LeftWinger

Way to go Drake! There goes all the Hudler-maniacs arguemtn about replacing his 23 goals with a defensive FA who can only score 10! Now what are they use against me? Seriously, unlike a lot of users here, I don't think we are going to suffer much by losing Hossa/Sammy and possibly Hudler. SUre that is 80 or so goals, but if you get more defensive minded forwards than Hudler is, you can easily shave off 40 or more goals against this season, and you know that with Helm playing all year he is gonna put some in the net, as well as whoever they sign or bring up. If we lose Hudler, it won't be the end of the world, everyone should just calm down... Leino is should get 15-20, Helm should get 10-15, Joe UFA should get you 10. On the low end thats 35 goals if you have more defensinve minded forwards, you will esily make up the difference...

...but isn't Ryan out of minor league options? I would assume that (him being a RFA) if Holland likes this guy, he will re-sign him and give him the 12th spot. Strange though, I wonder if he was going to be a call-up this playoff if he hadn't injured himself? I actually never heard his named mention unitl you brought it up last week. Maybe Holland is just going to give him the pass to go sign elsewhere? But like you mentioned and I have echoed a couple of times, his $500,000 salary would sureley help the cap for Hudler or Joe UFA to be signed...

as much as I DONT like Burke, I have to give him props for what he is doing in Toronto. He has made some great moves and Toronto should be very competitve next season. LOL! All while Pitts gets worse! I love it! Would LOVE to see a Detroit/Montreal or Toronto Finals! Might not happen for a few years, but that would be great!

Get it through your head, lets sign Toews to a 20 year contract where he gets (this is just number not real) $5,000,000 for the first 5 and $1,000,000 for the next 15?!!? Please, spare us we know how long term deals work, Toews and Kane are too young to be signing deals like that. In 5 years they will be worth league maximum (if not in less years.) THere is NO WAY either of them or Keith sign a long term deal that only pays them $1M in the PRIME of the careers! You problem this year lies in that you are OVER the cap already with Versteeg UNSIGNED! Unless you find a salary dump, you are losing him, period! Talon screwed up, now he has to hope your unsigned FA's give him a MEGA discount PLUS he needs to dump salary before camp is over. That leads to getting lowballed by teams because they KNOW you have to dump salary. Then next off season is gona kill Chicago! Say goodbye to Versteeg this year and HOPE you win the Cup NOW because you will have half the talent on your team next year...

These are the fans that beat the Hudler drum by saying lets give him $3.0m and just give up on these guys in the minors. We NEED players like Oulahen to compliment players like Hudler who knows nothing about the game except offense. He doesn't win battles in the corner, in front of the net or defense. Penalty Killing? Whats that? Oulahen might not be Hudler on the offense, but as Pitts proved this year, you don't need 6 goals a game to win, defense wins games (and Bettman ) and theor defense shutdown our offense, I am pretty sure Hudler was shut down the entire playoff! I surely hope we don't lose Ryan to RFA, we will get nothing in return for him since he'll sign WAAAY under the compensation cutoff. He made about $550,000 last season I do believe, I wish Holland would offer him a 2 year $1.0 (combined) contract to play on the 4th line with Draper. That would allow (:puke:) Hudler to get a little more money, and Abby to get his 20+ minutes in GRR to be ready for the playoffs and 2010-11 PLUS save us more cap space PLUS allow us to sign another UFA. If he doesn't work out he can be traded or packaged in a trade to LA for Jack Johnson (wishful thinking, sorry!) No Oulahen is not a savior, but lets see what he can do in training camp and go from there.

Well then Hudler better agree to a contract of $2.0 or less, anyting more and we won't have a complete forward lineup and we'll be right up against the Cap... if he actually gets to his arbitration hearing he will be awarded $3.0 or more and then Holland just has to say no and he is UFA to go where he wants. Hudler is a greedy money hungry chump that would rather have a huge payday than win! (you're right, this is sounding like Fedorov & Hossa too! If Fedorov and Hossa are chumps, then Hudler is worse than them all!) I am tired of explaning it, maybe I am not getting it, but Hudler cannot sign here for more than $2.0m without trading more than Lebda or Meech. Hudler would make 10 forwards, we need 13! I am sure Holland is doing the right thing, but I seriously hope we don't go into the season with ONLY Meech backing up forwards and defense AND be up against the cap... Hudler is not that important to hold on to... Best case scenario, he signs a 1 year $1.5 - $2.0 contract and gets his payday next off season or just leaves. Worst case Holland pays him $2.5 or more and we have NO depth for the season...

Thats a whole lot of convincing, just what are suggesting she do in addition to the above package? I called for the trade on draft day. I traded rights to Hudler, Kronwall, our 1st,2nd picks to Tampa for the #2 overall pick. What was I told? Never Happen, go back to NHL 09, etc... etc... No all of a sudden you guys want to make a trade for Hedman. It's too late, should've made the trade at the draft. Sure we'd miss Kronner, but Hedman would make up fo it, PLUS he will be the defensive leader once Lidstrom steps away from the game, but until then: Lidstrom - Rafaski Stuart - Ericsson Hedman - Lilja Lebda (Meech) Wow, #'s 4 thru 6 are giant! We'd easily rival Anaheim defense corps from last year in size and weight!

Honestly, Haven't I been saying this all along? I have been preaching this until I was blue in the face. I have said time and time again, I do believe Hudler's worth is great than $1.5 to $2.0M, but we cannot give him more because it will eat up most of our cap and we still need to fill the forwards positions. Each and everytime I would get flamed up and down by the Hudler-gard. Each time I try to explain that exact fact that Hudler IS worth $3.0 or more, but Holland cannot pay him that much, so if he wants it, he best leave. I've read thousands of anti-Hossa posts on here calling him every name in the book, inluding "Chump" because he didn't want to play for $4.5 salary, which is over 50% of his market worth, BUT those same anti-Hossa's yelled and screamed and called me names when I suggested that Hudler should also be expected to sign for 50% of his market worth if he wants to play in Detroit and allow Holland to complete the roster with the best possible forwards with the most amount of money to offer them. Again, I was told tons of different things and called things and told to get my head out of my ass, asked if I ever post anything that makes sense... ...so if takes Pat Caputo to pretty much repeat everything I and my fellow "goodbye Hudler" members have been saying to start convincing people that it is just not going to work here unless he takes that discounted contract. Basically, we have 3 forward positions to fill with (leaving Abby out) roughly $2.5M left, assuming Lilja is healthy to play. We trade one of Lebda or Meech and you gain between $450,000 and $650,000 more. So, three forward spots for roughly $3M, you just can't be giving one of those guys $2 to $2.5 of it. Are people starting to see that he needs to "take on for the team" and sign maybe a 1 year deal for $1.5, with the promise that next season they give him his raise. Signing for $1.5, leaves $1.5 to fil out the roster, one of which as Caputo mentioned above would have to be a $500,000 player in order to possibly find a Joe UFA for around $1 to $1.1M. TOo bad Hudler went to arbitration beause #1, he's either going to sign with Detroit for whatever the arbitraitor says and then be traded ( I suggest him, Stuart (convince him to waive the NTC) to LA for Jack Johnson.) or Holland will decide to not sign Hudler and lose him to UFA, especially if he signs for more than $3.1, that would take the 1st and 3rd picks away from us!

Hmmmmmmmmm, who's to say that wasn't the reason he left Detroit? Hossa was ok with the $4.5m but said Kopeky had to be signed too, well Holland tells Hossa he has no intentions of doing that so Hossa goes to where someone will take Kopecky as well... ...in an odd kinda way, if that were the case, I kinda respct Hossa for helping his life-long friend out. Maybe a promise made to each other or maybe Hossa promised Kopecky that he would take care of him...

Lets go with your $3.783 figure. Hudler turned down $2.5, so he will get more if he goes to arb. But lets say he signsfor $2.5, now your have $1.283 left and still only 11 forwards. Ok, you can probably get a servicable UFA for that, but then you only have Meech backing up both Forwards and D-Men... Now you also Lose Ryan Oulehan, he is an RFA, andout of GRR options, so if you re-sign him, he has to play in Detroit or risk losing him to waivers. Unless you bring him up for the 13th forward and his modest salary knocks basically another $600,000 off the cap. Now you are down to $600,000. I supposed that could work, but you won't be able to bring Abby up at all with that cap space... IF Holland is ok with that, then fine, I guess.... But that is assuming Lilja is traded, of course if Lebda or Meech are, this will not work, for we will not have enough forwards. IF they are BOTH traded to make room for another forward, we will only have 6 d-men, with not room for call ups.... My hope is Hudler either walks or realizes that there is not enough cap room for anything over $2.5, and ideally he should take less to ice a better team and give him the best chance at the Cup...

Well they are going to have to trade someone before camp ends right now, whatever Versteeg gets is gonna put them in that much more of a hole. They ARE n fact $562,000 OVER the cap right now! Not sure if they'll regret Hossa signing more than they'll regret giving Kopecky $1.2M a year!

Chrysler hires former Northwest CEO Doug Steenland for board of directors! I guess we'll be seeing Chyrsler disappear in a few years just like Northwest Airlines!

I am with you, we just don't have the money that he wants AND be able to ice a complete team... That being said, if Hudler does what every former Hossa fan on here EXPECTED Hossa to do, and play for less than half his market value, then Holland can sign him and have room for Joe UFA AND a call up to help cover injuries... It can be done, Hudler just has to want it to be done. Holland was being generous with his cap by offering Hudler $2.5m, he should have taken it, it would have crippled this team, but he should have jumped at it. Now, well, like I said, I am with you...

It's called CAP SPACE! You have to assume that Lilja will be healthy because there is no indication otherwise. We HAD $3.3million in CAP SPACE with 9 forwards signed (that three lines for you slow people) Today Leino signed for a cap hit of $800,000. Do the math now, whats 3.3 - 8? Right, $2.5Million left. Now we have 10 forwards. (if your keeping up with all this, I know it's hard, thats 3 lines plus 1) Now, you want to give Hudler the remaining CAP SPACE (plus you even suggest going over by $250,000) so that is now 11 forwards (we're getting close but STILL only three full lines.) Uh oh! Now what do we do? We don't have 12 forwards (let alone the 13 to cover injuries) and we are over our cap by $275,000. Well, we gotta sign someone or bring a couple up. Where do we get the money? Trade Ledba? Alright, thats $650,000 more, now we are up to $375,000. Hmmmm, can't sign anyone for that, lets trade Meech thats another $483,000, that brings us to $858,000. Cool! We can bring up Abby if we want, or better yet, lets bring up Ouhelan he (assuming he re-signs at a modest $500,000) now we have 12 forwards (yee haw four lines!) and that brings our CAP SPACE down to $358,000! So we have 12 forwards and, uh oh, only 6 defensmen, and NOBODY to fill in for injuries and no CAP SPACE to call anyone up either! Ok, ok, lets re-evaluate this here, lets keep Lebda and Meech and trade Lilja, ya! Thats it! Ok, so, now going back to our origianl deficit of -$275,000, that give us $975,000 in CAP SPACE. Ok, now we're talking! We have 11 forwards (oh we can still bring up Oulehan) thats 12 forwards and $475,000 in CAP SPACE. But we have 7 defensmen and one of those can be a forward if we need him. To sum it up, you have 12 fwds, 6 dmen +1 utility guy for injuries and only $475,000 in CAP SPACE so barring any LTIR, we can NEVER bring up anyone from GRR in case we have an injury on the "O" and "D" at the same time. I don't care if Hudler is worth $10 million per season, if he doesn't give us a huge discount he is going to handcuff the Wings the entire season. Now, if Holland is willing to do so then more power to him, but I guess that is why he is Holland and we are not! Signing Hudler to more than $2.0 (and for the CAP SPACE that is being generous) would not make ANY sense financially...

ok, here's what I did. I traded Lebda (because he makes more than Meech,) left Abby in GRR, factored Lilja to be healthy, signed Joe UFA for $1.1M and did a similar contract term to Ryan Oulahen as Leino (less money more years guaranteed Detroit time(only because he is out of options and makes less than Abby.)) I could give Hudler $1.5m and it only leaves $104,000 in cap space. We can always opt out on the Joe UFA and give Hudler more, but that only makes 12 forwards, so you'll have Meech subbing for "D" and "O." That is doable, but risky, especially if you get an injury on "D" and "O" at the same time... I guess he can sign Hudler AND Joe UFA go over the cap and deal with it in camp...

UNless he signs for $1.5 or less, it aint gonna happen. I can see them trading Meech or LEbda, but that still only leaves $2.9 ($2.7 if Meech is traded) million with only 10 forward signed. Giving Hudler $1.5 that only leaves $1.4M or $1.6M to sign two more forwards to complete your 4 lines and a 13th forward... Of course if you give more to Hudler then we won't be able to complete our lines unless Lilja comes off the books... If Liljais off the books we have $3.7M, if Huds gets $2.5 thats only $1.2 to get two more fwds. (even if one of those is Abby or Ouhelan, it is gonna be tight tryng to fill out 13 fwds... I really Hope Hudler takes a discount and signs for $1.5... If he shows his dedication and devotion to this team now, when his next contract is due, he will be rewarded. Holland and the Ilitch's NEVER forget loyalty...

He is in debt to the Finnish Mafia for $3000 over an old gambling debt.... (maybe he bet on the Wings! )

Its totally up to Leino if he wanted to sign that 5% raise contract. Holland probably said you can have your 5% raise on a one year two-way contract or you can take a two year one way contract at $1.6 million combined.... ...which would you rather sign? A 1 year $919,000 contract with no guarnatee you'd be in Detroit all season if at all -or- A 2 year $1.6 million contract GUARANTEED to be in Detroit for the entire contract?

Ya, and in return for Staurt/Hudler we'll take Jack Johnson off their hands!

Just waiting to hear another, either; Hudler says goodbye and signs in __________ for $3.5million! -or- Hudler to stay in Detroit for a Hometown discount allowing Detroit to find another UFA to fill their roster...

Can you say..... Mike Vernon....

Hey, thats a neat concept, a player taking less than value to play in Detroit! Hey Hudler, take a page from everyone, Sign for $1.5 so we can ice an even better team...

Does this spell the last we'll of Hudler for sure now? This only leaves $2.5 million of cap space (not counting Lilja's.) So unless he and Holland come up with something sub $2.0 million. Signing Hudler will make 11 forwards. Maybe you get some more space by trading Lebda or Lilja. BUT you still need 12 if not 13 forwards and if Hudler takes the most of the cap, it's going to be hard to even include Abdelkader.... I trust Holland to do the right thing for this team... my fingers are crossed... edit: according to capgeek, Abdelkader is already on the roster so we only have $1.6M. (before trades)

Ya for $1.5 million

Nah Nah Nah Nah Hey Hey Hey Goodbye! edit: Maybe, but one step closer!