BringHomeTheCup!

If you won't concede that playing on a bettter Detroit team wouldn't have helped out Belfours stats considerably, then maybe you should watch the Panthers, or just look at their stats. There were only 8 teams who allowed more goals than the Panthers, and 2 who allowed fewer than the Wings. Any goalie is going to have better stats on the Wings than Panters. Belfour was acutally 24th amongst starting goaltenders. Just to give you an idea, he tied with Khabibulin, and was better then Raycroft, Ward, and was within a stones throw of Biron (.903), and Toskala (.908). You may want to check your sources on stats there sparky. I never said the Wings should sign him, go back and read what I wrote, I'm too lazy to quote myself. Thanks for making my point for me. We haven't had any problems with Hasek, so why should we expect them with Belfour? We have enough veteran leadership that I don't think it's an issue.

The talk about the cap is about $49. That leaves Detroit with $16 to spend. I think this is what additions to the roster may look like. Cheli - 850k Huds - 850k Bert - 3 (if he'd take it) Matty - 2.5 (if he'd take it) Giggy - 6 (if he'd sign) Assuming the 3 if's signed, that would be a total of about $13 eaten up, leaving some wiggle room for Kenny. If any of the 3 wouldn't sign for the alloted amount, outside of Giggy, a replacement could be found for a similar price. Here is what I'd do for lines. W-W-C Hank - Homer - Pav Bert - Huds - Flip Sammy - Dano - Drapes Malts - Franzen - Kope Nick - Jr. Cheli - Lebda Quincey - Lilja Giggy - Oz Yeah, I agree, in the real world, if Dom wants to come back, he is the best option, I said that in the original post. That's funny. No way if Kenny inked Belfour would he be 4th on the depth chart. Maybe second, but if he were signed, it'd be his starting job to lose.

I meant more consistant in general. You never know what Dom you are going to get. The only who plays stellar, or the one who is seemingly unable to think. With Belfour you know what you get. Yes he will have a bad game here and there, but everyone does. And no, that isn't an excuse for Dom, I'll give him that say 3 or 4 times a season, but Dom is much more inconsistant than that. As far as the stats go, I believe if you put Belfour on the Wings his stats would be much better. He had no help in Florida. To put up those stats on that team is pretty solid. I always say this, GAA is an overrated stat, Sv% is a more telling stat about the goalie, and the two Sv%'s are pretty close. As for SO, Belfour had no help. For a goalie to get a shutout, he needs help. Dom had a TON of help. As for the run in with the law, I seem to remember Hasek beating the crap out of some guy in a roller hockey tournament the summer before he came back to the Wings.

Someone should let the Sharks in on this.....or maybe not!

So why not give Huds the chance? His shot is just as good as Sammy's, and his upside is much better. Give the kid some playoff experience.

No, it is possible, and if any GM in the NHL could do it, Kenny is the man. Here is a quick breakdown. As I said before, simply cutting out Matty, and Bert would clear up the $6 mil per that Giggy will command. Since that doesn't seem to be enough for you, here are some more options on top of those two cuts. Fist off, don't pay Kronwall $3 mill per, he isn't worth that. I'd take a guy like Vitali Vishnevski who makes about $1.5 mil per before I'd think about paying Kronwall anything over $1.5 mill per. That's just insane, you are placing him on the same level as Matty, Ohulnd, or Kuba. He might one day be that good, but not for at least another two or three seasons. Second, I don't know the increse you are thinking Huds and Flip will get, but don't hold your breath. They might jump to a $1.5 mil per average, but they will be RFA's and no team would be willing to pay the price to get them as Detroit would most likely match any reasonable offer for them. Third, let Bobby walk, and take his $4 mil per elsewhere. I like the guy, he does anger me at times. I don't think anyone would pay him $4 mil per, but you never know. I'd like to see him stay for about $2 mil per. Fourth, Nick is already taking up nearly $8 mil per of our salary cap, so suggesting re-signing him will be a problem, I just don't see it. I think he is a team guy, and will take a reasonable hometown discount to stay here, if he doesn't go back to Sweden. However, if he doesn't , it's wouldn't be much more than an extra $1 to keep him around. Finally, the cap is all likelyhood will rise. I could be mistaken, but I believe that it is designed to rise about $3-6 mil every year. In two years, it's not unlikely that the cap would be about $58 mil. So have Pav (6), Nick(8), Giggy(6), and Hank(7) tied up would be $27 mil, leaving about $23 mil for Kenny to finish out the roster with, if he wanted to have a nice amount of breathing room for some trades or call ups. It's possible. I'm not saying it's a wise way to go, but it is undoubtedly something that could be done in the real world.

Kudos like the candy bar? Is he hungry or something? I don't think I'd even give him the candy bar Kudos, much more the less a pat on the back kudos...

No forward on the Wings roster could play D as well as any dman they have available in the minors. Use one of the kids we have available.

Is that smiley face supposed to be an ear ring?

The salary cap will keep rising, next year it's going to $49 million. So in a few years, the Wings will have the room to re-sign Hank, even if they were to sign Giggy. And don't forget, next year, Nick will be a UFA. He could walk, go back to Sweden, or pull a Stevie and sign for less than market value.

Good point, but that raises teh question, would it be worth it to let the big name guys walk, in order to sign a guy like Giggy? Keep in mind that if we don't re-sign Bert, we don't have to give up more picks and such. I think simply letting Bert and Matty walk away would clear enough space for Giggy. Now, I don't think the Wings will get Giggy, I think he will sign for close to league max somewhere. However, if the Wings let Bert walk, it would give way to Hudler, Flip, and Ellis to step in on a regular basis, and on D you could give Meech, Quincey, Kindl, and Ericsson a chance to fill Matty's spot. I don't know how wise this would be, but how often do you get a chance to sign a world class goaltender as a UFA in his prime?

Look at the stats my friend. Befour put up similar stats on a MUCH worse team. Belfour is a solid goltender, more consistant than Hasek has proven to be, and he can handle the puck without giving the fans a heart attack.

Gigggy would appear not to move much. But it's because he is an extremely sound positional goaltender. The highest praise one can get is from his peers, after the series between the Ducks and 'Nucks was over, Luongo was interviewed and asked what he thought about Giggy, he said that Giggy was the most technically sound goaltender in the league. Giggy keeps himself in great position. He isn't going to make a ton of out of this world saves, but that is because he doesn't get out of position too often. Give him some credit.

You'd put Roy in your top 3 goaltenders? Is that of all-time, or or the 90's? Sawchuk, Parent, Vezina, Hall, Plante, Fuhr, Esposito, Hainsworth, Dryden, Worsley, Bower, and friends....

There may be some correlation between the oddness of a goaltender, and getting hit in the face with pucks. I'm not sure though.... Why would you deny Marty? Yeah he did play in a defensive system that put a lock down on goal scoring. But remember that the system also hurt the Devils goal scoring. They pretty much asked Marty to be perfect. As for praising Roy and not Marty, Roy WILL own all of Roy's significant records in 3 seasons or less.

:: Please read the original post, what would you do if Dom retired or signed elsewhere.

Here is my rebuttle: Belfour: Why not? He is no worse than Joseph? Giguere: I agree. Theodore: Most likely will be bought out, the Avs have all but done it. Backstrom: I thin he will get closer to $4-5 million per, if for no other reason than because of the lack of quality goaltending available. Emery, Bryzgalov: RFA's, we'd have to give up compensatory picks, I'm not sure if we have the picks available to give up. Joseph: Has a track record of not preforming on teams that don't need him to play stellar just to have a chance. Like I said in the original post, it's something to do for fun on an off day.

Something I don't understand is the general 'hell no' responce to Belfour. I get that he is disliked as much as any player not named Claude Lemieux, and with good reason. However, he could be a good fit, a gap stop. We accepted Krupp, Cheli, and Bert, so if Belfour was signed, why not him?

In any playoff series, playoff experience is huge, i.e. Senators until this year, Blues of the 90's, Sabers last year.

I am wondering if the severity of Matty's wrist break will have any effect on him in the future. That's something to consider when thinking about re-signing him. I am not comfortable with Kronwall as a steady dman, he is too injury prone. I would much rather have a younger corps, with Matty.

I'm actually in the crowd that didn't give the Sharks enough credit. I did say this series would go 6, obviously picking the Wings. However, I didn't think they would give us this much trouble.

If any dman on the roster is injury prone, hands down it's Kronwall. The kid has a big upside, but he hasn't been able to put together a full healthy NHL season. This season was his closest, but he still had a better season in 2005-2006.

Before you call him out, learn how to do the math. GAA is goals allowed x 60 divided by minutes played. Marty has a GAA of 2.45. P Roy carried a career 2.30 playoff GAA.

It's amazing how people on LGW will sit and call Hasek one of the best of all-time, and in the same breath say Marty isn't. It's comical. If Marty has AVERAGE seasons the next two years he will be the new all-time wins and shutout leader. The guys is phenominal. Yeah, he has played in a great defensive system for the better part of his career. But don't forget that the system that helped him out also limited goals scored for him. He is the best goaltender of his generation.