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The last time Kiprusoff posted a save percentage above .908, regular season or playoff, was the 2007 playoffs. Kiprusoff's stats 2009 playoffs: 2-4, 3.52, .884 Kiprusoff's stats 2008 playoffs: 2-4, 3.21, .908 Kiprusoff's stats 2007 playoffs: 2-4, 2.81, .929 Kiprusoff's stats 2009 season: 45-24-5, 2.84, .903 Kiprusoff's stats 2008 season: 39-26-10, 2.69, .906 Kiprusoff's stats 2007 season: 40-24-9, 2.46, .917 Seriously...tell me how elite of a goaltender Kipper has been the past two seasons compared to what he was when he built his reputation. HE'S NOT AN ELITE GOALIE ANYMORE.

Brodeur, Backstrom, Lundqvist fit that class. Contending for that status, but just outside it, are Luongo, Vokoun, Miller, Osgood, and Thomas. Each of those five have their flaws; be they playoff inconsistency or regular season inconsistency, as well as durability issues.

Franzen scores 40+ if he's on Jiri's line all year. Jiri, meanwhile, clears 70+ if that happens. Osgood plays 65 games and wins 35+, moving past Tony Espotiso's 423 into 7th in wins.

Kiprusoff started his career as a Shark, as part of the logjam Nabokov/Toskala/Kiprusoff. I was saying at the time that Kipper was the best prospect and probably who they should keep in net, and that they should dump Toskala while he still had value, as his potential was peaking early and he was going to be a mid-level starter at best; which he is. Nabokov and Kipper are both overrated, but neither are the elite goalies people seem to say they are. They are both very good goalies who have an excellent top-end game, but ultimately aren't elite netminders like a Brodeur or Belfour in his prime who could simply dominate every single night.

The only reason people rate Kipper so highly is because he was one of the league's top goalies a few years ago and he plays a ton of games. Calgary would have done better in the regular season and playoffs combined had they had a decent backup and had Kipper gotten decent rest between starts. When's the last time you saw a goalie play 75+ games and win more than one round in the postseason? Brodeur has never achieved the feat. Kipper has only played 75+ the last two seasons, and lost in the first round both years. Grant Fuhr appeared in 79 games in the 95-96 season and his team won the first round, but Fuhr himself was injured 9 minutes into Game 2 of Round 1 and did not return that season; that was the season with Yzerman's dramatic overtime goal over Casey's shoulder. So while Kiprusoff has played quite a few games in the regular season more than once, playing fewer with a solid backup to provide him rest so he can provide his best performance when it matters would seem to be what his team should be looking for. His performance has been declining considerably every year since he has joined the Flames, despite the fact the skaters on the team have improved every year. He's 32 and will be near-33 when the season starts; Kiprusoff is a goaltender who does tend to rely on his reflexes more than some other goaltenders who have been able to maintain their skills into their mid-late 30s...it is possible that he has not maintained his conditioning as well as he should have and his performance is slipping due simply to a physical loss of capability. It is something we saw with Hasek as he aged and was no longer able to perform the unreal saves he once was. Kipper was once the best in the world...now he is far from that level...I would consider him a lower-tier starter based on how he has played the past couple years.

French Toast! The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland or the Stratford Theatre Festival in Stratford, Ontario?

Kipper is a good goalie. He's not better than Backstrom. Furthermore, based on last season Finns who are better than Kipper are: Forwards S.Koivu Selanne Jokinen M.Koivu Filppula Defensemen Pitkanen Timmonen Goaltenders Backstrom Rinne

Most overrated Finn: Miikka Kiprusoff, Calgary.

Need to change the thread title to "Wings agree to terms with Any Elmore"

That would be me. Arbor Brewing is EXCELLENT, although I haven't had a chance to stop down there recently.

If he is signed under $650k (hopefully league minimum), I hope the plan works out like this: Trade Lebda; Lilja on LTIR. Delmore as 6th defenseman. If Lilja ever gets healthy, then send Delmore down. That's regardless of the situation with Hudler; I hope this is a signing to simply replace Lebda with a cheaper, better alternative. Worst case scenario is that he is picked up on waivers. Past that, he plays for Grand Rapids and contends for the Eddie Shore award and motivates Kindl to play the way he can every day.

Leetch is a deserving player...but I don't think he was more deserving than Mark Howe. Howe was probably the third best defenseman of the 80s.

I didn't say Hudler was the only player who was better than the players in that range. Just that he was. I would probably rank him somewhere around 70th among NHL forwards. Hudler is an extremely good player capable of playing all three forward positions well offensively and can score goals well and set up plays among the best of the league. He is better than average defensively and a better than average skater, and he has incredible ice vision. No, he's not Datsyuk or Fedorov. If you're suggesting Dats should make $3-4m, or that Fedorov should have made the equivalent of $3-4m in his prime...that is laughable.

Osgood was one of the league's top goalies for most of his career. He never had a losing season, and was a clutch performer in the postseason. Even the best goalies ever played for great defensive teams, so the teams he played on should not be used against him. Ozzie is a Hall of Famer, and the only Wings goalie that compares to his career in the winged wheel is Sawchuk; Osgood's career as a Wing is amazing and over the course of the remainder he may claim the team wins record as well as more Cups. Number retirement gets more likely with each passing day.

Right now, 117 forwards are paid $3m or more. I would argue that Hudler is as good or better than half of them if not more. The Wings have a bunch of good forwards, but honestly do you think he wouldn't be able to produce with more minutes just because he hasn't had them? And do you think he isn't second line material just because he hasn't been given the chance? He's had a season that proves him as second line material based on output without playing more than a few shifts on the second line. That's pretty impressive.

Johnny Cash. Johnny Depp or Robert Conrad?

Isn't this what I have been saying? That once the arbitration ruling is set, we'll know what's going on with Hudler?

IMHO, the list should look like this: 1) Nicklas Lidstrom, D 2) Henrik Zetterberg, F 3) Henrik Lundqvist, G 4) Daniel Alfredsson, F 5) Nicklas Backstrom, F 6) Johan Franzen, F 7) Daniel Sedin, F 8) Henrik Sedin, F 9) Niklas Kronwall, D 10) Mats Sundin, F 11) Loui Eriksson, F (assuming Sundin is retiring) Projection to a Swedish All-Star team using active NHL players with 13-7-3 would get us Brunnstrom, Samuelsson, Holmstrom, Patrik Berglund, Michael Nylander, Kim Johnsson, Alexander Edler, Mattias Ohlund, Johnny Oduya, Jonathan Ericsson, Erik Ersberg, Johan Hedberg, and if Sundin is retiring we'd see the addition of Sami Pahlsson.

And Medvedev said he would not register the contract. Medvedev CAN stop Hudler from playing in the KHL.

Had I been the Isles GM, I would have picked Marian Gaborik and put him alongside Olli Jokinen.

Biron is much better. Roloson, based on last season, sure as hell isn't. So why pay Roloson all that money to be a backup goalie when you could pay Joey Mac way less to play the same job better? That also leaves more cash to build the team in front of them. The Isles should realistically look into trading Roloson before Biron if Dipietro is ready to come of LTIR. Los Angeles might be a good destination. Roloson costs more and is older, so he'd be a better goaltender to shed if possible.

You are wrong and you are sexist. And you owe me $10,000.

Ward played for the Hurricanes...Eaves played for Boston College...welcome home boys?

Abdelkader>Latendresse, as I have said since the draft. This board should learn to listen to me more often. Getting back on topic, Cory Emmerton has not lived up to his potential so far, but he's still very young. Let's see what he does next year with probably Leino, Helm, and one of Abdelkader, McGrath, or Oulahen no longer in Grand Rapids, making much more room for Emmerton to develop his game both ways. Look for Emmerton to clear 50 or 60 points next season in Grand Rapids.

Regardless of what Spector or mlive say, Medvedev said that the KHL would not register Hudler's contract until after the arbitration process was complete, and then only if the arbitrator ruled against the team and the team chose not to accept the contract; making Hudler a UFA. If the arbitrator ruled in favor of the team or the team accepted a ruling in favor of the player, Medvedev has said that the KHL would not register the contract Hudler signed because he signed it AFTER he filed for arbitration, meaning he had committed to play for Detroit first. The NHL, IIHF, and KHL are all on board and in agreement here. All we need to do is wait for the hearing.