eva unit zero

You do realize there's no speed vs. size slider right? This isn't a video game. That said, Hudler was often one of the fastest players on the ice during his shift. Maybe he was just the only one skating.

Is Modano a better hitter than Hudler? The answer is no. Congratulations, your post is invalid and unneccessary. Please remove it.

I like the look, except for the fact that as mentioned earlier, Holmstrom breaks the bottom six. Assuming we lose Draper, Modano, and Miller and gain Mursak and Emmerton, these are the lines I would roll. Hudler/Zetterberg/Cleary Franzen/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Abdelkader/Filppula/Bertuzzi Mursak/Helm/Eaves The top six forwards in ice time would be those you mentioned, but you have to make the lines work also. Trying to shoehorn Homer into that bottom six wrecks it. You can also, of course, run with: Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Hudler/Filppula/Cleary Franzen/Abdelkader/Bertuzzi Mursak/Helm/Eaves

You may be joking there... but it's true in real life also.

That's a stupid trade. First of all, Leino is less talented than Hudler, but has been given a better opportunity in a weaker conference. Remember how well Leino performed as a Wing? Beyond that, Leino is a UFA this summer. So you're basically willing to give up a talented offensive player for the chance to sign a different one who had better season totals before anyone else gets that same chance? Not a deal I'd make. Especially given that Leino will probably get a deal at or above Hudler's current cap hit.

Hanzal would be difficult to acquire, but wonderful. However, he is not a "gun" in terms of being a goal scorer. He did score a bunch of goals last season, but most of them were Holmstrom-esque. Yet another reason to pick him up; Homer's leaving and Hanzal can take his place on the PP. I wouldn't be shocked to see Ken Holland go after Tomas Kopecky if he could be had for less than $2m; Kopecky has always been pretty good in front of the net also and would give the Wings another big, physical, mobile player who can play.

He played 11 games with Datsyuk and Cleary, and led the team in scoring during that period. His offense was on pace for 105 points. In the first 30 games of the season, he was not very effective. But he also was playing with Modano, who at almost no point this season has been effective, and whose play style does not work with Hudler's play style. One works on rushing and a quick shot, the other works on setting up an offense and trying to find or create a hole in the defense. Hudler scored 12 points in 17 games before he played with Datsyuk. This isn't "no points in all games not played alongside Pavel Datsyuk" but rather that he was already doing well and then started doing much better when placed with Datsyuk, proving the idea that he could excel on the first line.

In the Sharks series Filppula centered Franzen and Hudler, and you say he was being used primarily as a defensive center? Well, I guess that means Hudler was being used in a defensive role, right? So the fact that he didn't score any points either doesn't matter because he wasn't out there to score points. The fact that Franzen played like s***, and then got injured and kept playing like s*** is what kept that line from scoring. But people here don't like to bag on Franzen for some odd reason. Here's a nice juicy fact. FRANZEN SUCKED. FRANZEN WAS THE REASON THE FRANZEN/FILPPULA/HUDLER LINE WASN'T SCORING. Not Flip, and not Huds. They were both effective in all of the games that line played.

You are looking at salary and cap hit. They are not the same thing. Franzen made $5m this year, makes $5.25m the next two years, $5m the three after that, drops to $3.5m, then $2m, and so forth. His cap hit remains the same throughout, because it is an average of the total contract value. That's why the Kovalchuk contract was investigated; because his salary started out huge and dropped down below $1m after a few seasons.

If you take just the second half of this season, how many of those players were better than Hudler? I count two.

You do realize that all three of Modano, Miller, and Abdelkader are not just Americans, but from Michigan right? The flat benching of Modano in the playoffs may have been one of his better decisions this year. Modano was terrible all year outside of a span of about two weeks early in the season where he played like a good third-line center, which is what he was signed to be. With Franzen being injured, I can understand the argument to have Modano in the lineup because he was once a great offensive player. But that's it. Was. He's not any better offensively than Drew Miller, Justin Abdelkader or Kris Draper now and those guys all have a physical game Modano has never had and defense Modano only surpassed at his peak. Taking out one of those guys to put in Modano just hurts the team. Modano had two games playing alongside Pavel Datsyuk. Valtteri Filppula have no trouble scoring goals with Dats; and Flip doesn't even shoot. What Modano needed was to not announce his retirement before the playoffs, and to not play like he was already retired. Of Red Wings players who played in the regular season, Modano would be #16 on my depth chart for forwards. He brought absolutely no value to the team.

It came down to a few lucky (or unlucky) bounces, not even necessarily injuries. Things like last night; Kronwall takes a pass on his backhand and he's wide open with an open net in front of the net. He moves it to his forehand and the puck hadn't quite settled down and it's gone. If he's a righty, if he is three feet to his right, or even if he just has that puck settled a little more that's in the net. And that's just one example. The whole "righty/lefty" thing happened a few notable times where a Detroit player took the puck on the backhand and had to move to the forehand, when if they shot with the other hand it's a goal, or cleared puck, or whatever.

Mike Modano? Hello? Modano made nearly $2m and outside of a stretch of seven or 8 games this season played at an AHL level. Modano was the worst forward to play for the Wings this season, including call-ups, and the worst by salary. As for the playoffs, Hudler had an excellent first-round. In the second round, he wasn't as good but Filppula was no better through the first few games. And Hudler played very well in the last couple of games. It was brought up that he was a minus in games six and seven. In game six, it's because he was tying up the guy going to the net and then diving into the net to try and stop the puck that Howard couldn't hold on to. In game seven, he was on the ice for Couture's goal, which Howard should have been set and ready to react to but wasn't, and Zetterberg handed an open Couture the puck on a clearing attempt. Clearly that's all Hudler's fault. Just more examples of how plus-minus is not actually representative of the player's performance. Hudler was skating in a straight line; Cleary skated into him when trying to cut back towards the center of the ice. As for Filppula having greater offensive capability... just no. Flip is better defensively and a better skater, he might be a better player...but he is not better offensively. Not even close. It's like Ron Francis and Adam Oates.

Howard needs to improve his lateral movement. Big time. He's slow side to side, and tends to stay low (perhaps related) giving up the entire top half of the net to the shooter on the back side.

Hudler was good. He generated chances, and worked hard. Zetterberg, despite his mistake, was the best forward on the ice. Dats was #2.

Z was the better player in the regular season and in the San Jose series.

I'd try and trade you for mindfly, but I'd have to give up at least two first rounders. The general attitude around here seems to be "Cleary skated facefirst into Hudler and injured himself, Hudler needs to be off the team before he injures everyone else on the team by forcing them to skate facefirst into his elbow!"

What he has to do is take it on the forehand, not try and take it on the backhand and then move to his forehand. Even if he hadn't fumbled the puck, he loses his chance because he takes too long. Believe me; a lot of time spent in that area of the ice taught me that.

Cleary skating into Hudler is not Hudler being lost. Hudler was skating on a straight path towards the corner while Cleary was swooping around from the boards. It's what all the enforcer slappies always say about headshots, and what always comes up in the "clean hit penalized" threads. Keep Your Head Up.

Skating is and always has been Modano's best attribute. He used to be one of the fastest in the world.

Just a request; can we please have the "Third round picks" thread posted sooner than a couple of hours before the round is to start? Some of us aren't plugged in 24/7.

This, I don't understand. Modano has two advantages over Hudler. He is a better skater, and he is bigger. Hudler is a better hockey player than Modano at every single other area of the game. Why you would want Modano in over Hudler makes no sense. Draper? Miller? Abdelkader? I can understand the arguments there. There is at least reason and logic. But not for Modano. Hell, Mursak and Emmerton probably belong in the lineup before Modano.

Hudler has never been given a shot on the top two lines over any realistic length of time. He's played there a couple times during injuries when Babs had no choice but to put him there, but the Huds/Dats/Cleary line was the first time Babs actually gave Hudler more than 2 games to play on one of the top two lines while the team was healthy. And he still broke it up despite excellent performance from all three members of the line, in a failed attempt to "get Franzen going" instead of sitting Franzen for a game or two like he would with some other players who weren't performing and weren't working hard at either end. As for your stats... plus-minus is one of the most useless statistics in all of sports. And beyond that, your original argument was that Hudler never "engaged" since he came back. Scoring at a 70 point pace over 17 games while on the third line is pretty engaged, regardless of what your plus-minus is. So as for the topic of this thread, maybe this team does need something. Fans who don't blindly hate on their own players for not being the ideal guy they would want. I remember everyone going nuts when Abdelkader was picked, wanting Latendresse instead, and telling everyone that Holland had made the right choice. Latendresse had one very good partial season in Minnesota, and some decent seasons in Montreal, but he's still pretty worthless defensively. Abby isn't great offensively and needs to get those bad penalties under control, but he's a good all around player.

The Wings' fourth line was Kopecky/Draper/Maltby, and he spent plenty of time with both Kopecky and Draper. Not as much with Maltby. And what about Helm, who played a ton with Hudler while he was up that season? Almost as much time with Hudler as Z spent. As for PP TOI... Hudler was third in PP points among forwards on the team. He was third in PP TOI. He scored at a better pace on the PP, per minute, than any other forward but Datsyuk. THAT is why he got all of that time. Tell me, why does Modano get time on the PP now? Because he doesn't do s***. At least Hudler scores. At least Williams and Samuelsson could score from the point.