Hank

I'm a Wings fan but that is something I'd love to watch next season. It has the same potential as Gretzky-Kurri. I don't think it would be a stretch to say that the two of them could easily surpass their previous best offensive totals. Hossa could score 50g along with 100+ points and Crosby might be able to hit 100 assists inside a 150 point season. Who knows? I'm still hoping that Hossa could re-sign with Pittsburgh but it looks like that possibility is slowly fading away. What'll probably end up happening is he'll rejoin Jacques Martin in Florida where he'll get 80 points playing with Stephen Weiss and Rusty Olesz - and not make the playoffs.

I thought some people here might be interested in this. On XM last night someone mentioned how Hossa really wants to go to a team that is capable of winning a Cup. But the analysts pointed out this should be taken with a grain of salt. A few years back when he was in Ottawa he, Redden and Chara were asked to take a little less to keep them all together so they could win a Cup. Redden and Chara took less but Hossa did not. By Hossa deciding to see what transpires after July 1st, I think it's a fair assumption to make this guys top priority is money. He has a chance to play on a team that's in a good hockey market, was 2 games away from a Cup and where he'll line up with either Crosby or Malkin every single night and yet he turned down a reported $7M per year. He could probably get $8M or more on the open market but that'll probably come from teams that aren't as close as Pittsburgh. Look at the conference finalists - Detroit, Dallas, Pittsburgh and Philly. Only Detroit and Pittsburgh have the room to sign him and I don't see Detroit going after him. Anaheim is a good team but won't have the funds. Montreal just got Tanguay and his huge salary so I don't see that fitting. San Jose might look at him but they'll probably spend that cash on a puck-moving dman like Redden. I could go on and on, but basically the team's that can afford him (like Columbus, Atlanta, Phoenix, LA) aren't nearly as close to a Cup as Pittsburgh is. I may be way off base, but I really do think Hossa is nothing more than a money-player hellbent on getting as much as he possibly can, regardless of he has a shot to win anything of significance.

What he said. There'll be a lot of teams willing to throw a grosse amount of money at this kid. Defenseman take longer to develop than forwards and I think Bowemeester could end up being a Norris candidate before his days are done. The thing about him is, he could be so much better offensively if he played in a system where they let him take some chances. If he were a Wing, I'm sure he'd double his point production in a year or two. But someone will give him a deal for around $5M/year or more. Think 5 years, $27M.

Somewhere in Vancouver an owner of a Krispy Kream is smiling.

How can you say that a workout routine consisting of lifting heavy donuts and beers isn't a serious one??? How dare you sir!!!

I have a bad feeling too about Stuart. I don't know why but I really get the feeling this guy's top priorities are money and comfort. He's been pretty vocal about how he likes it on the west coast and who knows, maybe he still believes he's a true #1 or #2 defenseman. Still, I think he's nuts to leave. If Holland offers him anything over 4 years and $3M/year he'd be nuts not to take it. He's got a sweet situation in Detroit. But hey, that's just me. If he does leave, I'd rather go with what we have for now and look to make a deal at the deadline. I'm dying to see what Ericsson and Quincy can do in a full-time capacity.

I have a feeling that he wants nothing to do with the Western Conference. That's probably why Campbell isn't going to sign with San Jose.

Excellent point. But what kind of pizza do they have in Beantown? Maybe some crazy bread would do the trick? P.S. I have to say I love American pizza. I'm a Canadian working in Detroit and the pizza you guys have here is unbelievable. And what makes me laugh is that my co-workers don't even think it's that great. From what I'm constantly being told is that NY has the best. If it's better than the stuff I've eaten in D-town, my head my explode. Thanks Mac. Now I'm hungry for some 'za!

What kind of bread? If it's Pinini, NO DEAL! I like Lucic, but I love my Pinini sandwiches.

Lucic. But I'm sure Boston would want more that that.

Wow! What a disappointment for Mason. I remember hearing all this talk on XM during last summer how he was going to be the guy there. A diamond in the rough. But Ellis far outplayed him. Could Mason be the next Brent Johnson? Lots of promise, so little fizzle?

I love this deal. It'll keep teams like Philly from having a well-rounded club. Easier pickings for Detroit to feast on weak East Conference finalist. BTW, if Carter's getting $5M then I wonder what Lupul will ask for. At the bare minimum $4M/year.

Especially when he's going to be the teams #3 centerman. I wonder if this could be a sign-and-trade thing? And then there's this about Malkin: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_dadd...k?urn=nhl,88994

But that's the issue. How popular is soccer in the States? It's not. The NHL needs more scoring. Not a lot, but a goals-per-game average of 6.5-7 is perfect. That's less than what the average has been since 1960, but certainly more than what we've seen in 15 years.

Sex with Marissa Miller.

Exactly. If any team took that proposal Ken Holland should be encased in gold for that steal of a trade. Like BB said, for that deal to work it would definitely involve Filp and most likely Ericsson. There's really nobody else on this team that is 'expendable' to pick up a world class talent like Jokinen. Kopecky would probably fetch a 3rd or 4th rounder. And Hudler is great in our system but he's not even going to get much in return. Besides, if we're going to deal Filp and Ericsson I'd rather have Jeff Carter.

I could be wrong about how many round there are. I thought they did the first two on Friday but it could very well be just the first round. However, I think it's going to be very entertaining. Lots of deals. There's a pretty big rumor out there that C'bus is going to trade it's 6th overall for Jokinen. And others on XM think that Philly is going to trade a forward to get a higher pick - most likely Umberger or Carter.

It starts on Friday at 7:00 pm. They do two rounds that day and then finish the last 5 rounds on Saturday.

I'm obviously not a pro athlete but I still don't understand what Niedermayer is thinking. You're either a hockey player or you're not. In my mind if you can't decide what you are in less than a week, you're not a hockey player. You don't have the passion anymore. Neidermayer should just save everyone the drama and just hang them up.

And yet he somehow finds a way to play 70+ games a year without dying. I guess that pokes a lot of holes in the 'saftey' issue of smaller gear doesn't it? If Giggy wore Brodeur sized pads his stats would definitely plummet. So would a lot of others, but Giggy gets the brunt because he doesn't possess any sort of 'real' skills. He's not quick, his glove is useless and he basically resembles a table hockey goalie. If the puck doesn't hit him or go wide, it's in the net. You cannot depend on him making a spectacular glove or blocker save, or desperation save. He simply does not have the athleticism to do that. THAT'S what smaller pads will bring back. The fun and athleticism to the position. Even former goalies are constantly complaing about how boring goalies are today. The whole strategy of today's goalie is "Square to the shooter; make yourself look big". Yawn.

I don't think Eberle will ever be considered a 'physical' player but he certainly doesn't shy away from the hard areas of the ice. And I've seen him make some moves, passes and scored goals when he was surrouned by several players. The kid finds a way to make offense out of nothing and in clogged up spaces. About a month ago, he would have been avaible at #30 but lately it seems his stock has risen. Luke Adam is another kid I like. He doesn't have tremendous speed but he's great from the blueline in. Very soft hands for a large kid. He kind of reminds me of Lucic.

LOL. Lucky for everyone he's the last. I still have an old Hockey News at home where they interviewed the dad and all the brothers after Eric was drafted. It was in that article where the Staal's dad, Henry, proclaimed that then 12-year old Jared was the gem of the bunch. So far that prediction looks horrible.

F***. Then I'm more convinced than ever that Detroit will trade their 1st rounder for two 2nd rounders. Thanks for the heads up Zombo.

This is a very real possibility. But at the same time, I think it could help the NHL more than hurt. Players who really want to be in the NHL will sign short-term contracts with their European clubs so they have a window of opportunity to sign with their NHL teams. (Filatov has said he's going to play in North America no matter what) And, NHL teams no longer have to sign their euro prospects within 2 years or else they'll lose their rights. So guys like Datsyuk and Zetterberg can stay over there to develop and when the time is right, they sign a contract with the team that drafted them. There's going to be some bumps along the way but I think it'll all work out in the end. On a different note that some might like, Jamie Heward had a conversation with XM a few months ago and he spoke about his time playing in the RSL this past season. He said there was definitely some hostility towards imports in that league as most of the Russian players felt they had enough good kids to fill their league without the need for foreigners. But Heward made a point to tell some of these guys that if they were in North America, they'd be making $20,000 a year instead of $400,000 in the RSL. And having some of the best available players in their league only helped promote it so guys like them could make that kind of money. He said there were a lot of guys that would have had a very difficult time cracking an ECHL lineup but were making half-a-million in the RSL. And that's only for 50 games a year. He had other stories about how horrible some of the arenas were and how one team was so far East that it took a 9.5 hour plane ride and 9 hours time difference. So there were times when they'd leave they'd lose almost an entire 24 hours by the time they got playing. He said that city's team almost never won. The closest team was a 6 hour flight away. Yow!

Of course a GM is going to pick a larger goalie of equal skill over a smaller goalie. It happens to skaters every day. But the thought of getting a fat goalie just to take up more space is ridiculous. In fact, wasn't there a book out there about this exact thing? They got a guy to wear a body suit so that his size was equivelant to a 1000 lbs man. He got shelled in a practice run. You still have to be skilled, but I'm not going to cry because goalies like Legace or Osgood have to shave down their gear and their GAA might go up because of it. I hate cheaters and that's basically what goalies have been doing for a while now. I do agree that with the natural progression in people getting larger that eventually the nets will have to increase too. And I don't believe that you'll ever see basketball on ice by giving shooters a fraction of more space to shoot on. In fact, it can be proven. Look at the 80's. There was probably twice as much cubic space to shoot on in during that era and the average goals-per-game got up in the mid 8's. So that means on average, you're seeing a 5-3 hockey game. Is that really outrageous? No. The same would happen now. If shooters suddenly had the same cubic space to shoot on as Gretzky and Orr had, you would probably see the GPG jump in the 6's or 7's. 4-3, 5-2, 6-1, 4-2. You'll still get the occassional 2-1 game (probably Minnesota vs Boston ) just like you'll see an 8-5 game now an then. My biggest concern is that in a lot of the higher scoring games this year it was only one team doing the scoring. I think that close to 75% of the games this year ended with one opponent scoring 2 goals or less. That's what the NHL is trying to do. And remember, that also means an increase in scoring chances, which to some are just as exciting as goals. Everyone wins.