last run at the cup, wouldn't want to play for a team who has no chance of making the playoffs? You don't understand why he wouldn't want to leave his family and the warmth of sunny California to come to gloomy, cold ass New York to play for a team he thinks sucks and doesn't want to play for, won't make the finals, for a mere quarter mil, when dude has tens of millions already? Really???

Valtteri Filppula. Double the fourth letter in his names.

take a risk Ray Emery !!

That's the problem with some of the posters on this forum, they don't understand discussion. Even if things are long ranged, it's a nice thought to talk about. Discussion is better than nothing. Hedberg would be a nice thought, but Jonas Gustavsson I think I'd enjoy more. He's lost all his confidence while playing with the Leafs (in my opinion), and before he lost that, he was doing good. So why not boost your confidence while playing with the best Hockey team in the NHL? :-P

I just said I would love to have them...nothing else...relax

I'd hate to be Nabby thinking that he's going to Detroit and then get claimed by the Islanders.