Richdg

The good news is, we own the Canucks this year.

Just win baby! Don't care how or what the score is. We have to have the 2 points.

Again, of the top 100 skaters for this years draft, 16 are from the USHL, or 1 per team. Of the same list, 21 are from the WHL, or just under 1 per team. I realize that most hockey fans have the Canada thing going on, but the numbers do not support your beliefs. Now for the top 10-20 players each year, the ones that will make the NHL in 1-2 years, they go to the CHL because of the stipind and the history. But those that are going to take longer 3-5 years to make the NHL and want to play college hockey, they go to the USHL and protect their eligability. Now, like I said, 10 years ago there was in fact a huge difference between the USHL and the CHL. But that isn't the case anymore. yes there are far more teams in the CHL. So they have more players and the law of averages is on the CHL's side. But if you look at the numbers of top rated prospects per team, it is very close/the same. Like I said, this year the USHL has more top 100 propsects per team than the WHL does.

Yes Z and dat have been slowly declining for about 5 years now. Not a giant sudden drop, but the slow one that happens with father time. It will continue. 1 is 32 the other 35. This is to be expected. neither was ever truely a goal scorer. Like most Euro C's they forced themselves to learn to shoot, and did well for several years.neither is very big and yes the season and grind will wear them down. This isn't a surprise. It is normal. It is the fact we have no one to step up and replace/improve over them that is new. When Stevie, Federov, and Shanny started to slow down, we have Z and dat. Now we have..... tatar? Yikes.

White is gone after the season. The one plus from playing Cola is, it does create some value so maybe we can move him. if those 2 are gone our 7 man D is set for next season. The only real question is Smith-better offensively or Lashoff-better defensively. Ideally we play both of them as the third pair and move Quincey. But that would require an agressive GM.

many things come to mind here. 1. bettman is the owners stooge. he does what THEY want. Period. same is true in every league. 2. The easy solution is, cancel the pre-season, and take the 2 week break-cancel the AS game and break as well-no one really cares. 3. if the NHL players are not allowed to play, this summer may become very interesting. many Euros may decide to stay home and not play for the NHL next season, so they can play in the WO. The KHL pays well enough that star players may do it. 4. I mentioned before the creation of a Hockey Super league. This could happen out of this type of disagreement. 5. One other poster brought up a thought. This could be a means of fixing the transfer agreement with Russia. After all, where are the games played this winter?

This is part of the transition of our team. 5 years ago, guys like White were common on our blueline. smaller Dmen that were good passers. Now our Dmen are much bigger, better skaters-as a group, but not as good of passers/puck handlers. The real problem is our top 2 forward lines were built for the old style of play. It is a mismatched skill set. Our Dmen are built to join the rush or drive the puck deep. The forwards don't play that style so it seems odd at times.

It will be fun. BJ's have 1 fewer games to play and 2 points ahead, Stars have 1 more game than us and are 2 points behind. We have the tie breakers over BJ's but the Stars have the tie breaker over us. It will come down to the last game vs the Stars. The winner of that game gets to play Chicago in the 1st round.

The intelligence of your posts is awe inspiring. are you a twin?

Not true at all. You have to keep in mind that the UN Under 18 plays in the USHL, and they have maybe half of the top US prospects playing on the team. 10 years ago I would agree with you. But the USHL has done a great job overall in developing their league, and getting top US players to play there. For example, using this ranking-one of many, the number of USHL players in the top 100 (16) and the number of WHL players in the top 100 (21) is very close. Now this is just 1 ranking for 1 year. Also the WHL has more teams 22 to 16. http://www.nhl.com/ice/draftprospectbrowse.htm?cat=1&sort=finalRank&year=2013&pg=1 But the days of having a big difference or any difference is just about gone.

In an odd turn of events, RW fans can be interested in both. Not saying this is good or bad, but we do have a interest in both, for the first time in about 20 years. If we make the PO's our streak continues. but if we miss the PO's, by even 1 point, we have a chance (slim) at the #1 overall pick. TBH, I like it. You don't have to tank a season if you are a borderline team to have a chance. yes your chance improves greatly if you are really bad, but there is no reason to force your team to lose. The negative is, teams play harder untill the end. Which may hurt us.

USHL is the equal to CHL. Better than the WHL but slightly behind the other 2. Just not as many teams. USHL is very very good.

Didn't make any. Nor will I, not the place for that type of discussion.

You know the answer. The some types that hijack planes and fly those into buildings. don't doubt this. High profile internationally known event. Patriots Day in Boston. Think about it.

I understand bert's desire to play again. but he really needs to think about his long term quality of life. No Hockey game is worth not being able to walk, play with your kids etc... he has already had 2 major back surguries, and if he isn't real carefull could have a 3rd. I would like to see bert healthy. Period. i don't care if he ever plays again. he has had a long and successful career. No need to risk his life or spend the rest of it wheel chair bound.

There was an in depth study on he success in the NHL, based on where you are drafted, done in 08 IIRC. They used 200 career games as the standard of career NHL player. Of the 1st round picks from 1990 through 2005, 63% become career NHL players. 25% of second round picks became career NHL players. of all the picks 3rd round and later, only 12% became career NHL players. I am sure a nexus search will find it.

Yes, but he can also leave anytime. In a perfect world, he would sign, go to Toledo for a year or 2, and the RW would hire Hommer to be his tutor on how to play in front of the net.

This is a mixed bag. No we haven't had many 1st round picks, and 63% of those become career NHL players. So on that front we are doing well. But if you look at the ages of these guys, you see where our problem is. There are a bunch of guys 25 and younger, and several 30 and older. Very few in the 25-30 range, which should be most players prime years. Which of course goes back to the not having many 1st round picks. Last season was even worse with Nick and Hommer still playing.

A much needed 2 points tonight. Keeping in mind, that as of today Dallas has the tie breaker with us. We have to have a 3 point lead going into the last game of the year. Damn, Dekeyser is looking awesome. Always plays his man and stays with him in the defensive zone. Looking very good on the rush, and making smart plays. Glad we have him, and if this level of play (or better) continues for the next 12 years or so, we all will be very very happy!

Ok, for better or worse I can see the following as our opening game roster: CAPGEEK.COM USER GENERATED ROSTER My Custom Lineup FORWARDS Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Damien Brunner ($3.000m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Mikael Samuelsson ($3.000m) Joakim Andersson ($1.000m) / Valtteri Filppula ($5.000m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Jordin Tootoo ($1.900m) Cory Emmerton ($0.533m) / DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) Jakub Kindl ($1.500m) / Brendan Smith ($1.500m) Danny DeKeyser ($1.350m) / Brian Lashoff ($0.725m) Carlo Colaiacovo ($2.500m) / Kyle Quincey ($3.775m) GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.000m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled with the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; CAP PAYROLL: $64,221,212; BONUSES: $850,000 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): $928,788 The roster is full, the cap is almost all spent, and the forward group stinks. Old (8 players 30 or older) injury prone, and of the 5 guys that would be considered big players, 3 are done and 2 are more checkers than anything. It is also 1 forward short-most teams like to carry 14. but we have an extra Dman who could/should be moved. On D, not a bad group overall. But we do have an extra body to move and free up cap/add a better forward. G is all set. The young forwards that we do have are stuck in GR. We also still have 2 buyouts that we can use. The question becomes, if you are the GM, what do you do to improve this team?

Beg to disagree on jarnkrok. I watch him this weekend. he isn't close to being ready to play in the NHL. In fact, the player I saw friday night, isn't close to be a ready for the AHL. Not trying to be a smart a$$ either. he took 1 faceoff, lost it badly, then ferraro took the rest of the FO's for the rest of the night. he spent 90% of his time in the middle 1/3 of the ice from face off dot to face off dot. he never held onto the puck for longer than 2 seconds. he speed was average. Mursak, Jurco, tatar, Pare where all clearly faster. Others played faster do to being older and more familier with the style of play. he is much smaller, clearly smaller than Mursak, tatar, pare, almquist etc.... he neds 2 full years in the AHL to even be close to being a potential NHL player, to say nothing of a star. Now it was one game. But I didn't see anything in his game that stood out. Not size, not speed, not skill, not effort. The best 2 things i can say i saw where: he hit a post on his 1 shot, and he does seem to be defensively responsible. Like most Euro C's, he plays high. meaning, in the offensive zone he is up high by the Dmen.

Went and watched him play last night. he isn't close to being NHL ready. In fact he needs to really improve to even be a good AHL player. very small, lacked big time speed.

How does he help with our need for size and grit? No thanks.

Right. NJD don't need a new G, Toronto doesn't have any G issues. isles same. Howard would have gotten much more on the market. 6+ million per year.

back from the game. Thoughts. 1. Flat beer and stale hot dog buns suck, even when those only cost $1 each. 2. jarnkrok is noticabley smaller than everyone else on the team. Guys like tatar, Mursak, and Almquist are clearly bigger than he is. 3. griffins played a terrible game. only Mursak showed any energy. Which as a smaller puck possesion team is death. 4. neither Ned or Sproul played. Might be waiting untill after they clinch? Now, jarnkrok. I hope O spelled that right. Ok, for those hoping or thinking he will be with the RW next year, sorry not going to happen. if it does it means we are truely screwed. he isn't close to being ready. TBH, I am not sure he is ready to play at the AHL level. Granted this is/was just one game. But I didn't see anything to be excited about. he was the 4th or 5th fastest skater we had tonight. Mursak, tatar, pare, and Jurco all were faster. Didn't show much in terms of great play making either. For most of the game, he skated back and forth in the middle 1//3 of the ice. Rarely got deeper than the face off dots. Had 1 shot IIRC. Was only allowed to take 1 faceoff. he lost it badly and ferraro took the rest of the faceoff for the rest of the game. Now I understand, this was his 7th game for the griffins? He is very young and very new to the North American game. Point is, he has a long long way to go. Which is fine. We need to know these things. is he ready, then trades and UFA are not so important. But he isn't. Which tells the brain trust what we need to do this summer. I will be very interested to see how much he grows and improves between now and next season.