xtrememachine1

I keep reading in the comments that Pens fans believe they're hated because they're good. Its like, "No, your team is hated because they're full of whiny, arrogant, obnoxious d-bags." The Lemieux-Jagr-Francis teams were not hated and they were good. As for the Wings being hated, its jealousy. The Wings built another Stanley Cup contender through the draft while at the same time won Stanley Cups. Meanwhile, teams like Toronto and NYI have had high draft picks for years and still suck. The blog post should have been "Which teams to you really hate?" not "Which teams are you tired of losing to?"

Each of them were special in their own way, but the 2008 one was my favorite. The Wings won it in my hometown in an arena that's 5 minutes from the hospital my son Caleb Yzerman [Last Name] was born in just six months earlier. Seeing the Wings win the Cup in Pittsburgh was something I never even imagined in my wildest dreams.

I'd love to see Kariya in a Wings uniform, the guy can still fly and still has a great shot. But the bottom line is he'll want more money than we can pay, especially now with the whole Modano, Helm, Abdelkader situation. Its a good thought, but its not practical.

The problem is the players salaries are rising faster than the salary cap. Teams are being forced to come up with ideas like this to get around it. If these mega deals get rejected and things stay the way they are, you're eventually going to have a situation where every team in the league has just two stars and a bunch of AHLers or a team of mediocre players.

I know I'm in the minority, but I like deals like this. It keeps superstars from jumping around the league and it keeps the cap hit low so they can afford other players. Is it cheating? Its shady/ingenious but its not cheating. Their isn't a rule against that type of contract, so its all good. I felt pretty good when I saw Z sign that huge deal last year and knew he was going to be with the Wings for a long time, plus his cap hit won't cripple us and we'll remain competitive. The Penguins are getting killed right now because they have two $8.7 players on their team. As a result, Matt Cooke is their 5th best forward now. If you want to have a cap, that's all fine and good, but the cost of players is rising faster than the salary cap. If teams didn't make these huge mega deals like the Kovalchuk one, you would eventually have a situation where every team in the league would consist of one or two stars and a bunch of AHLers or a team full of mediocre players.

I think its funny that when you get injured a couple times in your career, you're "injury prone". However, if you never get injured, teams avoid you because you're overdue to be injured. I think its a great move. Gagne is a very Red Wings-like player and that is the direction Stevie is taking this team.

Not before Crosby, Malkin and Ovechkin sign deals like these.

A $5.8 mil cap hit for Kovalchuk would be pretty good. Since he's under 35, wouldn't they be off the hook if he retired before the end of this contract?

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=327071

That was last years third line. Guerin, Fedotenko and Ponikarovsky are gone now. Staal is supposed to be moved up to one of the top two lines and most likely Kennedy or Cooke as well.

I don't know why they have to wait for Modano to sign these two. They made their offer to Modano. Whether he takes it or not, we're resigning Abdelkader and Helm. Pretend Modano already signed and work with these two. Each of them should make $1-1.5 this year. If Modano ends up not signing, then we have an extra $1.2 leftover. Pittsburgh's third line is good? They're having trouble putting together a solid first and second line, much less a good third line.

August 1st? Well at least I can stop checking RotoWorld every other hour to see if Mikey signed with us. Interesting, its for 2 years. Maybe he wants to try to win back to backers here.

My thoughts exactly. I could see him making like $4-5, that might make more sense, but $7 mil? $7 mil for 22 goals? I'm wondering if his agent said something like, "Koivu scored more points than Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and Lecavalier, and they all make around the $7 mil mark."

Its true, though he's blamed for every loss. There's no way he's worth $5 mil a year. He's not $4 mil better than Brent Johnson. I was surprised to see Howie up there. Not because I don't think he doesn't deserve it but because its rare to see a Wings goalie get credit for anything. People always say "Ohhh their defense is so good, it doesn't matter how good the goalie is. Look how good Osgood looks behind that defense." Meanwhile, Brodeur played most of his career with Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer, Brian Rafalski, Ken Daneyko, etc, and nobody said anything about that.

SJ and Detroit are the only teams that make sense. Chicago can't afford anyone right now, Minnesota has no shot at a Cup. I think this move (if he does move on and doesn't retire) is about fun and a shot at the Cup. He's not going to get big money anywhere at 40 years old. So its either SJ, so he can be closer to his wife and play against the Stars 6 times or Detroit where he grew up.

We won't have to worry about that happening. "Ducks not looking at Modano" http://ducks.ocregister.com/2010/07/14/ducks-not-looking-at-modano/40705/

These other teams can say they're interested all they want, Modano has said "Its either Detroit or retirement". I'll take him at his word.

According to nhlnumbers.com they have $9 mil in cap space, but only 9 forwards and 4 defenseman. CapGeek has the Hawks with like $3.6 mil. If that's the case, then, yeah, he's gone, Niemi too.

They might have to match it. They only have 3 defensemen under contract right now and one of those three (Campbell) they can't give away.

I would take Modano at age 50 over Afinogenov any time. He's fast (when he's not being lazy) and has a decent shot, but never scored more than 24 goals in a season and doesn't play defense. No thanks.

Maybe I missed it, but did this many people object when we resigned Todd Bertuzzi and say this is move is going to hurt our young players?

Modano has scored 20+ goals in 3 of his last 5 years. He was on pace for 19 last season. Seems to me, he's a good bet for another 20 goals this year and with better talent around him, maybe he'll get even more than that.

The Wings are not losing any young talent by signing Modano for a year.

Modano has proven over the last few years that he's still capable of putting up around 20 goals and around 30 assists. That's pretty good for a guy that playing on the third line (and sometimes 4th line) with not much help around him. Plus, he's still pretty fast, is good defensively, is a leader and playing for the Wings in what will likely be his last year, he'll be even more motivated to win the Cup in front of his hometown.

It doesn't matter how many players they add to their lineup, until Luongo can stop pucks in the postseason, they're not going anywhere.