norrisnick

Ryan Miller would be unnecessarily expensive given the way the Wings are built. If he wants to sign long-term for $3-4M/yr why not, but if he gets moved because the Sabres can't afford his demands there is no reason for us to trade a young goalie that is not going to be very expensive for the forseeable future that just may end up as good or better than Miller anyway. Both were NCAA goalies and Jimmy is the one with the big records (GAA and SV%).

Last season Jiri was 13th in average TOI among forwards during the regular season. When Bertuzzi got healthy Jiri sat, then played sporadically for Calder. This season he's been the 9th forward in average TOI for most of the season. He's not going to get bumped by McCarty, Kopecky, Hartigan, or whoever else populating the 4th line. Some of you guys should look up another 2nd year bottom 6/PP specialist from the mid/late 90s and how average regular season numbers often don't correlate with playoff production.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=726Zf-zin-s

Against the Ducks we'll need every PP player we can get.

When's the last time Hudler missed any games due to injury? Now for Cleary? Jiri's last year in GR he got run face first into the end boards in the first game of the playoffs. Got busted up pretty bad. He scored the OT winner that game and was pretty easily the Griffins' best player in their run to the Conference Finals. In game 7 of the 2nd round GR was trailing 4-1 late in the 2nd period. They won 5-4 on the back of Hudler's 5 point night. Hudler is a big game player and not shy when things get rough and he's shown time and time again that he can take it. He's gotten completely annihilated a few times this season and he just bounces back up. Remember that Phaneuf hit a month or two back? Crazy that a guy his size can live through that.

Wasn't the first time Scotty had Coffey moved and won the cup the following spring.

Because he finished top 10 in scoring. He was essentially a roving forward that year (as well as the rest of his career).

If we were ranking Flyers defensemen he'd likely be top dog. He just didn't do much of anything as a Red Wing. And if we start ranking defensemen for their careers, but only played a handful of games as Wings then we have to put Doug Harvey, Brad Park, and Borje Salming somewhere as well.

Black Jack Stewart needs that #3 spot behind Nick and Red Kelly. Ebbie Goodfellow (a Hart winner on the blueline) needs to be in that top half as well.

If by similar you mean the exact opposite I agree. Prior to getting hurt he hadn't scored a goal in 16 games. 16 games. With 99.9% of his shifts alongside Datsyuk and/or Zetterberg. Homer is a tremendously streaky player, but he is great at what he does (ie net-front presence). But that is the only thing he does well. Turns out that Franzen is tremendously good in Homer's office as well, but when he isn't doing that he is better than Homer at every other aspect of hockey. When Homer gets healthy he should take the crease role for the PP unit, but ES it should be Franzen up on the top line. Best way to utilize their respective strengths and minimize weaknesses.

If Homer isn't playing next to Z and/or Pavel he's a 4th liner/PP specialist. That was his role for his entire Red Wing career until the Red Wings' payroll was cut in half and he got put on a scoring line for ES with Zetterberg and Samuelsson. He's always been good on the PP so that's not really much of a change. When Franzen wasn't on a scoring line he was a very effective checking line player and penalty killer. He had some of the best scoring differential numbers for his time on the ice on the team. Homer might be better than Franzen when he's on a line with Z and/or Pavel (Franzen's recent streak is showing what he's capable of), but when he isn't out there with either or both of them Franzen is clearly the better player.

Away from Z and Pavel, Franzen is a much better player than Holmstrom. Homer does his one thing better than anyone, but the rest of his game is somewhat lacking. Franzen can do a bit of everything and recently has shown that when given a top line opportunity he can run with it with the best of them.

If he can't crash or fight he shouldn't be playing. That simple. It's the only thing he could possibly do so if he can't even do that? Why bother?

They'd hold their own.

Meh. Hockey is the competition here. If we're talking fights El Indestructo pwns all... /not my creation. some chap at sherdog created him

'94 Sergei Fedorov

You are way too obvious.

And Bergfors with the River Rats.

They waste so much energy and focus trying to beat the big bad Red Wings that they have nothing left for anyone else.

Hanta yo, Baby!

Wish a bigger pic of this era existed... He'd come a long way from this!

Fewest goals allowed. There's no average there. One thing I'm unsure of is the shootout loss goal against. It pops up in the standings GA but not the goalie stats. The goalies have given up 160 goals. The Red Wings have given up 164. The standings (due to the shootout) says we've given up 169. Considering it's a goaltender award it's tricky as to which total gets used...

And even with the ample PP time, Hudler ended up with more of it than Filppula in 1/3rd the games. He's a season further along. He's the 9th forward in icetime as opposed to the 13th. He's going to be in the lineup. And he'll get solid PP time.

Puck carrying skills are largely useless for the PP. Sure you want at least the one guy to be able to do it so you can enter the zone (Pavel is that guy for the top unit and Kronwall for the 2nd), but once there passing the puck is FAR more important. It's part of the reason why Bowman criticized Coffey. He could carry the puck but wasn't particularly good on the PP apart from that. As far as moving the puck around, Hudler is the best forward we have apart from Pavel and Z. He's calm. Finds the open man. Hits them on the tape.