kickazz

Darren McCarty has 4 Stanley cups while Datsyuk has two. Who is the better player? See your logic? Crosby is the best player in the world.

No that salary includes incentives. His actual cap hit is only $812k. He's a cheap 77 point scorer for the clubs cap. For now. Because he will be below age 27. Chicago will keep the kid. They'd dump Hossa and keep him if they had to.

Abdelkader didn't start playing with Datsyuk and Zetterberg until second half the shortened 2013 season which is after Holmstrom retired in 2012 with Lidstrom. Not 5 years. I could flip it and say that the two years Nyquist produced 28 and 27 goals was on a line with Zetterberg (still weaning off his prime at age 33/34), but failed to produce when put in a situation where he wasn't surrounded by an elite player. For 1:30 less icetime I don't see how one scores 2/3ds the amount of goals he did the season before (with lesser competition btw). Usage was definitely an issue but Nyquist's regression had more to do with individual decline in my opinion. The reason being that when he was put on Zetterberg's line he still couldn't get much done. I'm not sure if it's a confidence thing or if the league's figured him out. Anyways I'm not jumping the gun and saying we trade him (unless it's for the right deal and if we get Okposo). But he's got to turn it around this coming season since he is making $4.75 mill. I'd assume he'll be getting more responsibility this coming season and the coaching changes should make a difference. So we can reassess at the end of the 2016 season. Far as Abby is concerned I'm not sure how it will be when he's 36. Likely not good because I myself have stated the long term on the contract isn't smart. But here and now in the present the $4.25 million cap hit seems like it's worked out comparitively to someone else with a similar cap hit (Nyquist). Fair enough - I had my issue with the length of term as well. But not the caphit. He's earned that for now.

Nah he said he'd try to move it this year. The whole "we won't move your contract" comment was last year when Pav initially wanted to leave - this year is a different story.

BTW does anyone know when exactly Nyquist's No Movement Clause kicks in? It's 2017 season but does that mean as soon as 2016/17 season is over or does it mean when the 2017 season begins?

Yet Nyquist didn't improve and sank to Abbys production. We've got a $4.75 million contract scoring 17 goals and your concern is the guy who scored 19 and does everything else. Didn't you criticise this idea in Mantha's thread? "If a guy scores and doesn't do much else vs someone who can do everything else".

Z isn't as good anymore so playing with him isn't as awesome as it used to be. Nyquist plays with Tatar who has some of the best possession numbers on the team (better than Zetterberg's) .. Not to mention Nyquist plays against lesser competition more often than not as well. Additionally Abdelkader's ice time also goes towards penalty killing. About 1.5 minutes per game he plays shorthanded. Something Nyquist doesn't do. Even with less ice time, Nyquist managed to take more shots on goal over the course of the year. Yet Abdelkader had 4 game winning goals to Nyquist's 3. No matter how one cuts it. Abdekader makes less money, has about the same points as Nyquist and does more on ice with penalty killing, blocked shots, hits (team leader for hits btw) and fighting. I'd say for all the things I listed, in terms of money the Red Wings management is getting a bigger bang for their buck with Abdelkader's deal compared to Nyquist's deal at the moment.

Not necessarily. It's just that they have NHL experience that Blashill lacks.

Well we have plenty of those guys. It seems to be working perfectly well for us. Except it's not. Our offense lacks in goal scorers and has a weak overall offense and power play. These issues need to be addressed. Mantha won't be the complete answer. Not now. Not in his rookie year. But possibly in a couple of years he will be part of the answer.

So how exactly is Nyquist shameful. He's tied with one of the worlds best centers/primary scorers in point totals For the record, I too am critical of Nyquist such as his playoff issues- and have even suggested trading him if Okposo was brought in. But all in all, this tournament has actually been a good one for him.

I think Hawks will do whatever they can to keep him unfortunately.

Yea but the tourny overall is still lesser competition for the NHL players it seems. Just looked up the schedule - Sweden played - Latvia, Denmark, Czech, Kazakhastan, Norway, Switzerland, Russia and Canada Russia played - Czech, Kazakhastan, Latvia, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Germany. They both played the same exact teams up until the quarter finals. So his argument is flawed. It seems like he's cherry picking to undermine Nyquist while ignoring the fact that other teams had similar if not exact competition (in the case of Russian team where Panarin, Datsyuk and other NHLers are playing). But I should add that Panarin does have the second highest points in the competition.

The reason your point (among 20 others you try to make to cherry pick Nyquist) doesn't make any sense is because all of the other players in the tournament have played against similar competition. It's not like Nyquist is the only one playing against crap teams. So comparatively he's still got better numbers than say Datsyuk who has only 1 goal in the same exact competition.

As long as Mantha can score goals I could careless. We need goal scorers. Team needs some size. On paper he fills those needs. Just has to translate it into NHL and I'll be happy. Could care less about his ability to hit, play defense blah blah.

Great news on Richards. Thanks for some solid years Quincey. Had to be done though with 3 defenseman eligible from GR this coming season.

They may think he's better off playing 14-15 minutes as 3rd line center first or as top 6 winger who then transitions to center

^ Different era of hockey tho. But your point is good.

They might even re-sign Richards and make him 2C before they make AA 2C to be honest.

Realistically speaking Zetterberg will likely still be the 1C. I know we all keep coming up with scenarios of how Larkin will be 1C, AA will be 2C etc. But unless we fill the 1C spot with another NHL developed centerman... Zetterberg keeps the spot and Larkin likely takes 2C at best. Otherwise he'll continue to be on Wing. This is why I'm hoping either Datsyuk miraculously stays one more year or we miraculously get Stamkos. Or we try to sign Backes. Otherwise read paragraph one. We have a crap ton of wingers. We have a lot of young D-men coming through the system but we have zero NHL 1st line or 2nd line centers. Larkin was atrocious on the faceoffs and AA wasn't any better. They'd rather have Zetterberg win his usual 50% draws than have Larkin winning 40% or maybe even 30% when he's up against guys like Bergeron, Toews, Kopitar etc. We're in a pretty s***ty transition to be honest. I know in time things will be better, but Datsyuk dropping the ball on us and Zetterberg's decline does screw us pretty bad for next season. I'm only speaking of next season btw.

Mantha is already an NHL stud.

The Abdelkader salary argument doesnt even make sense anymore. Nyquist has a higher cap hit than Abdelkader and had two less goals and one more point than him. Nyquist - $4.75 mill. 17 goals 43 points. Abdelkader - $4.25 mill 19 goals 42 points. Tell me again why this is an issue? The only issue I had was the length of term. Oh wait maybe the issue is Abdelkader actually hits his opponents, kills penalties and stands up for his teammates.

Yeah I'm not a fan of hiring non NHL experienced coaches. So bad decision imo.

Ah ok. Maybe that's why he wants to come back to the NHL xD

Also want to add that Kyle Okposo primarily plays with John Tavares (who is regarded another top 5 centerman in the world). So expect him to produce around the same level as Tomas Tatar or Nyquist when he's here. Especially because we no longer have any legitimate 1Cs. Okposo did well with Tavares, he wouldn't do the same with Larkin. Expect his 64 points to drop to 45-50 here.