kickazz

I agree with everything you said. But Lefty presented it as though Feds could have changed the outcome of 07/09. We lost those two years for specific reasons and putting Feds in the equation wouldn't have changed much. Maybe the 90s Feds could have changed the outcomes though, that guy ran circles around players on ice.

Larkin was in the line up for two reasons. One he did well in training camp and two to try to fill the hole left by Datsyuk's injury. It's a completely different scenario heading into this year. There are no injuries yet.

AA has earned his spot. There might not be one available for him though. There was a spot available for Larkin because Datsyuk started the season injured. People seem to forget that.

Tuna salad Babcock or Blashill?

Lol... Burped as I clicked on this thread right before I read what you said. Laughin my ass of right now at the coincidence. TPBM prefers to sleep on a twin (single) bed

Idk man. Ott I can agree with you but Miller is playing all 82 games as long as he can.

What's your opinion on Hasek vs Brodeur and Roy? Who's on top for your between the 3?

I honestly don't hope he goes on LTIR. That's the worst case scenario for a player. These guys are people after all. I'd rather Hank just retire or something and we take the hit. (I don't know what the cap penalty is but the longer a player plays the less it usually is) It's sad what happened to Franzen, I heard the guy can't even play with long periods of time his kids and he's only 36 years old. Still has 30 or 35 good years in him and can't even go days without having headaches and lightheadedness or picking his kids up. That's awful.

I'm not sure about LTIR. He played all 82 games last year. In order to go on LTIR someone has to get injured and be unable to play hockey. Hank isn't injured, he's just slow due to surgery (borrowed time if you will) and taken many many steps back.

Yeah for sure. Remember in 97 and 08 we won with a tandem of two starting goaltenders. It helps when one goes down or hits a bad stretch. Ozzy was our starter in the mid 90s but he started sucking so they put Vernon in (who was also a starter) and he ended up dominating in the playoffs. Then the reverse happened in 08 when Hasek was slumping and Ozzy came in and dominated the hell out of the playoffs. This is mostly about money and probably also because Howard and Mrazek would rather play 60 games a season rather than 40 each.

So Fedorov would have won us the 07 and 09 cups? Oh boy ok. Talk about overrating a 40 YEAR OLD player. Fedorov was never the same player after his prime in Detroit.

Well when you're a club losing games, you panic and keep juggling till combos make you win. I will say that it's amazing how when Jurco or Helm are put on a line with Glendog it's fairly obvious that he's getting carried by them. Jurco should be on the 4th line to help carry Miller and Glendogs crappy possession. A line of Sheahan - Glen - Jurco or Sheahan - Glen - Helm would easily be the best 4th line in the NHL.

He tried it last season in a game or two. Wasn't very good anymore.

I hate the Helm contract but the guy is a good bottom 6 player and his speed is very useful at times. He's also our best PKer. There's literally nothing we can do to change the contract lol. Accept it and roll my eyes and sigh million times is what I'll be doing.

Well for your first point, consider that most teams will expose their backup rather than their starter. We're "lucky" (but also unlucky) to have 2 starters. I know Howard isn't Petr Mrazek but come on lol give the guy some credit, he's a pretty good goalie lol. The second point. I agree we should leave those guys unprotected because I doubt Vegas team would want older guys. But at the same time, "if" there is a reason the Wings protect Zetterberg it would probably because the organization wouldn't want to risk losing the team captain to an expansion draft (that's a bit embarassing). It could set a bad precedent for the future players. And to be honest it might be pretty disrespectful to Z, who signed his life to this team. It would be that sentimental/ loyalty story we hear about. On the other hand, Kronwall doesn't have the same "prestige" as Z does so I can see them being more open to leaving him exposed. Plus his contract is up in a couple years anyway and with the knee issues I've been reading about - his chance of playing beyond age 38 seems slim. Back to that loyalty crap (and back to reality) though. Probably will keep both them protected.

Yeah. And if it's somehow below $5 million then Holland > Lamoriello. BOOM. Had to get a small Maple Leafs organization insult in there somehow.

Vasilevskiy money for Mrazek is ridiculous. $3.5 million? Darren Helm makes more than that lmao. Mrazek was easily the MVP between December and beginning of Feb last season. $4-5 million wouldn't be surprising. Anything above $5 is an overpayment. We'll see what happens.

AA, Helm and Vanek. AA is the type of player that will hang on to the puck and has amazing hands. Helm is the type of player that would be involved in corner battles and probably get to the corners before most players would. Vanek would be the net front presence. What's not to like about the line again? Isn't this exactly Babcock/Canadian style of coaching we saw for years? It beats having a third line of Andersson, AA and (insert whatever winger you want because it doesn't matter since Andersson is on this line).

The Red Wings list seems pretty realistic.

I guess Neuvirth is a good one too. But the guy has never played as many games as a starter should.

To be honest, I'd pick Bishop or Varlamov first and then Howard as top 3 choices. Riemer is not very good, Fleury is good but sort of a choker and Miller is going to be 38 by the team expansion draft hits. But I get a feeling if Bishop is not going to be a Lightning it will be a trade (a Vezina finalist, I'd assume Stevie is going to want something for this guy). So the next two best goalies on the list to me would be Varlamov and Howard. Howard has the better playoff experience. It really is a toss up. The other thing is that the Vegas team will likely want to hit the cap floor. No team is going to give away their expensive superstar contracts. Goalies will likely be their best way to reach cap floor. Also, Howard's contract is only till 2019 so they would get him for about 2 years and the 2nd goalie they pick up could be someone like Subban (basically could be their future goalie).

I have no issue losing Sheahan. We have too many centers of the same skill level. Helm ,Sheahan, AA, Glendening. But why exactly won't Howard get picked?

I'd argue that failing to make playoffs wont change much. We just signed 3 guys this summer to 5-6 more years. and last year we signed Abby to like 7. The same team that got knocked out three years in a row in the 1st round is slowly getting locked up. That was my whole point about why signing Glendog and Helm long term is just more burden on the future. No one is going to take bottom 6 forwards with lengthy contracts. DK, Mrazek also soon to be locked too, as they should be. This team is not going to be changing much the next 4-5 years. Playoffs or not, this is what we have. We like our team. On one hand while Tampa is busy locking up a team that went to the Cup finals and conference finals, we are locking up a team that backed into the playoffs. This is my biggest criticism of what's going on right now. It makes absolutely zero sense to me why we're handing these contracts out (rushing into them) when the team clearly needed to be heading in a new direction. The least they could have done is be vigilant and see how Blashill's second year went.

They have to dump 2-3 salaries to re-sign the guys next year. That's what it will come down to honestly. As long as Bishop isn't exposed by Tampa.. Howard should be the goalie Vegas picks up.

How many times over the last 2 years has this been discussed and someone always goes down with injury lol? Holland always gets lucky with injuries and doesn't have much issues with roster space. I'd assume a combination of injuries and waiving players that won't get picked up will bail the Wings out again.