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What's to stop Chris Chelios from being Darren Helm?

You got it wrong man, I'm Darren Helm.

Denial is the first stage mate. There are no conspiracy theories. None of us are hired by Helm and Helm has better things to do than make an account on some forum. He's a millionaire and could careless who thinks what. We're all just fans speaking fairly. Helm > Miller. If you really want to see what the entire forums think, you could start a thread and put up a poll and see for yourself.

Thanks for the support guys, but in fact I am the Nightmare on Helm Street.

hands too full with cheeseburgers

f*** the cap it was ment to f*** det col and nj anyways if a team can afford talent its the way it should be if they cant oh well we have to many teams anyway without a decent fan base

If anything, Kessel would be the player most likely to drop the Cup.

Helm is one of the best puck hounds and bottom sixers in the game. The problem only arises when he's in the top six, and then the issue of cost and term.

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...

Huh? Nosek is 6'2" and Callahan is 6'. I guess the definition of midget has changed.

I'm right here brah

Be wary of long term deals when we're a transitioning team. I'm not saying we'll regret it but having no flexibility is what got us in this mess

Radulov's old coach eh !?

Hahahaha Helm >>>>> Miller, and it's not even remotely close... I can't even believe this is a conversation...

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

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...

It's the same problem we keep having ... Being way too loyal to playerWould I like helm to resign? Sure but not at 3-4 per which he's gonna get , he's most likely gonna fall down to the 3rd-4th line eventually ... Signing helm close to 4 per let's say and Miller would take away 2 roster spots and we already have nosek and frk out of waivers I believe? Athanasiou Larkin mantha most likely all starting next year We sign those 2 guys Pulkkinen/jurco/nosek/frk could possibly all be gone just to make room for yet again ... Vets Never ends

Another issue is that most of the roster had bad years as far as production goes. Outside of Larkin and Abdelkader, it's been a disappointment all around (only counting players on the team all season). Nyquist and Tatar were invisible for long stretches during the season. Hell, even Abdelkader took a couple seasons to start producing playing with Pav and Hank. His production early on playing with those guys was not good. Yet the coaches always stuck with it because he brings more to the table than just putting up points. I don't think it is at all unreasonable to think that Jurco can have a similar impact on the team given some consistency in the lineup.

Anchor? When the hell has Jurco ever been an anchor on any line? Just because he's not producing as much as we would like offensively, doesn't in any way make him an anchor... I remember back to back games last season in which Jurco played some of the best hockey of his career. He was instrumental on two goals for, by driving the net and providing traffic in front. He was then scratched, either the very next game, or the following game. Jurco has not been given the same sort of opportunity as others on the team, since his rookie stint 3 years ago. He hasn't regressed and he has improved, but like so many others on this team, some fans refuse to see the positives in a player once they've determined in their own mind that they're "not good"... I think the biggest misconception is that people think that when someone defends a player, that person must think that player is amazing... Not at all. I think Jurco is a very good player, and in time has the potential to be a very good middle six, skilled winger that can throw his weight around a little. No, it wouldn't be the end of the world if we lost him, but it would be a huge mistake to get rid of him as a throw in just to trade Datsyuk's contract. Unless of course, like I said, if the only way we can acquire a big name player is to trade Datsyuk, and the only team willing to take on the contract is demanding a player like Jurco in the deal...

I love Abdelkader and think he's a very good winger, well worth his cap hit, just a year or two longer than I would have liked his contract to be. But like I said, a very good "winger". He's not a center and although I wouldn't hate it if he were tried again as a bottom 6 center, he will never be a top 6 center. And we already have Sheahan, Athanasiou, Glendening and (hopefully) Helm that can all play bottom 6 center, so why would we try to convert Abby into that position? I'm not sure why you're trying to compare Abdelkader with Nyquist and Tatar and talking about turnovers... But Abby commits more turnovers and has a worse takeaway vs giveaway ratio than both... Nyquist has no defensive awareness? Haha okay... I find it hilarious how you're still saying that guys like Nyquist, Tatar and Green are untradeable / have no value... All three of these guys would be great trading chips with just about any team... Anyway, this conversation is pointless. We clearly have completely different views of this team. Whatever...

2009-2012 Abby played center on and off. He was a pretty damn good faceoff guy (around 53%). Much better than Sheahan is. Filpula became Zetterberg's linemate on second line sometime between 2010-2012, but primarily in the 2011/12 seasons. I don't think Abby would be a good top 6 centerman. Being is top 6 centerman is nothing like being a bottom 6 centerman. My first choice for centering 3rd line would be Darren Helm followed by Abby. But neither will happen. Ideally next season I'd like to see Larkin/AA get some 1st and 2nd line centering duties. I think Zetterberg is much more useful on the Wing if he's to stay top 6. And I think Abby would be a good winger up there as well. If Z stays first line center then hopefully Larkin gets 2C and AA gets 3C (he could share 3C duties with Sheahan).

He had 15 goals in his last 80 games. He's had one 20 goal season. He's not a goal scorer. He's not a top 6 caliber center. Saying those things are true doesn't make it true.

Like I said, I don't necessarily think that having Larkin, Athanasiou, Sheahan, Glendening down the middle would result in success next season, but I do think it would be the best thing for their development. And developing is exactly what we should be doing for the next season or two. We are not contending in that time, so we need to put our kids in the best position to get them where we need them to be going forward. Having our top two natural centers playing wing, and signing old / washed up, has-been's like Richards or Staal is a terrible decision in my opinion. Of course if we can sign Stamkos and have Larkin play second line center, Athanasiou / Sheahan play 3rd line center, that would be ideal, but I don't see us landing Stamkos... In saying all that, I would be shocked if those 4 were our centers going into next season. Like PVD said, Zetterberg will likely still be our number one center, although I think that's an awful decision. Zetterberg needs his ice time cut down to 15ish minutes a night, so we can still get the best out of him. If he continues to get 20ish minutes a night, he will be a ghost by mid season. Either way, I just hope we don't see Larkin on his wing again. He needs to center his own line, ideally the second line...

Don't know why you think Abby is a proven centerman. I think the last time he played center was AHL so that would make AA as proven as him. I think centermen always have more defensive responsibility than wingers. Wingers go along the boards and get caught up with players. Centermen are in free ice and so they're the logical/reliable ones to skate back and help the D. Because of this, it is the place where the fastest skaters play because they have to go north to south. To me, having AA and Larkin at center, is how we make use of their speed. I think we'll still see Z as the top center, which I think is fine, but hopefully Larkin gets better at faceoffs and takes over as the year goes on. I'd like Helm as the 3rd line center - He would certainly help the faceoff % - but I realize that blocks either AA or Sheahan so I know it doesn't fully make sense. To sign another centerman (unless it's Stamkos - i've heard he wants to play center) at this point just gets in the way of the future. I even think signing Richards to play center (though he played well at the end of the year and playoffs) this past year was overly cautious. We're not winning the cup next year (barring some big moves...maybe Stamkos, some surprise big trade on D and a lot of internal development) so we're continue this youth movement and get things going in the right direction for them taking over the team.

Abdelkader isn't nearly skilled enough to center a scoring line. AA and Larkin at center will mean growing pains, but one or both gave to be top end centers if this team has any chance of not being terrible in the next few years. Both are natural centers and both gave more skill than Abdelkader. Sink or swim time.