Heroes of Hockeytown

It's no mean feat when you're not operating on first overall picks, but the guys that have gotten to the big club in Detroit since those two like Franzen, Filppula, Kronwall, Hudler, and Howard have done well. You have to remember that most of the players from the last 4-5 drafts aren't even on the Red Wings yet. But even if they did draft someone as good as Zetterberg or Datsyuk, since they already have a Hank and Pav it would be harder for them to have the same impact, they'd have to get in line. But I am a firm believer in the Wings' scouts and GMs, and that the kids will one day inherent the team from Hank and Pav, as they did from Yzerman and Fedorov.

They didn't become top six guys until they caught a break with some injury situations, but they did already show some good hands before their big breaks with the Wings. Franzen scored 12 goals his rookie year and 30 points in his sophomore season. Cleary washed out with the Hawks before he did much of anything with them, but had a couple 30 point seasons with the Oilers before coming to Detroit. After just one season in the NHL there's obviously not much to say about Abdelkader one way or the other, but I don't expect him to be given anything -- both Franzen and Cleary showed potential early in their careers, and had to bust their asses and work their way up from the 4th lines to get to where they are today.

I don't remember if he was rushed back for the playoffs or whatever, but he definitely wasn't ready. That might the slowest I've ever seen a professional hockey player skate. He seems to be getting a bad wrap in this thread but it's obviously not his fault his knees exploded. He probably would have had a decent '04 season if he had been healthy. Of course it worked out anyways since he was useless post-lockout. Just another case of the Red Wings defensemen hex.

I'm going to go ahead and put forth the notion that winning would have been the optimal outcome for them, actually.

Age will matter later, but right now all of Detroit's guys are only around 30. These top sixes seem pretty comparable to me, although there is some question as to whether or not that will actually be Chicago's top six when the season starts. This is where age is actually a factor. Although despite their elderly qualities Lidstrom-Rafalski is still a quality top pair that I think is only bettered by a couple of teams, Chicago among them. He of 3.5GAA in those Finals? He wasn't very impressive in the playoffs, but don't worry, neither was Howard. Considering they're both going to be playing in on their second NHL seasons this year I'm going to reserve judgment on this one. In any case I don't know why you would say neither Chicago nor Detroit have the depth to be Cup contenders this year. If not them, who do you have coming out of the West? In my mind these two teams are still among the front runners in the conference.

Hossa was a little bit older, and generally a little less productive, but I'd say they're in the same neighborhood.

The DiPietro contract was kind of stunning at the time, but it's not comparable to Kovalchuk's or even Zetterberg's/Hossa's. DiPietro makes $4.5M every year for 15 years. The Isles don't benefit from any junk years at the end that he's unlikely to play bringing the cap hit down. And the deal ends when he's 41, which is reasonable. Even though DiPietro has been injured nearly the entire time, that doesn't really have any bearing on anything. The Isles get cap relief for their missing player just like any other team does for having anyone on IR, but DiPietro is still going to get paid every year until he retires.

Steve has done a good job, but he's also had the benefit of starting with a virtually clean slate. Tampa barely had anyone signed when he took over, so he's had tons of cap space to fill all the roles he wants. He's made good moves with that space, I like all the Gagne, Kubina, and Ellis signings. But the real test will be in 3-4 years when there are holes that need to be filled and lots of salary already committed (especially after the Stamkos/Hedman paydays).

He was 34 when he left Detroit so he was heading for a decline no matter what, but I think he would've had a much more productive end to his career if he had stayed. Mike Babcock said it pretty well, being Fedorov's coach in Anaheim in 2004: "I remember Sergei always saying to me, 'I never have the puck, Mike, I never have the puck. The D never pass me the puck.' So I went back and I looked at our D. I compared to it Detroit's D. I knew why he never had the puck. He couldn't understand why we wanted to chip it ahead and race onto it all the time. Well, part of that is because if you don't have these people, what are you going to do?" A situation that was undoubtedly no different in Columbus. By the time he returned to a good team in Washington he was 40.

Acronyms are neat I guess. HC = hockey club, FC = football club. MVD = Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh Del, which means Ministry of Internal Affairs. Which is a weird thing to name a team after, but maybe in Russia they think it's silly to name teams after leaves and ducks.

Could be. Hopefully the whole lot of them will wash out, become journeymen for a few seasons, then come to Detroit and end up as folk heroes (based on a true story! ). Good catch, I forgot about the bonuses while I was staring at those spreadsheets. He'll definitely get paid. But I guess that'll still put a tighter squeeze on the rest of their periphery players, so it's not all bad. But of course as I relayed in my other post, the core they have signed til at least 2014 (and some well beyond that) plus a rotating cast of ELC and scrub players will still most likely make for many playoff appearances in the foreseeable future.

I would still be very surprised. Any team that can ice Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson, Campbell (incredibly overpaid but regardless a good #4 Dman) as it's top pairing Dmen; and still can line up Toews, Kane, Hossa, maybe Sharp at forward; is going to be good enough to get into the playoffs. Byfuglien and Versteeg, and maybe Ladd, are the only guys they lost that were any good and probably can't replace. That's definitely not nothing, especially when talking about their performance in the playoffs, but not enough to push them into the West's bottom seven, in my opinion. Even if they lose Sharp, which would be huge, I don't think it'll be enough to push them out of the post season. Surely they aren't favorites to repeat anymore, and quite possibly the balance of power that briefly shifted from Detroit to Chicago in the Central, as the result of Detroit's own cap-induced exodus, will be shifting back this season. Although looking ahead even that remains tenuous with Lidstrom's impending retirement, but possibly counterbalanced by future cap-casualties of Chicago (looking at you, Seabrook). Who knows what the future holds.

My soul aches for the return of football, or any entertaining sport for that matter. It was a bad idea to make football and hockey's seasons and off-seasons run simultaneously. I'm very excited about the Lions this season, though they'll probably still finish below .500. The total overhaul to the D-line should help cover for their garbage secondary, but the real fun will be on offense. Stafford with another year to get in sync with CJ, plus Burleson, Scheffler, Pettigrew, Best... I can't wait. These guys are gonna score some points.

Because he was recovering from a broken jaw. Don't you remember the funny facemask he had to wear after he came back? That was his best regular season in Detroit, and he played fewer games than any of his other seasons here.

"You look around the league at all the No. 1 centers in the league, and you ask yourself honestly, 'How many players are better than Mikko?'" said Wild GM Chuck Fletcher. Boy, I don't think he's going to like the answer to that question.

Gee micah, did you lose your password or something?

Trouble seems to be that neither Ericsson nor Kindl are better than any of the Wings' usual top 4 (Lidstrom, Rafalski, Kronwall, Stuart), but putting them together on the bottom pairing has the potential for disaster. Which explains management's desire to bring in an experienced, stay at home option for that third pairing.

I can't say I know anything about Mursak so that might sway the argument, but Meech + Cleary for Sharp would be incredible and therefore would never happen. Meech is an easily replaceable spare part, and while I certainly love Cleary and all the things he does, Sharp is just a flat out better hockey player. He is like Chicago's version of Franzen.

From here. If I were the Hawks' GM I would make just about any other move possible to avoid having to trade Sharp though.

Possible that he is just unhappy with the selection available to him, either altogether or at the Wings' current price range, which is low. I would rather he made no move on it at all than make one just for the sake of making it, and bringing in a guy that sucks at hockey. Even adding a dimension that the Wings lack doesn't necessarily mean it's improving the team.

The Hawks are definitely closer to everyone else's level after their exodus (considerably more so if the Sharp-trade rumors come to fruition) but they still have a high quality core of players. Compared to Nashville that doesn't have any first line forwards outside of maybe Hornqvist, or C-bus's case of not having any first pairing Dmen, and I have a hard time seeing them not finishing at least second in the division. St. Louis might be good if all their young players step up and play to their potential, but even in that highly unlikely scenario I don't see their top 6 and top pairing Dmen as better than Chicago's.

That would be a laugh. Campbell meets the only player in the NHL with a worse contract than his own -- Rick DiPietro and his deal that lasts until the next sighting of Halley's Comet.

I guess it's still not too late, but if these reports hold true then I'm really surprised Chicago is going to go ahead and try and move a guy like Sharp instead of making Huet disappear. I would still prioritize icing the best team possible over whatever reputation was lost from that kind of move. I'd think money and a chance to be on a good team would talk louder than one underachiever with a terrible contract getting buried, but then again I'm sadly not an NHL player and maybe can't grasp all their motivations. Unless there's something else delaying Huet's departure to the Siberian gulags -- frugal owner, perhaps? His contract is so damaging to the team that it's hard for me to imagine it not being removed as swiftly as possible, consequences be damned.

He's four years younger, and not as good. If the Wings got into the habit of moving players for slightly younger, but inferior, versions of themselves they'd never win anything. It's not like we're talking about once in a lifetime players here -- I like Stuie (and Wiz isn't bad either) but there will be plenty of other 2nd pairing Dmen out there when he's gone, there's no need to go out and get a younger replacement if it's not going to improve the team in the short term. Icing the best possible team right now should be their mission.

Sure, I don't think Wiz sucks or anything. But he isn't better than Stuart, so I don't see how your idea is supposed to improve the Wings. I see Marchant there but the Wings have plenty of bottom six guys that are younger and need to get on the roster. So, your argument so far hasn't been very compelling. As for Stuart's frequent flier miles, I prefer to think of it as teams seeing him as the missing piece at the deadline. It didn't always work because most deadline deals don't work, but it did end well once. I mean, are you unhappy with his play in Detroit?