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I fear I may lose my mind if people start blowing those damn things at the Joe.... What do you think?

Honestly, normally my answer to trading away a legit NHL starting netminder would be no... With that said, I think Mrazek is going to be an absolute star in the NHL, so although I wouldn't propose such a trade, I wouldn't be opposed to it either as long as it was under the understanding that Mrazek was being brought up...

I guess I still don't get why it's a bad thing to have bandwagon fans. They are more likely to do the impulsive buying of Red wings gear, tickets, $10 beers and merch from the games then most elitist fans that care that we even have bandwagon fans. New fans have to start somewhere right?

Okay. So without being able to input different salaries for players getting raises next year due to capgeek only doing the current year, here is what I came up with. The key is to trim the fat (older players making more than they are worth. We need some rookie contracts and some star contracts mixed in. Apply raises for guys using the 9mill left over: CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER My Custom Lineup FORWARDS Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Corey Perry ($5.325m) Gustav Nyquist ($0.875m) / Calle Jarnkrok ($0.900m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) Tomas Tatar ($0.840m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Damien Brunner ($1.350m) Drew Miller ($0.838m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) / Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) Jan Mursak ($0.550m) / DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Alexander Edler ($3.250m) Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) / Brendan Smith ($0.875m) Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) / Ian White ($2.875m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $55,694,167; BONUSES: $957,500 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $9,263,333 Subtractions: Cleary, Bert, Eaves (IR), Sammy, Franzen, Emmerton, Coliacovo. All either through trade, contract expiration, or amnesty buyout.

Everybody should be expendable if you can get value. _______________________ "I have busted more hippies' noses than all the narcs in the free world." - Ted Nugent Chuck Dee - AKA Chris http://www.rhinobldg.com

On paper yeah, he's been talked up like a lot of prospects before. What separates him though is when you watch him, you see an absolute beast. It can be tough to tell the difference between someone who looks great because his teams are great, and someone who is just truly great. Mrazek if I had to bet hasn't rode the talent of his teams from all I've seen. I've watched him at the juniors, in the wjc, the AHL, and man does he ever look awesome. He looks more like one of those goalies who is pure skill and will need something to stop him from dominating, rather than the guys who are so-so and need something to help them dominate. And I'm as critical as they come. If I can judge one thing it's goalies and Mrazek makes me giddy.

No.

There's a tendency to want to downplay how good some veterans are, mostly because as fans we like things that are new and exciting. But guys like Sammy, Cleary, Bert, etc. have been playing (and thriving) in this league a long time, and will be HUGE contributors over the course of this season. If watching Red Wings hockey over all these years has taught me anything it's that smart, hard working veterans are almost always a better option than rookies when you need to give responsibility to someone. Let Nyquist work his way into the NHL game by filling in during injuries and starting out on the third line. It will serve him, and the team, better in the long run.

Basically, the same as last year's wishes. Get a real top 6 forward, and a top 4 defenseman. And one of those enforcer people.

I know it wont happen, but I'd like to see Tatar on the team this year. He's had plenty of seasoning in the AHL and has numbers very similar to Nyquist. Franzen Datsyuk Nyquist Zetterberg Filppula Brunner Tatar Helm Samuelsson Bertuzzi Abdelkader Tootoo I would trade or cut Emmerton and use Miller as the 13th forward. Mursak i'm not sure about, i love his speed, but he's small and doesn't have a lot of skill. I have no idea how long Eaves will be on IR for with the concussion, but i think he might be usefull as a fill in when he recovers White Kronwall Quincey Ericsson Colaiacovo Smith Kindl I really hope they make a move at some point on D, cus this scares me a bit.

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Burke added only the Sedins and Kesler to Vancouver, and he wasn't around long enough to see them benefit from that. In Anaheim, he inherited a very good team and added to it a gift-wrapped Pronger and a gift-wrapped Niedermayer. He then screwed up the team in the next season by adding an aged Schneider and an overpaid Bertuzzi (whom he bought out the very next offseason) and dumping Andy McDonald to clear space for an out-of-shape Scott Niedermayer to return. I'm sure Burke had plenty of control in Toronto. He was, after all, supposed to be the team's savior, and he was paid accordingly. More, I doubt he would have taken the job had it entailed brooking interference of any significant kind. The fact that he did so poorly was almost certainly his fault alone. This was the first time he'd taken over a team in full rebuild mode, and he did an awful job of it. It was clear from his groveling apology speech last year that he knew he was on the verge of being fired.

you mean like Ducks where he inherited very well drafted core (courtesy of Bryan Murray, mastermind behind current good youth at Ottawa) and was gifted Pronger deal? and then dumped all the assets to build a team with one shot which luckily worked out, because his old buddy Colin Campbell put a blind eye on Pronger's "specific physics"? or Nucks where he had Bobby Lou and Swedish Twins. and still the team sucked a** ? Burke is overrated but what I most hate about him is how he's media who*e who loves to bath in flashlights. the guy is perfect example of how talking a lot and having buddies builds a reputation of actually being knowledgeable, despite all the evidence to contrary. Nonis is a good choice for Maple Laughs, unfortunately. he may build something decent in this mess. though, with new draft lottery system building team by pulling Penguins/Hawks (dwell at the #30 for a number of seasons) is no longer warranty of success so he might need a couple of years to really develop some decent core... frankly, few things make me laugh as much as seeing Burke fail. can't stand this guy. hope he doesn't replace Bettman. the later might not "know the finer aspects of hockey" but is at least decent at diplomacy and knows not to stick with the same circle of old buddies... Burke and his hard nosed pals could be a disaster for the league...

hahahahah If you are looking to get shunned amish style here at LGW keep posting stuff like this......hahahahah

All I want to know is how can we work in Blackfoot's song Train Train with Tootoo

Normally, I'm not a violent person.... But all bets are off is someone near me starts blowing one of those things! I'm glad he's our "little ball of hate" now, but the whistles are lame, and annoying.

I think Tootoo is very quickly going to become a fan favorite. One of those guys you love on your team but hate to play against.

The only way those whistles will make the atmosphere festive is the applause generated by someone pummeling whoever is blowing said whistles.

http://www.freep.com/article/20130109/SPORTS05/301090102/1053/sports05?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter Babcock plans to play Datsyuk and Zetterberg together again.

Please no. Let's try to continue not doing anything that resembles the Nashville fan base.

I'm not sure why labels matter when we all know exactly what type of players our guys are. Labels are used to easily categorize, but we're already acquainted with the play style of a guy like Franzen. Unfortunately, there's Franzen the power forward sniper, which is what he is when he wants to skate and play hard. Then there's Franzen the slow dangler who looks for the perfect shot, who is neither sniper nor power forward when he floats.

Ewwww... I'm a Mrazek fan if anything. He was unreal at the World Jrs last year and has been brilliant in GR this year.

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="Z Winged Dangler" data-cid="2338232" data-time="1357585656"><p> All of them. Snugens.<br /> <br /> On a side note, I remember reading an article or something that apparently Babcock stated that Brunner was signed to play with Z, which is also why Z went to play with Brunner during the lockout to get that chemistry going. Brunner also signed on the play for the Wings, not GR, which is why when the lockout was announced, he went back to EV Zug. Don't be surprised to see a top 6 of Franzen-Dats-Nyquist, Brunner-Z-Flip.<br /> <br /> That would finally be some of the youth we wanted to see.</p></blockquote> That is 100% spot on the top 6 that I want to see.

Doesn't Dipietro still have something like 7 or 8 years left on his contract? The islanders could finally get out of yet another awful deal they made. The funny part is they'll still be paying for the Yashin buyout through 2015.

I think they might be the most loyal fans in the league, and Leafs fans are absolutely nuts about their team. I think they deserve better.