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According to NHL.com Forsberg has 45 hits in 38 games. Fedorov has 43 in 46. I can recall being more impressed by hits laid by Fedorov than by any Forsberg laid on a guy. Also of note: Dan Cleary has hit as many times as Bill Guerin, and less than Kris Draper...

And still, many on this board would rather have him than Fedorov, Drake, or Lapointe.

35. Dallas Eakins

That was Zetterberg in 2002. Kronwall had half a season of NHL play under his belt in 2006, as well as a selection to the all-tournament team at the WCs the year prior.

Sorry, I was blocking out the memory of him still being on a scoring line in Detroit....

42. Grant Ledyard 43. Mike Eastwood 29. Tony Hrkac Also..does 35 exist as written, or is there an error in the teams listed?

The first one is Shanny. The other is probably supposed to be Lindros, but they forgot the Maple Leafs.

Maltby is the most expendable forward on the team. Top three in various categories of value: Youth: Hudler, Filppula, Kopecky Defense: Zetterberg, Draper, Franzen Scoring: Zetterberg, Cleary, Holmstrom Passing: Datsyuk, Lang, Zetterberg Physical play: Franzen, Kopecky, Holmstrom The only other forward who doesn't make that list is Samuelsson, who can score pretty well and is not a liability defensively. For a team that needs all the scoring it can get and has stellar defense, Sammy is more valuable than Malts.

Forsberg is a power forward to the same degree that Sergei Fedorov, Alexei Yashin, Robert Lang, or Jaromir Jagr are power forwards. Big, strong guys who are good with the puck and can score. None of the above is a power forward.

All I've heard about Kobasew for the past five years is that he's going to be a star. If that's the case, how is this a bad deal for Boston? At worst, they pick up a solid defenseman and a good young forward for a couple years in exchange for two guys they had no guarantee of keeping after April--and probably have an equal chance of signing this summer as they did before the trade.

Probably better than the dirty rainwater they sell at Tim's....

I said expected. I didn't say Lebda was not capable of reaching that level--just that his scouting reports and so-called 'expert' analysis project him to be a career third pairing guy, a level that Kronwall has already exceeded.

19. Joe Sacco 12. Jan Hlavac

16. Claude Lemieux 21. Scott Young 14. Andrei Kovalenko

Kronwall v Lebda, potential-wise: Kronwall is already better than Lebda is expected to ever be. Kronwall vs $15m/5yrs: The majority of this board has wanted to dump Schneider and give all his time to Kronwall as an 'upgrade'. Schneider is paid fairly (perhaps even underpaid) compared to his contemporaries at 3.3m. If Kronwall>Schneider, the nwouldn't 3m per season be a downright steal? For that matter, Brisebois, Kuba, Mara, White, and Boynton all make about 3m. None of those guys is playing significantly differently from Kronwall. There are guys like Jovanovski and Blake who make more than double what Kronner will make and are not significantly better--and Kronwall has the most room for improvement, as most of those other guys are vets who have been around a while and don't expect to get much better than they are now.

The NHL uses points for one simple reason: The All-Star game coaches are decided by what team has the most points at a certain time in the season. Without a point system, every team's coach is the coach of the team with the most points.

I was looking at the goals to ice time ratios of the Wings, and I came upon a realization; Jiri Hudler is third on the team in goals per second, behind Holmstrom and Cleary by a small margin and ahead of Datsyuk and Zetterberg. He played under five minutes last night and still scored. When will Hudler get a real shot on a scoring line?

Fedorov is scoring points better than any Wing forward except Zata and Dats--and he is as fast and good defensively as anyone we've got. He's capable of playing all three forward positions. If we could get him for say, Williams, I would consider it. Yes, he has next year on his contract. But that would be in place of Lang, who will be gone. It would also mean the Wings could easily part with Maltby--Fedorov could eat up his PK time as well. The biggest thing Fedorov would do is provide a big, strong, offensively talented body with speed that can score in the postseason. Something we haven't had since Fedorov.

His missed-games percentage is almost identical to Murphy's--1.73%--the summer before his final seaosn--Murphy only missed 27 games before his final season, where he was often a healthy scratch.

Shanny and Fedorov are the only guys on your list who, like Osgood, were among the best at their position for several seasons as a Wing. And yes, if Ozzy's jersey goes up, those two probably would hang there as well. I find it amusing that several posters have quoted me, yet failed t ocomprehend this sentence: Does that sound to any of you that I am calling Osgood's number for retirement? I simply said he was the 'NEXT MOST DESERVING'. That's SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT from saying 'His number belongs in the rafters.' Try reading the COMPLETE post before launching on a member-bashing spree next time. WTF? While I do not argue the point that I tend to back Ozzie, I don't go out of my way to insult Osgood's competitor. Ask a Hasek slappy whether I have gone out of my way to insult him. I always supported Legace until statements like 'when will this guy get a shot' were being said in Spring 2006--after Legace had already failed once in the postseason and had two full years as the Wings' starter. Go ahead. Show me these 'outrageous claims' about Osgood and the apparently unwarranted insults against his competition.

No, it has more to do with that fact that even this season, even with guys like Malkin and Recchi on the team, people were still saying that Crosby was basically doing it himself. Scoring 100 assists would invalidate that. Here's why: It's rare to see a defense corps score more than 40 goals. So assume the defense scores 40 (they're on pace for 36) and Crosby gets an assist on every single one (incredibly improbable) that would mean that, if you assume Crosby assisted on every single one of his linemates' goals, creating the minimum possible number of goals form his linemates, that would still be 60 goals between the two--30 goals each. 72 forwards are on pace to score 30 or more goals this season--meaning that if Crosby hits 100 assists, he is playing with either two solid first-line caliber goal scorers, or one elite scoring winger who is on pace for a 50+ goal season. We all know the latter is not the case--Malkin's 26 goals leads the Pens, and Malkin plays only limited time with Crosby. That said, Crosby has to have gotten a decent amount of assists on Malkin's goals...there are only 22 assists to be had fro mthe defense, so Crosby has assisted on at very minimum 39 goals from forwards. Outside of the top six, Pens forwards have only scored 43 goals. So 86 goals from top six forwards not including Crosby--an average of 28 goals each in an 82 game season.

Here's how Hudler's numbers break down by ice time this season. Less than 5 minutes--4 GP, 1g-0a-1p, -1, 2 PIM, 5 shots, 20.0% 5:00-9:59--28 GP, 4g-1a-5p, +6, 18 PIM, 23 shots, 17.4% 10 or more minutes--16 GP, 4g-0a-4p, +1, 6 PIM, 26 shots, 15.4% Keep in mind, also, that the most offensively gifted player Hudler has played any significant minutes with in any single game is Williams. Even when he's gotten ice time, it hasn't been with the kind of players I've been suggesting--Hudler has been the most offensively talented player on his line almost every time he's taken the ice...Zetterberg is the only other Wing who that could be suggested about. Hudler has the skill to play on the second line and do well. He just needs the opportunity.

The guy to make that second unit work is on our roster right now, and has scored 2 PP goals in less than an hour of total PP time.

Playing on the same line was a demand they made if they were to leave Sweden (where they played together on Modo). Brian Burke was the only GM nuts enough to make the seven deals needed to get the picks to draft them, although he could likely have picked up the 9th and 10th overall picks (or lower) and used them on the Sedins with that kind of demand hanging out there.

Lidstrom is a lock. The next most likely player is Osgood. Osgood can determine over the next couple years whether that one is a yes or no---he's borderline and with a few more wins piled on, some more shutouts, etc. he could reach that level. Most likely it will only be Lidstrom though. BTW...the last retired number was Sawchuk in 1994. Before that was and Delvecchio (re-retired), Abel, and Lindsay in the early 90s. Starting in around 1950, it seems there's a retired number or two every ~20 years. Also BRTD...Lindsay and Abel apparently weren't 'obvious' choices for jersey retirement as the numbers were hung about 20 years after their retirement; yet there are few that would argue against their selection for the honor.