Matt

If they go generally by last year's benchmarks, the majority of Hasek's will be made in the playoffs. Though I am not completely certain on this, I do believe there are games-played bonuses in each contract.

I wouldn't necessarily call it "pining", but (as Chelios said in the interview) who wouldn't want to get dealt to a Stanley Cup contending team instead of playing out the string with a club that's fighting for top odds at the No. 1 pick in June?

How were they with them?

I agree wholeheartedly -- the package to get Hossa for this club, even as a rental, would dictate the necessity to justify the move by signing him to an extension. It's also something I don't think Waddell would have a difficult time allowing if he has given up trying to re-sign Marian himself. You want to know what would really get the player-movement-mongers going? If the Wings traded for Hossa they'd still have cap room to sign Peter Forsberg if he were willing to take a 1 or 2 year deal. (As long as he signs a multi-year contract prior to July 20th this year his contract is not locked into the cap because he's 34.) Talk about rebuilding your 2nd line! Oh, the joys of being a pipe-dreaming (or smoking, depending on your perspective ) fan...

IMO, Hudler wouldn't be the 'centerpiece' of a trade for Hossa, anyway. I don't think the conversation would start unless it included Kronwall (if he maintains his play he's a bargain at $3M/yr for the duration of his contract) or multiple 1st-round draft picks. As some in the media suggestion, if Waddell does trade him it would be a "hockey trade" and he'll want to get immediate help. Kronwall does that, Filppula does that. Hudler does that, albeit to a lesser degree than the two mentioned beforehand. Would management gamble with parting with Kronwall when you've got Kindl and Ericsson performing well in the A? It's a gamble. I think you'd be guaranteed to lose one (maybe two) of Kronwall, Kindl and Ericsson. You can kiss your 1st-rounder in 08 or 09 good-bye as well. What could make things interesting, if the team is actually very interested in him, is the gamble they're willing to take. Would they pull the trigger without an extension in place? If they did so, at a reduced personnel cost in the trade, would Atlanta add the caveat of conditional pick(s) if Detroit were to re-sign him before July 1st? Anyway... I think I'm putting the cart miles ahead of the horse here. This is starting to compare to the Roberto Luongo talk 18 months ago...

Wow. Just... wow. It's obvious his play against the Red Wings on Tuesday caused quite a stir, but the Hossa-to-Detroit talk has been going on since the start of the season (it just died down due to his groin injury and the thought that progress was being made in contract negotiations to keep him in Atlanta... plus, well, it was early in the season still.) The clock analogy makes no sense -- we're talking about a franchise right wing here. Hossa isn't just "good" -- he's a great player. He resides in the rarified air of NHL right wingers that includes Jarome Iginla, Dany Heatley, Daniel Alfredsson, Martin St. Louis and Jaromir Jagr. This is a winger that, in 2.5 seasons in Atlanta, has racked up 101 goals and 234 points in 206 games. That said -- no, he is not some magic elixir that guarantees a Stanley Cup, but no one is. What he is, however, is a big, explosive winger with speed and exceptional scoring ability that immediately ramps up the Red Wings' offense and especially the power play. He stretches a defense. He's a 100pt. player on the wing on a roster that has lacked that kind of player. He IS the scoring winger the Red Wings have lacked. And the last time I checked romping your way through the regular season means nothing -- he's not here for the regular season scoring. He'd be here for what would be the likely inevitable showdown against a defense that boasts Pronger, Schneider, Beauchemin and a rested Neidermayer. The Ducks didn't beat the Red Wings down last year, it was unfortunate injuries to the blueline and the inability for the Red Wings' power play to score critical goals. Rafalski has helped that tremendously there and Hossa would cap off two absolutely explosive units. With all of that in mind, do I think he'll end up in Detroit? Probably not -- and that's not for a lack of wanting him. But would the club benefit greatly from having him on this team? Abso-friggin'-lutely. He's a perfect fit.

Today's sign that the Apocalypse is upon us: I agree with all of Drew's points. Wow.

I'd have to look over Anaheim's cap situation but if they re-sign Selanne, as expected, I think that would effectively take them out of the running. (I'd hope.) Another West contender, San Jose, would probably be better served to add to their blueline (Blake, Kuba, etc.) and they were big buyers at the deadline last year with Guerin and Rivet.

Not necessarily. If Waddell knows Hossa intends to test the market (as indicated above) -- he WILL trade him, even if it means damaging the club's playoff chances. Last year they went for broke at the deadline and were blasted right out of the playoffs... Instead of losing Hossa for nothing in July the organization will be better off, long term, to build up more assets. Because, the way I look at it, is that they parted with so much last year, got two playoff home gates out of it, and now come this summer they'll be out the prospects, picks and now their sniper 1B to Kovalchuk's 1A. I'd try to manage my losses and help build back what was lost in the failed trades at last year's deadline.

IMO, if the Wings did deal they would like to sign him long term -- and that means some creative cap juggling. You're fine next year, but when Zetterberg's extension comes due (he won't get less than $7.3M, IMO) you've got some manuvering to do because Lidstrom's $7.45M is still on the roster there. If the cap is going to continue to rise, this makes it possible. But that's a gamble -- a big one. For instance, assuming the Wings signed Hossa for around $8.0M/year, you're talking about having $31-million tied up in the salaries for Datsyuk, Lidstrom, Rafalski, Hossa and Kronwall. That's a lot of coin when you consider it rapidly approaches $40 million with Zetterberg's extension.... $36-38M tied up in 6 players.

Hossa would be absolutely lights-out on this team, but it'd come down to personnel cost. That cost will be VERY high, and if the Wings are going to part with a lot to get him, that means they'll want to sign him long term.... which leads to some serious salary cap issues heading into 2009-10. We'll have to see, anything's possible.

Some of you have undoubtedly noticed some new advertisements appearing on the left side of the screen over the last couple of weeks, and that leads me to this: The LetsGoWings.com Fan Gear store is now open! The store is a collection of custom t-shirts (and some other things) that are the byproduct of ideas discussed here on the site. A good number of the shirts available now were actually in the works for a few months (some shelved due to the site update in November) and were kicked around and tweaked with help from the Boosters here. (Thanks!) The newest additions to the lineup is a salute to "Old School Hockey" -- anyone that played video games in the 1990s knows how EA's NHL '93 lives on today in all of its bleeding head glory, along with another nod to Steve Yzerman with the "Legend" shirts. Other staples include a play off Apple's famous "iPod" advertisements, which include immortalized moments such as Yzerman lifting the Cup in 1997, Darren McCarty pounding on Claude Lemieux during the Brawl in Hockeytown and finally -- with three different options -- Patrick Roy's Statue of Liberty play in Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals. The mainstay over the years (which originated at this site's CafePress account) is the "Eat. Sleep. Hockey." shirts, though here they can be purchased in all kinds of colors and styles. I hope you guys like the shop and if you have ideas and/or suggestions for new shirts for the shop, please feel free to let me know!

QFT.

I'd like to announce the capability on the LetsGoWings.com Forums to now be able to embed videos in your posts! You should notice a new BBCode icon () i both the standard post sceens and th fast reply. The modification automatically determines how do display the embedded video and supports videos from the following popular video-sharing sites: - YouTube (www.youtube.com) - GoogleVideo (video.google.com) - LiveLeak (www.liveleak.com) - Veoh (www.veoh.com) - GameTrailers (www.gametrailers.com) - iFilm (www.ifilm.com) - Revver (www.revver.com) - BrightCove (www.brightcove.com) - MySpaceVideo (vids.myspace.com) - CollegeHumor (www.collegehumor.com) - vSocial (www.vsocial.com) - Guba (www.guba.com) - Glumbert (www.glumbert.com)

Looks like I should hand over the keys the next time I down a bit of 'Tussin when I get a bad cough. Alas, those in glass houses... Enough with the talk on Heatley's accident -- it's a non-issue for what this thread was intended. Anyone that makes any post regarding it can find themselves with a 7-day vacation.

Just to update on the Red Wings' current estimated salary cap space..... Projected end-of-season space hasn't changed. It's still roughly $5,474,189 However, the full-season equivalent has jumped a little over $916,000 from last week to $12,043,174. Basically, the Red Wings can now afford to take on roughly $12-million in full-season player salaries. (For argument's sake, they could afford to trade for BOTH Mats Sundin ($5.5m) and Marian Hossa ($6.0m) right now and they'd fit in under the cap. The likelihood of that happening? Zero, zilch, nada... But the capabilty *is* there.)

I'm almost certain it is possible, it just wasn't included with the current release of this modification. I'll take a look at the mod itsel and see if I can update it manually to accept facebook videos. This happened right after the Wings elimated the Canuck in Game 6 of their 2002 series. Basically, Chelios was getting it from the fans the entire series (not helped by Bertuzzi clobbering him) and in Game 6 -- if I remember right -- he had a 3- or 4-assist game and was named one of the "Stars of the Game"... ... Needless to say, Chelios didn't pass up the opportunity to take one more skate on the ice.

You're starting to sound like Lou Lamoriello... Anyway... There's no point, really. As Heaton said, you'd have to put someone on IR and even then you'll be counting the salaries of both players (player on IR and the call-up) against the cap. If the Wings do opt to do this (and I wouldn't be surprised to see some "nagging injuries" or "general soreness" among the vets if the Wings keep this pace up), it'll happen post-trade deadline.

The absolute earliest Zetterberg can be officially re-signed is July 1st, 2008. Players that have signed multi-year deals can sign extensions at any point in the final season of the current deal (read: post-July 1st, 2008 if your deal expires on June 30th, 2009)... Players that have signed ONE-year deals cannot negotiate a new contract until after January 1st of the current season. This should end the Zetterberg extension talk. LOCKED.

23 player roster limit. So, who do you want to send down and then lose via waivers?

Haha, that's the Chelios video I put up originally right after the game in 2002.

I'd like to announce the capability on the LetsGoWings.com Forums to now be able to embed videos in your posts! You should notice a new BBCode icon () i both the standard post sceens and th fast reply. The modification automatically determines how do display the embedded video and supports videos from the following popular video-sharing sites: - YouTube (www.youtube.com) - GoogleVideo (video.google.com) - LiveLeak (www.liveleak.com) - Veoh (www.veoh.com) - GameTrailers (www.gametrailers.com) - iFilm (www.ifilm.com) - Revver (www.revver.com) - BrightCove (www.brightcove.com) - MySpaceVideo (vids.myspace.com) - CollegeHumor (www.collegehumor.com) - vSocial (www.vsocial.com) - Guba (www.guba.com) - Glumbert (www.glumbert.com)

Toby -- You're right, you do need to have that space available. The most recent example of that was the return of Scott Neidermayer to the Ducks. For the sake of the chart, like you said, I'm not going to add that note in except as a possible footnote somewhere on the page.

I'm not privvy to information as to how the Red Wings actually pay their players, but for salary cap purposes it applies to days that players are on the active roster. I'll turn you over to the fantastic NHLSCAP.com web site for clarification: http://nhlscap.com/cap_faq.htm

I don't know if this was pointed out already, but I was listening to the interview on the way home from the office and when Chelios said the "Wings" part of it it was completely in a "you never know what can happen kind of thing" -- in the sense that there's 0.00000000000001% chance it will actually happen. The Grand Rapids thing? Possibly -- but he's got to prove himself in Flint first. Kudos for Draper extending the hand to help get Mac back in hockey.