Buppy

[edit]I stand corrected. His tryout in 2008 was only one game. So he did have a pro game that year, and thus now 3 years of pro experience. He would in fact have to clear waivers.

We can, they'd just have to clear waivers first (though the AHL is the only NA league we can loan players to, ECHL too for players on ELCs). While you can make a case maybe for something like one-way deals counting toward the cap (partially or in full) regardless of what league the player is in, no rule like that exists in the current CBA. This is really no different than waiving any other player, just in this case he happens to have a high salary. Chicago still has to pay the price, both the $5.6+ million salary (possibly for two years) and whatever flack they take for treating him this way. I'd say at the least Chicago will have to more generous handing out NMCs for a while, though they probably won't be in the market for any big FAs any time soon anyway.

Kopy will be glad to hear that. Rangers should be tough, with Booger and Prust, and a few other guys that will drop them on occasion. Like someone else mentioned, the Atlantic division will be entertaining for fight fans this year.

Who cares? They'll apparently e-mail you a t-shirt. Crazy Quebecois.

Fair enough, considering Shanny's chances are pretty close to zero.

Flip and Happy would be doing well if their career numbers can match what Shanny did just in his time here. They'd need to average 25+ goals and/or 50+ points for the next 10 years to do that. They might, by the end of their careers, be as deserving as Shanny is now (which, btw, is not at all). Right now, they're not even close. They're a bit closer to Chelios (who again, isn't anywhere near deserving) since half his time here was as a well-over-the-hill role-player, but I think they still have a ways to go to match even that inauspicious height. Barring a near miraculous-leap in their level of play, neither will ever approach the rafters.

Don't speak French, so I have no idea what I did, but I picked Wendel Clark and Homme (XXL). Hope that helps.

Not that rare. Neither Meech nor Ritola got their raises either. Leino didn't last year. I think a few of Chicago's RFAs didn't. But for a player like Abby, who seems to have a solid future in the NHL, you might be pretty close. I think in most cases it's players like Ritola, who haven't really shown themselves to be NHLers, that get less.

The cap is only half the issue. There's also the 23 man roster limit. Currently, counting Ritola and all bonuses, we have 25 players and ~$1.3 million over the cap. Moving Meech and using the bonus cushion (if bonuses are met) gives us the cap we need, but we still need to move one more player.

Can't. 35+ and a NMC. I suppose we could hope someone claimed him, but if not we'd have to keep him. He doesn't have to be a Bryz or Quincey. Again, it only takes one GM with a less than stellar lineup to take him. Nothing really to lose for them.

I'll guess it's more or less the same deal, with 2-3 years cut off the end, and maybe slightly lower salaries to start. Cap hit still close to $6M.

Most qualifying offers are 1 year, 2-way deals for whatever the minimum required amount is. The majority of them are rejected, and then real negotiations start. A player might reject an offer to negotiate for a higher salary, longer term, more secure spot on the roster, or just to see what offers they might get from other teams. Accepting his qualifying offer might have meant Abby spent the season in GR, making ~$700k or so less. So not that ridiculous. And that's just assuming his deal is actually less than his QO.

Quincey hadn't really shown anything in the NHL either. Almost league minumum salary for 3 years. This year on a two-way deal. Been in the Wings system for a few years. Looks to have a little potential... Not like there's much to lose by taking him, for some teams at least. Plenty of teams have borderline NHLers on the 4th line, plenty of cap space, and often players still waiver exempt they could move to make room for him (or just players they'd be willing to lose). And it only takes one interested team for us to lose him. I think if anything it's a little optimistic to think there'd only be a 50% chance that one GM out of 29 might be interested in him.

He did get at least $50k of his bonus money. Not that it matters though. The mandatory 5% raise is only for the qualifying offer. He could have signed for league minimum if he'd wanted.

Get your mockery straight. It was Helm, and I said he hits just as well, not as hard. I said Miller was just as physical. I stand by that. If you want to debate the relative efficacy of their respective physical games, I'd be glad to. But if you just want to throw around childish insults and whine about a meaningless rating system, then don't act surprised if you're not well received.

I wouldn't say definitely. 50/50 maybe more like it. I wouldn't risk it just to save Miller, but I wouldn't be that upset about it either, even if we did lose him.

The off-season would also be boring if no one questioned those questioning Holland...

25 if you count Ritola.

Really? Prevailing argument? Heaten used that argument once, and you've been harping on it ever since. Mostly, it's been a discussion on the relative merits of Modano and Asham, scoring and grit/fighting. You now seem intent on proving that Holland can make mistakes, as if that proves that this particular move (or non-move in this case) is a mistake. Now unfortunately, this seems to be devolving into just another enforcer debate. Oh well.

Actually, it started with 'this sucks' and it's 'worse than getting Williams instead of Prospal'. Little over the top. And no one's saying management is above criticism. Some of us just think Modano is better for the team than Asham would be. Stop acting like your being repressed. We all have our opinions, all we're doing is discussing them. (Though I would say, as a general rule, Holland does a lot better managing the roster than any of us would, but that's beside the point.) In regards to Draper, I'll say that it's easy to judge a contract in hindsight. Sure, we could probably replace his value for half (or less) the cost, and possibly use that savings to improve somewhere else. His off-ice contributions might not be missed. Nor, I think, would our reputation for treating our players well have suffered had we not resigned Draper (or given him less money, or term). Oh well. No roster in any sport has ever been perfect. Unless you can point out some example that would make us a notably better team without Draper's contract, then it's pointless to complain about it. But I don't think you can get a difference-maker with his salary. At best you're looking at a marginal improvement in the bottom lines. Wow. Draper has been a valuable member of this franchise for many years, we wouldn't be that much better off without him, so why complain? It's not like we spent $5.6M on a FA goalie whose resume was basically one good 13 game stretch (and we're now risking our reputation by ungraciously disposing of him).

Most of their forwards haven't been around long enough to say they 'constantly' do anything. A few guys had down years last season, but you're being a bit harsh.

Sorry, I don't normally do the grammar cop thing, but I'm pretty sure there's only 136 h's in hysterical laughter. I wouldn't say anything, but I think the error really detracts from your point.

Since the bonus cushion allows us to go over the cap, it's not really equal. We'd also have to lose Ritola to make that work, or get Abby to sign for ~$650k. (Though one of Miller/Ritola is likely gone anyway, so not much different.) Bigger problem I'd have is that Sutton is way overpaid for a 3rd pair guy who we'd be lucky to have for more than half the season.

You keep talking about lines like they have set roles. Show me where in the rulebook it states how many minutes a 4th line is allowed to play or what the 3rd line has to do. Hey, most 4th lines are made up of scrub borderline NHLers. Maybe we should swap Helm and Abby for a couple plugs that can only play 5 minutes a night, since that's what teams normally have. Maybe we should trade Pav and Hank for a couple one-dimensional scorers, since those are the kind of players on most top lines. No, you use what you have in whatever is the best way to use them. Whether you want our top forwards in a shutdown role is irrelevant. They will be matched up against opposing top lines as often as not. That's the way the Wings have run for years. Even when the Grind Line was at its prime, Fedorov and Yzerman still saw plenty of time in shutdown roles, and Huds-Helm-Cleary is no prime Grind Line. Our top two forwards happen to be two of, if not the two, best defensive forwards in the league. It would be stupid to not use that aspect of their game. Our projected 4th line will likely play a lot more minutes than the typical 4th line. And a big chunk of those minutes will be on the PK or against opposing scoring lines. Filppula and Franzen are good enough defensively and offensively to handle most 2nd lines around the league (and if you put Cleary with them instead of Bert, they could contain most top lines). That is more than enough defensive ability in the forward units that we can afford to use the 3rd line as a more offensively geared unit. Making the 4th line worse defensively in order to make the 3rd line better defensively (and worse offensively) just to conform to some preconceived notion of what you think a 3rd line is supposed to be is silly. Helm hits just as well (or better) than Asham. With his speed and defense, he creates problems that Asham couldn't. Modano's offensive capabilities cause problems that Helm couldn't on the third line. The loss of some defensive ability on the third line doesn't hurt us, since the overall defensive ability of the team stays the same. We're better with Modano. And Asham is not more physical than Miller. He might hit a little harder, but not any more often. Asham isn't known as a big, punishing hitter. He's not scaring anyone. He's not intimidating anyone. He's not hurting anyone. He has nothing over Miller (and is worse in some ways) except his ability to fight.

Do you really think taking Asham instead of Modano would make this team any better? Talking about it is one thing. Saying it sucks and is worse than Williams is another. Even at the most optimistic, you can't possibly consider Asham anything other than a lateral move at this point. And that's only if you consider his fighting ability to be valuable. Secondary scoring is what Modano's role will be, same as it was last year in Dallas. (And he'd been transitioning to that role for a couple years prior.) He's not expected to be a star. He was successful on the third line with crap linemates in Dallas. That's why people think he can do just as well or better here with Hudler and Cleary. Sure it would be nice to have a defensive forward centering the third line. It would be nice to have a team full of Selke candidates who would also compete for the Art Ross. But we don't need it. A third line doesn't have to be a checking line. The other three lines are all capable of playing excellent defense. Besides, the one thing you keep ignoring is that Asham isn't any better than Modano defensively. He's never been known for his defense either. He's never really been a feature on any PK. He's not even that prolific of a hitter. If you're so concerned about defense, why would you want Asham over Miller? Miller is much younger than Asham (something you also seem to value), has similar offensive ability (and maybe some untapped potential), hits just as much, and is far better defensively. Yet you'd take Asham. What is it Asham does that Miller doesn't? Oh, but that's not why you want Asham... I agree that our third line would be good enough without Modano, but it's also better with him. And I believe that improvement is much better then we'd get from Asham's mediocre fighting skills. Our third and fourth lines are better and harder to play against with Modano than they would be with Asham.