norrisnick

My new plan is to re-sign everyone but Zetterberg this summer so they can't get too expensive. Come to a handshake agreement with Z who really shouldn't get that much more expensive over the course of the season unless he goes completely nuts on us and put the official signing off until next summer. That way we lock in everyone and avoid the tagging issue like Anaheim did when they extended Getzlaf mid season and his salary jumped by $5M.

With rough estimates of: $8M for Hossa. $7.5M for Z. $3M for Fil. $3M for Franzen. $2M for Hudler. $1.25M for Jimmy. $1M for Cheli, Lilly, or a comparable. $1M for Ericsson. $850K for Quincey. And $500K for a random scrub. I'm coming up under the projected cap for this coming season and around $62M for '09-'10. Obviously there would be tagging issues involved if all the new contracts were signed this summer, as well as $62M would be cutting it awfully close to whatever the next cap may be. BUT... those are generous estimates. I'm carrying 13 forwards, 8 D, and 2 goalies. And no one under contract gets traded away. I'm more than confident in Kenny's abilities to get a bit more creative if we seriously want to take an attempt to sign Hossa and take another solid step ahead of the rest of the league. After talking a half-hearted stab at Elias a couple years back he could take a real one here.

http://www.nt.se/video/?tab=1&mp=36165...p;autoplay=true I don't speak Swedish but apparently that's Jesper talking about the move to Timra.

It depends on how good of a salesman Kenny is. Hudler absolutely loves it in Detroit. If Holland makes it clear that Hudler is an important, but smaller, piece than others we might get him on something along the lines of 5 years $10M. If he gets Fil and Franzen on Kronwall deals we'd be more than set until guys like Nick, Draper, Holmstrom, Maltby, Rafalski, Osgood start coming off the books. As Kenny said players need to buy into the Red Wings' philosophy. They can be part of a potential dynasty or they can move on. I'm thinking most will want to stick around and win.

Not to mention that Anschutz is the largest and most profitable sports/entertainment ownership group in the world. The Kings running a bit in the red (if indeed they are) isn't going to be felt at all.

Adding Hossa makes keeping a 24yo $1M scoring forward all the more important. It's guys like Hudler that you absolutely need to make spending big money on a handful of guys possible. Kenny would be smart to do anything in his power to get Jiri to sign an extension this summer before he gets more expensive.

You can't have too much primary scoring either.

There's all sorts of players we don't need that we have on our roster. Having the ability to add a guy of Hossa's caliber to an already championship squad? I guarantee that Kenny makes a courtesy call come July 1st. He tossed a $30M+ contract offer Elias' way in '06. And we're in MUCH better position in '08. How creative does Kenny want to get? Holland can offer Hossa $7-8M/yr long term and more than likely still keep everyone of great importance that needs a contract now or next year (Z, Fil, Franzen, Jimmy, Ericsson, Hudler, etc...)

Jimmy is going to open a lot of eyes this fall. Howard has been our best goaltender the last two training camps. He's just been stuck behind a pair of Cup winners. He'll hit three numbers playing behind our system next season. 20 wins. 2.25 GAA .910 SV% Book it.

Wings should never draft a goalie again. Probably should have traded away the three we already had too. Goalies are useless. They almost never score...

Don't f*** with the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Period.

Giggy made all the saves he had to make and then some and Cujo didn't. If Luc's crossbar shot had gone in in that 1st OT of game 1, we advance and possibly build momentum for the Cup. As it was that crossbar stopped it, the Ducks eventually got one, and Giggy got in our heads. 20 saves and a crossbar in that first OT. You start gripping your sticks a little tighter after that. Then the pucks that got by Cujo weren't always of the greatest quality that year. Tough to overcome.

A little... followed by some...

So ride the kids and see what we have before we need to make a decision about trading assets for a rental. If we're lucky we won't have to make a move for the blueline and we can ride what we have for the next decade.

That's the old table. Here is an estimate from one of the better capologists/cba specialists on another forum. $863,156 or less None $863,156 - $1,307,811 3rd round pick $1,307,881 - $2,615,623 2nd round pick $2,615,623 - $3,923,434 1st and 3rd round pick $3,923,434 - $5,231,246 1st, 2nd, and 3rd round pick $5,231,246 - $6,539,061 Two 1st's, one 2nd, one 3rd round pick $6,539,061 or more Four 1st round picks

It's the regular season, not the playoffs. And it's not like we're giving a kid #1 minutes and asking him to carry the team. He's still going to have 3 guys ahead of him. Take the training wheels off and give him a shove. What's the worst that could happen?

I think Meech could play alongside Kronwall fairly effectively. He's the safest puck-mover we have below the top 3, great skater, positionally sound, etc... Plus when we had our rash of injuries and he was playing 20-25+ minutes was when he was at his best (unlike Lebda and Lilly who floundered badly). He was logging big minutes, getting involved in every aspect of the game, and just looked comfortable. Very much unlike the minor stints of sub-10 minute games he was getting every other week before then. In juniors he was Dion Phaneuf's partner at Red Deer as well as a gold-winning venture at the World Juniors. He was a safe partner for a risk-taking defenseman like Dion and could be for Kronwall as well.

Keep Hossa and move either Malkin or Staal for a blueline bluechipper. Say Malkin for Bouwmeester + whatever.

Joey MacDonald was on our roster most of last season.

Stupid has never been the word that comes to mind...

Bouwmeester is a restricted free agent. And he would do a tad bit more than fill a void. He'd be our #2 until Nick retires.

They don't have to be as good as Nick to be better than Cheli...

I'm not sure about the particulars of baseball arbitration, but to clear up one potential bit of confusion in hockey the arbiter doesn't have to pick one of the offers. They can pick any number. And I'm not so sure the team and player put out actual contract numbers but rather submit a list of comparables in the league (RFA contracts only). So maybe Fleury wants something similar to Lundqvist and the Penguins are leaning more towards say... DiPietro (minus contract length of course).

One thing you can't overlook is his fiancee, Heidi. I guarantee she's got some threads to store...

He's European. That supercedes the metrosexual label. It's not like he's interning at Vogue or something like that...