xtrememachine1

Wow! With some people saying he's retiring and others saying he'll be back, this should make for an interesting conference call.

I was hoping they were going to go into a different direction considering Osgood's recent injury history, but if he's healthy enough to play, then I'm glad he'll be here for another year. I just REALLY hope he stays healthy.

Late to the discussion on this, but unless the committee is like, "No one gets in before the waiting period starting now", there's no way Lidstrom shouldn't be in right away. I'm not saying it because I'm a Wings fan either. The numbers, the trophies, the accomplishments both in the NHL and international are there. He's arguably the best defenseman ever, he was the most dominant player in hockey for at least a decade. If he doesn't get in right away, they should just do away with waiving the waiting period. Lidstrom is absolutely in that elite class of player that is greater than great. Without a doubt.

I like it. They're really embracing the "yellow" with the towels, t-shirts and now the jerseys. Good change and I still think the logo looks bad ass.

Draper was making over a mil last year and was in the pressbox quite a bit. Hudler and Ericsson were healthy scratches last year and were making well over a $1 mil. Commodore is an injury prone, -17 defenseman over the past couple years and was waived by the friggin Blue Jackets. He'll be adequate stepping in as a number 6 defenseman in the event of an injury, but I don't feel like Commodore is a solution to our defensive problems. "Getting used to" Commodore being a 6th defenseman is like saying "get used to getting knocked out of the second round again". Better options are available and unless these defenseman want too much, there's no reason not to go with one of them.

I posted something about this the other day and there's a couple defensemen I think we should take a chance on. Bryan McCabe: Yeah, he's 36, but he's a good puck moving defenseman with a physical edge and would be a great fit on the second pairing. He could play the PP as well. Scott Hannan: Good shutdown defenseman, would really improve our PK. As of right now, unless these new coaches have some great ideas on fixing our penalty killing, this is a weakness that hasn't been addressed and has been killing us for several years now. I would feel much more comfortable getting one of these two guys and put our "Commodore 64" in the press box for most games. He's fine as a 7th defenseman, but I don't want him in the starting lineup on opening day. We had lots of injuries on D the past couple years and Commodore has been very injury prone the past two seasons. If he and another defenseman go down, we're looking at a Kindl-Smith third pairing and most likely increased minutes for Lidstrom, Kronwall and Stuart, which is bad since ideally we would like to have them be fresh for the postseason. Not to mention, what happens if, God forbid, Ericsson takes a step back or doesn't get what the new coaches are teaching him? We have the cap space, why not add one of these guys that would fit in and/or address a need? I don't think we should be giving them a lot, no need to overspend on defensemen that are still out there after two weeks, but like the whole situation with the back up goalie, we shouldn't be one injury or two injuries away from having our whole season get shot down.

When I first started watching the Wings, Glen Hanlon was their goalie and he was a right hand glove goalie. So its been awhile. Exactly, he wasn't interested in a 1A / 1B situation, he wanted to be 1. After just signing Howard to an extension and his performance in the playoffs, it wasn't happening. I would have loved to have had Vokoun on the team, but not at the expense of throwing away Howard especially after what he's done for us the past couple years.

So as it stands right now, we have Commodore as a starter unless Smith or Kindl beat him out. Meanwhile, Bryan McCabe and Scott Hannan are still out there on the market. Unless they're asking for too much or too many years, I would rather go with one of these two than Commodore. You have to figure, the longer they're out there, the lower their price would have to drop.

Meh, nothing really new. Not exactly confirmation. Plus, with the Phoenix situation still unsettled, I think nothing concerning relocation means anything at this point. If Phoenix moves to say Quebec, we're staying put.

Exactly. Nothing wrong with a little healthy competition. There is a lot wrong with relying on possibly MacDonald, an AHL goalie, being your full time backup.

Unfortunately for Ozzie, there isn't a way to prove he'll stay healthy. He's played in just 35 games over the past two years. I would love to have him back, but the durability doesn't appear to be there and Howard can't play 75 games and be ready for the playoffs.

Very interesting numbers about the shot blocking. I can't recall seeing Crosby lay down on the ice or get into a position to block a shot, whereas I know I've seen Z do that many times. Makes me wonder what is considered to be a blocked shot. As for his backchecking, he doesn't do it. I've seen Staal, Letestu, Cooke, Talbot, even Kunitz tying up someone's stick in front of Fleury or breaking up a play. Maybe he's improving, but I don't notice his defensive play standing out enough to warrant being called a "complete player". Ovechkin had 23 blocks last year and 20 the year before. As for hits, Ovi was 8th in the NHL with 241 hits last year. Dats had 54, Z had 38 and Crosby was on pace for 68. Not sure if that can be considered a defensive stat or not, but its something that Ovechkin brings that Datsyuk does not.

I don't know where all this "Crosby is a complete player" talk comes from. I've watched a ton of Pens games and he is NOTHING like Zetterberg, Datsyuk or any other player that is very successful at both end of the ice. He doesn't back check, he doesn't block shots and the Penguins as a team, were much better defensively after he got injured. He's a points machine like Ovechkin and is by no means a "complete player". Back on topic, Datsyuk is better defensively than Ovechkin, no doubt and you could make the argument that defense wins championships. But Ovechkin is better offensively and I could make the argument the more goals you score, the more likely you are to win. I think the talent level between Datsyuk and Ovechkin is very close and the fact that they excel at different aspects of the game, makes it difficult to determine who is better. This past year, Datsyuk definitely looked like the more talented player. He was better at what he does than Ovechkin at what he does this past season. But overall, in the past 5 years, Ovechkin is the more talented player. Datsyuk has 3 Selke trophies and 4 Lady Byng. Ovechkin has 1 Art Ross, 2 Harts, 3 NHLPA MVP awards (Lester B Pearson and Ted Lindsay), 1 Calder, and 2 Rocket Richard trophies. That's more MVP's and scoring titles than anyone else in the league. For me, that makes it very difficult to say someone else is better.

Ahhh okay. He's older than McCollum and doing much better than him, they really should give him a shot at being the backup, at least. At 25, he's got to start getting some NHL experience.

I know a lot of people are considering Datsyuk to be the best Russian hockey player right now and rightfully so, he was clearly better than Ovie this past season. However, if I had to pick between the two, I'd go with Ovechkin. Ovie isn't going to shutdown the other team's best forwards like Datsyuk, but Datsyuk isn't going to put up 50-60 goals a season either. Ovechkin had a down year this past season, but I think if you look at these players, in general, over the past 5 years, IMO, Ovechkin is the better player. There are times when we're behind by a goal and think to myself "Wouldn't it be great to just have a guy like 50 goal guy like Ovechkin to tie this up?" I understand that Datsyuk is great to have on the ice in the final minute when we're up by a goal, but you could just as easily have a checking center like a Draper (in his prime) or Helm filling that role.

Didn't Larsson say he didn't want to play for the Wings or something? Like there was some sort of falling out or maybe he had an attitude problem. I was pretty high on him too until I read that or something to that effect on this board.

I REALLY hope that he's back as a 3rd string goalie and not as the backup. I do not feel confident with him taking over if something happens to Howard.

I like this signing. Good depth player. He has speed and heart, two qualities that has taken Darren Helm pretty far with this franchise. I don't really understand the hatred Pens fans have for him. Its like "Chris Conner? HAHA! He sucks. You should've seen him botch this penalty shot." They're so glad to be rid of him and they only use THAT as their reason why. Bizarre.

I'm thinking/hoping, Blashill is for the defense. The reason I say that is because we have so many young defensemen, especially after this last draft, that need developed and quick.

As crazy as it sounds just one year into the job, but this could be Yzerman's defining moment as a GM. People might be asking, "How could let go of a 21 year old, 50 goal scorer that is the future of your franchise?" But really, he's trying to build a great all around team, not jam as many superstars on his roster as he can and fill the rest of the roster with scrubs. Ideally, Stamkos re-signs for like $7.5 mil for a few years, but if he wants too much money and his cap hit could impact the ability to fill holes in other areas, I think trading him, while requiring a lot of testicular fortitude, would be the right thing to do. Sure, Stamkos could be the next great thing in the NHL and Stevie will look like Mike Milbury. Or create an even better team without Stamkos, win a championship and look like a genius.

With all the younger players that will be getting moved up over the next few years, I think this could be a very solid move by the Wings. I read that he really excels in the development of younger players, so if that's the case, then he should be a good fit for this team. I guess he's our new offensive coach?

I think this is a weird move for him. It seemed like he was linked to Boston for years, he finally gets traded there, wins a Stanley Cup and then leaves for Carolina, who has ZERO shot at winning anything. Did Boston not offer anything and if they did, how much different could it have been from Carolina's offer?

LOL When I read the headline, I thought that exact same thing!

Even though statistically, Ozzie hasn't been great the past couple years, I think as a backup, he would be adequate, IF he could stay healthy though. At this point, I don't think he can and its time to move on. I'm a strong believer in letting veterans who have done great things for the franchise go out on their own terms, but everything that happened with Ozzie last year, we have to get another back up. MacDonald and McCollum are not going to get it done. So if Howard should happen to have some freak injury where he's out for a long period of time, the season's over. Conklin fit this team very well in 2009 and would fit well today. Conklin has excellent rebound control and is a good puck handler, two attributes that really worked well for him a couple years ago playing behind our defense.

Really? 70 points? Who knows? Maybe he'll have good chemistry with his new linemates. But expecting 70 points out of a guy that topped out at 53 and only scored 19 goals... I know its the NY way of thinking with all their sports teams, but paying a player more money doesn't make them better players.