Buppy

Buffy might not be a player that can stand on his own, but he's a solid role-player, and those guys aren't that easy to find, at least not on the level he's capable of. He's overpaid though and apparently his ancestors couldn't spell, so he was about the best option to get rid of.

Rights to Meech, Lebda, Leino, and Grigorenko. Git 'er done! Sounds to me like Florida is looking to replace Horton. Why the hell would they be willing to move down 6 places in exchange for our garbage? A more realistic proposal would be someone like Hudler and our 1st for the 15th + someone Florida doesn't really want. Or maybe our 1st and 2nd plus Ritola. Someone really good (like Niederreiter, Johanson, Connolly, Fowler...) would have to fall to make it worth it. This is more of an opportunity for a team looking to dump a roster player, like Chicago. Versteeg and the 24th for the 15th and a low prospect.

Skille and Bickell aren't signed yet. They're RFAs, so there's a good chance they will sign, but you might want to hold off on buying their jerseys.

You forgot Nicastro. But like I said, we don't have much. I don't think a bunch of late round picks or undrafted free agents, all of whom may or may not ever make it to the NHL really count as solid defensive prospects. The youngest of our top 4 defensemen is going to be 30 this season, and we don't know if even our 'best' prospect can play in the NHL, much less become a top pair level player. If anyone thinks our prospect depth on defense is anywhere near good enough, you're insane. Unfortunately, our forward prospects aren't very good either. But since our forwards are a bit younger than our defensemen, and defensemen usually take longer to develop, I'd say defense is a more pressing need. Though as I said, this particular year there seems to be a bigger drop-off from the 1st to 2nd round forwards, so I'd probably take a forward first, depends on who's available. 20 years of excellence catches up eventually, and we're at the point where we need to get really lucky or really creative to have any chance of maintaining our current standards. FA and trades will certainly be needed, but there's only so much we can do there. We need some good prospects on cheap contracts.

He's entering the point in his career whree his production will probably start to decline. He makes more than a million more than Hudler, that money would have to come from somewhere. He doesn't fill a real need for this team. At best he would generate slightly more offense than Hudler. He's much older and would thus need to be replaced sooner. We don't really want another player under contract until he's 40. Even if you don't factor in the injury, it's not that promising of a trade. Savard would not make us a real powerhouse/Cup favorite. Filppula would make a lot more sense, but even then it doesn't make us that much better. If we were to trade Flip or Happy, especially if it meant taking on more cap, it would have to be for someone who could score 30-35+ goals to make any sense.

Obviously I wouldn't expect anyone to actually replace Nick, which is why I would tend to favor getting a lot of good D prospects. It's going to take multiple players to ease that transition. Smith, Kindl, and Ericsson might be ok, but we don't have much beyond them. A physically dominant defenseman could certainly be a big help in maintaining a solid core. Stuart and Kronwall aren't any younger than Pav and Hank either. We don't really have any next generation anything at the moment. I'd probably go with a forward this year, since I think the ones likely available are a bit better than the defensemen, and the 2nd round defensemen don't look to be as much of a drop-off as the 2nd round forwards. Trading down and picking up and extra 2nd rounder (especially an early one) could be a great move. If we could come out of the first two rounds with, for instance, Brock Nelson, Alexander Petrovic, and Danny Biega I'd be pretty happy.

Re-raise with a DiPietro, with a side pot of Gomez.

Really? Streit, Kubina, Pitkanen, and Suter all ahead of Green? And Boyle? Hell, Christian Erhoff had a better season than any of them.

We don't have anyone that looks capable of filling the void left by Nick and Rafi either, and both of them are older than Pav and Hank.

Imagine if we had gotten Bure, as rumors have suggested we wanted to. He would have been taken in place of Shawn McCosh in the 5th round.

I'm not saying you only go after zero risk. I'm just pointing out that Tarasenko does have the same kind of risks in development as someone like McIlrath, and also adds the 'Russian factor' and possible daddy issues that might keep him from playing or staying in NA, or at least hinder his development. Given that, and the fact that an average top 6 forward and an average top 4 defenseman are similar in value to a team, it's hardly 'ridiculous' for someone to rate McIlrath higher. IMO, the Wings have big needs at both forward and defense. McIlrath isn't necessarily the kind of defenseman we really need (Lidstrom/Rafalski replacements), but we do have a few prospects of that type and any improvement in our D prospects would certainly help in the transition. Like I said, I wouldn't personally take McIlrath ahead of Tarasenko, but I can see why some people would. It would be different if Tarasenko's potential was significantly higher than McIlrath's, but it isn't.

Tarasenko strikes me as a player who'd bolt back to Russia at the first sign of adversity. Nor does he seem to be so talented that he's a sure thing for a top 6 role. I don't know that I'd take McIlrath over him, but I'd take Forbort. And it's not like a top 6 forward is that much more valuable than a 2nd pair defenseman, so it's not so ridiculous for someone to rate McIlrath higher. Hell, depending on how much of an impact player he becomes, he might not even be as valuable as a 4th defenseman. I wouldn't say Homer is more valuable than Stuart or Kronwall, and I don't think it's any sure bet that Tarasenko will be better than Homer, nor that McIlrath will be worse than Stuart/Kronwall.

I can't imagine Forbort falling far enough for us to get him, but he would be an awesome pick. Looks to be much more well-rounded than McIlrath. He'd be perfect if he was a righty. He, McIlrath, Tinordi, Merrill, or Pysyk (though people would hate that pick I'm sure) would all be nice options on defense. Unless Forbort does fall, I think I'd rather go for a forward in the first round, and look for someone like Brock Beukeboom, Mark Alt, or Danny Biega in the 2nd. For the forwards, Niederreiter would be a great fit, though like Forbort there's probably zero chance he falls far enough. Emerson Etem looks nice too. Howden, Nelson, Sheahan, and Watson would be my other choices. Kabanov, McFarland, and Tarasenko all a bit riskier than I'd like, but they could pay off. Don't know too much about the Euros this year, but Pulkkinen sounds pretty good.

FORWARDS Jiri Hudler ($2.875m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Todd Bertuzzi ($1.938m) Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / * Patrick Eaves ($0.750m) * Justin Abdelkader ($0.950m) / * Darren Helm ($0.950m) / Kris Draper ($1.583m) Mattias Ritola ($0.517m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) / * Johnny Boychuk ($2.000m) Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($0.900m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($0.717m) / Chris Osgood ($1.417m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) ROSTER: 22; CAP:$59.4m; PAYROLL: $58.842m; CAP ROOM: $0.558m BONUSES: $0.000m Maybe not much chance of stealing Boychuk now, but Boston does have some cap work to do, so you never know. I'm also liking Nick Boynton as a probably more realistic and cheaper option. I think another right-shot defenseman would be nice to have. In my dreams, I would also replace Bert with Nystrom and Asham.

In fairness, Quebec was terrible in Sakic's early years. And even in Yzerman's early years he had guys like Ogrodnick, Gallant, Klima, Carson, Oates, etc. Both had the benefit of playing on some very good teams. Yzerman also played a few more years in the higher-scoring 80s. Both were excellent two-way players. I'd give Yzerman a slight edge for still managing to contribute (and at times look simply great) despite his body going to s*** on him later in his career. But that could be just because I'm a Wings fan. I have nothing but respect and a deep hatred for Sakic. Obviously, any team would be blessed to have either of them.

You could say the same for Eaves. And if we add someone like a Nystrom, Konopka, Winchester, etc you could probably say similar things about them. There's 11 forward spots that are basically locked in. And in light of recent happenings with Quincey and Leino, I think it will be pretty hard to beat Ritola out of a spot. Even with a $59M cap, we're not in such great shape that space won't be a factor. So we could be looking at Eaves vs Miller vs FA for 1 open spot. I wouldn't really like Miller's chances if that's what it came down to. I think he only comes back if we don't sign anyone new and we either carry 14 forwards or Ritola blows it in camp. And again it needs to be said. $59.64 is NOT a confirmed cap figure. That was just some dummy tweeting without knowing what he was talking about. It could end up being around there, or it could be 59 or the 58.8 talked about earlier, or even lower. People need to stop acting like we got some huge windfall. Even in the best case scenario, we only slightly improved what was a fairly poor position to begin with.

Possibly, even hopefully, but I wouldn't bet on it. Mostly I expect Flip to be centering the third line, and if not I think Helm is far enough ahead at the moment to take it for now. Miller, May, and Maltby aren't that far below Draper and Eaves, and there was a pretty big difference in effectiveness between Helm and Abby. I think Helm is just better right now. Eventually, I think Abby can be an ideal 3rd line center. Defense, hitting, agitating, fighting, and scoring all at a decent level. I just don't think he'll hit that level this year.

Rumor has it that Wis is looking for top-pair money, maybe he talked Neids into retirement to strengthen his case.

We don't know yet. No reason to get excited, that 59.64 is just 5% higher than this year's number. What really happens is the NHL will set a new cap number, then add 5% to that. The actual cap could still go down for all anyone knows. [edit to add: It could also be even higher than that. It's a good sign, but we shouldn't spend the money yet.] I wouldn't get your hopes up just yet, most people expected the NHLPA to trigger the inflator. Bigger news is the extension of the CBA. I believe that will let teams like Boston and Chicago take advantage of the bonus cushion again.

It's not a real rivalry, since the chance of another playoff meeting is pretty slim. Toronto is still more of a rival, and I'd much rather have a 2nd game against them. You can't force a rivalry when the two teams have barely any ability to effect each other. We also get New Jersey twice.

I wouldn't be so sure: FORWARDS Patrice Bergeron ($4.750m) / Milan Lucic ($4.083m) / Marc Savard ($4.007m) Michael Ryder ($4.000m) / Nathan Horton ($4.000m) / David Krejci ($3.750m) Marco Sturm ($3.500m) / Shawn Thornton ($0.812m) DEFENSEMEN Zdeno Chara ($7.500m) / Dennis Seidenberg ($3.250m) Andrew Ference ($2.250m) / Matt Hunwick ($1.450m) GOALTENDERS Tim Thomas ($5.000m) / Tuukka Rask ($1.250m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) ROSTER: 14; CAP: $58.8m; PAYROLL: $50.328m; CAP ROOM: $8.472m BONUSES: $0.000m Seguin (or Hall) will get $3.725 (or whatever rookie max is), and I don't think we'll have a bonus cushion this year, so they'll likely have to account for the full amount. That only leaves like $4.75 for 7 more players. I think they're going to have to move someone else. Thomas if they could; but I just noticed he has a NMC, they're probably stuck with him. Bergeron could be on his way out, with Seguin taking his spot. They should have a great top 6 and first pairing, but after that they have a lot of work to do.

$1M cap hit, according to Capgeek. Good for the Coyotes, he was someone I was hoping for.

There's no room, and next to no cap space. I would have preferred him to Bert, but for the final couple spots I'd rather keep Eaves and Ritola, or at least someone who might add something new to the team and/or be a part of our future.

Lol, when I first saw it I thought he said Lids too.

Not a great class, certainly no standouts like Stevie and Brett last year. Nieuwendyk will probably make it, everyone always seemed to love him. Andreychuk I thought had a decent chance last year, I think has a better chance this year. Gilmour, like Nieuwendyk had a great rep, and being from Toronto probably gets in. There's a few more deserving candidates, but we might only see 2 or 3 get in. Guys like Dino and Oates don't seem to have the respect, and many don't have really standout stats.