Z Winged Dangler

If by that you mean Smith makes it up to #2 dman on the team and Kindl holds down that #6 spot and is productive, then i hope we don't have to sit on our hands while the NHL is locked out and we'll find out sooner if they're what we expect. Imagine if we have to sit here for 4+ more months wondering the same stuff while millionaires negotiate nice and slow.

Then again...after next year it was mentioned that there's a chance that Pulkkinen could be in the mix to make the team. Not as good as Stamkos obviously, but he's got a good shot and sets up in the same areas as Stamkos to get the shot off. Could be a good thing. Pulkkinen's play style reminds me a lot of Brett Hull. Can put the puck in the net but not known for D. We'll see though.

Sounds good. and the 2-way guys are very good to have. Kronwall fits that bill and i think in relatively quick time, Smith will as well. White would probalby fit that category as well. I can't wait to see those 2 in GR.

This. I think that Dats and Z to name a couple would rest up and be ready in case there's half a season.

The nail has been hit on the head.

Love this post. You forgot to bold that part though. Push the meeting up Gary! We want to watch hockey. Football has too many idiots celebrating when they run for 2 yards, Baseball is really boring aside from home runs, and Basketball...I will not even comment on. Get me somef****** hockey in October. I hate the offseason!

This is what i was thinking too...why cancel the prospect tourney? most of those guys go back to Jr after that and they know what kind of competition they're up against to make their team in the future and what kind of competition they're up against collectively on other teams. I for one think this is that show that should go on. Very surprised that Kenny threw in the towel on this one. He should have kept the tourney on and kept it "business as usual" if for no other reason than to give the players and fans hope. I feel worse than yesterday about a lockout happening. Guess i won't be getting Centre Ice this year. this sucks!

There's absolutely no point in Nyquist being the 15th forward when he's a top 6 guy. If that's the case then either he or Brunner will be 1st line in GR. There's absolutely no point in Nyquist being the 14th forward when he's a top 6 guy. If that's the case then either he or Brunner will be 1st line in GR.

Not entirely...we just have better dmen drafted in the past few years aside from Smith, but aside from McKee and Lashoff we don't have many defensive dmen, mostly offensive....Almqvist, Sproul, Oulette, Smith and so on. But if you meant that none are ready to go other than Smith, then you sir are right.

especially when it was the NHL, not the NHLPA that waited until a couple weeks ago to finally table the initial proposal, which was basically insulting to the NHLPA. CHL is awesome. Go to Brandon from time to time to watch the Wheat Kings.

Nope, we got Smith. We need another Stuart. Most of our good D prospects are offensive aside from McKee who's a few years away and Lashoff but he'd be better off developing more in GR to become a really good shutdown guy. That's why we were calling for Vandermeer before. Sign him for a year to bridge the gap. Once again, i wish Janik was still here.

Sure hasn't. I just read that article too. I'll quote some things i really liked from it... Quote: With NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHL Players' Association head Donald Fehr not scheduled to sit across from one another until the middle of next week and the sides unable to even agree on the core issues that need to be addressed, a sense of uneasiness has suddenly enveloped the talks. Solution: PUSH THE MEETING DATE UP! Gee, i'm smart and stuff. Meet on the weekend or have a conference call. Not hard. Quote: At that point, the league and its players' association will have just 24 days left to reach a new agreement and avoid a lockout. Solution: Then don't wait until there's only 18 days left to act like adults and do some real negotiating. Quote: But where do they start? There is very little common ground between the proposals each side has put forth and neither seems particularly willing to move off its current position. Solution: Point form, what does each side want. Don't be afraid to take the fans into consideration as well...after all, we pay ALL of their paychecks. No endorsements either if there's no fans. We want hockey and we have a pretty decent idea of what's fair. Quote: Under the proposal put forward by the owners in July, the players' share in revenue would be cut from 57 per cent to 43 per cent -- meaning the salary cap would drop to roughly $55 million next season, or just a little above where the floor currently rests. Solution: If you want to drop the salary cap 14 million every time the CBA expires, then quit raising it 3 million every year. Quote: The players are still smarting after being locked out for an entire season in 2004-05 before eventually accepting a 24 per cent rollback on salaries and a salary cap. At the time, Bettman repeatedly talked about the need for "cost certainty" to keep the league healthy -- something the union eventually capitulated to. Solution: The players already got rolled back 24% last time and somehow salaries got out of control again. Maybe Owners should tell their GM's what they're willing to pay and we won't have so many 20 goal scorers at 4+ million. Quote: NHL's proposal@ Salary cap: $55.3 million Salary floor: $39.3 million NHLPA's proposal@ Salary cap: $69 million Salary floor: $53 million Solution: The players seem willing to give some money back, but why should they have to roll back just as much as last time? The owners sign the paychecks and hand them out and now they don't want to live with them....don't give them out in the first place. That was fun.

Bettman thinks he's god and everyone should just work on his schedule which as you stated is very loose followed by threatening a lockout. I agree with everything you said, but the only thing i wish the NHLPA would have done was make their intentions known on a few more things. If you don't want a cap on contract length, say it..."we don't want a cap on contract lengths". That's all i want from the players. The NHL on the other hand...grow up already and get a commissioner that doesn't want the lockout hat trick. Loved that one by the way.

Good signing for the Flyers, but in reality, where is all this money coming from? They're almost right up to the cap now and they have guys who will be getting raises in a year or 2. Matt Read and Sean Couturier in 2 years will be getting massive raises from their 1.375 mil and 900K. Probably to around 3.5 mil each at least. Holmgren is a bold GM, but he's rash. He's like a kid that keeps building a fort and knocking it down so he can try to build it better but he always leaves a weakness. Bryzgalov sucks hard.

In all likelyhood, you are right and we'll have as per usual 3 injured forwards at any given time of the year and yes, you will get to play Cory ...sorry dude, messing with people is too much fun to pass up. Either way, i'm very interested to see the starting lines on the season opener, so Gary Buttman better bridge the supposed gab between his butt cheeks so we can watch hockey when we should be.

The best guy we have on the Wings at releasing one-timers is Eaves. We forget though cause he's been gone so long but he can hammer 'em. Z's always been good, but he's lost some power cause of his back issues. Lids obviously was the best at it, but he's no longer running the blue line. I really hope Eaves is ready to go this year cause he's a good hard grinder that can put up points. I wish Stamkos was a Wing.

At least Z is still gonna be worth his salary by the end of it. Dude competes. Making it so the cap hit is their actual salary and gettting rid of signing bonuses and front loading could probably get rid of the lifetime contracts. GM's may be more hesitant to dish them out. I still think there should be a 6-7 year max though.

You are full of fear. Fear leads to the dark side. Side note...No Suter, No Tootoo, No Radulov, pretty sure there's a few more gone...Preds are not good. Least of all better than we are with improved goaltending and forwards. And our offence was the part that let us down against the Preds last year. Not D or goaltending.

He's got a point. The NHL's first proposal was a bunch of hardball dictator jargen. Not gonna get anywhere when you start by telling the players to give up a large percentage of their salary right off the bat again. That's how we lost a wholef****** season last time NHL brass! Negotiation tactics need to be changed a little on both parts. Sit down every 2nd day for 5 hours until a reasonable deal is agreed upon.

I agree wholeheartedly that Bettman is a prick, but remember what i was saying about the NHLPA not adding a lot of different issues in their proposal. From Gary Bettman's statement: "There's still a wide gap between us with not much time to go," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters after Wednesday's session. "This is a process that we're going to continue to work hard on. I think there's still a number of issues where we're looking at the world differently." Bettman says he understands what the NHLPA has put forth, but adds that it isn't a full proposal and he is "disappointed" that he's still waiting for one at this late stage. I normally don't agree with the Anti-Christ, but I was sort of afraid of this being the answer back from the NHL. The players while being reasonable in their proposal, once again like i said earlier, left out the meat and potatoes of the new CBA. They added jack about contract length and front loading contracts and all that stuff. They want a quick fix and want to play when the scheduled games start, but they need to cover all aspects when they make their counter proposals.

Where does Emmerton fit in the line up though? I like that you've conceded that Nyquist and Brunner are top 6 guys and assming they're in the top 6 it would look approximately like so: Mule-Dats-Nyquist Brunner-Z-Flip With the bottom 6 having like 20 guys...eff it, i'll just list 'em. Miller, Helm, Abby, Bert, Sammy, Tootoo, Eaves, Cleary, Mursak, Emmerton and possible call ups from Andersson and Sheahan (whom are more useful in the bottom 6), not sure where Emmerton fits in. Bottom 6 with a 13th/14th forward looks more like: Sammy-Helm-Bertuzzi Tootoo-Abby-Cleary Eaves, Miller <---(possible D) Emmerton won't knock any of those guys off and Mursak could be trade bait. Until Bertuzzi, Cleary and Sammy are done in a couple years, we won't see much more roll over on the bottom lines.

I couldn't help myself...had to click on "like" for the Boyd Devereaux name drop. God he was awesome...or something.

I for one already consider Emmerton not a Red Wing. Either he gets waived to GR or gets picked up off waivers by another team, hence the reference earlier to Emmerton making a nice Islander. There's just nothing else that can really be done with him as a Red Wing. Best of luck to him though anywhere he ends up. Never disliked him and he was really good in Jr.

that's the only reasons that Nyquist and Smith weren't on last years team. That coupled with Smith's super lame "I'm not biased towards the Wings" Shanaban. I would poop myself with joy if Jarnkrok made the team, but there was an article that said he and Pulkkinen were playing in Europe for another year. And with our current logjam at the forward positions, it would probably be better for both guys if they could just concentrate on playing in 1 place all year and hammering on 10-15 pounds over the season.

I agree with this for the most part. The thing I'm wondering is what is the rest of the NHLPA's proposal? They put the side dishes in the article. What's in the meat and potatoes? Guess we'll find out in a few days when the NHL states in full what they do and don't like from the players standpoint. But in general, it seems the players are trying to meet half way and taking a more mature stance than the initial proposal from the NHL. It was kind of like Sacha Baren Cohen wrote the NHL's proposal. Wasn't the NHL's proposal one of his speeches in the Dictator? Just make sure the games start on schedule and i get my roster update for NHL13 in a timely manner for a change. Not too much to ask for.