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One of my buddies bought my this picture (where you can see Shanahan and Vernon in the background) for my birthday/moving and it's amazing.

I think he or she was responding to the report that he might play more than one year with the Wings. After this year, there needs to be room for other players (Abby, Helm, Tatar, Mursak) to make the jump above the Wings' forth line. Currently the Wings' entire top-9 is signed for next year outside of Modano, and this log-jam may end up hurting development if it is continued.

I'd like to see Janik get the 6th/7th spot above Meech if the Wings don't sign another d-man. I'd love Asham, but he would command a permanent spot on the team and that would likely force the Wings to trade Eaves. Instead, I'd like the Wings to sign someone like Downey who can sit in the press-box for many games and then play when needed. Hopefully the Wings can afford to keep Downey (or whoever) in the press box instead of sending him down to GR (unless he wants that). That allows a better night-to-night assessment of if an enforcer needs to be dressed.

I read elsewhere that he wanted a one-year deal this contract with a good team (to get his stats up) before signing a long-term deal next offseason. I don't know if this is true though- it seems a lot of players priced themselves too high at the beginning of free agency. This isn't a bad move by Chicago at all. This is probably the best they could have done given the circumstances.

The depth chart is a bit different when enforcers are involved. They may not be better hockey players than the others, but they play a different game. Depending on the night (team, injuries, etc) the Wings might favor his style and have him play above someone like Miller. Very few enforcers are better players than Eaves, but they are valued for their toughness. I don't think anyone expects Downey to be a playoff player if he makes the team this year.

Other than a solid 6th d-man (which hopefully Kindl/Meech/Janik can fulfill), toughness is the one thing that the Wings are missing. Abby would not be the toughest player on any other team in the league. Hopefully Downey has improved his skating enough to play a regular shift. I would be happy to see him in ~40 games with the Wings this year (although more is always better- just not realistic).

How do you figure that Helm is better suited for a scoring third line than Abby? IMO Abby has better hands while Helm is perfectly suited for a dump-and-chase/cycle offensive style with his speed and pressure. Helm has shown that he is a great PK'er and a good energy forward, but I don't think anyone expects him to be an offensive-minded forward. I think Draper (in his prime) is a great comparison for the player that Helm can be. In the AHL, Abby scored at a higher rate. Abby scored at a rate of .73 while in the AHL this year (with 86 PIMs). In comparison, Helm's best AHL season had a point-per-game of .67- this is worse than Abby's first AHL season. I don't mean to imply that Helm cannot be a competent third line center, but I believe that Abby has to tools to be better offensively. Hopefully he can put it all together this year and earn/keep the third line center position. I think both Helm and Abby are excellent assets for the Wings (who I want to stay for a long time), and hopefully they can both surpass our expectations.

Can you support this with the USA hockey rulebook? I think you are thinking of a match penalty. When I played youth hockey under USA hockey, fighting resulted in the player being ejected from the current game and suspended for the next game. Subsequent fighting majors could possibly carry more severe suspensions. A match penalty required the player to go before the regional USA hockey board and defend his/her case before being able to play again (if the ruling allowed them to). In ACHA college hockey (affiliated with USA hockey), fighting is a ejection and one game misconduct for the first offense, two games misconduct for the second, and so on.

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I think your predicted salaries for Helm and Abby are too low. They will likely be signed for more than one year and around 1m each. Abby's last contract had a cap hit of 800k, and he'll likely get more of a raise than 50k. Helm has proved that he can (at least) be a productive fourth line center and Pk'er, so he should also command near 1m.

I've watched a lot of the old fights online. However, I like watching the games and seeing how the fighters enforcers played. I don't think I've watched enough of the old fighters to make an informed list because I usually just watch the names I've heard of before.

It's hard for a lot of us to make an all-time list when we weren't alive to watch many of the fighters before Probert. I don't know if Orr would make the list of best fighters all time, but I think he is currently the best enforcer in the league. His fighting style is very offensive and this makes him prone to getting tagged and losing. However, he has a good win percentage and isn't afraid to force the issue.

Lucic is overrated as a fighter IMO. This year he only had four fights, and he only won one of them. Most of his fights in previous years, although impressive, were not against top fighters. Therefore, I don't think he can be considered a great fighter. He's a great player (mix of skill and physicality) and I love his style, but he's not one of the greatest fighters in the past ~20 years.

Orr went after Richards a few times, ran Leighton, went after Carcillo, threw cheap shots, etc and nothing happened. Asham eventually stepped up, but he didn't seem to excited about it. Here's him running Leighton.

I love the way Colton Orr plays. I watched a fair amount of Leafs games last and he seems to embody the enforcer role. It takes a lot to make Philly look weak, but he managed to run around without recourse during their games.

Abby will not start the season in GR. Holland/Babcock is on record saying that he will be playing on the PK next season, and that we will be contending for the third line center position (if Modano isn't signed likely). I guarantee that Abby's new contract will not be two-way.

I agree with this. Max age a player can be signed until is 40, unless the contract was signed after the player is 35 years old. There has to be a line drawn somewhere, and I think this is a fair one.

But there is also the possibility Kovy 'retires' at 35 and signs a 10m/year contract with the KHL to finish his career there. In this scenario the Devils would never see the downside of this contract. This doesn't seem unlikely considering the rumors that he was going to the KHL this year.

The years doesn't bother me as much as the age at the end of the contract. Kovy will be 44 when this contract runs out. If this is allowed, will teams eventually move to signing players until they're 50+ in order to get a low cap-hit? There needs to be a line drawn somewhere.

I have to agree. You obviously knew that you were getting under his skin and that he might retaliate. While I don't condone fighting at beer league events like that, I don't think non-friendly s*** talking is necessary either. Also, you can always ditch your lid when wearing a cage (or visor) if you are being called out. With that said, I like your style of getting under the other teams skin- I play similarly.

As long as you haven't used your years of eligibility, you are allowed to play ACHA hockey as a graduate student.

With the KHL salary cap (even with the loop-holes and exemptions) there has to be a saturation point for the amount of players that can leave the NHL for the KHL for larger salaries. Hopefully this means that we will start seeing less good talent (players like Jason Williams are fine to go) going over to the KHL for inflated contracts. Does anyone know where the salary levels of the current teams can be found?

If Modano is signed, there will likely be a trade made. I believe Babcock and/or Holland is on record saying that they would like to have room on the roster to call someone up during the season. Therefore, someone will have to be waived or traded if Modano (or anyone else) is signed. It's not that Miller is a bad player, but he doesn't add much other than PK'ing to the team. On this forum, many people have mentioned trading him this off-season. If someone has to be traded, who would you prefer? I agree that Modano would make the team better. I would be alright (not excited or disappointed) if the Wings signed Modano for one year, but I am against a two-year deal. There needs to be room for players like Tatar, Mursak, and I. Flip to have the chance to move up next year. Personally, I would prefer to wait to sign/trade for someone (forward or D, except for an enforcer) until the season begins. We don't know if the Wings D will be sufficient, and waiting will allow the Wings to assess other weak points if they arise.

Good luck. I played DIII ACHA for the past couple years and it can be a fun/competitive league. MCHC has some very good teams in SVSU and Hope.

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