VM1138

Eh...we have enough energy grinders. We need top end scoring guys.

Holy crap, that linesman pulled some voodoo magic to get there faster. It's annoying when Kane does it, but has no one noticed that Franzen does it too?

At least now when people disagree there might be some level of understanding. It's amazing that so many simple solutions like this take so long to be implemented. Sounds like Shanny is going to have a good run. Everyone respects him, he's making it transparent, and I doubt his suspensions will be made totally on a whim like Campbell's were.

Well, Holland could either be hoping for a miracle with Brunnstrom turning into a secondary scorer, or else he's just giving Brunnstrom a chance to show off for other teams and get his career going again.

You're probably right, but I wouldn't put him in. You shouldn't get in on potential alone. True, he's a great player, but he really needs a longer career with more accomplishments and steady work to be considered, I think. On the flip side, I hope he recovers.

This is like someone asking you which of your children is your favorite. Honestly, I'd have to pick Pavs based on his level of play and the fact that he will have a longer career than Zetterberg. It's hard to fault Zetterberg for anything, he's still one of the best players in the league, and probably the best shut-down forward. And he still puts up points, but Datsyuk has wooed us with his dazzling stick-handling.

I don't understand this. Hudler never caused any drama except for his contract negotiations. Playing under your potential doesn't mean you're creating drama. All signs point to him being an excellent locker room influence. Everyone on the team loves Hudler. And I'm sure everyone loves Kostitsyn, but only because he keeps them supplied with drugs, haha. And the girlfriend thing was Leino, not Hudler.

You mean Andrei "Center of All Sorts of Media Drama and Blatantly Illegal Activity" Kostitsyn? No thanks.

My prediction: Flip is the one traded. Hudler, as we have seen, has no trade value. Flip might. Nobody else either has value to another team or is worth losing.

He hasn't played that role for a few years now. Now he's just an invisible roster spot filler.

Fedorov did take games off, I remember this clearly, but I never got the impression that he was lazy. Sure, he didn't work as hard as Lidstrom or Yzerman, but who did? I'd hesitate to group Fedorov in with lazy asses like Kovalev, who take every game off, except for a select few against weak teams.

Yeah, because with Lidstrom retiring after this season the Wings are going to be in a big hurry to get rid of Kronwall. This isn't some obscure thing that only team fans would know, sports writers should know this.

We have over 6 million in cap space. That's unheard of for the Red Wings and unnecessary. Of course Holland will add someone if he can find someone who would help the team.

I've always been pretty critical of him, and that article doesn't exactly make him look like a great franchise-type player. The very end of the article makes one wonder, though. Perhaps his laziness and struggle has come from his not really wanting to play on any of the teams? I guess no one has really asked him what teams he WANTED to play for, and he finally lists Washington and Detroit. Perhaps his lack of heart partly reflects his dissatisfaction with the teams he played for? He certainly sounds entitled, but maybe if he wants to play here, and signs dirty cheap, he'd be a low-risk option.

Stuart. I was really impressed with his (few) appearances in interviews last season. Seems to be very well spoken for a hockey player, and I've read reports that he's an important locker room presence. My second choice would be Kronwall. Yeah, I've never heard a single fan accuse Helm of ever sitting a shift out. Until now.

Exactly. I think 3, four years max is "long term" for a goalie. I'd rather overpay once in a while by having to renegotiate during a goalie's prime than to overpay for a decade for a goalie to ride the pine.

You know, I never made that connection before. Very good point. A lot of those bizarre one year performances were indeed in 05-06.

Stuart, I imagine. He's not as media-friendly, but apparently he's a big presence in the locker room.

There is not a player in recent memory I can think of that has been as much of a non-factor as Jason Williams. He's lazy, he's invisible, he's ineffective. So ineffective, in fact, that he joins and leaves teams without their fans even really noticing.

I imagine that Lidstrom and Holmstrom will only play one more season. Sad to see Drapes go. We all saw it coming, but it still sucks. He played well last season, but we just ran out of roster space for him. Veteran of the Avalanche wars and the '90 Cup runs, he was one of the players that really made me a die-hard fan back in the late 90s, he was fun to watch.

Reasonable salary, really. He probably does just as much work as any athlete, constant meetings, planning, public affairs, travel, etc. I'm pretty sure Bettman probably lives his job and puts in as much time and a lot of travel as the athletes do. Whatever our feelings of Bettman, the fact is he has overseen the rebuilding of the sport into a much more marketable, and arguably more popular version nationally. At least he did something (as much as I hate to admit it) to earn the raise, unlike some of our other corporate CEOs who profit while their companies implode. And this will probably be the one and only time you see me defend Bettman.

I don't see Emmerton being around, honestly. He doesn't really bring anything new to the table, and doesn't do what he does well enough to really earn a spot from a veteran. His potential was never rated as all that high, at least not recently. I do see Tatar coming up soon, though. Smith will be up full time in 2012-13, Tatar might be up full time the season after that, depending on how much experience he gets this year. Everything I've read is that Tatar is being fast-tracked like Smith. As excited as I am to see that, their impact will take seasons to really be felt. I'm more interested in FA signings in 2012.

This is why we scheduled our wedding for mid-July, to avoid any playoff conflicts.

I just don't want to right now.

I think it's funny that Hasek was too old for Wings fans in 1997! Though the "if we ever play Lindros" comment was prescient.