xtrememachine1

Maybe or maybe not. We know what Draper - Helm - Eaves can do and it was pretty good. I wouldn't mind seeing it one more year or at the very least have that option. There's no reason why we can't resign Draper to be a 12th or 13th forward for the league min.

I get it, if you told me you wanted to get a two way player, that scores big goals and would be relatively cheap and didn't tell me his name, I'd be all for it. But acquiring Max Talbot, a player that was very instrumental in probably one of the toughest losses in recent memory, doesn't seem right. You want me to "quit living in the past", but if Talbot goes to Detroit, the past will be brought up all the time.

Game 7? Two goals? Ring a bell? Not to mention his slash on Datsyuk's injured foot in Game 5. We don't need him. Plain and simple.

Offer the league min and make him a healthy scratch. Over the last few years his decline has been noticeable, but I thought he actually looked really good playing on Helm's line this year. I'd keep him, but not as a regular.

According to Pittsburgh radio shows, Talbot is most likely NOT going to back with the Pens next year. I was kind of half paying attention to the radio while I was driving, but they said something like "The general feeling with the players is that he won't be back and Max is acting like he won't return" or something to that extent. The Pens have too many free agents to sign to give Talbot want he could get with another team. I would absolutely HATE to have that jackass on this team. After what he did in Game 5 of '08 and the obvious in 2009, I can't even stand to look at that piece of garbage. I don't care what he could do for the team, it would just make me sick to my stomach to see him in a Wings jersey.

Very interesting. I never considered Gagne. He would be an excellent fit for this team and would probably go for less than $5.2 mil. Maybe $3-4 mil, I'm thinking. Zherdev is an interesting idea. Lots of upside, good hard right handed shot. The only thing is he has a reputation as being lazy on defense and that won't fly with Babs. Pitkanen would be nice and would do better in Detroit than anywhere else. Bogosian though is a pipe dream. Especially now that he's going to a city that would freak out if their GM traded him away.

Yeah, its an old argument that simply won't die and it should. If the Wings moved East, that would drastically increase the chances for Nashville, St Louis and Columbus to make the playoffs or have a higher seed. Look at it this way, if you're a Nashville fan, would you rather: 1) Guaranteed at least three sell outs as Wings fans fill your arena. or 2) Have a better chance of winning the division, getting a higher seed and playing at least 2 additional home games. If they're a higher seed, it'll probably be more like 2-5 more home games. The fan base grows as the team has a more realistic shot at a championship. A team like Columbus, that only made the playoffs once, should want the Wings out. Yeah, they probably sell out their arena when the Wings come to town too, but how does having the Red Wings beatdown the Jackets improve the fan base there? I guess my point is: playoff games/extra home games > 3 home games against the Red Wings

As much as I would love to have him on the team, there's no way the Caps let him get away especially at that price. He's a team leader and a good playoff performer.

Nashville Predators could have chance to move to NHL Eastern Conference So in other words, if Nashville moves to the East, losing the rivalry with Detroit is okay. But if Detroit leaves that will really hurt. Talk about your double standards. So we can't go to the East because Nashville can't sell out their arena without us? You've had a rivalry with the Wings for 13 years? Uhh, the Wings have a rivalry with the Rangers, Bruins, Canadiens and Maple Leafs that extends back to 1932. Yeah, why reconnect several 79 year old rivalries when you can have a rivalry with a franchise that can't sell out their own building unless they're playing against you?

Believe me, I'd like to see a good right handed shot in a Wings uniform, but I don't see how that would happen. Richards does shoot the puck quite a bit though. Almost 300 shots every year. Franzen, who is shoot first, has about the same or less shots per game. Hannan is already making $4.5 mil. The prices for defenseman go up every year, which is why I was glad Holland got Stuart at $3.75 when he did. I think a slight increase for Hannan is reasonable and helping our PK is definitely a need. Not a Jovo fan either, but he's from Windsor, is friends with Bertuzzi and I think he'd be above average as a 4-6 d-man.

I said to myself a while ago that I would never do one of these, but its just so damn easy. If I were GM, here's what I'd do. CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Brad Richards ($7.000m) / Johan Franzen ($3.954m) Justin Abdelkader ($0.787m) / Darren Helm ($0.912m) / Patrick Eaves ($0.850m) Todd Bertuzzi ($1.937m) / Drew Miller ($0.650m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) Jan Mursak ($0.550m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Scott Hannan ($4.750m) Ed Jovanovski ($3.500m) / Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.000m) Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($2.250m) / Jean-Sebastien Giguere ($1.000m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $62,200,000; CAP PAYROLL: $62,233,711; BONUSES: $0 CAP SPACE (21-man roster): -$33,711 1. Trade or waive Hudler. 2. Sign Brad Richards to a 9 year, $63 mil deal with it front loaded, of course. I figure a team like the Rangers will offer him $8 mil. Is playing for a contender worth a $1 mil a year? If you want to be successful, its a good idea to be strong down the middle. We COULD have Datsyuk and Z on separate lines, but then we have a need at wing. Richards can also help make up for the loss of Rafalski at the point on the PP. 3. Scott Hannan, a physical defenseman who blocks shots and can really help on the PK. 4. Ed Jovanovski, another physical defenseman with decent puck moving skills. As long as he's not logging a ton of ice time, he'll be effective for us. 5. JS Giguere, he hasn't been on top of his game for the past few years, but I think he'd be a great back up for Howard and would really play well behind this defense. Should be cheap considering his recent decline in numbers.

Great retirement speech. I had no idea he was so spiritual, but it was nice to hear. We're really going to miss him, but at least we were lucky enough have had him on our team for the last 4 years. Good luck Raffy!

Not to be a killjoy for the Nucks because they were the better team and should have won anyways, but on the final goal, how did that count? I thought the referees were supposed to blow the whistle when they lose sight of the puck. Clearly no one except Bieska saw it. Plus, if you watch the replay, you see the ref put the whistle to his mouth as Bieska is in the process of the shooting the puck. Isn't that an "intent to blow the whistle before the shot"? Or does that only happen when the Wings score goals? Like I said, Vancouver was better and they deserved to win, plus I hate the Sharks, but I would really hate to see a call like that made in a Game 7.

That's actually not a bad idea. Not sure why the Caps would want Filppula though. They DO need center help, but I don't think Filppula is their guy. No and none of the UFA defenseman are anything special. I think Holland is going to need to trade for a defenseman or two to replace Rafalski and possibly Lids.

I'm not so sure about that. The fact that an extension has not yet been signed already leads me to believe that Weber is asking for more than Nashville is offering. I could be wrong, maybe they didn't want to talk contracts during the season, but I refuse to believe that Nashville hasn't already tried to sign him to an extension. I mean, he is the freaking franchise. Maybe Weber and the Preds can meet halfway and get it worked out. Or maybe a team with a lot of cap space, a need for a defenseman and a legitimate shot at a championship can swoop in and give him what he wants. Even if the Wings don't get Weber, this is a good chance to break the backs of a division rival. If he signs, Nashville loses their captain and best player. If he doesn't sign, Nashville might be spending more on one player than they want to and would be right up against their self imposed cap. Plus, there's a couple guys named Suter and Rinne that are UFA's after next season. BTW, love your avatar

Apparently Holland hasn't heard anything from Rafalski on this. Red Wings: Brian Rafalski hasn't decided on retirement

I don't think he's "donating" $6 mil to the Wings next Cup run. I think maybe the injuries he's fought through over the past few seasons are taking their toll on him. HOWEVER, I do think its a little convenient (maybe too convenient) that a $6 mil defenseman unexpectedly retires right before two big RFA defensemen hit the market.

What really hurts about this is that its totally unexpected. I was thinking next year could possibly be his last and their was all this focus on Lidstrom retiring and now Raffy is gone. Kind of sucks. I mean, it should make our off season more interesting now that we have another $6 mil to work with, but honestly I was really looking forward to another Lidstrom-Rafalski pairing, but as the second defensive unit. Congrats to Raffy, a great player for the Wings, for US hockey and a class act. His go ahead goal in Game 5 of the 2008 Finals will always stick out in my mind as one of the most memorable Wings goals of all time. Enjoy your retirement buddy, you will be missed!

3 Conferences is a neat idea, but the NHL would never think that far outside the box.

The Wings would have been a better matchup because they were the better team. Granted, the Sharks won the first three games of that series, but since then, they've lost 6 of their last 8 games. The Wings were looking really good and heating up when the Sharks squeaked out their Game 7 win. The Wings were getting better, the Sharks were getting worse and unfortunately for everyone except the Canucks, the latter won the decisive game.

So $4.75 mil per year for one of the games best young defensemen? That's not happening. It'd have to more like 10 years, $70 mil. Not to mention, the Kings would gladly let go of Handzus, Ponikarovsky and Simmonds to keep Doughty.

Absolutely not. You ride Roloson all season, he gets you to conference finals and you bench him after one bad game in favor of a guy that was spending time in the minors? Roloson is their guy for better or worse.

I thought about the possibility of doing something a little more radical with alignment as well, but this is Gary Bettman's NHL we're talking about. We'll be lucky if he doesn't move the Kings to the Southeast division. Seriously, Nashville (even though their in a different timezone) will probably get moved to the Southeast. That's the easiest/laziest way to fix it.

You had me till Tanguay and Cole. Cole is washed up and Tanguay... soft players that don't shoot won't make this board very happy.

He wasn't the REASON, but he was definitely part of the problem. How big a part, we'll find out now that he's gone. I'd like to see Hitchcock here and I think he'd want to be here. A couple years with the Wings, we re-establish ourselves as a great defensive team and Hitchcock's getting offers from everywhere to be their head coach. It'd be smart for him and us.