mjlegend

If Osgood retires, yes. If Jimmy gets hurt for any serious length of time (more than a couple of weeks), I'd want a real starter, but there's no reason Boucher wouldn't do well in a 18-22 start season with the Wings. I thought the Sharks used him effectively in that role a couple of years ago.

Don't give him any thread ideas. Lidstrom-Carter Stuart-Smith Kindl-Ericsson Janik

I think just about anyone could have had Tim Thomas for a song in the offseason. A 68-year-old goaltender with that contract? Remember when they lost the first two games in the Montreal series and all the Habs fans were wondering if they'd be seeing Tukka Rask? But he's been the best player in the series and I don't see them making it this far without him.

And the Coyotes' 1,800 season ticket holders.

Ehrhoff is -10 in the playoffs this year, and has no points in his last four games. We want him why?

I get the feeling Labatt would just prefer to look for a settlement, perhaps maybe three years worth of Coyotes?

Sold out. Took about 4 minutes of general sale. To be fair to Atlanta, I think they sold about 13,000 season ticket commitments. In 12 years total.

Bure, Gilmour, Fleury and Oates. Belfour can always try to bribe his way in.

Bettman said they wouldn't stand in the way of the team using "Jets". NHL owns the rights to the name at they will make it available to them. . . Not that they'll have any issue selling tickets, but it would be pretty cool if their first UFA signing July 1 was Teemu Selanne for a one year deal.

This would never happen today. I mean, a player in 2011 would have the sense not to go back out there a few days after getting a concussion, wouldn't he?

If the #24 pick is used in a package to get a legit top D for the Wings' big club for the next several years, I wouldn't be too disappointed. At #24, you're basically drafting for 2-3 years from then anyway.

Awesome that we get to see a couple more weeks of Cam Neely grimacing.

A Philly coaching staff telling someone they can't fight. Gotta admit, that's a new one on me.

Hitchcock hasn't won a playoff round since the lockout. So he'd be a perfect for the Leafs.

Playing Devil's Advocate, Dats... Are you saying a team on a pencil-thin internal budget (apart from the salary cap) might never take the picks instead of the contract for a player they'll never be able to surround with talent? In CBA Theory World, they don't have to offer him a raise at all to get him to a one-year-deal, but the reality is that move spits in his face and tells him they don't feel like giving a serious commitment to one of the best defencemen in the NHL. They can buy themselves another year by giving him, say $6 million for one year, orby letting him go through arbitration, but next year is his first year of UFA eligibility (where they would lose him for nothing). Unless they think they're close to the Cup, why should they bother? I'd love to see Kenny offer a deal of, say, Kindl, Hudler and a couple of firsts, because Weber is a Norris candidate just starting the prime of his career at a time when Lidstrom is nearing the end. But if it does come down to offer sheets, I'd hope we wouldn't be afraid to pull the trigger on a massive contract.

This comment somehow reminds me of Bruce Boudreau.

I feel like I'm watching the Canucks brass play against the Canucks brass when it comes to the complaining about the refs in the last 24 hours: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Bruins-Lightning-coaches-spar-over-working-the-?urn=nhl-wp5735 Boucher (before game): "[it's] 24-9 against, right? Yes, I'm aware of it. Very aware of it. Very, very aware of it. It has been a part of our discussions quite a few times in the last game, the last games we did have that particular ref. And it is lopsided." Julien (after game): "And what was more disappointing is probably the fact that, you know, I don't know if I agree with those calls. And hopefully what was said today didn't have any impact on that, because if it did, I'd be really disappointed." Quasimodo (after game): "Well, I mean, it seemed like some of them were just makeup calls because we had a bunch of [power plays]," Lucic said. "You'd hope it's not the time of year where there's makeup calls like that. You can't let the refs get to you. You don't want them to be the difference, and you want to do whatever you can to work past that. We don't want to make excuses because of referees, but, then again, we have to do whatever we can to not take penalties." Enough whining already, both of you!

With the kind of playoff he's having, the Wings might have to pay through the nose to get Biek-smirk, and I think even the $3.75 million he's makign is an overpayment. In order to keep Bieksa, they probably will say goodbye to Salo or Ehrhoff, or if they can get someone dumb enough to take him - Ballard.

Any word on if Boychuk will be back for Game 6? He took a pretty wicked cheap shot from Downie that knocked him out of the game with what looked like a concussion.

But would that be the second they give to TML for making the SC final? I don't hate Campbell's work ethic, and Hudler's recent record of not really fitting in to the team concept would fit in well with some of Boston's recent acquisitions (cough Kaberle, cough cough). With Cambell, we also wouldn't have to worry so much about suspensions and such.

Rafalski is a proven winner and I hate to see injuries end careers. A guy like Wisniewski, who has bounced around with four teams in the last three years before getting a lot of points in a contract year, is not a good enough replacement. He's played in 18 playoff games and scored five points. Are we sure he's going to be able to make that crucial outlet pass in a big playoff game? Because for the kind of money that will get thrown his way by other teams that the Wings would in theory have to outbid, he damn well better. As someone said above, there is now no reason not to throw a giant bag of money at Shea Weber, term and everything. I'm certain he's going to be a multiple Norris winner in the coming years. I don't think $40 million/8 years is too much. If we lose a couple of Riley Sheahan, Landon Ferraro-types as compensation, so what? This is one of the best two-way defencemen in the world who would be age 26 at his first Wings' training camp. True. Might as well rename it 'Let's go Eklund'.

Junior hockey head coach might be McCrimmon's true calling. As was said here earlier, I believe, his brother owns the team in Brandon. Not that I make a lot, but I make 50 per cent more than I did 10 years ago. If the market will bear it, Ericsson will pull down the cabbage.

I read that the Atlanta Spirit group has been chasing local ownership for a few years now. It just isn't worthwhile anymore, and is certainly not worthwhile when you have a group from out of town with a blank cheque. The thing about Phoenix is that at least there's always someone popping up with fake money/investing help (Hulsizer) every year or so to try to keep the team there. Atlanta doesn't have that and probably never will.

:puke: If Ozzie and Nabokov are out of the picture, I might not mind Turco as a back-up, but there's that whole 1-232-0 record at JLA that is disconcerting.

You can have 'grit' without necessarily fighting, can't you? Darren Helm, Dustin Brown, these kind of guys do a lot of hitting and muckwork without fisticuffs. Dan Girardi and Greg Zanon blocked almost 450 shots last year combined and only fought a combined one time. That's grit. Or did you just want to title this thread "Fighters I would like the Wings to sign." I think the team can do better than Miller as the 13th forward. I think Salei is done at #6 D and the defence other than that will fall into place after Lidstrom makes his decision. I'd like a bit more to replace Lidstrom than OB and Montador if Lidstrom is truly done.