McAwesome

Bummer. I only read the tagline on the front page that said it was possible that both teams could buy them out, in the article it says that Edmonton will likely keep Vandermeer. Too bad, I think he would been a good fit here.

TSN Hopefully Edmonton buys out Vandermeer and we can pick him up still

+1, with Vandermeer being bought out, we could afford to sign him to a cheaper salary without asking him to sacrifice his livelihood, and he would be the perfect replacement for Lilja, plays a similar style but without the threat of aggravating a severe concussion looming over his head (no pun intended). I still like Artyukhin as the bottom 6 addition for the same price, but that's just me, I would be perfectly fine with Winchester, Asham, Nystrom, any of aforementioned.

I think that was in reply to my question, so let me clarify: I was not implying that we should have targeted someone else, I had never heard of that kid, and I had read up a lot on the players that were projected to be drafted in rounds 4-7 because that is when we usually find gems that no one else has on their radar. I did not remember seeing that name on any scouting report I had read, hence the question mark above my head. I hope Marshall does well, and if he's lucky or good he may earn himself a spot in the future.

I cannot in good conscience vote for any of the options in the poll, nothing could possibly make me become a fan of another team or stop cheering for the Red Wings. While I was a little too young to have been through the Dead Things era, I remember the teams of the late 80's when it was Yzerman and a bunch of goons and nobodies, I grew up listening to games on the radio and eventually on TV, my parents moved away from Detroit before I was in high school, but as soon as we landed in South Carolina I begged then to get cable so I could still follow hockey and the Wings, I broke my foot on the coffee table in '95, I almost broke my hand the next year, I literaly ran laps around my neighborhood in my Yzerman sweater when we won in '97 (still haven't been able to get the sweat stains out, it's freaking hot in Charleston in June), I have lived and died Red Wings hockey (figuratively) for as long as I can remember, and nothing imaginable could get me to change.

Or at very least someone bigger. 2 more defensemen got taken after our pick, 6'3" and 6'4" respectively, one from Canada the other from Sweden. Puzzling to say the least

Benjamin Marshall, D, Mahtomedi High, MN 5'9", 160, shoots left. Does anyone else see the question mark above my head?

Woohoo!! Pulkkinen!!

Louis-Marc Aubry, anyone know anything about him?

Kabanov to the Islanders

With the 51st pick, Detroit selects.......... Calle Jarnkrok, Brynas 5'11", 156, has some growing to do, but from the highlights it looks like he could be a good scoring threat

LA trades up for Toffoli

How true. I've never met either of them, but from what I've heard this is indicative of their personalities, Gordie being a supremely confident, mean-spirited force on the ice, but humble and approachable off, while Gretzky being the much less forceful on the ice but very aloof and elitist off the ice. Transitioning back on topic, if you were to put Yzerman and Sakic in the same situation, both would have nothing but sincere praise for one another. In many ways, they are like mirror images of each other, almost eerily so.

Meh, that was nice, but that wouldn't even make Stevie Y's top 10. Since so many have been quoting stats to make their arguments, I decided to look at their numbers on a per-season basis rather than their whole career and here's what I found: Yzerman and Sakic both had 6 100-point seasons, look at the difference Yzerman: 155, 137, 127, 108, 103, 102 Sakic: 120, 118, 109, 105, 102, 100 As someone else pointed out, only 2 players have ever recorded more points in a single season than Yzerman's 155. Top 5 goal totals Yzerman: 65, 62, 58, 51, 45 Sakic: 54, 51, 48, 48, 41 Again, advantage Yzerman. Basically, what it boils down to is that Yzerman had the higher peak, while Sakic's peak lasted longer. You can attribute Yzerman's "decline" to a combination of injury and coaching style, but for a long time he was the only good player on his team, whereas Sakic had a better supporting cast for longer. From a purely objective view, the slight advantage goes to Yzerman, but as a Wings fan and more importantly as someone who grew up idolizing him, there is no contest, Yzerman hands down.

Any of the UFAs mentioned on here I would welcome, I just went with what I thought would fit out cap space as well as meet the roles at Holland said he was looking to fill. Artyukhin fills the gritty 4th line role, and Colaiacovo gives us a 5/6 Dman who fits our budget, both are not afraid to drop the gloves, and they are good for about 20-30 points each. I would really like to see Boychuck, but unless Boston is going to make an offer for Kaberle, I don't see them letting him go.

2010-11 DETROIT RED WINGS CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Tomas Holmstrom ($1.875m) Jiri Hudler ($2.875m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / Johan Franzen ($3.955m) Todd Bertuzzi ($1.938m) / * Justin Abdelkader ($0.900m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) * Patrick Eaves ($0.650m) / * Darren Helm ($0.750m) / * Evgeny Artyukhin ($0.800m) Kris Draper ($1.583m) / Mattias Ritola ($0.517m) DEFENSEMEN Nicklas Lidstrom ($6.200m) / Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) Brad Stuart ($3.750m) / Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) * Carlo Colaiacovo ($1.250m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($0.900m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) GOALTENDERS Chris Osgood ($1.417m) / Jimmy Howard ($0.717m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) ROSTER: 23; CAP:$59.0m; PAYROLL: $58.542m; CAP ROOM: $0.458m BONUSES: $0.000m

All right, Feb 17th @ Tampa Bay, any other LGW members in FL going?

He has already done that before, after the lockout he stayed and played 2 more years despite being under contract to TB, so hopefully that will no longer be a concern. This guy has the potential to become an absolute beast if he gets a chance to play regularly. If we sign him for our 4th line, he will probably end up playing the wing on Helm and Eaves line, and he is a good enough skater to keep up with those two, and could really do some damage.

I have been pro-Artyukhin since last off-season, the guy is huge, hits, fights, and has underrated hands from what I saw 2 years ago in TB, he didn't get much of a chance in Anaheim and got shipped off to Atlanta at the deadline, so his perceived value could be at an all-time low, we could snag him for around 750k and he would be a force on our 4th line.

Agreed, and regarding the bolded part, you're probably right, the revolution will not be televised, but it will be Twittered, Facebooked, and YouTubed to death.

Considering that he lost $43 million to a crooked financial advisor, I'm not surprised that he owes money. I'm not saying I have sympathy, I'll never understand why people who make millions of dollars a year don't just pay cash outright for their house, but whether its a multimillion dollar mansion or a 50,000 dollar single-wide trailer, it sucks to be facing foreclosure. I just hope his parents don't end up on the street because of this.

If Babcock is trying to create 3 scoring lines and a grind/shutdown line, this is not the group of forwards to do it with, there are not enough scorers to fill 3 lines, plain and simple. If you go with something like this: Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Hudler/Filppula/Franzen Bertuzzi/Abdelkader/Cleary Eaves/Helm/whomever that gives us 2 stacked scoring lines and 2 wreckingball lines that also have some scoring potential. No way Hudler or Filppula are going to be bumped down to the 3rd line in favor of Bertuzzi, at least not on a regular basis. Putting Bertuzzi together with Cleary and Abs will be one heck of a hard line to play against, they may not be the most scary line in terms of skill, but all 3 will crash the net (hopefully not all at the same time) and wear the opposing unit down, even if they spend their entire shift chasing the puck in the offensive zone, that is what a grinding line is supposed to do, forecheck and hit. The 4th line of Helm and Eaves + whoever will be our shut-down line, and having 2 4th-liners who hit double-digit goals last season is nothing to scoff at.

I stand corrected. I was thinking Sykora was still in Pittsburgh last year, he is the only player that would have been his teammate in Anaheim and playing for him.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Dan Bylsma teammates with some of the players he coached on last years's Penguins team? I'm not saying I disagree with you completely, but most of the players that would consider Chelios a peer (Except maybe Lidstrom, Draper, and Holmstrom) are already retired or no longer with the team. On the topic, I definitely agree that anyone could do a better job than McCrimmon, and if anyone can get hired as an NHL assistant without prior coaching experience, it's Chelios, he was practically a player-coach when he played, and his hockey knowledge, more importantly his knowledge of defensive strategy, would be a huge improvement.

I don't think that it is as simple as just adding Hudler and a 4th line grinder, though those are the most obvious. In order for the Red Wings to win the Cup on 2011, the following will have to happen: 1) Zetterberg and Datsyuk have to return to their former dominance. Both had disappointing years by their standards, and while they didn't play bad, their numbers were down in a season when we were counting on them more than ever with the loss of scoring depth. If the Eurotwins can get back to the 80-90 point range we will be back on top of the West 2) We cannot afford to have anywhere near the amount of injuries we sustained last season. Franzen, Filppula, and Kronwall would have been able to continue to build on the progress of recent years had they not missed half the season with injuries. Filppula and Franzen both returned to form eventually (Filppula was averaging almost a point per game for a stretch of 30 games, Franzen hit his stride in the playoffs as normal) but Kronwall looked tentative after returning from his knee sprain, which to me suggests that he never fully healed and was not able to play his style. If we can avoid major injuries keeping key players out of the lineup for long stretches we will be fine. 3) Hudler will put up points, we know that. If Bertuzzi is retained, he needs to be given a defined role, rather than being shuttled back and forth between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd line duty. Obviously it was not the ideal situation last season due to injuries, but I think Todd will have a better season overall if he knows what his role is and has a chance to play it consistently. Hudler is the same thing, give him a role, let him stick to that role, and watch him flourish. My ideal lines are as follows: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Hudler-Filppula-Franzen Bertuzzi-Abdelkader-Cleary Eaves-Helm-Draper/Ritola/Nystrom/Moreau/Insert Free Agent Here Lidstrom-Kronwall Rafalski-Stuart Ericsson-Lilja/Free Agent Kindl So many questions unanswered, July 1st can't come soon enough