Hank Dats 'N Homer

Yeah sorry, i meant to go back ang chance that. He has almost 400 NHL gams and only 56 points to show fir it. I just dont think that what we need if we are chosing not to replace hudler. We have lost so much offense this off season already and we lose Hudler to top it off, replacing him with a guy that doesnt put points on the board doenst make alot of sense to me.

I like your idea, but the guys you mentioned are nowhere near what we need. Moen has played almost 400 regualr season games with only 56 total points prodcued over a 5 year proefessinal campaign. Not what we need. Dont know how 'gritty' he is, but defiently not a point prodcuer that would replace Hudler. Rob and Todd are both too old and not really productive offensively enough to take hudlers spot. The rest seem way out of our price range. Not sure what we are ganna do, but our best bet is to probably resign Hudler and try and pick up a cheap grity guy that might not produce alot of points but will atleast mix it up. if you add Hudler you dont need yor gritty guy to be offensive as much. Ive said it before and ill say it again. Mark Bell would be a good fit. Would come cheap, was a former 8th overall pick, and under the radar for alot of teams. Give him a second chance and keep hudler at the same time. I think it will work out for us.

Many good times with him.....lots of bad times, but plenty of good times to outweigh the bad in my book. Absolutely NO hard feelings about him leaving. Glad he found a home somewhere and hope he does good things.

If you look at posts over the years, i too have wanted Sammy gone FOR YEARS, but truth is, he had some timely goals both last year in the playoffs and this year in playoffs. We would not have gotten where we were without him as much as i hate to admit it. He did put up 23 goals one year and 19 goals another year. He was nt the best player on our team by anymeans, and like you said, he gave the puck up way to much and was a liability on defense, but he was well worth the 1.2 million we were paying. With that said, yes im glad he freed up our cap space, and im glad Kenny didnt make a move JUST to make a move and sign him for what vancouver was offereing, but i give him my respect and best of luck wishes.

Damn, if those stats are right, he definetly was a product of our system. The only thing i could see in his favor is the fact that Vancouver management and coaching staff has been watching how the wings play sammy for the past 5 years. If they are smart they will use him on the 2nd and 3rd line and put him on the 2nd PP line just like the Wings did. Then again, he doesnt really have the staff playingwith him that he had here in Detroit so it might not work out or him. With that said, i hope he has a few 20 goal campaigns and scores some timely goals in the playoffs just like he did here....as long as they arent against the wings. The bad thing is, Sammy seems like one of those players who will play BEST against his former team, so we might see him burn us once or twice over the next 3 years...

i would have resigned Sammy in heart beat....at 1.2 million, especially after losing Hossa, but 2.5 million for a guy who has never done ANYTHING outside of Detroit is just a ridiculous contract. Hes only put up numbers while in a wings uniform. Only had 1 20 goal campaign, and that of course was in a wings jersey. I just dont know how well this guy is going to play outside of the wings orginization. He seems to be a product of our system like many have already said. He does have value with the fact that hes a right handed shot that can play the point on the power play, and we all know he has a decent shot when hes not aiming directly for the goalies chest. I just dont know how well he will perform in Vancouver. I wish him the best of luck. I was not a Sammy fan by any means, but i was content with his play most of the time. Lots of turnovers, but ALOT of timley goals especially in the playoffs. Good luck sammy, hope it all works out, glad you got paid and lucky for you, you get to play some swedes still. Thanks and good luck.

HOW MUCH? Why arent they saying how much? They WAY overpayed for the Sedin twins (whom im sure had a role in getting sammy there), so im sure they overpayed for Sammy too. I want to know how hard i should laugh. But in all seriousness, thats another 20-25 goals we somehow have to replace ontop of the 40 that we post from Hossa. On the plus side, we can get him off the point of the power play and he wont cost us as many goals with his numerous give aways.

If the guy played some defense yea i could see us giving him 3-3.5, but the guy is a one dimensional player, so no more than 2-2.5 for him. If he learns to play some D then we can talk about a raise in a few years. If he thinks hes really ganna get 3.5-4 then he can walk. Er were ganna be throwing 4.5-5 at Hossa, who plays both ways and scores 40 goals. A one way forward that only scores 20 aint worth it. With that said, I love Happy Hudler, and ii would love to keep him but only for 2.5.

Travis Moen? What is everyones obsession with this guy? the guy has played 400 NHL games in the last 5 seasons combined. In that time he has only had 56 total points. I havent seen him play that much, so maybe i just need some education. I understand that hes a big body, but does he play like a big guy? Ive never seen him fight or anything, so i have no idea if the guy is even a fighter. but if you ask me, there has got to be a guy out there who is big and plays physical but can still put points on the board. I just dont see a reason to replace Hudler who scores you 20-30 goals a season with a big body that will maybe get you 10 goals. If he plays physical he is more than likely going to lave us short handed more times than Hudler does, but hes not going to put up as much offense as Hudler does. If you ask me we need to go out for a guy that can play physical but still put up the points that we will lose in Hudler if we can resign him. We already lost 40 goals in Hossa, 20+ in Sammy, and if we lose hudlers 20-30 goals, we lose a TON of offense. Replacing that with a guy that will do some hitting but will not chip in offensively doesnt make alot of sense to me. I for one hope that we resign Hudler, and last i heard he filed for arbitration which gives us a pretty good chance of resigning him. If we do resign Hudler, i could see us then trying to go out and getting a physical guy. Again i havent seen Moen play that much, but if thats who you want, i think we also need to keep Hudler. I would give Mark Bell a shot over Moen if you ask me. A former 1st round pick (8th overall) who has had some personal problems which have kept him from the NHL and taken alot of attention away from him. I think he would be a good camp invitee and if it all pans out, sign him for cheap to a one year deal and give him a chance to prove he can play. The only thing that sucks about this years camp is that it is extremely short which limits most chancs of giving Moen or Bell an invite. I dont think that holland would sign Moen or Bell to a contract without seeing how both play first, so i dunno what the chances are of getting either guy.

i think i would take this trade if stuart was involved. Not that Stuart isnt valuable, but the kings would not trade Johnson for Hudler straight up. They would more than likely wany a Dman along with Hudler. If we are getting Johnson we could afford to lose Stuart who plays essentially the same game, but is older in age. The only problem is Stuarts NTC, but we all know that Stuart is a West Coast guy, and i dont know about any of you, but i was completely shocked when he resigned here with us knowing that his family was still living on the Coast throughout the playoffs. There were a ton of rumors that he wanted to stay on the coast, and after winning a cup i defeintly thought he was going to pack it in and willing to just go play for a crap team like LA again for the rest of his career. He suprised me when he stayed. Anyways, if you want to get rid of stuart (and im not saying that i do) your best bet to get him to waive his NTC is more than likely send him back to the Coast. With all that said, is it smart to make this trade? No, probably not. We already lost a 40 goal scorere in Hossa, we probably lost a 20-25 goal scorere in Sammy, and if we trade Hudler for a Dman we lose another 20 and potentially 30 goal scorere in Hudler. The only up side to this trade is that it would free up about 4 million of Stuarts contract and keep us from spending anywhere from 2.5-4 million on Hudler (i read in an article today that someone posted here that its not unrealistic to believe that Hudler would being in money anywhere in that range). With that money freed up, we might have a chance to replace some of the scoring that we lost. The only thing is, we would have to make this trade ASAP as most of the scoring free agents are already gone.

eh, a former Italiano perhaps????? i like you already!

haha i swear, i really was not trying to be a dick, its just depending on who says what and when, leftwinger changes their stance on the subject. It just drives me crazy. I dont dislike the guy or anything, i just want them to know that you cant please everyone, thats all there is to it. State your opinion and stick with it. The point of these forums is to state how you feel. Noone is going to lynch you for your opinion. We care about what you think, not about what you want to say to please everyone else.

Im not usually the guy to jump on people, but damn, Leftwinger you need to have an original thought of your own. You are like the geeky kid in school who says and does things to please the popular kids in hopes that they will be your friend. You flip flop all over the place changing your mind every 5 seconds depending on who on these forums is saying what. You have had like 3 topics where you have advocated signing Hudler at like 3 million, and now because everyone is saying get rid of him you are all for just signng leino and calling it a day. Noone is going to get mad at you for having your own opinion. Jeez, just stick to what you think and go with it. Im tired of reading about your opinions and thoughts change every post...

did Mark Bell kill anyone? I know he was involved in a drunken hit and run but i dont know all the details. Even if he did, Look at Dany Heatley, he kills his teammate by drinking (apparently under the leagal limit but still) and losing control of his car killing his teammate. He recieved a second chance too. Why cant Bell?

Good to hear. I love that we seem to go out and get great guys that are always trying to improve their game, it really helps represent the type of player the Red Wings orginzation goes after. You see so many of these guys that are so set in their ways and dont care about getting better, tehy just want to cas h a pay check. Its refreshing.

Really? Whats wrong with Mark Bell? Young, promising guy, big strong and skilllful with the puck. What are reasons that you would not want him here? He would be cheap and exactly what the wings are looking for. Big body, cheap rate, putsthe puck in the net. not exactly a power forward yet, but on his way. Hes one of the only realistic choices ive seen so far, so i dont really know what your problem is exactly....

I was about to say the same thing....maybe not 80 points, but he will surpise some people. He is sure ganna make Holland look like a genius using that brunnstrom guy as a decoy talking him up, and then pulling a switch and grabbing Leino instead when noone was watching.

I think he would fill the hole that drake left but supply a little bit of scoring ability to take the edge off of losing Hossa. Of course hes not ganna score 40 goals likehossa, he prob woudlnt break 20-25 or so, but it would be nice to have a big body who still has good puck control, kind of like another Franzen. I think its worth inviting him to camp. Hell he was only making like 1.4 million last year, and coming out of the AHL he prob would be Dirt cheap, and just happy to get a chance.

I would invite him to camp in a heartbeat. i didnt realize he was a free agent but i just checked and he is an UFA. I think its worth a shot to give him an invite, but Holland probably wont be having any of that...

I know this is a whole year away, but seeing as we arent going to make a splash in the FA pool this year, i started looking into next seasons FA. There are alot of people on here talking about how bad of shape Chicago is in after next season because they have Toews and Kane to resign and wont have the cap room. I went to go see what our cap space would be next year to see what kind of shape we were in and it looks like we arent in the best of shape either. If we are just going to be barely under the cap if we resign Hudler this year, and the cap goes down next year again like its suppose to, we only have a few contracts coming off the books. Heres the lst of our FA for next year Lidstrom, Nicklas 40 DET D UFA 7.450 Holmstrom, Tomas 37 DET L UFA 2.250 Lilja, Andreas 34 DET D UFA 1.250 Maltby, Kirk 37 DET L UFA 0.883 Abdelkader, Justin 23 DET L RFA 0.850 Lebda, Brett 28 DET D UFA 0.850 Helm, Darren 23 DET C RFA 0.598 Meech, Derek 26 DET D RFA 0.500 Realisticly i see us letting Homer go if his game continues to go into the crapper like it did this year, and they will probably let maltby go because of age, but that only clears up about 3 million in cap space. We will probably use that 3 million to match any offers that Abdelkader and Helm get thrown at them. more than likely Lilja, lebda or meech will be off the books after training camp this year with the talks of us trading a defensemen. I would prefer to lose either lebda or meech seeing as they are pretty replaceable, Lilja has some skill on the PK and blocks shots and at 1.2 million hes pretty affordable. So if we lose lebda and meech we will prob have to use some of the money they free up to keep Lilja. I just dont see where we are going to get some money from to sign some guys next year like everyone is talking about. The only person that could give us some cap space is Lidstrom. Hes making 7.5 this year, i dont know if hes going to come back at the age of 41 and if he doesnt, than that leaves us with a bit of money, but realistically i see him still wanting to play atleast one more year and with his skills, he should be able to with no problem. Question is, does he take a paycut? Is he worth 7.5 at 41 years old? Yes, but thats really the only spot i see the wings making some money back to try and sign some free agents next year. As of right now, the FA list looks pretty plentiful for next year, a few good goalies available and lots of big scoreres. Id love for us to make a big splash next year, but where are we ganna get the money from? If my numbers are wrong, or i messed up somewhere i apologize. Im not really a big numbers guy and i dont know a whole lot about contracts and cap issues and such, but with the research i did, this is what i came up with. With all that said here is the list of potential FA next summer http://nhlnumbers.com/freeagents.php?team=...e&type=none Who would everyone want and how would we be able to afford them?

Mark Bell? Where was he mentioned? I wouldnt mind getting him, but how cheap would be be? Might just be the perfect fit if he would come cheap. Where did you source this at?

To be fair, our Goalie situation is not much better. Osgood will not be able to play all 82 games, and the way he playerd in the regular season last year really scared me. We all know hes a good clutch playoff guy, but man was he bad during the regular season, and now we have to trust the backup department to Howard. Isnt he like 35 yet? the guy has been in the AHL for forever, and every year we hear about how its time for this guy to step up and have a great season, and it never happens. Now we are forced to give him a chance at the NHL level because of cap issues. I know the wings always keep our guys down longer than tehy should, but this guy has seemed like a work in progress for what seems like forever. The orginization obviously doesnt beleive in him anymore since they went and drafted McCollum. Sigh...maybe we will use him quite a bit in the regualr season in the hopes to spark some trade bait, because i just dont see him being able to take on the responsibilities and pressures that are thrown at a goalie in Detroit. I hope that Osgood gets back to his old self and can really shut teams down during the regualr season, if that happens then i think we will fair better than Chicago. They may have more scoring threats, but our D is top knotch so that evens the playing field in my book. Goalie is where the tie breaker is going to come down to. I think Ozzie has the edge over Huet but if he falters and we have to give Howard his shot, i just dont see him succeeding. I hope he proves me wrong, but thats just my opinion. With all that said, there are a few good free agent goalies on the market after next season....

I read this today http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=283509 Doesnt sound like negotiations are going very well. I think colombus would be stupid to not give him whatever he wants, but from that article it seems like they are worlds apart. Yeah they have a whole year to work something out, so its still likely he will be locked up, and there is no indication that Nash would come to Detroit or even want to leave Colombus but it sounds like he wants to get paid. If colombus doesnt pony up the money you can expect him to move on. I would say the same for Kovie. I cannot see him in a Thrashers jersey after next season, the guy cannont be content with playing there.

I would love to get a guy like Nash of Kovy, i just dont know how realistic it is with our avaialable cahs for next season. If Lidstrom stays, that significantly cuts our chances of signing a big name guy like them. But like someone said, if Lids stays, we do get to keep the best Dman and in the league so we arent really losers in that category. However, we might still have some cap space even if he stays and takes a paycut. What about a guy like savard or Olli Jokinen both making less than nash and Kovy. I would really love to have Savard and his passing ability. Put him on a line with Dats and Zetterberg and Z scores 60 goals with Dats and Savard continually setting him up haha. Any names on the list catching anyones eyes?

The only reason i worry is because the only room that will be made in our cap is if Lids takes a cut or retires. The money htat we gain from homer draper and malts will go to resigning Abby and Helm. I cant see us having a whole lot of money to work with. What kind of pay cut do you guys see Lids taking? The only reason i ask is because i see how much some of these FA are going for this off season. I mean a 32 and 22 goal scorere both made 6.1 a year in this FA market. We wont even have a number close to that next offseason if my numbers are correct. How much money does everyone think we are going to have? Maybe i am not calculating it correctly in my head.