egroen

Give me a Hudler goal celebration over an Ovechkin celebration any day.... he reminds me of my son at Christmas.

A grinder + scorer combination would be nice -- Moen/Grier + Bell/Shanahan

I'd love Shanahan and Moen -- nice $2m package there of scoring, size and physical play.

I suppose it is the whole "under dog" syndrome... I liked watching Hudler succeed despite his size and skating issues -- which led many to believe he would never perform at the AHL level, never mind the NHL level. He was just a goofy guy who obviously loved playing hockey and he was a joy to watch.

I did not appreciate the "Ha Ha, we lost Hudler, watch him being hurt!" post and am in a surly mood. I guarantee I will post further overreactions in the future. Just put me on 'ignore' from now on...

I'd love to see Holland take another flyer on a low-risk, high-reward type player. Some down-and-out player like Cleary or Samuelsson were that can be signed short-term for around $1m and shoved through waivers if it does not work out. What is Mark Bell up to nowadays?

If Holland goes through with arbitration... as he has indicated he will, Detroit will hold his rights indefinitely (at the awarded amount). Sort of an unaddressed area of the CBA -- without arbitration Detroit would only hold his rights until Hudler qualified for free agency at the age of 27. If it was only for $2m tax-free, as initially reported, I would agree on the "stupid kid" remark, but that is a crapload of money it turns out he is being offered.... I just wish the KHL would go back to sniping the Predators.

I would not mind Babcock taking a low-risk, high-reward stab at someone like this. i'm sorry folks, but you are not going to get a hard-working, great-attitude, rootin'-tootin'-fightin', defensive extraordinaire who puts up points for the amount of cap space the Wings have.

Yes. Exactly the same. Jesus Christ. ... Or maybe the point is you do not rub peoples' faces into s***, no matter what the degree of 'foul' it is.

There's a hilarious youtube of Jiri Fischer almost dieing on the ice... you should post that one next time someone says something positive about him. Just for giggles.

Seriously! It's no big deal, we'll just bring up some AHLers and sign Travis Moen!

It would be nice if Hudler was awarded $3.5m in arbitration -- improves a bunch in the KHL and comes back in a year or two at that price tag. I obviously think Hudler is the bees' knees, but even I find it a little crazy he's being offered the equivalent of a $7-8m salary by NHL standards, from a league with a barely a quarter of the NHL's revenues.

Yes, guilty as charged... I am a Red Wings fan who likes to play armchair GM. HAR HAR HAR!

I thought perhaps it had to do with one of my points -- as opposed to "You aren't an NHL GM or coach, neeener neener neener!!!"

In other words -- I don't have the proper credentials to post my opinions on a Red Wings message board?

Elaborate?

Stanley Cup hangover and Osgood. Despite that, Detroit had by far the best follow-up season to a Cup win in over a decade. The Wings really did "flip a switch" in the off-season. Despite being short Lilja and Rafalski they steam-rolled the Blue Jackets, a team that gave us plenty of trouble during the regular season. And then the injuries just piled on from there. Hossa sucked, and failed to utilize his linemates properly... sort of like he did for most of the regular season. He had the "drive" but tried to do it all himself and ended up simply coughing up the puck more often than not, by taking on the Penguins by himself. I really was impressed with how far they made it despite such severe injuries to key layers. Still sucks to lose, of course... but an incredibly bruised and battered Wings team came a lot closer to the Cup this year than a healthy, Crosby-led Penguins team did in '08.

And these same people that hated Hudler are going to be turning the hate on Leino very shortly....

Well, it would get boring during the off-season if we didn't point out how great of GMs we would all be

Brian Campbell?

Moen would be great -- but you still have to find someone who can put up points (and I do not care if he does not play defense worth a lick and is 120 lbs). Tanguay, Afinogenov, Kotalik... hell, Bertuzzi -- someone who has at least shown they are capable of putting up more than 20 pts.

******* russians. I actually feel better -- at least Holland had his head screwed on straight and realized Hudler was worth at least what Filppula makes and was not offering him the peanuts so many posters on this site seem to think he is worth. I thought him leaving for only $2m tax-free was lunacy -- turns out different and that is a hell of a lot of money to turn down. I am still peeved at what I consider Babcock's gross mismanagement of Hudler's minutes this past year.

Leino might actually be a good option on that 1st line - because Dats and Zetterberg can make up for his skating and lack of defense (just like they did for Holmstrom). Cleary, and his skating and defense, will be vital to spread out the defense. Leino has good hands, that much is apparent. I also like that he seems to hound his way to the front of the net when he does not have the puck and has banged a goal in with the puck in the air -- he has a lot of promise. It just makes me nervous to count on pretty much a rookie to produce like that. Brunnstrom started out with a bang in Dallas, and quickly fizzled to the AHL for them last year. Hopefully Leino is different.

If Flip becomes our only option on the 2nd PP unit, I am concerned.

I think Echolalia' totals were a bit more realistic. If Helm or Abdelkader break 10 goals I will be ecstatic. Same if Leino gets 15. Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen, Cleary and Holmstrom are the guys that really need to pick up the slack... not the rookies. Our defense and goaltending sucked last year, and I admit I am definitely worried about losing so much offense -- Holland can not just snap his fingers and say the "team will play better defensively" and watch it happen. There's definitely reason to be concerned... not necessarily over making the playoffs, but home ice is a huge advantage. I also do not like the idea of the Wings having to work their asses off every single regular season game in order to hav a solid place in the standings -- this team has gone through three long post-seasons straight. Hopefully the rookies make a big difference there. Hopefully the defensive, PK and goaltending woes were more of an aberration resulting from a Stanley Cup hangover than anything else.