stud_defenseman

I think Franzen will have an excellent year next year. By bringing in Hossa Franzen will have more oppurtunities to play with elite players. Holland himself even said that he would expect Hossa to be playing with Datsyuk or Zetterberg, so that likely means that Franzen will be a winger with one of those guys as well. Simply playing with one of these guys for the whole season rather than part of the time will be great for him. I am thinking it will be Holmstrom - Datsyuk - Hossa Franzen - Zetterberg - Filppula For those of you who think it would be stupid to break up the chemistry of the top line, Dats and Z have shown they are quite capable of producing on different lines and an elite winger like Hossa needs an elite center to be the most effective. Franzen also plays great with Zetterberg. Sorry if I have turned this into a Hossa thread, but it seems silly to me to have our two best centres playing on a line together, and our two best wingers playing on another. There is definetly an easy solution! In summary, Franzen will play a full season with Z, score 40 goals and add 20 helpers atleast.

haha, that is some of the most ridiculous logic I have ever heard.

If you can watch a football or a baseball game there, watching hockey shouldn't be too hard. Human beings, regardless of what sport they play are comparatively similar in shape and size.

I could score on a line with Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

We should put him on a line with Hudler and Lebda. The New Grind Line. Too bad he is so small though, his stats seem to say that he is a pretty good hockey player. He is pretty much the same size as hudler though, so it is certainly possible that he could eventually make the team.

My prediction is that one of the two will end up signing elsewhere. Probably Downey. There has to be one team that is looking for a bit of muscle and that will give him a one-way contract. Even though Mac is also probably looking around, I don't know if another team would be willing to take a chance on him, for anything more than we would offer him.

That was a good read. For a team like Detroit it would be very follish to bring in a player like that who could potentially ruin the stability of the team. Detroit is great because there is not one strong leader, but a group of leaders who all contribute. For other teams it is worth the risk to bring in someone like this because they are lacking in the leadership department. Hossa is a good pick up because he is simply willing to follow along with what is going on, and has never himself been a team leader. On the other hand, had we gotten Sundin, I could see that potenitally disrupting the great chemistry we have developed.

oops double post.

florida panthers...they just suck balls big time. Always have, always will. Yea, lets trade luongo for sweet f*** all. Bertuzzi is definetely our man.

haha, I dunno about that...come to think of it they will probably be in the market for someone better. Lilja wouldn't be much of an improvement.

10 bucks says I know where Lilja is going. According to the team they are definetely going to be making some changes on the back end. Our D Sucks Balls Give Paul Ranger a few more years and he will be a kickass D-Man, but he isn't ready to lead a team at this point.

this thread failed miserably.

hahahaha, I was thinking the same thing.

ya, he is kind of alien-like, but I still love him. He could never be as ugly as Adam Foote.

If Feds hadn't of left his jersey would have certainly been retired. Kronwall is the only other player (other than Dats and Z) who could potentially have their number retired. I know it's a long shot at this point, but he is still relatively young and has a lot of time to get better. He would have to snag a norris or two and lead the wings to a cup after Lids retires, but it could be done. He will most certainly be our number one defenseman at one point, so I sure hope that he continues to improve. Is there no chance that Draper could have his number retired? He is a great leader, he skates like the wind, selke trophy winner, penalty killing specialist, no to mention the fact that he has been here forever. But I guess only 314 career points just isn't enough.

1) Detroit. I don't give a rat's ass about anyone else

Who knows if Tavares will even be the number 1 pick come next years draft. I live in Oshawa and have seen Tavares play many times. He certainly was not as good this year as he was the year before. Even though he is at this point by far the most skilled player, I have begun to question his work ethic a little. He is not that great of a skater, but his hands are phenomenal. If the leafs were able to draft him I bet he would be a bust as they cannot develop players worth a s***.

Bringing in the 'Dyke is a good move for the organization, but Fletcher needs a permanent replacement. Unless he knows something realy special about the Finger that everyone else has missed, he really dropped the ball on that one. Actually, regardless of how well Finger turns out, he could of had him for $2 million less per year. Mack do you really trust in Fletcher now?

wellllll...whoooopadeeedoooo

After Flip gets signed we have 12 forwards under contract. I don't know if Holland would want to carry both Downey and Mac, especially considering there is also Helm who is ready for time. If we stay relatively healthy these guys are barely going to see any time at all. I think Holland will just get on Mac's ass to hit the weight room and work on his fighting hoping that he will be all the enforcer we need.

I noticed in your signature at the bottom you left out Sammy! What no sammy love??

I wonder how the rest of the teams in the league feel when they keep seeing how so many players are willing to give us a 'deal'. Besides Hossa, who signed with us for one year, which happened to be far below some of the other offers made there are several other guys who have done us a favour. Lookign at how Free agency went Brad Stuart would have certainly gotten more money than we gave him. Probably somewhere around 4.25 million. Norris Nick, the best defensemen in the world, maybe even the best player, plays for a salary that is far lower than he could potentially get from another team. Even Chara makes more than Lidstrom. I'm not going to go on, because an argument could be made for many wings that they could potentially make more money. But I could see how some of the less desirable markets may be getting upset. Does Edmonton think its fair that Hossa is signing with Detroit for 1.5 million dollars less and for three less seasons? Probably not. How do these crappy teams expect to get better when players are willing to sign with better teams for less. As a detroit fan I love it, but this could potentially become a dangerous trend, as poorer teams will have to spend ridiculous amounts of money and still won't even come close to being competitive. Toronto is going to suck for many years to come. Oh well, I guess I just should bask in the glory, and be happy in the fact that Holland has created a team that elite players are willing to take a discount in order to join.

According to nhlnumbers.com the wings total salary at the moment is 52.673 million. That leaves us with 4.027 million dollars to spend. Everyone on our backend is signed, minus ericsson, cheli, quincey. Quince is probably gone, cheli will sign on for cheap and play part time. Ericsson's salary won't count against the cap as he will be in GR for one more year. There is another $700,000 off the cap. We are now at 3.327. For our forwards we currently have 11 forwards signed (not including Helm who is under contract in GR). These 11 are... Hossa Datsyuk Zetterberg Holmstrom Franzen Cleary Hudler Draper Samuelsson Maltby Kopecky I am assuming that Filppula will be the number 12 guy, but Holland would like to add some toughness as well. D-Mac will likely be the 13th guy. I think Flip will get no more than $2 mill, but this is debatable and I'm sure many of you will disagree. D-Mac will get $650. This leaves us with .677 mill. Even if the cap goes up another 5 million next year, this is not enough money to sign Hank, Hossa, Franzen, Huds. Holland would have to start today in trying to unload some players for draft picks or cheaper players. Dan Cleary would be a likely target, they could get some good draft picks for him, and he would be easy to move because of how reasonable his contract is (for the record I would hate to see this happen). Lebda is cheap enough, he isn't going anywhere. Lilja would be good trade bait though, and we could replace him with someone from GR for almost half the price. Another option is that we could not sign Sammy next year when his contract is up and replace him with helm for a savings of about $600,000. Even with this in mind I don't see us fitting Hossa in without seriously dismantling our core group. Out of Franzen, Flip, Hudler, Cleary atleast 2 of these guys would have to go. If we could keep Hossa at the expense of Huds and Flip I would take it.

where is kopecky, he is still under contract. Someone is getting traded or bought out. Even though this might irk some people, I think Maltby is the weakest link. I highly doubt that anything will happen to him as he is a cheap buy, but I think I would rather see Helm playing than Malts, based on Helm's playoff performance (which might mean s*** all).

I've been watching for many many years. Maybe I should have made myself a little clearer. I don't have much use for a pure enforcer, one who cannot skate, shoot, pass. I would much prefer a guy who might be a bit less tough, but can atleast add some scoring. I'm hoping they get someone like mccarty from a few years back rather than someone like downey. edit: haha, maybe not many many years. But I have been playing hockey and been a fan since I was four years old. I am now 22.