YoungGuns1340

The Wings look more energized than they have in days. Both the top lines look good. Filppula and Franzen with Hossa is working out well.

I swear...no one has chemistry like Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

Schneider has a contract. And its earning him 5.625M this year. And what offense exactly are you speaking of? Schneider has 11 points in 39 games, along with being -13, and having a whopping 5.7 shooting %. Unless Rafalski suffers a season ending injury, no thanks to Schneider under any circumstances.

I don't see the sense in this. Schneider makes way too much money, even pro-rated, and even if it does work financially, it doesn't make any sense. If the Wings want veteran depth, they have it in Chelios, and in spades throughout the roster. If they want defensive depth in general, they have it in Lebda, Chelios, Meech, and Ericsson. The only way Holland is "working the phones" for a defenseman is if it is to swap a substantial piece to the Wings puzzle. Our defensive dpeth in Lilja, Lebda, Meech, and even Chelios has not been the problem defensively. Its been the 2nd pairing and Rafalski on occasion, but mostly Kronwall and Stuart. Kronwall won't get traded, and it'll be hard to trade Stuart when hes injured. The only thing that would make any sense in my mind would be something like a Stuart for Salei or O'Donnell swap, which wouldn't cost them much in the way of defensive capabilities and physicality with the way Stuart has been playing, and would alleviate cap constraints somewhat that would allow them to be bigger players at the deadline, and aid in retaining our forwards up front.

It'll be Ericsson. Detroit went with Schneider-Lidstorm for a few years. Both lefties. Natural offensive talent/shot > handedness.

Fixed.

Raffi has an NTC. If he didn't have it, or was willing to waive it (but to who?), then it would be a no brainer to trade his ass and make space for Bouwmeester. But they'd still have to get Stuart and Filppula's money off the books as well.

The most the Wings could throw at Bouwmeester is about 6M, and that won't be enough to be competitve. And this would have to come with trading Kronwall, Stuart, and Filppula. The only way the Wings have any shot at Bouwmeester is to trade for him at the deadline, and really work him into the organization as quickly as they can, treating him like a king, which *might* lead him to take a Zetterbergian contract. And of course the only way Bouwmeester is even traded to begin with means either 1) The Panthers are out of the playoffs, or see significant injuries that would likely cause them to fall out of the playoffs - right now either of those situations are unlikely or 2) They get a young Dman who could feasibly "replace" Bouwmeester so the Panthers don't lose any power down the stretch, plus likely a pick or prospect. Essentially, the only way the Wings land Bouwmeester is to trade Kronwall, probably + their 1st, or Kronwall + one of our mid-level to top prospects at the deadline. Yes, its overpayment for a UFA, but the Panthers need Bouwmeester for their playoff run, even if its just one playoff round. The revenue for that franchise is greatly needed. In my mind, this is what it would take to figure Bouwmeester into the Wings situation, if they added him at the deadline or during free agency: 1. Kronwall - Either traded for Bouwmeester at the deadline, traded for prospects/picks, or traded for a cheap, 2nd line forward. 2. Stuart traded for a pick. His NTC doesn't kick in until next year. 3. Filppula traded for picks or prospects, maybe packaged with Kronwall in exchange for a cheap 2nd line forward. 4. No regular 13th forward. Meech would have to handle both the 7th and 13th role. Hudler(2.8) - Datsyuk(6.7) - Homer(2.25) Leino(1) - Hank(6.08) - Franzen(3.7) X(1.5) - Helm(.5) - Cleary(2.85) Maltby(.88) - Draper(1.58) - Abdelkader(.85) Bouwmeester (6.5) - Lidstrom(7.45) Rafalski(6) - Ericsson(.9) Lilja(1.2) - Lebda(.65) Meech(.5) Osgood(1.4) Howard(.71) Total: 56.5M, although if Detroit could somehow fashion a trade around any or all of Kronwall, Filppula, picks, prospects for Lupul(2.3), Frolov(2.9), M. Koivu(3.2), Wheeler(2.8), Zajac(RFA), etc, and cut payroll by 1M or so. All in all, we have an incredible top 3, but our goaltending and offense might be suspect. Its really not worth it overall, and would take WAY too much work for Holland to even begin to consider it.

I agree the Wings need someone to feed Hank, instead of the other way around, but the cost to get it would be too high at the deadline, and likely in the off-season too. The only name I can think of in terms of playmaking that would be a good fit in the off-season would be Tanguay, who could operate as a playmaking winger. But ideally, the Wings have a capable 2nd line playmaking winger in Hudler, Babcock just needs to get over the fact that he was wrong about Hudler not being able to make it in this league and give him his due.

I'm not sure how I'm giving off an "inflated" sense of his offensive capabilities. Like I said, for the 3rd time, hes a guy that can put up 40 points. Not in 50 games, but in 80. Keep in mind it was Filppula's 19G, 36 point campaign that was on his side in contract negotiations, and that kind of production was lauded by fans and the Brass alike. Any time you can get 15-20 goals from someone on your 3rd line, you're a step ahead of the game. Ideally, if you're swapping Filppula for a forward, it would make sense to look at two main aspects. The first obviously being the price difference - keep in mind that a big part of the reason the Wings would look to trade Filppula is to retain key players, or make cap space to play on the market if they lose their big guns. And the second is Filppula's value to the Wings in general, contract aside. Realistically, the Wings have plenty of two-way centers who play a skilled game. So in trading Filppula, it would make sense to hunt for a cheaper, more dynamic player that would add balance to the Wings roster. Namely, grit and tertiary goal scoring - something you don't get with Flip. A guy like Armstrong in Atlanta, or MacCarthur in Buffalo fit the bill pretty well.

Maybe, but with the Wings PKing as it, they really can't afford to lose Lilja to an unwarranted suspension, even for a game.

He was on pace for 70 points. Crosby or not, those are great numbers. Regardless, the fact is that he CAN put up 40 points in a season, which is Filppula's relative ceiling on the Wings, i.e. no loss in production from this hypothetical. Not to mention, in 15 minutes a game, Armstrong is on pace for 20 goals on frickin Atlanta of all places. Personally I'd take the swap of a skilled 3rd line center for a grittier, 3rd line winger with a nose for the net.

Exactly. In my mind, acquiring Neil and trading Filppula are two smart ideas, but they should both be carried out separately.

He really is brutal anymore. I wouldn't want him on the ice over Chelios, let alone anyone else.

When you look at what Filppula could reasonably land, and what would be a smart return for him, Armstrong makes a ton of sense. Size? Armstrong is 6'2, 195 Youth? 26 Offense? 22 points, same as Flip, but 13 of those are goals, and hes put up 40 points before (in 47 games no less). Physicality? 60 hits so far this year, 85 hits in 72 games last year Contract? 1.2M, RFA this season. Allows the Wings to get their ducks in order before they figure out how much they can spend on their depth, and they can take him to arbitration. And I don't know what kind of shot he has, but he IS a right-handed shooter. So he could feasibly take over Samuelsson's role in every sense. Then the Wings could probably role a 3rd line of Armstrong - Helm - Cleary next season.

Do you follow hockey outside of the Wings? Do you know the player the Wild have been lementing giving up? TODD WHITE. Yes, they miss Todd White. In fact, not having Todd White was one of the biggest reasons - if not THE reason - Rolston left the Whild. If Filppula can be anything, he can be the next Todd White. He'd fit in great with the Wild who are getting a crappy year out of PMB and Brunette right now. They'd probably consider Filppula would have similar results to a give like Mietinnen or even Koivu on that team. And the only thing thats retarded here is your ironic spelling.

I see it differently. Only 6 giveaways tonight, and not a whole lot of mistakes. They just didn't bring anything. They didn't play well, but they didn't play bad. What they did, was nothing.

Lost in all this is that Lilja could get suspended. And with our buddy Bettman, its possible he could.

Did he? I couldn't tell because THE VERSUS CAMERAS SUCK SO BAD.

It's a strange game. On the one hand, we weren't particularly bad. And Osgood has his best period + in weeks. But on the other hand, if Legace didn't really suck tonight, would we have scored 3 goals? Hell, would we have scored 1? At the end of the day, we still didn't separate ourselves from the Blues much.

It seemed like seeing his old "buddy" Legace stink it up did him some good.

Then no one would be complaining.

THANK YOU LEGACE!!!!! Oh, wait, I mean OSGOODD!!!

Jesus f***. What a shot.

THE TINY BEAST!!!!!