Jesusberg

His rejection screams, "What? Drew Doughty money? lololol... No, I'm better." Edit: Just saw this on Twitter: "Letang's trade value to all teams. 1 NHL player with multiple yrs left, 1st round pick and prospect." Yikes, lol.

I'm not a huge fan of Ryan on Detroit, but yes... I'd take him over Flip. I think he better addresses what we could use in our top 6 more than Val. That being said, I really see him going to Philly.

That package would, maybe, get one of those players, and I wouldn't want to pay it for Burmistrov.

Honestly, I'm not sure about this move for the Leafs. Scrivens is spare parts, but I think Frattin's got a lot of offensive potential. The bigger issue is obviously the goalie controversy it creates. It's gotta be pretty deflating for Reimer to see someone brought in like that.

This is one of the reasons I've said I'd pass on Clarkson. He's going to cash in big time, but I highly doubt he's going to match some of the numbers he's posted. By the admission of several Devils fans over at HF, he's been described as a slow and clunky skater, who will shoot the second he gets the puck - even from impossible angles. On the positive end, he's got a wicked wrister and if a great net-front presence. However, I think for the amount he's going to get paid, plenty of fans around here would lose their patience pretty quick with him.

I honestly just don't get it at all... unless they're trying to farm offers for the 1st overall pick. They must really think Barrie, Siemens and Elliott are going to pan out, because half of their defense corps screams "AHL" to me.

I actually think a Ryan-Giroux 1-2 punch would be fun to watch. I don't have anything against Philly. Lot of inflated contracts on defense, though.

This. The possible threat of not having center depth was Flip's big leverage. That's gone. Datsyuk will be here long enough for the team to produce another viable center.

I'd be totally fine with 3.5 for 2 years. He proves himself at that stage, then let the guy earn some cash. His drop-off worries me a bit, but it's his first year in North America. He's got a wicked shot, and we need more shoot-first players.

I almost feel like Samuelsson being bought-out should be a foregone conclusion, but it somehow still feels like it won't happen. I really want to see that whole Griffins line up with the team next season, and letting go of some guys or buying others out needs to happen for that to occur. I really don't think Cleary would expect, nor would he get a raise from that 2.8 million, and I think it should be him OR Bertuzzi on the team - not both. I've got this gut feeling that both will be here, though... and that maybe Emmerton will be placed on waivers.

I like the idea of adding some playmaking skill, but Detroit has a glut of forwards right now. When it all pans out, I'd much rather see Nyquist, Andersson and Tatar on the team full time over various veteran players currently signed, or currently UFA. Nothing wrong with Weiss - just not sure they have the room for him without compromising the impending youth movement.

Well, I wasn't saying Lashoff was exempt from waivers - I'm just not sure who the odd man out would be. Unless they move Cola for a pick, or package one of the other guys... I'm just not sure who's moved. As for the forwards, say we do re-sign Filppula and Cleary. Abdelkader-Datsyuk-Franzen Filppula-Zetterberg-Brunner Tatar-Andersson-Nyquist Eaves-Helm-Eaves Bertuzz, Samuelsson, Emmerton & Tootoo That's 16 forwards... with them carrying 7 d-men for sure, they're going to carry 14 forwards. So unless two of Helm, Samuelsson and Bertuzzi are spending the season on the IR, I don't see it working out.

I still believe that what this team needs is a goal scorer. Getting bigger and meaner is all fine and dandy, but their biggest issue was putting the puck in the net. Ryder, Horton or Iginla would be fine with me. I still feel like Clarkson might be a bit fluky. He was prone to dry spells during the year, and is really a net-front presence that complimented Kovalchuk, imo.

First off, the cap hit recapture thing is complete garbage. It's the league's issue that they allowed those contracts, and now GM's following the rules are being penalized for finding loopholes int he league's shoddy system. Secondly, you're bending numbers so out of proportion that I don't even know how to respond. Just because you average out numbers, and crunch them into different time periods doesn't mean you have the cap hits and salary right. Franzen would never make 7.1 million per year... ever. You can't just bend numbers from different players, because that's assuming every single player with similar production, and every GM in the league are the exact same. They're not. Each team is different too, by the way. Franzen was signed to his current deal, because at the time, Holland was taking advantage of a loophole in the CBA. The bottom line is, at this very moment, Franzen's production is solid for the amount of cap hit and salary he is taking up. The cap recapture rule is horse s***. Had the league just dealt with this properly, Franzen's hit would be coming off the books, and it'd be a non-issue. It's not Franzen's fault, it's not Holland's fault... it's the NHL's mismanagement and backpedaling.

Tatar, Nyquist and Andersson should be on the team, but will they? If they let Filppula, Cleary and Miller all walk, then there's a good chance. I highly doubt Lashoff will start the year in the NHL, they've got Kronwall, Ericsson, Quincey, Smith, Kindl, DeKeyser and Colaiacovo. I imagine Smith and Kindl are going to be retained, and I doubt anyone gets bought out on the back-end. Some of the guys you listed are on AHL only contracts, so I'm not sure they can be sent down to the ECHL. And I'm also pretty sure that there is a cap on how many players you can keep in the ECHL at any given time. I know they have a vet limit of four, but I'm not sure on players with NHL contracts. EDIT: Spoke with someone who knows a lot more than I do about major pro/minor hockey leagues. He said that he believes guys on AHL contracts can be sent down and that there isn't a limit on the number of guys who can be sent down to the ECHL. So, I basically feel like I know nothing about AHL/ECHL rules. Carry on.

Unless you get a guy coming off an ELC, or one of those really good "bridge contracts", this doesn't exist in the NHL anymore. Nearly all the guys who play around a similar point-per game production are making like 5+ million.

I think when you factor in that Ericsson got 3.25 million, it was definitely a faith-based deal. The brass, imo, looked at him as Stuart's eventual replacement. Every thing about his numbers prior that contract suggested that he was our #5 defender. Clearly, management felt he could handle a top four role, going forward. With Kindl, he was 3rd in the time in total TOI, 2nd in PP time per game and lead the team with +15. The factors knocking his price tag down are his RFA status, the various other offensively inclined defenders on the team and having some other solid prospects coming down the pipeline who play a similar style. While it may disappoint a few people around here, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 would not shock me.

Kindl's an offensive defender. I'm not saying he deserves that money, I'm saying I wouldn't be surprised if he got more than Nyquist, Smith and Andersson. I think Kindl will be a rock on that 2nd PP unit, and perhaps even jump to the 1st with Kronwall. The situations between he and Ericsson prior to his contract signing are fairly similar. The key difference is that Ericsson brought something (a shut-down role) that others on the team couldn't, while you could argue that Kronwall, Smith and to a lesser extent, DeKeyser are all capable of of putting up some numbers. So as I said, I wouldn't be surprised if he got around 2.5 or so or on a faith-based deal.

I have to admit, though... that I wouldn't be shocked if Kindl was given a little more. If you consider his age, his play this season and it being his 3rd (I think?) contract... he's in a very similar situation as Ericsson was when he signed his deal. Andersson, Nyquist and Smith should all be given in the area of 1.2-1.8 or so, but it wouldn't shock me to see them reward Kindl with a little more. A lot of us thought Ericsson's deal was awful (myself included), but he's shown he's a capable top 4 player. I guess we'll see how it pans out, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Kindl grab something like 2.5-2.8 or so.

The thing about these "bridge deals" as folks like to call them, the ones worth 2.5-3.5 million, is that they're given out by Wings brass after a guy has proven he can play a few season in Detroit, or at least that he can contribute. Zetterberg, Filppula and Kronwall were given their 2.65, 3 and 3 million dollar deals in response to showing they're capable, or even a few 40 point seasons for the forwards I mentioned. Brunner may be seen in a different light, but guys like Nyquist, Smith and Kindl aren't really in the same situation as other players given those "bridge deals". I imagine those guys will probably get 2-3 year deals, maybe in the area of 1.2-2.2 or so. Then go on to earn something, should they deserve it.

Seriously, something is going to have to give. Not necessarily accounting for position we have at forward: Tatar-Andersson-Nyquist (Hopefully, with the movement of a few vets, this entire line will actually be Detroit's 3rd line.) Sheahan-Ferraro-Jurco Frk-Jarnkrok-Pulkkinen Tvrdon-Aubry-Callahan Parkes-Nestrasil-Coetzee On defense: Lashoff-Almquist Ouellett-Sproul Jensen-Marchenko Fournier-Nicastro Nedomlel In goal: Mrazek Coreau That's not even looking at veteran, AHL signings, or guys who can (not will, can) be re-upped (Raedeke, McCollum). Quite cluttered, isn't it? Let me know if I'm missing anyone here.

I expected Ron Swanson to be there, too. *Sigh*

Like the inconsistency that Howard exhibited, nearly every one of his four seasons in Grand Rapids? And as far as people running with the 4-5 million thing for Flip, it was on Mlive and a few other sites. It's still a rumor, clearly, but it's not like people were pulling it out of their hind end. Mlive is credible with a fair amount of stuff, so even their speculation is going to be run with on the forums. Edit: On another note, Streit would have made more sense to sign last season. I honestly believe we have a solid core for the next 3-5 years of Kronwall, Ericsson, DeKeyser, Kindl and Smith. Perhaps two of those younger guys will emerge as legitimate top 4 defenders, and the other can be moved in a package deal for a forward. At this point, Streit would kind of mess with what they're trying to find out on defense, in my opinion.

I'm not even totally sold on this line-up, but I think it's fairly realistic. The buyouts are wishful thinking, maybe. I feel like teams are really buying into the whole puck retrieval thing on each line, sticking in a grinder/net presence guy on there. Doing this line-up kind of made me wonder where Johan fits in, though... but I think with Goose feeding he and Z the puck, it could work out as a line. Ryder shoots a ton and would be a good trigger guy with Dats, given what's out there on the FA market. CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER My Custom Lineup FORWARDS Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Michael Ryder ($4.500m) Gustav Nyquist ($1.200m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Tomas Tatar ($0.840m) / Joakim Andersson ($1.200m) / Damien Brunner ($3.000m) Drew Miller ($0.900m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) / Brendan Smith ($1.000m) Danny DeKeyser ($1.350m) / Jakub Kindl ($1.250m) Carlo Colaiacovo ($2.500m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.292m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) OTHER Buyout: Mikael Samuelsson ($0.000m) Buyout: Todd Bertuzzi ($0.000m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $60,602,879; BONUSES: $1,010,000 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $4,707,121