Buppy

LOL! Can you just imagine if Chicago loses Hossa (and/or Keith) after the off-season they've already been through? But really, I doubt anything will come of it, since roster moves have already been made around these deals. They'd be screwing teams majorly to revoke them now. Mule, Hank, Savard, Lecavalier, Keith, Hossa, Pronger, Luongo... I think that's it. Maybe Dipietro, but that absurdity of a contract is punishment enough for Isles. None are as bad as Kovy's. Hossa, Pronger, and Luongo are the only ones that go past 40, and Pronger is a 35+ so that should stand. If they do nullify any of them, they should probably do all of them, but give teams some time to rework the deals before making them UFAs.

True he played a while in Toronto, but Sawchuk also played about the same number of seasons outside Detroit. And Kelly is considered one of the all-time great defensemen. Maybe not as relatively great as Sawchuk, but still probably worthy of retirement. No where near Yzerman. 200 fewer goals, 600 fewer points, never captain, disputes with management, left on bad terms, played a decent portion of his career with other teams, not one of the NHLs all-time greatest... Fedorov's number will not, and should not, be retired here. Kelly wore #4 didn't he? Ozzie, like Fedorov, has a case, but unlikely he'll ever get that honor. He's not an all-time, hasn't played his whole career here, hasn't ever really been considered among the best of his era even. Not really anything special that says he should be given that honor. Kozlov is laughable, as are Kronwall, Hudler, and Filppula barring any massive improvements in ability. Datsyuk is highly unlikely. Hank would have to improve greatly, and still probably need a nice and successful tenure as captain. Jury's still out on Howard, but I would say the odds are overwhelmingly against. If any of those players were the standard for retiring numbers, we could probably find someone for every number. Fill the rafters, and make the honor meaningless. 5 will go up, 6 should (but probably won't, at least until Ilitch is gone), and maybe 4. That's it for the forseeable future.

Little disappointed in Malik. It seems the concept of 'degree' is too difficult for him. Kovy's contract is similar to a lot of approved deals, but it's also worse than all of them. Longer, later age, more junk years, more cap reduction...just worse in every single way. No, there isn't a specifically stated rule that is violated. But there is a principle. A 40 year deal isn't against the rules either, and who's to say Kovy can't play to 67? Another 23 years at $550k would get the cap hit under $3 million. Technically, there's no rules against 1000 year contracts. Sure would be nice to have a player like Kovy for less than $650k/year. Without limits on contract duration, the cap is meaningless. With enough years tacked on the end, you could get any contract to average out to basically league minimum. Obviously, there has to be some limit, it's just a matter of where.

It shouldn't be black and white. There's two different rules you're confusing as one. The rules allow a goal to be waived off if a goalie was interferred with, even if it's incidental contact that doesn't warrant a penalty. If you try to go 'black and white' either way, you're inviting either a lot more diving from goalies, or a lot more 'incidental' contact that's really intentional.

In no way, shape, or form should the number be retired or even taken out of circulation. That's an honor that needs to be protected, to preserve its meaning.

Hybrid icing rule, ref off the ice, goal verification line, line change zone...all could be good. What would be the point of changing the blue line though? The rest are stupid.

I believe Abby does have a year of exemption left. When he played in 2007-08 it was on an amatuer tryout, so he has only two pro seasons, and 73 NHL games. He could still play a few more games at least before losing his exemption. But yeah, he's pretty much certain to be on the team. Maybe a really terrible camp or an injury could hold him back...

His one on one defense hasn't really ever been great, and has fallen off since the lockout took away his New Jersey-style grabbing, but he's generally sound positionally, skates and moves the puck well, and usually makes good decisions. He blocks shots, clogs passing and shooting lanes, has a pretty good stick, and can usually at least force people to the outside. He's a bit turnover prone and a little too old/small/weak to handle a fast/strong forward by himself. He's not a shutdown defender (even though he's used as one), but he's much better than abysmal. Much better than you give him credit for.

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Zach Parise ($3.125m) / Steven Stamkos ($3.725m) / David Backes ($2.500m) Mason Raymond ($2.550m) / Ryan Getzlaf ($5.325m) / Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) Devin Setoguchi ($1.800m) / Joe Pavelski ($4.000m) / T.J. Oshie ($1.275m) Matt Moulson ($2.450m) / Rich Peverley ($1.325m) / Cal Clutterbuck ($1.400m) / Taylor Pyatt ($1.000m) DEFENSEMEN Ryan Suter ($3.500m) / Shea Weber ($4.500m) Johnny Boychuk ($1.875m) / Drew Doughty ($3.475m) Hal Gill ($2.250m) / Tyler Myers ($1.300m) Jason Demers ($0.543m) GOALTENDERS Tuukka Rask ($1.250m) /Steve Mason ($0.905m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) SALARY CAP: $52,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $51,148,333 CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $901,667

What, no clown-shoe skates? I can understand the whole 'honoring history' angle, being the Heritage Classic and all, but do they really believe anyone wants to be reminded of anything like that?

Stuart never 'sucked'. He gets labeled a bust since he was drafted 3rd overall as a dynamic 2-way defenseman, but his offensive skills never really developed in the NHL. But I agree that we need to shake up the lines (or separate Ericsson and Kindl) though I don't think I'd have Janik as a regular. Personally, I'd like to see Kronwall and Rafalski paired up, even though both are more offense oriented. I think both are guilty at times of taking advantage of Stuart/Nick, so maybe without the security blanket they'd be forced to act more responsibly. Kronwall can be very good defensively, and Rafi is better than he gets credit for. That would free up Nick and Stuart to mentor the kids (and maybe save Nick a few minutes). In crucial situations we take the kids out of the rotation, and use Stuart and Nick as a strong shutdown pair.

Is Pulkkinen playing for Finland? He's the one I'm most excited for.

"...until (unless) we add another defenseman ..." Maybe you missed that part. Bottom line, Meech being moved has nothing to do with Modano. It is not just 'likely' that Ritola or Miller (or maybe Eaves, possibly even Abby though highly unlikely) will be moved; it's an absolute necessity unless we get an injury in camp. If you count Ritola and Abby, we have 15 forwards. That's one too many. One of them has to go.

Meech isn't going anywhere until (unless) we add another defenseman (or if Janik beats him out in camp). Ritola, Miller, and Eaves are the likely candidates for now.

Just a note. Prior to signing here, Williams scored 19g/47p in 80 games for Atlanta/Columbus. The year before he scored 13g/36p in 43 games for Chicago. More goals and points in fewer games than Modano his last two seasons. He was looking pretty good until the injury, and he never really got back into it after he came back. Williams turning out poorly doesn't automatically make Modano a good signing. Modano's performance this year will determine that. For now it looks good, but so did Williams at the time.

Not to nitpick, but that was his last deal. Starting this year, Pronger's cap hit is a shade under $5 mil. But it's for seven years, so it's still far, far worse than Rafi's.

Eaves only looks good because he's a RH shot, and we don't have any other RH shots (excluding Rafi) to compare him with. that doesn't mean he's a good option.

3rd unit, or replacement when a regular is unavailable perhaps, but I can't see him being (or even becoming) a regular this year. Most forwards, even those who are good defensivly, struggle covering the point. Sammy was about as good as Eaves defensively and he sucked on the point. His slapshot was better as well (so was Williams's), but like most forwards they couldn't keep it low. Accuracy and elevation are just as important as anything else when talking about point shots. More important than most really. Modano, since he has experience, will likely get the spot. Personally, I'd hope Kindl can step in and take it, or Ericsson. I'd also put Stuart ahead of Eaves.

We allowed 65 3rd period goals last year (6th best in the league, NJ was best with 58). Record when leading after the 2nd period was 28-2-4. Not a stellar win%, but our poor OT/SO record (11-14) probably contributed a bit to that. Our team defense was very good last year. Maybe didn't seem like it without the offense we're used to having, but this year should help with that. Also, the possession game is a big key to our defense, and that should improve this year as well. I wouldn't say anything is missing. Of course, you never pass up a chance to improve, and Pronger would be an improvement over Rafi, but he also has 6 more years (after this one) on his stupid contract. We do not want to be saddled with that.

Right around the expected price. Nice two years, I was afraid it would only be one. Got to love it. Now Abby should get something similar.

I said 6, though I think all of the top 9 forwards have a chance, and possibly Kronwall too.

In the puck-possession style, the regular offense is run practically the same way as the PP. You need the net-front presense from Homer/Cleary/Bert to make the system most effective.

The bottom 6 (or 7/8 when you include the scratches) is about as talented as you can hope for these days. I have some concerns about the expected top 6, but overall, our corps of forwards looks pretty damn impressive.

Ridiculous comparison. One, it's not the name of the player, but their ability. Dallas surely doesn't think Modano is 'done'. (Or if they do, they're stupid) He scored 30 points in 59 games. They just decided to go in a different direction. Not sure anyone knows what direction that is, since they still apparently have an open forward spot and plenty of cap space, but... Maltby, who has only twice in his career put up over 30 points (and never .5 ppg), hasn't scored more than 11 points in a season since the lockout. His last three years combined didn't match what Modano did last year. Given the two seasons prior to his last contract, the 3 year deal he got then was pretty generous, and that should have been more than sufficient for him to go out his own way. Sucks that all the injuries put us in such a bad spot last year, but well, s*** happens. We can't just keep throwing contracts at players who have borderline NHLers for 5 straight seasons just because they've been here a long time. We have been more than loyal to Kirk, and as much as he might want to stay, he really has no right to any hard feelings. Modano is not only still a pretty good player (better than half the Stars current roster), he was also a leader and face of the Stars/North Stars franchise for 20 years. They aren't up against the cap, nor have a roster full of superior talent. They basically replaced him with Adam Burish. He and his fans are perfectly justified in being a bit upset.

It's the 'LTIR' acronym that gets you. It's a misnomer. It stands for Long-term injury/illness exception. It's purely a salary cap thing. To qualify for that a player has to be out for at least 10 games and 24 days. The injured reserve list is for players expected to be out for 7 days or more. There are many cases where a player can be placed on IR (and thus not count toward the active roster limit of 23) but not be out long enough to qualify for LTIR cap relief. Also, there's an emergency exeption that I believe can be used any time you can't otherwise play a full 18 skaters. Not 100% on the workings, and I don't feel like looking it up, but suffice it to say there are provisions in the CBA to allow teams to ice a full team if hit by a rash of short-term injuries.