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Fedorov in 98 held out all season and got a contract that paid him 38 million over six years, which was less than his market value. He held out all season and was UNDERPAID when he finally signed. That's not holding out for more money; that's holding out for FAIR PAYMENT. In 2003, he left for a 5 year deal worth 40m, instead of staying on a 4 year deal worth 40m. In other words, he left for LESS money. So it comes back to the 'well Fedorov was a whiny ***** who didn't try hard.' Fedorov may have been inconsistent in the regular season, but while he was a Red Wing there were no players in the world who could be counted on for playoff scoring more than Sergei. He was also a two-time Selke winner and played that kind of defense in the playoffs. I'll bring an interesting counter-argument to your money position. Mark Messier. He ditched the Rangers for the Canucks because of money. He won a Hart and a Cup in New York. Fedorov had a better career with Detroit than Messier with New York. More awards, more points, more Cups. Please explain to me how Messier deserves his number retired in NY given the way he left.

I said it a few days ago; if Holland can't get Schneider for 4-5m or less, Rafalski should be the priority. He doesn't have Mathieu's shot, but he's better at everything else. Plus, Rafalski is good enough defensively that we won't miss Markov. Rafalski and Quincey/Kindl combined will make only a few hundred thousand more than Schneider and Markov made combined last season. If one of two things happens; 1) Kronwall stays healthy or 2) Lilja plays like he did in the playoffs all season long, or is replaced cheaply by Kindl or Quincey and they do. One rather scary thought...if Niedermayer ends up returning, Anaheim could realistically play a 5-man defensive unit that would be better than most 6-man units. They would be paying for it handsomely, but they could do it.

The argument that Fedorov doesn't deserve it based on his personality has everything to do with Ty Cobb having a retired jersey despite being a blatant racist. Fedorov is the second best center to ever play for Detroit, and had he stayed in Detroit his jersey likely would have ended up in the rafters. The only reason it is even up for debate is the fact that he did leave. If he ends up returning, I can still see it happening, but as of right now there is zero chance.

Fedorov's contract was not groundbreaking. It was based off a similar deal Joe Sakic signed the same year. Fedorov was the best player in the league at the time, and ended up with a longer term deal that wasn't worth as much per year as Sakic's. Hardly groundbreaking, when you consider that based on the market at the time he was UNDERPAID.

They don't count on the cap unless they are on the big league roster.

Hartnell and Timonen were not willing to stick around for numbers Poile was willing to pay. It has nothing to do with leaving town; they will need to add around 7 million just to hit the cap minimum. They need to add four forwards and three defensemen, meaning an average of a million per. Figure they keep Hordichuk and Fiddler for about 600k each, and Zanon for 500k. That means they have about 5.3m they MUST spend on two forwards and two defensemen. Figure one more 650k defenseman to fill out the roster, and one more 650k forward, and they have about 4m MINIMUM to spend on a forward and a defenseman. And IIRC, they can spend up to like 41m and still qualify for revenue sharing. They are still interested in keeping Kariya and Forsberg if possible, why would you consider signing either of those guys if you were only looking at the bottom line?

The three fastest players on the team are PK specialists. The offensive guys, guys like Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Hudler, Holmstrom, Bertuzzi, Filppula, Samuelsson? Those guys range from slow to above average. Not one can really be called 'fast' so how does adding point per game producer Allison hurt?

With 11 forwards, 5 defensemen, and 1 goaltender signed, the Wings have 33,358,000 comitted to the payroll next season. Add in about 2.5m of buffer to cover wiggle room and bonus rollover, and the Wings have 36m committed, which leaves them 14.3 to spend on two forwards, two defensemen, and a goaltender. Start with Hasek at 2.5m; cap space now 11.8m, need 2-2-0. Add in Hudler at 750k; cap space now 10.05m, need 1-2-0. Add on Schneider at 5m; cap space now 5.05m, need 1-1-0. Next is Bertuzzi at 2.5m; cap space now 2.55m, need 0-1-0. Lastly, add Vitali Vishnevsky for 1.75m; cap space now 0.80m, need 0-0-0. Holmstrom/Zetterberg/Samuelsson Filppula/Datsyuk/Bertuzzi Cleary/Hudler/Grigorenko Maltby/Draper/Franzen Lidstrom/Vishnevsky Schneider/Markov Lebda/Chelios Hasek Osgood

I did say I expect Bert at 3m to score the same as Homer does for 2.25m.

Stevens has played with a guy who was a FAR better defender. Rod Langway won the Norris in 83 and 84 with less than 35 points each season. Stevens was never nominated with less than 70; Chelios was last nominated with 39, and has been nominated twice overall with less than 50 points. The evidence suggests Chelios has typically been a far superior defender to his contemporary, Stevens. Chelios scored 70 points three times. Every time he did, it meant winning the Norris.

And he still scored near a point per game in the New NHL on the second line. His 60 points in 66 games in 05-06 were better than anyone but Zetterberg and Datsyuk on this season's Wing team. Don't act like he offers nothing. If the Wings decide to add a low-price veteran UFA, Allison would be a good choice.

Goalie equipment should be reduced drastically. We have the technology to make pads of comparable size to what was worn decades ago and be far more protective without basically cheating. There is no need to increase the net size. Now or ever. If guys like Giguere feel the need to wear ridiculously oversized pads to feel safe in net, they shouldn't be in the NHL.

Stevens making the HOF over Larionov is a joke. He was only among the best three or four players in the world at his position a handful of times in a 20 year, while Larionov was considered among the best three or four players in the world at his position for a decade.

Three goalies have been Vezina finalists each of the past two seasons. Luongo is not one of them. Lundqvist is. As I said before...Ohlund is one of the ten best defensemen in the world. He is the second best Swedish defenseman. With guys like Tomas Kaberle, Zdeno Chara, and Sergei Zubov around, there won't be six Canadians in the top ten. Maybe we'll see a couple more, perhaps guys like Regehr or Phillips, but the fact remains that the second best Swedish defenseman is better than the #6 Canadian, the best Swedish goalie is better than the third-best Canadian goalie, and Sweden has less than a third of the population of Canada. Per capita, better.

you knwo, terhe wsa a sdtuy onec taht as lgon as wodrs heav bsaically msot of teh ipmotrnat letetrs in smoetihng colse to porepr oderr, teh barin has no probelm srotnig it uot.

If Bertuzzi is resigned or replaced, we have made our big offseason 'splash' that was hyped up in previous years.

If Balsillie wants a team in Hamilton, he should buy the Sabres. Because a successful team in Hamilton would pretty much screw the Sabres.

If we assume Schneider increased the Wings' output by just one goal in regulation of game 2 or game 5, the Wings would likely have won the series. The Sens were clearly not on the level of the Ducks, while the Wings were damn close to winning without Schneider. Had Schneider been healthy, Wings maybe win Games 2 AND 5.

Well, if the options are 3-years, 3.5m or 1 year 2.5m...then he would have to have a season that earned him 4m per year for two years to match the income. Keith Tkachuk brought in 3.5m from the Blues by converting to center, and scoring 27 goals and 58 points. Bertuzzi would have to do better than that to earn 4m from the Wings. If Bertuzzi does do better than that next season, he deserves it. If not, I sure don't want him signed through 2010 for that kind of money.

No they didn't. They would have only received that pick had ATLANTA signed Tkachuk. The deal was that the Blues get exclusive negotiating rights, and if he still ended up signing with Atlanta, The Blues get a fourth round pick instead of a first. As he didn't sign with Atlanta, the Blues wouldn't have received the pick-first or fourth-meaning they basically got negotiating rights for free.

Daigle isn't the biggest all-time let down. Patrik Stefan is a worse No.1 pick, and Jason Bonsignore is a worse player who was also compared to Mario Lemieux. Both were drafted after Daigle.

Preissing put up a +40, which was Sens-best. Meszaros put up a -15, worst on the Sens. One of these guys plays the penalty kill, and it's not Preissing. It's one thing to be like Lidstrom, and be the shutdown guy playing 30 minutes a night and still put up gaudy +/- stats. It's another to be a guy like Preissing, who DESPITE being the team's most prolific offensive defenseman is also the team's worst defensive defenseman to the point he still only plays sixth-man minutes. Schneider's average season offensively is better than what Preissing did this year. Schneider is at the very least equal to Preissing defensively. And Schneider is having some of the best seasons of his career. Also, Maybe only Lidstrom and Markov crack the top four PK guys. But Preissing didn't crack the top SIX PK guys on Ottawa...Schubert, Nycholat, and Corvo all played more as well. Wings don't have a guy in the top six who doesn't play PK ahead of those three. Even Schneider. Also, Preissing saw 3:27 per game of PP. He was the fourth defenseman on the PP, but he saw regular time there. I think of Preissing like Darryl Sydor in 1997. Had yet to really break out, then suddenly bam a whole bunch of points and a huge +/- number, and all of a sudden he's a Norris contender even though he's not even the team's best defenseman. Comparing Preissing to Lidstrom because of their +/- doesn't work either. As I continue to say, Lidstrom plays 30 minutes per game every year and puts up a bunch of points and a huge +/- number. Preissing has far less of an impact on the game than Lidstrom, or for that matter than Redden, Phillips, Volchenkov, or Meszaros. Which means Preissing either has inflated numbers from playing with good players, inflated numbers from playing against bad players, or both.

Boynton isn't worth 3m. Now, if we can't keep Schneider or sign a replacement, he might be worth picking up. I say wait until Phoenix buys him out, and offer him 1m for the same two years that had just been bought out. That gives him basically 4m for two years, more than he's worth and a chance to prove he deserves more than 1m.

Lemieux had worse numbers than Neely in 400 more games, scored 40 goals once and broke 80 points once. Just as far as quality of play goes, he does not deserve consideration. Not even considering his cheap-shots that defined his career.

Chelios and Hasek combined for like 1.1m in bonuses, quite a bit of which finished out our cap space last year. Less than half of the bonus money should affect our cap.