kliq

100% agree. To win a championship in any of the major team sports, you essentially need an entire sequence of events/instances to go a certain way. Whether it is your goalie playing well, team staying healthy, top guys scoring, bottom 6 contributing, a health dynamic in the locker room, to even smaller things like that puck the goalie didnt see hitting the tip of his skate opposed to going in the net, or that puck taking 2 bounces and going in giving your team a GWG and all these things need to happen ALOT in order to win those 16 playoff games. My point is, all the stars need to align. I will give Toews credit, he was given a role on the Blackhawks and no doubt he does his role very well. The misconception is that Towes is THE reason why the Blackhawks have won 3 Stanley Cups. Towes has played his role, but without Kane scoring, Keith and Seabrook scoring/defending, Niemi and Crawford shutting the door in some key instances, the coaching staff coming up with the right plways, pucks going the teams way etc. Chicago doesn't win anything. Please don't confuse this as me saying they are just lucky or as Towes being a bad player as that is not at all what I am saying, what I am saying is that a championship is won by a collection of things. People forget this is a team game, not an individual sport. Unfortunately fans/media love to put it all on one person. When a team wins they give a player all the credit, when a team loses they love to give that one player all the blame. Towes is one of many key pieces to the Chicago dynasty, he isn't the entire dynasty. Lets not confuse him with guys like Yzerman, Messier, Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby etc.

I'm sorry, but I read this all I heard in my head was Pee Wee Herman saying "I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I....HAHAHAHA"

Just saw it http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhl-unveils-100-greatest-players-time/ What a joke. Put Toews on any other team and he doesn't come close.

St Louis demanded a trade and was traded, Drouin demanded a trade and was not traded. Those two situations were literally handled completely opposite of each other.

Lets not make this thread about Ken Holland or the Illitch Family. The question I ask, is what would you do if you were the GM of the Wings assuming you had full control, and 100% backing by ownership for whatever you wanted to do. From firing or keeping the coach to trading away players to singing UFA's, what specific moves would you do?

There really are 3 ways to answer this question. 1) Who are the worst 3 players on this team talent wise 2) Who are the worst 3 players in relation to their role 3) Who are the three worst players in relation to their cap hit I am going to answer this question based on a combination of option 2/3 because option 1 is obvious as I dont think anyone would not pick Ott, Miller etc. if we are talking option 1. 1) Mrazek - I think the guy has a super high ceiling, but he has be dreadful this year. His cap hit is no longer low (4mil) and he ranks amongt the worst in the league at his position. As of today he ranks 45/47 in Save % and 42/47 in terms of GAA. Howard in comparison ranks 2/47 in both 2) E - I think this is the guy that the majority of us want off the team. High caphit and poorly playing in a top 4 role. Should be on a third pairing being paid between 1-2million per year (ie. Quincey on NJ money) 3) Sheahan - The guy has been a top 6/top 9 player for the most of the year and does not have a goal to show for it, and its not like the assists are there either. 4) DD - The guys is playing in the 1A role right now and has struggled on D and offensively has 7 points (on par with E). I think he definitely has a bright future, but if we are looking at the guy for how he has performed this season in a bubble for his role/caphit, he's been bad. 5) Kronwall - Paid like a top 4 guy but his body is breaking down. I actually dont have any ill will as the guy has given us everything he has had this past decade, I hope he either goes on LTIR, or gets back to 100%. Though the latter would shock me.

100% agree, which is odd because you would think player safety would matter to them. I dont even care what you do with the fines. Take them and place them into the escrow account, I dont care. I'm guessing their issue is if a coach tells a player to do something, and then gets fined while the coach has no punishment. Maybe it is a bit more complicated then it appears at first glance. Either way, something needs to change.

This is often said about the Lions and the Ford family, are you saying that you want Ilitch out of the equation?

Wow! I thought it was a joke before, but seeing the actual number really puts it into perspective as to how pathetic their system is.

Read Echolalia's post below, I couldn't counter this post any better then what he wrote. This team has the talent to make the playoffs (not win the cup), but easily to make the playoffs. IMO most who think otherwise are not evaluating the team without bias and emotion.

When Trouba was on the trade market, word was they wanted Larkin as the starting point.

What a joke, these BS fines are why this stuff will never leave the game. You want to truly protect players, give them suspensions with significant loss of pay.

Illitch will never go for that.MAYBE he'll be able to trade Vanek and Smith, but a complete blow-up will never happen.

Well....I'm sure a bit of both lol. In all seriousness, the kid is good.

Where did you see this?

Of course they will, they will see it as they watch from the bench

Damn.....I wanted Boston getting zero out of this game. Lets put it away in OT boys!

Shoot sorry, I thought his question was "Is Bertuzzi Exempt?" So I answered "Yes He Is". I'll edit.

Yes he is exempt, here is our list of exempt players according to capfriendly.com EXEMPT AGE POS CAP HIT EXPIRY INJ Franzen, Johan 37 RW $3,954,545 UFA (2020) INJ Vitale, Joe 31 C $1,116,667 UFA (2017) Larkin, Dylan 20 C $925,000 RFA (2018) Svechnikov, Evgeny 20 LW $894,167 RFA (2019) Sadowy, Dylan 20 LW $880,833 RFA (2019) Smith, Givani 18 LW $725,833 RFA (2019) Turgeon, Dominic 20 C $686,667 RFA (2019) Holmström, Axel 20 C $686,667 RFA (2019) Bertuzzi, Tyler 21 LW $661,667 RFA (2018) Nastasiuk, Zach 21 RW $647,500 RFA (2018) Lorito, Matt 26 LW $637,500 UFA (2018) Renouf, Daniel 22 D $767,500 RFA (2018) Hronek, Filip 19 D $725,833 RFA (2019) Saarijärvi, Vili 19 D $686,667 RFA (2019) Russo, Robbie 23 D $680,000 RFA (2017) Hicketts, Joe 20 D $635,000 RFA (2019) Paterson, Jake 22 G $628,333 RFA (2017)

I protect: F - Nielsen, Zetterberg, AA, Mantha, Nyquist, Tatar, Helm D - DD, Green, Sproul (though I give strong consideration to XO) G - Mrazek I protect Helm over Abby because despite what some may think, I think Vegas takes on Helm's contract, Abby's I cant see them wanting due to the term. I wouldn't protect Kronwall, with his knees being what they are, I cant see Vegas taking him. My top choice would be for him to recover 100%, but from what I read its a chronic issue that is not getting much better. Plus if he is taken, it just helps us cap wise. As for Green, I protect him because he could end up landing us a 1st or 2nd rounder next year. I am just hoping that Vegas takes either Howard or E, I would even be okay with Sheahan. Best case scenario is they take E, we trade Howard, trade Franzen's contract to a floor team, and Kronwall officially goes on LTIR. Those 4 things happen and we are good cap wise. Yes, I realize this is wishful thinking, and wont happen lol but one can hope. Not to mention within the next 18 months we lose the cap hits for Green, Miller, Ott, Vanek, Smith and Vitale (about 14.3 million). The reason I care about Franzen's contract is because LTIR only goes so far, and I have a strong feeling that both Kronwall and Z will end up there at some point and I would rather make room now opposed to scramble later. Does anyone know if this is done live on TV? Or is it done behind closed doors and we find out the results after the fact?

I was just listening to local radio and they mentioned Trevor van Riemsdyk and Ville Pokka. I dont know much about either.

Very well written. The funny thing is, I am not saying that tanking doesn't work, what I am arguing is that tanking isn't an absolute must in order to win the cup, something that you have definitely proven in the post above. IMO the key to winning a cup is smart drafting. The higher you pick definitely gives you a better chance, but there are many other important variables at play.

I would do it for Duncan Keith lol. I'm not sure what we could get from them as I'm not too familiar with their young players other then Panarin who is going nowhere. My guess is they would try to throw some s***ty picks our way. I'm obviously joking about Keith, but if we trade those 2 I would prefer to trade them for a d-man that can be here for a long time. They are not E (ie. players I just want to dump from the team).

My point is that tanking and rebuilding is not the ONLY way to build a cup contender. - The Wings in 2008, and the Bruins in 2011 both did it. - Sure Pittsburgh tanked, but the Crosby pick was pure luck (draft lottery after the lockout where every team had an equal chance). So you can credit "tanking" but you are ignoring the extremely good luck they had with that pick. Whichever team landed that generational pick was likely going to win a cup over the next decade. They dont get that pick, I dont think they win a cup. - Chicago got Kane and Towes by tanking, though without Seabrook (14th overall) and Keith (54th overall) I dont think they win anything either. Again, you can say its because of tanking, I say its more due to really good drafting by Tallon and co. - LA did suck for a long time so you could argue they tanked as well, but other then DD I don't think they had any top 10 players that they drafted. There team was a result of good drafting in the later rounds and trades. If we don't ONLY allow cup winners into this conversation, plenty of deep talented teams that have gone far in the playoffs and have done so without tanking, that is why I brought up SJ and NYR. Though I get why you refuse to acknowledge that, it simply doesn't fit your narrative. I am not saying that tanking doesn't sometimes work, what I am saying is that it is not the only way. If you are building a team, there is nothing you can do that guarantees a championship, all you can do is set your team up to be contenders. NYR and SJ both did that. The fact they they blew it last minute doesn't negate the fact they will were built and had success. At the end of the day we have a very small sample size of cup winners over the last 9 seasons with only 5 winners during that time. When you break it down, of those 5 teams, 3 arguably tanked, 2 didnt and since the 3 that did have multiple championships it makes it look like tanking is the only way. Ask the other teams that tried it how it worked out for them, but keep sidestepping with your cynical quips.

Well this sucks. We are a team that struggles to score and we just lost 2 of our best. Well Jurco, this is your chance to prove yourself.