eva unit zero

Hudler is a better playmaker than Zetterberg. He's not the sniper Z is, but a better playmaker.

Fine, to pick six guys to play against any other combination of six? Zetterberg Datsyuk Ovechkin Forward line that is physically capable, able to shut down star forwards, and offensively elite. Lidstrom Keith Top two defensemen in the league, excellent at both ends. Miller. Best goalie in the world. I would add age in as a factor, but this is based on right now, who I think would be the best six-man unit now, not in 3 years. HM: Crosby, Doughty

If you are referring to the 2007 conference finals, Beauchemin was HARDLY key to Anaheim's defense. The key was having Pronger and Niedermayer on the blue line, as well as several strong defensive forwards and a defense-oriented system that used several physical forwards. Had Beauchemin been replaced by another Sean O'Donnell, the difference would have been negligible. Komisarek didn't play a ton last year, but when he was in did he play any better than he ever did in Montreal? Phaneuf I already acknowledged has the ability to be a #1 defenseman when he is at his best, but the past couple years he simply has not been playing like it. You say he was playing for a team that really had problems. Did you ever stop to think that maybe one of those problems was the fact that Phaneuf couldn't get it together? Outside of his best year, 2007-08, he has not once been the best defenseman on either the Flames or Leafs during his time there, and even in 2007-08 Aucoin was playing at a comparable level to Phaneuf. He is right up there with Roberto Luongo among the most overrated players in the league.

I never said they were a bunch of chumps, but they're not a superstar group by any means. Phaneuf has been nominated for the Norris, but that was about as deserved as Carey's Vezina. Phaneuf was nominated because he was 5th among defense scoring and was a big hitter. There were a lot of guys who were more deserving of that nomination than him. Sort of like Mike Green the past two years; he's a popular pick but not really deserving of Norris votes, let alone a "nomination" as one of the top-three vote getters. And this isn't then. It's now. Phaneuf is still a defensive sieve, but his offensive output isn't 60 points, it's 30 points. A one-way offensive defenseman who plays a strong physical game but only brings 30 points to the table with first pair time is hardly a guy you can really call one of the 60 best defensemen in the league. Not a chance on that, there's enough guys who are performing better offensively with a better combination of defense and physical play to push him out of the top 45. Which brings him to guys who are scoring similar amounts or less, but who more than make up for it with their defensive and physical skills. Guys like Dan Hamhuis, Chris Phillips, Brooks Orpik, Adrian Aucoin, Keith Ballard, Brad Stuart, and Marc-Edouard Vlasic among others. Phaneuf gets second pairing time and he is closer to 20-25 points. Niklas Kronwall scored 22 points in 48 games this season. Calgary and Toronto were each slightly less productive offensively than Detroit, but not significantly. Phaneuf's performance has been that of a good second-pairing defenseman and PP specialist the past couple seasons. Similar to Brad Stuart; Stuie is a good second pairing guy and strong PK defenseman. Beauchemin's performance in Anaheim is overrated, just like Komisarek's in Montreal. He played well but he was playing with Pronger and Niedermayer. I could look good playing alongside one of them. He was a decent complement to them but was never himself better than a low-end second pairing defenseman. He's a decent all-around guy, just not really that good. Komisarek has never been what Montreal media claimed he was nor what Toronto paid him as if he was; a top-end defenseman. Maybe he played like a top-pairing defenseman for stretches, but he's a solid second-pairing defenseman, that's what he has been in his career, and likely all he'll ever be.

Jim Balsillie attempted to purchase the Pittsburgh Penguins, with rumors that he was interested in moving the team to both Kansas City and Hartford. He even followed the normal processes. He was approved as a potential owner and everything, the only thing that needed to happen was for the sale to be finalized. But ultimately Lemieux's group was the winner of the day. Balsille then attempted to purchase the Predators. To prove that his was the best bid, he began taking deposits for season tickets for the Hamilton Predators, without consent from the Preds' owner or the League to use the trademarked logos and name. Finally, with Phoenix he actually resorted to paying then-owner Jerry Moyes, who was suffering losses on the team, to declare bankruptcy so that he could attempt to acquire the team that way. We're all familiar with that case. Each team is a separate entity, but they are all franchises affiliated within their respective leagues. For example, had Balsillie won the Phoenix case, and moved the team to Hamilton, the league could have simply removed the team from the NHL and prevented them from having any chance at competing for the Stanley Cup. It again all comes back to the McDonald's analogy. A group of individual businesses affiliated beneath a parent business. Not required to be identical, but all required to follow certain rules and regulations, while quite a bit of leeway is given elsewhere.

Hudler may not have Helm's hustle or Zetterberg's defense, but he works hard and is above average defensively, neither of which can be said of Bertuzzi. He's also more than a decade younger and a better offensive player. He fits the Wings' system better as well. Just FYI.

Abdelkader, Helm, Miller, Meech, and Eaves will all be tendered offers based on what Holland has said. Already signed players who will be on the roster: F: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Hudler, Filppula, Cleary, Draper D: Rafalski, Kronwall, Stuart, Ericsson, Kindl G: Howard, Osgood Remaining cap space: $14,037,121 This means at least five forwards and one defenseman MUST be signed, plus there is space for up to three additional players. Holmstrom, Bertuzzi, Maltby are UFAs up front and Lidstrom, Lilja and Lebda are UFAs on defense. Maltby is expected to retire. Lebda is not expected to be re-signed. This leaves Homer and Bert up front, with Lidstrom and Lilja on D. Furthermore, forward prospect Mattias Ritola is out of AHL options, so he must be considered as well. He is currently signed to a contract with a cap hit of $516,667. Top priority is Lidstrom, of course. His status determines the entire course of the summer. Lidstrom will probably get a deal in the range of $5.5m or so. As far as Holmstrom and Bertuzzi, one, both, or neither may return. Bertuzzi made $3m this past season due to his buyout, so he will likely be looking for a raise to around $2.25-$2.5m, especially having had a solid season. He wants to stay in Detroit, but Holland is more likely to bring back Holmstrom than Bertuzzi for the same money if he has to decide, and Homer seems to be looking for the same kind of cash. With probably about $3.75 combined between the RFAs, and $5.5 to Lidstrom, that takes up $9.25m of the $14m cap space, cutting it down to $4.75m. It also means 11 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goalies signed. Add Holmstrom or Bertuzzi for about $2.5, and that leaves $2.25 with 12 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goalies. Add in Ritola and you have $1.75m left with 13-7-2. Now we get to Andreas Lilja, who the Wings also want back. He'd likely take a pay cut, down to around $1m, if he doesn't retire or go elsewhere to a team offering him around $2m-$2.5m. So the Wings go up to 13-8-2 with $.75 left in cap space. If Lilja retires, that's 13-7-2 with $1.75m left in cap space. F: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Hudler, Filppula, Cleary, Draper, Holmstrom, Helm, Abdelkader, Miller, Eaves, Ritola D: Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall, Stuart, Ericsson, Kindl, Lilja (?), Meech G: Howard, Osgood

Because picking 3 forwards, 2 defensemen, and 1 goalie takes a lot less thought when you are talking about team building and a winning franchise. That's just "who are the best players?" and we have had 63-billion of those threads. An actual attempt to put together a roster which has scoring lines, checking lines, and goaltending is more difficult and fun.

Speaking of which, I wonder if Jim Nill was considered for the job?

Hmm... Two second-pairing defensemen, a third-pairing guy and a kid with strong potential who is probably the second best if not best defenseman in the entire group, and in two-three years will easily outpace the other three. Sounds like a standard Toronto unit. Drop your bona-fide star defenseman in favor of a bunch of overpaid chumps. Maybe Burke's highly physical team style will win out in the less physical East and provide playoff success as it has for Philly. Wait... that would require making the playoffs. Never mind.

Nabby's hardly any better than urco, and you wouldn't rather use the $4m-$5m difference in cap space to add another top pairing defenseman like Volchenkov or Kubina? Volchenkov+Turco > Nabokov

5th rounders since 1980 who had or are having productive NHL careers: 1983 Petr Klima 1983 Joe Kocur 1986 Johan Garpenlov 2005 Darren Helm In comparison, 7th rounders under the same criteria: 1981 Greg Stefan 1990 Jason York 1999 Henrik Zetterberg 2002 Derek Meech A 7th rounder might have been better value. And now, of course, I have to list the 1st rounders. 1980 Mike Blaisdell 1982 Murray Craven 1983 Steve Yzerman 1984 Shawn Burr 1985 Brent Fedyk 1986 Joe Murphy 1987 Yves Racine 1989 Mike Sillinger 1990 Keith Primeau 1991 Martin Lapointe 1993 Anders Eriksson 1998 Jiri Fischer 2000 Niklas Kronwall 2001+ yet to see full time duty (Kindl has seen 3 games, Smith 0, McCollum 0)

San Jose would have to offer more than Thornton for Kaberle? Burke wants to dump Kaberle. Thornton is a big, strong center (Burkie drools!) who is highly talented. The WORST deal San Jose gets there is Thornton for Kaberle straight up. But offering the kind of top-line center Burke wants for a top-pairing defenseman he wants rid of? That means extra parts headed to San Jose.

Trade Joe Thornton to Toronto for Tomas Kaberle, Mikhail Grabovski, and a first round pick. Trade Dany Heatley to Florida for Stephen Weiss, Michal Frolik, and a second round pick. Trade Dan Boyle to Dallas for Matt Niskanen, Fabian Bruunstrom, Toby Petersen, and a second round pick. Sign Patrick Marleau to a deal worth $6.5m-$7m per year for 3-5 years. Sign Jose Theodore, Martin Biron, or Marty Turco to a deal worth $1.5m-$2m. Let Nabokov walk, trade his negotiating rights before July 1st if possible. In other words: F: Thornton, Heatley for Weiss, Grabovski, Frolik, Bruunstrom, Petersen D: Boyle for Kaberle, Niskanen G: Nabokov for Theodore/Biron/Turco No, the top line is not the ridiculous line it was. But it allows the Sharks to roll three solid scoring lines with skilled personnel. Kaberle for Boyle is a fair swap, with $2m off the books. Niskanen comes in as a bonus providing solid play to the D. No, Theodore, Biron, and Turco are not Nabokov. But here's the kicker; Nabokov is slightly better than those guys. Making the changes I stated is more of a positive than swapping out Nabokov for Theodore/Biron/Turco would be a negative. Plus in my dealings I've dropped $4m-$5m off the Sharks' cap hit and picked up a couple of picks. Figure the Sharks then add one more solid defenseman like Kubina to the group, or maybe a forward like Frolov. Could get scary.

If Homer wants a multi-year deal, he better be prepared to take less than $1m per year.

Brian Rolston, Mike Knuble, Aaron Ward, etc. don't have heart or work hard?

Of all post-lockout defensemen the Wings have played, the only defensemen I would rank below Lebda in their post-lockout Wings career are (in order from best to worst): 2005-2006 #4 Cory Cross 16 GP, 1-1-2, 15 PIM (Acquired from Pittsburgh on March 8th, 2006 for Detroit's 4th pick) 2005-2006 #4 Jamie Rivers 15 GP, 0-1-1, 12 PIM (Traded to Phoenix on March 9th, 2006 for Phoenix's 7th pick in 2006 draft) 2006-2007 #17 Brad Norton 6 GP, 0-1-1, 20 PIM 2007-2008 #36 Garrett Stafford 2 GP, 0-0-0, 0 PIM That's it. Those are the only defensemen to play for the Wings who were worse than Lebda in the Winged Wheel during Lebda's career, which is all post-lockout. There has been no reason for Lebda to continue on this team; when it came down to him, Chelios, Meech, and Quincey I said then that he should have been the one cut and people looked at me funny on this board. Lebda has not improved since his rookie season and is a 28 year old defensive liability with mediocre puck skills. To invest any more money or time into a waste of space like Lebda is a folly. Comparably, Derek Meech has improved moderately offensively since his rookie season but has shown CONSIDERABLE improvement in the defensive end. He also has the same kind of speed as Lebda and better hockey IQ, and he is only 26.

Kaberle is much, much better than Green defensively, and although he doesn't have Green's offensive numbers, I don't think the skill set is as far apart as the numbers are. I would definitely take Kaberle over Green.

We can count on Eaves for his SHOT not missing the net "We don't have room for Miller" is less than likely. Seven forwards already signed for next year. Pick the best six remaining from the current roster, ignoring Williams who is replaced by Hudler, and you have: Holmstrom, Bertuzzi, Eaves, Abdelkader, Helm, Miller. The only question mark in all of this is Ritola. Out of options for Grand Rapids, so do the Wings risk losing him by sending him down anyway, or do they drop one of Miller or Eaves to solve it? An unlikely retirement of Tomas Holmstrom also would solve it, of course. That's, of course, assuming the Wings go with 13 forwards. 14 forwards means spots for everybody. Which depends on their defense corps. They have five defensemen signed currently, and are waiting on a contract for Nick Lidstrom's likely return. This leaves one or two more spots to fill. Andreas Lilja may or may not be back. He may retire due to injury, he may leave for another team for a larger deal, or he may be cut loose simply because the Wings simply decide they need his roster spot to develop players like Jonathan Ericsson and Jakub Kindl. Derek Meech is another mystery. He's an RFA who has improved offensively and defensively, has quite a bit of speed, and has shown the ability to play as a capable two-way bottom six forward. So the only situation which results in the absolute "We don't have room for Miller" is Meech staying, as well as Lilja or a comparable replacement being signed for an 8-defenseman lineup. The Wings have historically been more likely to go with 14 forwards than 8 defensemen, so don't be stunned at all to see Miller back.

The Flyers have guys like Mike Richards, Scott Hartnell, Arron Asham, Braydon Coburn, and Daniel Carcillo who have regular spots on a line instead of their spot in the lineup being the bench, occasionally getting to fill in on a line. They don't have enforcers; they have the kind of guys I was talking about. Also, as was previously mentioned, Western Conference hockey is generally tougher than Eastern conference hockey.

The Hawks, winning over Montreal. I don't want Philly to win, Montreal has shown tons of heart and has proven that little guys CAN succeed. Of their top six forwards and top four defensemen, only Roman Hamrlik (6-3) and Josh Gorges (6-1) exceed the 6 foot mark. Jaroslav Spacek, Andrei Markov, Dominic Moore, and Andrei Kostitsyn are 6 foot even. Mike Cammalleri, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta, and Tomas Plekanec are all sub-6 foot. Chicago has, for the most part, home-grown players with a few veterans acquired for depth. Hossa and Campbell are the only significant players who did not come from within the system. Even then, Hossa is secondary scoring and Campbell is a second pair defenseman on the Hawks. Also, Chicago has former Wing Tomas Kopecky, who has played well above expectations in the Olympics, after the Olympics with the Hawks, and so far in the postseason. I would love to see him continue said play or perhaps step it up even further.

Didn't look into different teams every year, but Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion went to 10 straight Finals together with the Habs; matched by Bert Olmstead who played the first 8 with Beliveau and Geoffrion and then played in the next two Finals with Toronto. I would LOVE to see someone match that streak in today's environment.

Afinogenov gets $3m plus, no less. Asham gets $1.3m plus, no less. Brookbank gets around $750k, give or take. Ok roster, Brookbank would play less than 20 games and 0 in the playoffs though, and the enforcer role has proven itself pretty obsolete in the past few years. Seriously, of all the major cheap shots we've seen, all the big-name cheap players... when have they ever been "deterred" by a tough guy being on the other team's roster? You need to have a Probert, Stevens, Clark, or someone like that who can play a lot of minutes effectively every night not a guy who sits the bench for 55 minutes. It's like giving a police officer SWAT armor and a knife, while the criminal has a .38. You might not be able to hurt him, but he can't really do anything to you either.

Overall, I might take him ahead of Stuart or Rafalski. The thing is, to acquire Kaberle it means one or more of the following if Lids is returning: 1) Stuart or Kronwall is in the deal. 2) Filppula or Hudler AND Ericsson or Kindl are in the deal. That's the only way we see enough salary go back the other way without dealing Cleary or Rafalski. Cleary won't want to go to Toronto, and Rafalski has said his is so he can retire in Detroit. Plus it makes Kaberle the #3 defenseman on the team with even LESS physical presence on the defense. If Lids is retiring, it means that the Wings are dealing one of Kindl or Ericsson plus some mediocre 19-22 year old prospect and a mid-round pick, and Kaberle takes up some of the cap space that Lids vacated and everyone here had slotted for his return. It also means that Kaberle is probably playing on the second pair with Rafalski while the third pair is composed of Lilja/Meech/Kindl/Ericsson. But getting Kaberle likely means giving up one of Kindl or Ericsson, a large-bodied, offensively skilled defenseman who has been highly touted.

I said Ozzie was playing well when getting regular time. FACT. I said he was responsible several times through mistakes in his decisions of how he handled the puck or how he played it afterwards. FACT. I never said Osgood would have carried the Wings to the playoffs or played better than Howard did, I never said Ozzie would have been better than Howard. I never said he would have suddenly put on the cape and been the Super-Ozzie we saw the past couple of postseasons. FACT However, take another look at Howard's wins. The margins of victory in his wins were 3, 3, 5, 3, and 6. The average goals the Wings scored in his wins was 4.00, as opposed to the average 2.28 that the Wings scored in his losses. Team failure, you say? His average loss was by 1, and he averaged a GAA of 3.28 in those losses compared to a GAA of 1.4 in his wins. If a team has to score 4+ goals to win games, they're not going to win many. Incidentally, the Wings' record scoring 4+ goals in the playoffs? 2-0. Their record scoring 3 or fewer? 5-5. Detroit lost three games despite scoring three goals. THREE goals! That's not something you can sit there and say "The team didn't show up and the goalie was great" because the team definitely showed up. Howard could have been better in the postseason. I say against that it all comes back to fatigue. The maximum amount of professional-level games Howard had played in a season from the start of the year until the end of the playoffs was 58. He played 63 in the regular season this year, and ended at 72. His performance was declining towards the end of the regular season. It was clear he was fatigued. He should have seen 10-15 fewer starts to keep him fresh for the postseason run. He would have been fresh in the first couple rounds and he wouldn't have hit 70 games played until the end of the conference finals or possibly even the finals.