Leaderboard

I think it's Miller's time to go. He's been good for us, but his injury adds a question mark and I do think we can replace him with someone as capable and maybe more rounded. If Glen, Sheahan, Abby, Helm is our PK, then we don't have to worry about losing his PK abilities. Sadly, if we want Miller, we'll get him since his injury will scare any other team away. 1 year wouldn't be the end of the world, but I'd rather someone take that spot with more speed and a little more speed and scoring (maybe Callahan, Bertuzzi). I'd like to resign Helm - up to 3 mill is good for him. But Helm will get interest elsewhere and might opt for a place where he's not 2nd line for 2 games, 4th for a couple, 1st for half a game, etc. Though I've always seen that as one of his strengths - that he can play in many situations - I've gathered for his off-season comments that this has been his gripe. It would be hard for a player to get going not knowing what you're role is. I think this can account for his slight dip in production this year as well.

Except that's not true at all. You absolutely CAN isolate individuals performances using advanced stats. In simple terms, by aggregating the shots for and against accrued by a players most frequent linemates when said player is on the ice w/them vs. when they aren't and someone else is. Its no different than measuring someone's possession numbers, just in reverse. Instead of counting the shots for, you'd count the shots against. And I assume you're perfectly fine with those stats, you've used them repeatedly in the past to analyze the play of Brendan Smith. And using those same measures you find that Miller's unit gives up a ton of chances when he's on the ice rather than say Jurco or Anderson. Probably because despite his shot blocking, he's too slow and weak to gain control of the puck, and too unskilled to advance it when he does. Either way, Miller sucks.

When people constantly talk up "Miller's penalty killing", do they even bother looking up the stats? He's not even close to our best penalty killer. That honor goes to Helm and it's not even close. Miller is "good defensively" because he literally doesn't do anything else but defend. He provides zero offense. There's not a question in my mind that we have players with under 10 games in the NHL that could step in and do a much better job than Miller, on the penalty kill and even strength...

Hopefully Miller moves on. He could get more money on the open market, his PK abilities are highly overrated (numbers back this up, if you don't follow Prashanth Iyer on twitter, do it) and he's a boat anchor at even strength. Nosek/Callahan/etc. can give us everything Drew does for cheaper.

Our number one need is hands down a defenseman, but not necessarily offensive or defensive, but a true top pairing guy. I'd prefer a two-way, someone that can move the puck exceptionally well, and also shut down the oppositions top players. I think Jacob Trouba will be that player in the very near future, so he'd be my number one target...

In the past, this poll would be easy. Back then, we were good and were missing a piece or two. Now we need at least 4 of those categories. Maybe all 5, but we likely don't need any defensive defensemen (though an upgrade over what we have would be nice). But all the other categories we badly need to upgrade. I didn't vote because I can't decide what the biggest need is. I'm leaning towards offensive defenseman, because your offense starts from the blue line.

Darren Helm had less turnovers than Pavel Datsyuk and Zetterberg last season lol. On the contrary, I'd say you need Helm more than Miller. Helm is a centerman that can play wing, Miller can't play center. What exactly does Miller do that Helm can't? Block shots? Blocking shots shouldn't be a reason to keep someone on your roster. AA is our replacement for Helm not Miller. Our replacement for Miller would be someone like Callahan or Bertuzzi from GR. Looking at the numbers here, Helm throws more hits than Miller, he scores more goals, he has more assists and points per game, he has far greater possession metrics. Helm has 9 career short handed goals to Miller's 3. Almost every aspect of the game, whether it's offense or defense aside Helm is better than Miller. Except blocking shots. Also Helm is the fastest skater on the team. Miller isn't even close. Helm is just better plain and simple lol. And my references are - http://www.hockey-reference.com/players/h/helmda01.html http://espn.go.com/nhl/player/_/id/3521/darren-helm https://puckalytics.com/skatercorsistats.html

Why is power forward bring equated with a 2 way Grinder? ShanNY in his prime was a power forward and in no way would be considered a 2 way Grinder.

This doesn't make sense... in one case were hiring new assistants and thus Blas is off the hook. BUT Cameron as a head coach is at fault and not his assistants... sorry but that can't cut both ways.

You had to have. We were clearly inept on many nights on both ends of the ice.

Agree with a top pairing two way D man.. But I think a pure goal scoring forward is a very close second.

This is pretty awesome. The wild one is the best and pens one is appropriate. Would like to see all the teams. I think stars and Devils would be easy. http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/16044186/nhl-national-hockey-league-team-logos-redesigned-las-vegas

I couldn't agree more. I'll be kind of pissed if we re-sign Miller again, even if it's one year at league minimum (which it wouldn't be). There are countless other players in the organization that could step in and provide more than what Miller does. He's the definition of a plug. Move on Kenny...

The 99% of the hockey fans that were high on Washington Capitals and kept thinking Crosby is declining and Malkin and Fluery injury was the end of it. Like deers caught in the headlights. The headlights belonging to the Pittsburgh train. Not to mention a lot of hockey analysts picked Caps to win over Penguins and Bolts to beat Pengiuns in 6 or 7 games.

what people? The Pens were the strongest team and had the hottest streak by the end of the season, without Malkin. And kept and ante it up since the first round. That HBK line is just brutal. I thought this one was awesome. hope is an omen for a Sharks comeback http://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aRAxnyy_460sv.mp4

http://m.imgur.com/WoMcQkC?r not my creation but I love it. Here's to hoping they come back and win it though

Again! ( ...and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and ag...) We somehow gotta convince igor that being an assistant coach is much better than being an agent!

Yeah, just three more games

Damn, pretty bummed about this. Really was looking forward to seeing a more aggressive Red Wings team. Hope whomever we get is the same style. I REALLY don't want to watch any more boring trap hockey out of this team.

I guess Prince and Bowie will be performing

The person who designed this logo should be in the HHOF. The blue whale tail on top of the "subtle" white H and the green W beneath. In contrast, the person who designed the Hurricanes logo should be sent to the minors to design logos for beer league teams.

I probably said this earlier in this thread, but Stamkos is the fun move I'd like to see. We'd have an elite all-star franchise center on our roster again for many many years. He'd score tons of highlight reel goals and generate excitement. Plus, I'd like to see us win something. Anything. Landing the big UFA would be fun. However, the "adult side" of me feels like using that money to build up the team as a whole would be better. Dumping $10 mil into one player, that's coming off of blood clot issues, will leave holes in other areas of the roster and based on how well we finished this year, we already have a ton of holes. Maybe Stamkos's goal production helps cover those holes (giving up 3-4 goals isn't a big deal, when you score 5) or maybe it just makes those holes bigger as they don't get addressed. Either way, the Wings management need to convince Stamkos that Detroit is serious about rebuilding a contender fast and that probably means signing someone else like a Radulov. For all the crap we give Holland on this forum, I don't envy this task of trying to lure Stamkos away from a warm weather championship caliber team (Bolts) or an up and coming team with loads of young talent, the first pick in the NHL draft and a great coach (Leafs).

I never understood all the love for Jurco, and in continues to baffle me as more time passes. At first it was just Babcock not utilizing him properly, but then his boy Blashill became the head coach, whom he had a good working relationship with in the AHL. And then Blashill repeatedly scratched him and played him primarily in the bottom six as well. Its difficult to imagine two separate head coaches mismanaging the same player in the same way, especially when one of those coaches used him liberally in the AHL. Jurco has had opportunities in the top six and he has been unable to run with it on any of the chances he was given. To this, people respond that his opportunities weren't long enough and he needs more time to gel with his linemates. I can appreciate this to an extent, but at the same time, how long should a head coach attach an anchor to one of his top two lines to bog down the rest of the line with before he cuts the cord? If Jurco struggles on the top six for five games and we end up losing one or two of those games we're already talking about the difference between making and missing the playoffs. Should he go 10 games on the top six? 15? 20? I don't know the correct answer, but I do know that Larkin, Nyquist, Tatar, Abdelkader, even Helm had no problem making the most of the opportunity when they were put alongside Datsyuk or Zetterberg. The NHL doesn't reward potential. It rewards performance. And that's Jurco's biggest issue. Pulkkinen as well, for that matter. I would love for him to suddenly click and become the power-forward we've all been hoping for, and I'm not saying that it won't happen yet. But we can't hold the rest of the team back while we wait for Jurco to develop.