eva unit zero

Marty's day is over.

Which means Washington will likely be looking for a first and/or second line center on the market. Eight names Washington might be looking at: Chris Drury Daniel Briere Scott Gomez Peter Forsberg Michal Handzus Alexei Yashin Michael Nylander Mike Comrie Any of these guys would help Washington immensely. There are also other names out there, like Robert Lang and Eric Lindros, who have ability but are not going to be the first guys considered for one reason or another. This means Schwarz will probably be up this season.

Sweden has less than a third of the population of Canada. I would argue that per capita, Sweden produces the best player INCLUDING Canada. Think about it. Top tier Canadian-born players: F: Crosby, Thornton, Lecavalier, St. Louis, Sakic, Savard, Briere, Iginla, Spezza, Brind'Amour, Marleau D: Niedermayer, Pronger, Phaneuf G: Brodeur, Luongo Top-tier Swedish-born players: F: Alfredsson, Sundin, Zetterberg, Forsberg D: Lidstrom, Ohlund G: Lundqvist That's 16 Canadians, and 7 Swedes, compared with over 30m Canadians and under 10m Swedes. That means you would get around 25 top-tier Swedes if Sweden were as large as Canada, or alternatively, if Canada were as small as Sweden, you would only see maybe 4 or 5 top-tier players. For further comparison, consider that the population of Quebec is only slightly smaller than that of Sweden, and five of the players I listed above were born in Quebec (Lecavalier, St. Louis, Briere, Brodeur, Luongo) that further illustrates the point. Canada has about one top talent per 2m people. English Canada is closer to 2.3m, while Quebec is closer to 1 per 1.5m people. Sweden's ratio is closer to 1.3m people per top talent.

Boynton, Jovo, Morris, and Ballard are all generally similar players who are better offensively than they are defensively, and play with a bit of an edge. The fact that Morris, Ballard, and Michalek all played more shorthanded time per game than Boynton highlights the fact that Boynton is defensively deficient; Ballard has never been a defensive stalwart and he was Phoenix's top penalty killer, followed by Michalek and Morris. As far as Lilja's role on the team of stay at home depth defenseman? None of those guys would be a better choice. They are more offensively skilled, yes, but none is as capable defensively as Lilja. Detroit's roster this season included Lidstrom, Schneider, Kronwall, Lebda, Markov, and Chelios. Chelios, with 10, is the only player on that list who scored fewer points at even strength than Keith Ballard's 15, which was the most even strength scoring by any Phoenix defenseman. If we assume defensive defenseman Markov is gone, defensive defenseman Lilja is the same kind of player and can replace him. We don't need a defensively deficient offensive specialist who won't get PP time to replace our snarly stay-at-home type. If Schneider is not retained, Boynton MIGHT be worth pursuing. But at that point, it would be considered a downgrade of Schneider, not an upgrade of Lilja.

My minimum expectations for Bertuzzi will be affected by his salary. If he makes less than 3m, my expectations will be 0.35 goals per game, and at least 55 games. If he makes more than 3m, my expectations will be at least 65 games and at least 0.5 goals per game.

Mason played basically as many games with the same numbers Vokoun had. Why did Mason get the vote over Vokoun? And if you don't deserve votes for playing limited time, why did Backstrom finish so high? He played less than Mason. Backstrom also was lusted after on this board many times...what makes Mason a question mark but Backstrom is a sure thing who should replace Hasek?

Ottawa had Volchenkov ready to step into the top four when Chara left. Phillips was already there. Volchenkov is a pretty damn good defensive defenseman, as is Phillips, and they might have been the league's best shutdown pairing this past season. Corvo and Preissing were the 5 and 6 defensemen. Pothier (#6 D in 2006) was also shipped out. As far as the depth chart is concerned, that would be like Detroit keeping Markov, but dropping Schneider and Chelios, and replacing them with two guys not as good as Lebda. Phillips and Volchenkov were huge bargains this season; Corvo was actully the second highest paid defenseman on the Sens. Detroit's best course of action would be to retain Schneider and Markov (or someone who makes a similar amount). If that's not possible, Schneider should be top priority. The Wings realistically have enough money to sign Hasek (2.5m), Bertuzzi (2.5m), and Schneider (5m). Beyond that, we would need to add a spare defenseman and a spare forward, which could be done fairly cheaply.

The difference being that Lidstrom plays twenty minutes a night against the opponents' top offensive lines. Preissing plays ZERO minutes against the opposing team's top lines; Volchenkov and Phillips were always against the opposing top line. The fact that those two have +37 and +36 is much more impressive than Preissing's +40. Preissing scored 18 PPP and 20 ESP. There were four Ottawa defensemen who scored more at ES, plus Redden who scored at a better points per game. So, we have established that Preissing was not one of Ottawa's top four defensive defensemen (doesn't kill penalties) and that offensive guys Meszaros, Redden, and Corvo all played more per game than Preissing. This makes Preissing the fourth best offensive defenseman on the Sens. Now that we've established that, there are two possible explanations for the discrepancy between Pressing's stats and his ice time. Either his stats are inflated by playing with great players, or he's better than guys like Redden, Corvo, and Meszaros and should be ahead of them on the depth chart. If it's the latter, why isn't Schubert, who had better stats than Preissing when ice time is taken into account, considered Ottawa's top defenseman? And if it's the former, my point is proven.

He has unlimited potential? Then we should offer him a 5m/20 year deal because by year 8 he'll be a ******* steal!!

Preissing isn't worth that. He was Ottawa's #6 defenseman. Despite having a lofty +/-, Preissing isn't that good defensively. He was the #4 PP defenseman and did not kill penalties. He only played 11 minutes at even strength. Schneider was a key to our PP, he killed penalties, and he played 16 minutes at even strength.

The league's top ten goalies are, according to Vezina voting, Brodeur, Luongo, Lundqvist, Kiprusoff, Hasek, Backstrom, Miller, Dipietro, Giguere, Mason. Hasek and Miller are the only ones listed who did not finish top-10 in save percentage; they replaced Vokoun and Emery.

Trading Samuelsson for Marty probably means our chances of keeping Schneider are gone. So who do we have on the point for the PP? Lidstrom, Kronwall, Lebda, and Chelios? Samuelsson is a better scorer and defensive forward than Lapointe. Lapointe is the more gritty, physical guy. The Wings were not lacking grit or physical play during the playoffs. They were lacking scoring. Ensuring that Samuelsson and Schneider are not on the team by dealing for Lapointe only weakens the Wings offensively.

Shanny left because he wasn't going to be the man AFTER STEVIE LEFT. Fedorov had an offer made for 5 years, 50m where the fifth year was pulled and never put back while Fedorov was going through personal problems. The Wings only ever offered 4/40 after that. He instead signed with Anaheim, who offered him 5 years for the sme 40 million. Just think for a second. What would the Wings have looked like in 2005-06 had Fedorov signed Holland's 4/40 or 5/50 deal? Assuming Lang is never acquired, the Wings would have been on the hook for an additional 3.8m...which probably means no Shanahan and/or no Schneider coming out of the lockout.

You got it wrong. It's not 'Next year is Toronto's year' meaning the very next season, but it's ' "Next year" is Toronto's year' meaning that success for the Leafs is always just out of reach over the horizon.

Grigorenko is making 858k, not 450k. And your lines don't match up with your proposed scenario--you suggest spending 5m on either Kozlov and a 1m winger, or 5m on two guys like Nolan or Zednik, then you have Kozlov AND Nolan. Also, Ericsson, McGrath and Howard are not going to count against the cap. Quincey may not either, depending on injuries and signings. He said he'd rather have Hudler/Meech than any ONE of those guys. If I'm Phoenix, I would rather trade Jovanovski than Boynton.

The national economy is good NOW. In 49 states, the economy is good. Michigan is not doing well because of Granholm and things like the Single Business Tax. Michigan should start doing much better soon.

Started skating at 7...played roller/street hockey for years. Didn't play organized ice hockey until 14. Played in travel leagues until college, at which point I played on the club team in the very specialized role of 'crazy midget lunatic shot blocking faceoff specialist.' I still try to make as many drop in sessions as possible.

Kindl will be good, but Schneider is one of the fifteen or twenty best defensemen in the world. Kindl might reach that level in a few years, but to think he could replace him right now is silly. Kronwall is the closest we have to an in-house replacement for Schneider. Kindl won't be ready for that before Nik is, and Nik is not ready.

One thing everyone keeps forgetting is the fact that the Preds are about 8m under the expected cap MINIMUM. Meaning they MUST spend at least that much more. They need five or six forwards, three defensemen, and a goalie. Figure 750k for the goalie and 2.25m for the defensemen. That leaves 5m that MUST be spent on five forwards just to meet the minimum. Figure four of those guys are 3rd-4th line types who cost a total of 2m. That leaves 3m MINIMUM to spend on a top six forward like Kariya. If they want to retain both Kariya and Forsberg, they can more than afford to. Figure Forsberg and Kariya (or replacements) cost about 8m combined, that puts them only about 4.5m over the cap floor with Kariya, Arnott, Forsberg, Dumont, Sullivan, Erat, Legwand, Radulov as their top 8 forwards. That's a pretty good group of forwards.

Why should Nashville make lists? I'll lay it out for you: Timonen and Hartnell were deemed too costly to retain, so their UFA rights were traded for a first round pick. Vokoun was traded for a first and two seconds. Vokoun was traded because: He makes about 4m more than Mason, and Mason posted better numbers in about the same amount of games this season. Both goalies had better numbers than Kiprusoff. So basically, when considering players who would have been on their roster next season had they not been traded, the Preds made the following overall swap: OUT: Tomas Vokoun IN: Two first round picks and two second round picks. That's a pretty damn good deal when looked at that way. How does that qualify them as badly run?

While Kane did end up going first, Turris (who went third to Phoenix) was actually the highest rated player by NHL Central Scouting.

I would rather see an expansion team or a team like Florida, Washington, or New Jersey move to Hamilton. Nashville has been consistently improving attendance and is the only NHL market within a 4 hours drive. A team like Florida is a better candidate for moving because it is not as well supported as Nashville, and the fans have a somewhat local team to change to if they so choose. New Jersey is the #3 team in its market and does not get fan support because New York fans tend to pick a team and stay with them no matter what, for better or worse, and that team has pretty much been the Rangers for the majority. Also, a tendency in that area to be fans of the same teams as your parents hurts the Devils, who moved into New York when both the Rangers and Islanders were Cup contenders. A team in Hamilton could succeed. But Nashville is not the team that should be moved.

Just for reference: Bell's average per-game stats coming into 06-07 for G, A, and +/-, projected over 71 games, only yields 15-17-32, -7. That's not far off his actual stat line of 11-10-21, -9. Consider that he also played less than 13 minutes per game, compared to almost 18 the past two seasons in Chicago, and he wasn't as far below his normal level of play as one might expect. He played about 35% more the last two seasons in Chicago; that kind of an increase in production would mean 15-14-29, -12. Over 82 games instead of 71, that works out to 17-16-33, -14. That would be his third-best season in goals, assists, and points; and tied for his worst performance in +/-. This could mean a couple things. Either Bell isn't as bad as he was made out to be, and his lack of production had to do more with reduced ice time than anything else, OR Bell isn't as GOOD as he was made out to be, and when he was on a team with real NHL forwards, he couldn't hack it on the top two lines.

Ken Holland would trade Datsyuk to open cap space before shipping off Zetterberg. Zetterberg is the better player in just about every aspect, it would be silly to let him go just because Datsyuk is signed.

The fact that Calgary is switching to lavender and pink as the team colors might bother you, then...