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How has Hossa stacked up against his teammates? He's led his team four times, finished second twice, and finished sixth once. Only once in his career has he finished outside the top six in scoring on his team in the playoffs. Let's compare to Lecavalier... Lecavalier finished 4th, 4th, T4th, and 3rd in team scoring in his four playoff appearances. Not once in the top-two; somewhere Hossa has finished on his team six of eight seasons. Hossa was even doing it as a second liner while Lecavalier was the anointed franchise player.

Hossa has always been a good playoff performer. It's the fact that his team didn't advance in the postseason that got him labeled as a playoff bust. Seriously; look at his stats. He is ALWAYS at or near the top of his team in scoring in the playoffs. In Ottawa, he was often pulling this feat off from the second line while the combination of Yashin/Alfredsson struggled on line 1. Hossa has always been a good playoff performer; he just hasn't gotten the credit for it because he didn't have a finals appearance because his team was full of trash.

If we're making an "All-Time" team, we have to include Mark Howe. Also left off lists so far: Mike Knuble; raised in the Grand Rapids area.

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Just for reference everyone, the Wings currently have about $3.5m in free cap space. If he's looking for money, he's not coming to Detroit....but if he wants a Cup the Wings definitely have by far the best shot and still have a decent amount of cap space to him if he wants it. Furthermore, the Wings have Samuelsson who has a cap hit of $1.2m and could be waived or traded for picks/prospects if necessary to make extra space to pull in Sundin at a salary close to $2m. If Sundin REALLY wants a Cup above all else, and doesn't care about the money as he professes and intends to leave Toronto...He signs a one-year deal in Detroit for whatever Kenny can afford.

Vesa Toskala + Chris Osgood = Togood

Yeah...I still maintain without the knee injury in 1988, Yzerman has over 800 goals and over 2100 points and might still be playing. Because not only did it limit the number of games he could play later in his career, it limited his top end speed right at the beginning of his prime. Yzerman was one of the more dynamic skaters in the league when he was younger...if he never wrecks his knee...who knows how many 60, perhaps even 70 goal seasons he puts up?

Yeah, he injured his knee in a goal celebration in 1996 and not when he crashed full speed into the goal post in 1988 and missed 16 regular season games and most of the playoffs. Yep, that's how it happened.

Until he was drafted by Detroit and became "just another prospect" Hudler WAS highly touted young talent. But let's take a look real quick at the Hudler vs Semin comparison for last year and this year. As neither player scored a SH point, we'll ignore SH situations completely since this is a comparison of scoring. Hudler 06-07 647:00 ESTOI, 114:54 PPTOI 12-8-20 ESP, 3-2-5 PPP, 15-10-25 TP Hudler 07-08 847:35 ESTOI, 218:05 PPTOI 10-17-27 ESP, 3-12-15 PPP, 13-29-42 TP Semin 06-07 971:05 ESTOI, 440:35 PPTOI 21-14-35 ESP, 17-21-38 PPP, 38-35-73 TP Semin 07-08 780:48 ESTOI, 281:48 PPTOI 16-6-22 ESP, 10-10-20 PPP, 26-16-42 TP Alright, now let's see what each player would have done in those years with the same scoring rate (meaning same linemates and opposition) at the other players' amount of minutes: Hudler 06-07 (Semin's time) 971:05 ESTOI, 440:35 PPTOI 18-12-30 ESP, 12-8-20 PPP, 30-20-50 TP Hudler 07-08 (Semin's time) 780:48 ESTOI, 281:48 PPTOI 9-16-25 ESP, 4-16-20 PPP, 13-32-45 TP Semin 06-07 (Hudler's time) 647:00 ESTOI, 114:54 PPTOI 14-9-23 ESP, 4-5-9 PPP, 18-14-32 TP Semin 07-08 (Hudler's time) 847:35 ESTOI, 218:05 PPTOI 17-7-24 ESP, 8-8-16 PPP, 25-15-40 TP Yep, that Semin has such a bright future and performed SO much better than Hudler did, he didn't just get more ice time (and tons of it on the PP) alongside a Hart trophy candidate or anything. No sir. Hudler>Semin.

Same draft year, Hudler was considered the best European center and Semin the top European winger. They were #2 and #3 among European skaters. Again; HUDLER WAS CONSIDERED JUST AS STRONG A PROSPECT AS SEMIN BY THE NHL'S CENTRAL SCOUTING BUREAU, DESPITE HIS SIZE DISADVANTAGE. The ONLY reason Hudler fell so far is his height; he actually weighed more than Semin at the time. He had displayed his considerable skill in the top Czech league for years, and was considered a can't miss playmaking center. The only question about him was the standard 'What about his size?' applied to all small Europeans. I think he has more than answered that question. As far as point production...you don't think Hudler could have put up that kind of season in 06-07 playing the majority of it in the East and seeing lots of PP time with Ovechkin? I wouldn't trade Hudler for Semin.

I think, as far as Wolski and Semin are concerned, that was the POINT. Hudler is 24 Wolski is 22 Semin is 24 If he's producing as well as they are offensively, and performing better defensively and in clutch situations...what makes their future so much brighter? The fact that they play on teams with fewer good players?

HSA played in the East. That's good for like a 5-10% boost in production if you are on a good team.

Finger will be playing for the Marlies?

Filppula is better defensively than Hudler; he's worse defensively than Hossa, Cleary, and Franzen and comparable defensively to Samuelsson. Hudler is better offensively than Filppula, and the margin is especially wide in playmaking skill. I fail to see how that makes Flip a better choice for the second line centering two guys of Cleary/Hossa/Franzen/Samuelsson who are all comparable or better defensively to him, but when it comes to offense are all primarily goal scorers--Hossa is the only skilled playmaker in the group. You don't think putting the best available playmaking center after Z and Dats with Hossa is a good idea? I put Franzen on the third to keep the FFS line together; that line had wicked chemistry and there's no guarantee he keeps up his scoring as the second option on the second line instead of the first option on the third.

I would like to see a second line of Cleary/Hudler/Hossa and a third line of Franzen/Filppula/Samuelsson.

Anyone who expects three 100-point seasons is in for a disappointment. The Wings have never had two, and only rarely have they had two 'regulars' who were even on pace for such a season. 1993-94 is the only season I am aware of where the Wings had two players with PPG of a level where they would have hit 100 points with a full slate of games; Yzerman's 82 points in 58 games projects out to 119 points in 84 games, which would have ranked him third in the NHL that season. The 1994-95 season would have seen Paul Coffey and Sergei Fedorov score 100+ points in a full 84 games season, but as a 'full season' that year was considered 48 games, it doesn't count. It also doesn't count on the 'projected totals' if you project points based on percentage of schedule, as Fedorov scored 50 points in 42 games, and 57 points was the equivalency threshold for a 100-point scorer. Chances are, the Wings may have one 100-point scorer and two 90-point scorers. They will almost certainly have three 80+ point men and will likely have at least two break the 90-point barrier. The chances of one of them breaking 100 points seems high, as Zetterberg IIRC has scored well over 100 in his last 82 regular season games, Hossa has hit the mark before, and Datsyuk has come awful close. But two 100+ point men is much harder, and three would be very difficult unless they all play together most of the time and play a LOT of hockey. See the 1996 Pittsburgh Penguins' top two lines of left winger Mario Lemieux, center Ron Francis, and right winger Jaromir Jagr for reference.

Sandstrom left the team in the summer of 97. He was a rental acquired from Pittsburgh for Greg Johnson. He was possibly the team's least effective forward in the postseason despite playing prime minutes; there's a good chance NOT trading for him might have been better in the long run.

If true... IN: Demitra, Sundin OUT: Naslund, Morrison I would argue Vancouver definitely is a better team than last year if it's true, just based on the movement of those four players. A healthy Mattias Ohlund (he missed chunks of last season injured and played through others injured) would also be a significant help. If the Nucks do sign Sundin, and Ohlund can stay healthy, I can realistically see Vancouver competing for the division title. They and the Oilers would be the only team in the division that could claim to have improved in the offseason, and Edmonton's "improvement" is still questionable. Minnesota, a poor offensive team, lost two of their top three offensive forwards with no replacements. Vancouver would be upgrading their #3 and #4 options to players better offensively than their #1 option from last season. If going from Naslund/Morrison to Demitra/Sundin adds 20 goals to Vancouver's total output, Vancouver wins the division. Of course, this would require Sundin to sign with Vancouver.

He didn't. Brown did. I meant on the lines only.

Hudler's not one-dimensional. He's not an elite defensive forward. He IS a good defensive forward. Good enough defensively and gritty enough that he would probably play on most teams' PK units. People look at him and see the combination of Euro+small+doesn't play PK and automatically think 'defensively inept' but fail to realize that neither Euro nor small indicate defensive ineptitude, and the fact that he doesn't play the PK is because his team has the two of the three best defensive forwards in the NHL this season, three of the 20 forwards to receive first-place Selke votes, and ten of the 82 forwards whose names were listed on Selke ballots; himself included in that group. For reference, that is, on average, a top-3 defensive forward for a team. That's not a one-dimensional player. The only defensive liability in the Wings' forward corps is whichever of Downey and McCarty is skating on a given night.

Jiri Hudler's defensive advantage over Downey alone makes up for Downey's career total of 16 points. Anyone who SERIOUSLY argues for Downey to play over Hudler on the Wings has zero credibility when it comes to what will help the Wings win the Stanley Cup. This is backed up by the fact that Hudler was a key contributor to the Cup run, while Downey played nary a game in the playoffs.

Eriksson was the #4 defenseman on the team and played in the spot you have Mironov listed in. Mironov was SUPPOSED to play there, but bombed horribly as a Wing and ended up only seeing spot duty in the postseason after playing in the All-Star game as a Duck that same season.

Sandstrom and McCarty should be reversed, otherwise it's correct.

Fedorov in Detroit did not have as talented linemates as Datsyuk has had. Fedorov outside of Detroit has not played significantly more time per game than he did in Detroit, and has had significantly WORSE linemates than he had in Detroit. My only point about Fedorov's ice time was that the expectations of him came because of his performance in a season in which he played a ridiculous amount of the time. In Anaheim he played around 18-20 minutes as he did in Detroit, and he was easily the top forward. In Columbus, he played the defensive safeguard to completely irresponsible puck hogs in Rick Nash and Nik Zherdev. He also played a lot of games on the blueline as a Jacket. My point is that Fedorov has spent most of his last few seasons playing a primarily defensive role; ironically, due to a reduction in his offensive output, this has caused people to feel he's "washed up and no good anymore" even though he's still one of the ten best defensive forwards in hockey. People argued Fedorov as overpaid at $4m. Well, let's look at that by comparing him to two Red Wings people on LGW felt are worth that much. Daniel Cleary and Johan Franzen. Fedorov has Franzen's strength; he has Cleary's speed, and he has defensive abilities that surpass both. And his offensive performance, points-wise, was comparable to the two of them despite the fact that most of his season was spent as the most offensively talented player on the ice whenever he was out, which is not true for the other two. But looking at this another way; The highest scoring player born before 1970 last season was Mark Recchi, wh was waived by the Penguins for poor performance, then picked up by the Thrashers and rodet he coattails of Ilya Kovalchuk and Marian Hossa. Next up is Brendan Shanahan, who was defensively inept for the Rangers, and generally considered lazy in his time there because most of his offensive opportunities came from the work of others. Can anyone guess who finished third in this age group? Fedorov. The only one of the three whose team actually tried to keep him this offseason. More when I have more time.

Filppula will probably see somewhere between $1.5m and $2m for a couple seasons...but only because the market this summer was so nuts. If it makes it to the hearing, I would expect Brooks Laich to come up as the comparable player, and Flip to see close to $2m. Realistically, Holland can probably help himself with Flip if he can get Franzen extended to a reasonable deal in the next two weeks; the arbitrator might have a difficult time justifying awarding more to Flip than Franzen's extension.