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I would sum it by saying, the Kings are a model much like the Canes, Ducks and Lightning were models...

come back in a year or two and see how the kings are doing before worrying about if the wings need to be more like them... they have been on a great playoff run. however, it really helps when a defensive team like them gets to play totally s*** offensive teams in the playoffs. all they have to do is grind out a goal or two and lock it down and let quick look amazing. (and yes i know they played the canucks who were a top offensive team, but they were also missing their best goal scorer most of the series) not to mention, when you have a goalie playing lights out it masks a LOT of mistakes in other areas. so now all of a sudden their role players look amazing. but do you guys really think that long term guys like lewis, stoll, king, etc are guys that will continue to contribute like this? fact of the matter is that the kings are a team that won less than half of their games this year. they were next to last in goals. they are on a hot streak thanks to an amazing goalie. they are the 2004 calgary flames all over again with a few more sexy names on the roster.

Shots until it makes sense?

One shot for every misspelled player name One shot per neg One shot per condescending comment Good luck liver.

Honestly this is probably the primary cause of all the negs to the posters above. It's taking something that's been posted about and discussed and debated multiple times in other threads and it's just grinding it further then it needs to go. I've been a member for a long time but i'm relatively new to posting here, and i've found that the majority of the people here are knowledgeable and fair as long as you aren't constantly falling outside of the guidelines of the forum rules. Fact is, we made the playoffs, broke the home ice record for most consecutive regular season wins, and overall had a successful season even through major injury problems. Filppula is emerging as a valuable young player for this team, and Smith really looks like he can develop into a franchise player. Sure we got knocked out of the first round, but look at all the other excellent teams that fell out in the first round also. It's gonna happen, and i'm not very concerned about the future of this team because we really haven't fallen all that far. Once we go a season or two missing the playoffs i'll begin to look for answers.

Some.. no MOST of these comparisons are ridiculous. Comparing Nyquist to Datsyuk? That's laughable.

Nice translation. He'll get a Maltby contract. Sign him. Let him come to camp for one more time to hang with the guys, smile, sign autographs. If he's better than the other guys, he gets the job. If not, he rides off with our best wishes. It's a win for him since he gets the chance. It's a win for the Wings because he'll be there to push the kids and provide competition. It's a win for us cuz we get more options and maybe a funny interview or two.

You make it sounds like AI in his prime wasn't an perennial MVP candidate. He may have been an ego and a half but he was a damn good ball player.

I'm betting the Preds are going to lose, so I called in the donation to Ilitch Charities from the Paypal account; checks go in the mail tomorrow. Our grand total is $264.39. Way to go, LGW! Very nice amount, especially considering the limited opportunities to pad the bill. Again, thanks so very much to all who participated. Hopefully next year I'll take you all for a lot more money.

Why not? I thought they were fantastic together for most of the year.

Piche was a throwaway just to free the spot up on the team's 50 contract limit. Piche is a career AHL d-man at best.

That's just The Madden Curse

Only Madden (football).

The Lidstrom-White experiment didn't turn out so well. I think they'll try someone else with Lids (assuming there's a new acquisition).

We outta give the oilers a call and offer Quincy,kindl and filpulla for that number 1 overall. Being the oilers gm has made it known they want blue line help. Then we can draft Yakapov and spend on free agency on d. Quincy is young and has value. Just not sure he fit in with our system.

Correct the title, "Grand Rapids Griffins make offer to Damien Brunner."

For a Cup?

5'11" 186# standard Red Wing size.

Stall better than Abdelakader? You are kidding right? you do realize that Justin outscored Stall this season right? Justin-25 is just entering what should be his best years. Stall 29 has been at the peak of his career.

Are you 12? no it isn't ok. It is against the rules. But does it happen? yes all the time. The HOF's in every sport are filled with guys who broke the rules.

Then don't read and post on it. Pretty simple. I provid proof with real actual numbers and you talk about some % that is tied to what exactly? Some fantasy league % doesn't win games. Goals do. Either by scoring them or preventing them. Thought you would know that.

A) yes, Semin would do that to Franzen. B) Semin is not going to take a 2million dollar pay cut. Brunstrom was brought in to compete for a job at training camp and spent his season in GR as a depth forward. He cost zero assets to acquire and thus was a perfectly sensible signing. If the Wings sign Brunner it's the exact same situation. Zero downside. If he thrives he makes the team better, if he fails to thrive he gets buried in the minors and didn't cost a pick or prospect to obtain anyway so whatever.

you don't NEED high draft picks to improve

Made this handy little spread sheet. it covers the 5 of our top 6 forwards that are signed for next season. has the names, ages, and 3 stats for each year from 2008 through 2012. Those stats are: GP=games played, PTS=points, and shts=shoots on goal. Black numbers are no change or improved, red numbers are declines. Name----Age--------------------2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 --------------------------------GP PTS shts GP PTS shts GP PTS shts GP PTS shts GP PTS shts Zetterberg--32-------------75 92 358 77 73 309 74 70 309 80 80 306 82 69 267 Datsyk----34---------------- 82 97 264 81 97 248 80 70 203 56 59 137 70 67 164 Franzen----33---------------72 38 199 71 59 246 27 21 91 76 55 248 77 56 211 Burtuzzi----37---------------68 40 121 66 44 127 82 44 216 81 45 138 71 38 118 Cleary---34------------------63 42 177 74 40 163 64 34 140 68 46 192 75 33 199 Now for some follow up. Of the 15 numbers for each player, dat has 9 reds. meaning he is declinging just about every year, in just about every catagory. it would be worse but his numbers this year are improved over 2011 when he was hurt. But his 2012 numbers are worse than his 2010 numbers. Second in red numbers is Z. he has 7 out of 15 in red. Cleary has 6 out 15 in red. Burt also has 6 out of 15 in red. franzen has declined the fewest times. Only 5 red numbers. The number that stands out to me the most, is dat's decline in shots. In 2008 he took 264 shots. Then followed by 248, 203, 137, and finally 164 this past year. Granted he played 12 fewer games, but he had 103 fewer shots! That is a 38% drop! None of us want to se a bad RW team. We all want to win Cups every year. But we also have to face facts. The fact is we need to find our next pair of great forwards that can lead us for the next 10 years. We started this run with Yzerman and federov, then continued it with dat and Z. No where in our organization do we have 2 guys that are potential 80 point per year guys. This is Holland's big challenge. Do we trade? Sign FA's? move up in the draft somewhere? My personnel opinion is they need to be C's. A wing by himself can't do it. A good sniper-like parise is, can't score if no one can get him the puck. One last thing. Please understand the difference between good and great. dat and Z are still good players. They are not great players anymore. They will continue to work hard, provide leadership, and score 60 to 75 points for a few more years. But they are not guys that can carry a team anymore. help carry yes, but we have to find the next pair to do the heavy lifting. Chart was fixed, loaded poorly.....

Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying that the LA Kings are the model franchise of the NHL. But they are, (IMO) clearly, the best team in hockey right now. They had a rough regular season, as a lot of new pieces needed to gel. But they are 11-1 in the playoffs, and that's incredible. IF we wanted to mold our team after theirs - as good a team to pick as any IMO - how would we do it? *I'm penciling players into our lineup to mirror theirs (not where they'd actually be in ours). Top Six: D. Brown(0.66PPG, 6-0, 204, 27)---A. Kopitar(0.93PPG, 6-3, 225, 24)---J. Williams(0.72PPG, 6-1, 191, 30) D. Penner(0.26PPG, 6-4, 242, 29)---M. Richards(0.59PPG, 5-11, 199, 27)---J. Carter(0.62PPG, 6-4, 199, 27) Z. PARISE(0.84PPG, 5-11, 195, 27)---P. Datsyuk(0.96PPG, 5-11, 197, 33)---V. Filppula(0.81PPG, 6-0, 193, 28) T. Bertuzzi(0.54PPG, 6-3, 235, 37)---H. Zetterberg(0.84PPG, 5-11, 195, 31)---J. Franzen(0.73PPG, 6-2, 220, 32) ...Datsyuk's smaller, but he more or less matche Kopitar. Zetterberg more or less matches Richards. Franzen more or less matches Carter. Filppula more or less matches Williams. Bertuzzi's not as physical, but he more or less matches Penner. THE ONE element our top six is REALLY missing is a Dustin Brown-type player. ZACH PARISE's not the same kind of player (better in some regards, worse in others), but he's the closest thing there is, and signing him goes a long way to close the gap. Bottom Six: D. King-(0.52PPG, 6-3, 234, 22)---J. Stoll(0.27PPG, 6-1, 213, 29)---T. Lewis(0.10PPG, 6-1, 194, 25) J. Nolan(0.15PPG, 6-3, 227, 22)---B. Richardson(0.14PPG, 5-11, 191, 27)---K. Clifford(0.15PPG, 6-2, 208, 21) *?????*---*?????*---G. Nyquist(0.39PPG, 5-11, 170, 22) *?????*---*D. Helm(0.38PPG, 5-11, 195, 25)---*J. Abdelkader(0.27PPG, 6-1, 215, 25) Cleary(0.44), Miller(0.31), Eaves(0.10), Emmerton(0.14), Mursak(0.12), Sheahan(0.00); UFA: J. Hudler(0.62), T. Holmstrom(0.32); GR: Conner(0.38), F. Brunnstrom(0.20), Andersson(0.00) ...I think Helm matches Richardson. Even though he's smaller, I think Nyquist more or less matches Lewis. Even though he's not as physical, I think Abdelkader more or less matche Clifford. But King and Nolan, there is absolutely no one on this team that even close to matches up to either. If we want to match up against the Kings in that regard, we'll need to look outside the organization. And really, we don't have a third line center with offensive abilities like Stoll either. Defense: R. Scuderi(0.11PPG, 6-1, 219, 33)---D. Doughty(0.47PPG, 6-0, 212, 22) W. Mitchell(0.32PPG, 6-3, 208, 35)---S. Voynov(0.37PPG, 5-11, 199, 22) A. Martinez(0.24PPG, 6-1, 206, 24)---M. Greene(0.18PPG, 6-3, 232, 29) B. Smith(0.50PPG, 6-2, 195, 23)---R. SUTER(0.58PPG, 6-1, 198, 27) N. Kronwall(0.44PPG, 6-0, 190, 31)---*N. Lidstrom(0.49PPG, 6-1, 193, 42) I. White(0.42PPG, 5-10, 191, 27)---J. Ericsson(0.16PPG, 6-5, 220, 28) J. Kindl(0.24PPG); RFA: K. Quincey(0.36); UFA: B. Stuart(0.26PPG); GR: D. Janik(0.11PPG) ...IF we signed Suter, I think he would match their top point producer, Doughty. I think Lidstrom more than matches their number two point producer, Voynov. And I think Ericsson more or less matches their biggest defender, Greene. Our next three guys - Kronwall, White and Smith - IMO, are all more talented than their next three guys - Mitchell, Martinez and Scuderi. But also significantly smaller in all three matchups. And that's just something that we're not going to be able to change any time soon. So we'll have to go with talent. Goaltending: J. Quick(26) J. Bernier(23) J. Howard(28) J. MacDonald(32) ...Jimmy's no Quick, but who is? He's about the closest thing we could ever hope for. Probably could use a more reliable backup as well, but I have no idea who that would be. Summary: ...We're never going to be as young as the King's. That's just not going to happen. And we're never going to be quite as big as them, especially on defense. But if we added Parise. If we added Suter. If we added a third line scoring center. If we added a couple of power forwards. We could come very, very close to mirroring this excellent team. And, IMO, we might actually have a slight edge talent-wise. Potential Lineup: CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR ROSTER My Custom Lineup FORWARDS Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Zach Parise ($7.000m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) / Two-Way Center? ($3.000m) / Power Forward? ($3.000m) Justin Abdelkader ($0.866m) / Darren Helm ($1.000m) / Power Forward? ($3.000m) Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) / Ryan Suter ($7.000m) Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Ian White ($2.875m) Brendan Smith ($0.875m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) Doug Janik ($0.513m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) Joey MacDonald ($0.550m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $70,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $69,699,962; BONUSES: $37,500 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $300,038