kliq

As a fan of his I hope so, but I really doubt it.

Agreed. Nothing against him, but I would bet that when his career is over, last year will end up being his career year by a mile.

Frank......its harder to sustain a high average the more games you play, not the other way around. Either way, its no question who the better player is today as Z has definitely declined with age, but I still believe that Toews is the most overrated player in the NHL. Yup.....yet he's still considered the leader and the #1 reason why the Hawks have won 3 cups. That was the moment Seabrook showed me who the true leader of the Hawks is. Keith/Seabrook deserve alot more credit then they get. I'm sick of Toews being talked about like he is the best player in the league.

Obviously Towes now, but during their prime I say Zetterberg. I believe Toews may be the most overrated player in the league. He is definitely a great player, but he has been surrounded by great players and great coaching and has put in a better situation then anyone else in the NHL not named Kane. It will be very interesting to see what he can do now that he and Kane are taking up so much of Chicago's cap.

I'd say Nyquist. There is something special about him. Reminds me of the way I felt about Zetterberg back when he first came into the league.

From the small sample size I saw of Ferraro last year, I really liked the energy he brought to the ice. I never noticed that from Andersson.

I would be shocked if a month or two into the season nobody is injured. Every team always seems to have a few injuries going on as the season progresses. I will say though, its nice that people have finally dropped the "we're injury prone" talk!

Got this from the Wings site: For questions, please contact the ticket sales office at 313-471-7575 or SEASONTICKETS@HOCKEYTOWN.COM

I got my season tickets last week, not sure when individual games go on sale. I'm guessing soon. Just to give you a head's up, with a 10 game package upper bowl for that game cost me $98 per ticket.

NJ did nothing wrong, even Brodeur admits this when talking about it in that article as he says: "It's hard. There is no one to blame,". But even if you did think they did do something wrong, that would be on the coach not Lou anyways.

I really have no clue what are you talking about. They resigned Brodeur to a 2 year deal on Jul 02, 2012. They traded for Schneider on June 30th 2013, when Brodeur had 1 year left on his contract so Schnieder could be his successor. In 2013/14 Brodeur played 39 games, Schenider played 45 games. I really don't see any wrong doing on NJ's end. Teams replace goalies at the end of their run. Its not like they signed Brodeur, then traded for Schenider 2 days later only to play Brodeur 5 games. It was 1 year later. Plus, how to we know what was said to Brodeur anyways? Has Brodeur been quoted saying that people were not clear with him? Or that he was lied to?

Leafs hired a stats guru as assistant GM, I guess only time will tell how it works out for them. did http://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2014/07/22/maple_leafs_shake_up_front_office_hire_stats_guru_kyle_dubas_28_as_assistant_gm.html Also, here is an article where Mike Babcock is firmly behind the use of stats. The reason why I bring this up is because I am pretty sure you have said many many of times that Babcock is the best coach in hockey, if true, shouldn't we take his opinion seriously and not dismiss them? No offense Frank, but I trust Babs opinion over yours any day. http://redwings.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=727102 Here is also a section from the article, clearly its not just the Leafs moving in this direction. The Boston Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils this summer have hired or promoted from within executives with statistical backgrounds. Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford has talked about how he will incorporate analytics into the team's front office. The Chicago Blackhawks and Los Angeles Kings have used analytics to win the Stanley Cup twice each in the past five seasons. St. Louis Blues coach Ken Hitchcock is on record saying he uses analytics as part of his decision-making process for match-ups and chemistry.

Its 6.1 million per year.

Sure, but I dont think "liability on the ice, like some people believe he is / will be... He's not nearly as bad defensively as some are claiming" fits into that category.

Man that sucks. I always knew of the penalty, but I thought if the Wings traded him the burden of the penalty would fall on the team acquiring him.

What's being pointed out are certain posters perception of his flaws. Whether that perception is actually reality is the big question. You are entitled to your opinion that he has flaws, just as krsmith17 is entitled to his opinion that his flaws are being overblown. Personally I have not watched enough AHL games to truly have a strong opinion on the matter. I will say this though, people on here have a tendency to exaggerate things, and once a narrative is created for a player, its very hard to break that narrative (ie. Quincey sucks).

What situation? Schneider was brought on to replace Brodeur and it worked. Are you thinking of Vancouver and the Luongo/Schnieder situation?

I don't want to trade Pulkkinen for a rental unless we have a chance of resigning him. Its one thing if come the trade deadline we are a D-man away from being legit cup contenders, but if we're not I don't want to do this trade. Not saying Pulkkinen is going to be a star, but he has an upside and we own his rights for quite a few more years.

I hope not, the more people you do something like that with the less funny it becomes.

Not disputing this in any way, but what is the exact rule on that? If we trade Franzen while healthy and then he retires 2 years from now, we get penalized? Is it because of the length of his contract?

There is nothing wrong with critiquing a player. Where people get annoyed is when it goes from valid criticism (ie. "I think player X is a poor skater") to just bashing a player for everything and anything they do, or going the immature route.

My comments still stand. If he is healthy and playing well, there is a zero chance that he is the 13th forward. He may start the year on the IR, but once he is off, I don't see him being benched unless he is playing poorly or hurt.

If he is fully healthy, there is zero chance Franzen is sitting in the press box. The only way this happens, is if he plays and plays like garbage.

Another option I have heard is that if you are on your original team on your first stint, only 85% of your cap hit actually counts against the cap. (I made up 85% as I couldn't remember the actual number, but I'm sure everyone gets my point).

You always talk about this Frank, but you realize that there are a lot of downsides to the players if they do this: Here are a few I read in an article on cbc.ca http://www.cbc.ca/sports-content/hockey/opinion/2012/11/answers-to-nhlpa-decertification-questions.html OK, what are the downsides for the players? "There are a few downsides," Feldman said. "The basic downside is the players lose protection of labour law and... the protection a union gives you. Any other industry would celebrate this [because it allows the owners to] implement whatever rules and conditions we want. It would hurt a significant number of players. [You have] exposed yourself to the mercy of NHL owners." Guaranteed contracts? Health benefits? Pensions? Minimum salaries? All of that could be affected. During the NBA's 2011 labour battle, Ron Klempner, associate general counsel of the National Basketball Players' Association, said the players were better off without a union. "That may be true for superstars, maybe not for others," Feldman said. "The third risk," he added, "is if you lose. You've spent a tremendous amount of money on legal fees, [there's a] cancelled season and you've lost all leverage. [Decertification] is most powerful as a threat, because there's still uncertainty. If you fire off your weapon and there's no damage, you're weaponless."