egroen

My apologies... carry on

Huh? Not even close... Hossa has had 299 goals in the NHL since 97-98, in that same timespan Iginla, for example, had 353 goals. Jagr has had 380. Not sure where you came up with that...

The career borderline AHL/NHL guys will be highly tempted to go overseas (Europe or KHL) --> They can earn a couple hundred thousand dollars per year vs. $80k or so in the States. Implication to the NHL is the AHL teams will start to get a lot younger, and your 4th line guys in the NHL will probably include a lot more prospects or bonafied NHL vets in the twilight of their careers, vs. roleplayer guys like MaClean, Ellis and Hartigan. The KHL will not be able to overpay for more than a few legit NHL stars a year (or even regular starters, for that matter). The revenues do not even come close to supporting such contracts, so it is more marketing than anything else.

I can see how you arrived at that list -- 1,2 are one level 3-8 another And then there are a bunch of players in the next grouping -- I can see a lot of reasons to put a lot of different guys at the top of that third grouping, Hossa and Kovalchuk for sure -- though I like Hossa's (and Alfredsson's) overall game better the Kovalchuk who is awfully one-dimensional.

With Hartigan's luck you can pretty much write up Latvia to win in the KHL. He's won the Stanley Cup the past two years.

I like it.

I don't think either of them comes up too much in that conversation. Depending on whether you value overall play or pure goal scoring more, they are usually in the top 15. 1) Crosby 2) Ovechkin 3) Thornton 4) Zetterberg 5) Datsyuk 6) Iginla 7) Malkin 8) LeCavalier 9) Heatley 10) Alfredsson Vying to round out the top ten and at a comparable level to Heatley and Alfredsson you have: Hossa Kovalchuk Spezza St. Louis M. Richards Jagr Sundin Staal Savard Gaborik B. Richards I would have them at the top of this list, but just outside of the top ten.

Thornton's perimeter playmaking style is stymied in the playoffs when teams play so much more agressively. Eventually he will have to use that big body of his to go to the net, or he will always be a playoff bust. Datsyuk finally learned it and his playoff production doubled, even tripled. Detroit has the compenents for the best "top line" though they might not all play together at the same time very often -- just like Crosby/Malkin/Hossa. Ottawa's is second best with Pittsburgh in third. Only Ottawa's line will play together on a regular basis.

Hossa is a better two-way player than a lot of the elite forwards, whom he is a level below offensively for the most part. He's really an unbelievably great fit for the Wings - way more so than Sundin.

Life is so much rosier as a Wings fan. At least since the 80s I join my friend in rooting for Nashville sometimes (I know, but it's a good young team that is fun to watch), and dear lord, those fans have it rough. This Radulov thing is just another nice kick to the gonads.

Sundin coming to the Wings would be kind of a joke... when I thought Hossa was out of the question I wanted Sundi as the first option, but if he did not want to sign here for $7 million, he is certainly not going to sign for $3 million. I hope he holds out longer, just guaranteeing he does not go to a contendor.... which he has almost eliminated all of already. What a weirdo.

No doubt about it -- I do not want to miss a single game.

Well yeah, it's not your money Just is easier on Illitch's pocketbook that if Ericsson is playing in the AHL he is not being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I am predicting two 80+ point players and one 90+ out of the Big Three. Anything more than that would be a nice suprise. Babcock spreads the minutes along all the lines and all three of these guys will be getting PK duty -- it's just not the greatest system for individual accolades.

Hudler was expected to fail at every single level he has played at because he is too small and too slow. Czech league, AHL --> he ended up dominating both. And already he is producing in the NHL. I really hope he gets playing time with Hossa, as outside of Zets, Dats and Hossa, Hudler is easily the most talented offensive player we have. He has a wicked wrister, finds the open spaces and is also a great setup man. I love watching him play.

Lol, that is pretty damn funny. Crap, I just thought something positive about Pronger... need to watch some youtube and get the hate mojo flowing again! I've thought about writing Konstantinov a ton of times, but have never done so. I talked to someone who knows him abd he does not sign too much nowadays.

Hudler may be the best value on the team, outside of Osgood. Let's trade him!

Focus on wingers and goalies... There are a ton of high-point centers, but nearly as many wingers. Instead of Crosby and LeCavalier look to Ovechkin and Iginla. Goal scorers are more valuable than playmakers because there are less of them and most sites award points for shots on net (this makes Ovechkin even more valuable than Crosby). Don't wait until later in the draft to start picking goalies -- pick one up at least in the first two rounds. Defencemen can be an afterthought for the most part when drafting. Yahoo is the simplest and easiest site to play at. Fantasy hockey is nice because it does not require near the amount of time as the other fantasy sports.

Best NHL Player: Sidney Crosby http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3492599 This is an annualy award, so I would think actual performance in said year would have a factor? Celtics beat Red Wings in the "Best Team" category.

And Kariya still produced at a point per game clip under Babcock with the Ducks... with arguably worse linemates. Babcock is not the reason Fedorov had such an incredible decline.

Are you implying Bowman was not "defense-first"? And Bowman gave him less minutes to boot. Datsyuk is playing under the same restrictions, and I have no doubt he would get higher offensive numbers without being purposefully lined up against other teams' number one lines. At the same point in their respective careers, Datsyuk is the better player. Given Fedorov's amazing peak, Datsyuk is not even close to being a better player overall, however. He needs to keep improving and maintain it to a degree Fedorov was never able to, in order to approach Fedorov all-time.

You are completely missing the point. I am not arguing Datsyuk is "better" than Fedorov, but that Fedorov's prime was awfully short and he was not much "better" than Datsyuk is right now for long. Fedorov's "off" games and seasons are not "better" than Datsyuk. If this is the case, why would he not be playing his best two-way forward? We're not talking about Bure here. Fedorov got his minutes in Anaheim and had every opportunity to continue getting them.

Strongly, strongly disagree. I am not arguing Fedorov is overpaid as a free agent at $4 million. I do not disagree that he is still one of the premier two-way forwards in the NHL. I loved him as a Red Wing and would love to have him back. I am simply arguing his "off nights and seasons" are not better than Datsyuk. Datsyuk at 30 is far and away outperforming Fedorov at the same age and only showing signs of improving, while Fedorov was clearly in decline already.

I do not disagree there, but he certainly wanted to be paid like he was a consistent 100+ point/season player... and when he was paid according to that, did not play up to it. Except in the pressure/big game situations. Well, that did not help Anaheim nor Columbus get to the playoffs. For those teams, regular season did matter.l Being a big game player does not help much when you can not even get your team into a big game. Babcock is not more restrictive than Bowman, not for a second... I'm amazed you typed that. Babcock does make his players accountable but if they earn it, they get the minutes -- see Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Franzen. I just pulled up a random game of the Mighty Ducks in '03 and Sergei had 24 minutes of ice time. If he was playing less most of the time, according to Babcock's MO, it was because he did not earn it.

But why did he not come even close to such production in Anaheim or Columbus where he could have been "the man" and gotten back up to the 25 minutes a game he craved? He was still in his early 30s, injuries were not a big problem and he at least had talented wings to play with. He was surrounded by a lot of talent in Detroit, how much does that offset the lessened minutes Bowman gave him? When Yzerman was down, and with increased minutes he always did shine, there is no question about that. If Fedorov had someone other than Bowman, who let him have his minutes, but was not nearly as demanding, do you really think Fedorov would have automatically popped 1020+ point, selke worthy seasons after another, or would he have taken advantage of the leniancy, taken even more off days and floated by on his talent even more? I dunno... Fedorov really is somewhat of an enigma.