eva unit zero

The Wings will only have one veteran goaltender next year, be it Legace, Osgood, or otherwise. Howard, or more likely Stefan Liv, will be the backup.

I'd rather get Drake back. He's great defensively, hard working, fast, vicious hitter, never gives up. Plus he costs considerably less and plays all three forward positions.

More likely Stefan Liv would be the backup, with Howard getting a large number of starts in the AHL. Liv will be too old to go up and down like Howard can, meaning he would have to be waived to be sent down, and he wouldn't clear waivers because he's too good. Regardless, It's more likely one of Osgood or Legace stays and mentors Liv, and in two years, possibly three, Liv/Howard is the tandem.

As much as we wouldn't like it, Lilja will be back...both Holland and Babcock have had nothing but positive things to say about him, and he's been getting 22-23 minutes per night.

Current Wings under contract for next year: Zetterberg Datsyuk Draper Lang Maltby Holmstrom Schneider Kronwall Likely to leave: Yzerman Mowers Chelios Woolley Rivers Osgood or Legace Likely to return: Shanahan Williams Franzen Samuelsson Cleary Lidstrom Lilja Lebda Osgood or Legace There will be one opening in net, two on the blueline, and two up front assuming everything here is accurate. Quincey should pick up one of the defense spots. The other will be filled by an offseason acquisition or a deadline acquisition, or perhaps even Jiri Fischer if he comes back. At forward, Igor Grigorenko gets one of the spots. Jiri Hudler probably gets the other, with potential for Filppula or Kopecky. Stefan Liv will be coming over, and likely ends up with the backup job due to age and the desire to see Howard get starts without having to be shuttled up and down. Let alone the fact that Liv is absolutely DOMINATING Elitserien.

The attitudes on this board are so perplexing. One second, people are saying we should deal prospects and top young players to get a big strong forward. Then they lament the deal of a prospect not even close to as good as the ones being dealt off in these threads for a...top notch, big strong forward. Not to mention people constantly bitched about Fischer only on the D, and these same people were usually the ones saying our team was soft...meaning Fischer should have been far from the only guy getting bitched about. Or the ones who say Osgood wil never be good enough to win a Cup, even though he already has done so. Or the ones who feel Legace has proven he's not capable of being a starter because of a couple injuries. Sorry for the minor derail...the Fleischmann thing just always baffles me because sure, he's a skilled forward prospect who could do some damage in the league. And guess what, he was well down Detroit's prospect chart JUST AMONG SCORING FORWARDS. He was utterly expendable.

Don't know if Witt falls into that category...

I picked Berard. I think Crosby's mouth andtalent make him a target. He doesn't keep his head up like he should, and he admires his passes. He's not that big, so he will get knocked around and have some major injuries in his career. Possibly more akin to Lindros, but Berard was the injury option

Pardon my comments..but you have paid very little attention to our prospects. Kopecky has FAR more chance at being a scoring type player than a fourth liner. His skills have always been there, it's the effort and physical play that wasn't always there. And as we all know, the fourth line guys are the ones who need to be putting out the effort and physical play every night because they AREN'T the ones doing the scoring. Of course it's ideal that everyone is putting in effort and physical play, but if anyone is allowed to slide on physical play it would be the scorers. Kindl was NOT a risky pick. He was rated a top five pick overall in the draft going into 04-05. He had a disappointing season due in large part to culture shock and a lack of ice time, and that cause his stock to slip. The Wings felt they got a steal in getting him, and he proved them right. With the graduation of Andre Benoit to the AHL, Kindl got a huge increase in ice time and has become maybe the best defenseman in the OHL, and is outshining every other defenseman on the Rangers by a large margin, including two other first round picks (2004 #10 overall Boris Valabik and 2005 #22 overall Matt Lashoff) I agree Quincey should be a solid top-four defenseman. Kopecky is not a scorer. A guy who fails to even come close to putting up a point-per-game in his fourth year in the AHL has no place on our top two lines. He's not a checker, and he's not a scorer, what does that make him? I naturally assumed he'd be an energy line player if he could put forth the effort he has so far this season in GR. We clearly disagree on this subject, but last I checked, I'm entitled to my opinion. I understand the disagreement on Kopecky, Eva, you have some valid points. But to say Kindl is not a risky prospect doesn't make any sense. You're right, he has looked excellent this season, but when he was first drafted, I wasn't so sure. By all accounts, he has the natural ability to be a top pairing d-man, but hasn't put it together yet. He could be a stud, or a dud. That is the definition of a risky prospect. I'm not the only one who thinks this; at least Bob McKenzie agrees with me anyway: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/draft/feature.asp?fid=6645 I'm glad we agree on Quincey. I really like him. We're allowed to disagree Eva, but to say I don't pay attention to our prospects is downright stupid. I read any and every single article I can about our system, and I'm consistently checking CHL and AHL boxscores; I follow prospects as closely as I do the Wings themselves. Kopecky has put up solid numbers at every level he has played. The last couple seasons in the AHL he was injury plagued and couldn't get a groove going. He had excellent numbers his rookie year. And as I said... the knock on him is that he DOESN'T always bring the energy... which means he's LEAST properly suited to being an 'energy' player. Kindl was only a risky pick if you believe a 17 year old kid playing a depth role as an OHL rookie and not putting up huge numbers means he might not be that good, even though he has shown his ability in the past.

This is better. One of the great games of all time.

I don't know that Lang for Malone would work..Pittsburgh already has Crosby and Malkin, it's unlikely they would be happy getting a center for a winger. Plus, Pittsburgh would be taking on a huge increase in salary.

They can. Standard NHL contract requires team consent for contracted players to participate in strenuous physical activity outside of team activities. Remember Uwe Krupp? Or the NHL players not being released for preliminary round games in the 2002 Olympics (not sure if that will be the case this year) If an NHL team (or any other pro team with a similar clause in their contract) decided they didn't want their player playing, they could refuse to allow it.

Not saying he won't rebound. Just a little baffled when people keep saying he's having a great year.

Looking at the numbers, Kopecky just missed the squad.

Kopecky is 5th in goals, 6th in assists, and 6th in points on Grand Rapids, is one of the few physical forwards o nthe team, and leads the team in plus-minus and is the second biggest player on the team this season (behind recent signing Ryan Jorde, who has played three games and is no longer on the active roster) Kinda hard to say he doesn't deserve the playing time he's gotten.

Pardon my comments..but you have paid very little attention to our prospects. Kopecky has FAR more chance at being a scoring type player than a fourth liner. His skills have always been there, it's the effort and physical play that wasn't always there. And as we all know, the fourth line guys are the ones who need to be putting out the effort and physical play every night because they AREN'T the ones doing the scoring. Of course it's ideal that everyone is putting in effort and physical play, but if anyone is allowed to slide on physical play it would be the scorers. Kindl was NOT a risky pick. He was rated a top five pick overall in the draft going into 04-05. He had a disappointing season due in large part to culture shock and a lack of ice time, and that cause his stock to slip. The Wings felt they got a steal in getting him, and he proved them right. With the graduation of Andre Benoit to the AHL, Kindl got a huge increase in ice time and has become maybe the best defenseman in the OHL, and is outshining every other defenseman on the Rangers by a large margin, including two other first round picks (2004 #10 overall Boris Valabik and 2005 #22 overall Matt Lashoff) I agree Quincey should be a solid top-four defenseman.

You took what I said TOTALLY the wrong way. What I meant was that Bootland has not been the only physical presence. As I quoted earlier in the thread, Kopecky has been pplying well physically this year. Probably partially as an influence of playing with Bootland, but he has done so nonetheless.

Not according to other reports...

One of the reasons for that is because Lebda was rated a 3.5 by Hockeysfuture, did not have a good season in Grand Rapids last year, and was generally considered as a prospect who would NEVER make the NHL.

Is it too early to call out the "I told ya so" on Kopecky?

He's not having a great year...his stats are mediocre at best considering how well Dallas has played and how good he's supposed to be.

I was kinda surprised at the size myself, but it was either that or a 30x30 thumbnail...I figured you guys would better appreciate the large image P.S. Matt, feel free to size it down if you can

I should have said "not playing up to his salary." If you know what you're getting, he's been fine. If you think you're getting a Shanahan (like Boston and Chicago thought) then you're overpaying.

Yes, but considering Lapointe is effectively being dumped because he's not doing that well, we don't have to send one of our BETTER prospects for him if we were to trade for him.