rick zombo

To address the penalty minute issue: I would imagine playing for The Wings and Babcock will be a little more settling for Bertuzzi with regards to attitude and discipline than playing for Keenan and The Flames.

And McLellan's not far behind if that team doesn't produce.

If Leino can get he speed up, and get to pucks in the corners then we're in good shape. He's already proven himself to be a good down-low presence.

Actually it would be a 22 man roster. 13 + 7 + 2 That's 6 Forwards - 3 Defensemen to sign. Forwards: Helm - 1M Abby - 0.8M 3 Prospects or UFAs to round out the 11th, 12th, and 13th forwards = 2.5M Defense: Lidstrom - 5.5M 6th D - 0.8M 7th D - 0.6M In my sloppy estimation, that leaves approx. 5M for one top six forward.

Any idea, if the cap remains the same, how much room the Wings have next year? This is with Lilja, Holmstrom, Maltby, and Lidstrom's current salaries off the books.

So Filpulla getting 60pts is a ridiculous stretch, but Cleary scoring 30 goals isn't? Overzealous much?

For sure. However, let's wait and see what Grier ends up signing for. Maybe he wanted a longer term deall. Clearly Holland's not interested in signing anyone for more than a year, and I think this is the right strategy.

If Holland is in the market for another "diamond in the rough" you can bet he will sign this player soon. The rest of the league would have taken notice of the Eaves signing and are probably now raking the coals themselves. If Holland is in the market for a 20 goal man, you can bet he''ll wait until the bottom absolutely drops out of the market so he can sign someone for an insanely low price. IMO

Decent size, shoots right. Natural right winger. I wouldn't be pissed if he signed. I'm just hoping Holland is working at filling the holes with anyone but Williams at this stage.

right handed shoot +

I wouldn't mind seeing a pure penalty killing checking winger, like Grier, in Detroit. I think both Zetterberg and datsyuk have been logging too many minutes the past two seasons killing penalties. Now in no way am I suggesting Grier is better defensively than Hank or Pavel, but that is his specialty, and it would be nice to have him log some minutes on PK and give those guys a rest. People forget, maybe, how bad the PK was all last season - including the playoffs

Actually I was right: Abdlekader was drafted 42nd overall in 2005. http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/justin_abdelkader Latendresse was taken 3 picks later by Montreal, 45th overall in 2005. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?i...e=nhl-canadiens If you spent any time on these boards during that time, you'd remember the outcry when the Wings passed on Guillaume. For the record, Emmerton was taken 41st overall the following year, 2006. http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?i...e=nhl-canadiens

I believe the Wings passed on Latendresse in order to select Abdelkader. Which is OK by me.

I'd be completely astounded if one of these kids didn't end up as the #1 goalie in Detroit at some point in the near future. That's a pretty good feeling to have.

If Abby stays in the NHL he has to play on the 3rd line,. He won't rot on the 4th.

Sammy had some CLUTCH moments as a Wing. 1. 2 goal game vs San Jose, Game 6, 2007 WCSF 2. 2 goal game vs Pitts, Game 1, 2008 SCF 3. OT winner this year vs Hawks Lang was clutch too, but was easily replaced. Either way, best of luck Sammy, thanks for the memories.

Poor Ozzy

Hossa had a bad playoff year? Well, Franzen just had two ******* amazing playoff years. If he hadn't been hurt in 08 he very realistically could have equaled Hossa's numbers. This playoffs wasn't even close between the two. Franzen slaughtered Hossa - and he was playing on the checking line for s*** sakes. How about the regular season? Hossa had 10 goals more than the Mule. Who cares? If Hossa only had 30 goals, like Franzen, the Wings are still making the playoffs with home ice advantage. How about barely better in some departments, and noticeably worse in other (more important) ones?

I wonder how much money Franzen would have made as a free agent today? 4.5M? Maybe even 5?

This is an interesting thread. But I don't think Hossa will disappear. That's laughable. Schneider would make my list though.

1A/1B They'll probably rotate and split the 82 games. Can't wait for a Howard vs Conklin game.

Great.

So much for TB trying to shed salary.....

Whatever happened to: "The team that gets the best player wins the trade" ? Gomez > Higgins

Not sure if this has already been posted. Linky: http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/06/ku...ollan.html#more Kulfan reports that Mikael Samuelsson, however, sees the writing on the wall about his tenure as a Wing: Holland said a national report he has offered forward Mikael Samuelsson , a prospective unrestricted free agent, a new contract is false. Samuelsson, incidentally, has put his house up for sale according to several residents in his Novi neighborhood