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Despite the amazing news about Hossa willing to take less $ to stay in detroit for longer term. It looks like it will only be possible to sign two out of the three. This is how i figure: assuming cap limit stay same as this year, which is what most expect, we start with a cap space of about 0.23million. Next, considering the potential of leino and helm, i dont expect to see kopecky next year considering his weak performance, especially compared to the positive performance of leino. Leino will need a new contract, i expect him to get around 250,000 more than currently. As a fourth line center maybe third line, he can expect to get what hudler and franzen currently get, no way he gets more than samuelson i doubt chelios will play next year, so ericsson will come up to replace him. with the limited use of enforcer this year i see holland letting either mccarty or downey go. also, if osgood doesnt peform well in the playoffs i think we will let him go, in exchange for howard. otherwise osgood stays and we dont re-sign conklin and howard comes up. that would mean we have approx. 800,000 less cap space next year. i think samuelson will see his contract renewed at the same amount. no change there with neither datsyuk or zetterberg earning higher than a cap hit of 6.7m i think holland will be aiming for a cap hit of about 7m for hossa. that would be an additional 450,000 Cap space 230,000(current cap space) +500,000 (kopecky) -250,000 (leino) +750,000 (chelios) -900,000 (ericsson) +500,000 (downey/mcarty) +1,400,000 (osgood) -700,000 (howard) +450,000 (hossa) =1,980,000 that leaves approx. 2,000,000 for new contracts for hudler and franzen. both will expect similiar contracts as filpula. i think thats a cap hit of 3.25 or something around that. both hudler and franzen are earning about 1m, with 1 mil cap spac available each, that would allow for contracts of 2m each, and i dont think they will take that. so basically, i think holland will keep franzen, and let hudler go, considering the upward potential of helm and leino. even if holland lets maltby go and keeps helm to a two-way contract, that wont free up enough cap space to for 3m or more contracts for huder and franzen... anyway, these are my predictions....any thoughts?

i partially agree. from the article i read, it seems like hossa really is willing to sign long term for quite a lot under market value. no way kenny will give him much more than zetterberg or dats. if hossa doesnt go for a cap hit of 7mil or lower than it would be better to sign hudler and franzen. on top of that if hossa would get more than that, think of how screwed over zetterberg would feel for not taking more from another team!! if he gets less, so should other franchise players (which hossa would be if he signs long term). As the mostly likely successor of lidstrom as captain, he'd be really pissed off, thats not the way to treat a franchise player But i dont think it would be so easy to trade flip cuz his contract is over market price...and even if you manage to trade flip you'd still be stuck with cap problem unless he is traded for draft picks...

dont agree... leino can replace hudler, so he can go. apart from that there is no way hudler will resign for 1.2 after this season. he is gonna be looking at franzen and filpula and will expect similiar pay. also, im not a big fan of lilja but he has been playing very well this year. same goes for samualson. why let them go? in contrast, conklin is better than osgood (this year) and played a great season last year as backup for fleury. why not give him ossies spot as number one if he is cheaper? i would much prefer to see: zetterberg-dats-holms franzen-leino-hossa filpula-helm-sam cleary-draper-abdelkader/maltby Lidstrom-Rafalski Stuart-Kronwall Ericsson-Lilja Meech conklin howard

i thought i forgot something. anyway, edited the numbers. the new numbers make it all the more obvious that one of the three will be gone next year. its a shame. im pretty sure it'll be hudler...

as over simplified your reasoning may be, you are right. here are the two facts that say it all: red wings rank 3rd in shots against but 17th in goals against. osgood is dead last in goal save percentage amongst goalies who play regularily. its quite simple not that many shots are getting through, because our defense is doing a pretty good job. osgood on the otherhand, is not doing a very good job with the few shots that are getting through. The solution to the above is very simple: conklin starts and howard and osgood compete for backup. The thing that worries me far more is our pk. Its AWEFULL! We rank 27th in the league!?! That isnt exactly stanley cup material. We really have to do something about that.

This year I want to start an NHL fantasy season. I've never done it before and I was hoping you guys could give me some advice. I have some questions like: What is the best site to do it on? I dont want to pay, and I don't have a huge amount of time. When does the season start? Is it late august? Is it even fun or worth it?

Yeah but when do I start signing in/subsribe?

07/08 was Lidstroms 6th Norris. (!) Do you think he will win it again? How many will he still win? And how many seasons do you think he still has left in him (with detroit)...

!!!!!!

And in terms of the partiying issue, maybe Emery doesnt know, Mike Toth definately doesnt know and what a lot of ppl on LGW probably dont know either is that the nightlife in Moscow is crazy!!!! The clubs there are open 24 hours a day. And because the difference between rich and poor is sooo big, and the russians love to show their money, you will find people spraying more champagne than miami, london, new york. Probably even more than in St. Tropez! I know because I have seen it. Its crazy.... Oh and btw, speaking of racisim. Russia is the most rascist country in the world. Russians hate Jews and there are practically no black people there because the Russians are so rascist....

What a load of crap. Mike Toth doesn't know what the hell he is talking about! First of all, we all know that emery is out because of his attitude. He practically admitted it in that in that interview on off the record. He also admitted that he could stay but earn 1/10th of the money. So he is going to russia for the money. (as well as the fact that he thinks it gives him the chance to sort out his life)

ellis (based on what i saw in the playoffs this year, better than fleury even) macinnis or leetch

brad Bobby Orr or Lidstrom

the mule.... theoren fleury or chara.....(dropping gloves haha)

common, cleary is great, but nothing compared to the mule...

The guy was a 10th overall pick in 1997....what happened to him? I think we signed him in 2007. Is he still in the red wings system? What is he doing because for a 10th round overall pick he hasnt shown ANYTHING! Can someone tell me why we ever signed this guy?

more like: 1. Datsyuk 2. Zetterberg 3. Hossa 4. Lidstrom 5. Franzen 6. Rafalski 7. Filppula 8. Kronwall 9. Hudler 10. OSGOOD

well they are gonna have to do something...! they should atleast try to sign a few players for 2-3 min. even if its just to help develope the young draft picks who are practically forced to go straight into the big leagues. it can work out well sometimes or even most times, but it can have pretty bad effects as well. look at partrik stefan...

from a GM of avs perspective: not a good idea. didnt u see the episode where they get there asses kicked by that familiar team in red?

in the end, in god we trust.... (God = Kenny Holland) I dont think there is anyone who knows hockey better than him. Maybe scottie bowman, but i guess he has his influence on ken holland. I dont remember wat thread it was but, somebody pointed that the red wings, are and will continue to be the best team in proffesitonal sports on the continent. while most fans are complaining about their top players, we are going crazy on LGW about who should be our 5th and 6th defender...we are so lucky, and so spoiled. we just won the SC, we added the top FA on the market. Now we want the cup, AGAIN, and as soon as possible! Considering, hossa, and resigning stuart, plus all our players becomeing that much better (esp franzen, flip and kronvall) I dont think anybody would call me crazy if i bought a ticket now to detroit for june '09 to flyover from europe and watch the Wings win the cup again....haha

is byrzgalof (or however u spell his name) an optiion> He'd be a lot cheaper than huet and prob ellis too....chicaco doesnt have very much cap space at all....

no but trading him (or mason) would provide even more opportunities... I have to admitt though, i just checked out the blues boards and there is absolutely no discussion about possible UFA signings or even rumours about anything happening....they better do something soon...otherwise they could see a repeat of last year...or worse...

your comparing players who have been in the nhl for a while to these youngsters. but you cant. they are promising prospects but thers is no way you can compare them. they have to prove themselves at the highest level first. if you dont give them ice-time then will never be comparable. (although, IMO helm was awesome in the playoffs). lilja is a good PK. unfortunately, we dont really have a defenseman with his style of play coming up from the minor leagues soon, but sami is def replaceable. may be half way through the season we can try leino out in the nhl. i wonder what he can do. he won the lasse oksanen trophy last year (mvp of reg season). a trophy tim thomas, miettinen and koivu won...may be promising.... and yes, i also agree that players should be able to make mistakes they are only human (except stevie Y - he has superpowers or something) but while its understandable that a rookie or 4th line enforcer makes a mistake, its not if a stay-at-home (PK) defensive does or a 2nd line player does....

bring in a player LIKE guerin and your right, their goalie combo isnt striking the utmost fear from any NHL team. But they certainly are making no impression whatsoever on other teams with their scoring or physical play, or even defensive consistency. Time to upgrade!

first off...forget the blues deal, that was just an idea from blues GM point of view. I dont want legace BUT this thread is about being GM of another team (see my reply to Mac 25). second, so many things shake my head in your post make me shake my head.... - proven vets? lilja hasnt proven anything except that he wont ever get any better than mediocre and that he makes too many mistakes. - samuelson and scoring touch? they have nothing to do with each other! samuelson had 5 goals in the playoffs. 2 of those goals were in that ridiculous (BUT AWESOME GAME) where we anhilated the avs. 1 of them was real lucky shot that went in against the pens. the only other one i can remember was a pretty nice wrap-around against the pens as well. but all in all, in the playoffs his performance was weak. after Z he took the most shots of all wings (79) of which 5 went in. he had a lot of giveaways, few blocked shots, and he doesnt play a physical game. so how bout that scoring touch? -correct me if i am wrong. but i am pretty sure kopecky can play center as well as right wing. -i agree with you that you cant just plug in names. you need guys who fit right into the system. meech, lebda, helm, kopecky, quincy. these are all guys who could play at nhl level. instead they are being sidelined for players who have proven than they dont contribute. IMO the red wings are a dream team, and perhaps they are better with lilja and sami. but i think we should play some the the younger players for the sake of developing as a dream team. last year we won SC. may be you shouldnt change a winning formula, but the two weak links in the team last year were those two players, why not replace them if it opens up other opportunities?