UKWING

yeah if only kenny hadn't re-signed hank and mule we would have loads of space to go after the likes of kotalik. holland sucks!!

me too (health permitting). cleary will almost certainly score more than the 14 he got this past year too.

it sounds a lot but i don't believe the wings need to replace hossa's 40 goals - they scored 37 fewer goals in 07/08 yet they were still by far the best team in the NHL. but they do need to replace at least 40 of the other 48 goals. but i don't think it is unrealistic to say that helm, abdelkader and leino will score 25 goals between them this year. that leaves another 15 goals between the rest of our forwards and d-men and a $1.5-2m free agent signing. again no that unrealistic IMO. of course their defence and goaltending has to be better than it was last year too but i can't see how it won't be. it may not return to the level of 07/08 but it will surely be better than last year. i don't expect the wings to be as good as the past 2 years but they were comfortably the best team in the NHL in that time so they can afford a little drop off and still be one of the favourites for the cup.

good points. the only 3rd and 4th liners who were effective for the wings were our rookies - helm and abdelkader. so having them on the roster full time should not be a bad thing.

fully agree. the wings won't be as deep as last year but last year was as talented a team as you will see in the cap era - they coasted through the regular season and were decimated by injuries in the playoffs yet they still came within 1 game of winning the cup. yes they have lost a few players but the wings were the deepest, most talented team in the NHL so they could afford to lose a few players. they still have their core intact and will again be one of the best teams in the league with a good shot at the regaining the cup.

i hope we get to find out how good both of them can become on the wings. but it looks like it will cost at least $3m to retain hudler. at that level i would let him go

i would be thrilled if hudler signed for 1 year at $2.25m but it was reported that he rejected a $2.5m offer already so i can't see it happening especially as he has now signed with dynamo - probably for over $3m. surely he will be looking for at least $3m from the wings?

i can't remember draper leading all wings players in assists at the end of a long playoff run either. i don't want to lose hudler but there is no way in hell i would keep him over flip. what disappointed me most with hudler in the playoffs is that when datsyuk was out and others like cleary, hank and homer were all struggling with injuries, he failed to elevate his game. the wings really needed their secondary scoring to come through but hudler vanished after the anaheim series with just 4 assists in 12 games.

hudler is likely to get at least $3m; lilja + moen would cost less than that and so you have more space if you have lilja and moen rather than hudler. lilja provides things that none of the other wings defensemen provide and it was obvious for all to see how badly he was missed in this years playoffs. and he only costs $1.25m per year. moen would provide toughness, energy and a physical presence to the 3rd line. i think he would be a great fit alongside helm. he can also fight and kill penalties. if the wings cannot sign moen then there are plenty of alternatives though he would be my #1 choice. if the wings sign hudler to $3m or more then they have to trade lilja and have a 21 man roster with no cap space. if they let hudler go then they can sign a gritty, physical, defensively sound 3rd liner for around $1.5m whilst having a 22 man roster and some cap space. as i said before i don't want to lose hudler but in the cap era you cannot keep everyone.

well it is another good contract for a very talented young player. f*ck knows how they are gonna get under the cap though!! whatever they do next year - they have to re-sign keith and toews. they will have to trade some other guys to open up the space but they just cannot let either of those 2 get away.

ovechkin has an annual cap hit of $9.5m. i think what leftwinger meant is that they are too young for the hawks to be able to sign them to 12 year deals with a cap hit of $5m like they did with hossa. whatever way you look at it, the hawks cannot sign all of their young guys - they just have too many good young players who all deserve big raises.

trading stuart would make the most sense but he has a NTC so it is not gonna happen. lebda and meech don't make enough money so the only guys who could be traded are flip, homer, kronwall and lilja. flip and kronwall are better players than hudler so trading them to make room for hudler would be daft. homer won't get traded out of loyalty and so the only guy left is lilja but at $1.25m he is a bargain and the wings badly missed him in the playoffs this year. so as i said i would like to keep hudler; but i would rather have lilja, a physical 3rd liner and some space for the deadline.

i don't like it either. i would hate to lose hudler but at $3m per year the wings could probably have lilja and moen and still have some money left over. tbh i think i would rather have those 2 - especially come playoff time. the extra cap space would also give the wings a little flexibility to add a player or 2 at the trade deadline.

very good, well written post and i completely agree. the wings have lost experience but were hardly short of it anyway. but they look to have a more solid d corps and have a younger more energetic forward lineup. as long as they don't have the same luck with injuries as they had last year then they have a great chance at regaining the cup.

cam barker had 40 points in 68 games this year. he is going to be a stud and at just over $3m per year it is a bargain. so you cannot compare him to ericsson yet. you are better off comparing him to kronwall who was awarded a contract worth $3m per year and (correct me if i am wrong) at the time he had not put up those sort of numbers and had had quite a few injuries. this is a great deal for the hawks IMO.

good deal for burke and the leafs. i would have thought beauchemin could have earned more elsewhere

yes but he has been steadily declining for a number of years. leino is only likely to get better and better and given a full season and more minutes he is almost certain to be worth more than 800k in 2 years time. there is no way a young player with his offensive potential is gonna sign a 4 or 5 year contract for peanuts.

word. and for all those people saying they would have liked a longer deal - there is no way he would have signed for longer than 2 years at such a low salary. he is earning less than maltby FFS!!

chelios slowed down badly that season and was benched for the SCF so the wings still have the same 6 defencemen who won the cup plus ericsson. holland said they will trade someone but it will likely be lebda or meech anyway so the D will be in strong shape. i don't expect leino, abdelkader or helm to be awesome - they are replacing role players so they don't need to be awesome; they just need to play hard and chip in with goals occasionally. sammy, drake and kopecky had just 19 goals and 58 points between them during the regular season in 08 so i expect leino, helm and abdelkader to be able to make up for that and provide some good energy and physical play too. and flip is only earning $3m and just led all wings players in assists in the playoffs so i am not worried about him at all.

it won't be that different. the wings will have the same goalie, the same 6 defencemen (plus ericsson) and the same top 6 forwards that won the cup. yes the back-up goalie will be worse and they have lost a few 3rd and 4th liners but they have some very talented young guys like helm, leino and abdelkader to come in.

we will be fine. the wings actually scored 37 fewer goals in 08 so they don't need to replace hossa's 40 goals; they just need to tighten up on defence which i think they will. they will need to replace sammy's 20 goals but leino should be capable of putting up 10-15 of those goals. i am not worried at all - of course the wings lineup will not be as talented as last year but it will be a pretty similar roster to 08 which was good enough to win the cup then and will be good enough to win it again next year.

he is a good player at around $3m but $6.25m is ridiculously overpaid. great deal for the avs

the roster will not be all that different to 08 when they did win the cup. i would like to keep hudler but at $2.5m+ i don't think it is plausible so i would like to see: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Leino-Filppula-Franzen Moen-Helm-Cleary Downey-Draper-Maltby Meech Lidstrom-Rafalski Kronwall-Stuart Ericsson-Lilja Lebda Osgood Howard i really like the look of that roster and it should be comfortably under the cap, allowing room to add someone at the deadline. it also allows abdelkader to get top line minutes in grand rapids and he could then be brought up at playoff time - like they have done with helm the past 2 years.

watching that video makes me wonder how different things would have been had dats been healthy against the pens

can't blame sammy for taking that deal - he has earned it. i know he took a lot of sh*t on here but for $1.2m he sure did score some huge goals the past few years - the 2 goals against the sharks in game 6 in '07 and of course the 2 goals against the pens in game 1 in '08 more than made up for all the frustrating moments. thanks for the memories sammy and good luck with the 'nucks