eva unit zero

Pitkanen should be the #3 defenseman on that team behind Nick and Nik, replacing Hedman on the roster. The pairings should be: Lidstrom/Enstrom Kronwall/Pitkanen Ohlund/Edler Timonen As far as Kipper...Lundqvist and Backstrom would be my top two as they have been top five goalies every year the past few years. I don't know if I'd even put Kipper on my version on Team Scandinavia if not for his sudden resurgence this season. He has been terrible the past couple seasons, and there are guys like Rask, Niittymaki, and Rinne who have been pretty damn good in competition for that third spot, although Kipper has been the best of the bunch and has the experience advantage.

This.

I like this one better: * Ilya Kovalchuk ($7.500m) / Pavel Datsyuk ($6.700m) / * Jiri Hudler ($2.875m) Johan Franzen ($3.955m) / Henrik Zetterberg ($6.083m) / Daniel Cleary ($2.800m) * Justin Abdelkader ($0.975m) / Valtteri Filppula ($3.000m) / * Drew Miller ($0.675m) Kris Draper ($1.583m) / * Darren Helm ($0.800m) / * Patrick Eaves ($0.750m) Ville Leino ($0.800m) / * Brad May ($0.500m) DEFENSEMEN Niklas Kronwall ($3.000m) / Brad Stuart ($3.750m) * Derek Meech ($0.500m) / Brian Rafalski ($6.000m) Jakub Kindl ($0.883m) / Jonathan Ericsson ($0.900m) * Doug Janik ($0.500m)[/font] GOALTENDERS Chris Osgood ($1.417m) / Jimmy Howard ($0.717m) CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS ROSTER: 23; PAYROLL: $56.663m; CAP ROOM: $0.137m BONUSES: $0.000m

I love it. "Osgood is too much of a risk to put in" is an ok statement yet it's perfectly fine to say: "Datsyuk/Franzen/Filppula is playing poorly because they just came back from injury/illness" What was going on when Howard first started getting the majority workload? HELLLOOOOOOOOO? I hate haters.

I can see there are some strong feelings here. Obviously, this was a five-second thought in my head and I felt it would be an interesting thread (and I was right) but clearly, territories would have to be hashed out, with things such as Detroit and Buffalo and the Ontario border, or NYI vs NYR, and such like that. Also, the original stipulation of 'once you fill your roster with 'local' players, you are eligible to pick from remaining 'non-local' players would clearly have to be more detailed, as some areas have quite a few role players but few or no top-end players. Some sort of draft that included all teams but gave more picks to the weaker areas would be the best solution, probably.

Watch video from Brodeur's early years, or watch him now. Watch Howard play. Brodeur has ALWAYS controlled his rebounds much better than Howard does. He either absorbs the puck and didn't leave a rebound, or redirects it to an area where it would not be dangerous. Howard's rebound control is far less adept, as he often leaves juicy rebounds in the slot or by the circles just waiting to be picked up and put in the net past a recovering netminder. Howard also has positioning issues and decision making problems. This is not to say he hasn't been doing very well; but if the team weren't sweeping those rebounds away he wouldn't look nearly as good. Brodeur never needed his defense to sweep his rebounds away. Never. As far as Howard's problems? They are all pretty much interrelated. His positioning issues and rebound control are hand-in-hand. As one improves, so does the other. And Howard's decision making affects it because he comes past the edge of the crease too often. As he learns when it is and isn't ok to make a move like that, and where he should be on the ice, he'll get better at absorbing and redirecting the puck. So in other words, Howard will either proceed to become the elite netminder he was once projected to be, or he will fail to improve this 'trinity' of weaknesses he has and will go on to be the next Andrew Raycroft or Dan Cloutier.

What is so wrong about suggesting that the Thrashers now get worse attendance as a losing team relying on one top star who played half the game than they would as a winning team which played many good players, none for ridiculous amounts of time? The Thrashers making the deal I posted would get much better attendance down the road than they do now. For one, if the deal made them worse shot-term, they get a good shot at the top-end players in the next couple drafts, which should be good. If it makes them better, then they are a playoff team with solid forward depth. They would need to shore up the D and figure out whether a) Lehtonen is going to be 'the guy' they expect him to be able to be, and trade him off and replace him in net with a goalie who can be 'the guy' if they are to take that next step.

Yep, really have to face up to it.

If I were the reigning Hart trophy, Selke trophy, Ross trophy, and Pearson award winner and I had made a total of $30m over the previous 4 seasons, but my team was a mediocre offensive team overall, poor defensively, and had mediocre goaltending I would sign a one or two year deal for the league minimum and tell them to do their best to improve the weak areas through trades or free agency. Let the NHLPA throw a fit; the goal is to win a Cup, not make money. I would tell every single NHLPA spokesman and member who criticized me for it that they could go "test their flexibility" as it were. I want to win; money is secondary.

I said top five. Name me two better choices on the UFA list.

If Kovalchuk is offered $20m tax free to play in Russia, he would be stupid not to take it. The most he can POSSIBLY get in the US is $10m before taxes, and the taxes would be like 40% or more. So he'd be getting paid almost four times as much. He's not on a team that has any chance at winning the Cup. He's not going to be courted by a team that has any chance at winning the Cup. I don't know his current financial situation, but assuming he has blown all of his previous earnings, what I would do is take the $20m for one season, then come back to the NHL for like $1m or $1.5m with a team that already has all of the pieces in place. That way, I have several seasons' worth of earnings under my belt from just one year, and am playing on a loaded team with a shot at the Cup. Makes you wonder why good ol' Canadian boys who just "play for the love of the game and the chance at a Cup" don't just take the league minimum.

Hamhuis for no more than 4 years, $3.25m cap hit would not be a bad move. He's a good two-way defenseman; he's Nashville's top penalty killer, and he is almost as productive offensively even-strength as Suter and Weber (Suter 58, Weber 57, Hamhuis 48) over the past three seasons and basically equal this season (Weber 15, Hamhuis 12, Suter 10) so it's not like he's offensively incapable. His lack of PP time is the primary factor in his low point totals. Paul Martin, Dan Hamhuis, Anton Volchenkov, Lukas Krajicek, and Jordan Leopold are the top five UFA defensemen I would look at.

So replace him with Scuderi, as I have done above.

As I said in my suggestion, they trade Kovalchuk for two or three skilled young players to replace Kovalchuk. While you don't have the single-player out of your seat moments, you have more moments when the team makes you go 'wow!' and thusly more consistently excited fans. Not to mention, it leads to better depth and a better overall team. Think about Detroit fans in the 80s with Yzerman playing 25-30 minutes a night in his prime vs the 90s with Yzerman, Fedorov, Shanahan, Kozlov, Larionov, etc playing 17-18 minutes each but playing most of it together. When was the team more exciting to watch? One player doing everything on a team that struggled to win, or a bunch of skilled players consistently dominating? This one trade wouldn't be that, but it would be a step in the right direction. Plus, open cap space helps if the team is willing to use it.

Here's my rosters for: Canada #2 Stamkos/Lecavalier ©/St.Louis Cammalleri/B.Richards (A)/Penner Zajac/Weiss/Horton J.Staal/Fisher/Sharp Bouwmeester/Green White/Stuart Quincey/Aucoin (A) Robidas Phaneuf Osgood Ward Price USA #2 Okposo/Connolly/Guerin (A) van Riemsdyk/Gomez/Gionta Booth/Pominville/Legwand Oshie/Dubinsky/Rolston © Umberger Carle/Niskanen A.Greene/Goligoski Poti (A)/Hainsey Scuderi Howard Anderson Conklin Czechoslovakia Gaborik/Plekanec/Jagr © Elias/Hudler/Hossa Fleischmann/Havlat/Hemsky Krejci/Handzus/Hejduk Kaberle (A)/Chara (A) Zidlicky/Meszaros Hamrlik/Kubina Visnovsky Smid Vokoun Halak Budaj Soviet Union Ovechkin/Datsyuk/Semin Kovalchuk/Malkin/Afinogenov S.Kozlov/S.Fedorov/Morozov Antropov/V.Kozlov/Radulov Gonchar/Volchenkov Grebeshkov/A.Markov Kalinin/Tyutin Skrastins Nikulin Bryzgalov Nabokov Varlamov What do you guys think? EDIT: Replaced Tyler Myers on USA #2 with Rob Scuderi.

The only thing an enforcer does, other than provide entertainment value when there are fights, is put a little thought in the back of the opposing player's mind that they MIGHT have to answer for a cheap hit or an effective hit. Or, alternatively, their team's heavy would have to serve in their place, as often occurs. The problem with a true enforcer is that most play 3-5 minutes per game. Are you going to just keep them on the bench, just in case something does happen, and then throw them out the next time the offending player is on the ice? That's a 2-5-10-game right there. The chances they are on the ice just through their normal line matchups are very unlikely, so just having one is not really a deterrent. What you need is not a Brad May or a Donald Brashear, guys whose primary purpose is fisticuffs. What you need is a guy or two like Kevin Stevens, Bob Probert, Brendan Shanahan, Gary Roberts, Scott Stevens, Eric Lindros, Wendel Clark, Kevin Hatcher, Rick Tocchet. Guys who can play effectively on the top two forward lines or defense pairings and can pound the s*** out of someone if they happen to run one of your players, because you KNOW they'll be on the ice again together a whole bunch of times later on just by chance, if not on the ice at the time.

It's things like this and the previous post that make me wonder why Hudler was left off the Czech team for Vancouver. And here's another video that shows just how big, physical Canadian defensemen will prevent Hudler from being effective. It also shows how 'slow' a skater he is. Looked like he walked right around Phaneuf on that play, and if you look at about 0:25 to 0:35, Hudler is basically the fastest skating guy on the ice.

This is a true statement; however they would only need to get a player back who makes about $1m to cover that gap. As for needing him to clear the floor in the offseason, they have many RFAs and UFAs to resign and there is so much high-end talent available that Kovalchuk staying or going is not a factor in Atlanta making the cap floor.

Funny as it sounds, trading Kovalchuk is probably the best thing that could happen to the Thrashers; the trade would have to be cap-even meaning they would get likely one very good player plus two or three solid players and a pick or two. Something like this might be what we would see: To Atlanta: F Patrice Bergeron, F Blake Wheeler, and two first round picks To Boston: F Ilya Kovalchuk and a second round pick This deal is unbalanced cap-wise, sending about $1.5m more to Atlanta. This is fine in terms of the cap, as Atlanta has $11m available, while a healthy Boston roster probably would be over the cap. Boston gets to reunite the explosive Savard-Kovalchuk combination and Atlanta gets two solid forwards to play with guys like Peverly, Kozlov, Afinogenov, and Little and perhaps provide even better all-around scoring and a team that wins more often.

I would want Lebda traded for whatever we can get pick/prospect-wise so we have open cap space to keep our current GOOD players.

Interesting numbers... The Wings started the season with 14 forwards, 7 defensemen, and 2 goaltenders. Had Jiri Hudler stayed, it would have meant no Williams or Bertuzzi. Had Hudler performed exactly as he did last season, his numbers would look as follows: 13g-19a-32pt, +4, 3PPG, 8PIM, 1GWG, 85sht, 15.3%, 614:16 TOI Compared to the following for Williams and Bertuzzi combined: 14g-18a-32pt, -9, 5PPG, 60PIM, 4GWG, 167sht, 8.4%, 831:42 TOI Hudler would be cheaper, and provide the same amount of offense (more actually; Williams and Bertuzzi have scored points together on at least a couple plays I am aware of) in less time than the combination of Williams and Bertuzzi. And furthering the point; Hudler would be scoring at a much higher rate than he did last season. You know this. I know this. We all know it. Bertuzzi is worth $1.5m as a UFA. Williams is worth $1.5m as a UFA. Hudler is worth at least $5m+ were he a UFA. Yet he would cost the team half that. "Hudler's slow in a fast league!" Not too slow to be one of the league's most effective scorers last season. Gretzky was slow in a fast league. He was pretty effective. It's not how fast you are, it's what you can do with the speed you have. Huds isn't slow; he's quicker than average. He's just slower than many Wings forwards, as the Wings typically draft speedy guys with decent puck skills (system, hello?) "Hudler's small and soft!" And he still puts up big scoring numbers in all situations. If his size were a problem, he wouldn't be doing that. He goes into the corners and crashes the net. He has the size and strength disadvantage, and that hurts his chances of winning the battles, but he is feisty and gritty despite his size.

Janik's waiver status seems to indicate he is waiver exempt when the named defenseman returns. Which could be Ericsson, or it could be Kronwall. It's possible that the Wings are required to name the player whose injury caused the emergency situation, and it's possible the Wings are required to either send him down, expose him to waivers, or waive another defenseman when they have six other defensemen on the roster. Regardless, any situation other than "Kronwall is the named player, and he can stay up until Kronwall returns" should result in Brett Lebda being waived and sent to Grand Rapids the moment Ericsson is cleared to play.

What we know as ice hockey was invented by an Englishman in England in the late-1700s/early-1800s as an adaptation from various field games as well as ice games played by Scandinavians, and it has gone on to flourish globally, in Canada, the United States, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and Russia as major areas. Basketball was invented by a Canadian gym teacher in the United States as a way for his students to exercise during the winter, in the relatively small space he had, as a game of skill that relied primarily on strength, and it has flourished globally as one of the world's most popular sports, with primary interest in the United States. And BTW, the medal count for cricket in the Olympics is: Great Britain: 1G, 0S, 0B France: 0G, 1S, 0B Great Britain beat France at the 1900 Olympic games in the only cricket match ever played in the Olympics, after Belgium and Holland pulled out, leaving only two teams to play for the Olympic championship.

Those trades were absolutely as bad as they look. However, the Wings have made excellent management decisions by getting back more than they gave up through the 90s and 2000s. Over this period the Oilers have made very poor decisions. The Oilers lost Graves to free agency and traded Murphy and Klima away in separate trades that yielded McAmmond, Kravchuk, and a minor leaguer. Kravchuk was traded with Ken Sutton for Bobby Dollas. So as you can see, although the Oilers won the Carson trade, they kept giving up more talent than they received in later deals, which is what really led to the decline of the team.

Esa Tikkanen. Ted Lindsay. Pat Verbeek. Claude Lemieux. Theo Fleury, Dino Ciccarelli. Chris Chelios. Kirk Maltby. Ulf Samuelsson. Dallas Drake. Derian Hatcher. Vladimir Konstantinov. That's just a few who were/are as good or better than Avery as agitators in their primes.