stuart6

Kronwall should be back tomorrow and Rafalski probably the game after that. Cleary i don't expect him to be back until at least March 15th.

Free agent crop?? come on now... Satan (ever since leaving Buffalo) and Fedotenko have done NOTHING for the Islanders and Hossa is gonna cost at least $7 million per year which is too much for a guy that has only performed well in the playoffs once in 2003 with the Sens. Rolston is from Flint so maybe we can get him for the right price but other then that none of these players are really worth it. Here are some more interesting names: Holik, Bobby Recchi, Mark Ward, Aaron Conroy, Craig Langkow, Daymond Peca, Mike Foote, Adam Brunette, Andrew Theodore, Jose Blake, Rob Demitra, Pavol (i like him) Ryder, Michael Smolinski, Bryan Pandolfo, Jay Shanahan, Brendan Commodore, Mike Redden, Wade Campbell, Brian Naslund, Markus Morrison, Brendan Sundin will probably stay with the Leafs. So basically there are two very good d-man in Campbell and Redden... but we are not in the market for that. If you look at the rest of the list i wouldn't mind trying to get Naslund to come here (Swedish connection) or even some guys with local ties like Morrison or Smolinski.

Reason why we didn't get Hossa... and thank god we didn't! It seems to me like Atlanta was just asking for too much... Smith and Kindl were probably the two prospacts they wanted plus a 1st round pick and probably Filppula. To give up a 1st round pick in what is called "the deepest draft in 15 years" is just way too much to start with and then you add two of our best defensive prospects with Kindl being a guy that many have said could be a #1 d-man in the future plus Smith who's a great skater and is perfect for our system... and to trade a Filppula who keeps getting better and doesn't cost much is just way TOO MUCH to give up for a rental player. Sure we might have had a shot at resigning Hossa but then again we also saw what happened with Forsberg and Bertuzzi last year plus rumor has it that Hossa is a close friend with Chara and is most likely going to sign with the Bruins. BTW anyone remember what Hossa did last year in the playoffs for the Thrashers? 5 shots on goal and only scored once!

As you can see the NHL free agency is starting to look like the NFL... every team will resign their own top players and guys like Hossa will go out and sign a crazy contract with some team that has plenty of cap room - example = Flyers and Rangers last year splashing the big cash for Briere, Gomez and Drury. Team like Colorado went out and signed Smyth because they have cap room and he wanted to play with Sakic, we went out and signed Rafalski which was a need after Schneider signed with the Ducks and that was that. The only regret i have is that Holland didn't resign Bertuzzi because we had 5 million in cap space and Bert would have only cost us 4 million this year and 4 million next year. Sure he had back problems and probably didn't deserve that type of money but sometimes you have to over pay to keep a guy and that was the time to do it. The only time i see us landing a top notch FA is in 2009 when Ryan Miller becomes available, Buffalo will try to resign him but i doubt he would want to stay there after all the players they have lost. One of the guys on TSN during the trade deadline said that Miller is the goalie Holland wants for the future and Ryan would be very interested in coming back to play in Michigan.

LOL you gotta love Melrose... this is the same guy that picked the Rangers to win the Cup and gave us no chance against the Sharks last year. How can we be losers when we didn't give up anyone on our roster, picked up a solid d-man and were not stupid enough to trade a 1st round pick plus top prospects for a rental player aka Hossa.

We don't really need him to be "physical"... i just want him to not turn the puck over and basically replace Lilja once everyone is healthy.

Brad Stuart lays a hit on Travis Moen!

People should stop crying over Fedorov... he might have helped us with all the injuries BUT the fact that Brian Burke shipped him out of Anaheim a few years ago should tell you all you need to know about where his career has been heading. For all those people who keep saying "why didn't Holland sign Stuart as a FA?" - this is your answer! Obviously we wanted to sign him but he had personal reasons why he signed with the Kings.

I agree and unless people wanted to give up Filpula, Kopecky, Smith (1st round pick from last year) plus a 1st round pick in this years draft... people should be happy that we didn't do something stupid like that. Hossa could end up pulling a Forsberg and the Pens would be in deep s.hit, Armstrong had great chemistry with Crosby plus the 1st round picks are very important now a days.

Stoney and Wojo just said he will be on with them on WDFN after the Flip interview.