Z Winged Dangler

It should be a cold day in hell before Brendan Smith ever goes back down to GR. Anyone not convinced yet?

Holy f*** knuckles Filppula just went Datsyuk on the Kings asses!!!!!!!!

Agreed. everyone keeps calling him a playoff beast...he had a 5 goal game against the Avs the one year and was pretty average aside from that. Consistency is a beast that Mule needs to tame... I'd personally like to see the Wings keep Nyquist up and have 3 scoring pairs and a grinder to get the puck on each fwd line.

agreed 100%. not sure where the numbers are coming from. who do the Flyers have? Shenn and Couturier are already on the team, so who's waiting in the wings for them? the Wings have tons of talent in the system. not just Tatar, Nyquist (potential top 3 fwd) and Smith. they have the likes of Jurco and Tvrdon. Then there's also Mrazek ready to take Mccollum's spot in GR very soon, there's Sheahan who should be a really good 2-way power forward, Jarnkrok who has seen comparisons to Zetterberg's play style and skill set and Pulkkinen who is a Brett Hull type player. Landon Ferraro has taken steps in GR to be a good 3rd/4th liner that can bring good energy and keep up with Helm and Mursak. Not sure what happened with Adam Almqvist, but he was putting up ridiculous numbers in Jr and then won the SEL championship with HV71 i believe, so he's obvoiusly got a good skill set as well, possibly a lot like Rafalski. seems to me that the Wings just get the short straw on the ratings cause they never have a top 20 pick to work with since ??? Kindl? and then what? Yzerman...?

Brunnstrum was signed to a 1 year, 2-way contract. So technically he doesn't have to clear waivers to be called up. Only 1-way contracts go through the waiver process.

in addition...have the Wings ever lost to the Preds in the playoffs? didn't think so. i'm not overly worried about the Sharts this year as they lack effort needed to win in the reg season this year let alone the playoffs. i'd be more worried about playing hard nosed teams like the Blues and Hawks, or the Canucks cause the Wings will get f***ed by the refs and spend the entire series on the PK like against San Jose in the past. If the Wings don't end up in the SCF, I really hope that the Blues represent the West. It's really hard not to like the Blues team top to bottom, and Pietrangelo and Shattenkirk are 2 of the best young dmen in the game for sure. I would go as far as to say as good if not better than Keith/Seabrook.

My opinion has already been stated a good amount on the play of Cleary and Franzen, and I would love to trade both. However, Bertuzzi is doing his job quite well and it earned him a 2 year contract extension...he's been doing good filling his role. Hudler...this is really the first time anyone's really ragged on him this year. He's putting up pretty decent stats and he's been hustling his midget ass twice as hard as Franzen, so why the question about Happy Hudler? He will undoubtedly be re-signed in the off season unless for some reason we get Parise and the Wings do the right thing and bring Nyquist and possibly Tatar up the Wings may be short roster spots, but will win the cup.

In no way is this to negate the greatness of Bobby Orr, but in a 6 team league he won it 8 times, with approx 36 Dmen to compete against in a era where hockey wasn't the logjam of great players it is today. Lids won his norris trophies all in a 30 team league against approx 180 Dmen. It's the same as the Gretzky debate playing in the insanely high scoring 80's with no salary cap and on an Oilers team with a ridiculous roster. Tell me Stamkos isn't as good a trigger man as Brett Hull...better goalies these days too...86 goals in a season for Hull, Stamkos on pace for almost 60. Apples and oranges.

The Wild are 28-26-10 and 12th in the West...143 goals for, 172 goals against. That's fo' rizzle... Wild are a few top tier players from being dangerous whatsoever.

Now he's a classic case of getting the big contract and turning in performances. As soon as he reached the top 6 and got his 11 year contract or whatever it was, he hit the off switch on his effort. So what he got a goal and an assist last night, that doesn't make up for his complete lack of effort the past 15 games or so. I'd rather see Franzen be a consistant player that shows his talents on a regualar basis like Datsyuk. It pisses me off that he doesn't care about the regular season cause that's how you get a better spot in the playoffs. Do any of you really want to see the Wings make it to the WCF to face probably the Canucks and lose on the road as they love to do and with all the hometown calls for the Canucks as well? Didn't think so. That's why we need Franzen to put in a little more ******* effort on a regular basis to get the Presidents Trophy and take home ice through the playoffs to the SCF. The Wings will not win a series in which they do not have home ice advantage, mark my words.

Give Helm a shot. His speed could open things up for the high end skilled guys. Homer was on a line with Dats and Z to do the exact same thing, but Helm can actually hang on to the puck and do more than deflections and screen.

that's why i said i hope that Franzen doesn't turn into Gomez. it was an extreme comparison to get the point across that Franzen has been less than good as of late.

cause he's been in a nice slump lately averaging a point every other game. and the rate he's missing the net with his shots lately which is more and more all the time, things aren't looking very good for him. leading scorer or not, he's a shooter and one of the few snipers on a team full of playmakers and grinders. guys get him the puck in prime zones on the ice constantly and he's high and wide 90% of the time...not what you want from your leading "goal scorer" on a regular basis.

2-3 more games and we'll see a 4 mil/year 4th liner. i hope he doesn't go Gomez on us and completely s*** the bed and not score for a year.

i think this is a very unfair assessment of Z. while he's having an offseason, and just moved into 2nd on the team in scoring btw, he competes hard night in and night out. he's had back issues yes, but if Franzen had Z's compete level, this thread would not exist. the point of the topic is that Mule takes not just nights off, but weeks. he's a floater that for some reason cannot hit the net with more than 10% of his shots. if you want to compare him to Z, which is completely absurd, i'll play along. Z penalty kills, is the guy you send out to kill EVERY 5 on 3, 2nd on team in scoring, skates hard and wears his heart on his sleeve and bleeds for the TEAM and that's the reason he has an A on his jersey. Franzen....floats around and just doesn't give a s*** and he doesn't PK cause he has no heart and probably wouldn't even try to block a shot. he doesn't hit very much at all, and for a guy that's 6'3 240ish, you should be ******* s*** up. this year every game i watch, Franzen shows up in the game just long enough to miss the net by 2 feet on a golden opportunity to bury the biscuit. I for one would be very open to trading Franzen. I would rather see his spot filled by Nyquist and have the Wings try to add a sniper like Selanne or Iginla, whom also bring it every night no questions asked. i would dump Franzen's long contract for a rental that would help the Wings win the cup for sure. Then bring up Nyquist and Tatar full time. Young energy is nice to have on the team. might even get a few other guys going harder trying to keep up with the young legs...

I just plain hate the Vancouver Canucks. They are the most arrogant ******* filled organization in the league....worse than the Penguins and Sharts. I like the guest poster that's a Blues fan. He's good s***.

Brendan Smith will be too valuable. He will effectively be replacing Stuart next year with more offensive upside. not as good defensively, but will be a top 4 dman very quickly. his D will come in time playing under Babcock too. i doubt the flyers would trade Van Riemsdyk anyways, unless you know something i don't. i wouldn't be open to the Wings trading any of Nyquist, Smith, Jarnkrok, Sheahan, Jurco or Mrazek. I'm not big on the idea of trading Tatar, but he seems very similar to Hudler. Brendan Smith though will be a very big part of the Wings as soon as he gets to stay up. Ericsson's injury for a month may well keep Smith up on the Wings roster come playoff time if he gets a chance to play enough minutes. there's a reason Kenny dumped Commodore.

don't be surprised to hear that Calle Jarnkrok is close to coming over to be a Red Wing, or is he a no namer too? kyle quincey made a name for himself once he got playing time with an NHL team. 2008-09, Los Angeles, NHL, 72games, 4g, 34a, 38pts, -5, 116 hits... not half bad stats for his first year of playing time in the NHL. not his 7 games in 2 seasons with the Wings and 2pts. to call him a no namer is ludicrous. he had 29 pts the follwing season with the Avs which is less pts, but was a +9 which is +14 better than the previous year, so his defensive game is clearly more solid, and this year he's on pace for 31 pts in 75 games. that's not bad at all for a 4-6 dman. do some research before you rag on guys and call them no namers. and p.s. as someone said earlier, nyquist is over a point per game in GR. that's better than some of the current roster players on the Wings managed. that to most would be top 6 material.

it's not really fair to assess the quality of the GR call ups and such like Nyquist, Tatar, Smith and even Mursak and Emmerton seeing as they get bottom 6 pairings and bottom 6 minutes which is about 6 minutes a game when they get called up. Nyquist and Tatar are top 6 style players, and Smith is a top 3-4 dman. Mursak and Emmerton are more geared towards 3rd/4th but aren't getting much ice time. some of the fault for the progression of the GR grads and call ups has to fall on the hard headed Babcock. he does not like playing those guys for some stupid reason and that's why i no longer get excited about call ups cause they play 4-6 mins a game and he bag drives Z, Dats, and flip.

cause the 3rd/4th line grinders are supposed to get the puck deep and cycle and grind in the corners, not give the puck up in the neutral zone 5+ times a game. cleary is guilty of that.

very nice team breakdown, and that's why i keep saying that we need to get someone like Iginla or Selanne. mix it up A LOT! and break s*** open for the playmaker.

I'm really liking the way that looks, but i'd definitely switch Tatar and Miller. Tatar will do the Wings no good on the 4th line....remember Ville Leino? Helped Philly get to the SCF in the top 6 around a PPG... Tatar will need to be atleast 3rd line. and where's Huds? he's having a great year and will be re-signed in the off season for sure. that opens up the fabled 3 scoring lines and the grind line. Miller will be 13th fwd i'm guessing. your D looks bang on. i see something like this: Bertuzzi - Dats - Franzen Nyquist - Z - Fil Eaves - Hudler - Tatar Mursak - Helm - Abdelkader Miller tweaking can be done and with Babs, it's inevitable, but those lines look more even and realistic seeing as Hudler earned another year atleast. if you want to go even deeper with the youth movement though, i'd go as far as to say don't resign miller and bring up Joakim Andersson, who looked really good in his minimal playing time in his call up this year. and i definitely like the look without homer and cleary...

there's a substantial difference between missing the net half the time and missing the net about 85% of the time.

i notice a few key traits about players... franzen can't hit the net and lacks hustle often. cleary falls a lot and gives the puck away constantly. kindl is weak at turning when he picks the puck up in the corner and freezes often, leading to giveaways. datsyuk is the s***. joey mac is great at everything but playing the puck. god he's awful at playing the puck... miller is very, very soft. my dad refers to him as marshmiller cause he's soft like marshmallow. and he needs to put wood on the puck when pk'ing to get it ALL the way down the ice. Z needs a back massage. Flip needs to shoot more...like his goal against the hawks...good shot. hudler needs more speed, but he's been really good this year. tuzzi needs to stick to how he's playing and not return to behind the back passes. homer is 1 dimensional and the worst skater in the NHL. helm needs to work on dangling with datsyuk. so...on topic, i would really like to know how much it would take to get Iggy in a Winged Wheel.

selling the farm would be giving up smith, nyquist or tatar. kindl is expendable and stuart is going back to california regardless after this season. selanne automatically makes the wings cup favorites, especially with like i said, quincey back and smith ready to step up anytime.