norrisnick

I would say the chances of Leino kicking Hudler off his perch are somewhere between none and zero. The only somewhat remote possibility is Sammy becoming the cap casualty and Ville joins Fil and Cleary on the 3rd line. And the only way Sammy becomes a cap casualty is if Lilly and Ericsson are the clear cut winners of the defenseman battle. Moving Lebda, Meech, or Quincey don't clear enough cap space for a 3rd pairing that adds up to $2.15M/yr.

Nope. They almost always get bonuses which count against the cap this season. Stamkos' cap hit, for one, is nearly $4M.

If/when he leaves I hope he heads East so I won't be forced to root against him. Ottawa would be a nice place for him, being his pseudo-hometown and all.

Maltby.

Because if a guy gets hurt on a boarding play it's 5 and a game. Downey can't possibly do enough good to warrant giving the other team a 5 minute powerplay.

No kidding. Watch the guy behind you and not the puck at your feet. What's the puck matter anyway?

Did he run a Wing and I missed it? What is Downey trying to accomplish running a guy into the boards during a scrimmage in the first place? Nevermind the fact that Fil was facing the boards so he could play the puck. In a scrimmage there is absolutely nothing positive that can come out of it. The only thing it shows is that Downey doesn't have the control he needs to have. If he can't avoid a dangerous play in what is essentially a practice what's he going to do when his adrenaline is really pumping in a game situation? That play is a 5min PK during the regular season. Downey doesn't bring enough to the table to be able to afford ANY mistakes let alone pretty big ones. Is it being blown out of proportion? Very likely, but Downey has no margin for error at this point.

Priceless. Had Syndrome run Hudler or Kopecky you'd be cheering.

Which is precisely why he won't be the 13th man. It's top 12 or GR. You don't stick a guy with his wheels in the pressbox. You let him be the big fish in a smaller pond and see if he can get the rest of his game (primarily the offense) up to where his elite skating is. Helm needs to play. If we need a body because of injuries, by all means call him up but don't waste his development time by having him sit when he should be skating and playing.

Looks like a tachometer. Motor City and all that.

I remember Z trainwrecking Sid in either game 1 or 2...

All-around implies more than just offense. Makes it more than reasonable to place Z in front of AO and Sid. As for Pavel, ask him yourself about his and Z's roles when Z is playing center. Z shoulders most of the load defensively. The Selke very easily could have gone to Hank. Probably should have given the circumstances. Now the real dilemma is Lidstrom. Z, AO, Sid, and Pavel are all forwards so they're easy to compare. Toss the best defenseman in the mix and it gets tricky.

To every other NHL team? Absolutely. The 29 teams say the same.

Franzen picks Hossa. Notice the "-s" on guys. That means plural. That means Z and someone else. As big of a Hudler slappy as I am, I'm not deluding myself to believe that 'Stein was giving lil' Jiri a shoutout here. He's talking Marian. So if Franzen is under the impression that Z and Hossa are priorities, I'm going to go ahead and agree with him.

Meech is the absolute cheapest player we have. Since the issue is partly cap space and partly roster space moving Meech and having anyone else take his place will cost more money. We can't save money by trading Meech alone.

Not quite. A 1.0 is sweeping the 1st place votes.

Because a guy that never signed a contract with Pittsburgh believes Detroit is the better team.

I, for one, would do nearly anything in my power to keep Hossa.

I don't get that impression at all. During the year. Not after. And it most certainly isn't going to take long to figure out this is a match made in heaven. Marian can't go into serious talks until Jan 1st anyway so he's not worrying about it now. But come Jan 1 I can guarantee you both sides make this a high priority negotiation unless something completely crazy happens between now and then. And by then Kenny should have a handle on what Z is thinking and how Hudler and Franzen are progressing. If I were him I wouldn't sign anyone until I can actually talk numbers with all of them unless someone is willing to sign an absolute sweetheart deal early in the year.

If you go by Hudler's average TOI the difference in minutes that Franzen played this year would equate roughly 20 extra games.

And yet they both put up 56 points in the regular season and playoff combined. Strange...

Willie is on the hook for $3.5M/yr. We'd have to trade Lilly and Stuart to make it work. Needless to say that isn't a good idea.

I think one thing that may factor in for the timeline is that Z may give Kenny a chance to deal with Franzen and Marian (and Hudler!) to see what is possible to keep everyone. If they can all get together and find numbers that they are willing to live with and that fit under a cap, we're golden (silver).

You first. If I had AO and Lidstrom on my team and had to replace one of them. Give me Ilya Kovalchuk. That would hurt the team the least.

You're 100 shy on Zetterberg. 355 is his total. Since the lockout Z has 215 games to Sid's 213.