Rice

I'm not really familiar with the Canucks' situation, but don't a lot of their fans want Mitchell to be named captain?

Good deal. Two years from now it'll look like a steal, just like the Zetterberg and Kronwall contracts. Hell, it might even look like a steal this season if he gets enough time with Hossa, Hank, or Pavel. No it's not.

Nice cap number but all signs point to him leaving the Panthers. He's going to cost a playoff team a boatload of assets at the deadline if the Panthers decide to go that route. Then again, looking at what the panthers got in return for Luongo and Jokinen, maybe not...

Detroit with Ottawa second. No one can come close to the Wings top unit though, which I'm sure we'll see occasionally on the PP: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Hossa Lidstrom-Rafalski

Hard to believe Datsyuk's 30 already.

Link. That's a link to every team's schedule, but you can select Detroit in the drop-down menu.

I don't think Toth is referring to Emery's work ethic and off-ice issues as hip hop, instead he's referring to Emery's lifestyle. It seems to me most NHL players are quiet guys who like to go about their own business -- pretty much the polar opposite of the other leagues. Emery is a unique personality in the NHL. Not many guys dress in flashy suits and drive Lamborghinis, to my knowledge at least. Anyway, I don't think Emery getting booted from the league has anything to do with racism. However, I've always thought the hair dying incident with Emery a few years back was a little fishy.

Considering he was in a class of his own this year, I think he's a safe bet to win it again barring injury. I don't think winning one each year until he retires is out of the question. He has at least two more seasons here in Detroit -- it's hard to say if he'll continue after that. I'm sure it depends on his own play and the team's play.

Zetterburg, Federov, Lindstrom, etc.

One bounce that lasted nine years. Maybe "bounce around" was the wrong terminology.

The '06-07 Islanders had no business being in the playoffs. As for '07-08, I'd say 13th is respectable for that roster. I'll ask you again: Who is available that could do better than Nolan?

Nolan can make crap teams overachieve. Who is out there that can take that Islanders team and do better? Their leading scorer last year had 49 points.

Amazing that such a good coach can bounce around the league so much. I wonder if he'd be interested in the assistant position.

I wanted him here during the deadline. Why? Because he was no-risk. If the Wings had signed him and he got hurt, the team lost nothing but money -- no picks, prospects, or other assets. The Wings wanted him too, but he turned their offer down.

Retire already, Peter.

Yeah, Jason Williams is that bona-fide number one center Atlanta's been looking for. Williams sucks. I don't understand what anyone sees in him.

I'm pretty sure he was on a line with Lang and Yzerman. He played point on the PP too.

Ah, yeah. TSN is missing a year in the breakdown part. Anyway, if the Wings want to keep Hossa and Zetterberg long-term they're going to have to do something like this I think.

So his cap number works out to roughly $6.8 million a season. Hopefully the Wings can do something similar with Zetterberg and Hossa.

Brent Gilchrist. / ?

This would be a solid move for Vancouver. The Sedin twins are borderline first-liners while Kovalchuk is one of the best goal-scorers in the game. He's a franchise forward. The Sedin's aren't.

If Hossa is playing with one of the twins, I think Datsyuk would be a much better fit. Datsyuk is a pure playmaker and Hossa is a pure finisher. Zetterberg's a great set-up man too but I think Hossa and Datsyuk would be incredible together.

I'm going to say 81. 81 seems like a good number for Hossa.

Well, Holland initially offered a long-term deal for less money and Hossa turned it down. The Wings want him long-term. If the cap goes up it's definitely a possibility -- but Franzen, Hossa, and Zetterberg would have to take discounted salaries. One thing that could work is if Zetterberg signs a one year deal knowing that Lidstrom will retire the next year and he can get a huge payday. But no one really knows if Lidstrom will retire or not.

No chance. Who the hell would be available that's better than Hossa? Hossa's about as good as it gets as far as forwards being available.