TNBT

What autographed stuff of Stevie do you have? Also, what of your Stevie-signed stuff has a COA? I'd be willing to give up a kidney for a signed jersey, but if you only have a signed stick then that would be cool too. Let me know how much you're thinking for each piece and I'll let you know if I'm able to afford it.

I see where you're coming from, but if you're not a Beauchemin fan can you come up with the name of a young defensemen that IS worth Lang, and that we may be able to get in return for Lang? I understand not wanting to trade away assets for less than what they're worth, but when you have too many guys at one position as we do at center, it makes sense to move one of them to fill another need, even if you're not quite getting matching value.

The part in bold is why I see the Ducks as being a perfect trading partner for us. I agree with you that the Ducks do have some nice forwards, but outside of Selanne and McDonald, they don't really have anyone who can consistently put the puck in the net, and even McDonald isn't really proven as to whether he can do it night in, night out. You're right that Getzlaf and Perry will probably have breakout seasons and help with the scoring load, but what if they don't? The Ducks have a great veteran defensive core, so do they really want to waste that by banking on a forward group with only two real scorers?

I'm a fan of Souray, but he's 30 years old and the point of this trade was to help us to add some quality young defensemen. As for the Thrashers defensemen, I like Vishnevski but I agree that they probably wouldn't be looking to move him so soon after getting him. As for the guys you mentioned, I like both of them (Sutton more than Havelid), but the same thing applies as in the case of Souray - they're all in their early 30's, and I'm looking to add some nice YOUNG defensemen to the mix. That's why I was thinking Beauchemin, because he's youngish (26 years old), plays with some physicality and will drop the gloves.

Which defensemen from Montreal or Atlanta would you have in mind?

We very well may end up trading or releasing him. However, my post was how I see things working out if he is still on the roster.

As far as I have heard, it's like 99% certain that it will be Lidstrom, but the OFFICIAL word hasn't come from the team yet. So I guess if you want to you could still hope for another player, but it's very unlikely that anyone other than Lids will get the job. The only other real possible alternative is Zetterberg, if as SwedeLundin said, they want to establish their next long-term captain now. However, it seems most likely that they will go with Lidstrom for at least a year or two before Zetterberg takes over.

I think it's going to depend largely on his health. He showed last year that when he's healthy he can still be one of the top goalies in the game, and if we can play Osgood enough this year so as to keep Dom fresh for the Playoffs, then I think he'll have a good to very good year. However, if we try to play him in too many games and he breaks down, he will look very average.

Exactly. People think that it makes the game less skilled and just for thugs, but fighting is something that really is a beautiful art in hockey. It has strategic value, emotional value and motivational value if it's used correctly, and it's something that I think has to be kept as part of the game.

I've got a red and a white jersey that I wear around, but I'm looking to buy some Wings hoodies, t-shirts and caps as well.

Now THERE'S a guy that I'd like to see back in a Wings uniform...

If we traded Schneider for a forward that we need, then there would still be other types of defensemen that we could use ahead of a guy like Leetch. However, if Leetch was the only option available after the Schneider trade, then it couldn't hurt to add him.

I have to agree with that. Quincey has been a consistent performer and showed some nice development last season, yet he is continually overlooked by Wings fans when talking about the future. He may not be a superstar talent, but he's going to be a very solid and dependable player for us in the future.

The part in bold is where we disagree. The reasons that you listed for a trade are correct, but there is also another reason that one may make a trade: To strengthen a team weakness. You said it yourself that even without Schneider, this team would still be strong on defense. However, we are weak on the wings, so it would make perfect sense to move Schneider to fill one of the wing positions. In that event, we would still have a strong enough defensive group (as you mentioned), but we could also add Leetch to help cover some of the loss. We would basically be downgrading our strength (defense) a little bit to upgrade our weakness (the wing position).

I'm excited to see what McGrath can do as well. He's a good young prospect, but I'm worried that he wont get the real chance that he needs to develop, as we're already overloaded at center and still have Filppula to come. The guys that I'm most excited about seeing in the future are the defensemen, mostly Kindl and Quincey. I know neither of them are the physical specimen that Jiri Fischer is/was, but when you combine them with Kronwall, it gives us 3 very good young defensive prospects who can use the body. Add Lebda onto that and you have a solid 4-man rotation for the future. Also, what are the latest reports on Kolosov? He's a big boy who could be a force, but he's still pretty raw. I know that he made the move over to the US this past season, but I haven't heard anything about how much he has improved or regressed.

Drew MacIntyre is gone now, so that helps to ease the log-jam at the position just a little bit. The way I see it is like this: DETROIT: #1 - Hasek #2 - Osgood GRAND RAPIDS: #1 - Howard. He's the future of the team, and needs as much game time as possible to develop. #2 - Liv. He's a nice prospect who will probably beat out MacDonald for the backup job, and should be the guy that gets called up if Hasek or Osgood get injured, as Howard needs game time in Grand Rapids more than the experience of sitting on the bench with Detroit. TOLEDO: #1 - MacDonald. I've got nothing against the guy, but I can't see him beating out any of the four above him.

I said trade Schneider for someone who can help us, and then I mentioned Marleau AS AN EXAMPLE because he has been mentioned in this thread and around the boards as someone who can help us. As for Leetch still being unneccesary even if we trade Schneider, you may be right. That is why I said that it would MAYBE make sense.

Perhaps I should have made my first post a little clearer. When I mentioned Marleau, it wasn't because he was the one guy we had to get in return for Schneider for the addition of Leetch to make sense. My point was that we didn't need Leetch AND Schneider on the team, so if we could move Schneider for SOMEONE that could help us, then Leetch might be an OK addition. The only reason I used Marleau's name was because others in the thread have mentioned him as a guy that we may be after, and because the general consensus seems to be that he's a guy we need. However, for adding Leetch to make any sense, it could mean that we trade Schneider for someone completely different, preferably a winger.

I see you're not familiar with the term "maybe".

I agree completely. What is it with the polls with rediculously bad options these days? Anywho, to answer the question, my vote goes to Lidstrom.

Next captain: Lidstrom, for a few years or until he retires (whichever comes first) Next LONG TERM captain: Zetterberg, who will take over after Lidstrom

Hmmmm.... Are you trying to tell me something here Hatch? Should I expect to see your head popping up over the grassy knoll next time Kenny's driving past in an open-top car?

That pretty much sums up my thoughts as well. We simply don't need Leetch AND Schneider on the same team, so if we can move Schneider for a guy that can help us (Marleau) then maybe going after Leetch would make sense. Still, there's about as much chance of this happening as there is of Kenny actually SIGNING some tough guys instead of just talking about it.

Don't be an idiot Hatch, you know damn well Kenny will never let that happen.

I don't think it's really fair to judge how big of a fan someone is by how many games they watch. I answered that I was a huge WIngs fan, because I live, eat, sleep and breathe Red Wings hockey. However, being in Australia and not having cable, it's virtually impossible to get any games on TV over here. However, I spend a lot of my time trying to find as many games as possible as torrent files, and I'm always getting up and all sorts of crazy times to listen to games on NHL.com radio. I'm a MASSIVE Red WIngs fan even though I don't get to see many games. I'm sure that there are probably people in the US and Canada that see a few Wings games each year but don't really care about the team. That's why I don't think you can really use games watched as a measure of fan support.