wingsownnhl43

Practically the same team we'll have next season... Time will tell if thats a good or bad thing.

Ok. Second try at this. Im reading through Hawks forums and they are talking about packaging two of Versteeg, Byfuglian, and Bolland with Huet and basically giving those players to some team. I think this is unlikely to happen, but for the sake of this thread, I'll GIVE them that. I also trade Sopel. Ill add in the $4 million in bonuses but subtract $2 for the cap going up which is being generous. Hahaha. Still $-1.281 over. Maybe they forget about Niemi and just go with an inexperiecne goalie. AUTO-GENERATED CAPGEEK.COM LINES FORWARDS Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Patrick Kane ($6.300m) / Marian Hossa ($5.275m) Patrick Sharp ($3.900m) / Dave Bolland ($3.375m) / Kyle Beach ($1.200m) Tomas Kopecky ($1.200m) / Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) / * Jack Skille ($1.000m) * ($0.550m) / * ($0.550m) / * ($0.550m) * ($0.550m) / * ($0.550m) DEFENSEMEN Brian Campbell ($7.143m) / Duncan Keith ($5.538m) Brent Seabrook ($3.500m) / * Niklas Hjalmarsson ($2.500m) * Jordan Hendry ($0.750m) / * ($0.550m) * ($0.550m) GOALTENDERS * Antti Niemi ($3.000m) / * ($0.550m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) ROSTER: 23; CAP: $58.8m; PAYROLL: $56.406m; CAP ROOM: $-1.281m BONUSES: $0.325m

What players will be awarded the extra 2.7 in bonuses? Also, I've heard its possible for them to be taken off the hook of Huet's contract if he clears waivers and is sent to the minors... is this true? Also, I definitely could see some team going after Niemi, Ladd, and Hjamarsson knowing the Hawks really cant match.

Really? Would you mind telling me who will be awarded bonuses? I would appreciate it.

Do you really think the Wings were elite this year? What exactly has San Jose proven other than that they are a great regular season team? Philly lucked out in not having to play Washington or Pittsburgh. They just happened to be the team that stumbled their way out of a weak conference. I guess we'll have to just agree to disagree. I seriously think the Stars and Pens > Sharks and Flyers.

Ok, so I tried my hand in playing Hawks GM to try and solve their cap woes.. I gave the cap a two million dollar increase. Trades- Dave Bolland and Brent Sopel Buyout- Cristobal Huet I still think they have three very solid lines, a very good top 4 defenseman, and a SC winning goalie. They lose a lot of depth, but I dont think they will be as bad as we all think. AUTO-GENERATED CAPGEEK.COM LINES FORWARDS Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Patrick Kane ($6.300m) / Dustin Byfuglien ($3.000m) Tomas Kopecky ($1.200m) / Patrick Sharp ($3.900m) / Marian Hossa ($5.275m) Colin Fraser ($0.750m) / Kris Versteeg ($3.083m) / Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) * ??? * ($0.500m) / * ???? ($0.500m) / *???? ($0.500m) * ???? ($0.500m) / * ????($0.500m) DEFENSEMEN Brian Campbell ($7.143m) / Duncan Keith ($5.538m) Brent Seabrook ($3.500m) / * Niklas Hjalmarsson ($0.800m) * Jordan Hendry ($0.725m) / *???? ($0.500m) *??? ($0.500m) GOALTENDERS * Antti Niemi ($2.000m) / * ???? ($0.500m) * Huet Buyout ($1.875m) * Toews bonus ($1.300m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) ROSTER: 23; CAP: $58.8m; PAYROLL: $57.715m; CAP ROOM: $1.085m BONUSES: $0.000m

I would say the Stars and Pens were better than any team the Hawks saw this year. Just my opinion though.

I'll just focus on Detroit, Chicago, Vancouver, San Jose, Pittsburgh, and Washington with the salary cap at its current number. Detroit- Will obviously be better. I dont think they will have the same luck with injuries as they did this past season. They add Hudler which will give them more scoring and a little more depth. Also, I expect Kronwall, Ericcson, Filppula, Helm, and Eaves to improve. I just see the same product as I have over the last 4-5 years. In my opinion, they need a little fresh blood. Hopefully after signing Bertuzzi, Helm, Eaves, Abdlekader, theyll have soom room and save it for the deadline to make a tweak before the playoffs. Chicago- If they arent able to unload Campbell or Huet's contracts they will take a giant step backwards. 13 players signed and 700k over the cap = Cap Hell. It should be interesting, as multiple players will be due for raises as. San Jose - 12 players signed, 20.5 in cap room. Id imagine Marleau, Pavelski, and Sentiguchi will take up 10.5 of that, so I'll consider it to be 15 players signed with 10 million to spend. I dont know what they are going to do with Nabakov. Blake, Wallin are UFA's. They could choose to re-sign those players or replace them. Either way I see that remaining 10mil distributed to improve the D. If they do spend 3-5 million on Nabakov, that D could be in trouble. With the cap number increasing, they should be able to get a little better. Vancouver- Probably in the best position of all. 17 players signed 9.4 million. Mason Raymond, Kyle Wellwood, and Willie MItchell are key free agents, but they do have some room for improvement. The key question with these guys is Roberto Luongo. Pittsburgh- 16 players signed 10.9 in cap room. Gonchar, Eaton, Leopold, and Mckee are UFA's with 9.6 coming off the books. If they dont put that money back into their defense, it will be in serious trouble. If they do put that money back into the defense, they will lose depth. Ponikarovsky, Guerin, and Fedotenko are free agents as well. Fleury is also a huge question mark. Washington- 14 players signed 13.3 in cap room. We all know they can score, but can they play two way hockey? Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin, Laich, Chimera are all under contract making up two very potent lines. I'd imagine they get Fleishman back for a discount. The Caps should really be able to beef up that defense. Their GM should definitely try to find some stay at home defenseman. Washington could be scary next season. San Jose and Vancouer are bound to improve. I like Vancouver a little better. My early picks are Vancouver out of the west and Washington out of the east. Alot can change though.

Ok, I'm sorry. I should have worded the OP differently. 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks.... Easiest road to the Cup in the last 10-15 years? Yes or No. Focus on that and forget about the breaks EVERY team catches year in and year out to hoist the cup. Agreed and Thank you for picking up what I was laying down.

Most obvious post I've seen written on LGW. Obviously you had to realize I meant luckier than most. They had the easiest road Ive seen in a long time.

Firstly, I would like to start off by saying I was actually among the LGWers that supported Todd throughout the entire season. I appreciated what he brought to the table. He carried us over a small part of the regular season and I thought he was solid in the playoffs. With that being said, I dont know why it should be a foregone conclusion to resign him. I dont know how you can discount the fact that you may be able to slightly upgrade his roster spot with a younger player. Todd made $1.5 million last season and will most likely be due a raise. Why not explore some other options? With a small amount of cap space why not look into obtaining other players in the 1.5-3 million dollar range that might be better than Bert? As I mentioned in another thread, we could pursue Andrew Ladd. If we signed him to an offer sheet at 2-2.5, I dont see anyway Chicago could match. That dollar range would be a steal for a 25 year old that will get you between 40-50 points. Just a thought. Theres also a chance we will be able to get Bertuzzi back far below market value which would make him a steal. My point is that it shouldnt be a slam dunk to resign him. We need to explore every option to improve this team.

Here is my hope... If the cap goes up $2million, we should have around 2.5 to play with. Kenny said they would target a fourth line forward, so I put that in my lines. Ritola and Draper are your 13th and 14th forwards. No room for Maltby or Miller. Helm goes up to the third line. I think he's ready. AUTO-GENERATED CAPGEEK.COM LINES FORWARDS Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) /* Tomas Holmstrom ($2.000m) Jiri Hudler ($2.875m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / * Darren Helm ($0.750m) / * Todd Bertuzzi ($1.500m) UFA / * Justin Abdelkader ($0.850m) / * Patrick Eaves ($0.750m) Mattias Ritola ($0.517m) / Kris Draper ($1.583m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) / Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) Jonathan Ericsson ($0.900m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) GOALTENDERS Chris Osgood ($1.417m) / Jimmy Howard ($0.717m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) ROSTER: 21; CAP: $56.8m; PAYROLL: $56.230m; CAP ROOM: $0.570m BONUSES: $0.000m You just have to hope Kronwall returns to his form prior to this past season and that Ericcson improves.

Ehh.. I still would like to catch them in my lifetime. We just need two more!!!

Man, I really hope Kenny has resigning Eaves as a priority. I really think he has the potential to improve upon his 22 point season, and at a fraction over 500k, thats a tremendous value.

You dont go off points in determining how good a player is. I like your posts on here carman, but you cant actually value Pavel Datsyuk in the 20 range. He is easily top 5.

Ok then he's our most valuble player. He isnt our best.

Like this.

I agree with you on Nick being underappreciated by Red Wings fans throughout his career. With that said,how much longer am I going to have to hear about how Nick is our best player? When will the Rosey Colored Wings fans acknowledge that he has declined even a little bit?? I may be splitting hairs here, but to me, Pavel has without a doubt surpassed him as our best player.

My thoughts..... Could Lidstrom have gotten $7-8 million on the open market? Yes. Is he worth the $6.2 contract he signed for today? Yes. Am I dissapointed he didint take more of a pay cut to make room for additional and much needed depth when he himself said he's returning to win another SC? Yes.

I would really love to see the Wings try and steal Andrew Ladd from the Hawks. I love the way the guy plays and I think he would fit really well here. If we were able to sign him to an offer sheet, itd be awfully tough for the Hawks to match.

If Nick comes to the conclusion that he wants to play one more season and Nick and Kenny agree to him returning for $5 million dollar salary, would any of you be willing to sign him to a 2-3 year deal knowing that he will retire after one year, and being that his contract was signed over the age of 35, we would have to eat the remainder of the contract??? It may sound foolish, but lets think for a second. It would be Nicks last season. It would also be our last season with one of the top five defenseman in the NHL. Why not make one last serious push to win another cup for Nick? Nick would still get the 5 million he desires, however over 3 years the cap hit would be $1.66.... The benefit is having a top 5 defenseman for only $1.66 and be able to add 1-3 significant pieces. the drawback is we'd have to eat two years of $1.66.

I really hate how Ovie gets the choker tag and Crosby gets his annointed one tag. Crosby has been a joke in the last two SC finals, as well as this series, and as far as im concerned, the Olympics. He got the OT winner but that was perhaps Ryan Millers weakest goal he let up all tournament. The media better grill him for this series. He deserves it way more than Ovechkin did. Way more.

The league really needs to do something with diving in the offseason.. There should be no such thing as "drawing" a penalty. Just play hockey.

i wish we would have had a game 7 like this last year against the pens....

Holmstrom is invaluable to Wings fans because of the emotional attatchment he has gained. He is overrated. He flourished with Zetterberg and Datsyuk, but who wouldnt? Thats how Franzen broke out. Franzen started scoring at will when Homer got hurt and he was moved up with Z and D to replace him. No doubt Cleary, or Bertuzzi would score 25 goals as the main guy in front of the net on powerplays and on the first line.