betterREDthandead

Except he's not.

Which is about three years down the road in 2011 or so. By which time Kuba will be off the books, and St. Louis will be a UFA. So they'll have some flexibility for making a decision. And the cap will probably be $10 million higher by then.

You realize that's about exactly what our own top five makes, right? And more when Z gets his raise. And for the most part they're worthy - perhaps slightly inflated, but not by much really. To me, Kuba is the only real wackiness there.

Tomas Kopecky.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/draft2008/ne...tory?id=3457328 Writing about low-drafted players that have a good chance of making an impact is pretty standard stuff. Normally you write about a player who has something that sets him apart from the crowd, or you got good vibes from the scouts you talked to, or saw him play and expected him to go higher. Jesper Samuelsson is a subject of the article, simply because he was drafted by the Wings. I don't think the Wings scouting staff could get higher praise than including Jesper in the article for no other reason than it was the Wings that took him.

I feel really good about this. Jonesy's got a quota of those each season. So when we can burn through one of 'em and still win, things are really looking up. If our rotation can shake itself out properly and start pitching like they should, the second half should be exciting. I mean, the team is bottom 10 in all pitching categories worth a damn, and still at the halfway point of the season at .500. If Verlander and Robertson can unf*** themselves, we can make up those 5 games on the Sox for sure.

Huz-ZAH! .500!

Before anyone asks, no, we don't want him.

That whooshing sound was my point, flying over your head. Less ice time in Boston + Less power play time in Boston = Less production in Boston. The same would happen here. As for Rolston's position: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/1044 http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/players/prof...rId=797&out http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php3?pid=4643 http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/teams/players/bio/?i...ubname=nhl-wild

yeah, ESPN suxxors so bad, even their good articles are bad. Oh, and they're anti-Wings, too. Even when they write articles praising the Wings.

Then again Rafalski didn't walk away from negotiations with the Devils demanding to be offered "fair market value." Rolston doesn't strike me as the hometownd discount type.

Maybe the 5 fell off In any case, what's wrong with having #52 even if he switches? I always think jerseys like that are interesting. Like a Holmstrom #15.

The bad is that Rolston cut off negotiations with his own team for offering him more than that. He's not going to give us a hometown discount.

I'd like to think the Wings are a stronger team than one that would be torn apart by the actions of one numbnuts newbie. It's not character that is the reason I don't want Emery, it's just I think he's a bad goalie. I think his '05-'06 season and this past year are more representative of his talent than '06-'07.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...0421/&imw=Y Sharpe got in trouble at Miss. St. for missing team flights, showing up late to practices and meetings, and academics. He was arrested last year for going clubbing and getting in a fight. Plaisted and Deron Washington will head overseas, so, so much for the idea of Plaisted making the team. And somehow, Joe D. is convinced Sharpe is misjudged, and likes his skills. He thinks the narcolepsy, which Miss State never learned about, had a lot to do with it. (On the other hand, his arrest at the club was not for falling asleep.) But Dumars has proven to be a fantastic judge of character, so I have to trust him. But it sure looks iffy. I'm hoping I'll be proven wrong and by January I'll be raving about Sharpe the same way I do about Stuckey.

Well, I don't know what the Pistons were doing yesterday. We could either have D.J. White now, or D.J. White in three years after he's put some meat on his bones and played some actual basketball games. Trent Plaisted (the extra we got in exchange for trading down) had better make the team. Some rationalizations - Mike Davis coached both White and Sharpe and might have told the Pistons Sharpe has the higher ceiling. We do already sort of have D.J. White, only his name is Jason Maxiell. But really, the only reason I can see this deal being worth it is that it frees up cap space should Dumars decide to go crazy with free agents and trades. Still - I'd have liked the Pistons to take CDR instead of White. That would have helped fill the potential gap from trading Tayshaun. Lastly - Sacramento just became a new team to watch for me, they drafted Sean Singletary.

Bad news for the fan maybe, but the point of what I was replying to was that it was bad news for the league, which it is not. From a purely revenue standpoint (and the league is a business, so that's 95% of their thinking) it can never be a bad thing when you can raise prices AND quantity sold.

I would agree if there wasn't a salary cap.

In four full seasons in Boston he averaged 57 points. In three full seasons in Minny he averaged 67 points. Sounds like a pretty significant drop to me. 20-30 goals? He only topped 20 goals in two of four seasons in Boston. And guess who else the Wings don't have? His BFF Todd White. Oh yeah: Rolston is a left winger, not right.

OP says the game will be the first for the Wings too - "start of the Stanley Cup defense" and all that. So it sounds like Wings-Leafs at the Joe opens up the season. Thursday night is a great night for it too.

I love this. All this stuff about what he did in Boston and you don't even mention the results. Check his scoring in Boston and you'll see you've proven exactly what NN is saying.

Bouwmeester isn't a #4, he's a #1. Holland wants a #4 defenseman at a #4 defenseman price. Bouwmeester simply isn't going to fit under the cap, not until Nick retires, which could be two years away, or it could be more.

NN's argument is a lot sounder-sounding to me than the other stuff. I don't care how you slice it, I don't care what numbers you bring to the table, the following is undeniable: - Rolston will get older. - Rolston's power play time would decline in Detroit. - Rolston's ice time would decline in Detroit. - Rolston's linemates would be less talented in Detroit. (Not playing with Marian Gaborik any more, whose offensive skills are on a similar level as Z and D.) Wordsmith it all you like, get fancy about Ray Whitney's power play time or whatever, but you can't convince me those four factors will keep his production the same as it was in Minny.

Why is that bad news for the league? If people will pay more to see your product, that's a good thing for the league. Having both attendance and ticket prices go up means that there's still untapped demand out there - check the ol' supply and demand curve. That's a plus.

God forbid somebody think it's a bad idea to sign the player you want, eh?