FunkyBlueFish203

It's part of the new CBA. The purpose is to stop GMs from signing guys to reasonable deals, then loading up the price by adding on incentives. And with the new CBA, even bonus money hits the cap number.

Babcock is impressed. He says all the right things, just doesn't dish out the ice time.

I am absolutely willing to trade Hudler. My only condition is there better be an impact player coming back from the other end, and not someone wishy washy who might help us. Trade Hudler for Marian Hossa? Ilya Kovalchuk? Dany Heatley? Sure, add on someone else and maybe a draft pick, make it happen, let's go! Todd Bertuzzi? Hell no. That's why I am saying we should be realistic. The deciding factor is not if Hudler is special or not. I don't think Hudler is the next Brett Hull, but I don't think he's crap either, and I think he could help the team and contribute points. For some odd reason the general perception is that he's small, so he's useless.

Zetterberg is a freakin' machine. Great game by him.

Bootland is done in this organization. Grigorenko, who knows if he is even coming over. Flip, yes. Kopecky is a completely different skill set. All of these guys are not the same player hence you can't rank them the way you did. McGrath is in the freakin' ECHL right now. Emmerton is quite a few years away. We would ALL love for Detroit to become a bigger, stronger team. Why don't you guys find us a player who is big and strong and can score and fight, and has a GM who is willing to trade him. Name ONE. And name a guy who we don't have to empty out the tank for. I get your point, too RB! Please, I am all for getting bigger and stronger but let's be realistic here.

If he is small-ish and fits the mold of what we currently have, we better hang on to him. Why? Because he's cheaper than almost everyone on the team, and some of these guys we currently have are not coming back. The logic is clear to me. Am I missing something here?

So you're saying unless he becomes a Selke trophy candidate he is worthless? Who called the kid elite? Point it out. No one did. Fact: Hudler has scored goals despite the nonsense ice time he has received. The point about him being a rookie and all that is good, but here's what's happening on the team right now: Z and Pavel are constantly double shifted because they seem to be the only ones producing consistent offense. We have guys who can score but they are buried on the 4th line playing 5 minutes a night. These kids are not ready for 20 minutes but there's no reason they can't play 12 minutes a night. Of course the team is winning so who's going to ***** about it? The Wings need goal scorers. Hudler has all the instincts and potential to be an excellent goal scorer. I like a big guy like Dany Heatley as much as you but that doesn't mean a guy like Daniel Briere is worthless in this league. No, I am not comparing Hudler to Briere, please don't get trigger happy and try to slap sense into me. With the situation about the off-season being murky, and guys like Lang and Schneider and Datsyuk being potential free agents this summer, why give up home made talent that can come through?

Ryan Smyth is good but how much more than $4M does he want? I like Tkachunky. He can play. His overpriced contract aside, the guy can score. Robert Lang, I think is extremely frustrated right now. He's scoring but he's playing on the wing, something he does not like. He's also not too effective there. He prefers to center a line, and he has mentioned he would like to play with Hudler. He's on the second PP unit, which he is also not too fond of. He does come through in the playoffs, though so it will be interesting to see how that issue pans out.

There is no problem. Lang plays well. Now if only Babcock would put Lang on the 3rd line as the center instead of playing at Zetterberg's left...

He sucked at wing last year, yet Babcock has him playing on Hank's left this season. Brilliant!

systemfel, great pictures! Ryno, the upcoming tower of power

No, he couldn't. He can't skate well enough to be on the second line. He would be two feet behind Datsyuk when the time comes to receive a pass. Trying him out means paying him money and tying up cap room. So no, not worth it. Daze. Good Lord. From not playing in 2 and 1/2 years to being ready to play? How's that back of his? And for his size, he has never been a physical player, and if he came to play now, he would be even less based on his injuries. Doesn't fit the bill. Pass on him as well.

The only problem with that theory is, we don't need players for the third and fourth line, we have plenty of those. We need top-2 line players, wingers to be exact, and LeClerc ain't it, even if he plays for free. Gionta is it. There is not one player out on the market right now who has size and who can be a top-2 line winger. And if you sign these bottom-2 line players, it bumps up our current 3rd and 4th liners like Draper on scoring lines, where guys like him are useless. So it's the same cycle as last year once again. I prefer the team not repeat that mishap.

Gionta can score goals. We just lose 40 goals to NY. You got a plan to replace that? Mike LeClerc is an injury-prone, suspect-skating winger who has never reached top line potential. He will not be able to keep up on the top line. Why the heck do we need him?! You have one thing and one thing on your mind only, and that's size. If you can't realize what Gionta brings to the table, this discussion is futile.

^^ RFA. Wants around $3.5M

Sammy can be the big body on the first line, Franzen on the second. Hudler is basically going to play at the spot Gionta could occupy. Gionta has played with Gomez plenty, they've always found a way to score goals, no matter how big the opponent. Size isn't everything, these small guys have guile and speed, something we lack. Oh yeah, Gionta also has plenty of grit and doesn't get pushed around. Screw the Presidents Trophy, we're not talking about that.

RB!, you're allergic to even the mention of any forward who doesn't meet the size and grit club's requirements. How many times have your club members seen Gionta play? If acquired, immediately Gionta would be the best puck carrier to the net along side Zetterberg. Yeah he's tiny but he's willing to pay the price to score a goal. Next to a center like Zetterberg he'd have no trouble re-creating his points total from last season. He's fast, he's shifty and yes, he's gritty. He's a net crashing speedy winger we have plenty of use for.

If he wasn't that good defensively, Ron Wilson wouldn't keep putting him out there against top scorers. I haven't checked out San Jose's lineup. Marleau was a -12, okay, others were +1 and +3 and whatever. Not a gigantic difference. Among all of those guys, he's likely the one with the most TOI, hence on ice for more of the mishaps.

Look at the numbers closely. The only guys on that list who are not two-way forwards are Thornton and Cheechoo, and they are the only ones with a high +/- rating. Perhaps reflective of their crazy chemistry, which also resulted in a crazy number of points. Save Eckman, no one has a high enough +/- rating being a two-way forward. Guys like Marleau and McCauley constantly go up against the best forwards of the opposition, which results in them being on ice for more goals against, hence their weak +/- rating. In any case, there isn't a big difference between -3 and + 3. +/- can be a useful stat but in this discussion it doesn't help determine who is the better player. San Jose was on an awful skid until Thornton came to town, while Datsyuk's team pretty much coasted during the regular season.

No, at this point it doesn't. While Marleau is better than Datsyuk and we would need to send an additional pick or player to balance it out, including Kronwall in this deal makes this a deal far too favorable for the Sharks. I am familiar with Carle's game, he's a USNTDP boy. He's similar to Kronner in the sense that he's not very big either but plays a physical game. He is solid at both ends of the ice, great skater, and makes an excellent first pass. I think he is going to spend 1 more yeat at Denver, and after that might spend a year or so in the AHL. In any other trade, I am all over Carle, but not in exchange for Kronwall. Looking at our defensive prospects, especially a guy like Kindl who is still a ways away from making the team, and looking at the age of guys like Lidstrom and Schneider, we need Kronwall. If not for a couple of freak injuries to him the past couple of seasons, his name would've never come up in such a trade. He is our most valuable roster player right now behind Zetterberg. Key word: Right now. Carle can't be right now for us, hence, can't do.

Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Kronwall. That's the untouchable list. Datsyuk + Grigs works just fine. I'd be disppointed about losing Grigs but I'll get over it after seeing Marleau in the Winged Wheel.

Eerr, weird about Ryno being tossed out. Thanks for the updates systemfel!

The pain comes and goes, so maybe Hank thought it would just go away in this long off-season. It flared up while practicing with Timra so seems like the Wings want to have it checked out once and for all. If an operation is going to make it go away, they might opt for it. Guess it depends on what the doctors find when he gets here. It doesn't seem too bad. Hoping for the best, especially for Mike Babcock's sanity.

asdfghjkl Fix him up!!!

He's supposed to earn a spot on any of the top 3 lines. Nice that he'll be playing on the same team as fellow Wings prospect, Anton Axelsson. From what I read from a Frolunda fan on another site, Ryno has terrific offensive tools and is good in his own end as well. He is willing to pay the price to score a goal but doesn't dish out hits himself. He's still filling into his frame so once that happens, he could develop his game into a more charge-the-net type and turn into a power forward. Right now he has all the tools to be a solid two-way player. http://files.upl.silentwhisper.net/upload9/henke-13-1200.jpg <-- The giant shooting on Lundqvist is our boy. Likely from the same practice. This shot is from the Frolunda fan on another board. Thanks for keeping us posted, Systemfel.