Opie

Where to start, What can Dats and Z do next, how long will no one talk about Lids until Norris voting time, can Homer keep up his growth, Will Huds get the minutes, can Kronwall be healthy, how good will Ralf be in a more free system, which Lilja shows up, Which young D guy takes the 6th spot, Hasek's groin healthy again or not, Is there a sophomore slump for Franzen and flip, Can Cleary repeat, is Grigs worth the hype, can Drake bring the physical game, will Maltby see much pk time, the 5+ mil in cap room who does it bring. I haven't been this excited about a wings team in a while, I know they have some real young guys and there will probably be some real times of struggle, but this team really excites me.

Well hopefully he gets the 5 he needs this year and can stay injury free. San Jose was going to be real good before this, this I think is equivalent to the Drake Signing for Detroit. A veteran guy, who can play a gritty game and not take up too many minutes.

Damn you and your quickness Exile!!

I can hear his first press conference, in his best Eric Cartman "I'm not fat I'm just big boned"

I love that hat have had it for years 5 I think.

That makes the Canucks new Jersey look as classic and sharp as the wings Jersey, that made me want to puke. That may sell well, as a T-shirt or Hoodie but I wouldn't buy it and the team would look dumb in it!

I know I will get castrated by a lot of people on here for saying this but here it goes anyways. With what Hudler showed for a shot last year, I would like to see Hudler-Datsyuk-Grigs

That makes me want to see him in the wheel even less now!!! And I didn't want him in the wheel to start with!

I was one of those people assuming, but yeah it would be physically impossible to have birthdays within two months unless one was a really delayed twin!!!!!

They should make this the official site, I bet more fans visit this site in a week than the official one in a month.

It looks like they couldn't make up their collective mind and just went with all of the options. The stick and rink on the shoulder, Vancouver and the whale on the front, they just left out the skate and the canucks, maybe they can fit them on the pants.

Do any other teams have the city written across their home Jerseys?

There is a QMJHL team in Lewiston, Maine, the town next to the one I lived in until last year. I thought it would fall on its face. The arena was old, dirty, and the parking lot was a sloped dirt one that in wet weather it turned into a mud bath. The team and the city put some money into it and they now average about 2000 people a game. Of course on the weekends it is better than the week, but even during the week when Sid the Kid showed up that place was packed. The local police who are off duty always sit in the same section behind the away bench with a big siren making all kinds of noise. It is a great feel and environment. The Pirates are about a half an hour away and have cheaper tickets and do not get the same kind of attendance numbers. Of course it helps that A) there is no NHL team within two states, B) The Maineiacs won the league title last year (losing one game in the post season). It is a great idea, but if they were to try and make it work in Michigan I think it would fall flat. Even though the population in Michigan is a hell of a lot more than Maine, Mainers do not have the options that Michiganders (is that a word) have. I guess it really depends how far west the team will be from Detroit and GR. Hope that helps at least a little, if not typing this was not the biggest waste of time I have had all day so no real loss.

Wrong brother, I wish we had Andrew, that would be a nice addition. I think he is still in Boston though.

Are you serious if that was designed like the old school blades of glory from Nintendo that would be Freakin Sweet. Oh wait you meant the movie, my bad, the game was blades of steel. (Opie, shrinks away in sadness still thinking about and hearing the intro to blades of steel in his head)

Mark Recchi was an very important signing for them and in this offseason they have added Petr Sykora and Darryl Sydor. They may not seem like huge acquisitions, but he has added veteran leadership to a very young team and has given them even more scoring from a veteran guy in Sykora. I would love it if Sykora was on the second line of the wings! Edit: sorry I think they traded for Recchi not signed him, either way that is a vital cog to the Penguin wheel.

How about Dats gets 13.a and Hartigan gets 13.b

Very true point*, a sophomore slump (I guess sophomore is a bad word) could happen too. *- I would remove Hudler from that list, I think his potential is about the same as Perry and Getzlaf. Look what he did in limited minutes, put him next to Datsyuk with that shot he has and you could easily see a 30 goal scorer. I honestly put Ana as the #4 seed in the thread about ranking next years final standings. I think they are going to be very good, young, physical, and have potentially the best D in the league (with Neids back). But I still don't see them being them being the odds on favorite at the cup with that little bit of offense. Mainly because those guys you mentioned had the benefit of having another line on the ice that took up the other teams top d lines and pairings. Plus one major injury and that team is in deep deep trouble. Bobby (Bobby right?) Ryan is supposed to be as good if not better than Penner, that like Igor, remains to be seen. But if Ryan is a full time roster guy, who comes up after that. I am not a Ducks fan, but I watched and followed the Portland Pirates, and the Ducks are not very deep, and have virtually no money left before the cap ceiling. Again I have to say, this discussion/ thread is ******* awesome, thanks to everyone posting in this for keeping this A) on topic B) civil!!!!

Would you rather have team that perennially is in competition for the Presidents trophy or have a team like Philly. That makes big splashes all the time and has a hard time being a playoff contender every year. Now before you say, "The president's trophy means nothing if you don't get the cup". Think about my analogy for a second. This team is competitive year in and year out, and Holland is responsible for putting those players together. He can not make them shoot around Giguere instead of at his chest protector. There are fans from many, many other teams that would love to have the problems that we as wings fans have. We are trying to get our team 6 more wins to the cup, while others are hoping their team isn't in last place. Right now I would say in the league Pit has the best GM, not only does he get Crosby (well the teams lack of success did) he has built pieces around him. Go to Was and ask Ovechkin if he likes who his GM has put around him. I am willing to bet that once he becomes UFA he is out of Was unless he is in this for money. Back to the point, Ken Holland is one of the top 3 GM's in the league. Would you have preferred he over pay Hartnelll and not get Rafalski. This team will finish top 3 in the conference (barring major injury) and a lot of that is Ken grabbing guys like Cleary, Samuelson and others. Plus he has a great scouting staff, you may not like the type of team he is icing but he is doing a great job at getting a great team together. Remember last year was supposed to be a rebuilding year.

The forwards are not ranked or compared just wrote them as they came to me or where they were on the stats sheet. Ana top 6 MacDonald Bert Perry Getzlaf Kunitz Neidermayer Det top 6 Zetterberg Datsyuk Homer Samuelson Cleary Hudler I left Draper on the third line and didn't include Igor because none of us know what he will bring. Still the wings top 6 (which is hardly a powerful top 6) has better numbers than the Ana forwards other than MacDonald. To go further Filpula and Franzen had similar numbers last year to R. Neidermayer, Pahlsson, and Perry, and those numbers were put up with Selanne around who was one of their best finishers and set up men and took on the top defensive lines and pairings.

I have to stop reading these things on my lunch break, this is the second day in a row half of my lunch ends up in my nostrils!!

I am guessing here, but I am assuming he wanted consistent minutes to prove himself. The Flame offered him a two way deal, which probably meant to him that he would not have the same D partners the whole season and is probably hoping that a consistent good year in Russia will have scouts wanting him back. He is still young so hopefully this works for him.

Gotta say not a big fan. Lets look at this site compared to the official site. This site has a classic look, like the wings logo for example, it is not overwhelmingly flashy or have bad artwork all over it. That site changes every year (at least it seems like), and seems to get worse each time. I like it with different players on the splash screen, it was simple and didn't make my retinas bleed!

I would make the following change to the Trapezoid rule: The goalie can play the puck where ever he wants, however the only place he is safe from oncoming forwards is in the Trapezoid. This way if the goalie wants to roam around and play the puck he is fair game. They have helmets and pads too, if you don't want to get hit stay in the net or in the Trapezoid. That simple!

I never said Det was the favorite either I was comparing Det and Ana because to me they are both a step behind SJ. Further more Ana does not have 5 bona fide top 6 forwards, they lost 2 of their top 6 forwards, so at best they have 4 top 6 forwards remaining. I would also Argue that Detroit also has 4, Samuelson whether you like him or not has proven he can play top 6 minutes. And if you are counting Perry and/or Moen as a top 6 that means that Detroit has Sammy, Hudler, Draper, Cleary, Dats, Z, and Homer that are bona fide top 6 as well. They all had as good as if not better years than Moen and Perry. Plus how is my cred falling, am I not making legitimate logical arguments. I am not just running around saying so and so is better because I think so, I am backing up my point.