Carman

Not putting money on it with injuries, but I'll just save this thread here and see what happens later. If he's healthy I don't see Howard getting less than 30 wins.

I do And wow quick signing, good to see they might finally fast track someone?

I'll put money on that, barring injuries of course.

Nope, I have yet to hit the bong today, but I will heartily disagree with you , Howard's proved himself to be a top 10 goalie in this league, and that's supported by the last 3 years of his play. We have not been a strong defensive club in the last couple seasons, yet his career numbers are well within the realm of "very good?" just for example here are some goalies that have been commonly labeled as elite the past few seasons , .917 and 2.41 respectively for Howard. Miller .915, 2.57, Price .916 2.56, Kiprusoff .914 2.45, Backstrom .918, 2.42, Luongo .919, 2.52, Fleury .909, 2.68, Ward .910, 2.74. Just because you do not want to believe facts and projections don't mean they don't exist. He may not be Lundqviust(Who in my opinion has separated himself over this current generation after Brodeur), or Quick(yet) doesn't mean he's going to hurt us as a goaltender, he's a strength for our team and continues to improve year in year out. Maybe the Wing's will stop being so aggressive offensively and stop giving up odd man rushes? We were caught pinching, with no forward high in the zone so many times last season and Howard still had a Vezina nomination type season especially before his injury.

Howard is better than Backstrom in every conceivable way 2/3 past seasons. top 6 in GAA/SV% his first year, and 6th in SV% and 3rd in GAA in goalies playing 50 games. If anything he's underrated considering people still want to grant the Wings are an elite defensive club, when they led the lead in playoffs in odd man rushes against(22 to 4 in the series). What good team's are you referring to? LA? Well Kronwall put up 5 more goals and had the same points as the 7 million dollar top pairing guy 24 minute guy for the Stanley Cup winning team. To put it in perspective Kronwall was 4th in the entire league in goals for defenseman, all while bring very good skating/puck moving ability and a dominate physical edge which the likes of other top defenseman wanes. And yes throw out Filpulla's best year where he matched Patrick Kane, beat Couture, Bergeron, Getzlaf, Stastsny, Plekanec, Lecavalier, Staal. Even if he regresses back to 40 points he'd still be will with in the top 50 in centers, all while giving you very good defensive presence. Not to mention the fact that he started playing 2 minutes more a game last year, and gained close to 50 more minutes of powerplay time compared to the year before, no that couldn't help him produce more points at all you are right, Hudler, 50 point guy, puts him in the top 100 for forwards, which is easily fits him into the top 6. More points than Ladd, J.Staal, Doan, Simmonds, Kesler, Lecavlier, Voracek, Breire, Smyth, Clower, Skinner, which are pretty clear top 6 forward. Quincey I'll give you the question is still out, however he has proved that he can put up a .7 ppg throughout a season before, which would put him easily in the top 10 for defenseman. As it stands with his 26 points, he's still in the top 60 that puts him as a top 4, albeit a bottom tier one.

Ericsson needs to start blocking shots on the PK, with the amount of time on the PK, and his big body he shouldn't be 6th behind the rest of his defense. If Ericsson played well and Ian White scared you, I'm very curious on how you viewed the team last season. Because from all accounts that I recall, and just statistically Ian White had a marvelous year for us last season, For his salary I don't know how much you really expect out of him, 32 points is 36th in the league, and he's not even close to being in the top 50 for salary in defenseman. I know points aren't everything, but that's what he was mostly brought in to do, but he battled night in night out, kept his turnover's to a minimum(just 32 all season, for a offensive defenseman that plays 22 minutes a night that's very good Karlsson for example had 84, Yandle 75 etc.) I really like what Ian White brought to our team, if you think his success was if Lidstrom you are probably right to an extent, but even if he regresses he has a lot of room there to still be a very good signing and player for us. And Emmerton, Kindl, Mursak for Volchenkov would be great from our angle, I'm just pretty sure New Jersey would want more impact players, maybe adding Cleary would help? Sure they wouldn't mind a veteran grinder top 6 tweener type to go along with Clarkson.

I think Jbow would compliment Kronwall nicely, but if we are going to take on that salary the deal better favor us. I have a hard time letting Filpulla go in a deal for Jbow.

I believe the franchise is comfortable with him being the second line center for a long time. If I'm going to trade Filpulla it's going to be for a top pairing defenseman that's good defensively. We already have a pretty good offensively focus defense if White/Kronwall/Quincey that have all proven to be point producers on the back end, what we need is a Willie Mitchell type defenseman that can play with Kronwall, let him roam a little more and create chances and be a force in the defensive zone. If the Wings brass thinks Yandle can improve his defensive game a lot then I'd be alright with it, but I'm not personally sold on Yandle ever becoming more than a Rafalski mold one way defenseman. That's ridiculous, Suter is a legitimate two way top pairing defenseman, there hasn't been a free agent of his caliber on both ends of the ice in a long time. An elite player will always be paid more in free agency, that's how it works. You pay more for a player because he doesn't cost you any assets outside of capspace. We probably overpaid for Rafalski, but I'm pretty sure I'd do that deal every time considering how well he fit into our team, and our need for powerplay help and playing with Lidstrom.

I don't think money was the issue, they picked Minnesota. Not for money, but because they wanted to play at "home".

Like who?

It's a very difficult thing to keep a team a Stanley Cup contender for your entire time as a General Manager. Maybe this current situation was just unavoidable? Why does it have to be Holland failed to make the right moves, when it could very well be there was no moves to be made? Why do people have to attribute blame to someone for a situation they couldn't even begin to understand? If you want to blame Holland for going after Quincey, that's understandable. It was a move that was documented and can be looked back on. Quincey was had for a non-roster player, and has shown glimpses of being a very good top 4 dman in the past. He's got size, speed, and puck skills just a matter of him understanding and getting comfortable in the system. What moves did you want him to do to replace Lidstrom? There hasn't been a defenseman moved the past 5 years that can even be considered a top 10 defenseman? What ass do you want Holland to place his hand up to find one? Ian White was great signing this past year Hard to change your top 6 through trade. Especially a top 6 that is intact of being Stanley Cup champions and helping the team make the playoff year in year out. Sure it would be nice to change it up, they've struggled the past few playoffs. But Nash wasn't an option, and personally I'm not sold on him. Semin would be a rental and I don't believe would ever help you win a Stanley Cup, and I'd rather give Nyquist/Brunner and shot at the top 6 than Semin. Just so we can see what we have and if we need to move on or what. A game hasn't even been played, all of this is based on paper. On paper what if Datsyuk/Zetterberg go back to 90+ points, Filpulla reproduces 60, Quincey goes back to 09 and gets .7 ppg, Kronwall has a 50 point season, Howard continues to prove to be a top 10 goalie, Smith/Nyquist has a Calder caliber season, Sammy gives you 50 points, Bertuzzi, gives you 40. Things don't have to be all negative, these are all possibilities as each player has proved to do this(Smith/Nyquist may be a leap of faith, but they've proved to be very very good AHLers at a young age and that trends positively to their production in the NHL), Then maybe players that have yet to prove themselves will, Ericsson could finally learn to block a shot, Kindl may figure out the NHL and use his talent, Helm might learn how to hit a corner and stickhandle, Abdelkader/Tootoo can feed off of each other and really make that 4th line into a force that helps the entire team, Franzen may decide to play 80 games at full speed. It doesn't have to be negative, this situation isn't all bad, and saying our prospect pool is not good just proves that you are trying to find disappointment, and if that's the case you don't have to look hard at any team's situation.

That really depends the on the price. And I believe Suter is worth every cent of that contract, he's been the best defenseman free agent in a couple years.

That's where I draw the line. I love Fedorov, he was an amazing player. But to get your number retired by the Red Wings it has to be as close to a 100% consensus as possible with almost no one disagreeing, and I don't think that's the case with Fedorov. Personally just on his performance as a Red Wing I believe he should get in 5th all time in points, 3rd in playoff points. PPG .2 off of Howe. All while being one of the greatest defensive forwards in the league's history. But I also understand that he didn't play but 900 games as Wing, and left on questionable terms. But he does have more games than Ted Lindsay, and 200 more points so I find it difficult to say one is in and the other isn't. But life's not fair.

I believe with a change of system the wings can win the division, the only team I'm worried about is the Blues, and they are unproven and Hitchcock doesn't have a great record of having perennial Stanley cup contending teams. He's coaching philosophy is very selfless and seems to wear as seasons go on.

I'm not meaning my comment as insulting at all, I just think that in general that wishing harm on others that you have no personal experience with is an unhealthy line of thought, it doesn't produce anything of positivity and to my end, I cannot understand it. That is all. My opinion on the matter is already expressed above, I believe if the slashes were as serious as the article lead on, there would have been a penalty. And I'm not sure how torn cartilage and bone spurs come from slashes.

I'm just expressing my opinion as you are yours. It's just your opinion seems much more malicious and hateful. This is a good point, I sincerely doubt these slashes went undetected, practically everything was called with that series. I don't know, I'm sure Crosby took a couple shots, but nothing out of the ordinary.

If I had to guess, it's because he is a Holland draft pick.

Maybe we can get his early 90's Swedish cousin instead?

Giroux would never be able to handle Crosby in a fight. Come on now.

Height is such an overrated attribute. Give me Dustin Brown over Heatley any day. I'd take Tootoo over Antropov. How many 6'4" bottom line players that actually play hockey and not box are there? Usually if you're 6'4" and can skate at the NHL level you aren't a bottom line player(Malone, Hanzal, Wheeler etc.) I'm sure there's a few but can you think of any? Gaustad I guess?

Fedorov's 94 season might be the most impressive season by any player in history. I agree with Shaman, his number should be taken out of circulation, but probably not officially retired. He was my favorite player growing up, but with the way he left it's really hard to convince people to have a full out retired jersey for him, and I understand it. Which sucks, because if he just retired without playing another season after he left there would be no question about it, he's top 5 is franchise scoring, and top 3 in playoff scoring in franchise history.

That's a healthy mindset. You wish that a person you've never met should have his career ended and life significantly damaged. I pity you.

Seems like the article is really trying to get some views and blowing something out of proportion. Also, I didn't realize torn cartilage and/or bone spurs could be caused by a slash, news to me. One would think a fractured wrist would really hurt someone's production too. That was hell of a physical series, I'm sure shots were taken on both sides. Giroux sounds like he's never been in a rivalry before, slashes on faceoffs were pretty common throughout my years of hockey especially during a rivalry. Also Crosby's lead the league in slashing penalites, i'm sure if it was so clear and sinister they wouldn't have a problem calling a penalty on him. But maybe Giroux just likes attention?

There goes one pipe dream. Really good defenseman. Wonder if Bogosian is next for the Jets?

You're paying a player and giving him top line minutes to be a terrible example in the locker room. It does poison a team, he couldn't even help the Capitals get to the conference finals. Semin is not a player that will help you win a cup, so what would be the point in signing him? He takes horrible penalties, he refused to learn English for years, Arnott even said in an interview he requires a lot of attention from the team for guidance. I see a similarity with Alexei Kovalev, supremely talented player that will end up moving team to team in hopes that he can reach his potential, which never happens. Carolina went for Semin after they failed to land Nash, they have no expectations to win a cup,what's interesting is they are taking revenuesharing funds(20 million) and bidding up players like Parise/Suter/Doan/Semin etc.Carolina is just spending money to inject a franchise with news. They aren't making good hockey moves, they are just trading away talent for names (the Staal trade), and bringing in an overpaid, underachieving 50 point player. http://www.canada.com/sports/baseball/Teams+that+poor+should+part/6901107/story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/dc-sports-bog/post/jason-arnotts-been-talking-to-semin/2011/03/11/ABNXbyQ_blog.html