Rice

$6.3 million for Timonen. Talk about overpayment.

I'm surprised Aucoin wasn't going the other way to replace Souray. Looks like the Canadiens agreed to buy out Cullimore.

No chance.

Marleau's contract expires after next season.

He's as good as its going to get without moving any parts of the team. He'll be good again this year and if he gets hurt, Howard gets time.

Great news!

Not so scary, because they'd most likely trade Marleau in the process.

I e-mailed the LA Times writer, Helene Elliott, who wrote the article a few weeks ago about Detroit and Anaheim's love for hockey. She responded with: Oh, sorry, party. Not parade. Is that supposed to be an excuse?

Brooks: Good news for the Wings.

That's an embarrassment.

Hudler's neither expandable nor expendable. Look at what he did this year. He turned crap minutes into 15 goals. He has a wealth of offensive potential, no reason to throw it away before giving him a legitimate shot with the team. Give him some time on the second line and if he's getting smoked trade him.

For the most part the Ducks' stars are only going to get better and they still have Bobby Ryan waiting. Pronger and Niedermayer are locked up for four more years. They'll make the post-season for a while. The good news is what has already been mentioned. They're young players are all going to be stars and they're going to have some cap issues. Plus, Burke has traded most of the clubs high picks. They'll be good for a couple years then probably slip to mediocrity.

Niedermayer didn't deserve it. I think the voters must've forgot that the Smythe means Playoff MVP, not Finals MVP. He looked pretty average to me in the Wings series and I wasn't even that impressed with him in the finals. Should've been Giguere.

What were you expecting? He hadn't played all season and had multiple injuries. As Chelios, Draper, and Holland have said, give him a couple months of off-season and he can be a force. A healthy Bertuzzi is better than Hartnell and the Wings can get him at a bargain price.

As others have said, it all depends on what happens with Hasek. I don't see the Wings management sticking with an Osgood-Howard tandem. I'd re-sign Schneider, Markov, Chelios, and Bertuzzi. Let Calder and Lang go. Smyth would be great but I don't think it's very realistic that the Wings sign him. It would be a long term deal paying him a lot of money. Down the road, Zetterberg's going to be up for free agency and you'll have Lidstrom, Smyth, and Datsyuk already making around $18-20 million. Lock up Zetterberg for $6-8 million (cap increase) and you have about half of your cap space tied up in four players. No thanks. Signing Smyth ultimately depends on what Lidstrom is going to do down the road. If he tells management he's going to be gone by the time Hank is a free agent, it's a possibility. I don't think Holland will take a run (get it?) at Hartnell. The Wings have maintained the reputation of a classy organization and I'm sure Holland wouldn't want to deal with the messes Hartnell consistently makes. After Hartnell, Kozlov and Zubrus would be my first choices. I like Handzus. Gelinas would be a good option too. The Wings inquired about Nolan at the deadline, I wonder if they'd sign him as a UFA. I wouldn't. Roberts would be good. Guerin is out there too. He probably can't command too much after such a s***ty playoffs. He could end up being a bargain with some time to gel. On defense, again it depends if Schneider re-signs or not. If he does re-sign at $3.5-4, the cap is at the expected $52 million, and Bertuzzi signs for $2-2.5 million, there's probably still room for Markov. If Schneider ends up leaving, I'd look at Hannan, De Vries, Sydor, Preissing, Sarich, Hamrlik, Vishnevski, Rafalski, and Sopel. If Schneider leaves, I'd like to see the defense get bigger and younger.

Samuelsson doesn't suck. The guy gets paid $1.2 million a year. He's big, he's good defensively, and he has some offensive upside. You're expecting too much out of him if you expect him to do more than that.

Ansar Khan: I really don't like this if it means the end of Markov in Detroit. Markov is as gritty as they come and was a great partner for Lidstrom. The Wings are sacrificing Markov's defensive ability and Kronwall's minutes for Schneider's pretty stats. Don't get me wrong, Schneider's great but how is Kronwall ever supposed to develop if he never gets the ice time? Let Schneider go, keep Markov's edge and physical presence. Up Kronwall's PP time and watch him put up better numbers.

I went to school with Hasek's son in sixth grade. When Hasek retired, his son left and hasn't come back yet. I don't know if he's been living here or in the Czech Republic.

How is that a diss?

I'm saying his powerplay time. When Schneider got hurt Kronwall started producing offensively. What I'm saying is the Wings can take a little less offensive output and have a better defense if they don't re-sign Schneider and keep Markov.

I'm not saying under his entire tenure, I'm saying under the current CBA which is coupled with the "New NHL" that so many people seem to dislike.

I love how absolutely everything wrong with the NHL is Gary Bettman's fault. Everyone seems to look at the bad and not the good. Obstruction is way down. Teams are more financially secure. If Bettman was nearly as awful as everyone seems to think he is, he'd be gone. It's not Bettman's fault that hockey isn't a good game for TV.

Look at Lidstrom. He's still the best defenseman in the league at 37. Him and Fedorov have so much talent they can still dominate. If Fedorov were to come back here, I think it would ignite his game. If you have a Fedorov playing with passion, he's better than Hartnell could ever dream to be. No one is saying the Wings should get Fedorov right now. There's no way I'd want the Wings to take on that $6 million either. He'd be an excellent deadline acquisition though.

Fedorov won't cost $6 million at the deadline. He still has all the tools to be a stud in this league, at any position.

Hartnell? More upside than Fedorov? Fedorov could still be lighting up the league if he played with any passion. A return to Detroit could do it. I don't know if I'm in favor of getting the guy back, but you're overrating Hartnell here.