norrisnick

You don't think one's serving ability is an ever so slightly important component of one's all-around game? Sampras wouldn't have won a single title without his serve and you're holding Roger's serve against him? Nadal is an amazing runner with an incredible ability to get balls back in play, but Federer is no slouch himself in that department. Add in the service game and you have Roger being the all-around superior player. There several players in every facet of tennis that are better than Roger at whatever particular skill, but there is no one as good in every single facet of the game. Plus, I guess the most important factor is that Roger is clutch as hell. If a point or game is important I wouldn't bet against Roger winning it. Definitely not at Wimbledon.

Completely outplayed him?? That was about as even of a match as you'll see. Nadal didn't give Roger an inch until the 6th game of the 5th set and Roger, being the champion he is, was there and ready to put the hammer down once the opportunity presented itself. If Nadal were >>> Federer, Roger shouldn't have been around in the 5th to finally be able to break Rafa. Twice.

You sure showed me! Are you trying to disagree with my quickndirty estimate? /

Hudler wasn't unrestricted. Signing a UFA and then promptly trading him is usually frowned upon, but it's not like the trade of Willy discouraged Rafalski.

75 goals and 150 points. Add that to the 100G+ and 250Pt+ that Z - Pavel - Homer ought to put up and we'd be in business.

You betcha. Datsyuk was a -2 on a team that not only wasn't terrible it won the President's trophy. He led the team in scoring on that team too. Is he a blight upon hockeydom?

Do you have any idea just how bad the Senators were in '93-'94? Yashin wasn't the worst minus player on that team and the only guys that I could find that were better than -25 did so purely on the basis of playing half a season or less. He was a 19/20yo rookie on a 1yo expansion team that won only 14 games and he still managed to score 79 points. You know who the second leading scorer on that team was? Alexandre f'n Daigle with a whopping 51 points and a -45. Things just get uglier from there. He drops the gloves maybe if his sensibilities get slighted. Other than that he doesn't throw his weight around any more than Lang did. I think you're starting to grasp at straws here, Harold. At least Yashin has youth (somewhat) on his side. If Alexei got into 2-3 meaningless fights a year, he'd be Brendan Shanahan.

Don't forget that Nick would need to be replaced. Swapping the greatest defenseman of this era for a forward seems like poor asset management in a capped system. Ask Tampa how they're doing with three big money forwards.

Except that the kind of room Marian commands ($6-7-8M/yr) is pretty hard to come by when you've got Pavel near $7M, Nick near $8M, Rafalski at $6M, and Z looking to sign at least near $7M in two years. We'd have to clean house and replace guys like Draper and Holmstrom with minimum wage guys and hope that our scouts can keep churning out good players because the ones we have will get expensive if they're any good (and if they're not any good we'll have no depth and the team won't be any good). Having five big money players is a good way of killing any depth you may want to have.

If Hudler has a 30/60 season (not at all unreasonable) why in the world would you trade him? Production like that doesn't grow on trees. I realize Hossa is a FAR better player, but he's also a lot trickier to fit into the framework of our roster with Pavel, Z, Rafalski, and hopefully Lidstrom around. You don't trade a guy like Hudler for Marian if you don't intend to re-sign Marian. And you'll be very hard pressed to sign him to a contract and then have to also sign Z to a contract the following year. Unless you're planning on trading Datsyuk or something.

Hudler didn't spend a day in GR last season and he never will again (barring a rehab/conditioning stint some time in the future). He'll be up with the Wings all season long and he'll score 30+ goals either this season or next (I've held this stance far longer than Offsides). As for the cap/minors question. If a player is with an NHL team he counts against the cap. If a pleyer is in the minors he doesn't count against the cap (unless he's a player that signed a multi-year contract after he turned 35 which is no longer in the 1st year, the only guy we have that qualifies for that this year is Lidstrom and he's not going to GR).

Grand Rapids?

Ask Johnsson how well Boogaard protected him.

So Dom's agent got the Wings to offer less? WTF?

Dom and Yashin

Rafalski has been better than Schneider for a while.

Hells YA!!!! *whew*

180lbs was his draft weight. He's definitely 210lbs+ now. On one of his Russian team sites he was listed at 98kg. That's 215.6lbs.

Remember what he did to Foote to spark the rivalry?

You are aware that what consisted of our 2nd line down the stretch is now playing in Illinois and California, right?

Igor is built like a tank (5'10" 215lb) and not afraid to use it. I doubt he'll go out of his way to run people like say Tootoo, but I doubt he'd pass up an opportunity to lay a lick on someone. Plus being as big as he is he won't be pushed around.

Because he's the most expensive, the worst skater, and seems to have had troubles staying healthy since the lockout (conditioning problems after the year off?). Not to mention we'd have to trade for him while the others (well not Kozlov anymore) we would have only had to sign from the market. And I didn't specifically say goal scoring ability. Just scoring period. The other two can score well enough, but also create goals for linemates. Glen not so much from what I've seen.

Rafalski plays defense. Souray doesn't.

I would like to point out that Glen Murray has a contract north of $4M/yr for 2 more years. If we acquire him *shudder* it won't be for anything less than that. Glen is NOT a free agent. Yashin is.

And he was shoot first here. He's smart and talented enough to adapt to the situation.