egroen

Hasek is the greatest goaltender of all-time. Chelios is the greatest American player of all-time. Lidstrom is the greatest Swede of all-time. Howe may very well be better than Gretzky for best hockey player of all-time. Probert is the greatest enforcer of all-time.

I just disagree with this part -- Robert Lang was brought in because of the absense of Fedorov, and it was frankly a poor substitution. In terms of an overall offensive package, only Datsyuk and Zetterberg are better than Hudler. Hossa will be gone next year. Hudler brings almost as much offense as Z and D at a fraction of the price. In my opinion, it is defensive forwards that are abundant on the Wings at this moment, not offensive forwards. Edit: for poor word choice!

It will be interesting to see if Osgood is the Ron Francis of goaltenders... or the Dino Ciccareli. Like Osgood, both put up good numbers each and every year for a long period of time, benefited from some great teams, but without ever beng considered "the best" at any given time. Francis was inducted into the HHoF right away and Ciccareli is still sitting on the sidelines. With the Cups and Jennings trophies, I think Osgood will end up more on the Francis side of the equation. There is something to be said for lengevity and the ability to play very well for a long time. Few goaltenders, especially, are able to do that.

I do think Hudler has the potential to be a point per game player -- hell, only Malkin is scoring more per minute than him, in the entire league.

I just think Mr Sandman has insecurity issues -- maybe short man syndrome? Anyways -- Franzen was a ***** to sign last time, and that was when he was projected to be a third-line grinder. I don't know, I could see him mighty tempted by a big-time offer from another team. Pittsburgh fans seem to think he is the answer to all their prayers. If he tests free agency I think he is as good as gone... Holland simply can not match what other teams would throw at Franzen. Cleary, at least, is signed for decent money and is a decent backup for the type of player Franzen is. Hudler is a RFA, and I think teams will be a little more leery about throwing out offer sheets this year, and even if someone makes a big offer, the Wings will get nice picks as compensation. My biggest fear was always that Holland would choose to keep Samuelsson over Hudler -- hopefully I am just being paranoid. I have long felt that Filppula would need to be traded in order to keep Franzen -- but there is a good chance Filppula could be kept if they only sign Hudler. Here's a question -- Who would you prefer next year: Franzen and Samuelsson Hudler and Filppula Both pairs could be making close to the same amount of money combined (about $6 million each). Tough choice, but I think you keep Hudler and Filppula for a number of reasons (potential being the largest).

Seconded!

I'm at a point where I would rather see Holland keep Hudler over Filppula *AND* Franzen... if need be. He is younger, cheaper and has a lot more upside than Franzen.

Have you seen how ripped he is? How emberrassing would it be to get your ass beaten by Carrot Top? Worse than being on the receiving end of a Semin bongo riff?

For the Wings, I'd rather have Hedman.

Made me realize I am too hard on Albom sometimes - I may not like a lot of his articles, books and points of view, but he does go out of his way to help Detroit. He has formed a number of active charities in Detroit as well.

I thought it was Chelios that wiped out the dinosaurs???

Most people can't remember the Chelios of a decade ago, let alone of TWO decades ago. I find he is one of the most underrated defenseman ever, simply because people identify him more as the crusty old curmudgeon of the past 5 years than the utterly dominating defenseman of the 80s and 90s. Maybe about a decade after his retirement (middle of this century) he will start getting the respect he deserves again. That article was a joke.

If the Habs had won in '89 or Chicago in '92, Chelios would have one or two conn smythes as well. His performances were legendary in those playoffs. His '89 performance was better than Roy's and in '92 he single-handidly brought Chicago into the finals, playing 30 minutes a night, controlling every aspect of the game and scoring over a point per game. Stevens has never had a comparable playoff performance.

Actually, Stevens did put up big points in his early career, but he was more of a Phaneuf type player then - all offense and big hits. Chelios, much like Lidstrom, never sacrificed his defensive play to put up big numbers. When Stevens started playing better defensively his numbers dropped significantly. It is not close. 3 Norrises to 0 in the same era. You can make a case that Stevens is a better leader than Chelios, but not even close to as good of a defenseman.

I usually use that site as well, but they often have errors. There is one that is more accurate, but less easy to navigate -- but I can not think of it offhand right now. If Malkin's salary was structured like that, it would be illegal.

It's not really that close. Why does he point out All Star Games and not All Star 1st and 2nd Team selections? One is a popularity contest and one is voted on by the professional hockey writers guild (like all major hockey awards). Chelios was a 1st team All-Star 5 times (Stevens was twice) and a 2nd team All-Star twice (Stevens has 3). That is way more significant than the all star game... let's be honest, Chelios is not going to win a ton of popularity contests. Both were a runner-up in Norris voting twice, but Chelios actually WON three times. We're not even comparing players of a different generation here -- Chelios won three times to Stevens' zilch against the very same competition. Chelios has scored over 60 points eight times, and unlike Stevens, who only did so 5 times, Chelios was still able maintain a high defenseive game while doing so. When Stevens started playing better defensively, his offensive output dropped significantly. Despite Stevens great hits, he was still not the defensive player Chelios was, who was also a feared player but was much better positionally. Stevens' one Conn Smythe trophy does not overcome this gap.

Are you looking at nhlnumbers.com ? I think they have it wrong. He is getting $43.5m over 5 years -- they have those three extra years tacked on over at nhlnumbers as a "bonus", which I think factors in to his current entry level contract, not his extension.

I agree with all your post, except I wanted to add a little clarification on Hasek. Because of the iron curtain, Hasek was not able to come over to north america until 1990, when he was 26 years old. Prior to that, he was the Czech goaltender of the year 5 years running and the Czech Player of the Year for three years in a country with great hockey players -- that with Hasek took 3 bronzes at the World Championship in '87, '89 and '90 as well as a silver in '83. He was horribly mismanaged in Chicago, and was unfortunately playing behind Eddie Belfour during Belfour's prime. After being traded to Buffalo, in his very first year as a starter he won the Vezina (and incidently Roy never won a single Vezina again). Many assume he was a late bloomer, when in actuality he was dominating one of the best hockey countries in the world, prior to being able to come over to the NHL.

Bell's is amazing in it's consistent high quality. Larry Bell went to the same college as me and used to brew beer in his dorm room tub. If you do like IPAs, which are my favorite, you owe it to yoursef to try out the new Hop Slam -- out of this world good.

I could not stand the Parker and the Man show. Rob Parker and Drew Sharp should get a room together and rant and rave until the cows come home about how bad sports suck in Detroit. I don't think Parker should have been fired over that specific comment, but it was probably a conveniant excuse to get rid of someone who frankly just sucks.

And props to Steve Yzerman, for forcing Detroit's hand into signing Datsyuk. Reading that thread over again, I had forgotten how large a part Yzerman played in signing Datsyuk to a long-term deal.

Here you go: "Datsyuk Signs" http://www.letsgowings.com/forums/index.ph...ic=41642&hl The full contract is not disclosed until page 23.

Lol, Peters has Jazz Hands! I've been bitten by dogs on the hand, without the protection of a hockey glove, and did not act like that. I dunno... I'm kinda on the fence on this one. If someone is face-washing me and sticks his fingers in my mouth... my natural tendancy might just be to bite down, honestly. PS... but what does any of this have to do with Crosby???

I almost think a trade deadline acquisition would be more for the sake of making a move than it would be of any actual benefit to the team. Would Roberts be that much more valuabe than McCarty or Helm? I would rather call on the guys we aready have, if need be, from GR, and give them that playoff experience over bringing in another player. This is a unique year where the Wings are just filled to the brim with talent and options. This team has no lack of experienced veterans with leadership.