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1. The numbers: The numbers of all our 'core' or 'star' players (including Yzerman/Shanahan/Chelios/Hull/Hasek/ect.) are and have been falling in past years save for Zetterberg. 2. IMO, there are no prospects with real star potential to replace these guys that are getting older and watching their production fall. I think Datsyuk is the closest thing to that and even he could be a bust. And even if he makes something of himself, is it going to be Sergei Fedorov something? Not likely. 3. It all starts and stops with Yzerman for me. I think his retirement (be it this year or the next) is going to be the beginning of the end of our ten year run. It always seems to me that when Stevie goes, we go. He's the leader of this team without question and it's going to be hard to compensate for the loss of him.

Cam Ward is a far better goalie than Niemi is.

Great post and an even better point.

I love this. Bravo.

even though he is really old he is really competitive, imagine you had a floater on your team cough Fr -cough-ranzin... and you have Dom backing up that night and your lazy ass shift is over and you skate back to the bench and then you get ripped in half by Hasek. All the guy ever wanted to do was win, theres nothing wrong with a guy like that on your team.

We try to sign Hasek ... but damn, NY Islanders claim him first.

It's not like he's been sitting around doing nothing. As a backup? Sure. I'd be more confident in him than a lot of others out there.

For 24/7 purposes alone, I hope this happens!

I would take Dom back with open arms. He would sign cheap and he could either work or not work ... either way it wouldn't really cost us anything. I think there is potential it could work out great and it could provide more hunger for a Cup. Heck the last 2 times we won the Cup, Dominik was part of our team, so lets try it one final time. Get it done Kenny!

You mean like when Filppula , Kronwall, Hudler, Howard, Quincey... were all prospects

Mrazek. But we will have to wait at least a couple more years.

LOL no. But seriously what the f***?! Looks like I am still using the cover of dats I been seeing but it makes me less excited..

Nice to dream, would be sick if we landed em both though. Ideally for me: Trade Ericsson+Miller to Buffalo for a 2nd, with Suter coming in no real need for Big E anymore. Sign Parise, Suter and Prust. Parise-Datsyuk-Nyquist Filppula-Zetterberg-Franzen Bertuzzi-Helm-Cleary Prust-Abdelkader-Eaves Emmerton Lidstrom-Smith Suter-Kronwall White-Quincey Kindl Howard McDonald f*** with that, NHL.

hudler's replacement

When you say "elite", I think of star players, as in Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Based on that, the safe answer is none.

Ya'll guys can get back at the islander fans and JT,by voting for pekka,Please vote for him Can't let a east player be on the cover

Yes, 1 great post season. but hey, we get to watch and remember that for 8 more seasons...... length of the terrible contract he is signed to........

The prospect game is one of the biggest traps fans fall into. Every teams site has the same thing going on. these 5, 10, 15 whatever players are going to be great in a few years. maybe 1 out of 10 every turns into anything. There are towns in the northern part of the US and in canada, where just about every man played junior hockey, yet none make it to the NHL. You have to remember, Juniors is for 17, 18, and 19 year old KIDS! High school age players. Even moving up to the AHL is a major step. If we return to the days on building only through the draft, we will become the Dead Wings once again. Then after 3-6 years of drafting the top talent we can move back up. I don't ever want to see that type of hockey from the Wings again! I still have nightmares from the late 70's and early 80's....... 20 win seasons........ YUCK!

Ice condition: stinks. Officiating: stinks. Go Knights Go.

First of all I think the long-term outlook of a team always matters to potential FA's. Second, there is reason to think it might be now. 1. The numbers: The numbers of all our 'core' or 'star' players are and have been falling in past years save for Filpulla. 2. IMO, there are no prospects with real star potential to replace these guys that are getting older and watching their production fall. I think Smith is the closest thing to that and even he could be a bust. And even if he makes something of himself, is it going to be Nik Lidstrom something? Not likely. 3. It all starts and stops with Lidstrom for me. I think his retirement (be it this year or the next) is going to be the beginning of the end of our twenty year run. It always seems to me that when Nik goes, we go. He's the leader of this team without question and it's going to be hard to compensate for the loss of him.

Kenny's schtick of signing Euro nobodies and other teams castoffs is getting old. I would like to see him focus on getting established NHL players for once. No thanks.

Thankfully we won't be interested in him. #if***inghopenot

Im not going by assumption. I'm going by Zach Parise himself saying it when he was talking about Minnesota and where he grew up on a radio interview. He spent about 3 and a half years in Faribault when he played for Shattuck before he went to North Dakota. Look it up.

Lidstrom - Suter Kronwall - Girardi* Ericsson - Smith Kindl *For White + Quincey

Sad.