Heaton

Err, why not? Smid will be a much better defensemen than Beauchemin in their respective careers. If Beauchemin would've been better, he would be in Edmonton right now and Smid would've stayed in Anaheim.

This is an entirely different conversation, but I don't see how Buffalo couldn't match the offer. Buffalo has one of the best fan bases in the NHL, they almost made the finals the past 2 years and their fans have been insanely loyal. From a management standpoint, hell, from a fans standpoint who actually tries to understand the ins and outs of the buisness there's no possible way you can let your 3 best players which include both of your captains go and expect the fans not to have some riot. As much as I don't think Penner is worth 4.3m, Vanek is closer to a 7m player than Penner is to a 4.3m player. Both players are overpaid at this current time, though.

He won't.

ESPN wouldn't take Versus programming, it'd take NBC's games. Not to mention, ESPN isn't going to bring back NHL 2 night or anything and if you check the ratings, Versus is doing just as well as ESPN 2 was doing when they had it before.

1. Ottawa 2. Carolina 3. NYR 4. Pittsburgh 5. Buffalo 6. Florida 7. New Jersey 8. Philadelphia 1. San Jose 2. Detroit 3. Colorado 4. Anaheim 5. Dallas 6. Vancouver 7. Nashville 8. Minnesota

I haven't read this thread at all so forgive me if this has been convered but, there's no way Holland trades for Fedorov with the mindset that he's getting Fedorov the defensemen. Fedorov played pretty well for Columbus on defense last year, but I doubt he'll start the year on defense this year.

Burke called Edmonton's offer a gross overpayment so obviously Burke was hoping to get Penner signed for under 3m or so and now he's stuck. Burke is acting like he was blindsided, all hockey fans were expeting Lowe to do this again, be it Penner or Parise or Cammalleri or whoever.

From Kings fans it's more like Cammalleri for Zetterberg.

Not to mention they have to re-sign Getzlaf next summer and this may hurt their wiggle room. Take the picks, while Penner has good potential, he's had one good season and he was still extremely inconsistent.

I realize you're not saying this but, Penner would be nothing like Brendan Shanahan in his prime if he came here. Penner is a 30 goal, possibly 35 goal scorer MAX. He has limited playmaking skill and while he has size and fights on occassion, he's not as physical as his size might indicate. On the other hand Cammalleri will score 100 points at least once in his career, and he'll get 90points a lot more. Dustin Penner is like Holmstrom, without talent around him, he's a 15 goal scorer with powerplay time, with a good playmaker and another guy he'll score 30. Cammalleri is a 70 point guy on his own, with some talent? He's good for 90. I'm not AGAINST getting Penner, I'd just rather have Cammalleri.

We only have 2 top end talents in terms of forward on the roster, size is only good at this point if it comes with top 6 talent. Penner? Maybe, but I'd rather pay Cammalleri 4m a year than Penner as Cammalleri has shown he is top end talent and while Penner had a good season, he's not a guy Anaheim is hanging their future on. Not to mention, I doubt Anaheim is shopping him and I'm not one to advocate signing players to offer sheets, I believe it's bad buisness. No kidding. You don't screw up deals with 24 year old kids who have 100+ point potential, those are the ones you hang onto at any cost.

http://brochuishockey.blogspot.com/ Holland is not doing ANYTHING to jepordize signing Hank to a new deal so if Cammalleri is coming here, you bet your ass that it's for a contract that won't hinder anything. That being said, while he's small, he's been a consistent 25+ goal scorer the past few seasons and last year he put up 80 pts. Will it happen? Probably not, but it has a better chance of happening because Lou will hate it

I'm not twisting anything, I've read things that the Wings need to get bigger, tougher and stronger. Well, that's easy to fix. What ISN'T easy to fix is getting those same qualities and being able to play hockey at a high level while fitting into our system. You've never said you wanted the system to change, I'm not saying you have, but at the same time saying we need to get bigger and stronger gets us no where. Who should the Wings get? I've read what you've posted, things such as a different philosophy in drafting and starting there, that's fine. As for this team being the smallest Red Wings team you've ever seen? Well, I assume you're coming from a place that believes that we need to get bigger to compete with the rest of the league? Or get bigger to get over the hump? Or what? If we can win with our current gameplan, does it really matter how tall or how much the players weigh? Look, Harold, we have a difference in opinions and that's fine. I'm not one to come here and be dense on purpose, but after seeing the same recycled garbage (not implying you) spewed over and over it gets old. If this team can compete the same level with who they have, but they don't fight? I don't care. I guess I'm different, while I like the fights I don't watch hockey because of it, never have. That's not what drew me in. If we win the cup and had 0 fights during the regular season, I couldn't care less. I also don't see what fighting would do to help this team win games. But don't get me wrong, I love the brawls, I love the fights filled with passion, I loved March 26th 1997. I'm not anti-fighting, I would love to see the instigator rule get elminated. I'd be all for the Wings players fighting, I'd love in Franzen dropped the gloves once in a while, I'd love to see that kind of stuff. But I don't believe our teams success is linked to it. The team outhit Calgary and SJ in the playoffs, I see ZERO reason why it won't continue next year. Zero. Will it go on all through the regular season? No, and I don't expect it to. I don't look at the regular season to validate what this team did in the playoffs.

So are you advocating genetics is more important than hockey skill? Also, what games were they beaten down in the regular season? I asked this in another thread but got no answer instead they responded to the part that I specifically asked not to mention because it's different from what I'm asking. So which games? The Philly game? That's all I can think off.

Nothing will prevent it from happening, there's too many examples to the contrary. Did Bertuzzi or whoever was on Vancouver stop Moore from giving Naslund a concussion? Did Derek Boogaard stop Brad May from knocking Kim Johnsson out of the playoffs? Did Andrew Peters stop Chris Niel from knocking Chris Drury out? Did Wade Belak or whoever was in the lineup for Toronto stop Colton Orr from knocking out Tomas Kaberle? I can keep going if you'd like. Look, I know what you're saying, people may think about the little stuff and ease up a bit if there's someone in the lineup, but if Datsyuk has his head down in the neutral zone and Raffe Torres is on the ice, having 2 Bob Probert clones on his line and 15 Joey Kocurs on the bench isn't going to prevent Torres from destroying Datsyuk because it's a hit you can't pass up. Fighting has it's place, don't get me wrong, I just don't believe it's something that will make that big of a difference. Anyway, this thread has run it's course, I'm gonna bookmark it and just copy/paste my retorts next time a thread like this pops up, they're pretty much all the same anyway and all this deja vu is making me dizzy.

Eating them alive about what? Biron is their goalie, there's no one else going to be brought in.

I'm confused by your post, are you saying to not trade picks and prospects? Holland has been nothing short of fantastic in terms of how he's handling his picks/prospects in trades since the cap came into place. The Bertuzzi trade didn't work out the best way it could, but in contrast to what other teams paid and what they got out of it, that was probably the best deadline trade that was made. Philly has a pretty solid team this year, I'd be surprised if they didn't the playoffs.

For a franchise that holds the longest post season streak in any sport in the history of professional sports, I'd have to say that they're putting a little bit better than "s***" in front of you.

Same Woody Paige from ESPN Around the Horn and 1st and 10? That guy writes about Hockey?

Well he isn't a consistent perfomer either, he's closer to a non-performer, though.

If Howard isn't ready next season, I'd be pretty surprised if he ever made the jump to the Wings. We will have run out of options next year on July 1st, so if it isn't Jimmy, it'll be someone else. Nill has said on numerous occasions that if Jimmy isn't going to be the #1, he isn't going to be anything here.

No, the two games he lost in Nashville was the meltdown, you'd have to watch the games again he choked.

Which other Western Conference team scored more goals than the Wings against the Oilers that year? We were outplayed in some games, but not to the point that we should've lost. Legace wasn't the sole reason, but he let in goals he NEVER would've let in during the regular season.

Two playoff series, don't forget about the Nashville meltdown. Legace wasn't pulled in favor of Cujo because Cujo was 100% healthy, Legace couldn't do the job.

Trading Marleau severly hurts their ability to have more than one option in their top 6.