LeftWinger

Not ever has Nyquist had moves like this kid. The more I watch, the more I wish he'd make the team this season!

Meh, rather it be The Coffey award.

Nyquist, Svech, 3rd in 2019, 2nd and 3rd in 2020 for Faulk and Skinner. Get it done! Turn Skinner at the TDL to a Contender for a 1st.

Yikes, wow! Maybe he should sell the team to the investors in Quebec City. I can see Duchene and Wideman both splitting when they become UFA after this season. Plus they don't have a 1st in 2019, Colorado gets that, even if it becomes #1. They need to trade players out asap and start from the draft. They'll get a king's ransom for Karlsson, they can get some great picks for Stone, Ceci and Duchene. They could have multiple 1st rounders if they wanted. May as well, because these players don't want to be there, nor will their future UFA's.

Wow, does Stone actually think he deserves $9M or is it just a big "up yours" to the owner of Ottawa? If he thinks he deserves $9M then Stone is, well, pretty stoned.

Again, I think it's safe to say that if Vladdy had played an entire career, he'd be in the HOF.

I thought I was being generous with the number 164. Sorry...

Ya, but that Nyquist only shows up about once every 164 games.

WTF on that shootout goal... That has to be the strangest thing I have ever seen in a shootout. I don't think any of those are Vladdy though.

Don't really want to bring up the numbers retirement stuff, that is not why I posted here. I just didn't want to start a thread for one video link I found while searching for some Vladdy videos. We all know the story on how Fedorov defected here, we all know his HOF career, but there is one sentence in this video that really had me taken aback. When talking about defecting and it being half scary and half exciting he said that he thought he'd never see his parents again, but when he said it was "a little more exciting" than scary because "he knew he wouldn't be starving to death here." Wow, that really hit me, back in those days I never even thought that they faced those big of struggles as to be "starving to death." I guess I just took and take for granted all the amenities here in the Western World. It hits me that when they started defecting is wasn't just for money and fame, it was actually to get to F out of Russia and put some food on the table. Even though I was always a huge fan, I now have even more respect for Fedorov (and the other Russians) who defied the Soviet Union to come here for a life that could be lived and play a little hockey as Fedorov says in the video.

You may not have time to watch all these, plus they are in Russian, but here are 4 games with Vladdy playing on CSKA. I believe he still wore #16 in these games, but I can't tell. I don't speak, nor read Russian. I wish I could find some highlights from him in his Russia/Red Army days.

http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=2780 It shows him playing 7 seasons with CSKA, but all the rosters show him as a D. Maybe he played at C from time to time or for a part of one season. If you search Fedorov, it doesn't show when he played that chunk of the season as a D either. So maybe he did play some center. He wasn't a sniper by any sense but if you watch his goals, he had some pretty good moves to deke out the goalie. They weren't all your typical defensemen slapper or snappers from the blue line.

Ya, but you cannot go by that. You have to go by where Konstantinov WOULD HAVE BEEN in 2005. You cannot go by what he was in 1997, he no doubt would've grown into an even better player. Of course its all a big maybe, but assuming Vladdy and Nick both grew at the same rate, just Vladdy probably would've grown into an even more of a defensive beast than he already was. So, my question was, using your imagination as to where Vladdy would've grown along with Nick who would have been your choice. Me, I absolutely LOVED Vladdy, even more than Lidstrom, BUT, think about this, when Vladdy was hurt, he was 29 years old, Lids 3 years younger. In 2005 Vladdy would've been 37 years old. Even though Nick was also 34, I think the style of play that Vladdy played would've taken a bigger toll on his body, he may have already been retired by then, or on the brink of it. If we could've kept them both, that would've been awesome, remember we also had a pretty great D-Man in Hatcher, he didn't suck despite what people say, he had a bad knee injury. We bought him out because Nick became so good, I mean great. So anyway, factoring in the age and toll on the body, I think if I had to use a buyout on one of them, it would have been Vladdy. But like I said, I think he would have been retired or close to it, or maybe if he was bought out at 37 years old, he may have just retired at that point. OR think about this, in 2003, Sergei left via UFA, Detroit was done with Larionov in 2003 and he signed in NJ, Fetisov was already gone, as was Kozlov, so maybe, just maybe, if he may have also been on a UFA contract in the summer of 2003, Vladdy may have left us as well, to play with Sergei or something and we wouldn't of even had to choose! I hate the fact that the accident happened it cut short the career of one of the best defensemen in the NHL, in the WORLD. I agree and have NO DOUBT that we would've won even more Cups between 1997 and 2005. Quite possibly the 3rd in 1999. I am also betting that if he had stayed healthy, he would have been inducted in the HOF.

I've always wondered and might have even posted on a thread somewhere on here that IF the accident never happened, and Vladdy continued his rise as one of our best D, what kind of money would he have been making in before the 1st lockout and salary cap in 05, which was only $39M. Remember, at the time we had Lidstrom making top dollar and also Hatcher making top dollar, who we had to buy out, along with McCarty in order to get Cap Compliant. Looking back, at that off season, lets say both Vladdy and Lids are making the same money, both are the elite defensemen that they were (well Lids did) on their way to being and the buyouts come. Do you think we'd have kept BOTH of them and bought out someone else or would one of them had to be bought out in order to become cap compliant? Going back to that era alone (no injury, not knowing what you know now about Lidstrom) which one do you keep?

Some families are lucky to have one kid who is a phenom. DNA must be superhuman in that family.

Swap them Glenny for him.

On TSN Zach Hyman says he's not worried about being pushed down the lineup with the addition of Tavares, even if it's bottom 6. Hey, how about you push him right to us, we'd like to reunite him with Larkin.

Tangradi signed in NJ.

I sincerely apologize for the insensitive comment about the infidelity. Way too inappropriate and offensive.

Let's not bring Gretzky into this debate!

Got it! I read it as he was better than any Wing you have ever seen in your lifetime. Now that I look at it and maybe insert my own comma's (not being grammar police ) I now understand what you were pointing out. Not too sure he was better at than Fedorov, but I do get what you are saying and tend to agree. Maybe he had health issues longer than we realized, because for stretches he did take over games now and then.

Absolutely, as is Elite Players vs. "Prime" Franzen. I don't want a debate either. Have a good one!

I respect your opinion, but Franzen played with BOTH Datsyuk and Zetterberg in their primes AND the Super-Human Lidstrom In your opinion Franzen was better than those 3? Plus he played a season with Marian Hossa. Not to mention he played his rookie season with Steve Yzerman and Brendan Shanahan. I am so sorry you never got to watch any live 1990-2005 Red Wings play. Now, if we are talking Elite players, wow!

I just wonder what you mean by saying "most elite players never hit HIS prime level?" Are you saying that most elite players never hit Franzen's "prime" level? My goodness, here is Franzen's career stats: Regular Season Playoffs He's NEVER topped 60 points in his career. MOST Elite players never get below 80-90 (sometimes over 100) points. I am not interested in debating Franzen v. AA, but Franzen, even in his prime, was far, FAR from Elite. I respect all he did for us during his prime as well, I am not knocking him at all. In his BEST goal scoring season and points season (34G 59TTL) here are the leaders in G, A and Points just for that season: In his 2nd highest scoring season 2011-2012 (29G 56TTL) here are the leaders from that year: Again, not debating AA vs. Franzen, two different types of players, but to say most elite players never hit Franzen's "prime" level is nuts. Thank you Johan for the memories and that memorable Cup run, but no way has he, or will he be considered ELITE. Elite players get their number retired (most of the time) and get to the Hall of Fame. Franzen will have none of that. He's never even gotten ANY major award, nor has he ever made an appearance at an All-Star Game, except maybe as a spectator.

Oh, I do agree, I was against the amount of cap that Howard and Mrazek took up, but Bobvro currently has an AAV of $7.4M, if he plays the way he can and has, he will most certainly get a raise, so I was just going by that. In no way would I want to have our two goalies making $12M! Yikes! Makes you wonder, with the way Montreal has not lived up to their standards, how long will they keep Price around for $10.5M? He's signed through 2026 with a FULL NMC. Maybe if they don't get things going in a few years, he may ask for a trade. That's a long time for a lot of money, hasn't won much of anything IMO to even warrant that much, but that's just me. I know he's won a lot of games and awards, but that was nearly 4 years ago when he did all that. But, they aren't in any cap trouble, and they have a full roster of players signed. Maybe if they can get a nice return for Pacioretty they could turn the corner.