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Here's a list of some other guys who were basically one-hit wonders as far as goal scoring who Franzen has yet to prove he is anything more than: Jonathan Cheechoo, Jason Blake, Brian Gionta, Scott Young, Brad Boyes. For Franzen to be considered a top-ten goal scorer, he would have to be in that range and have proven he is capable of doing it more than once. Like Hossa.

The numbers for next year I mentioned include Howard's contract. Check Osgood's record vs. Conklin's. Tell me that Conklin has provided such a huge boost to the Wings' chances of winning that he's worth keeping Conklin at the price he'll cost instead of the skaters that could be kept such as Hudler. If we win the Cup this year with Osgood in net, do we really need to worry so much about keeping Conklin when he's could cost as much as $3m? We would have a goalie who had won the Cup two consecutive seasons.

Take Datsyuk off the team. Now give Ville Leino the amount of ice time Hudler has, and split the remainder of Datsyuk's ice time between Hudler, Filppula, and Zetterberg. Likely the Wings are still tops in the division, top two in the conference, and top three in the league. Take Lidstrom off the team. Give Ericsson the same amount of time Stuart has been seeing, give Kronwall the same amount of time Lidstrom had, and divide up any remainder among Rafalski, Stuart, Lilja, and Lebda. Likely the Wings might manage top two in their division, probably top four in the conference, and top ten in the league. Lidstrom is likely the only player on the team that affects the team's success enough on his own to bring the Wings down that much if he were missing. That's just a projection based on the differences in players.

Franzen isn't terribly physical, if that's what you are suggesting. Kopecky hits much more often than Franzen does. As far as the salary side;. Hossa at $6m, Hudler at $1.8m, Sammy at $1.35m, Leino at $1m, Kopecky at $575k. Franzen, Chelios, and Conklin sign elsewhere. The Wings can't sign either Hossa or Franzen and resign everyone else. Or perhaps you haven't noticed that? Trade Stuart if possible, otherwise trade Filppula and Lebda either together or separately and use Meech as double-duty 13th forward/7th defenseman. The Wings would have between $100k and $210k in free cap space if the cap remained the same, depending on the trade made. And for reference, Conklin is likely to cost upwards of $2-3m and will probably sign for that reason with a team looking for a starting or 1a goaltender; not Detroit. Detroit's backup will likely be Jimmy Howard.

I'm not saying Kopecky was some kind of all-star and the rest of the team was lazy nothings...but you can outplay your teammates and be the best player on your team without your team looking bad.

I will agree on the first point; but the second point is incorrect, as Zetterberg (and thusly, his line) has been used to shut down the opposing team's top offensive threat for most of the season, hence his drop in points-per-game. My point that the Cleary/Zetterberg/Hossa line was unrightfully ignored is because they seemed to be ranking based on overall ability of each player combined without accounting for chemistry or anything like that...which would give the Zetterberg line the advantage by having Z and Hossa. Datsyuk has even been quoted to the effect of saying that playing with Zetterberg allows him more offensive freedom because he doesn't have to be the primary defensive player. Personally, I would play Dats and Z together on the first line with Holmstrom, and then have a second line of Hudler, Franzen, and Hossa. If Franzen leaves in the summer as expected, Kopecky can fill in his spot on that line and take his role.

Not offhand, no. I wasn't aware I had to keep track of these things. If it really matters that much to you, I'm sure if you look back through some of the GDTs you'll see it mentioned that Kopecky has been the team's best player.

Datsyuk can't win the Hart...he's not the most valuable player on the Wings. Lidstrom is. Same reason Crosby shouldn't be mentioned for the Hart; because he has Malkin. Speaking of the Hart though; if Minnesota does manage to squeeze into the postseason...Nicklas Backstrom should win in a landslide.

During that season a couple years ago when Franzen scored 10 goals...how many games was he the team's best player? Any? I don't recall a single one.

There have been probably 6-8 games this season where Kopecky was the team's best player. That's a pretty good number, and more than most of his teammates.

Give it time. If Franzen ditches, Kopecky replaces him and plays on the top two lines next season and puts up Franzen-esque numbers, this whole forum will be in more shock than if Lilja were to win the Norris.

Someone you left out of your list of people who can create scoring chances for themselves; Mikael Samuelsson.

Well, if Kopecky is given the same kind of second line time with power play time (in Franzen's "breakout year he played 2:49 per game on the PP") he could replicate Franzen's sudden change, as Kopecky's production this year is very similar to Franzen's ten goal season after adjusting for ice time (Kopecky is on pace to finish with ten goals with about as much total ice time played as Franzen had) and Kopecky is the same age as Franzen was then. Couple that with the fact that Franzen is likely to leave in the offseason...I say next season's second line should be either Hudler/Zetterberg/Kopecky or Hudler/Kopecky/Hossa. Either way, Kopecky should be reliable for a good level of production.

I guess it's just the fact that they didn't even get the right 'Best Wings line' from the THN depth charts they said they were using for the article, so how could the article have any credibility at all?

No, I'll admit that I clicked the link and went straight to the list. So anyway, what kind of rule is a one-per-team rule? I still call it BS, and I'll tell you why. Which line do you think is better, Franzen/Datsyuk/Holmstrom or Cleary/Zetterberg/Hossa, which is the second line that would have been on the list had another Detroit line been allowed. Interesting question, don't you think? My vote would go to the Zetterberg line. Better than the Datsyuk line, better than any other line via the logic on THN's list, therefore the best line in the NHL. Zetterberg and Hossa are both among the top ten or fifteen forwards in the world. So by not allowing the Zetterberg line, they have disallowed the line that is arguably the only line with two top-fifteen forwards on it.

Yeah, the fact that the Wings are suddenly being outshot 2-1 in the third when they were outshooting the thrashers 3-2 in the first 40 doesn't factor into Atlanta's scoring at all.

That list has no credibility via not mentioning Zetterberg's line, which contains two of the ten or fifteen best forwards in the league. Zetterberg, Hossa, and ANYONE is one of the ten best lines in the NHL. Sorry. Not mentioning that line because the Wings were already mentioned is like not mentioning Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, Dennis Wideman, Chris Pronger, or Brian Campbell among the top 20 defensemen in the NHL because of Nicklas Lidstrom, Zdeno Chara, Scott Niedermayer, and Duncan Keith just because some of those guys are teammates.

Franzen has also made some pretty significant defensive errors the last few seasons...he's certainly far from perfect defensively.

Play of the year from 1995-96, when Osgood should have won the Vezina:

The point was that a player who has many talents will likely score fewer goals for the same talent level than a player whose only ability is goal scoring, because instead of always thinking "score" he will be looking at the ice much differently. Wouldn't you agree?

Most people on here are expecting Franzen to get $4m. It's quite possible Hossa could get $6m. At best, Franzen is Hossa's equal defensively and as far as goal scoring. Franzen is much more injury prone, he is a terrible playmaker while Hossa is a good playmaker. And no, Franzen is not as good a goal scorer as Zetterberg, Datsyuk, or Hossa. Why do I say this? Because if all four players have similar goal-scoring numbers, and Franzen can do NOTHING but score goals while the other three all can do and are used in other roles, then Franzen being an equal goal scorer should mean he would have more goals scored now due to his limited focus. I expect the Wings to sign Hossa for about $6m per year, and to give Kopecky and Leino chances to prove themselves in Franzen's slot after Franzen signs away as a UFA for a deal that is $4.5m or $5m per year or more.

Each of Ozzie and Dom played in 2 games during their 'questionable' Cup run. The TEAM won the Cup. Those two, in those years, did their job as backup for that run. That counts enough for me.

Look up Ales Kotalik or Tyler Arnason. Compare their numbers to Hudler's. $1.8m might not be dead on...but it's probably not far off, either.

Here it is. Écouter!

Stuart is better to trade than Flip if possible. I'm sure you've seen one of my posts on the subject.