VM1138

I personally don't like how much stock people put into AHL numbers. Some players go nuts in the AHL, but then do nothing in the NHL. Some players are disappointments in the AHL and then become crucial players.

Well, I was unaware of his Nazi comments. But either way, it's just a guys opinion. It doesn't affect his play or even make him an ***hole.

Man. Didn't Holland say he was going to make a move within 15 minutes of the draft starting? Trade deadline all over again. Not that it's a huge deal if he doesn't make a move, but we're sort of starved for news of any kind and I was looking forward to hearing some.

I still find it funny that everyone trashes him for "antics" when as far as I know, he only refused to go to the White House and only commented when pressed to. As far as I know he's not a trouble maker or not well liked among players. But I guess politics has a way of blinding people even in sports.

Flip is one of those players who puts up nice numbers, and he's a solid player, but he's never wowed me (or a lot of other people). I would only trade him for a player who is as close to a guaranteed upgrade as you could get. He's a great defensive player, but I just don't see him breaking out like so many people hope for every year. He had a good year this year, but does anyone really see him as a game changer like Datsyuk or Zetterberg? Or even someone like Helm, who can string together amazing plays and change the momentum of a game? Again, not trashing Flip, he's got great talent and has some great games, but I just don't see him as indispensable if we can get an upgrade for him and a pick or something.

Seems like a ridiculous overpayment for an average goaltender. But maybe Howson's job is on the line and he had to look like he's doing something? I'm not going to trash Bobrovsky, but he's certainly not even close to elite and likely never will be. In the modern NHL it's just not necessary to build from the net out, and doing so usually just screws teams up nowadays.

With Holland's statement about possibly making a trade during the draft, and Helm's signing and Brunner's signing, I do kind of have this feeling like he's arranging the chess pieces to see what he has to work with. Nobody left unsigned is essential, I don't think, and that's telling.

I'm not so sure he goes to the AHL first. I'm skeptical that he can actually become a consistent secondary scorer, but as people said it's low risk high reward, right? But the Wings are in such an awful crunch right now that there's not really time to let a 26 year old develop in the AHL for a season or two. We need the scoring, and he may be a replacement for Hudler if he doesn't re-sign. There's just not a lot of options. I say he gets the green light right off the bat, and whether or not he stays depends on his success. I know that Holland's style is to send him to the minors first, but I just have a feeling they break with tradition this off-season.

That's not what I was saying. I'm saying Semin is lazy and sucks, so all the people bitching about Hudler will be just as unhappy with Semin. Semin can rack up more points, but at least Hudler tries sometimes.

Agreed. Trading would be a desperation move. The Wings have all the pieces to sign any player they want after July 1st, no sense wasting picks and players.

You yourself just said you need that balance. I can't think of many players in the league in similar roles as Helm who can keep up with him. It's not just his speed, he's run entire plays by himself. In pressure situation he almost always makes the right play, and he has been known to draw three players to him and still keep possession down behind the opponent's goal. You can't easily replace that. He's not just a checker. He's a premiere checker in my book. Untouchable.

I still don't understand why a team desperately in need of goal scorers would let Hudler walk for any other reason than salary. Obviously there's a limit to what he should make, but all of you eager to just dump him no matter what are missing the big picture. Whether he's small or not, he scores goals. You want a guy like that on your third or second lines. If we can keep him AND sign all the players we NEED, then it's a no brainer. But that doesn't mean we should get in a bidding war on the open market for him. I wonder if some of you are the same people calling for Semin to come here. The reality is, if you can afford it, Hudler's 25 goals are 25 goals, regardless of his style of play. Our trouble is that we were relying on Franzen and Hudler too much. If they can be put in a secondary goal scoring capacity with the signing of a bona-fide goal scorer we'd have some of the best offense in the league.

Yeah, this is exactly what hockey needs. Rob Zombie is quite possibly the biggest hack in Hollywood these days. How he keeps getting movies is beyond me.

Things you know you will always get with Darren Helm: 1) Speed. 2) He will outwork anyone on the ice for either team. 3) He will kill penalties. 4) He will score the occasional goal. Yes, 4 years for 2 million is a no-brainer for me. Helm has made himself untouchable on this team.

I get why the league is loathe to let teams fail, but they're too eager to jump in and bail out teams like Phoenix who have no hope of ever rebounding, thus dooming the NHL involvement. And then, when they finally move, the NHL will have done nothing but waste resources. Why is it so hard for American businesses to see the writing on the wall? I'd hate to see Jersey move, but reality is reality. They're not as far gone as Phoenix, but this has been a consistent problem. If there were any sort of real punishment in the NHL this wouldn't be happening more frequently. League takeover should only be a transitory situation. A two year chance to get business affairs in order should be plenty. If after two years a team has not righted the ship it should be sold or allowed to go bankrupt, even if it makes the league look bad.

This is a pretty random topic, but it's always kind of nagged at me. Why do sportscasters and writers include previous cities as part of a franchise? For instance, when talking about historical records, Winnipeg is always included as part of the Phoenix Coyotes, which makes the Coyotes seem to have been around much longer than in reality. Same goes for Minnesota and Dallas. A lot of the time players and front office go with the team, but once it gets a new name and gets a new identity, I feel like it shouldn't be included with the old team's stats. Now, in my mind, when a team changes cities and changes names, it starts fresh. If the North Stars had won the Cup, you wouldn't include it with the Cups Dallas has won and so forth. Anyone else have an opinion on this admittedly unimportant detail?

Nashville just traded Lindback to Tampa, if that affects anything.

So the crowd at the arena is what sells you as a UFA? Not a chance to win, great location (which admittedly Detroit is not necessarily), teammates, level of media intrusion in your life, etc.?

Wow, those little people have no self respect, do they? Dressing up as oompa loompas. And that ladies boobs....LA is a disgusting place.

It's really not erasing history. As players, you still have all your records, but they were with another team. If you trade some players to another team, that doesn't mean that new team takes on your history. Same should apply to relocating, in my mind.

EDIT: Nevermind.

So I meandered over to the LA Kings HF boards and look through some of their topics to see what they were saying about their first ever cup win. There's little activity over there yet, but I found a few comments that specifically said they would not be a "one and done" team, that Quick should get a 7+ million dollar contract, and some optimism about the future. But as we've seen, it takes a very special team to return to the finals (Wings and Pens are the most recent to do so, and they were awesome teams). LA certainly has the youth factor and some very good teams, but I can't shake the feeling that, despite how well they played, this year was a fluke. The whole playoff scene was topsy turvy and I just don't see that holding up next year. Does anyone have any thoughts on where LA is going in the future? I personally think they will be a playoff team next year but I just don't see them going very far for quite a while. The other thing I found interesting is that their success hinged on Quick's performance. Goalies are notoriously inconsistent. There hasn't been a truly great goalie in the NHL since the early 2000s, except for maybe Lundqvist. If they do end up sinking 7 million in him, in my mind they will be committing a classic mistake. I'm not sure what their cap situation is moving forward but a move like that certainly won't help. Too many teams have awarded their goalies with huge contracts only to have them become an albatross around the team.

I don't put much faith in all-star goalies. One year they're hot, the next year they're not. And like I said, they dominated teams in the playoffs, but I never got that "this is a team that is a powerhouse." None of the teams in the playoffs were very good compared to previous years. Competition was very weak. I know they posted better numbers, but I don't see this team as better than any of the past couple of Cup winners. I don't see myself getting concerned about every time the Wings play the Kings.

I just don't see them contending every year. They barely made playoffs this time. Now, once the playoffs begin everyone gets to start fresh, but if they have trouble making playoffs with their roster, upon further thought I just don't know if they even make the playoffs every year. I think it's more likely Vancouver and San Jose have rebound years than LA has prolonged success.

Nyquist has looked okay, but he's not the second coming like so many people seem to think. Right now he's a decent prospect who will get to play with the big club next season, probably on the fourth or third lines as an energy guy. I think maybe he can put up 10 goals and 15 or 20 assists, which isn't bad, but not what you guys are all hoping for. He will take a couple years to get into the swing of things I think.