LeftWinger

...cool! If it's true. I cannot understand Forsberg though, why won't he sign here? He is going to Philly?!?!? I guess he is not interested in winning a Cup is he? Oh well, bring on Fabian, Fedorov & Foote!

...well Detroit didn't do too bad with their 3rd rounder that year (same round Edler was taken) Johan Franzen...

...yeah but, Charles Barkley wouldn't care who wins the Cup, he doesn't like white people remember?

...Joe Gibbs is thinking WTF am I gonna do when Tony Stewart leaves me? ...I guess you should have never signed with Toyota!

...I know, I know, I was just tongue in cheeking it! LOL! I got ya! ...I can hear it now, evertime he scores they would either play the famous "Fabian" hit "Turn Me Loose" (made even more famous by Loverboy) -OR- they could put "Laverne & Shirley" up on the scoreboard saying "FABIAN" in their long drawn out lovesick rendition. Of course eveyone knows that "Fabian" was Laverne & Shirley favorite teen idol heartthrob actor!

...this is exactly why you WILL see Fedorov's and Osgood's number in the rafters at Joe Louis... ...if Graves deserves it, then NO DOUBT Feds and Ozzie deserve it, and rightly so!

...there, fixed it for ya!

...tsk tsk tsk... ...if you haven't learned how Mike Ilitch is by now, you'll never learn! HE cannot stand losing out on what he believes to belong to him. What happened in 1998 when Fedorov signed with Carolina? Mike Ilith said he never thought twice about matching ANY offer given to Fedorov. (too bad a few years later Fedorov crossed Mike and that also is a no-no.) For lack of better words Mike Ilitch pretty much owns Steve Yzerman (so he feels) and he would "one-up" anybody who would even try to take his "son" away from him. So even if the Leafs offered Steve a position and Steve showed ANY remote interest in it, Mike would turn around and offer him something in the Wings organization that supercedes the Leafs GM job. Eventually leading to him taking Hollands place as GM. Maybe even going as far as promoting Holland (in name) to something that is higher than a GM and making Yzerman GM, of course having lots of input from Devallano and Holland as well as Ilitch... ...Yzerman isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The ONLY way he would leave the team is if he ever felt that he was back-stabbed, under-cut or taken advantage of in any way, and then that would be the Teams fault not Yzerman's. (sort of like the Fedorov situation.)

...odds are, with all these LOOOOOOOOONG term contracts being signed, in 2009 he will sign a deal that keeps him here for at least 12 more years. He will play his career out in Detroit (I am not sure about Datsyuk) and if he keeps up his 80-100 pts per season, there's no reason he won't have his #40 retired... ...here's the problem with Hockeytown. First off, tickets are still TOO expensive and they're only going to up once these UFA's start signing. But more importantly this franchise (say what you will about Lidstrom) has no identity, or for better understanding, has no one player that EVERY SINGLE fan can relate to or can recognize just by speaking his name. Every sports fan (whether football, baseball or basketball) knew who Stevie was. Sure in the world of hockey everyone knows who you are talking about when you mention Nick or Hank or Pav. But ask the average Pistons fan if he knows who Hank is. This franchise needs a face that the fans relate to and recognize just by seeing him. Sure you cannot replace what Stevie gave to Detroit, for petes (no pun intended) sake he grew up here. He spent more years in Detroit than he did growing up in Canada. The Wings stars today are not going to have that effect on the city as Stevie did. Sure, they will be great, heck they already are, but which team can fill the seats and give an identity is the question. A team with Hank, Lids and Pav on it or Yzerman, Fedorov, Probert and Ciccarelli? Problem is, these players are retired (for the most part.) Todays NHL is watered down with players with no personalities and most of them are not personable. The Chris Chelios' of the NHL are gone, he is the last of a dying breed. Opposing fans come to the rink just so they can boo him, he fills the seats. This franchise needs a face, and really, Hank or Nick aren't it. If Illitch does a few things, the arena will sellout again. #1 being drop prices, but that won't happen, next he has to get players that the fans recognize, he needs to bring Sergei back, he at least would be someone who average fans know and recognize. He should put Yzerman in a position where he is seen more by the public, what that may be I am not sure, but something is wrong in hockeytown and winning is not the problem, as much as we are winning that arena should be full. Sure Sergei is not the be all to end all, but having his familiar #91 on the ice would help fill the stands more than it would hurt...

...why is he a terrible person, because he played for the AVES? He wouldn't take away from any young players icetime, he would prolly bump Sammy down to the third line and that would just bump Drake out or Kopecky will become the 13th forward along with Downey... ...he is far from washed up, and as it looks, our #1 guy is injury prone as well, so should we not play him when he gets healthy? Should we not resign him when he is a UFA in 2009 because he misses 20 games a year with a back injury? Oh yeah, BTW, Steve Yzerman was injury prone as well and some would say he was washed up because he couldn't score 50 goals anymore, but you know what, he was still effective and showed up huge when it counted... ...Forsberg would bring the experience and playoff scoring we lacked last season, Fedorov would also help in that aspect. Need we say it again, just 1, 1! goal on the 5 on 3 against Anaheim and Neidermayer's goal means nothing and we go on to beat Ottawa and hoist the Cup. Forsberg could have scored that one goal...

...ok lets think about this in a non-bias non-negative point of view... ...the Wings could use a threat on the second line, they could use some veteren help come playoff time. Adding a legit top 6 guy would only help them... ...guys we've all discussed: Fedorov, Hossa, Sundin, and Forsberg. Now, lets look at it this way; When (and if) Forsberg is healthy and effective, there aren't many players better than him, escpecially come playoffs. The first three listed players would cost us something in exchange, Forsberg would cost us nothing in exchange (so there will be noone scolding Holland for trading away Mathias (insert player whom may be traded.)) He would have to agree to sign an incentive laden contract involving performance or number of games played, etc... ...Now, if he proves he can play effectly, signs a relatively small contract and stays healthy, I would rather rent him than Hossa or Sundin (and give up some future for 3 months of use, even if it brought us a Cup.) I have no doubt Fedorov will be back, either at the deadline or as a UFA. Columbus doesn't want him, they are scratching him for "Some kind of Illness" which basically means (for the most part) they are getting ready to move on without him and are giving his icetime to the players who are going to be there from here on out.... ...so IMO, siging Forsberg is a no brainer as long as he can play. He will easily move onto the number 2 line and playing with either Zetterberg, Datsyuk or Fillpula for that matter, will do nothing but make the signing look like a Nobel Prize winning piece of literature... ...and we can stop all this "He hates Detroit" and "we hate Forsberg" so he would never sign here or we wouldn't want him here. We've all seen the video of Chris Chelios saying how he hated Detroit so much that he'd never sign here or accept a trade, he even cried the day he was traded here and was quoted asking why did it have to be Detroit that was interested, yet, he accepted the trade here and the rest is history. Oh, and BTW, we all hated him just about as much as Lemeiux and now look at us. If Forsberg wants to win a Cup, he has two options in my book, Detroit or Ottawa. There may be other teams who have a chance to win, but the two favorites have to be Detroit and Ottawa, so obviously those should be his first two choices, Detroit having the edge because of the Swedish connection, if he signs anywhere else but Detroit or Ottawa, he may as well stay retired, because anywhere else he would be relied upon to be "The Man" and too much would be expected of him... ...sign him Kenny, you'd be stupid not to roll those dice...

...well we know not many (if any) are as good as Nick, but who is complaining about Rafalski? My God, Jesus! He's #2 in scoring behind Nick!!!! We knew what we were getting when they signed him, did people think that he was gonna come in and become a hitter? If Nick was retired, then we'd STILL have the #1 scorer in the league, Brian Rafalski! Jesus, does he have to be tied with Nick to get some respect!?!?! I don't recall Schneider ever being #2 behind Nick while he was here! ...anyhow, Blake would be a nice addition, but so would many other players (Fedorov, Foote, Hossa, Sundin, Forsberg.) Since we can't obviously get them all, lets hope that Holland chooses the right ingrediant (if he does at all.) ...Would Blake and Fedorov be the mix to put us into the Stanley Cup? They'd bring the playoff experience, Cup winning experience to boot! I think it would cost less to aquire Fedorov and Foote though...

...here's a novel idea, 2 points for a win in regulation or OT, ZERO points for a loss in regulation OR OT. 1 point each for a tie. Scrub the shootout! Why reward a team for losing? STOOOOOOPID!!!!!! A team could theoretically lose EVERY game in OT and still make the playoffs and win the CUP!!!!!!

...if anything, with him being one of the faces of the glory days in Detroit, especially with how much he meant to the Wings during the 90's and their Cup runs, if he doesn't revitalized his career, he may try to get a one day contract and play one shift so he can officially retire a Red Wing, which is where he should retire. It's been done before, I think Ray Bourque signed a one day contact with the Bruins so he could retire where he belonged. Not sure if he played a shift or not. I think the fans would go wild to see #25 on the ice one more time (at least) Hey, who knows, he could pull a Joey Kocur out of his hat, I bet that is what he is hoping inside...

...I would definately trade Kopecky, but I would trade Meech before Lebda. Right now Lebda is better than Meech and in a couple of years neither of them will be on the team (maybe in a 7th position) with Kindl ready to come up. Chelios will play all long as he wants to and there will always be a position on this team for him. The problem with giving Ellis the minute is that the person you are trading for is going to need the minutes, unless you package Kopecky and someone else together... ...I think Feds and Foote or Blake and Sudin will do. But that would cost more than Kopecky, you'd have to give away Hudler and a prospect as well along with a d-man to make room for Blake or Foote...

...ok, first off, I'd rather see Holland make an offer for Foote rather than Blake (as someone said on page 1, he doesn't bring much more offense than we already have.) So if it's a gritty, hard nosed (no pun intended) dman we can use, Foote would cost less and fill the role nicer... ...on this "rental player" issue. Why on Earth would someone want to come to Detroit and only stay for a couple of months? If Blake were to come here, win a Cup (hypothetically) and (we all know) the team pretty much stays the same next season, why on earth would he want to go back to the stinkhole team in LA? Someone said to help develope the youngsters? WHAT!?!?!? If you want to develope the yutes retire and become a coach. Re-sign here (if possible under the Cap) and win more Cups... ...I would pass on Blake and go for Feds and Foote (if that is what we need to win)

...bottom line, you have to play more than 10 minutes to win a hockey game... ...Oh well, no huge loss, sure they gained 2 points in the Presidents race, but in the overall picture, no a huge loss...

...maybe we are outclassed. I know their #1 line loks a whole lot better than ours tonight. Holland better start calling Columbus and asking what its gonna take to get Fedorov...

...another Stanley Cup and 400 wins should seal the deal... (plus retire his number)

...against us maybe, but if the playoffs started today, St. Louis would miss the playoffs by 1 point (and they're in 2nd behind us.) ...of course that may be a good thing for Detroit! LOL! ...and BTW we'd open up against the Ducks (BLEH!)

...so how does the rest of the team get picked then? As long as I knew, the coaches picked the reserves. ...and when he does pick, Osgood will be going, but that is the last Red Wing, that will make 4... ...I hope he snubs Pronger... ...the other goalie should be Leclaire out of Columbus... ...as for our next coach, if ever Babcock leaves, Larionov will fit the bill nicely!

...all this talk about a 2nd line player and a #3 or #4 D-Man. Hmmmmm... ..Fedorov and Foote maybe?

...who do we fear? No other team... ...Who do I fear? I fear our own team. I fear that we'll see another self-implosion like we are all too used too. Western Conference Finals won't do it this year, if we don't at least make it to the Cup final (and not get swept) then we had a disappointing year. This team can beat anyone, even itself, that is what I fear...

...while I agree with you about the past being the past (exception Fedorov) I can remember even back in the 90's when McCarty looked like he didn't belong in the NHL, until the playoffs started that is. It always seemed that he and Maltby, while pretty quiet during the season, lit it up at the right times during the playoffs. I'd take him back for depth and playoff experience. I seem to remember back in 1997 when Joe Kocur was playing in adult leagues and a similar discussion was going on when the Wings talked about possibly siging him for depth, well look how well he worked out not on;y in 97, but 98 also. For the right price, lets say league minimum, he'd might be worth the signing poor Mark Hartigan would be sent back down but he'd be back again...