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The ad placement is absolutely a huge improvement over the rollover ad at the top of the old skin. The one that was always getting in the way.

You managed to slip it in while I was reading the Hudler thread, and I was like wha...huh? Looks nice!

Joni Pitkanen. Best available UFA defenseman. Would fit well in our defense and provide physical play. Will probably cost around $5.5m at the top end. Want another defenseman? The cap is projected to go up by about $3m, and with Lidstrom retiring in this scenario, that should be possible. Maybe the Wings can get away with trading Kindl and a pick or mid-level prospect for Meszaros. Figure that leads to a roster which looks like this: Datsyuk $6.7m Zetterberg $6.083m Franzen $3.955 Filppula $3m Hudler $2.875m Cleary $2.8m Bertuzzi $1.938m Holmstrom $1.875m Eaves $1.25m Helm $913k Abdelkader $788k Mursak $700k Emmerton $650k Rafalski $6m Pitkanen $5.5m Meszaros $4m Stuart $3.75m Kronwall $3m Ericsson $1.25m Meech $500k Howard $2m Smith $500k Pretty strong team, don't you think? Still around $2.3m in cap space if you don't think so.

This topic is inspired by the "30 and under" topic from the other day. I was thinking basically, if you were the GM, and could pick from all of the teams the players that were on your team, who would you have? As the idea is that you are the GM of an NHL team rather than a fantasy team, here are the rules: - You must have at least 3 "veteran" players who are aged 33 or older. This is to simulate players who have been on the team for a while and/or were acquired for their experience. - You can have no more than 4 players on entry-level contracts. - You may not exceed the NHL salary cap for this season of $59.4m. - Your goal is to create a "sustainable" roster, so picking 20 top-end players who all turn RFA or UFA at the end of the season would Chicago you. My roster: FORWARDS Zetterberg 6.7m Datsyuk 6.084m Getzlaf 5.325m Stamkos 3.725m Filppula 3m Hudler 2.875m Hanzal 1.8m Kopecky 1.2m Brouwer 1.025m Helm 912,500 Giroux 821,667 EL Eaves 750k D.Miller 650k DEFENSE Lidstrom 6.2m Weber 4.5m Enstrom 3.75m Doughty 3.475m J.Johnson 1.425m Yandle 1.2m Lilja 750k GOALTENDERS Quick 1.8m Osgood 1,417 ~59.34 in total cap hit. With most core players signed on long term. Lidstrom may retire soon but that opens up some cap space to help cover raises in the next few years for Weber, Quick, Stamkos, and Johnson.

Let's analyze the offensive production for the 2003-04 seasons of the top 12 finishers from 2002-03, plus any other significant defensive forwards from that period. Jere Lehtinen misses 20 games on top of having an off year offensively. John Madden's offensive production is down. Wes Walz misses 25 games. Forsberg misses half the season. Michael Peca produces at lower rates than he's known for, and does it in a hockey black hole. Mike Modano scores 44 points, compared to the 85 he had in 02-03. Todd Marchant dropped from a career high 60 points back to the 30-35 point range we're used to from him. Fedorov scores 65 points his first year in Anaheim, compared to 83 his last year in Detroit. Matt Cooke missed 30 games. Brian Rolston had a scoring drop of 8 goals and eleven points. He scored 19 goals that year and 27 the year before. He cleared 30 in 01-02, and every year from 05-06 through 07-08. Michal Handzus actually jumped up to post career highs in assists and points. Kirk Maltby had a very comparable season in 03-04 to his year in 02-03. That's the top twelve Selke vote-getters, in order. Here are some other notable defensive forwards from that period. Magnus Arvedson only played half the season - which would be his last. Craig Conroy missed 20 games. Mike Knuble dropped 13 points and 6 goals, and didn't repeat on his first 30 goal season. Radek Bonk missed 16 games. Mike Ricci had dropped 8 points from 02-03, but he was 27 below 01-02, when he had finished top-four among Selke vote-getters for the third consecutive season. Steve Yzerman missed 31 games. Bobby Holik had a season that was generally comparable offensively to his seasons in the previous few years, and better than his 02-03 year. So of these 20 high-end defensive forwards, only Bobby Holik, Michal Handzus and Kirk Maltby did not miss significant games or have a notable drop in their offense. In 2002-03 Maltby received more votes than Draper for Selke. What changed? In 02-03 they had similar offensive numbers, in 03-04 Draper posted 24 goals in 67 games. Maltby was still 7th in Selke voting in 04. Draper playing on the power play because Yzerman is out and Fedorov is gone doesn't make Draper the best defensive forward. Maltby was better defensively that season, and Madden probably deserved the Selke.

Go to http://www.capgeek.com for signed contracts, cap hit, bonuses, contract status, etc.

Zetterberg is the one used to shut down top forwards, not Datsyuk. Draper once won a Selke; he wasn't even the best defensive forward on his line that season. Selke winners are often guys who are really good defensively and then they have a big offensive season. That's why Kesler and Zetterberg are my top two for this year. Both are elite defensive forwards whose offense is well above their stats for the past two years.

Which is why I have always said they should have made the damn thing go both ways all of the time. Or alternatively, reverse direction after Wings games, as that would provide shorter "in" and "out" rides for most people not parking in the JLA structure.

Zetterberg is better defensively than Datsyuk. Flashiness /= skill. That's something a lot of people, including Roberto Luongo, need to learn.

Which is why, as I said, a realistic Kane-for-Miller deal would involve Crawford, not Turco.

Not at the player cost we'd have to pay. Think about their salaries; think about our available cap space. The Wings would have to give up at least two of Hudler, Filppula, Cleary, Stuart, Kronwall in a deal for either of those guys JUST to make the cap work. Pick the two you think help the team the least. Now think; does the combination of Brad Richards and either Drew Miller or Jakub Kindl, depending on which players are traded, provide a better Cup chance this season for the Wings than those multiple players? Hudler and Kronwall? Hudler and Flip? Flip and Cleary? Hudler and Stuart? Flip and Stuart? Cleary and Kronwall? Some other combo? None of them are less helpful than Richards and Miller/Kindl. Or even worse; push Draper out of the forward lineup and bring in Kindl and Meech/Janik. Sound like fun? Gaborik wouldn't be any better, either.

The Wings can't afford to send Kindl for Pitkanen, sadly. He'd be a great addition. The Wings can only afford to add about 628k in full-season cap hit right now, according to capgeek. Kindl for Pitkanen would require just over 3.1m for the swap. If Carolina is truly requiring a defenseman in return, then it's Stuart or Kronwall/Miller. Miller would only be there to level the cap space. If a defenseman is not necessary, then Carolina would probably be looking at one of Flip or Hudler in return as Detroit needs to send at least $3.4m out to get Joni. I don't see it realistically happening, but the only way I can see it happen without the Wings dumping off major pieces is if they move Salei, Kindl, and Miller as part of a three-way deal. Retroactively place Modano and Osgood on LTIR, and hopefully that makes enough of a difference.

Fixed. Also, Kindl does still have first-pairing potential. Because he's not killing it playing part-time in his rookie season is hardly an indication of failure in that area. He needs to be provided with decent playing time to be able to learn the NHL game, and as he's an offensive defenseman who's not great defensively, preferably a strong defensive partner. Next year there's a pretty decent chance he's playing on the regular roster. Give it another year before saying "his potential has slipped like my shorts during one of my oil wrestling matches" or whatever the hell it is you are saying.

The major question is, what happens when Filppula and Holmstrom back on the ice? Babcock's natural instinct would be to just send Jiri back to the third or fourth line where he's played his career under Babs. But the way Huds has been scoring and the way he's clicked with Dats, can you do that? Right now the top two lines are Franzen/Zetterberg/Bertuzzi and Cleary/Datsyuk/Hudler. Do you slap a line together of Holmstrom/Filppula/Eaves?

Martins had a ten year NHL career (nine consecutive seasons leading into the lockout, plus the first season after), one of which he spent no time in the minors, and three other seasons where he was primarily on an NHL roster. He was successful in the minors but could never translate it over to the NHL and ended up playing for five different teams; seven if you count the fact that he was a Senator three separate times. Krog played parts of seven seasons in the NHL over ten years (across the lockout; nine NHL seasons), never providing enough offense to gain a top-six role, and not providing enough in the rest of his game to stick in the bottom six. Haydar doesn't bring much other than scoring to his game at the NHL level; this is the reason he hasn't been able to stick with any NHL team. Even Atlanta didn't keep him on, despite the fact he produced a moderate level of offense, simply because offense is not what they needed from him. While these guys might have NHL-level offensive skills, they don't have an NHL-level game.

Hudler in the last ONE game: 1g, 2a, 3pt, +2 Hudler since Dec 27th: 20 GP, 5g-12a-17pt, +3, 6 PIM, 2 PPG, 28 shots, 17.9 shot%, 15:52 ATOI In that 20 game span Hudler is scoring at a 70 point pace.

Hanzal would be a great pickup, I have always liked him. Holmstrom will probably retire after his contract is up, which means DZH won't exist. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Filppula, Hudler, possibly Cleary, Eaves, Helm will still be around. Hanzal so far in his career is not a top six forward. He is, of course, only 23. But Phoenix may be more interested in acquiring a couple of decent prospects and a pick in return for Hanzal given that the former first rounder has been a 30-35 point forward every season since his rookie year, and this year is looking to be no different. Think of it. A top-two line setup of: Zetterberg/Datsyuk/Hanzal Franzen/Filppula/Hudler That could be pretty destructive given a year or two more of development for Hanzal, Hudler, and Filppula. Speedy third line of Cleary/Helm/Eaves provides some offense and great defense.

RWC used the fact that Hudler was the last Wings prospect to post those kinds of numbers before Pulkkinen, and qualified it with the fact that he did it in the "weak" Czech league so as to pump up Pulkkinen. I posted with regards to the skill difference, showing that RWC's analysis was flawed.

Howard has faced 33 shots per 60 minutes in 11 games since Stuart went out. He faced 30 per 60 in the previous 10 games he played. A slight change, perhaps quantified as the difference between Stuart and Kindl defensively right now if you factor in the changes on the PK and the increased ice time for Ericsson and Salei.

I'm all for Pulkinnen and Jarnkrok and think they're great, but RWC is being a bit dismissive of Hudler's junior success with the "he did it in the Czech leagues" when they fail to recognize that Petr Tenkrat, who couldn't make it in the NHL 3 years ago, scored at a similar rate as Jarnkrok's current pace in Sweden in 08 and 09, and has scored 24 in 34 in Finland this year compared to Pulkkinen's 41 in 44. Hudler scored 46 points in 30 games in his final season in the Czech Extraliga; this works out to 70 points if it were 46 games as he had played the season before. This blows away the numbers being produced in that league now by players such as Martin Straka, Petr Nedved, Radek Bonk, and Petr Sykora (the good one). Beyond that, neither Pulkkinen nor Jarnkrok will be playing for the Red Wings at the age of 19, which Hudler was.

The logical course is for the NHL to follow with "new style" transcriptions for all Russian players who have not yet played in the NHL. Modifying the official spelling of a player's name is not unprecedented either; Evgeni Nabokov was listed as John Nabokov in official records because Dean Lombardi couldn't properly say or spell Evgeni. Semyon Varlamov is another example.

The deal as listed does seem to kind of screw Buffalo, this is true. But this is perhaps the answer to the question I posed earlier. To Buffalo: F: Patrick Kane G: Corey Crawford To Chicago: G: Ryan Miller Draft pick/decent prospect As listed here, however, Chicago doesn't come out in nearly as strong shape unless the pick is good. With the Kane/Turco deal, they still have Crawford to deal for a forward if they need to. With this deal, they are stuck with Turco as the backup.

Saturday, February 23rd. Top performer: Derek Meech!

Hudler since Dec 27th: 19 GP, 4g-10a-14pt, +1, 6 PIM, 2 PPG, 26 shots, 15.4 shot%, 15:54 ATOI

Is THAT why they keep missing those "too many men" calls?