mmamolo

I absolutely freaked out last night when that goal got called back. What really pisses me off is that if it is incidental contact the play should be called dead when it happens - not after Holmstrom gets cleared out of the way and then Franzen makes and move and then beats Anderson cleanly with no one obstructing Anderson's ability to stop the puck. In my opinion, and being as unbiased as I possibly can be, that was one of the worst phantom goaltender interference no goal calls I've seen in a while.

Anyways, we should get this thread back on topic which is the Wings at this Trade Deadline. Aside from the bogus Eklund Ponikarovsky B.S I personally would like to see the Wings make a run for Afinoganov. At 800k I think he could fit perfectly on our third line. Obviously it would depend what it would take to get him out of Atlanta and it would depend on if Atlanta is still pushing for the playoffs. What would you guys offer up for Afinoganov? ANything? Would you want him here? What about a 3rd line of Miller - Filppula - Afinoganov?

Well, yea that is more realistic. I was only joking around with my post but yours actually does have a chance of happening I suppose. Although I would think Burke would want maybe a prospect along with it or something a bit more. If I were Holland I would actually think about Williams, Lebda, 2nd and a mid to low level prospect. Personally I would want to keep bertuzzi in Detroit because I think he's an asset and living in Toronto and seeing Ponikarovksy play a lot I don't think he is a huge upgrade over Bertuzzi but if Holland decided to trade Bertuzzi he'd have no choice. That being said this would be a lateral move for the Wings and I just don't see the Wings doing it cause as the other poster mentioned the Wings would have to give up a draft pick as well.

It's true that at this juncture of the season salaries become prorated but you have to remember that that is a two way street. Salary coming to Detroit will be pro-rated but salary leaving Detroit will be pro-rated as well. As far as I know the Wings have ZERO room left under the cap. Now, I could be wrong about that and if I am then what I'm about to say can be ignored. However, if I am right and they have zero room then salary in must equal salary out. But you're right, if they had say 200k in room that would equate to roughly 800k season long cap space coming in since there is roughly 1/4 of a season remaining. An easy way to look at it is that the deadline occurs at the 3/4 mark of the year. So any player being moved has 1/4 left of their salary to be paid. Whatever full season long cap space a team has can thus be multiplied by 4 to figure out what full year salary player can be brought in. FOr example if Team A had $1M cap space they could afford to bring in a $4M player without deducting a roster player.

Well, it is true that 97 was bowman's team but the point was more to imply that ppl are never happy more than to insinuate that the team was Holland's. Although, if I'm not mistaken Holland was assistant GM. The point wasn't even to say that Holland hasnt made any mistakes either. I definitely wasnt a fan of adding McCoun or Gill or Clarke or Cross and so on but we can't limit how we grade him as a GM to the trades he makes. A lot of the contracts he's signed players to (pre-cap world, post-cap world, UFA, pending UFA, re-signing etc) have been some of the msot competitive in the league (Hossa, Zetterberg, Franzen to name some of the more recent). His ability to retain talent has been a major component in keeping this team competitive for so long. Now, I'm not giving him and only him all the credit in the world but what I am saying is that a lot of ppl on this board should learn to appreciate what we have been lucky enough to live through as a Wings fan. Again, I'm not saying Holland is a god but it pisses me off when ppl go the opposite direction and completely rip him too. I just think credit should be given where credit is due. He is one of the top GMs in the game today. Is he the best ever? No probably not but he is definitely a very good GM and ONE of the reasons the Red Wings franchise is as good as they are.

So the Hawks are going to go into the playoffs with Niemi and Toivinin? Wow, that'd be ballsy. I do think the Hawks may find a trading partner for Huet though. In a similar move that saw Giguere go to Toronto or Barker to Minnesota and Johnsson back to the Hawks. No doubt Chicago is trying to shift players in and players out for pending UFAs so they can remain contenders now but have cap felxibility this summer while maintaining their core

What you said right there is why you are ONE OF THE FEW posters I actually consider to know what they are talking about on this forum. I can't stand how ppl rip Holland for not making moves when the moves don't make sense in the first place. 4 Cups from '97 to present is more success than any other franchise and yet there are still fans who think it's not enough. Talk about ignorant, greedy ppl who think they know it all. If Holland made off the cuff moves like so many of these posters wished he would we would be in full rebuild mode before long. Hell, we may as well fire Holland and hire Mike Milbury if you want moves for the sake of moves.

In this dream land where the Thrashers would accept this deal why not do what makes more sense and deal Williams for Afinoganov? Dude, think about it, if the Wings are only on the hook for a 1/4 of Kozlov's salary that means that whoever goes the other way only a quarter of his salary comes off the Wing's books. When you're pressed up against the cap Salary In = Salary Out. Think it through. To get Kozlo, which in my opinion would be a HUGE waste, Detroit would have to ship $3.66M out to get his $3.66M in. No ifs, ands or buts.

per TSN.ca

As much as I love this site I can only use it at work because every time I've ever used it at home my computer has gotten completely f'ed. For whatever reason my work has the appropriate safeguards in place while my home computers do not. Beats me But yeah, take your time, the calendars are awesome

To Det: Ponikarovsky To Tor: Jason Williams and Brett Lebda ha I wish

I completely, 100% agree with you on Stajan but whole heartedly disagree with you on Commodore with the exception of the Stanley Cup part. To me Commodore's dificiencies far outweigh his positives and has always been one of those bubble defensemen that's too good to be a 5-6 pairing but not really good enough to be a 3-4 pairing on a top tier team - at least not for the long term. Maybe I'm biased against the guy. I'm willing to admit that he does bring a ruggid punch to the team but he's not the quickest guy out there. It brings an average amount of offensive production but nothign special but to me he gets exposed all day long against the premier offensive talent where as a guy like Stuart (as you compared him to) at a mimimum always has a fighting chance against the elite of this league. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Agreed. Like even this year, which has clearly been his best, I wouldn't be content having paid him $3.5M for his contributions. That being said when you sign a player to a new contract you're putting faith in him and assuming he will continue to grow as a player but Matt Stajan has never realyl shown a steady consistent rate of growth at the NHL level to garner that type of money. This contract reminds me of the Blue Jackets signing Mike Commodore to a $3.75M/yr deal. It's just a flat out over payment for a guy that although has his moments just doesn't bring it consistently and just isn't worth the money.

I live in the Toronto area so I've seen Stajan play a ton and despite his production this year I gotta say this is a complete overpayment. The kid has a lot of determination at times and he definitely tries hard but he is so soft and can't shoot the puck. In my opinion he is a third line centre in this league on a good team and 3.5M is way too much. Maybe I'm biased against him but hey, it is what it is

Not to give this thread any more momentum than it already has but s*** man, two things, Bobby Ryan will not still be on the fourth line and no way Pavelski is ahead of Stastny on the centre depth chart. If anything Stastny and Kessler battle it out for first line centre duties.

I would love to see those pairings given a shot. It's really strange that we don't see the D pairings changed up more often considering how often the forward lines get juggled. With Ericsson's struggles and Lilja just coming off a year long hiatus I wouldn't even mind seeing Stuart and Rafalski spending some time with Lilja and Ericsson at various poitns of the game to see if there are advantages to that.

It'll really be interesting to get clarity on the year of the 2nd rounder as everything I've heard about the Ponikarovsky deal implies the Brian Burke wants a 2010 2nd pick to be included. Pittsburgh had been rumoured to be interested so if the Pens gave up their 2010 2nd for Jordan Leopold (which I kind of doubt) there's a good chance they'd have slipped out of the running.

The Wings are in a Salary In-Salary Out type situation (for the most part) so I think it's going to be really hard for them to make any moves. That being said, living in Toronto, I get to see Ponikarovsky play a lot and if he were put on a team where he could get third line and sometimes second line minutes he could really excell. I think he'd actually fit in pretty nicely here. With a salary of $2.1M I actually think this is feasible. I don't have a credible source but I think I remember hearing somewhere that the asking price was a 2nd rounder or maybe even a 2nd and a prospect or something so that seems a bit high in my mind so we'll see.

yes Malken outplayed Filppula in the 09 finals. yes, the article is completely uninformed. Waste of time.

Naming the all-star team is a tough thing because Weber and Rafalski both had great tournaments but so did Keith. In my opinion Weber was named over Keith just because he was a little bit more flashy and noticeable while out there. For me Rafalski, despite his defensive lapse on the gold medal winning goal, did have a great tournament and does deserve the praise he's getting. THe olympics are funny. For some players they're going to rejuvenate their seasons and get them hot down the stretch (which hopefully it does for Rafalski) while it's going to cool some players off who were on streaks in the NHL prior to the break. It's just the nature of the beast. The good thing is, for the Red Wings, for the most part we had a strong trounament. Guys like Filppula, Rafalski, Franzen, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg had good showings. While Kronwall and Lidstrom may not have put up points played decently. We'll see how it works out for us down the stretch.

As a Canadian I have really liked Toews since he showed up and had such a huge tournament in the World juniors. I've personally never had a problem with the Blackhawks but obviously they are burning us a little bit this year. But my love for Toews has obviuosly grown after this Olympics. I would love for him to be a Wing one day and I actually made a post in another thread last week talkin gabout how bad his re-signing stings that much more now that Yzerman and Babcock's man love for Toews has grown that much more. I think Miller had an absolutely dominant tournament but I agree, I think he could have had it. It looked liek he was thinking poke check on that won but showed too early and Crosby went five-hole. It's really too bad because even though I'm Canadian (and a huge Miller fan) I hated to see Miller lose on a goal like that. I would have much rather seen it happen on a goal he had no chance on. I was so pissed when ppl were laughing at the idea of Mike RIchards being named to this team because in my mind he was one of the guys we absolutely needed on team Canada. That being said, the Flyers have their captain locked up long term (until 2020 when he'll be 35). It's unfortunate because he's absolutely one of my favourite players and the kind of guy the Wings absolutely could use. He's the type of player you build a team around.

I always appreciate the applause. See, I don't understand the ppl that have blind patriotism. You should have standards and reasons for liking or disliking players. I dislike Crosby because in my opinion he's a whiner. That's not to take anything away from his skill and ability but I just dislike his personality. I'm canadian but just because it's the olympics and he puts on a Team Canada jersey doesn't mean that suddenly I'm going to love him off and start cheering for him. I like the way Mike Richards, Jonathan Toews, Duncan Keith, Rick Nash, Drew Doughty and some of the other Team Canada players play so when they were named to the team I was pumped. WHen guys like Joe Thornton, Corey Perry, Patrick Marleau, and Chris Pronger were named I was indifferent because although I'll give them credit for their skill and ability they each have personality traits that I dislike (Thornton and Marleau for no showing big games, Perry for being a chippy, spineless f***** at times, Pronger for not owning up to his cheapshots etc.) As I said in my previous post, I want Canada to win for the guys I like (which include Babcock, Yzerman, and Holland) but that doesn't mean I cheer or jeer for those I dislike.

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I'd have to agree with Drake. My personal preference is not to move Filppula period. However, if we were to move him I would think we would be able to get a better return than Jack Johnson. That being said, I am a fan of Johnson's and hope that he develops into the player a lot of ppl think he can become. Although, the notion of moving Lebda is appealing.....