VM1138

The Rangers have defied logic for years. They repeatedly stack their team and fall short of expectations, so I bet with all their good players gone they win the Cup.

I'd rather pay Rolston 4 million than Filpulla right now. And we've seen that picking up veterans tends to bode well for us, so I don't really buy any bashing his age.

We wouldn't be looking for him to put up huge numbers. That's the point. We would need him to chip in some goals or assists on a consistent basis, and playing with Franzen and Filpulla he could do that. And to all you dismissing his age and his defensive play, how often have yuo been proved wrong? Would you rather we go after an enforcer?

What? Rolston is pretty big. The only ones bigger are Sundin and Hossa. Once again, players we stand no chance of getting. Not to mention that Rolston would be a great impact player for our team. He's a solid second liner at WORST. Why you would pass up on pretty much guaranteed production in favor of a pipe dream....I don't know. Rolston would be going big. And to the person who asked why I wanted to get rid of Kopecky: It's for the same reason so many people want Chelios to retire. We have a lot of young talent, and Kopecky just isn't cutting it. He was doing nothing when he was here. Then he got injured. It takes on average a year for a player to get back to form. Which means IN A YEAR he will be back to being a nobody who does nothing. Then MAYBE next season he starts to develop, but probably not.

I wish we could get rid of Kopecky. Thta is all.

Pittsburgh can have all the lazy forwards they want. Give me the hard workign second-liners.

Don't forget about retirements, guys. I don't see Maltby, Draper, or Holmstrom staying around much longer past the '10 season, in all honesty. I'd love to have Hossa, but let's be realistic. Too many other teams are in contention for him and would offer more money. I doubt he's coming here. The only players out there that would really impact our team, I feel, are: Hossa Rolston Sundin Bouwemeester Realistically, I think we get Rolston and no one else.

Too true. There are a lot of teams hurting for a defense. Teams are going to be trying to mimick the Red Wings' strategy this year. Hopefully it backfires on all of them. Could a team like LA or Phoenix afford him? I can see them creating a pretty good defense with Stuart-Bow or Jovo-Bow. And picking up Bow would probably be the final piece to a puzzle in making them 8-spot challengers.

Should be an easy win for a good start to the season. Haven't seen Toronto play in forever.

I don't see the cap issues. If Rolston comes for two years and does as well as we would expect him to, we will be losing someone the next season that would open up the cap space. I really don't expect Filipulla or Hudler to stick around for much longer unless one of them has an absolutely huge season. EDIT: My God, I didn't even connect that the dots that he wuold probably play with Franzen. That line would be insane!

I can't believe he's doing it again. Is the guy really as classless as he looked last year? Apparently so.

If Bouwmeester gets picked up by Detroit in the absence of Stuart, I'll do backflips. Awesome.

I absolutely agree. Anyone who would turn down Rolston for around 3-4 million is insane. He's better than Flip and he'd be making about what Flip is asking for. There are only like two or three players bigger than Rolston on the market. And we won't be getting Hossa or Sundin, so he's about the best we can hope for. I'm glad he's not talkign to the Wild anymore, because last I heard was that he was going to re-sign. Maybe he's already interested in a certain team from hsi home state?

He hasn't given any indication he can put up those kinds of numbers. Why not lock him up long term for 2.5 or 3 (I'm not sure what he's currently being paid) instead of 4? He isn't worth 4 right now. Datsyuk was worth every penny even when we signed him.

Did Robitaille really suck after leaving Detroit? It seems to me he elft here after having an off year, then tore it up back in LA the year after, then retired.

They're improving, but they have a long way to go. If they make playoffs I'll eat my hat.

Maybe it's the lack of intensity that allows them to be so intense in the off season.

Why don't we just create a few threads to get rid of all the garbage out there now? An official: "What defenseman should we pick up?" "What forward should we pick up?" "What goalie should we pick up" threads would suffice.

Puck possession hockey is more fun to watch, I think. I love a good fight and scrum, but I much rather have myt eam scoring goals than losing games.

I agree. Old and slow is a bunch of BS. He has always been, and continues to be, huge for us in critical situations. I'd love to have him stay. It's like people are so in love with the "young talent" that they're blind. Imagine if we have a repaet of last year during a crucial part of the season. Our D goes down. Without Lids and Raf, we lack severely good clutch players. Chelios is one of them. His speed doesn't matter so much on a penalty kill, which he's great at.

Bash D-Mac all you want, but he's been more effective than Downey, at least in the points department, and last time I checked, that's all that really matters. Also, keep in mind McCarty came back before he was physically ready, and had to adapt to a whole new team and style of play. He is slow, yes, but we knew that ahead of time. Keep him, let Downey go (not that I dislike Downey, he's a great guy, but he's not a hockey player).

Once again. Trusting half the defense to a bunch of untested kids is a BAD IDEA. You bring them in one, two at a time. I'd like to see Helm up here next season, but who knows if that'll happen. Leino, Abdelkader, allt he other forwards can wait. Howard should be brought up by sheer necessity. As for defense, we've got Meech, Quincey, and Ericcson. I think Ericcson stays down another year, and it'll be Meech being called up, with Quincey being traded. Balance, people. Teams would kill to have a player like Chelios mentoring their kids.

I'm calling it. Five.

Tucker - Avery - Maltby = 80% of game in the penalty box. Seriously, guys. The Wings don't really need any "grit", we've shown we can do just fine. With what little agitation we had, we were still in the box way too much, and you want to add to that?

I love how his reason is basically "I don't really have to do a whole lot here, and I like it."