VM1138

No kidding. I have a feeling Pronger is going to have an amazing year considering his competition is going to be really weak. It's a shame though that Anaheim probably won't make playoffs. Everytime the Wings get involved in a decent rivalry, the other team has to go ahead and start sucking.

I can't even imagine watching a basketball game there. It's going to suck getting a new arena because it's going to be built to satisfy the business interests and thus be too big. At least at the Joe there are no bad seats and everyone gets their money's worth.

This guy has "Bust" written all over him. Throwaway pick.

What a horrible captain. Why did they have to move Pronger to sign Neidermeyer again? He's not going to push for a freaking RAISE is he?

You're right about 4 million being an insult and 6 million being reasonable. With that said it's not bad of Hossa to want 6 million because it's still well below his market value. The only trouble is, we just can't afford to keep him for that much, so as much as I hate to say it, and as optimistic as I was, I wish him luck wherever he goes except when he plays against the Wings.

Pronger is going to freaking dominate in the East. Now if only the Flyers can learn to actually play well he should bolster their defense a lot. I wonder if he can take them from second gooniest team in the league to first?

One key problem with the premise of this thread: No way in hell (yes, I'll say it again, No way in hell) we lose Hudler AND Hossa. Either we find a miracle way to keep both or one of them is gone and the other stays. There is absolutely no way Holland let's both walk and ends up behind the 8 ball.

Hopefully he goes to an Original 6 team or retires. I'd hate to see a career like his (Montreal, Chicago, Detroit) sullied by going to some no account South East Division team. O6 or Bust, Cheli!

I think you guys are overlooking something. You explain away his poor performances as being called up when the team was suffering the worst. But you overlook that he's been maddeningly inconsistent and weak in the AHL. If you can't mop up in the AHL there's no way in hell you're going to be a great goalie in the NHL without years and years of focus and practice as a maddeningly inconsistent backup. Goalies are hard to predict, though. He has shown flashes of brilliance, just nothing that would indicate he has anything special that would last long-term. I would love to be proven wrong and turn into a Howard fan, though.

It'd be funny if it turns out Sammy was just moving to the other side of the city.

Yeah, the Swedish team could hurt us. I honestly think it's going to hurt us during that part of the season. Lucky enough, it takes place during our annual mid-year collapse so it won't be too out of the norm.

That diahhrea of the keyboard drove me insane. Hoss a cancer? Taking the easy way out? What was he supposed to do? Join the Kings and hope for the best?

Ladies and gentlemen, Jimmy Howard, the second coming of Joey MacDonald.

//conspiracy It's all part of a plan to give HOlland the least amount of time to work with his cap limits and hopefully hamstring the Wings. //conspiracy

We have a winner!

Bastards.

I think Chicago is going to be one of those rivalries where we can hate and respect their team at the same time, unlike the Anaheim rivalry. I really can't say I hate too many Chicago players, and it was a classy thing to do. It's weird to actually sort of like players on such a close rival team, like Toews.

Details from the meeting anyone?

Yeah, I think most of us have an attitude that he not that good of a player but he's really sort of ingratiated himself into our hearts so that he's our not very good player. I'll be sad to see him go on the one hand, but relieved on the other that I won't have to watch his poorly timed shots anymore.

An all Wings class, beautiful! EDIT: Forgot about the 4th inductee, haha. So all Wings and a Ranger.

Yuri Butsayev! I forgot about him. Always liked his name for some reason.

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Cleary Franzen-Flip-Hossa Helm-Leino-Kopecky (face it, the Useless one is here to stay for a while) Maltby-Draper-Holmstrom (that fourth line is going to be brutal during the regular season) Abdelkader Am I forgetting anyone? All in all, those lines are't bad except for the fourth line, but that line would get an infusion with Abdelkader.

If Lilja is coming back this year, we need to keep him. We sorely missed him, almost as much as we missed Datsyuk. If we had him on the PK or blocking shots we would've won the Cup. Lebda is the movable one. But I agree with the other poster, the Meech-Kindl pairing makes me want to vomit. This year we're not nearly as deep without CHelios and (possibly) losing Meech and Lebda. Which could be bad news come the mid-year collapse we have every year. Kindl may be great someday, and I want him to be the AHLer called up a lot this year, but to give him a full time roster spot with no experience would really mean we have no options on D. My D pairings would look something like this: (Regular Season) Lidstrom-Kronwall Rafalski-Stuart Ericcson-Lilja The only reason I split Raffy and Lidstrom is not a knock on Raffy, but that juts like splitting Dats and Z, let's spread the threat around, at least for an experiment. Kronwall has been a bit shaky and putting him up with Lids would solidify him I think. Ericcson-Lilja would be lethal to other teams and Rafalski and Stuart are a solid working combo. But, more realisticaly: Lidstrom-Rafalski Stuart-Kronwall Ericcson-Lilja/Lebda

First, I never argued Lebda was better. I want both of them gone. Lebda did turn his game around but let's get somethign for him while we can. But Meech has really disappointed since his first appearance with the Wings.

Chelios has been my favorite for years, his was the first jersey I got and I've rooted for him since, well, we got him. It's sad to see him go, I felt he could still play, but I guess it's necessary. I worry about our depth, though, now. Meech? We have no one at depth on D who we can count on in a crunch. Who cares if Meech can play both position if he sucks at both?