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I also find it hard to believe another scout was serious when saying the Wings drafting was "dumb luck", as it pretty much calls into question the reason for paying scouts much. All that money the Wings spend on scouts is pretty much wasted? Why have any for that matter, when a flip of the coin is so much cheaper?

Three forward super stars can be contained by a defensive team pretty well. Anaheim did it to Ottawa and the Wings did it to Pittsburgh. I would prefer Franzen and Fillpula to Hossa. They are cheaper combined, are assets that can be applied to seperate lines, both play in all situations and you get a lot more minutes out of them (combined).

Tought to find fault in drafting a well-rated goalie... just not as sexy as some of might have wished for Most likely a smart move. I hate playing the free agent goalie game, and it will be nice to have options within the pipeline.

Has Bettman been reading "How to Make Enemies and Alienate People" again? I would've thought the owners would be the only people in the world who wouldn't boo the man... until now.

The West is currently spending about 20% more on defense than the East. Not including FAs and RFAs the West has an average defense salary of $14.402 million The East is at $11.615 Significant?

I am stating the East values offense more and the West values defense more... as a general rule. You apparently think that is a crazy statement. Anaheim has more than Philly and Pitts entire budget for defense in 3 players. Calgary has almost $23 million slotted for defense. Toronto is the only team in the East that even comes close to this, and they have been trying to shed those contracts for years. Looking at other teams from the East, Philly an Pittsburgh are actually "big spenders" on defense.

Pittsburgh also has $15 million slotted for their 6 defensemen... *and* they are talking about buying out Sydor's $2.5 million to free up more cap space. Your response is that Lidstrom has given us a discount? Ok, not sure what that does for you because it would mean Detroit's top 2 defenseman make more money than Philly's and Pittsburgh's entire 3 lines of defensemen. You don't think this could by any chance indicate a skew in East vs. West mentality?

Ha, oh no my credibility is being threatened on a message board Philly and Pitts proved to be the cream of the crop from the East, so of course I am going to be looking at what they do in the off season... so will the rest of the teams in the East. Look at Philly: Current Roster Gagne(5.25) - Briere(6.5) - Hartnell(4.2) Lupul(2.312) - Richards(5.75) - Downie(.822) Upshall(1.225) - Carter(RFA) - Giroux(.850) Cote(UFA VI)/Thoresen(RFA) - Umberger(RFA) - Knuble(2.8) Timonen(6.333) - Coburn(1.3) Hatcher(3.5)/Jones(RFA) - Parent(.855) Jones(RFA)/Gauthier(2.1) - Kukkonen(.875) Biron(3.5) Niitty(1.225) Comitted 47.297 Salary Cap 56.3 Cap Room 9.003 FAs (entirely speculative predicted cap number) Carter(5.25) Umberger(3) Jones(2) Cote(.6) Thoresen(.6) Final estimated Cap Space -2 million Clearly that potential negative 2 million cap room is a problem. A team like the Wings has more money going to their top 3 defensemen than Philly does to their entire top 6.

These Eastern teams are crazy... they keep piling on and piling on offensive talent. The spending on offense vs. defense as compared to the West has to be an incredible difference.

Who will take a one-year deal for a good chance at the Cup? Sundin - I'd sign in a heartbeat Selanne - Low chance, but I'd sign him Forsberg - Lower chance, and meh

Dumb move... I highly doubt he would get any more from an RFA offer sheet... and then they would have the option of matching, or taking the picks. Win-win.

I am beginning to think Stuart will end up in San jose or Anaheim (if Neidermayer retires or they plan on trading Schneider)... I am fine with it. Give the young guys time to develop, and if they are not there yet, pick up a defender at the trade deadline.

LA would be incredibly stupid not to take that trade, if it was for real.

Beauchemin had an awful, awful year... he is horrid defensively, but masked it the year before with good scoring and hitting. Many Ducks fans would love to see him traded before the rest of the NHL catches on. I could see them go after Stuart and try to trade Schneider... I have to laugh at Schneider, misses the Cup this year by jumping ship to the previous Cup winner, and may end up being traded after only a year there. Stuart could look forward to similar treatment.

Rolston would be great if Stuart walks... Otherwise, I would love to have Sundin for one year.

... and some members here crack me up with their underrating of Hudler.

It still boggles my mind how miserably the Kings did this year with all that young talent. They are going to have huge cap troubles in a year or two.

Hudler is a 2nd line player on at least half the teams in the NHL, and first line PP. Anyways, where we are with the cap right now, guys like Hudler, Franzen and Filppula are more important than Jokinen... because we can afford two of them for one Jokinen, and combined, they put up more points.

I am not that impressed with Malone, and the Pittsburgh fans have baked cookies and are ready to see him off... if that tells you anything. Cleary is a better player, and I will argue that 'till I am blue in the face.

Odds are about 0% that Dino makes it in with the class for next year.

They both deserve it, and I really hope Makarov gets in soon... obviously not next year though (huge class -- Yzerman, Hull, Robitaille, Leetch). Took Kharlamov about 25 years to get in.

Oops... skipped right over the quote and misread the post. Apologies...

Not NHL... If you're Canadian: '72 Summit Series If you're American: Miracle on Ice

I never really noticed back when I played... As a righty, I would have trouble playing with my left hand on the middle of the stick.

Not even 10% of the population is left-handed... found this on wiki: