YoungGuns1340

Who are gonna win the cup for??? Nick Lidstrom, so he can be the first Euro to ever captain a Stanley Cup Winner.

You guys are missing a big point: GMs and players both go into arbitration with a game plan. They plead their case why they think they should recieve X number of dollars, and GMs explain why they think they should pay X number of dollars. I think more credit needs to be given to Lombardi here. He obviously came in to arbitration very prepared and with a good argument as to why Cammalleri didnt deserve 4M per or whatever it was Cammy wanted.

At the time Rutherford was after Aucoin, Aucoin was twice the defenseman Tverdovsky was. Aucoin still has the potential to get back to that #3 status if he that should is fully healed. Tverdovsky on the other hand..

Ahh, sorry. I thought you meant its unlikely hed be coming here in the off-season. And whoevers idea it was to sign Crosby as soon as possible - OFF WITH THEIR HEAD

Arent you a Ducks fans now?? Sad to hear about Giguere not even being able to start the season in net then.

He was good for the Hawks. Had them playing a very exciting brand of hockey. If injuries dont fail him (though Havlat and Ruutu are notorious for that), he could actually put together a pretty decent team, at least one that can score a lot of goals.

Many dont understand that sometimes an organization has to do things from a business perspective. The majority of Wings fans on this board are very informed, but the majority of Wings fans IN GENERAL arent. And Im willing to bet there would be a TON of people up in arms about the Wings trading away Maltby. Whoever remains on the Wings from the "glory days" (i.e. cup winning years) will remain a Wing for the rest of their career since there are so few left. Expect Draper and Homer to stay til theyre retired too.

Why the hell would Holland be fired?? Are you REALLY that stupid??? Do you KNOW that Zetterberg can be signed on July 1st, 2008, and that his contract wont take effect until his old contract is expired??? Youre whole point is that we should sign Heatley. Im countering that moronic logic by saying Zetterberg is just as good a player as Heatley, will cost us less, and that the only reason you have a boner for Heatley is because hes a double 50 goal scorer. Hank is a near double 40 goal scorer. With Alfie/Spezza and Kovalchuk/Savard playing in the East, Zetterberg could be a back to back 50 goal scorer too. Finally, the only person Heatley will sign for 8M with is Ottawa. 10M anywhere else, whoevers got the money. And it doesnt have to be a bottom-dweller considering that the cap will go up a little and that NYR just signed 14M worth of elite guys and wasnt a bottom-dweller to begin with.

I agree that the Wild will probably be in the playoffs, but I think the chance of getting Rolston in the off-season could happen if Zetterberg is locked up on July 1st, which is most likely, and Lidstrom is locked up prior to July 1st. We could argue all day about whether or not both those guys would be signed by then or whether theyd take less than expected, but the bottom line is that Rolston is definitely a Babcock/Holland guy. Hes not a cheapshotter or a fighter but he does have a ton of speed - sure to please Holland. And hes a hard-working, defense-oriented, complete player, the kind that Babs loves.

1. We are talking about deadline acquisitions. Whetever cap space we have will be irrelevant come July 1st - Do YOU know anything about hockey, because you should know that a player can be signed up to 1 year prior to becoming a UFA. Ken Holland can sign Henrik Zetterberg to an extension on July 1st, 2008 and, per Holland himself, he is going to do exactly that. So, No. We dont have as good a chance to sign him as anyone else. Thanks for playing. 2. How often has Zetterberg played with Datsyuk?? Oh yeah, for a grand total of 30 games last year. What pace was he scoring at when he was playing with Datsyuk?? On pace for 124 points in 82 games. How many points did Zetterberg score while playing an entire season with Holmstrom and Samuelsson as his wingers? 84. Who would Heatley be playing with? Datsyuk and maybe Homer, who is nothing next to Kovalchuk or Alfredsson. 3. Yeah, Marc Savard sucks absolute ass. Thats why he moved to Boston where the next big offensive forces are a rookie Kessel who was out half the season with cancer of all things and Glen Murray, who also missed significant time. How many points did Savard put up?? 96 points. Only 1 less than his career high, which came while playing with Kovalchuk and Hossa. But, again, thanks for playing. 4. Heatley would only cost 1M more than Hank if he were to be re-signed. On the open market, Heatley will get 10M on a cap average. Thats AT LEAST 3M more than signing Zetterberg who, maybe only has 95% of Heatleys scorers touch and not the grit that Heatley has, but is MILES ahead as a two-way player, has great leadership skills, and has already professed loyalty and dedication to the Wings. SOME GMs might take Heatley over Zetterberg, but ALL GMs looking to create a balanced roster would take Zetterberg AND Rolston at 11M over Heatley at 10M. Yeah, they can, its just that they overpaid to get Demitra in the first place. And of all the guys in the NHL Gabby wanted to play with, Demitra was it. Given that Gaborik has the potential to be the best player in the NHL if healthy, its pretty unlikely that theyll sell Demitra off.

On top of that, DEMITRA WILL NOT BE TRADED. Pavol Demitra was traded for because he is Marian Gaborik's best friend. Which means re-signing Gaborik in 09 is contingent upon re-signing Demitra in 08.

I think you need to be real. If Dany Heatley is not signed at the deadline HE WILL NOT BE TRADED. Ottawa has just as good a chance to win the cup this year as any other high-end team does. Good goaltending, good defense that will only improve over the year, and awesome offense. Muckler will risk losing Heatley for nothing if it means he has as good a shot at the cup as he did last year, which is to say at least as good a chance as Anaheim, Detroit, and NYR if you wanted to put them in that category. As for Dany Heatley, hes never played on a line without somebody named Spezza, Alfredsson, Savard, or Kovalchuk and never played in the defense-first West. Lets see him carry Homer and Sammy and hit 80+ points. Hes never carried a line on his own and he is FAR from the two-way player Hank is. On top of that, hell cost at least 1M more than Hank will.

1. Wil Kronwall reach #1/#2 Dman status within his current contract (next 5 years)? 2. Will Grigorenko prove to be a capable top 6 forward this season? 3. Will Hudler score 20+ goals this season? 4. Will Filppula have a 45pt season? 5. Will Lilja get in more than 5 fights? 6. Will Rafalski have a career offensive year? 7. Who will be the alternate captains when Zetterberg gets the C? 8. Does Cleary turn out to be a one hit wonder, or does he repeat with another 20+ goal showing? 9. What one forward, that is an 08 UFA as of now, would you like to see the Wings get at the deadline? 10. Of the players whose contracts expire in either 08 or 09, which ONE top 6 winger and ONE top 4 Dman (both in the 3M-5M range) and which ONE bottom six player (less than 2M) would you like to see the Red Wings sign?

Players do have a choice in the matter. Therse no telling if hed like to come back and play for his hometown team.

How can you spew all that lover-boy crap about Fedorov and then say Rolston isnt what we need?? Newsflash, pal. At this stage of the game, Rolstons and Fedorovs defensive games are comparable as is their speed, yet Rolston is the one putting up 30 goal seasons in the new NHL. Fedorov? Hes floundering. The funniest thing about your post is that you put all this emphasis on a two way game, yet thats exactly what Rolston is. Not to mention Rolston has one of the best shots in the game right now. He can put away the slappers in SHOOTOUTS for gods sake, even when the goaltender knows its coming. Hed be a better replacement for Shanahan down low on the PP than Shanahan would. THATS how good Brians sot is. Not to mention hes a good ole Michigan boy AND hed be a GREAT player for Detroit to re-sign (even if it is to 4M per..hes worth it) The only thing Im not so sure about is Detroits chance of actually getting him. If Backstrom proves to be the real deal, then I dont see why Minny would miss the playoffs other than the improvement of Colorado and that Vancouver wont go through an identity-searching period this year and bust half their season.

Like I said earlier, Maltby was re-signed because he is one of the few remaining faces of the Red Wings. He and Draper still form the grind line with whichever player plays on the wing with them. That is a staple for Red Wings fans, particularly the casual fans, and lets not forget that hockey is a business, and the majority of casual Wings fans see Maltby and recognize his name. If Asham replaced Maltby, those fans would be thinking whose the "Asian lookin dude?" As for Drake over Asham, the only thing I can say is that the leadership thing mustve been important, because other than that, theres no other reason to justify Drake over Asham at a 200k difference.

If you see how great Roy is defensively, and the fact that hes still at least a 25+ 60+ guy (and im pretty sure hes only 24 or so), they really didnt overpay by much. One of the best two way goal guys under 26 in todays game easy.

Niedermayer will retire.

Actually, Holland went hard after Witt before the 06 playoffs. Dont you remember? He was rumored to be going to either Nashville or Detroit, and Nashville was the one that forked over the #1 pick for him. Detroit wasnt willing to do that, and rightfully so, because Witt only ended up playing a handful of games for Nashville. Im not gonna complain about us signing Asham, because I didnt expect us to. Once we had Drake - hell, once we had Kopecky in the fold - we all shouldve known that nothing else would come of our bottom 6. And I dont mind that. NN is right, the LAST thing we need is another bottom 6 - we have at least 8 guys that could be qualified as such on probably 2/3 of offenses in the NHL. But whoever said also, and I think it mightve been you KP who it explained it to a T, we have really boring bottom 6 players. Ive been struggling to put a name on it, but that would probably be it. There isnt a lot of exciting hits or aggression or even fighting, however occassional, its just not there. Is our bottom 6 steady? Yeah, sure. It gets the job down relatively well. But IMO, its a very incomplete/unbalanced bottom 6 with too much of the same player and would be more effective with even 1 or 2 physical guys replacing what we already have too much of. As for Holland, I think theres a misperception about him. He DID bring in Bertuzzi, he DID go after Witt, he DID always give Fischer a chance even when he was playing some suspect hockey, and he DID admit to going after both Lapointe and Mayers. IMO, those are all pretty bona fide tough guys. Enforcers? Not necessarily, but great physical hockey players nonetheless. The thing you have to understand with Holland AND Illitch is that they want to have high-end success all the time, and I dont think theres any GM that will tell you fighting is more crucial to winning than offense. So, IMO, Holland puts out a lot more for the latter than he does for the former. Is that bad for winning the ultimate prize? Well, as weve seen, it definitely is if its not addressed by the trade deadline. Is that bad for exciting hockey year round? absolutely.

After seeing what Bert did with the Wings...or rather what he DIDNT do...I dont see how anyone can honestly say Bert was worth 4M. 2.5-3M is the max Id risk on Bertuzzi, but I dont think people realize 1) how big of a deal a back injury is and 2) how much bigger a back issue is when you are a large person. What kind of logic is that? Yashin reached 9M, so him being paid 5M now would be ok? Give me a break. People go around ranting about how 29 goals isnt worth 4.3M. Well, how the hell is 3 goals in 15 games worth 4?

Derek Roy just got 4. Cammalleri just got robbed.

I purposely made the last question hardest. Heres a list of most 08/09 UFAs as of today. Top 6 forwards in the 3-5M price range: Knuble, Satan, Comrie, Guerin, Bertuzzi, Fisher, Cole, Stillman, Sullivan, Dumont, Legwand, Samsonov, Weight, Connolly, Afinogenov, Prospal, Morrison, Pyatt, Sedin Twins, Naslund (maybe 5), Kunitz, McDonald, Murray, Vyborny, Shanahan, Straka, Fedorov, Gionta (maybe 5), Arnason, Brunette, Demitra, Rolston, Huselius, Langkow, Nolan, Sykora, Kovalev, Ryder, Horcoff, Nagy, Ribeiro Top 4 Dmen in the 3-5M range: Kuba, Witt, Morris, Boynton, Roszival, Mara, Commodore, Campbell, Kalinin, Mclaren, Zyuzin, Blake, Stuart, Modry, Sydor, A Ward, Foote, Liles, Leopold, Warrener, Smith, Hatcher, de Vries, Boyle (maybe 5), Bergeron, Norstrom, Odonnell, Ohlund (maybe 5), boucher, Komisarek, Sauer, Schneider Bottom 6 at less than 2M (or close to it): Laraque, Brashear, Cooke, Ruutu, Lapointe, Kelly, Cooke, Niel, Moen, Taylor, Cowan, Marchant, Pahlsson, Nichol, Grier, Shelley, Chimera, Axelsson, Laperriere, Hagman, Neil and Avery (maybe less than 3), Gelinas, Hinote, Orr, Gratton, Ouellet, Rucchin, Smolinski, Donovan, Bates, Reasoner,

I wouldve liked to see Asham before Drake, but now with Drake and Kopecky and half of the other bottomfeeders we have, there just wasnt any room for him.

1. Asham wouldve cost twice as much as Maltby. 2. What value Asham brings to the organization as fighter/tough guy, Maltby brings to the organization by being a face of the Red Wings that people from the past decade recognize. 3. Asham wouldve cost twice as much as Maltby. If the Red Wings had more offense, Id be all for jettisoning Sammy in favor of Asham, but Detroit needs all the offense they can get right now, and that is far more important to winning the games that get us into the playoffs than having Asham is. Although, I wouldnt be surprised to see Lapointe back in a Wings jersey at the deadline.

Maybe Davidson sold it because hes on his way to the grave. Itd be cool if he bought the naming rights to a new Red Wings Arena..the Ice Palace or something..