Datsyerberger

He won't get here. The Rangers want to keep him. He's not UFA. That's pretty much the end of that.

Buyouts of Drury and Wolski (which has already been speculated) would give them ample room to both sign all the people they want to keep, filler, and overpay for Richards.

Laich, Cole, Ryder... all top 6 forwards, and reasonable targets. There are others.

I think he'd meant he'd take all 3 at the same time.

Hudler was .51 in P/G last year, which puts him at a similar scoring pace to many forwards making as much or more money with him. Even with his obvious deficiencies, some offensively needy team would take him in a trade (even it were for a relatively cheap price). I personally think it's better to see what he does next year than take the cheap deal we'd probably get for him; the potential value of his offense is higher than what people would offer right now. The only way I'd take the cheap deal is if I had a need to clear the cap space (and only after I'm sure I had contracts locked up that would make this necessary, not on the hope that I might be able to grab some FA that may or may not sign here)

He's a 25-30g, 50-60p guy that plays with a serious physical edge, and he's lived up to that every year he's been healthy. Unfortunately, health definitely is a concern with him, though he did manage to have a good year this last season. I'd take him for the right price.

Downie - Stamkos - St. Louis Lecavalier - Richards - Malone That pretty much needs to happen. And if they have to trade Malone to make it work cap-wise, they can play Purcell there.

I remember Laich fixed some woman's tire either on the way to or on the way from a game 7 in which the Caps were eliminated. Think it was after the game.

Well, somewhere-not-Detroit will be offering him a huge contract. Could maybe see him take a moderate discount for TB, or alternatively, Sather pays a crapton of money for him... Richards and Gaborik together would be pretty awesome. Well, as long as it's not together on IR.

I guess the NHLBA hates composite sticks, too! Grats, Mickey.

Good things about Wiz: Righty shot, plenty of offense (even if he's more of a 30 some-odd point guy than the 50 he was this year it's still solid offense), aggressively physical Bad things about Wiz: Undisciplined, small size + aggressive play may lead to injuries long term, lack of defensive commitment, possible rep as a me-first player If he were to come here, and he didn't live up to the offensive expectations some here may have for him, he would get dogged hard for his flaws, because they are still quite evident in his current game.

You missed my point. It was nothing about Hudler. You said large contracts aren't offered to one-dimensional players, a statement I find rather laughable (and can cite a number of examples of just that). Hence me quoting: And not

They put him at center on the faceoff to take faceoffs and then he often shifts to the wing in play. He's a natural center at time of drafting but his best play in Washington has far and away been as a winger (plus faceoff specialist). Basically Cleary with a bit more offensive consistency.

Could live with a 2 year deal for 1.4-1.5 or a 3 year deal for around 1.6-1.75 Wouldn't really want to go anything higher than that.

Except that he's much better on wing, which is where Washington most often utilized him. I see him getting anywhere from 3.2-4.0. 3.5 would be about right and I wouldn't mind paying him that, though I'd personally like to go for a winger with a decent combination of speed/shot. Doesn't have to be amazingly fast, just a good top 6 shooter that can skate decently well.

Are we watching the same league?

It's still better travel than for any team in the west. They can get over it and be happy they have a team next year.

Don't really think it's fair to say Gill is defensively solid. He's defensively excellent. Very good positioning, strong, clears the front of the crease well, blocks shots. He's just got no offense and about as much skating. If the guy could skate better he could've been making Stuart to Volchenkov level money the last coupla years.

I wouldn't call Ericsson weak defensively.. he's just wholly unspectacular. His positioning without the puck is usually fairly solid, but he occasionally brainfarts. His checking is decent, but sometimes he gets beat and reacts poorly (usually with his stick, sometimes resulting in a penalty) He's large, but isn't particularly strong He doesn't shy away from physical contact, but also doesn't pursue it He skates well for his size, but can still get burned by smaller, faster players In regards to defense, he's just.. eh. Just that. 'Eh'. He's a reasonably safe partner defensively for most other d-men (though not defensively unsafe ones), he can chew ES time fairly well, he can occupy depth minutes on the PK relatively safely.. but he's never going to be more than your #4/5 choice in any of those situations unless your desperate. He does have some upside as a 2nd PP unit sort of d-man, though in my opinion, more as the complementary partner of the D pairing and less so as a QB. He seems more apt to shoot from the point or to jump into the play and attempt to finish than to run the PP and distribute the puck. Depending how he continues to develop, at his best he can be a decent all-round 2nd pairing d-man, or he can be a safe but incredibly boring #5 (which is more or less what he is now). He's an incredibly unspectacular and ho-hum player to watch, and I think that causes some Wings fans to think he's worse than he actually plays. About the only time he'll ever ever make a highlight reel is on a goal against or a rare goal for.

Around 1.4-1.6 on the Wings, 1.75-2 on another team

More accurate imo.

The situations are worlds apart. Bourque was a non-contender and left with the graces of both management and fans to pursue a cup before his career ended. Lidstrom is on a contender and has multiple cups already.

Seriously, these guys have only won the President's Trophy twice since the lockout, the Cup once, won their division only 5 times, the playoffs every year, usually finish top 3 in the conference... they're awful. Blow them up, toss out years and years of team philosophy and build strategy, and start from scratch. It's the only hope before this team falls into a new Dead Wings era... any day now.

I mean it's not really a southern market, demographically. Then again, neither is Miami. It doesn't set an example of a successful southern market because it doesn't deal with the same issues as other southern markets. It's just a hockey team somewhere it's hot, big deal. They've shown that when they've had competent management/owners they can be a successful draw. They haven't had that in over a decade.

TB isn't really the best example... ridiculous amounts of northerners, snowbirds, descendants of northerners down there. It's more like far-south Michigan/Ontario than anything else. I'd use Dallas, Nashville, Carolina, and maybe Miami (Florida) as 4 examples. Florida was doing fairly well when it didn't suck, and even in a record-setting stretch of mediocrity they've managed to stay out of dire straits more than some other teams.