eva unit zero

Homer is not going to be waived; even if he's not worthy of a top-six spot anymore (true) he's still huge on the power play. Keeping him as a specialist is better than waiving him - the only conceivable situation he gets waived is if both Brunnstrom and Emmerton play their way into the top six in the preseason AND the Wings plan to only carry 13 forwards, meaning that a Homer vs. Miller competition for the 14th spot wouldn't happen because there IS no 14th spot. Homer stays, and realistically, there's no reason he shouldn't because he's still a decent player. Assuming Homer plays in the bottom six, here are the lines I would like to see: Hudler/Datsyuk/Franzen Filppula/Zetterberg/Bertuzzi Cleary/Helm/Eaves Mursak/Abby/Homer Miller/Emmerton If Brunnstrom makes the team, it's in the top nine, and it probably pushes Mursak out, possibly Abby, and Emmerton off the roster. So in that case, I would like: Hudler/Datsyuk/Franzen Filppula/Zetterberg/Brunnstrom Cleary/Helm/Eaves Homer/Abby/Bertuzzi Miller/Mursak Alternate option: Hudler/Datsyuk/Cleary Filppula/Zetterberg/Franzen Homer/Brunnstrom/Bertuzzi Mursak/Helm/Eaves Miller/Abby If Conner or Johnson make the roster, it's more likely that Miller is gone than Emmerton IMHO. I don't see Holland and Babcock adding another one-dimensional defensive specialist as a spare forward in favor of a solid two-way prospect with good skating, playmaking skills, and hockey sense, who could develop into a good all around second line center like Filppula. Conner is almost certainly headed to Grand Rapids; Johnson is the bigger threat due to his experience and faceoff abilities, however his tryout status reduces that. I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to having Johnson over Miller. I'd rather have Emmerton over Johnson though. But for different reasons.

Interesting. He wasn't better than Chris Chelios. He wasn't better than Mark Howe. He wasn't better than Frank Brimsek. He wasn't better than Pat LaFontaine. I'd probably put him fifth though, just ahead of Beezer and Barrasso. Ryan Miller is quickly moving up that list though.

I wonder what it would be like to see Thorne/Redmond?

And hidden by Homer intrigue as well! It's so LGW.

Nope, he's done. At least according to LGW logic. See: Filppula, Valtteri and Hudler, Jiri for more on the subject.

You're responding to my challenge with a cop out. Come on. If you are going to get all snippy about the line combos I made, show me better line combos that don't have Holmstrom on the top two lines. I didn't post what I think the lines should be; I posted what I think they should be if Homer isn't on one of the top two lines. If we go based on your lineup we can swap Homer for Hudler, but that doesn't fit your argument. Homer for Abby or Flip leaves the two slowest forwards on the team on the same line, although it would still be an effective offensive line. Not sure how I feel about Abby playing on the top line though. Hudler outscored him by 20 points last season despite effectively missing almost half the season offensively. Hudler has shown excellent chemistry with Datsyuk. You could break up the fourth line and bring Eaves up to replace Homer, but then what do you do in the bottom six? If you keep them both out of the top six, there is no possible lineup with a solid checking line (Miller/Mursak/Helm/Abby/Eaves) which does not also have Hudler and Homer on the same line. So give me a lineup, please.

I've been posting almost this exact lineup for months. The only difference being my choices to swap Franzen and Cleary, keeping the Cleary/Z/Hudler line going and also reuniting the Franzen/Abby/Bertuzzi line that seemed to work out pretty well at the end of last year. I suggested Eaves as a possible linemate for Dats a year ago. I was laughed at by pretty much everyone with an "Eaves, huh? Sure, whatever." kind of reaction. And furthermore, I was the first to suggest a Mursak/Helm/Eaves line as a potential for this year. Now everyone has it slated in as a given. Very interesting that so many laugh at me for my posts and then re-post things I had previously stated as good ideas.

I'm putting my money on the last of the faceplate goalies; Sam St. Laurent.

Ok genius. Make a lineup which keeps Homer out of the top six and has Brunnstrom off the roster. Who's in your top six? Dats, Z, Flip, Bert, Franzen, Cleary? But what then is your third line? Or your fourth line? If you dress that top six and the Mursak/Helm/Eaves line, you end up with Hudler/Abby/Homer. That line is frakkin' ridiculous. It doesn't make sense to not have Huds on the top two lines, especially in a situation where you are assuming the fact of Homer not being there. Dats and Z are the best players, Franzen is either scoring a bunch of goals or not doing anything at all, and Bertuzzi is best used at and around the net in a scoring capability. This leaves Cleary and Flip, who are both strong two-way players. Flip might be the better option for a third line player, given Clears' scoring ability, but I like the idea of a Cleary/Helm/Eaves third line because Cleary is fast, good defensively, a hard worker, and can score goals. I think that line could work out very well for the Wings. This would dump Homer and Abby to the fourth line with Mursak or Miller, which makes it a playable if not effective line.

Here's a couple lineups with Homer in the "specialist" role: If Brunnstrom does NOT make the top 12: Hudler/Datsyuk/Bertuzzi Franzen/Zetterberg/Filppula Cleary/Helm/Eaves Mursak/Abby/Homer If Brunnstrom DOES make the top 12: Hudler/Datsyuk/Cleary Franzen/Zetterberg/Bert Brunnstrom/Filppula/Homer Abdelkader/Helm/Eaves

Because Darren Helm and Valtteri Filppula are legit #1 centermen? Hemsky's linemates have been much better offensively than Hudler's. It's nowhere NEAR close.

He wasn't offered up as "please take him for anything" he was offered for a 1st round pick, in a year where Holland had plenty of cap space and there were many good free agent forwards. That's a huge difference.

Si. Slipped my mind.

I wouldn't rank them as two of the five greatest fighters in the past 15 years of Wings hockey; regulars only. Brad Norton doesn't count. In fact, based just on regulars of the past 15 years, I would say neither makes the top five. For Chelios, he doesn't even make the top five in the past ten years. In no order: 1996-2011 - Top Ten Darren McCarty Jiri Fischer Aaron Downey Brendan Shanahan Bob Rouse Dallas Drake Joe Kocur Martin Lapointe Stu Grimson Jamie Macoun 2001-2011 - Top Five Darren McCarty Jiri Fischer Aaron Downey Brendan Shanahan Dallas Drake Chelios I would put as close to both of those lists... but Vernon? Really? The only top five list I can put Chelios on is one of my design, and even then he'd be at the bottom. Top five fighters in Wings history with a potential HOF resume.

He's clearly working on his breakdancing, getting ready for the 80s dance upcoming at Arkham. Next he's going to helicopter, and maybe even moonwalk.

Budd Lynch? Anyone?

Hudler was tied for 159th in forward scoring, but 233rd in ice time. Defensively, e was equal to or better than most forwards finishing with similar scoring numbers. There are 30 teams, and three forwards per line. Teams generally dress two as scoring lines. So finishing in the top 180 (30 x 6) means the player is a "top-six" forward in the league, 159th being a second line forward. But Hudler's rank of 233rd in ice time would place him as having been a third-line forward. So offensively, he produced above what his ice time suggested he should have. If he had ranked in the same range of scoring as his ice time, he would have scored about 25 points. It's not the year he had in 2008-09, but it's not the terrible performance that LGW haters make it out to be.

Yeah, but you do get a PK unit which includes Rem Murray and Brent Sopel. Unfortunately I think you're still stuck with Cloutier in net.

Modano is the only possible suspect, as Harold mentioned, and he's no longer on the team. Homer sucks defensively, Hudler is no star in his own zone, Bertuzzi is mediocre. But those guys all work hard in the defensive zone. They just aren't as good at it as guys like Dats, Z, Helm, or Flip. Franzen knows what to do to play defense; it used to be his job. He just doesn't do it. Brunnstrom's best year by the age of 26, with top-six ice time, was 29 points in 55 games, or pace for 43 points. Hudler scored 37 in 73 last year, which included a huge scoring slump. Brunnstrom played top six in Dallas, Hudler has always been third line or below in Detroit. Brunnstrom is also consistently criticized by every scouting report for failure to backcheck, inconsistency, etc. Hudler's performance last season was, effectively, as good or better than anything Brunnstrom has EVER produced. And it is being called terrible. If you prefer Brunnstrom, that's fine, but you are also welcome to the unfortunate results of such a choice. Of course, the fact that Brunnstrom's ceiling closely matches a year that was very disappointing by Hudler standards, and has people calling for a 'bounce-back' year, tells me all that needs to be said.

Hemsky has been more offensively productive than Hudler due largely to better opportunity, but he is worse in every other area except skating. "I'll take an injury-prone quick skater, I think he'd do well on one of our top two lines!" Why not just put Hudler there? He's actually got proven chemistry with those guys, works hard, is capable of better defense, and has shown excellent offensive abilities. And he's NOT injury-prone. And Maj... Hemsky was signed to a six-year deal after scoring 154 points in 211 games over three seasons. This is compared to 84 points in 221 games in three seasons for Franzen. Hemsky got a six year deal, Franzen got an 11-year deal. If Hemsky were to play at 80% of his normal level in the playoffs, I'd say trading Franzen for Hemsky and Brule wouldn't be bad. They were willing to simply hand Brule over to the Kings, so he basically counts as an add-on in this deal.

The Russian version of Don Cherry thinks Datsyuk should be his team's Captain? What's next, Don Cherry says the NHL should stop it with the instigator rule?

Franzen has scored 72 goals and 135 points in 174 games over the past three seasons. That's an average of 24 goals and 21 assists in 58 games each season. Or, for an 82 game season, it works out to 34 goals and 30 assists. But over his six seasons, Franzen has played 395 games, an average of 66 games. He's in his early 30s and is fairly injury prone, he is very streaky, and his work ethic on the defensive side of the puck is worse than any other player on the team; this is particularly sad given the fact that he started his career as a defensive center.

I was definitely a fan of bringing Smith in. I'd have preferred him over Conklin. Smith is better than Conks and has plenty of potential. If he plays to his best, even just based on past performance, he could take the job away from Howard. Fleischmann would have cost far beyond what he would have brought for the Wings, Upshall would have been good for the Wings, and Theodore would have been meh. Wiz would have been an excellent pickup at a reasonable price. He brings everything White brings, but he has a higher level of offense which would have replaced the loss of Rafalski's production. He also would have been a definite upgrade over Ericsson in every possible respect in the lineup.

The discussion began as simply "What if Detroit had been allowed to draft Bure, instead of the NHL making a clerical error that round?" In reality, it makes you think; Detroit selected Bure and the NHL said he wasn't available. What if Vancouver, being interested in him, realized this and double-checked it, provided the necessary information between Detroit's 5th round pick and their own 6th round pick? Shouldn't the NHL have then offered Detroit the option of changing their 5th round pick to Bure, and making Shawn McCosh available for selection? The scary thing here is that such a scenario might cost the Wings Dallas Drake, who was their 6th round selection. Drake for Bure would certainly be worthwhile, but I'd rather have Drake than McCosh as Drake was a top-six player and top defensive forward most of his career, while McCosh was a career minor-leaguer.

Without car accidents, you have to include Igor Grigorenko. From Russian reports he was the Alex Ovechkin before Ovechkin was. Even after recovering from a shattered femur and a near fatal embolism he was healthy and still projected as a second/third line tweener within two years.