eva unit zero

There are better options for the same money.

Well, they got their overpaid defenseman from the Sabres. Next season they get to overpay Shaonne Morrison to replace John Scott. And the year after, it'll be Regher or Leopold overpaid to replace Nick Leddy.

Bucyk finished in the top ten twice during the O6 days, and four times during the 12-team days. The last four he also was playing on a line with Phil Esposito and in front of Bobby Orr. But that stuff aside; I still don't understand how you put Nieuwendyk as a compiler. He was a very good scoring center who ran into some injury troubles that cut short his prime. Nieuwendyk is more like Neely than Gartner, except unlike Neely, Nieuwendyk scored over 500 goals and over 1100 points.

The NHL only owned the "Jets" branding because it took over ownership of the Coyotes. The NHL does not own the Whalers branding, or branding for any other relocated club. The "new" Jets had to purchase the branding from the Coyotes, and in effect the NHL. If the Islanders were to move to Hartford and wanted to use the "Whalers" name, they would have to purchase it from the Hurricanes. Another thing we likely won't be seeing is "new" Quebec Nordiques.

They're going to retire Forsberg's number. They retired Roy and Bourque. Do you think they'll ever retire Stastny's?

Redden is MUCH better than Souray. There is not even a comparison in skill. I'd rather pay Redden's $6m than have Souray at all; at least Redden is a serviceable defenseman, even if he isn't worth his deal. Souray is a joke. Ericsson is a similar player and better than Souray. JONATHAN ERICSSON.

Our forward lineup is clearly going to be: Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Franzen/Filppula/Hudler Mursak/Helm/Cleary Abdelkader/Emmerton/Bertuzzi

How about Marty Reasoner? There are few defensemen in the league who could fill Rafalski's shoes. As for a trade, how about Ryan Whitney? He's a good all-around defenseman and that kind of acquisition would allow for Ericsson and/or Kindl and/or Smith to take on the offensive responsibilities of Rafalski.

I'd rather try and talk Dale Hawerchuk out of retirement.

Fedorov was stronger and much faster. If you want to add a top six scorer from within to the roster you've listed, it's pretty easy. Or maybe you just forgot about Hudler?

He did beat Gretzky. Gretzky only played 45 games that season. And anyone who felt he should have beaten Lemieux was stupid, because Lemieux scored 160 points in 60 games to lead his team to the President's Trophy. Only one first place vote didn't go to Lemieux; it went to LaFontaine. Lemieux had the other 49 first-place votes and one second place vote. Nobody who actually voted thought Gilmour deserved the Hart more than Lemieux. Not one person. You were technically right about Gilmour over Gretzky; Gretzky didn't receive any votes because he missed 39 games. Johnny Bucyk was the king of the compilers before Gartner ever came around. He retired fourth all-time in goals despite never really having been a star. He holds the Bruins record for goals and retired holding the marks for assists and points as well. He was inducted in 1981, and his number was retired by Boston in 1978 when he retired. He was a good scorer, not great, until he started playing with Phil Esposito in Boston. Makes you wonder what Gartner could have done in his prime with a top center, doesn't it? I wouldn't call Nieuwendyk a compiler. His numbers at the end of his career, mainly after his injuries in the mid-90s, were much worse than his numbers earlier on. Gilmour fits the "compiler" profile more than Nieuwendyk does. Regardless of that, I would have selected Oates and Makarov ahead of them.

Gartner is a lowering of the bar? A player with a nineteen year career who averaged 37 goals per season is lowering the bar? What the f*** kind of crack are you on? He didn't score a ton of points, sure. Because he was always the only skilled player on his team. As for Gilmour vs Nieuwendyk, both players were afterthoughts for pretty much their entire career when it came down to picking the league's elite centers. Both had two years when they made a challenging run at being named to an All-Star Team. So the only actual achievement is Nieuwendyk's Conn Smythe.

The first one, Maybe because of age plus lack of games played. The second, not really. Meech consistently outperformed Lebda when given ice time. I seriously don't understand how Lebda lasted so long on the Wings, given the fact that Meech and Quincey were better players and either would have been a better fit. The only thing I can think of is that Lebda lived off a good performance in his first year, despite the fact that every season afterwards was worse. Ericsson seems to be doing the same thing with his playoff performance in 2009.

Cleary and Franzen will both be retired. If Eaves ends up actually re-signing this summer, he'll still be around by then and be the "new" Cleary. Also, Zetterberg will be playing center; he's more dominant at center, and there are very few players in the league I would put him on the wing with.

http://www.dobberhockey.com/frozenpool_linecombo.php?selForward=DETFILPPULA%2CVALTTERI&period=ALL&situation=EV&games=2007-2008%3AR%3A99&Submit=Show+Line+Combinations&sent=go Point out exactly how what I said was wrong? Kopecky's linemate combinations, even with decent time spent with Hossa and Sharp, were less talented and less productive than Filppula's. Yes, Kopy is older than Flip was, but he's not so old the he will be washed up and retired at the end of his deal. Yes of course, because I think he's a good player and am the LGW-anointed "World's Biggest Fan" I'd give him that. Sure. Why not. Dan Carcillo is a UFA, I bet you'd love to go out and sign him to a $3m deal.

Naslund was coming off a 55 point season, down from 60 and 79 the two previous years. That's a good deal. Lindros was traded to the Rangers for almost nothing after having several disputes with Clarke, and signed a deal worth about $9.5m per season. Which while it is overpayment, it's not overpayment on the Holik/Gomez/Drury level because Lindros was still the Rangers' top player and one of the better centers in the league. He scored better than a point per game his first year there, and almost a point per game over his three years there. This is combined with a strong commitment to defense that he simply didn't have in Philadelphia. The Redden deal was slight overpayment; he was a #1 defenseman at the time. Sather paid him based on his best couple of years, while Redden had played a couple of "down" years since then. As Redden didn't "wow" everyone and had a huge deal, he was stuck in the minors because Sather needed the cap space. He couldn't bring up Redden last season (after he stupidly dealt Rosival) because several teams would be glad to take Redden on for only $3m, and leave Sather with the other $3m.

There is much laughing at Kopecky's contract, and yet... Kopecky's deal is notably better than Valtteri Filppula's contract was at the time it was signed. Filppula's deal would be around $4.4m if it were signed this year. He played around 40% of his time with Datsyuk in Datsyuk's best offensive year. Outside of Datsyuk's intrusion, his linemates varied between Cleary, Hudler, Homer. Samuelsson, and Franzen. Flip was, at the time, worse defensively than Kopy is now and relied more heavily on his linemates for offense. I would probably only have gone maybe to $2.5, but $3 is reasonable given his versatility and production. Realize this; he'd probably get more in arbitration.

The closest thing the Wings could put in who was in the system last season, in terms of skill and playing style? Derek Meech. He was the Griffins' best defenseman, but I don't see him getting a top-six spot ahead of Smith, who also has the kind of offensive skills (at a lower level) Rafalski did. So if we filled out the roster from within, cutting out Modano, Draper, and Rafalski (I think Osgood stays). I don't see those being the "regular" lines. Either Bertuzzi would be switched with Cleary (put more size on Hudler's wing) or Z switches with Hudler and Cleary switches with Homer. The second one is more likely, although the first one would be a pretty good "home" set with that Cleary/Filppula/Eaves line available. Might want to also switch Eaves with one of Mursak or Abby. Make the Helm line either much quicker or more physical. I like the D pairs in general, but the Ericsson/Kindl pair does make me twitch a little. Maybe switch it up a bit to look like this: Hudler/Datsyuk/Cleary Franzen/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Bertuzzi/Filppula/Abdelkader Mursak/Helm/Eaves Emmerton Kronwall/Ericsson Lidstrom/Smith Kindl/Stuart Meech Janik Howard Osgood I put Meech in instead of Miller because of the similarity between Meech and Rafalski, as well as the fact that negotiations seem to have stalled between Holland and Miller last I heard. Maybe Meech even takes Ericsson's job; if that happens do this: Kronwall/Smith Lidstrom/Meech Kindl/Stuart However... Looking at Smith/Meech/Kindl on that defense, it's kind of scary. Maybe it works, maybe it fails horribly and the Wings finish last. But given the cap hits for everyone who would be re-signed... the Wings could go sign whatever defenseman they want for $7m and replace Meech on that line, and be done and it would be much better.

Nieuwendyk was better than Gilmour. Also, he fits in well on this list: Brett Hull, Mike Gartner, Bobby Hull, Dino Ciccarelli, Mike Bossy, Joe Nieuwendyk. The only five players in NHL history who have scored 1000 points and still have more goals than assists. However, Sergei Makarov deserved the selection ahead of either of them. If any of the four should realistically be bumped for Makarov, it should be Gilmour. And then you have to factor in Oates vs Nieuwendyk. I don't agree with Belfour in before Barrasso. They had remarkably similar careers in terms of achievement, offset by a few years. This is highlighted for Red Wings fans, of course, by the fact that Barrasso won a Calder ahead of Yzerman and won the Vezina in 1983-84, while Belfour pulled the same trophy combo in Fedorov's rookie year of 1990-91.

No thanks on Vrbata. He's going to cost too much for what he brings and what role he would play. I'm in for Connolly, Jokinen, or Anthony Stewart.

Franzen/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Hudler/Zetterberg/Cleary Stewart/Filppula/Bertuzzi Mursak/Helm/Eaves Abdelkader/Emmerton Better?

For those sayings Laich "shouldn't" have gotten the $4.5m.. Laich tied for 92nd in points among forwards with 48. He's much better defensively and physically than a guy with a few more like Bourque, Samuelsson, Steen, or Leino. He was paid probably around 65th among forwards, but by the end of next year his salary might not even be that of a first liner. So if he was paid too much, it wasn't by more than $250k or $500k. And Washington putting that extra amount of cap space into keeping Laich is smarter than losing him.

Filppula had comparable linemates to Kopecky. Bertuzzi's were noticeably better. They scored about the same amount of points. Would you say that they are 3rd/4th liners? As for his linemates, he spent half of his time playing 3rd/4th line in a checking role. He was used in just about every role a forward can be used in.

No, no... Chris Butler is a Calgary Flame. So he has to come back with Iginla in the very first deal and then be dealt to the Blues (or a contender) at the very end.

Dowell surprises me. I thought he was doing well for Chicago. Anthony Stewart is another shocking one. He made nearly nothing last year and scored 40 points. How do you not qualify that? I hope to see Holland make a move to pick up Stewart if he could get him cheap. Maybe something like this: Hudler/Zetterberg/Cleary Franzen/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Stewart/Filppula/Bertuzzi Mursak/Helm/Eaves Abdelkader/Emmerton Although I would expect Stewart to sign with St. Louis ahead of Detroit; his brother plays there and as it stands he would be lined up to play in the top six.