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So you are saying any player that ever leaves a team by choice has no morals or loyalty? By that logic, you could argue then that any player who takes a large contract that would prevent his team from being able to keep the team's core together and keep the team from succeeding has no morals or loyalty. I guess that makes Chris Osgood the only Red Wing with morals, huh? Hudler was the second best playmaker on the team, and would be the fourth-best forward had he stayed. The team would be better off with just Hudler on the roster than having both Bertuzzi and Williams. Hudler being on the team would provide the Wings another forward capable of scoring plenty of goals and very good at setting them up; something only Dats and Z are capable of among current Wings.

I would like to see Lebda traded away as soon as possible. He's worthless and Meech has all of Lebda's strengths offensively but makes fewer mistakes defensively. I could definitely see some positives in pairings of: Lidstrom/Ericsson Rafalski/Kronwall Stuart/Meech

A complete player is one who can perform well in all aspects of the game. And if offense is what you think is most important, with everything else taking minor importance, Ovechkin is still more complete than Crosby.

Crosby is one of the league's best players. But he is far from being the league's most complete player. That is a significantly different thing. Crosby is very good offensively, good on faceoffs, a good skater, and physically strong and capable of keeping the puck. But his defense is average at best and he is still immature. Both of those will likely improve with time, but that's the fact now. He's not a complete player. Offhand, I would say probably the ten most complete forwards in the NHL are Henrik Zetterberg, Mike Richards, Pavel Datsyuk, Daniel Alfredsson, Marian Hossa, Jarome Iginla, Mikko Koivu, Ryan Kesler, Brenden Morrow, and Shane Doan.

Michigan by a hair over Minnesota. Both states have tons of youth hockey through college hockey and pro, with multiple top notch college programs. Michigan also has the US National Team Development Program. And having been to home games for both the Gophers and Wolverines, I challenge you to find any arena anywhere that is more hockey-nuts than Yost.

There. That looks better.

Houston, Seattle, Madison/Milwaukee, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Kansas City Or maybe Ann Arbor. If Jimmy B can throw a tantrum about his hometown, why can't I suggest mine?

There are some important questions. 1. Will Lidstrom be back next year, and if so for how much? 2. Will Hudler be back? 3. Which of Holmstrom, Maltby, May, Bertuzzi, Williams, Eaves, Miller, Lilja, Lebda, Meech, Helm, Abdelkader will be back for next season, and for how much? Once we have an idea about most or all of that, we have an idea about what can be done with regard to signing UFAs. My vote goes to signing Frolov for as many seasons as is reasonable if he can be picked up for $4.5m cap hit or less. This is especially true if Hudler returns; I would love to see a Frolov/Hudler pair or a Frolov/Hudler/Franzen line.

If you are putting another team in Michigan, it goes one of four places. Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Lansing, or Flint. Anywhere else and we're either talking within the territorial range of the Wings, or in a low population area with much lower chance of supporting the team. I may be biased, but Ann Arbor would be the best bet because it's an equal size metropolitan area as Lansing and Flint, but can draw more from cities outside of its metro area such as Plymouth, Livonia, Canton, Brighton, Jackson, etc. which exceeds by a large margin what Flint or Lansing would be able to draw in, and brings it at least equal to Grand Rapids in overall population draw. Beyond that, Ann Arbor has a large workforce employed by UM with secure jobs, as well as a student population that often has disposable income that could pay for tickets.

Ozzie has had a winning record and made the playoffs every season of his career no matter how good the roster he has had to work with. That's pretty consistent.

Yay, another episode of Wheel of Roster! Expected: Zetterberg Datsyuk Franzen Filppula Cleary Draper Holmstrom Helm Abdelkader Leino Maltby Miller Eaves Lidstrom Rafalski Kronwall Stuart Ericsson Kindl Meech Osgood Larsson Would be nice: Zetterberg Datsyuk Franzen Frolov Filppula Cleary Draper Holmstrom Helm Abdelkader Leino Miller Eaves Lidstrom Rafalski Kronwall Stuart Ericsson Kindl Meech Osgood Larsson

And Hudler wasn't playing on one of the top-two lines every shift, either. Further proof Babcock just didn't like Jiri. Leino gets a free ticket to the top two lines, Jiri plays top-line hockey and isn't even allowed a shot on the top-two lines during any of the 36 line shuffles.

Hamilton did one on Thursday night at a cancer benefit, although I agree with the 900 pick. as for the most recent... Leino, because Leno is a bad joke.

Stamkos at $4m is if he hits all of his bonuses. Which he may. But the kid, right now, is 9th in NHL scoring and the next player on the list with a contract even close to his is Mikko Koivu. Rich Peverly, Max Afinogenov, and Vinny Prospal are looking like some pretty darn good deals as far as scorers go, though.

Eaves/Zetterberg/Cleary Leino/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Miller/Abdelkader/Bertuzzi Helm/Draper/Maltby Lidstrom/Ericsson Stuart/Rafalski Meech/Janik

Duncan Keith is pretty much it. A Norris contender for a cheap deal is far better than a 1st line forward for what a 1st line forward should make. Ozzie is another one of the top deals in the league, and there are a few others, such as Quincey, and some entry level deals like Stamkos.

I was gonna say the rape happened a few years before that... 1999–00 Detroit Red Wings NHL 57 3 5 8 12 — — — — — 2000–01 Detroit Red Wings NHL 15 1 1 2 4 — — — — — 2001–02 Detroit Red Wings NHL 3 0 0 0 0

Rafalski was one of the league's ten best defensemen when he was signed to a 5-year deal. He played well in his first two seasons and has been up and down so far this year. He has also been solid in the playoffs for the Wings. If you want to have one year deals and dish those out all the time so we don't get caught in a multi-year deal with a player not performing to his salary, fine, but the Wings will be perennial 6-8 seeds or worse and will have a rotating door for their top six forwards, top four defensemen, and goaltender.

Richards' hit wasn't a blatant shot to Booth's head. Had Booth not suddenly stopped his forward movement, it would have been a crushing shoulder-to-shoulder hit. The problem is, Booth stopped and got his body out of the way, but not his head. Richards had already committed to hitting Booth and it's not like he could suddenly not hit him. Physics don't work that way.

There are major differences between this and the Richards hit on Booth. Modano is receiving the pass, while Booth was passing the puck. Modano is looking directly away from Messier receiving the puck while Booth was more aware of his surroundings. Booth saw Richards coming and was attempting to avoid Richards, but could not get fully out of the way. The left-handed Modano had no idea Messier was there. Messier cut in and hit Modano shoulder-to-head without anything 'accidental' about it. It wasn't like Messier was just trying to hit him and missed; he targeted his head. Messier also leaves his left skate on the hit. Before you start in with the "Well, Messier is a big guy and he just hit Modano in the head because of size" remember that Modano is two inches taller.

Is the charcoal burning? Probably the water balloons. Scott Hamilton doing a triple backflip or Tony Hawk doing a 900?

And Ovechkin has been the league's most dominant offensive player for four years, with almost as many points this decade as Heatley has. It's like this: if one player scores two goal and two assists in the first period of a team's 7-5 win, and is injured with 3 minutes to go in the first and is out for the game, and another player scores two goals and two assists over the course of the game, who should be the star of the game? The guy who put up four points in less than a period, or the other guy who put up four points over the course of the game?

You guys are talking about the "100 percent rule" in which the increas between two consecutive years on a player's contract cannot exceed the lower of the first two years of the player's contract, and a decrease cannot be more than 50% of that amount. Zetterberg's deal, for example, does drop from $7m to $3.35m, which is a drop of $3.65m. However, the lower year of his first two seasons is $7.4m, making a drop of up to $3.7m allowed. An example follows: 1st year: $1.5m, 2nd year: $2m The third year can be anywhere from $1.25k to $3.5m.

Helm at over 850k is absolutely ridiculous. I get that he's a fan favorite, and yes he does a good job for his role on the team. But unless he's going to turn into a perennial 20-goal, 50-point player in two or three years and that is a long-term deal (say 6 years) that deal is gross overpayment. Or paying for potential. Neither of which Ken Holland does in 95% of cases.

Lindros was not dominant "for a blip" as you say. He was one of the league's most dominant players for eight of his thirteen seasons. That's his second until his ninth season. A lot of players don't even play that long before retiring healthy. Lindros dominated the league, won major awards, and was very good to great at all aspects of the game. Had he not had players like Scott Stevens and Darius Kasparaitis leading with elbows into his head, he would still be playing with Philadelphia today and likely still a top player. He would also be on track to be one of the top 10 or 15 scorers of all-time.