GMRwings1983

Exactly. Where the hell did all this love for Sopel come from? If he was a top 6 D-man, he wouldn't be trying out for training camp, but would instead already have a spot with some team.

But once again, the Hall of Fame should be for great players. All those guys you mentioned in your post deserve to make it over Turgeon. Stats are important, but not as important as you're making them. This isn't baseball. And how can you compare his greatness to Pat Lafontaine?

How dare we replace Robert Lang and Todd Bertuzzi with an out of shape, unmotivated player.

You're forgetting about the great Mikael Samuelsson.

We were talking about Doug Brown, but I get the point about Dandenault.

Cullimore has been a waste of size his whole career. We might as well bring back Uwe Krupp. True, and even though I'd kill for us to have any fighters on this team, Downey has been hurt too often in his career, and should probably retire. Sopel has never thrown his weight around the way that he should. As for being more physical than our other defensemen, a girls volleyball team is more physical than our other defensemen. Wait till Lilja murders Boogaard and Laraque this year. Then you'll change your mind about our Swedish God's fighting prowess.

On those cup teams, though, he wasn't a 3rd/4th liner. As I remember, he played with Fedorov and Kozlov, so he got some significant ice time. But yes, he did score a lot of huge goals for us in the playoffs, although I wouldn't go so far as to say that we couldn't have won the cup without him in 98.

I agree, and you should visit Kenny Holland in his sleep and whisper that into his ear every night.

Glenn Anderson and Ciccarelli for one. Also, people are often questioning whether Lindros, Bure, or Mogilny should ever get in. I'd have all those players ahead of Turgeon if the vote came down to it. All in all, when I think of Pierre Turgeon, the Hall of Fame doesn't jump out at me right away, and I haven't yet heard an argument for why it should. He was good, but not great, and that's what the Hall of Fame should be for.

Most of what I said was just good offseason humor because there's nothing else to talk about. I was glad to see him go, but if I'd known that Dallas Drake would be the only forward we'd acquire, I probably wouldn't have been so excited to see Lang go.

You're forgetting that we can draft "team toughness" better than anyone else in the league.

They were trying to move him for years. I'm guessing he was let go because we had to cut our salary to make the new salary cap after the lockout.

How could it be a joke. He scored all the big goals for us in the playoffs the last few years. What did Lidstrom and that Yzerman guy ever do for us in big games?

There's no reason that Turgeon should be in the Hall of Fame when you look at some of the players better than him that didn't make it.

I think that Gordie Howe has a better chance of playing for the Wings again than us seeing Simpson or Cairns in a Wings uniform.

That line would get pushed around with its lack of size. Then again, with the lineup that we have it'd be hard to put any line together that isn't missing size.

He's got great work ethic on the ice and plays hard on both ends with an uncanny ability to utilize that big body of his. Also, no one can score clutch goals in big games the way that he can. He's clearly the best choice for captain of the Hawks and should have been our captain last year.

Babcock will never waive Samuelsson as long as he has delusions about him running the point on the powerplay. As for Sopel, he's no better than Lilja, and doesn't possess the great fighting ability that Lilja brings to this team.

Prospal-Lecavalier-St.Louis Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Holmstrom And last but not least: Williams-Lang-and any Blackhawks winger

There's a reason that Sopel has been shopped around the last few years, and it's because he isn't very good and doesn't know how to use his size on the ice. But since this is only for training camp, I see no harm in giving him a shot.

If I was asking the questions I would have at least mentioned something about the lack of grit on this team, but the interviewer just seemed to be serving up softballs.

I didn't know that Kopecky could play center. Also, even though this has been beaten to death on this forum before, I have to bring up the lack of size on this roster, and seeing it all layed out like that really puts it into perspective.

Cam Neely getting in opened the door for guys like Lindros and Bure, guys that were top stars for a number of years, but had their careers ended prematurely and also never won the Stanley Cup to boot. That is why I didn't want to see Cam get selected, because now the pandora's box is open. As far as Ciccarrelli goes, the problem with him is that he was never really a top star even though he scored 600 goals.

We can only hope he'll be as good as Boyd.

I approve any change that the Canes make to their jersey. Their logo sucks and just like too many teams, they wear red and white. I can't believe that a franchise that once had the best jerseys in sports would be wearing what they wear now.