YoungGuns1340

I love that Lilja has 2 points tonight.

Ouch. Soft goal for soft goal.

Lebda wanted to improve his +/-.

Seriously? Sammy with Hossa and Datsyuk? Come on Babs..

Setoguchi was taken 8th overall in the 05 draft. Something tells me folks knew he would be good.

Wow. Nice job from Conks there.

Nice job from Conks. Kept that pad on the ice and the puck outta the net before it went of its moorings.

Bench the 4th line.

With the PPs 3 vs 0, we'll be getting a lot of calls against now. Gotta capitalize on that tilted ice.

Those PPs were way too fancy. Too much passing.

Is it possible for the ice to be TOO cold? For the first part of that period, it looked like the puck was sticking to the ice.

Yup. I agree. I feel like somewhere along the line, people forgot that the team we won the cup last year did not need Hossa. Hes a luxury, not a necessity. And theres certainly no reason to blow the team up in order to make Hossa fit under the cap - which is exactly what we'd have to do in order to retain him.

Haha is anyone else watching the Rags-Sens game? They're totally bashing on Ruutu. Its awesome. Anyways. Lets go for a 2 goal or more differential tonight. I'd like to see Hank pick up a few tonight too..

With my understanding, he was referring to Hudler, Franzen, Filppula, and Sammy as opposed to Hossa - not Leino or Helm.

Z will not be a challenge to "squeeze" in under the cap with my numbers. If Z can't fit, then Lilja gets the boot. If thats not enough, then Hudler goes. If not, then Franzen goes. Zetterberg is under the cap no matter what - what matters is whether or not we can keep our depth. Hossa isn't even this conversation - hes a goner. Period.

I agree with you on Filppula, but dude - reading comprehension? He said Hossa is not better than 3-4 players. Not THE 3-4 players. Hes talking about them as a whole, not individually. In that case, there is absolutely NO argument there. Having 3-4 players who can put up 40-60 points is better than 1 who can put up 90.

Its comical that teams like Tampa Bay crashed and burned with three big guns and nothing else, and now it looks like Ottawa is heading in the same direction, and yet people STILL want to cut out half of our depth just to have three stellar players?

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Opportunity does a ton for how you play. Quincey's role in Detroit at ANY point was no better than a #5 Dman. Do you honestly think he's going to play his little heart out when he know's there is ZERO opportunity for advancement into the top 4 with names like Kronwall, Stuart, Lidstrom, and Rafalski to compete with? No. It affects your work ethic, and it affects your confidence. Apples to oranges. Completely different situations. Matthias was also the second coming last season, and is now no better than a third liner at the AHL level right now. Granted Matthias is young and will continue to improve, but theres something to be said for the motivation that comes from being traded, a new situation, and bigger opportunities.

You're missing that middle ground where Hudler and Franzen don't have to accept a pittance from the Wings. A team with cap space throws 5M at Franzen. Hell, if Franzen gets as many as 30 goals and 50+ points, mostly through his net-front presence, you could see a Ryan Smyth effect on the market. If Hudler goes to arbitration, which is basically entirely stats-based, he'll have a great argument in showing off his points per minutes played ratio, which could end up among the best in the league at seasons end. If not, teams are recognizing Detroit's tight financial situation and could throw 2.5M at Hudler, which Detroit may not be able to match, and results in the loss of a ton of points without impressive compensation - I'm not sure an offer of 2.5M warrants anyhing more than a 2nd round pick as compensation, but I'm not positive. Also, removing Lilja isn't worth removing since his replacement would be Ericsson, and I'm not sure a 300k difference is enough to lose your #2 PKer, a consistent hitter, and your leading shot-blocker. Also, Hank isn't getting 6.5M with a lower cap. The cap was lower than 55M when Datsyuk signed, and he nabbed 6.7. Considering Hank's hardware is arguably more impressive, he'll lkely get nothing lower than 7. Ultimately, this 55M projection means one thing - and thats that the Wings need to be incredibly creative in how they manage their cap space. Does that mean trading key names? Possibly. Is Filppula a goner? Most certainly not. But I laugh at the notion that this "accomplished" forward is untouchable when forwards all around him are having career years, despite fewer minutes in some cases. Like I said earlier, Filppula hasn't entered into that circle of immunity, and his increasingly precarious situation on this team reminds me a lot of Kozlov - a guy that many thought was unlikely to be traded. Obviously, the situation was different, but the desperation may be paralleled as the season progresses.

I know everyone is so quick to say Flip isn’t going anywhere, but you obviously haven’t crunched the numbers with a 55M cap projection if you think its not plausible. Leino(.9) – Datsyuk(6.7) – Homer (2.25) Franzen (4.2) – Hank (7.2) – Hudler (2.2) Kopecky (.75) – Helm (.5) – Cleary (2.8) Maltby (.88) – Draper (1.58) - X (.5) Mac/Downey/X (.5) Lids(7.45) – Rafalski(6) Kronwall(3) – Stuart (3.75) Lilja(1.2) – Ericsson (.9) Meech (.5) Osgood (1.4) Howard (.75) Total: 55.91M Thats WITHOUT Hossa, Sammy, Filppula, Chelios, one of Downey or Mac, Conklin and Lebda. You can substitute Filppula for Hudler, but then we're even further over the cap. You can substitute Cleary for Filppula, but to my knowledge, Cleary has a NTC. You can substitute Franzen for Filppula, in which case you're then in cap compliance, but you've downgraded even further than you already have up front. As it stands, Hudler, Zetterberg and Franzen in this scenario are taking hometown discounts - each player could likely see 1M more on the market than what they're getting in this scenario, and if the cap DOES go down to 55, realistically the Wings can really only afford to give Franzen 4, Hudler 2, Zetterberg 7, and possibly have to consider trading Lija as well. Basically, you either have to say goodbye to Franzen in addition to the other guys if you want to keep Filppula, or find a way to convince Rafalski and Cleary to waive their NTCs. One idea thats been floating around my head is seeing if Rafalski would be willing to head back to New Jersey, in a trade for either White or Martin. Its a downgrade defensively, but it would give us cap space and we'd likely get add-ins like a pick or a prospect. It might be an idea that is increasingly attractive to Lamo with Brodeur getting older and out long-term. He may want a veteran upgrade on defense, and Rafalski would be the ideal player considering his success within NJ's system.

I'm bracing myself for the throngs of people coming in here to tell us how its feasible to trade half our roster in order to retain Hossa. If the cap goes down, not only do I think we say goodbye to Hossa, but should do the same to Sammy and Filppula as well. People are talking about trading Filppula as contingent on Hossa staying, but I say trade him either way. Flip may be good for 15 points more on the season at this point, but I don't see why that justifies a 2.5M difference between him and Helm. If the cap goes down to 55M, then we're going to need not only the money from Hossa's contract, but the money from Sammy and Filppulas contracts to hand out raises as well. At this rate, Hudler would be worth every penny at 2.0-2.5 and a long-term reasonable estimate for Franzen would be between 4.0 and 4.5. Add in Hank at a good 5M raise on what he currently makes, and that gives you some 10M in raises. Hossa, Chelios, Lebda, Sammy, and Filppula combined make nearly 13M. So basically releasing those three players from the roster gives us the money for raises and replacements - likely Leino, Ericsson and Helm. Will it be an explosive offense? No. But it will allow for more ice time to be spread around to those individuals who are looking to consistently earn it up front. Also, goaltending has been talked about little on this board for next year. Is Howard still going to be in limbo? If so, Id be surprised to see the Wings go with a Howard-Osgood pairing, and would doubt the same from a Larsson-Osgood pairing. The Wings may want to consider re-signing Conklin, which may be a tall order if he continues to play well and attracts interest from other teams around the league. To add to that, I think this might be the time for the Wings to add a few assets to the farm or the organization, either through picks or prospects. Trading Howard and/or Filppula with the insurance of guys like Larsson/McCollum and Helm/Abdelkader in similar roles to the aforementioned players, they do become expendable and maybe specifically to the benefit of our future. The Wings could really afford the chance to have a shot at a top 40 or so pick.

Not with the Wings he doesn't, but he damn well does with about 20-25 other teams in the league. Franzen's already proving to be better than Malone who was a hot ticket this season.

Of course he only has 6 even strength points. He plays with lesser offensive players at even strength and sees few minutes there as well. Take away his PP time and he plays some 8 minutes a game with the likes of Kopay, Filppula, Maltby, and Draper. Nothing special there..

Is it just me or has Hudler gotten bigger?

Oh sorry. I forgot their were rules for idiomatic phrases.