eva unit zero

Sweet, time to go for a walk-on contract with the Wings, and sue if not signed!!

Nabokov is basically left with one destination: Washington. Ottawa, Philadelphia, or the Isles could still sign him though, but: Ottawa would then be stuck with LeClaire's $3.8m deal and have to figure out what to do with it. Philadelphia would have to move one of Leighton or Boucher, be it a trade or waiving and almost certainly losing them. The Isles would have to either move Dipietro's 4.5m deal or Roloson's $2.5 deal out of town somehow. Washington has Varlamov, and Nabokov would be the perfect mentor for him. The only questions are money, would Nabokov play in Washington, and is Nabokov interested? Given that just about every team with a goalie worse than Nabokov has a younger and/or cheaper goalie they are developing as their starter (Mason, Ward, Niemi, Lehtonen, Quick, Rinne, Halak, Niitymaki, Smith, Gustavsson) so Nabokov is out of luck unless a team manages to negotiate a deal with him that hinges on clearing space, such as Ottawa getting Nabokov cheap and burying LeClaire in the minors. I'll call it an E4, Nabokov to Washington.

Well, with the Ladd trade following the Byfuglien and Versteeg trades, it brings up some interesting thoughts. Neither Ladd nor Byfuglien will play the left side with Toews. Neither played much with him in the Finals either. Perhaps we see a continuation of that Finals line instead, with Kane on the second line alongside Sharp? 2010-11 CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Tomas Kopecky ($1.200m) / Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Marian Hossa ($5.275m) Viktor Stalberg ($0.850m) / Patrick Sharp ($3.900m) / Patrick Kane ($6.300m) Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) / Dave Bolland ($3.375m) / Marcus Kruger ($0.735m) Chris DiDomenico ($0.678m) / Marty Reasoner ($1.150m) / * Bryan Bickell ($0.550m) Jake Dowell ($0.525m) DEFENSEMEN Brent Seabrook ($3.500m) / Duncan Keith ($5.538m) Brian Campbell ($7.143m) / * Niklas Hjalmarsson ($2.250m) * Danny Richmond ($0.550m) / * Jordan Hendry ($0.675m) John Scott ($0.512m) GOALTENDERS * Antti Niemi ($2.250m) / Corey Crawford ($0.800m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) ROSTER: 22; CAP:$59.4m; PAYROLL: $59.272m; CAP ROOM: $0.248m BONUSES: $0.145m The key replacements on this roster: Kopecky taking over Byfuglien's role as the primary net presence. It's something he should be able to provide, especially having already proven chemistry with Toews and Hossa. Stalberg, Kruger, Didomenico, Reasoner, and Bickell taking over for Versteeg, Ladd, Fraser, Madden, and Eager. Hendry taking over Sopel's role in the top five, and Richmond (?) taking a role in the top six. Niemi proving he can be a strong starter for a full season, and Crawford showing the form that made him the Hawks' top goaltending prospect in prior seasons, not to mention considerably outplaying Niemi in the AHL in 08-09. Chicago will be younger, given the number of prospects they will have coming onto the roster, with one vet (Reasoner) coming in to replace a vet (Madden) who was older and more expensive. Chicago's offseason plan includes dumping two other vets who will be replaced by young players (Sopel, Huet). Every other position will be replaced by younger, cheaper players who Bowman is hoping can develop well within their first couple of seasons. They'll be good. Fourth or fifth in the conference. Probably top eight overall. But they won't make the Cup Finals and their chances at the WCF are slim.

Spezza's not lazy. Spezza is merely a guy who doesn't backcheck terribly much, and is less willing to go into the corners than his linemates. KANE is lazy. He takes forever to get up if hit, even if it means an odd-man rush on his own net or a lack of a scoring situation for his team. He takes 10-15 seconds to actually get back INTO the play. Laziest player I've ever seen at any level. I would have traded that #1 pick for another top 5-10 pick and a high level forward or defenseman. I mean SERIOUSLY. Kane could be a top 3-5 player in the league if he put forth any real effort.

Is Nabokov willing to sign for 750k and play on the 4th line?

Ladd's probably coming back then with the freed up money. Assuming Ladd signs: Ladd/Toews/Kane Kopecky/Sharp/Hossa Stalberg/Bolland/????? ?????/Reasoner/????? Bickell, Dowell, Skille, and maybe a vet or prospect to fill out the forward corps to look as follows: Ladd/Toews/Kane Kopecky/Sharp/Hossa Stalberg/Bolland/Skille Bickell/Reasoner/Dowell ????? Still looks pretty good.

Kenny said the Wings made an offer, Lilja's agent said they didn't, aka they made a offer that Lilja's agent though was ridiculous and/or a joke; probably in the $750k-$1m range. I can see Lilja going to another team that is looking for a first or second pairing defensive defenseman, especially one that needs blocking shots and on the PK. Lilja to Phoenix, Edmonton, NY Isles, or Anaheim perhaps?

Actually, I would pair Ericsson with Lidstrom next season FYI. Kronwall with Rafalski and Kindl with Stuart. That's how I would start anyway, unless Meech outplays Ericsson/Kindl going into the season, at which point Meech probably lines up with Stuart. Just because a player is on a certain line doesn't mean he's getting 5 or 10 or 20 or 30 minutes. It's not like every second of every even strength shift Lidstrom and Rafalski were always together, and when changing they ALWAYS hit the bench within a second or two of each other. Get realistic here. Your top six forwards don't HAVE to be all on your top two lines, nor do your top three on your top line. In fact, both of those ideas, IMO, take away from your team's depth considerably unless you have a strong defensive shutdown line as your third line. My Bert/Savard/Eaves line was intended to take advantage of the fact that A) Savard is a great playmaker, B) Bert has a strong net presence, and C) Eaves is the kind of speedy winger with a good shot that tends to work well alongside Savard. I already explained that combo. Hudler fits better with Z and Franzen IMO, while Flip fits better with Dats and Homer. It's not a matter of "Hudler has to be on the first line" because any one of the top three lines could be the "first line" on any given night, based on which line is playing the best. Granted, the Savard line isn't quite as stacked, but there's no reason it can't get hot and have some great nights, or even hot streaks. If you want to put Savard on the top two lines and put the old eurotwin line back together and you are absolutely set on keeping it forever, then here's your unit. Dats/Z/Homer Hudler/Savard/Franzen Cleary/Filppula/Bertuzzi Abdelkader/Helm/Eaves Draper Yes, the top line is loaded. But the second line and the third line are not going to provide nearly as much offense. Do you think this setup provides as much scoring as my lineup with a third line of Bertuzzi/Savard/Eaves does? I doubt it. Franzen will be heavily focused on because the next best scorer on his line is Hudler, instead of Z, and the D/Z/H line will see much heavier defensive coverage because the other team can plan for one big line instead of two. And the third line can't make up for that missing offense because it's less offensively skilled than my third line is. Of course it doesn't matter, because Savard isn't coming to Detroit for Stuart; it would require a forward - most likely Filppula or (if he waives his NTC) Cleary - going the other way, plus likely Ericsson or Kindl and a 4th-5th round pick, and Detroit would get Savard and maybe a 2nd-3rd rounder.

The Wings' top four are all signed. They are Lidstrom, Kronwall, Rafalski, and Stuart. This is pretty established. Despite the number of defensemen the Wings have under contract or have the rights to, ultimately, the final spot comes down to Janik vs. Meech. It's Meech, the younger, better version of Lebda, who the Wings kept ahead of Kyle Quincey with a similar skill set. Yes, the Kyle Quincey that much of this board is saying "why didn't we keep him? against Janik, a similar player to Lilja as we all remember him before the injury, but not quite as effective as Lilja ever really was. Meech could very well play his way into the #5-#7 slot. He's better defensively than Ericsson or Kindl, and once signed he'll be the fastest defenseman we have, with the possible exception of Rafalski. Janik also could be the #7 guy. He isn't going to make the top 6, but he's as solid a third pair defensive/physical grinder as you'll find for less than $1.25m. If there's enough cap space, put 'em both on the roster and use as needed. Meech literally can play any position, so having a guy like him around is a huge asset. Especially at his price, assuming he signs for less than $1m. Both definitely have their reasons that they would fit the team well. Meech would be instantly grabbed on waivers while Janik wouldn't. Meech is also younger with a much higher ceiling, and is a good failsafe if Ericsson and/or Kindl get injured and/or flop. Janik is pretty much a one-trick pony who does his job well, while Meech is a decent all-around player who skates very well. I'd take Meech, but there's no reason to say Janik's a bad choice either. Janik can also be kept on the roster or in the A as emergency filler if needed.

Rafalski is one of the top offensive defensemen in the NHL. He also is underrated defensively (well above average), and his defensive game has declined since he joined the team. Realistically, he's one of the top 15-20 defensemen in the NHL, and he gets paid like it. Compare his salary to other defensemen making a little less or a little more. He's typically in their range, unless you look at a guy like Keith. But Keith signed as an RFA, so you would expect his salary to be less; UFA status will drive a player's salary up simply by its nature. The one I would question seriously is Craig Anderson. Really? Yes, he played well for them this season. But he is far from the best goalie signing post-lockout. Chris Osgood for pennies to play like Terry Sawchuk and Jacques Plante fused together for two consecutive postseasons? That's a pretty good one. St. Louis signing Chris Mason after Nashville dumped him on the heap is a good one, given how well he's done for them and the number of games he's won for them. Very underrated, and worth all the praise given to Anderson in Colorado except Mason deserves it for multiple seasons. Probably the best, though? June 1st, 2006: 28-year old undrafted free agent goaltender Niklas Bäckström signs a contract with the Minnesota Wild. He spent the 2006-07 splitting time with Manny Fernandez, putting up 23 wins, a .929 sv% and a 1.97 GAA in 36 starts. He played so well, starter Manny Fernandez was traded. Backstrom has been a consistent Vezina contender over the past few seasons. In his career he has played 230 games, posted a 119W-68L-30OTL record with 19SO, a .918sv% and a 2.37 GAA. Last season was his first season below .920sv% or above 2.33 GAA, and the first time he won fewer games than he lost (including OTL) so it is more than likely a fluke season. And what about Rich Peverley at center? He's scored 110 points in 194 games between Nashville and Atlanta. He's made a total of about $2.5m in his career doing so over a total of about 3 1/2 seasons after signing his first NHL contract, and he's only signed for a cap hit of $1.325 this coming season. Savard may be a better player overall, but Peverly is the only forward who cost less than $10,000 per point last season (1 point per $8,864) and over his career he's scored about 1 point for every $44k, which is what Chicago got out of Patrick Kane this season and significantly less than most top forwards will give you. Think about it; if a $3.5m dollar second liner produced at that rate, he'd be scoring 80 points. A 7m dollar first liner would be scoring 160 points. Definitely a better signing than Savard, despite the fact Savard is one of the league's top playmaking centers. Peverley is very underrated and is about where Savard was 4-5 years ago performance-wise.

Why does everyone assume that because I'm putting someone on the third line it's the same as saying "Dude, you suck s*** balls." This isn't the 1980-1995 Red Wings. 45 minutes of even strength play per game. Say 9 for the fourth line. That leaves 36 for the top three. The top two lines I listed are basically equal, with Savard's a step behind. So maybe 12.5, 12, 11.5 minutes. Then you have special teams. Of the 7-8 minutes per game at special teams, Savard probably gets 2 minutes. He'd be getting around 14 minutes per game or so with some damn good players. Yes, his numbers probably drop a bit from being a 20-minute player. But I doubt he'd really give a s*** if he wins a Cup, or three or four. Which would you prefer? 85-95 points a season with no Cups over five seasons, or 55-65 points a season with two-three Cups in the same five seasons? I know my answer.

If the Sharks were simply looking for a goaltender who has appeared in the Conference Finals at least once in the past while playing the whole playoffs as the starter, they'd have swapped Nabokov's rights to Philly for Brian Boucher. Don't you remember when Boucher carried Philly (he was Philly's MVP) within a game of the Finals, losing in seven to the Cup-winning Devils? San Jose wants a guy like Mike Vernon or Grant Fuhr; A guy who can make the easy stops, with the ability to pull a big game out now and then. They will change their defense from a gritty offensive unit to more of a physical defensive unit with puck skills; Blake's retirement helps that, because his defensive deficiencies may allow them to replace him with Volchenkov, who is like a younger "reverse Blake" if you will. He's defensively as good as Blake, great physically, a good puck mover, but not that great offensively (but improving) just as Blake was not that great defensively (but improving). Volchenkov and Turco or even Biron to replace Blake and Nabokov would be good moves on San Jose's part. If Lilja test's the market, as he might, he could also be a good depth signing for their defense depending on how it settles out. Solid defensively, great PKer, good physical presence, good puck mover, and familiar with McLellan. If they could get him for less than $1.5m, they just might do it. Of course, bringing in Volchenkov and Lilja would probably see a guy like Vlasic or Wallin moved out, maybe a deal like sending him to Washington for a solid all-around vet like Mike Knuble plus a 3rd round pick; the kind of guy who can play top-line minutes if neccessary in a pinch but you wouldn't want to have him as your best offensive forward unless you have six Nick Lidstroms. But definitely look to see San Jose go more for the model of depth at F and D ahead of inexpensive but skilled goaltending.

His exclusive negotiating rights were traded there. He has not signed a deal. Nabokov is still a UFA in three days.

I was pondering the Neely thing the other day, and came to a conclusion: Neely is in there because he scored 50 goals in 49 games. That's it. Had he not done that, he would not be in. Sakic's first significant injury was a lacerated calf in 96-97, which would be equivalent to Yzerman receiving his first major injury (such as the knee injury) in 91-92. Imagine Yzerman playing the 88-89 season with no lingering effects from the knee injury? What could he have done, 80 goals and 180 points maybe? Early in the 2007-08 season, Sakic underwent hernia surgery to accelerate the recovery of a hernia that hat caused him to miss 12 games the previous season. He missed 38 games recovering from the surgery, but still scored 40 points that season as the team waited until he was truly ready to return. In summer 2008, Sakic discussed his future with the team with the team's GM, Francois Giguere. Early in that season, Sakic suffered a herniated disc similar to the one Yzerman had suffered in his neck. Had he recovered properly, he would have been back around mid-season. However, during normal off-ice activities, Sakic had a snowblower accident. He announced his retirement later that season, a few months earlier than he had intended to. So while Sakic did suffer his share of injuries, one of them came during his prime. Yzerman suffered a knee injury that would plague him for the rest of his career during what many call his first "superstar" season, where he scored 50-52-102 in only 64 games, numbers that would have placed him second in goals, tenth in assists, and fourth in points had he continued at that pace. As I said before, who knows what Yzerman might have done if that knee injury had never occurred, or had occurred in 91-92, and then the neck injury in 2002-03? Yzerman might have played 150-250 more games and scored 200-300 more points over his career. He's likely top 3 in goals over his career, top 5 in assists, and top 3 in points. Probably second in goals and points given how close he already is to those marks, a healthy Yzerman in his scoring prime plus a healthier Yzerman in his later years (plus maybe one or two more seasons of productivity) might have cleared them. Granted, Sakic probably gets near 700 goals and 1800 points if he doesn't have the snowblower accident and plays another season after that one, putting up very similar career scoring numbers to Yzerman's current stats. I don't think I've said it in this thread, but while I rate Yzerman above Sakic, it's not a wide gap as you might see between Fedorov vs Gilmour.

Babcock is hiding the team's third or fourth most offensively capable player on the third line if this is the situation. It would be like seeing a top three lines like this in Chicago: Ladd/Toews/Kane Brouwer/Kopecky/Hossa Reasoner/Sharp/Bolland

Briere is Philadelphia's second oldest forward and most expensive player. None of their other top-nine forwards have reached 30, while Briere is 32 and under contract for five more seasons. If they can't sign Nabokov, which it sounds like they are having troubles, then Thomas would be a good way to go. Yes, he lost his starting job; but to be fair, Rask had a phenomenal season. Thomas had 43 starts, 17 wins, a .915sv%, and 5 shutouts. He had a better season that a good number of goalies who kept their starting position on good teams. He outperformed Roberto Luongo and Pekka Rinne, and he had a much better regular season than Antti Niemi, who everyone on this board this should be getting $4m-$5m because he was last year's Cup winner. You do recall that Thomas just won the Vezina the season before last, right? And as for the playoffs, Thomas' career playoff numbers are .926sv% and 2.16 GAA with 1 shutout in 18 games played. Arguing that it was Thomas playing poorly and not Rask playing well is like saying "Yzerman playing poorly is why Fedorov took over the top line job in 1993-94 and went on to score 120 points and win the Hart that year." It's just not true.

Hmm... In that video, there was one instance where the goal was waved off; Homer is in front of the net, with his feet outside of the crease, and he's looking down to try and find the rebound when he is viciously cross checked from the side. Franzen picks up the rebound and scores, but the goal is waved off because of Homer's goaltender interference. Then we have the situation where Homer is outside the crease and Lilja shoots the puck, Anderson (who has come out of the crease behind Homer) tries to grab it over Homer's shoulder and basically grabs on to Homer before falling over and flopping to try and make a save as Homer tries to regain his footing. Homer is called for goaltender interference due to the fact that he and Anderson made contact and Anderson fell over. Yep, clearly on both counts the refs were calling exactly as they saw, and not just making a reputation call.

There would probably be mid-round picks involved somehow, I was just dealing with the roster players. Detroit probably gives up 2 picks somewhere between the 2nd and 4th round, which both end up going to Boston. That would provide the following lineup: Hudler/Zetterberg/Franzen Filppula/Datsyuk/Holmstrom Bertuzzi/Savard/Eaves Abdelkader/Helm/Cleary Draper Lidstrom/Ericsson Kronwall/Rafalski Kindl/Coburn Meech Savard/Eaves is a particular combo that I like; Eaves and Kessel are not terribly different players offensively. Both are fast players with good shots. The major difference is that one of them got to play with one of the league's five best playmakers almost 20 minutes a game. Savard has always worked well with a speedy winger who can shoot; this was true in Boston, Atlanta, and even in Calgary. He was feeding Kovalchuk's during Kovalchuk's best years. In Calgary he worked well when he was played with Iginla and/or V.Bure, both of whom are speedy wingers who have decent shots. He's the classic playmaking center.

How about a three-way deal between Detroit, Boston, and Philadelphia? From Boston: G Tim Thomas and C Marc Savard From Detroit: D Brad Stuart From Philadelphia: C Daniel Briere, D Braydon Coburn To Boston: C Daniel Briere To Detroit: C Marc Savard, D Braydon Coburn To Philadelphia: G Tim Thomas and D Brad Stuart Solves Boston's Tim Thomas issue, brings Savard to Detroit, solves Philly's goaltending questions and forward issues.

I mentioned a 13 year stretch in which Yzerman received a severe knee injury early on and a severe neck injury later on.

If Sidney Crosby played a shutdown center role first, with his secondary objective being offense, instead of playing an offensive game where he might end up playing a little defense if the play is in his zone for a while, then he would not be scoring anywhere NEAR the numbers he does. He's not the floater Kane is, but Crosby doesn't make a ton of effort to get back and cover in the defensive zone, and even when he does he's not teribly effective. The 08 and 09 finals are excellent examples of this. Crosby vs Zetterberg was a prime example. Zetterberg constantly shut down Crosby, but Crosby coudn't do a thing against Zetterberg. Those series don't factor into my ranking of this season, but that playing style is an example of WHY I ranked Zetterberg ahead of Crosby, as well as why Dats is also in the top 5. Otherwise I'd have just ranked the centers H.Sedin, Crosby, Backstrom, Stamkos, B.Richards. LWs would have been Ovechkin, D.Sedin, Kovalchuk, Marleau, Parise. RWs would have been St. Louis, Kane, Gaborik, Semin, Heatley D would have been Green, Keith, Doughty, Boyle, Pronger, Gonchar, Enstrom, Streit, Lidstrom, Kaberle Do you see why defense MUST be taken into account? A good number of these players don't play a lick of defense and are certainly not among the top players at their position. Some of them will be soon and will stick around, some of them had a career year and/or will never improve their all-around game, and simply don't belong at this level. In other words, to use recent Toronto goaltenders as an example, some will be Felix Potvin (flash in the pan) and some will be or already Curtis Joseph (long career as a top-end player with no Cups). Some of them will be or are already Grant Fuhr (long career as a top-end player with one or more Cups). As for the "7 out of 12 I disagree with" it goes like this, since you seem to have such a fascination with that. I seem to have made a typo; It was 7 I agree with and 5 I disagree with. Regardless, here's the breakdown: I disagreed with: First Team RW - Patrick Kane D - Mike Green Second Team C - Sidney Crosby D - Nicklas Lidstrom G - Ilya Bryzgalov My selections would have been: First Team C - H.Sedin LW - Ovechkin RW - Gaborik D - Keith, Lidstrom G - Miller Second Team C - Zetterberg LW - D. Sedin RW - St. Louis D - Doughty, Pronger G - Vokoun

I continue to maintain this position. The one thing I forgot to mention: I currently have Eaves in the second-line shooter role. According to my earlier post, one of Eaves, Ritola, or Miller would not make the 13-man forward roster and would be sent to Grand Rapids. If it were Eaves, then that hole would have to be filled. Depending on Ritola's performance in training camp and exhibition, he may end up on that line, the third line with Cleary stepping up, the fourth line with Cleary and Miller each moving up a line, or perhaps he's the spare forward and Cleary is on the second, Miller the third, and Draper the fourth. But, as Eaves is probably the best player of the three, I think he'll be around next season.

Exactly. What's always overlooked is that Marleau is one of the league's top DEFENSIVE forwards. He also happens to be one of the league's most capable offensive forwards. Top-end two-way forwards are hard to come by. Toews, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hossa, Parise, Richards, Marleau, Kesler. How many guys are that kind of good two-way? Not many others, if any. Backstrom, Zajac, Koivu, Alfredsson, the Sedins are decent two-way players, but none fit into that group of the truly elite.

So then, Nabokov/Boucher? Strong tandem. Definitely get you to the conference finals with a decent roster. And once you get there, who knows if they'll hold a series lead for you...

I said Green was very poor defensively. I said the others played solid defense. If Green had finished with 55 points instead of 76, his chances at winning the Norris would have been almost nil behind the several guys who got bunches of Norris votes and put up that kind of offense while playing strong defense. Do you think Green beats Pronger in voting if they both score 55 points? Unlikely. Boyle and Chara were right there with Pronger also. Green would have, at best, been lucky to get a vote or two, like teammate Jeff Schultz. Speaking of Jeff Schultz, WTF is up with Schultz getting a fourth place vote for Norris? He was Washington's #3 defenseman! Tom Poti didn't get any votes, but if Schultz is getting votes than Poti should have. Maybe the ballot can read Green-Keith-Poti-Schultz-Doughty or something.