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Where the he'll have you been?

Yes, Jurco could have and should have been sent down last season. I think he should have started the season in Grand Rapids, even if we were short with the big club and we had to sign a vet. He simply wasn't ready. There's not a doubt in my mind that both Jurco and Pulkkinen would have benefitted from Tomas spending one more season in the minors. Make no mistake though, losing Nestrasil to Carolina last season was no huge loss, by any stretch. He will top out at 30 points, and those players are a dime a dozen. On Cleary, I honestly don't believe he will be on the 23 man roster in October. If he is offered another contract it will be based on a tryout. I'd love to see him stay with the organization, much like Draper and Maltby have, in some sort of training (strength and conditioning) role. I love Cleary, being a fellow Newfie, and I wish he had more left in the tank, but it's clear that he has given all he can as a player. He's done...

It most definitely was retired. It was worn for a few years by his cousin, to honor him (he had died a few years prior), with the blessing of the family. Never hung from the rafters but neither did any other numbers until Ilitch bought the team. (I think Howe's was the only other one retired at that time, or at least the official ceremonies for most were in the '90s.) Whether you want to call it retired or out of circulation, it amounts to the same thing. Ilitch and the team have honored that part, they just refuse to display it for whatever reason. And back on topic, no. No to Fedorov. No to Osgood, or Datsyuk, or Zetterberg. Jersey retirement should be something truly special, and none of them are.

http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/124547/hockeys-future-2015-nhl-prospect-of-the-year-larkin-parlays-strong-ncaa-season-into-first-pro-contract/

We did this conversation last year so I know no one is going to convince you, but I'll respond a bit. The "If they don't win consistently..." argument ignores how dedicated people are to hockey up north. The Oilers have sucked for how long? and they've sold out 100% for at least the 10 years that this chart goes: http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/_/year/2006 ...and they're building a larger arena. The Jets and Oilers demand some of the largest ticket prices and still get 100% attendance. They may not get the largest crowds, but that's because of small arenas. Ticket revenue is different. Jets are 16th, Calgary 11th, Edmonton 14th. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/nhl-franchise-values-canada-making-fortune-columbus-league-170231554--nhl.html Edmonton's revenue will go up when they get their larger arena. Jets could probably move to a bigger place in the coming years. They're planning to add about 300 seats, but that's not enough, obviously. Their media revenue will be higher now due to the sportsnet deal which shows many more games (especially compared to the 90s) A lot has changed economically since the 90s. The salary cap changes everything, to start with. One of the huge factors for the Jets and Nordiques leaving was that they couldn't compete financially with other team for free agents - now the playing field is pretty even in that respect. It was also the era of Bettman growing the game into the U.S. and so the league was more than willing to take the opportunity to take a team south.

He has far more talent than either Lapointe or Kopecky

20 to 40 is a huge range. I'm not sold on either Tatar or Nyquist being more than 60 point guys. Sure, they're valuable, but not guys you can't part with.

Meh. He played, what, like 10 games? Daniel Cleary is the least of our concerns. It's comical to even get worked up about what amounts to a manager living up to a promise he made because ethically he feels compelled to if the result is so miniscule.

Yeah, kinda. He's not at all what we're looking for.

Wisniewski could be available, though I wouldn't give up Tatar to get him. For that matter I wouldn't give up Tatar for any of their defensemen. At least not right now. No sense in fixing a hole by creating another one, and none of their guys are so good that it would make up for the loss.

I mean, he is only 29. A 5 year deal for a guy like Green would absolutely not be the end of the world. Especially if a longer deal were to lower the cap hit a little.

Tatar is going nowhere.

I really dont like his footspeed, and he looked so out of place on Nashville.5Years is a long time to carry a player if we find out he was just a product of the terrible system and big minutes in Toronto.

It's probably the whole "he's worthless, buy him out, trade em for a bag of pucks, just get him off the roster" rhetoric that has gone on for years. Now that he's hurt some people act like they want him to get healthy and come back, but bc they 'care' about him soooo much, they think he should hang him up. As if they don't want him to hang them up for other reasons as well. I have no doubt ppl feel for him as one human to another, but you can see how it comes off as a "shroud of caring". Some of these caring souls having been bashing him and begging to be rid of him for years. They may finally get their wish.

They won't stop spending money on NHL games. Have you ever been to Winnipeg? There is nothing there! The Jets are all they have. They sell their building out each game. That is a heck of a lot more than the Coyotes can say. Who is last on your list? Arizona?

Quebec is far from a slam dunk market. What has changed from the 90's? Are they going to have more corporate and government support? Will they still insist focusing on how French they are and have problems getting English language coverage? I'm not convinced the Jets have a long term future either. They have a small arena, and even with selling out almost every game they're only the 20th valued NHL franchise. If they don't win consistently, which was their major problem in Atlanta, the novelty of having "Our Jets" back will wear off and fans will stop spending the money on games.

Don't know if the irony has been pointed out yet, but your SN is one of a beat reporter spreading BS in the local paper for one of his favorite players (Reg Dunlop) to help his career. Worked pretty well too.

This is all being blown out of proportion. Cleary will not sign another contract with the Wings. I'm willing to bet on it. They'll either do like they did with Maltby, or if he's really hell bent on playing, they'll do like they did with Chelios. With the tacit understanding that he'll have a job in the front office when he'd ready to hang up the skates. Edit: Here's another reason why it won't happen. Jeff Blashill LOVES Landon Ferraro and Mitch Callahan. You think he'll be ok exposing them to waivers for Dan Cleary? No way.

I'm surprised people are more upset about the infringement on tradition than the fact that it's not so subtly racist. “The players won't like this, but I wish they all would stop growing beards in the postseason,” Lazarus said. “Let's get their faces out there. Let's talk about how young and attractive they are. What model citizens they are. (Hockey players) truly are one of a kind among professional athletes. “I know it's a tradition and superstition, but I think (the beards do) hurt recognition. They have a great opportunity with more endorsements. Or simply more recognition with fans saying, 'That guy looks like the kid next door,' which many of these guys do. I think that would be a nice thing." Translation: These guys can be sold to Middle America because they're not black, scary, and/or a "thug". They don't have tattoos or dreadlocks. They look like you. We can work with this.

The first thing you need to know about Cory Emmerton is that he goes by the nickname Emdog

Yeah, kind of surprising actually. If it wasn't for the Game 1 collapse, TB's up 3-0. I thought the Hawks talent and especially experience would have given them a better start to this series. I was expecting a Wings/Pens 2008 type of series. It'll be less painful for our most bitter rival to win their 3rd championship in 6 years than to have our Captain get his name on the Stanley Cup again, all because they beat us and it could have been us there? I suppose anything could happen, we could have made it to the Finals, but it was the first round. Its not like it was the Conference Finals or something. A lot would have had to happen for us to get that far. The Wings matched up well with TB. Can't say the same about Montreal, they were a team that TB owned. I'm over our loss. I'm even over Cooper and his whining and their fanbase. The Lightning have had their moments of jerkiness during these playoffs, but it's nothing compared to Chicago that chants "Detroit sucks" in their sleep.

I feel like Jurco has the skill size and speed, that'd I'd b fine paying him contracts based on production for years to come, even if he doesn't score crazy amounts (but scores enough where his contract is viable) I'd be happy with it. He's the kind of player that could break out tomorrow, or at 26. Either way I want him on my team, he has all the skills.

Are you comparing Osgood to Roy and Brodeur, or are you just trying to say that other goalies have played with great players around them? The latter statement is true, but doesn't make Osgood an elite goalie. Besides 1996, was Osgood ever a candidate for the Vezina, like Brodeur and Roy were many times? Was he ever considered one of the top 5 goalies in the world, let alone for a stretch of time? No is the answer to both questions. He's not elite. He's a good goalie that accumulated wins because he played with great players around him. And unlike Roy and Brodeur, he never stood out for individual awards or nominations. Wings fans overrate Osgood. I've done it before too. But you need to see things in context.

But what you said to discredit Osgood is also true of those other guys. If you stuck Sawchuck, Fuhr, Plante, or Smith on crappy teams, instead of dynasty teams, they wouldn't have been great either. They were all system goalies. But nobody holds it against them. Osgood put up comparable, or better, career numbers than the guys I just mentioned. He did it on a really good team. They did it on even better teams. But only Osgood gets criticized for it.

I'm really not trying to turn this into an Osgood debate, but it looks like it's already heading that way. Using the fact that Osgood "took advantage of all-star teams" against him completely ignores the fact that guys like Fuhr, Sawchuk, Plante, and Smith ALL played for dynasty teams as well. I don't see anybody arguing that Grant Fuhr's banner should be pulled down because he played with Messier and Gretzky.