eva unit zero

Well, the 2008-09 season's over. But there's still a lot of news about it. And there's still a lot of debate about which team is the best. So I thought, well, for $56.7m, what is the best team you could put together? So I looked, and assembled a 22-man roster for just under $55.1m leaving about $1.6m in cap space. Here's the roster I came up with; see if you can do better based on 08-09 cap hits. Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Ryan Lucic/Malkin/Parise Kesler/M.Richards/Kessel Clowe/Helm/Cleary Dorsett Lidstrom/Keith Kronwall/Wideman Ericsson/Lilja Meech Osgood S.Mason EDIT: Minor changes to roster due to miscalculations based on accidentally using next year's cap hit instead of this year's.

No, I don't see them targeting Fedorov. I just mentioned it as a good fit. But Fedorov would be a good fit for a lot of teams at $2.5m. What I think the Coyotes should do for a first line center is trade their top pick this year and Chris Summers to the Wings for Filppula, Stuart, and Detroit's 1st. Good deal for both sides.

The Montreal dynasties of years gone by, including the 70s, are the result of the territorial rights system used by the NHL until the draft was put in place in 1963. This was basically "Any player who plays for a team within 50 miles of an NHL club, his rights belong to that club." This was further extended by the NHL also including the "sponsor" system, in which junior and amateur clubs outside of any territory could be "sponsored" by NHL clubs and, until the NHL team either released or traded him, the rights of any player who played for one of those clubs would belong to that NHL team. That is why Montreal, Toronto, and Detroit have the most dominant teams of the past; they are the teams with the best locations to acquire the rights of young and potentially great hockey players.

Where is this monster? I will drive off the ancient beast as I have many times before! *Rears up on stallion and brandishes sword and shield*

Hudler will be sticking around and likely for less than $2m. No team will offer Hudler enough to get it into the 1st/3rd range of compensation, and there's a good chance Holland will sign Hudler for less than $2m because Huds knows what he's got if he sticks around as opposed to if he leaves.

Fedorov was Washington's second best forward in the playoffs and is still very quick (though not as fast as he used to be) and very good defensively, still has a good wrister and a heavy slapper, is a good leader (ask his Washington teammates) and can play any position. Fedorov's production this season with the Caps: 52 GP, 11g-22a-33pt, +6 Over 82 games, that works out to: 17g-35a-52pt, +9 Which are pretty decent numbers for a guy playing on the second line with no linemates with any significant offensive talent. Especially one who can play excellent defense. Certainly not the Fedorov of old, but definitely worth a look for a lot of teams at a salary of $2.5m-$3m. Put him in Phoenix centering a line of Petr Prucha/Sergei Fedorov/Shane Doan and he probably can hit 65 points if not more.

I would rather have Meech than Lebda on defense personally. Who cares if Lebda has more experience playing D if he sucks? Meech>Lebda.

He played over 50 games.

I did. In the original post, I said "for $56.7m, what is the best team you can put together?" If I were simply assembling a roster of active players with no regard for cost, it would have been put together as such: Ovechkin/Zetterberg/Datsyuk Parise/Malkin/M.Richards Hossa/Getzlaf/Iginla Elias/E.Staal/Thornton Toews Lidstrom/Keith Boyle/Chara Niedermayer/Weber Wideman Brodeur Osgood

Depends on the fruit and depends on the vegetable. But fruit, usually. Kung Fu or Judo?

Datsyuk, Ovechkin, and Malkin are all great players. They are all within the five best forwards in the NHL. So to try and skew and twist numbers and justify why the numbers don't say what you want them to say is silly.

Source please? There was a rumor that surfaced around Mat 25th-26th that Fedorov was going KHL next year. On May 28th, Fedorov's agent was interviewed and said he has signed no deal with any Russian club and is still talking to the Caps, and has made no decision on his future (as of that point). Unless you have something more definitive, Fedorov to KHL is simply a rumor that as of right now holds no water.

A quick estimate says that roster would be about 60-70 million over the cap. And honestly...if you are creating a dream team while ignoring the cap...why include Sheldon Souray while leaving out Duncan Keith?

Better save percentage, better winning percentage on a worse offensive team=better goalie. Rinne saw about 1.6 more shots per game than Mason. But ultimately, even if you consider Mason better than Rinne...my point is they are virtually even. Rinne should have been a Calder finalist at minimum, and Mason should not have been a Vezina finalist. And any three of the five guys I mentioned would have been deserving Hart nominees.

Rinne does have a visible advantage. Except for wins, which is why I pointed out that he played fewer games. Rinne's stats WERE BETTER than Mason's. On an equal, possibly worse, defensive team. Rinne>Mason.

You forgot games played in your statistical analysis. Mason played 61 to Rinne's 52, 3 of which came in relief. I didn't say it was like Terry Sawchuk vs Peter Ing. I just said Rinne was better. Better can be "WAY WAY BY FAR" better, or it can be "by a hair, if they switched places you might not notice a difference" better. Lundqvist is a very good goalie, but this season I would say there are several goalies who outperformed him. If we're going based simply on performance this season, than MANY goalies could have done what Lundqvist did with the Rangers. This doesn't diminish the feats of Mason or Lunqvist; those two were still extremely valuable to their teams. But their being more valuable because their team isn't as good does NOT mean that they are any better than a goalie who performed better but played for a better (or worse, for that matter) team. Value and skill are not necessarily the same thing. Furthering the point: it's unusual, but you can be a team's most valuable player and not even be the best player on the team. And BTW...Kiprusoff is probably the most overrated goaltender in the NHL. His stats were barely better than Osgood's in the regular season; Osgood's worst regular season of his career, and Kiprusoff was the worst starting goaltender of any team in the playoffs. If you think he is capable of carrying a team to the playoffs that otherwise wouldn't make it, you shouldn't be in a discussion about goaltenders because your judgement clearly holds no credibility.

My suggestion was simply in the spirit of the thread, looking at the fact that Phoenix is well below the cap floor with only a few more players to sign and they desperately need a playmaking center to put on the first line. Filppula and his $3m cap hit may not be a big name, but Phoenix may look at that as the "immediate" help they need, especially with the contract going for a couple more years. Hopefully, from their perspective, Flip and Doan develop strong chemistry and become a seriously threatening tandem in the league and carry the club while their prospects develop. Stuart provides them a good two-way defenseman for a better cap hit than a lot of guys who are not as good (Souray, Jovanovski, etc., I'm looking at you) and hurt their team by preventing improvement.

Can you pass, skate, shoot, and play defense as well as Hudler? Will you sign for the league minimum? If so, then you're hired. If not, then sorry bud.

If the Wings can't afford to match it, then trade Filppula for picks and prospects (better return than just a 2nd pick for an equal caliber player of the same age) and move Kopecky to center the third line (on a trial basis) as he's shown more offensive ability than Helm and would likely be a better fit with Leino and Homer. If Leino/Kops/Homer doesn't work out, try it with Helm instead.

Ron Francis is a point-per-game player for his career. There are some GREAT offensive players who played in the same era who can't claim the same. Francis also put up great offensive numbers before he was a Penguin, and solid numbers after he left the Burgh even though he was declining and playing with second-line wingers. You make it out like Francis was some second liner who Jagr pushed to 120 points, when Francis was a genuine top-notch playmaker. It's like saying Brett Hull was a phenomenal goal scorer because he scored so many goals in the early 90s. What happened to him when the team traded Adam Oates? His goal scoring dropped considerably. Does that mean he wasn't a great player? No. Does it mean Oates played a big part in his goal scoring numbers? The evidence certainly says so. Francis played less of a part in Jagr's offense, but Jagr still played many of his best seasons with a great playmaking center who was also Selke-caliber. Bossy didn't have that, and he was better defensively than Jagr from start to finish. Jagr never learned defense. Bossy was better defensively in his rookie year (and got better over time) than Jagr was in any single season of his career.

Compare Mason to Rinne, ignoring any other goaltenders. Who had the better season? Rinne owns Mason in pretty much every category. Rinne, not Mason, was the better rookie goaltender. Both teams were equally skilled defensively; Nashville had better defensemen overall but they weren't better in their own end as Columbus had mostly defensive specialists while Nashville had guys like Weber and Suter who could play decent defense but were more offense-oriented. Mason's Vezina nomination and his Calder win were both hype-based. However, he was the most valuable goalie of any playoff team; The Jackets switched to Mason and traded LeClaire because LeClaire was s***ting the bed. If they had kept LeClaire, who didn't play a game for Ottawa, they would have been at the bottom of the conference. Without LeClaire? It's Norrena or Dubielewicz, who are mid-level backups at best and they miss the playoffs. The Jackets don't have any assets to trade to get a solid goaltender without handicapping either the offense or defense considerably. The Rangers had six forwards who scored 40 points. The Jackets had 3. The Rangers also had more tradeable defensemen; Wade Redden is as good or close to as good as anyone on the Jackets' defense, and Chicago would have rather taken on his contract for Nikolai Khabibulin and beefed up their defense than dropped him to a division rival unless the trade involved Rick Nash and more. The Jackets had nothing without Mason...the Rangers had other good players. Lundqvist certainly did most of the work, which is why he was in the top five, but ultimately Mason was more valuable.

Looking at the figures... If Hossa signs for the $4m people are throwing around... That means his cap hit and Zetterberg's cap hit combined are actually less than last season. Plus, it means that trading Stuart and letting Chelios go, letting Samuelsson go and replacing Conklin with Howard, potentially allows the Wings to keep everyone but Samuelsson, Chelios, and Conklin; All three of which will likely receive offers outside of what the Wings can afford to pay them for their roles on the team anyway. If Maltby and/or Holmstrom retire, that opens up considerably more cap space to work with. Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Cleary Franzen/Hudler/Hossa Leino/Filppula/Holmstrom Helm/Draper/Kopecky Maltby Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Ericsson Meech/Lilja Lebda Osgood Howard If Maltby retires: Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Cleary Franzen/Hudler/Hossa Leino/Filppula/Holmstrom Helm/Draper/Kopecky Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Ericsson Meech/Lilja Lebda Osgood Howard If Homer retires: Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Cleary Franzen/Hudler/Hossa Leino/Filppula/Kopecky Helm/Draper/Maltby Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Ericsson Meech/Lilja Lebda Osgood Howard If Maltby and Homer retire: Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Cleary Franzen/Hudler/Hossa Leino/Filppula/Kopecky Helm/Draper/Abdelkader Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Ericsson Meech/Lilja Lebda Osgood Howard

No spares? What happens if someone gets injured? That could get really ugly really quickly. I couldn't help but notice that your team has fewer players than mine, and less depth, for more money.

Fine, have Franzen center it. The point is Hudler dishing the puck to Franzen and Hossa as the Wings' second line would give teams nightmares.

I only considered teams that made the playoffs when choosing my top five for the Hart; if a team didn't make the playoffs it's hard to argue that player is the most valuable in the league to his team. Otherwise I'd have given the honor to Nicklas Backstrom of the Wild as they would have finished 30th in the league without him. And as I said, you can be more valuable without being better. Only Thomas and Luongo of my Vezina top-five even made the playoffs. Thomas wasn't even his team's MVP IMHO, so putting him in the Hart race would be silly. Luongo had a decent defense and several good forwards playing in front of him, and his team was challenging for the division title. Mason, OTOH, got hot and helped his team sneak into the 8th spot. He wasn't better than those guys, he just played well at the right time when his team needed him to. I'll give you a simple example. Say there's a twelve-team league with two six-team divisions. The top four on each side make the playoffs. One team scores an average of five goals each game and gives up about two. One team scores two goals each game and gives up one. The 5-goal team finishes first in its division, the 2 goal team finishes 4th. The league average is 5 total goals per game, so 2.5 per team. Other teams generally score 2 or 3 goals and give up 2 or 3 each game on average. Who should be the MVP? My vote goes to the goaltender of the team that is only giving up 1 goal per game; he's basically gotten them a playoff spot the rest of the team didn't deserve. You have to consider how talented the player's teammates are and how the team would have done without him. Seriously...which playoff teams do you think would not have made the playoffs without their team's MVP? How important was that player as compared to the next most important player? These are things that should be thought about...not "Who is the best player." You do have to consider how good the player is, because if the team is full of similarly skilled mediocre players, it's hard to argue that a low seed would miss their MVP if they have a bunch of guys at the same position who are nearly as good and would be able to step it up with more ice time. Montreal is an example. If Markov were missing, do you think Montreal doesn't make the playoffs? I think that's less likely than at least the five I mentioned.