Fred_Bear

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About Fred_Bear

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    Prospect

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    Male
  • Location
    State College, PA
  • Interests
    Hockey, Hockey Cards, Hunting, Outdoors, Sports
  1. Fred_Bear

    Fred_Bear

  2. I'm not sure how it would work to get him off the books in Philly. He's on a 35+ contract, so CBA says they take the cap hit for the duration even if he retires, so unless Snider has weaseled into a retirement due to career ending injury that would allow him to move Pronger's cap hit to LTIR for 2 more seasons, can't see how it helps Philly. Holmgren, when he was still GM, made a comment a while back to the effect that Pronger would never play again. I wonder if this is to appease anyone for the blatant 'circumvention' of the CBA's intent (i.e. what got NJ in trouble with Kovalchuk originally).
  3. Fred_Bear

    23 man roster set... say hi to your 2014/15 Wings

    I don't think the idea of a 'top-6' is being 'weeded' out of the NHL at all. The roles of the bottom six are evolving with the game, but having a solid top 6 is as important now as it ever was. The shift is towards puck possession and deeper teams see an opportunity to field a third scoring line. Right now, teams fall into three categories - those that can skate a third scoring line, those that think they can, & those that can't. Chicago is a go. Pittsburgh tries, but struggles. St. Louis doesn't even really try. In the world of third scoring lines, Detroit should be great - Tatar-Sheahan-Jurco. [Not saying some of these guys won't develop into top 6 talent, but right now - they would easily be an above average third line] That would/could give them a fourth (shutdown) line of Glendening-Helm-Abdelkader which is also solid by NHL standards (could be a little bigger, but 'eh not-so-bad). The problem is that they don't have the personnel in the top 6 to allow for it... If we ignore injuries for a minute, Zetterberg and Datsyuk are clear first liners. There's no power forward for them to skate with, though. Mantha will fill that role eventually, but he's not ready even if he wasn't injured and the packed roster also makes it difficult for him to slide in this season. It would be nice to give him a little time to develop at the NHL level, too, before burdening him with the expectations of the franchise, but how long with Z and Dats really be there? The second line is a mess, if I'm being honest. Weiss should be a decent #2 pivot, when he's healthy. Detroit took a shot signing him and to-date the experiment has failed. Franzen has had flashes but he can also be lazy for long periods. Nyquist has the upside on this line, but he's also set up to drop off a bit this year. I think it's tough to expect him to keep a 20% shooting pace. [Note: I'm not saying Nyquist will 'fail', just not shoot 20%. I think he's more than capable of second line points - 40-60.] Now if we apply the current state (based on dailyfaceoff lines)... We're likely scratching Weiss and Datsyuk starts off injured meaning 2 guys are 'out-of-position' playing up on the first line with Z (Abdelkader and Franzen) and our third line is rounding out our top 6 which while above average for a third scoring line will likely be out-matched as a second line. This is why I've become disenchanted with Kenny Holland. He relies on the fact that Babs can (and will) get a little extra and doesn't address holes until it's too late. We need a power forward up front. Either clear the way for Mantha or go get us one.
  4. Fred_Bear

    23 man roster set... say hi to your 2014/15 Wings

    I'm not surprised at all. Holland hit the easy button. When Dats is ready, Jurco will go to GR. This pushes the real decision making into the season. I think that's where the fun begins. I'm hoping for at least a couple of trades to open up some roster slots. I don't think there are any 'easy' trades, but I hope Holland has a better appreciation of which youngsters are developing where they need to be and who is truly expendable. I'm also already interested to see how the roster develops towards next season. Cleary's the only projected UFA (pray to god he's gone) along with Gustavson, so we still need some permanent slots to bring up Jurco, Ouellet and Mantha and any other potential developments. Holland should have a challenging year a big opportunity to show why he got his extension!
  5. Fred_Bear

    Datsyuk to play Thursday? Weiss to be a healthy scratch?

    Isn't the thread about Weiss starting the season as a healthy scratch? How is that not 'writing a guy off without barely playing'? Weiss has a NMC (according to capgeek), so an AHL assignment (or even waivers) is likely out of the question. He also has a modified NTC, but maybe he could be moved. Teams are going to look at the fact that he hasn't been healthy for two seasons, though, and his contract is structured such that he makes $6M a year in real salary the next two years. It's not an easy sell. At the end of the day, if a $5M/yr player is a healthy scratch - management is going to have some roster problems. He's paid to be in the lineup when he's not injured. He's not going to 'gain confidence', 'learn the system', 'develop chemistry' or lots of other things sitting in the press box.
  6. Fred_Bear

    Blast from the Past

    Thanks for sharing this! That is awesome.
  7. Fred_Bear

    TSN Luke Schenn could be available

    I don't know that I agree he's regressed, he just hasn't been given the right role. Philly is a terrible place to judge a defenseman, too. Berube didn't trust Schenn enough to use him as a shut-down guy and that's what he's best suited for at this point. His 260 hits last year was 6th in the league and he only played 16:32 a night. In Toronto, the Leafs desperately wanted him to be an offensive defenseman (I think they think all defensemen should be offensive-defensemen, though), which he just isn't... I certainly wouldn't be opposed to him coming to Detroit, if they are going to use him as a shut-down guy (physical presence) and penalty killer. If the expectation is that he's 'fix' the defense or develop into a 'different' player, I hope we don't waste time with it.
  8. Fred_Bear

    TSN Radio - McKenzie: Enforcers in the NHL

    In today's game, I would agree entirely - but the expectation now is that all fighting is goon-v-goon. Historically, it was more effective. Gretzky, Lemieux, Yzerman and other top scorers were 'protected' by 'the code' and a healthy enforcer. Of course, the goon couldn't stop bad knees, a bad back, or accidents, but 'borderline hits' and 'suspendable hits' weren't the media topic they are today.
  9. Fred_Bear

    Are the wings underrated?

    I don't think you can underrate potential. I think this team has potential, but they are rated where they should be - lower than most Wings fans would like or expect. We do have some solid youngsters, but there are big question marks about how they match up with the rest of the league and, if you were building a 'dream team' (even in a salary capped scenario), there are a lot of guys who would get replaced on all four lines... The Wings aren't in a position where they can bring up a bunch of rookies without making big changes, either. Jurco is the only one who doesn't need to clear waivers who has more than a couple games of NHL experience. The fact that some of those 'prospects' will clear waivers through 29 other teams, including Buffalo, the Isles, Edmonton, Calgary, etc. means we're not skating 20 'A' players. Other 'holes' have been identified in numerous posts on these boards - Kindl, Quincy, Cleary, etc. To me, the telling series was Boston last year. Yes, we were fighting through a number of injuries, but they skated circles. Most of that team playoff team is skating full time this year and that's expecting a lot of improvement by a lot of players and in a lot of areas to expect a completely different result. I do still believe, as others have said, if we can stay relatively healthy, a couple young guys continue to develop, and we catch a couple breaks, we have a shot at outperforming the predictions and keeping the streak alive, but I don't think that makes us underrated by any stretch.
  10. Fred_Bear

    We're Down One Goose

    I'm interested to know more details as well. I haven't even heard who he collided with...
  11. Fred_Bear

    Selanne would still play if Boudreau wasn't Ducks coach

    At even strength, I can agree with you, but Maroon's 4 PPPs in the regular season was half of what Selanne put up. He did have less total minutes, but not 50%... I guess the bottom line is that Boudreau went into the playoffs with a known roster and he knows the individual strengths of the players. He used Selanne basically as a power play specialist all season long and he really wasn't horrible given the ice time he was given... I'm not saying he played like he did as a youngster, he didn't. But he was a reasonable 3rd or 4th line player and power play guy. For the playoffs, Anaheim shifted to Maroon (and Smith-Pelly, like you point out) and that opens up the criticism which Selanne leveled - Boudreau went with 'unknowns' instead of him. As a competitive player, I can see why Selanne was frustrated.
  12. Fred_Bear

    Selanne would still play if Boudreau wasn't Ducks coach

    I understand your point, but then where did Pat Maroon get PP ice time in the playoffs? He didn't perform during the regular season nor did he perform during the playoffs. If Selanne is going to be the bar of ineffective play, Maroon was below it all season. I understand Maroon's 26. I understand Maroon's pretty much the only 'tough' player on their roster. But you have to call a spade a spade and in the most important game of the season, I'd take Selanne over Maroon 100% of the time whether you want to base it on 13-14 or whenever. I'm certainly not going to argue that I'm an 'intelligent coach', but PIM over potential scoring in a non-fantasy elimination game doesn't seem that 'intelligent'...
  13. Fred_Bear

    Who should get cut/traded by game 1 of the season?

    This question boils down to who can and will clear waivers... [Don't forget it works both ways and they need to be able to clear re-entry waivers as well] 22 of the 23-man roster listed by capgeek have to clear waivers to get assigned to GR. Callahan, Nestrasil, and Ferraro all also have to clear waivers to get sent down this year (I'm not sure if they would be subject to re-entry waivers if they get brought up this year). Jurco is the only 'regular' from last season who can get sent down without first clearing waivers. I think taking that into consideration, the Wings are going to face some difficult decisions this season without making some trades or accepting some 'losses' to the waiver wire. I had orginally been hopeful that Mantha would stick out of camp, but with the injury and the roster the way it is, I don't think there are going to be any 'surprises'.
  14. Fred_Bear

    Selanne would still play if Boudreau wasn't Ducks coach

    But look who was ahead of him in PP ice time in the playoffs and what production was generated... It's impossible, and useless really, to go back and second guess every minute detail, but Pat Maroon played twice as many minutes on the power play in the playoffs as Selanne and generated 0 more points during that time. So Selanne was, at the least, more productive than Patrick Maroon - Selanne 4pt in 25 min PP, Maroon 4 pt in 42 min PP. I know your reference was to regular season, though. Your characterization of 'massive' isn't quite correct, though. If you look at straight numbers, yes, the Ducks top unit - Getzlaf (23 PPP), Perry (18), Bonino (20) all out-produced Selanne (8) on the second unit. But all played a 'massive' number more minutes with the man advantage... If you look at production per minute of PP time, there were no 'massive' differences - Getzlaf 0.08 PPP/min, Perry 0.06 PPP/min, Bonino 0.09 & Selanne 0.05. Selanne still underperformed by comparison, but not really to the degree you suggested. [For reference, Pat Maroon scored 4 PPP in the regular season at a rate of 0.037 PPP/min.] It seemed to me that Selanne's frustration was more about how he was used or under-used in the playoffs in comparison to a guy like Pat Maroon. Again, swapping Selanne for Maroon on the PP might not have been the exact fix that Anaheim needed to close the deal, but leaving Maroon out there to chew up unproductive minutes is a Boudreau (management) choice that is open to criticism, especially given the fact that Anaheim lost the series...
  15. Fred_Bear

    Barry Trotz Wants Ovechkin to be more like Yzerman

    Trotz should probably focus on fixing the Caps other problems rather than worrying too much about Ovi. I'm all for 2-way play, but you still need to score to win games. Any drop-off in Ovi's production isn't going to be easily picked up or replaced by anyone on that team. That is a huge difference between when Bowman had Stevie focus on 2-way play and the Trotz/Ovi situation, Detroit replaced his scoring elsewhere. [if a 'similar' drop-off is expected, Yzerman went from 58 goals to 24 goals under Bowman and never topped 40 again. Different situations, of course, but even 50-to-40 is going to be noticable.] After Ovi last year, Ward and Brouwer were the only other Caps over 20 goals and both had career highs (with Ward posting an 18% shooting percentage). Can they repeat and improve? Trotz isn't an offensive coach and the numbers will probably be lower on both sides of the puck this year. I'd be more impressed if he can get someone to win faceoffs...