swiss_fan

Here's a video for those who confound switzerland and sweden

I think it will be a toss up in the central with Det and Chi being very close (during the regular season) and a good St Louis team. St Louis will definitively be in this year. In the East, i don t see Carolina very high, they won t confirm their success last year (mainly after the deadline).they are a borderline playoff team,but they will make it. Pittsburgh will have a bad year: cup hangover. Tampa bay surprisingly will make it, when Montreal will totally fall apart. Ottawa will be damn hungry, now that Heatley is gone; they ll make it. My predictions: (in points; not considering division title stuff..) East Washington Boston (it s a toss up between these 2) Philadelphia NJ Pittsburgh Ottawa Carolina Tampa Bay just behind (toss up with TB: the Rags) West SJ: the division is very weak Vancouver Det Chicago Anaheim Calgary St Louis (these 7 teams without big desillusions will be playoff teams) and then.... LA

How many different professional competitive leagues exist? In the top of my head i can call the NHL, the AHL, the KHL, the SEL, the SM-Liiga, the swiss league, the tcheque league and the german league. Where does rank the AHL? According to a lot of player's interviews, the level of the SEL and SM liiga is slightly above the AHL, and i don t even talk about the level of the KHL. Keep in mind that a lot of AHL's player, who are tired to wait and/or don't have anymore the chance of being an NHL regular are heading to Europe. I don t care what you mind, particulary because you probably don t know anything about european hockey (so basically you don't know what you re talking about), but the AHL level is only slightly better than the swiss league. You can probably give me a lot of example of players who had better stats in europe before heading to USA, but be sure i can give you ton of examples of AHL stars who were literally bums in europe. So yes stating that the AHL is the second best league in the world, considering the fact that 1/by all evidence the KHL is better, 2/in many cases the best AHL's players are heading to Europe cuz they will earn more than by staying in the AHL 3/the SEL and the SM-liiga are strong cases of leagues potentially better than the AHL .... is laughable

to call the AHL the second best league in the world is laughable... i can see at least 2-3 leagues above the AHL... yai i m thrilled for Tatar, but i wouldn t be surprised if after 9 games he ends up in junior..

same here Tatar again is at the beginning of the last action of this period. I ve found Kindl very solid so far and Tatar very good. This Vigilante kid is good also. Abdelkadder look like he has taken a step

WTF give Tatar more ice time. Only first time i saw him and he was great

Anyone knows which number is Tatar? good game guys!

Everyone here is discussing it with toronto's perpective. WHat about the bruins? I highly think this trade will make this team a powerhouse for many years to come. What is sad is that the Bruins were basically in the same situation that us, too much talent to keep for the salarycap. Boston managed to trade the surplus and receive great assets in exchange. Unfortunately Kenny didn t managed it the same way. Don t get me wrong, i m very happy with Kenny's late signings, but losing for free Quincey Hudler Samuelsson Hossa wasn't that great. Particulary in the case of Samuelson he should have trade him last summer when his stock was high or at the deadline, knowing he would be gone for sure.

Here are some questions no one have asked about Tatar and his impressive play in TC: -Not only Tatar has played well in his native country last year, agering 0,5 pt per game IIRC against men, in a pro league (not far from the AHL level i think), but he played great in Traverse city, in the prospect TC and also in the main TC. So: -why the heck would it be good for him to root in a junior league? it has to be something related with contracts, but c'mon, you don't ask to a guy like him to waist a year in my opinion.. (i m the opinion would have played before in the NHL Kindl would surely be better now than he is.. but this is not really the point here..) -If he has produced in his native league, why wouldn't he produce in the AHL, and if he does, when is it legit to think he could receive a call-up? next year is it possible? Thanks for your opinion

HAHA nice to see there is another swiss fan who is rooting for Detroit, the team of my childhooh dreams!! I m coming from fribourg, which is for the others at around 20mn by car fro bern, where come this other member.... and we re talking about hockey as redwings fan here: that is globalization ! I would like to grab an autograph from Forsberg, may be i ll go there

I can easily imagine it as i ve seen the duo Thornton-Nash during the lockout playing in the swiss championship together... and they won it..

i would like to be informed about that as well.. but i haven't heard anything about it for a while

what a fall! I can t remember a such hyped played who went so down the list in the draft!!! sad the wings didn t take this bet

how didn t we take rajala at this point? I m no scout for sure ok, but C'MON this kid was a onster in the WC and broke Ovie' s record!!!

idem i wish we can take him!! Otherwise i hope we draft up!! (but i wouldn t be surprised if we would draft down)

Hudler for 2.5 or Fil for 3? Hossa for 5 or Stuart for 3? These are easy questions and easy answers for me which solution do you prefer? 1/Hossa + Fil + top pick (assuming you could make a package of Hudler+Stuart, which could bring a very nice return; may be pick 5 from LA?) 2/Hossa + Stuart + top pick 3/Stuart + Fil + Hudler Samuelsson is out of the picture anyway

So guy, we can ask us again which player do you want the wings draft , which position and should the wings move up/down? I would like to see the wings trade Stuart( i know i know NTC), Hudler and Howard for a very good 1st round. What do you think? This year draft look amazingly deep!

Here's just a few thoughts about the next draft before the playoffs FINALLY begin!! I think we're in an ideal situation this year to trade up , being stacked and right against the cap. To do so could not only allow us to trade assets we could loose otherwise for prospects, but also to free up some space for Hossa. When i look at the contracts i ve hard time to see how we could afford salary wise tu give +2,5 mil to Hudler for example. Plus a very good prospect could be cap wise very initeresting, playing for 3 years for few.. So do you agree with me?(it could be a good idea to trade up) Then i ve tried to figure out how high we could go with our assets (as opposite of Burke's one, our are valuable), and what would be the best prospect (affordable) we could go for?F irst, which kind of player would we look for? Last year we were stacked in D. We've lost depth in this position with the departure of Q, but we still have good prospect like Kindl down. It would be nice to gain depth at center but is it really a good idea to go for a center who could be NHL ready in 2-3 years when we've already Z and Dats (+possibly Helm) locked for years? A winger could be the right choice for me. What's your opinion? Basing of what i ve read Paarjaveri (or something like that) could be very interesting, but he s projected as a top 5 pick, so probably too high. Ellis could be very interesting i think. I ve seen him in the WJC and he was impressing. He could be a top 10 pick. Would Hudler and our 1st be enough to move so high? We could also add Howard also, although i think he will backup Ozzie next year. What would we have for Huds+Flip? Huds+Flip+1st? Any ideas? Thoughts?

mindfly you obviously don t know what you re talking about. Rajala has GREAT potential and could be a perfect fit with Detroit

he hasn t said neither he's going to retire. Last year i think he wanted to be a part of Det, but Hossa cut him the grass under the feet. After cashing in with Vancouver, may be he ll play for almost nothing with us! (sweet dream i know, cuz he looks greedy in fact)

Not. at . all What if Gaborik would be willing to take a one or 2 year deal for the sake of making much much more money than he can now after? You would be all high on that.

Homer retire, Maltby retire, trade Stuart (i don't know how ) Let's bring back Hossa +......................... Sundin!!!! This would really be a team for ages

Thanks Lyongoalie!!

HAHA great work!!!!

Agreed. Besides that, I see now Hudler staying. With the (poor) playoff he had, he will not receive an offer from another team worth a 1st and a 3rd, so the wings will be able to match an offer worth a secound rounder, which would be a downgrade to Hudler. We could see Holmstrom retiring but i don t see Maltby anywhere else.. Kopecky will stay, and we ll sign a free agent.