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Stillman has been putting up those numbers for years. Last season, when Stillman missed half the year injured, was the first season since 2001-02 he didn't post 67 points or more in a season; it was also the first since 99-00 he didn't clear 20 goals. Whitney is the same thing; he has been putting up big numbers since the mid 90s. His stop in Detroit and his lack of numbers was a result of the fact he was being played on the third and fourth line with very little PP time; he scored at a similar rate per minute in each given situation as he had the previous season. Cullen is new to the offense thing; he has been your average second or third line center with decent play at either end but nothing spectacular, and this season he's posting nearly a point per game. I'm not sold on Cullen just yet. Cole is actually scoring at a pace below his past two seasons; this is due entirely to the fact he's not putting the puck in the net like he normally does, as his assists per game rate is actually slightly higher. Oh, and BTW...Samsonov played on a line with Stillman and Brind'Amour last night.

Datsyuk can't win the Selke this year. You know why? Because as good has he has been defensively, Zetterberg has been better. Zetterberg is also a more established named when it comes to defensive play; he was among the Selke vote leaders last season despite missing a quarter of the season. Datsyuk may be a contender, but he won't win it; if people feel he and Zetterberg are close, and have to choose between one of them, most will choose Z.

Penner has outplayed Ryan Smyth, the guy he's replacing. He has done it for 2m less and is younger with his best seasons ahead of him. People dogged Lowe for not keeping Smyth; Lowe seems to have upgraded wit ha younger player. Oh, and Penner has vastly outperformed Todd Bertuzzi, the guy who replaced him and makes the same money. In fact, only two Anaheim forwards have outplayed Penner this season. Both are going to be getting at least 5m when they sign new deals, so how is Penner's so stupid?

Not like me. 371 points FTW!

Primeau was later credited with the goal, btw.

I tried to base my trade proposal on deadline deals from the past few years and the kind of value similar players have tended to go for. Mathieu Schneider went for a checking forward, a journeyman defenseman, and two picks. Mike Comrie went for a mid-level prospect. Schneider/Comrie is a comparable value to Campbell/Connolly. Emmerton/Lebda/Meech plus maybe a 2nd or 3rd round pick is a comparable package to what the Wings and Sens gave up in the Schneider and Comrie deals.

Mark my words. Possibly by the end of this season, and definitely by the end of next season, at least one of Vanek, Connolly, or Pominville will have been traded.

Connolly is a UFA after next season and could cost in the 5m-plus range if he continues his current level of play. Campbell has already turned down a deal for 5m. Pominville is likely to be looking at the same kind of money as Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf are expected to be looking at. Buffalo WILL NOT be able to afford to keep them all. The Sabres tend to operate under a self imposed cap well below the actual cap; as their current payroll is about 42.5m with Numminen off the cap, we'll assume the self-cap to be around 45m. That would mean they currently have 7m available to sign players for next season, with Gaustad, Paille, Ryan, Kalinin, Campbell, Pratt, and Thibault as either UFA or RFA after the season. If you resign Gaustad, Paille, Ryan, Pratt, and Thibault at their current salaries, that adds up to just over 3m; this allows only 4m to retain or replace Campbell and Kalinin. We'll assume for argument Campbell will end up taking the 5m. The Sabres are now 1m over their self-imposed payroll ceiling, while still needing to replace a defenseman who currently makes nearly 3m. NOW do you understand why they might be willing to trade pending UFA Campbell?

So use Pominville and Tallinder in my scenario then.

You don't watch hockey, do you?

So you're saying the Sabres wouldn't deal Connolly/Campbell for Meech/Lebda/Emmerton if it looked like they weren't going to be able to keep either player at a reasonable salary? Campbell has already turned down 5m...which is probably more than he should be getting to begin with. Tallinder was put in because I think he is the most likely defenseman to be shopped in preparation for a Campbell contract. Buffalo's spending limits will likely preclude them from keeping both Connolly and Pominville without dealing off Thomas Vanek. Vanek is more likely to be shopped, but he wouldn't fit in the Wings' salary structure so I didn't include him. I think it's a realistic proposal given that the Sabres would be getting talented young players in return for UFAs who could very well be leaving at the end of the season. Talent-wise, yes it is skewed in our favor. But not as skewed as many deals involving pending UFAs that are executed every deadline. Buffalo will have Spacek, Lydman, and Campbell signed on D and will need to ship out Tallinder and cut loose Kalinin to fit their budget. Getting Lilja/Lebda and Meech allows them to have more defensive depth that can play at the NHL level. I wasn't suggesting that Hartigan or Ellis was worth Gaustad alone, but rather that the Sabres would require a youngish checking line center if Gaustad was part of the deal. It's not fair. Just realistic.

Buffalo is currently sitting outside the playoffs. If their prospects for this season are not looking bright around the deadline, here's what I think would be a good option. Buffalo needs some secondary scoring, but they also don't have many capable defensive forwards. They will likely have to trade off one or more of their top four defensemen-Spacek, Tallinder, Campbell, or Lydman. So my suggestion would be as follows. To Detroit: D Henrik Tallinder or D Brian Campbell C Tim Connolly or RW Jason Pominville To Buffalo: D Derek Meech D Andreas Lilja or D Brett Lebda C Evan McGrath or C Cory Emmerton Tallinder is the better defensive stopper and physical player; Campbell is the better offensive player. Tallinder is signed for under 3m for two more seasons; Campbell is UFA after this year. I consider their value to Detroit basically even. It would be preferable to give up Lebda for Campbell or Lilja for Tallinder, but that is not crucial. Meech is a solid defensive prospect likely to get swallowed by Detroit's depth of defensive prospects better than him. McGrath and Emmerton are both considered potential top-six forwards, and are defensively responsible. Neither are considered future Selke contenders, but should be solid two-way centermen. Connolly is Buffalo's top offensive player this season but is also UFA. Pominville leads the Sabres in scoring, but turns RFA at the end of the year. Both will be looking for a raise likely to the 3m-4m range. My ideal haul from this trade would be Lilja/Meech/McGrath for Tallinder/Pominville, because that provides the best long-term results for Detroit and the best match as far as trading is considered; however it is likely that to get Pominville we would have to give up the younger Emmerton. I am ok with that. If Pominville and Connolly are unavailable, swap in Matt Ellis or Mark Hartigan from Detroit and Paul Gaustad from Buffalo, or leave the young forwards out completely. This allows us to field a defensive unit of: Lidstrom/Rafalski Tallinder/Kronwall Chelios/Lebda OR Lidstrom/Rafalski Lilja/Kronwall Chelios/Campbell The first option greatly improves the defensive unit defensively; the second option is more of a wash defensively but improves our offense and removes Samuelsson from the point on the PP while retaining his very solid two-way play at even strength. Pominville/Connolly would also allow us to spread out the scoring across three lines instead of two.

If it doesn't go in the net or get stopped by the goalie, it is NEVER counted as a shot taken. Even some the goalie stops are not counted as shots; that's what the 'missed shot' statistic is about. A shot that was stopped by the goaltender but was not actually going on net.

Despite history, it's not exactly fair that a team that committed a rules violation gets an ADVANTAGE in that they can ice the puck. What this rule does is takes that advantage away; it won't create extra icings because the situation where a player would now ice the puck becomes a situation where if the player does ice the puck, he's just giving the opposing team a fresh line against his tired line. For those complaining about tired players leading to injuries, I have a solution for you: We'll have 30 minute games and use rosters of 40 players, and we'll use no-touch icing, and all penalties will be a minimum 10 game suspension. That way, nobody will get injured, right?

Blake would be the fifth-best offensive defenseman on the Ducks, and the sixth best defensive defenseman. The price the Kings would charge to get him would also be outrageous. While Burke has made many stupid decisions based on man-love for players, I don't know that he has enough man-love for Blake to gut his team by trading for him.

The also lost multiple games to only one opponent; Winnipeg. That's over the whole season. This year's team has already failed in that respect.

Jovo does not serve the Wings at all. He would be our #4 offensive defenseman. He would be the WORST defensive defenseman on the team. Yet he would cost over 6m on the cap for three more seasons, and would handicap our ability to retain Zetterberg. I would rather have Blake than Jovo, and here's why: Blake costs less now in terms of salary. Blake is a UFA at year end. Blake would take less to acquire. Blake is better defensively. Jovo's success is based entirely on offensive output. If he's not scoring, he's basically worthless. Blake is capable of contributing in a supporting role even if he's not scoring. He's overpaid to do that, but he'd be a better depth defenseman than Jovo would at a lower price. That said, if available, I would want Nick Boynton, Paul Mara, Vitaly Vishnevski. All are still fairly young, inexpensive guys capable of solid defense and physical play. Those are the two primary areas Detroit should be looking to improve the blueline depth.

The Wings' best course of action is to give up no roster players unless they are acquiring a similarly priced player who fits the team better in the same role. Filppula and Cleary are both due raises in the summer; Both will likely see between 1.5m and 2m. That uses up around 3m of the space for raises going into next year. Chelios, Lilja, Osgood, Hasek, Downey, and Drake also will need to be resigned or replaced. If Hasek retires and Howard replaces him, then that group should not see a significant increase in total cost for resigning or replacement; perhaps 500k pricier. If Hasek returns, it's probably 1.5m pricier. Meaning we will have between 1.5m and 2.5m in available cap space just from transitioning the current roster to next year. There are probably not a lot of moves that involve a player who is not a free agent at the end of the season that can actually fit the budget that would be worth making. So we look at players with expiring contracts. The Wings can't afford to acquire a player who would make a major impact; we'd have to give up roster players such as Flip or Huds, and then lose the player at the end of the season or resign them for a much higher salary than Flip/Huds/whoever is traded would pull in. So the third option is to acquire cheap, reliable depth players who might be better than guys like Downey, Drake, Kopecky, and Ellis up front or Lebda, Lilja, and Meech on defense. This third course of action-acquiring better bottom-half depth up front and/or on defense without giving up key assets-is the only course of action the Wings should pursue. Anything else harms our future without being guaranteed to help our present.

Let's compare Sammy to other division leaders' 6th place scoring forwards.: M.Samuelsson, DET: 36 GP, 6-16-22, +9 J.Williams, CAR; 36 GP, 9-21-30, +2 C.Kelly, OTW: 39 GP, 7-11-18, +4 D.Zubrus, NJ: 38 GP, 6-12-18, +2 R.Kesler, VAN: 38 GP, 9-9-18, +5 N.Hagman, DAL: 40 GP, 14-5-19, E The average stat line for the other five guys listed in Sammy's 36 games would be: 191 GP, 45-58-103, +13 36 GP, 8-11-19, +2 Sammy is better than average offensively for a #6 scoring forward on a division leader. He's also the best defensive player listed. Those of you who say Sammy is not a top six forward are going based more on the fact he's not a big name or the fact that you are used to the Wings having a top-six made entirely of first-line forwards. Mikael Samuelsson is a top six forward, and has been for a couple seasons. Sammy is a top six forward when compared to other guys in similar positions on top teams. He's also #113 in points per game among forwards, even including guys who have only played one or two games and scored points. Top six, for reference, would be 180 forwards. He's not perfect, but he's a good player.

Chelios is the best conditioned player in the NHL. Chelios last contended for the Norris at age 40. Blake last contended for the Norris at age 33, the same season Chelios did; that being 2002. Blake finished behind Chelios in Norris and All-Star voting. Blake has not aged as gracefully as Chelios has over the past five years; due largely to the fact Chelios is a much better conditioned player. Blake would be behind Chelios on the depth chart, so he's not worth the likely price tag.

Ryder has been terrible this season. Samuelsson has outplayed him big time. yes, part of that is the difference in team; but Sammy's numbers are so far ahead of Ryder that it's more than just the difference in team. Sammy has been the better offensive player this season, and has ALWAYS been the better defensive player. Why are people so high about Ryder, yet unwilling to think about Samsonov? For reference, Ryder's season in Montreal this year is worse than Samsonov's last year, and that's not even considering that Samsonov was coming off a severe injury. People slam Samsonov about his work ethic; why doesn't Ryder get the same treatment? Oh, that's right..Ryder is a Canadian, and Samsonov is a Russian. that means Ryder CAN'T have a bad work ethic, and Samsonov MUST have a bad work ethic.

Wisconsin and Tennessee played even for most of the game, and Wisconsin nearly won it on each of their final two drives. Michigan is outplaying Florida. Any chance that this dispels the 'SEC is ten times better than every other major conference, ESPECIALLY the Big Ten' bulls***? Not likely. Oh..and on the subject of Michigan/Florida...the situation today seems to suggest that had Michigan beaten Ohio State last year, they'd have beaten Florida. Florida's offensive players are better now, and Michigan's defense is emphatically worse than last year, yet still controlling the game vs Florida. If Michigan had played Florida last year, this would be a blowout; Florida has only kept the game close through Michigan's defensive propensity to give up the occasional big play or take dumb penalties...two things that didn't happen anywhere near as much last season. EDIT: On both Florida scoring drives, Michigan gave up two plays that were 17 yards or greater. They have not done this on any other drives, and Florida has not scored any other points. If Michigan has last year's D, Florida may have no points right now.

Fixed it for you

Ryder has been HORRENDOUS this season. He's not that good defensively, and more than half of his points have been power play assists. He has only scored 4 points at even strength; Sammy has 5 even strength goals and 11 even strength assists for 16 even strength points. There is ZERO comparison between the two this season. One has been a solid second liner and played well at both ends of the ice. The other is the object of lust for many Wings fans because of what he did in previous seasons. Yes, Sammy plays slightly more than Ryder. That should actually work in Sammy's favor as he plays a second line role on the league's best offense, while Ryder has been outperformed by guys playing a similar number of minutes in Latendresse, Kostitsyn, and Dandenault. He's not in his team's top six, and hasn't deserved to be. Ryder's performance this season wouldn't warrant a spot on the top two lines in Detroit either. The Wings actually have eight forwards-their top two lines plus Draper and Cleary-who have outscored Ryder this season, and two more-Franzen and Maltby-who have scored at a similar points per game rate. So that would mean Ryder would be competing for time on the third and fourth lines. Not worth it.

Detroit is much harder on goalies than Ottawa; Detroit has crucified Osgood, Hasek, Joseph, and Vernon while they were playing amazing for not being better. Ottawa ran Lalime out of town after through several playoff seasons he was unable to come up with the clutch saves his team needed; think about Manny Legace in Detroit. Lalime was probably better overall than Manny in the playoffs, but had the same issue where he would fold when his team needed him to stand strong. That's something that was a rarity with the first four guys I mentioned.