DickieDunn

Partly depth, partly because he still has things to work on. It would be better for the team if they can find a 25 goal guy in free agency and have Jurco available for when someone gets hurt and they need a call up.

I just call it the Kid Line.

Any competent goal scorer will make that a pretty good top 3 lines, you can move it around how you want. It also allows the Wings to keep all of the kids who aren't waiver exempt next year. If it's not working, they can dump Ferraro later on and call up Jurco.

It's made about the same way most of them are

I think the team will be better off with Jurco in GR smoothing the rough edges off his game and available when he's needed. One free agent and Sheahan playing in the top 9 forwards, assuming Franzen can play, and they're pretty well set there. Glendening can stay there too, keep Ferraro and Callahan as reserves in Detroit since they'd have to clear waivers. Then get one D either through trade of free agency and they're set. Zetterberg-Datsyuk-FA Franzen-Weiss-Nyquist Tatar-Helm-Sheahan Miller-Andersson-Abdelkader Callahan-Ferraro Kronwall-Dekeyser Ericsson-new guy 2 of Kindl, Smith, Marchenko, Ouellet, Sproul Lashoff #7 I like that team.

False. +/- is one of the most useless stats in the NHL. You can play perfect postionally and end up -3 in a game because someone on the ice with you screws up 3 times and you can end up +3 for doing absolutely nothing. It's only useful in very specific situations. The only reason you're using it is that it backs up your false assertion. Also, Dekeyser isn't any of that. He's still growing into his frame and he's neither stronger nor faster than Kronwall, and he's still learning his defensive positioning.

+/- is a BS stat. If you're judging defensive ability on that, you don;t know hockey. Kronwall is better at every aspect of the game. Dekeyser has the potential to be a hell of a shut down defender, but he's not there yet. He makes plenty of mistakes that go unnoticed by the people watching the bottom 4 d-men like hawk so they can pick apart their games.

That cannot be unseen

I wouldn't sign him for that much money at any term or 7 years for more than a $4 mil average. He's worth more now, but in 4 or 5 years he sure as hell won't be.

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2014/2/3/5374604/nhl-trade-rumors-ryan-callahan-new-york-rangers Apparently he wants $42 mil over 7 years. He'll be 29, the deal will take him to 36 years old when he has a playing style that doesn't lend itself to being effective that long and he's having his worst season since his first full year. Pass

You don't need to score to be valuable, and I'm pretty sure everyone knows about Helm by now.

Police are going to be waiting to arrest Lack for robbery. Canucks have another young goalie they want to dump Luongo so they can start the kid?

Helm is just like Draper. Great speed, no hands to finish.

Forwards: Bombay-Conway-Banks Dorsey-Youngblood-Braden Hanson-Hanson-Hanson Portman-Racki-Ogilthorpe Defense Upton-Wanchuk Marden-Biebe Lussier-Tyler Goalie Lemieux Heaver The first line is relying on the chemistry of Gordon Bombay and Charlie Conway, along with Mystery, Alaska's Connor Banks's slapshot. Doug Dorsey's injured eye heals well enough to play, and he's teamed with former junior phenom Dean Youngblood and Ned Braden, called up from the Chiefs. The third line is made up of the Hansons, who aren't that great separate but are much better than the sum of its parts. The fourth line of Dean Portman and towering Ogie ogilthorpe, centered by Youngblood's junior nemesis Carl Racki, give the team plenty of toughness. On defense, former Chief's captain Johnny Upton and Mo Wanchuk join their teammates from the Chiefs. Skank Marden and Jon Biebe from Mystery anchor the second pair. On the third pairing, we add some tougness with Andre "Poodle" Lussier and a PP QB in Jesse Tyler (Mighty Ducks). In net we have former Chief Denis Lemieux and Youngblood's former junior teammate Heaver. The coaching staff is judge Walter Burns, assisted by Reg Dunlop and Youngblood's former coach Murray Chadwick. Joe McGrath is the GM, finally given the chance to run a team not teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.

Yeah, I just can't see a lot being done at the deadline. Given how many teams are at the cap, it might be a pretty quiet deadline league wide

That was in a response to a post saying the Wings could trade Quincey and a pick for Girardi and be under the cap. I don't think the Wings should trade for any of the rentals unless they can talk go the player first and make sure they're looking for a team to sign with, not wanting to test the market. The value of the rentals at the deadline is usually more than they're worth.

CAPGEEK.COM ARMCHAIR GM ROSTER CapGeek Armchair GM Roster FORWARDS Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / Justin Abdelkader ($1.800m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Stephen Weiss ($4.900m) / Gustav Nyquist ($0.950m) Tomas Tatar ($0.630m) / Darren Helm ($2.125m) / Daniel Alfredsson ($3.500m) Drew Miller ($1.350m) / Joakim Andersson ($0.733m) / Patrick Eaves ($1.200m) Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075m) / Danny Cleary ($1.750m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($4.750m) / Dan Girardi ($3.325m) Jonathan Ericsson ($3.250m) / Jakub Kindl ($2.400m) Brendan Smith ($1.263m) / Danny DeKeyser ($0.925m) Brian Lashoff ($0.725m) / GOALTENDERS Jimmy Howard ($5.292m) Jonas Gustavsson ($1.500m) BUYOUTS Carlo Colaiacovo ($0.000m) BURIED Mikael Samuelsson ($2.900m) Jordin Tootoo ($0.975m) ------ CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (estimations for 2013-14 crunched using simulation date of 2014-02-03) SALARY CAP: $64,300,000; BONUSES: $2,635,000 CAP SPACE (23-man roster): -$735,667

Only until Weiss if off LTIR. Also, why the hell would the Rags do that? Girardi for a 3rd pair d-man making more money than he's worth and a pending UFA and a mid round pick? no way. If they trade him they're going to get someone who can help more now and isn't a rental.

I think long term Nyquist and Tatar are going to be about as good as each other. Tatar is more dynamic and score more goals, Nyquist will be more solid defensively and get more assists. And I'd trade either if it brought back a good d-man or big scoring winger. People want to make trades, but they don't want to give up good players to get them. 4 so-so players and a couple picks might work on a video game, but not in real life. If you want quality, you have to give up quality, and prospects are almost always overvalued.

For the hockey world in general, the fact that a superstar scored an OT goal is more important news that some relatively unknown kid getting a hat trick.

So you want a different set of rules. Which will benefit the teams that are more likely to throw cheap shots. IMO, that attitude is stupid. The rules are the rules. If something is a call in the first 2 minutes, it should be a call in the last 2 minutes. Either way the ref's decision affects the game. If he makes the call, it benefits the team that should get a PP. If he lets it go, it gives the team that committed the penalty an advantage where the other team was probably called for a similar penalty and had to kill a PP earlier in the game. As a player I want consistency above all. If you're going to call everything. Fine, I'll know that. If you're going to let things go, fine, I'll adjust my game accordingly. But if you're going to let 6 blatant trips go and then call someone for tripping when a guy falls on his own, that's when I get pissed.

So they should have focused on the team that lost?

Think of the dumbest thing possible and there's probably somebody who believes it.

It's easy for us to scream about a missed call when we see it from a good angle and on slo-mo replay. The refs are at ice level trying to watch 10 guys at full speed while skating themselves and trying to keep thmselves in the right position to not only see the play, but to stay the hell out of the way of the play. I've officiated a few rec leagues. It's the hardest things I've ever done in sports.

The refs didn't cost the Wings this game. Defensive zone turnovers and poor d-zone play cost the Wings this game. Helm needs to forget that hot streak he went on when he first came back and start playing the simple north-south game that got him here instead of trying to be a scoring line center. Even when he's playing on a scoring line. That #4 spot on D is their major Achilles heel. Quincey, Smith, and Kindl just aren't getting it done for various reasons.