NeverForgetMac25

^ Bettman and Co. won't increase the floor to ceiling gap as it defeats the whole intent of what they were trying to institute with the Cap, which was to supposedly put teams on an equal playing field. What ended up actually happening was the cap grew by over 50% since its institution in 05/06, and now teams like the Red Wings and Rangers can spend closer to what they want while the bottom feeders are forced to pay bulls*** salaries (I.E. Kopecky's ridiculous Florida deal) just to hit the cap floor.

This is ridiculous. As Barrie said, we "may as well just put all the team names in a hat, shake them up, and pick one every year to decided your champion." It's BS that wonderful owners like Ilitch pour every dime they can into the continued success of their franchise, while a solid chunk of southern owners who don't give a s*** about the game or their teams' success get a massive undeserved boost, which becomes an enormous blow to teams like Detroit. Also, you can wave goodbye to re-signing your young talent. Get ready for NHL player musical chairs. Screw this if it comes true! ....and yes, get ready for another lockout.

TBH, I don't give a s*** about giving a shot to someone that rips teammates or guys that have done more in their careers than he'll likely ever come close to in his. All I care about is the last part of what you stated, I'd like to get an asset in return if he's not part of our future plans. That be case, get someone who is...but there's still time for that given his contract status. I assume he was referring to the fact that they're both goalies in their respective sports.

Exactly, so what makes anyone think he hasn't even thought about it? My guess is something gets done last minute. There's gotta be that give & take on both sides and in the end, TB is an attractive market to be playing in right now. Stevie will probably up his offer a little while Stamkos will concede as well.

I think you misunderstood that poster. He was coming to your defense and telling another LGW'er to not be a ******, not you.

A couple other gems:

:rotflmao: Post of the year!

I was under the impression that a player can only file for arbitration once, and as a result I would think the awarded contract would need to go out to their first eligible year of unrestricted free agency.

I truly believe its gonna be ConkBlock backing up Jimmy this year. While Kenny said he'd like to talk to Ozzie when he gets back first, he also said he won't hesitate to move if he has to. To me, that means Kenny wants to do right by Ozzie for all he's done for the organization and tell him in person that the team is going a different direction rather than having to hear about it on the trip his teammates paid for him to go on for his 400th win. If ConkBlock puts pressure on Holland to make up his mind now or else, than Holland will be forced to "not hesitate" as he mentioned. This is what I'm taking from his comments.

The return of ConkBlock. I miss saying that.

Another word for "Meaner" in this case would be "s***tier." They'll be like playing the Ducks 4 years ago without the back-end talent. We'll pot goals early and often and then roll four lines the rest of the way. They'll be fine.

Comments like this irritate the hell out of me. Like Holland wouldn't have paid $1.5 for Vokoun in a heartbeat. Like he didn't atleast check with Vokoun's camp. I know its rocket science but do you think perhaps the fact that Vokoun would be the undisputed number 1 had anything to do with him not considering Detroit? Nevermind, lets just go on hating on Holland for making one slightly large overpayment given the market.

Somewhere out there, Hitchcock is saying..."thanks assholes!"

Solid deal for both sides. Kenny won this one though, as Eaves continued to prove his worth especially when the injury bug hit.

That's actually a decent point. While I want the new Winnipeg team to retain the Jets name and logo, if they do decide to go in another direction, I wouldn't mind the Manitoba Moose. Good, solid hockey name.

Winnipeg expected to name team just prior to making their 7th overall Pick tonight. http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=369842

Cite/Link your source or I'll have to delete your post.

Leino's a UFA and Versteeg only makes a shade over $3 mil. Richards and Carters' total cap hits come to $11 million plus per year. They needed to shed some real salary to sign Bryz and fill out their roster. The 2 boys you mentioned wouldn't have scratched the surface. Now that being said, I can see letting Leino walk and moving Versteeg to hang onto one of the two they just moved, but moves had to be made.

Did you check the league average? 14 doesn't seem terrible compared to the 17 we had one of these past few years. I.E. I just looked up NYR and they've got 13 B2B's.

I love the idea of Detroit being East, but I hate the idea of unbalanced divisions. I'm down with this proposal though *if and only if* they scrap the idea of the top 4 teams in each division making the playoffs. It's the same garbage in the MLB with the Brewers division having 6 teams while an AL division only has 4. When the top team automatically makes the playoffs, it makes it a hell of a lot easier having less teams to get ahead of. So, the division with 7 teams will have it easy while the group of 8 will have to claw harder year-in and year-out. I love the idea of 4 divisions, playing each team to atleast a home-and-home and most importantly the Wings moving East. The only thing I would change would be making the two division winners the top seeds with the bottom six in either division rounding out the group. For the most part though, \that Bettman did very well with this one.

I read an article about him a couple years ago and the opening statement read something like this: "Nick Lidstrom has 4 Stanley Cups, 6 (at the time) Norris Trophies and can speak English better than you can.

EDM is lucky as hell he ever wanted to come back.

It's already been confirmed at $6.2M, same as last year.

I'll clarify further then, based on your statement. The difference between a bonafide top 6er and a 2nd/3rd liner is not going to make the difference in winning the cup or not. $2-$3M though is a big difference. $700K is peanuts and the on-ice product would not show much difference. As for Hossa, the timing didn't work for the Wings more than anything. Right now, the Kenny could and would easily pay the salary he's making in Chicago for the rest of his career.

Fair enough as well, but a similar message could be said for taking $6.2 once again given the season he had compared to last and the Cap continuing to go up. Everyone around the league understands the sacrifices it takes to play for the Wings. I'm not necessarily sure Lids taking $5M makes that any more apparent than it already is.