hockey23

Thanks for giving me a good laugh.

I don't see how Chicago will be much improved this year. Forwards: Lost Havlat's 77 pts and added Hossa's 71 for 2/3 of the season. D: stayed the same Goalies: lost khabibulin and have to play Huet as the starter. Big downgrade. Crawford is not a quality NHL goalie right now.

I think 6th is about right for now. They could easily be the best team if Leino, Helm, Ericsson, and Howard have good seasons, but they're rookies and you can't count on them.

I just heard John Vigilante got an invite. He wasn't great in the AHL last year, but I liked watching him on the Whalers. Does he have a shot for the 13th forward? Does anyone know of any other invites?

Detroit does not have the craziest fans or loudest arena but what do you expect. The Wings have made the playoffs every year for the past 18 years. We're spoiled. We expect to win and aren't shocked when we do. Other teams may have crazier fans, but only because they're not used to seeing their team win. As far as the actual hockey part, Detroit is Hockeytown.

Nice job spelling Artyukhin TSN.

Duncan Keith GP G A P +/- 17 0 6 6 1 Chris Pronger GP G A P +/- 13 2 8 10 4 Pornger was much better when it counted. I think he was the best defenseman the wings faced in the playoffs. Keith was nothing special in the WCF. I think he's a good young defenceman who may develop into a great defenceman, but 2nd overall is wayyyy overrated.

AUTO-GENERATED CAPGEEK.COM LINES FORWARDS Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Kris Draper ($1.583m) Ville Leino ($0.800m) DEFENSEMEN Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m) Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($0.900m) GOALTENDERS Chris Osgood ($1.417m) / Jimmy Howard ($0.717m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS ROSTER: 13; PAYROLL: $40.705m; CAP ROOM: $16.095m BONUSES: $0.000m $16 mil cap space and need to sign 5 forwards and 3 d. We'd be lucky to sign 3 d with $6 mil leaving $10 mil for 5 forwards. Add Helm and Abby for around $1 mil each, a couple of fourth liners for $2 mi, and that leaves $6 mil to sign a good free agent forward.

Patrick Kane's bright future

Yeah, exactly. Until they're done serving their time. Parole counts. Even on probation you can't leave the country. If he is convicted, he will have some kind of issues. Either he will be in prison (doubt it) or will be put on parole and won't be able to leave the country for at least part of the season.

Kenny said he wanted to go with 7 d and 13 forwards and wanted competition. He also mentioned Justin Abdelkader (or as my friend calls him, Tampon Applicator) would probably start in GR. He added that they would be over the cap going into camp and are still in the market for one more guy. So, who's left. We have 560,000 in cap space and if Meech was the odd guy out, it would leave us with a little over $1 mil. Are there any decent grinders for this price range?

Why would we have to carry two players with 500k? Sending Abby down would leave 12 forwards and 8 d. That means one d would have to go (or Lilja to LTIR) which would free up more space. Now we would have $1 mil to $1.75 mil depending on which d man goes to sign 1 forward for the 13th spot.

from Mlive Again, the Wings aren't done shopping with the $500,000 or so in cap space they'd have if they placed Abdelkader in Grand Rapids (more if Andreas Lilja begins the season on the long-term injured reserve list), but Holland made it very clear that he wants to carry seven defensemen, not eight, and that eventually makes Derek Meech or Brett Lebda's time in Detroit limited at best: "We're still talking to a couple of people," Holland said. "We're a little unknown (on the salary cap number). We might go into camp a little over capped because we don't know about (Andreas) Lilja's health. In the short term, we have a couple players in Helm and Abdelkader who can go up and down. Helm's an NHL player for sure. In Abby's case, it's what's best for Justin." ... "Ideally, we want to carry 13 forwards and seven defencemen," Holland said.

The article on Mlive made it pretty clear that Holland wanted a 22 man roster. I highly doubt Meech with be the 7th/13th.

I sure don't.

He had 47 points last year. He may be soft, but he'll put up more points than a grinder. You could argue a grinder may do more for the team, but it wouldn't be on the scoresheet.

twitter

Eklund's Twitter I know it's Eklund and probably isn't going to happen, but what's going on with Tanguay. He made $5.25 mil last year but doesn't sound like he's gettin offers anywhere near that.

AUTO-GENERATED CAPGEEK.COM LINES FORWARDS Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($2.250m) Kris Draper ($1.583m) / Kirk Maltby ($0.883m) / Ville Leino ($0.800m) Darren Helm ($0.599m) / * Patrick Eaves ($0.500m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($7.450m) / Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) Andreas Lilja ($1.250m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($0.900m) Brett Lebda ($0.650m) / Derek Meech ($0.483m) GOALTENDERS Chris Osgood ($1.417m) / Jimmy Howard ($0.717m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS ROSTER: 21; PAYROLL: $54.771m; CAP ROOM: $2.029m BONUSES: $0.000m This leaves us with $2 mil and 8 defenseman. Trading a d-man will give us $2.5 to $3.25 mil in cap space. Kenny can still sign a solid player. This makes me think Eaves will be a 4th liner and we will get a another player for the 2nd/3rd line.

#14 is Burrows. He was chimin in there too. I wish the on ice mics could pick more of this stuff up. I wonder what Malts and Homer say to get everyone so pissed.

According to NHLSourcesSay Twitter. Cheli's looking for a 3 year deal. Can you imagine him playing at 50? I hope it happens.

I think Prospal would be great, a 20 goal scorer and hopefully it would leave room for a grinder as well. But, my first choice would be Tanguay. I know it's a long shot but he still hasn't signed and is not getting the kind of offers most people were expecting.

All time wins leader only number 2 among active Canadians???

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

From NHLSourcesSay Twitter