haroldsnepsts

Assuming Cleary's not back, I think it will be Smith, Lashoff, then maybe DD. He still seems to get a lot of goodwill as an unexpected but talented signing.

I kind of think Kronwall seems like a #2 D man, but frankly after having Lidstrom as the #1 for so long, it's hard for me to judge. Lidstrom gave a very warped sense of what a #1 D-man looks like (as in, superhuman).

Agreed. I just think if he's healthy, some GM is going to take a gamble on him.

Assuming he's healthy in 4 or 5 years and returns, someone inevitably will sign him. He's too good to pass up. And it'd only be a deal for a few seasons at most anyway.

I'm apparently more than a little slow because it never occurred to me that our top defensive pairing this past season was a Swedish duo. Shocking you could put two typical soft, non-physical Swedes together like Ericsson and Kronwall and have it work out.

There's no "maybe" to it. NJ had to agreed to void his contract.

At least now we can rest easier that Holland won't sign him.

For starters, doesn't this seem like a pretty bad translation? this is not pomp? I would like to return for CSKA? The journalist for The Star seems to have translated one quote himself, out of context, and uses the word coax while tweeting about it a couple times. Depending on the translation and context, this could be Fedorov just saying he would like Datsyuk to return to the KHL. Which of course he would. Who wouldn't want Dats in their league? And Datsyuk has openly talked about playing in the KHL. He's trying to insinuate that Fedorov is actively trying to lure players away from the NHL without providing anything to support that. Until there's some concrete evidence, no big deal.

I don't think our views are that different. And I'm not really one to quash criticism of a player here. Though sometimes it starts to snowball and goes beyond what a player actually does on the ice (see Cleary. before that Ericsson) I don't really know how much he was hyped other than here because I don't follow prospects that closely. But frankly most of them seem overly hyped here. They're awesome before they ever wear the winged wheel, then if they don't set the world on fire it doesn't take much for the goodwill to turn. So I'd answer your questions this way: Did Smith have a good season? Not really Did he suck doorknobs? Not really. People have been wanting the rookies to play (myself included). The thing is, sometimes when they do they look like rookies.

Who knows about the timing. It certainly doesn't seem ideal. But they clearly aren't fighting it, likely because it benefits them so much overall. They don't have to terminate his contract. They're choosing to. Exactly. They aren't fighting it because ultimately it should help the franchise (if they use their new found cap space and money wisely).

A part in it? He's the GM. He put together the deal. And losing the pick and getting fined is 100% on Lou. He runs the team. Not Kovalchuk. And how is it hiding behind the family excuse? How could you possibly know his real motives? If I had to pick one, the more believable scenario, which is the one he described, is that in the lockout shortened season he realized how much he liked being back in Russia around family. Overall this sounds like the a mutually beneficial decision. Kovaluchuk goes to Russia to be with family and play hockey there, Lou gets out of the terrible contract he gave him. Kovalchuk is a great player but the franchise is now free of what was a potentially crippling contract under the lowered cap. I don't know what their current financial situation is but the Devils have had trouble paying their bills the last several seasons. They owed Kovalchuk over $11 million dollars a year for the next 4 years. The guy left $77 million on the table. Sure he may eventually make that in the KHL but he had a guaranteed contract for that amount. That's a lot different than the potential earnings. If anything I could see faulting him for the timing of the retirement. It's certainly going to leave a huge hole in their lineup. But in the long term walking away from his contract could be the best thing that happened to the Devils.

You tap on the post and one of the options is to Like it. I just liked your post using tapatalk.

Kovalchuk cost them millions in fines and a 1st round pick? Lamoriello and the owner, who structured the backdiving deal, had no part in it? Here's his statement on the Devils website (emphasis mine). Sounds like he's going back for family. http://devils.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=677775 Lou's statement: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1701198-ilya-kovalchuk-retires-from-nhl-after-11-year-career

There's a little green button named "Like This" you can click on each post to express exactly that, which also keeps the thread from being filled with posts by people saying they like other posts.

I actually said "people talk about him like he's hopeless," which isn't the same as "someone said he was hopeless." But his play was described as "indifferent" which several people agreed with. Then there was talk of him having a big ego. You alluded to him "sucking doorknobs." None of which makes sense to me. He was a rookie trying to play big minutes in key situations and his inexperience showed. Inconsistent, absolutely. Indifferent? No. He also had more playoff points than Kronwall and as many as Kindl in spite of no PP time. It's not like he was the only one who fell short offensively.

So as prospects are guys aren't worth trading for practically anyone, but one actually plays half a season and people suddenly talk about him like he's hopeless. As I've said before, Smith essentially got thrown in the deep end as the #3 guy in the playoffs. If he got protected ice time like Kindl and Ericsson did as rookies (and Kindl still does), he would've looked much different.

So Cleary's points were dumb luck? It's not even worth arguing that one but my point was stats not telling the whole story. I was using a ridiculous example. More specific to the topic, Detroit's 10 games against the East in 2008 is meaningless for predicting how they'll fair this coming season. Those are also small sample sizes, and there's a lot of variables that will be different. Or as I mentioned previously, it's also about more than size. Franzen is 6'3" 223 lbs. If you cover the name but look at those numbers a lot of people equate that with a physical player because he's huge, which is obviously not the case. Same with Kindl. Whereas there's plenty of guys who play much bigger than they are. I don't think you can make a blanket statement that the east is tougher, though they will face some very physical teams. it remains to be seen how they'll do.

He said stats don't tell the whole story. Which they don't because people often draw conclusions out of context that the stats don't actually support. Dan Cleary was 2nd only to Zetterberg in playoff points. So Cleary is the 2nd best player on the team? Cleary was the 2nd most important player this postseason? Cleary was better than Datsyuk in the playoffs? While obviously not that extreme of a statement, Detroit's record against the East in the past doesn't mean much to me. It's not a very big sample size, especially considering they didn't play any games against the East this season, and it's a very different thing to be in a division with teams than to play them every once in a while. Given the roster changes, all new teams they'll be playing much more frequently, but now having less travel I frankly don't know how we'll do against the East. There are some teams that are definitely tougher but that doesn't mean they'll necessarily win games.

it's that time of year. Moving to the east is making it an even bigger topic than usual. Detroit's blueline is the best it's been in a while in terms of overall size. They're more able to hold their own against the big bodies everyone sends to the net these days.

Yes but Detroit has some big men who don't play very big. Franzen, Kindl, even Bertuzzi to a degree. They're all over 215 lbs and 6'3". And if they include goalies, Gustavsson is 6'3". There's really no question Boston plays a more physical game than the Wings. As for wether that makes them better or more likely to win is another matter.

Oates is the big one for me, mostly because it happened when I was a young Wings fan and Oates was among my favorite players. Graves is another one. Given their track record the Wings might want to re-think things next time they consider trading any player named Adam.

The team Holland inherited won the Stanley Cup in 98. His first big moves as a GM were to acquire Ulf Samuelsson, Wendel Clark and Bill Ranford. Chelios I can't give him much credit for because it fell into his lap the way Pronger did the Ducks. Then in spite of his additions to an already great team, the next 3 seasons the Wings lost in the 2nd round twice and 1st round once. Was that all Holland's fault? Nope. But neither was it all Stevie's in Tampa. It very much remains to be seen what kind of GM Yzerman will be. Holland has excelled at making adjustments to keep the great team he inherited at the top of the league. He's also done a very good job adjusting to the salary cap. But rebuilding is quite a different thing and while it's early yet, so far his track record is a lot spottier.

Don't forget that the Hawks have a pretty good for player for doling out blows to the head in Duncan Keith.

If someone says they say "allegedly" that doesn't mean you shouldn't provide some idea as to where you heard it. There's a huge difference between "Bob McKenzie tweeted that Datysuk allegedly wants to go back to Russia" versus "I saw on hfboards they said Datsyuk allegedly wants to go back to Russia." Otherwise anyone can post all kinds of unfounded things about players, both good and bad. Ken Holland allegedly said Dan Cleary is the best Red Wings player of all time.

I now hate the Pens a little less and the Wild a little more.