egroen

I'm officially excited about Tatar... Kid just seems to be scoring at every opportunity.

Agree... that passive kill burned them constantly. Detroit simply does not have the shot blockers other teams have.

Luongo

I do think Luongo is the best of the pack now, Lundqvist in 2nd.... Brodeur is past his prime.

80+ assists out of Thornton and 50+ goals out of Heatley - no question. I'm just thinking about my fantasy team right now.... All-in-all though, a downgrade for San Jose and very impressive return for Ottawa, especially considering the publicity of Heatley's trade request. I must have been wrong, and there were aparently plenty of teams willing to give up big assets for the opposrtunity to take on Heatley and his fat contract.

In fantasy hockey penalty minutes are just as valuable as goals and points.

Me thinks goalies are being underrated here....

It varies.... http://www.nhlscap.com/waivers.htm

Havlat played close to a full season last year -- anything can happen!

Sammy was just a void on the ice where plays went to die -- always holding onto it for too long -- it was hilarious (when I was not screaming from sheer frustration) watching the Wings complete tic-tac-toe passes until it resulted in Samuelsson on the point, trying to stickhandle and dispy-doodle for 5 straight seconds (going nowhere). Yeah, his puck control was better -- but it was absolutely pointless puck control that resulted in squat. At least Williams was a better passer and able to get the puck away quickly... but also resulting in some quick, deadly turnovers for the other team. With Samuelsson, you could watch the team collectively sigh while he had the puck and start skating back, giving up the play for dead, but at least neutralizing the turnover. Sort of a 'pick your poison' I guess! Oh Sammy~! How I'll miss him!

Kindl signed his first contract at the age of 20, which gives him 3 years of waiver exemption (or 160 NHL games played). He'll have to be up by the 2010-11 season -- irregardless of whether or not he is on a one-way or two-way contract.

Save percentage has only been tracked officially since 1984... so naturally your top 25 is going to include some questionable talent. It's not shots faced that has made SV% go up, but the butterfly style and larger equipment -- goalies faced more shots in the 80s, but obviously had much lower SV%'s. Back in the Original 6 Era, goalies were putting up similar SV%'s as today with much fewer shots faced. The fact that Luongo is only behind Hasek in SV%, and has been in the league for 9 years, is very impressive.

Luongo Reason: For the past 9 years, Luongo has a .919 save percentage, #1 of all active goaltenders and to put it into a historical context: only Hasek has had a higher career save percentage. In 22 games played in the playoffs, his save percentage is .930 Put him on the Wings or Devils and he would have 3 Vezinas by now and a few Stanley Cups.

I'll pull out all the stops to get them on my fantasy team!

I'll go a bit off the board and vote for Luongo.

I would think they would keep Meech because his is cheaper, more versatile and a little bigger than Lebda. Lebda should also have a higher trade value (while Meech might not return anything)... but I sure will miss Lebda's hip checks! The Wings are almost $1m over the cap with a healthy Lilja.

Which Patrick Swayze? the Swayze who was in Youngblood, Red Dawn, Road House, The Outsiders, Steel Dawn and Point Break is a total butt-kicking bad ass. The Swayze in Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Whoopi and One Last Dance is a complete mincing ninny.

Iceland is clearly the exception!

I have a feeling Gunnar Stahl would go on to eclipse them all.

I definitely agree - but I'm sure it does not raise too many eyebrows to see Fleury in over Osgood. I sorta wonder if Holland/Babcock prevailed upon Yzerman to ensure Osgood received rest and had no added risk of injury (Howard in the playoffs anyone?).

Malkin.

If Williams scores 60 pts to Pyatt's 20, it's not such a bad deal. I think Eaves and Pyatt are best for comparison.

I am hoping that was literally an anomaly of a season for Detroit's PK and it gets right back to being one of the best in the league. Osgood really does have to work on his lateral movement and positioning on the PK though.

A lot of that falls squarely on Osgood's shoulders. Osgood was flat-out awful on the PK last season.... with a save percentage of .852 on the PK. I do think Lilja was one of the many straws that alone could have put Detroit over the top.

I'll go ahead and officially vote for Datsyuk this round, as I can not vote both Crosby and Malkin ahead of him with a clear conscience. Malkin is next -- then you have quite a debate between Kovalchuk/Iginla/Thornton/Getzlaf/Parise/Zetterberg/Brodeur/Luongo/Chara