TNBT

As a big fan of the EA Sports NHL range, I've taken the first opportunity to get a Red Wings dynasty set up. The first thing I did when I got my team up and running was to look for ways to solve our problems with toughness up front, and I got the Ducks to agree to this deal: MIGHTY DUCKS TRADE: Ilya Bryzgalov Todd Fedoruk RED WINGS TRADE: Chris Osgood Marc Lamothe So my question to you is would you do that trade if you were the Red Wings? I obviously did, as it was a great chance to add some toughness to the 3rd or 4th line, and seeing as how the good people at EA Sports decided that neither Jimmy Howard, Drew MacIntyre nor Joey MacDonald deserved to be in the game, I needed to nab myself a young goalie to take over in the future. I gave up Osgood and Lamothe (who was the only goalie on the roster after Legace and Osgood), but Legace and Bryzgalov should be able to hold down the fort for the season, and I may add another cheap goalie in the off-season, either through a trade, signing or the draft.

Regarding Bootland, I know it's only a video game, but I added him to my 3rd line along with Draper and Maltby in my NHL 2006 dynasty, and he added an entirely new dimension. The physical play increased, the defensive capacity of the line went up, the energy level skyrocketed and Bootland was all over the ice. It's not real life, but I think he could have a similar effect in real life. Yzerman isn't really holding up that well and Babcock doesn't seem to have the faith in him to play him for extended periods, so perhaps Bootland could bring a new lease of life to our Grind Line and give it a new spark? As for Kopecky, I must agree that it really is annoying to see someone with so much talent and size only perform when they're due for a new contract, but it is good to see him finally looking like putting it all together. I'd be interested in signing him for another 1 or 2 year contract after this season and see if he can keep developing, as I'm sure we all hope he will. It will be tempting to look at all his potential and size and hand out a long-term deal, but that is a risk that Holland can't afford to take. Quincey is a guy who I am really looking forward to seeing in the next season or two. He's not the monster hitter that would make us all drool at the prospect of seeing them in a Wings uniform, but he has some nice size, isn't shy about using it and is just a solid player. He's still developing so he could become even more of a physical presence in the future, but even if he doesn't, he's still one of those guys who you can feel comfortable and secure about having him back in your own zone. As for the original point of this thread, Grigorenko, I'm as excited about seeing him here as I have been about any other European player. Everything I read and hear about this guy just gets me excited about seeing what he can bring to the table. When you have a guy who was once considered a comparable prospect with Ilya Kovalchuk, then you have to be happy to have him in your system. It would be great if he was a bit bigger, but he's still built like a tank and has some nice wheels. Paired with guys like Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Hudler and Filpulla, he's going to bring some excitement to the team.

These are not deals that I advocate the Wings making, they are deals that I was either offered by another team or pursued with another team in EA Sports NHL 2006. DEAL 1: DETROIT TRADES: Eric Manlow ST. LOUIS TRADES: Christian Laflamme DEAL 2: DETROIT TRADES: Mark Mowers COLORADO TRADES: Peter Worrell St. Louis offered me the first trade (and I agreed) and I initiated the second trade with Colorado to add toughness. So my question to you is if these two trades were available in real life, would you pull the trigger?

OK, scratch the Mowers for Worrell idea. I just played my first game last night since the trade and midway through the first, Worrell gets into a fight. Now keep in mind that the entire reason I traded for him was to add toughness. Anyway, he gets into this fight (the game is against Chicago) and he absolutely gets his ass handed to him by Matthew freaki' Barnaby of all people. I think my nan could beat Barnaby in a fight, what the hell is wrong with Worrell?

Exactly. It really disgusts me how someone with that size and level of talent can just be so lazy and not give a damn about improving. Does he have no idea how blessed he is to have the physical gifts that he has? I'd love to get 10 minutes alone in a room with this punk and smack some sense into him.

I don't really know much about LaFlamme, but I accepted that trade because Manlow was never going to get a game for the Wings with all of the other forwards on the roster, and my depth at the blue-line was quite low. As for the Mowers/Worrell trade, I really do think that was a good idea. Mowers doesn't really contribute anything special to the team, and when we have a fully healthy team, he's not even going to get a game. Even if we lost him for nothing, we wouldn't miss him at all. Worrell may be worse as an overall player, but he brings a specific ability (fighting/toughness) that we really need. As for him being a liability on the ice, we don't have to play him much because we can give his minutes to other player(s) and just send Worrell out there when needed. The way I look at it is that Mowers hardly plays anyway, and Worrell would hardly play, so it all balances out. The only difference is that is having Worrell, we have a guy who can go out and get into it with the opposition when the need arises.

I hadn't seen that before. Awesome move by Kopecky, but an equally awesome comeback from the goalie. Hilarious stuff!

Before this season, I was starting to get concerned that we would never bring Kolasau over to America and that he may not develop to his full potential. His ability to lay big hits and use his size has never been in question, it has always just been a matter of getting him here and letting him develop and fill out his big frame, so hopefully that will continue to happen as he gets older. I'm really liking the look of that video, and if can get bigger and play like that on a consistent basis, then he and Kindl may make a hell of a good defensive pairing for the next decade or more.

Lang is one of my favorite Wings, but I wouldn't be opposed to trading him to fill our needs. When you just look at the facts, it actually makes a lot of sense for us to move him. We have plenty of scoring power in the lineup already, plus we have Hudler, Filppula and soon to be Grigorenko waiting in the wings for a chance. Also, Lang is most effective at center, and we have an abundance of young talented centers who can easily take his place. Lang is also 35 years-ild, and while he's still an effective player for us, he's not getting any younger, and in a couple of years he wont exactly fit in with the young core of forwards we are developing. On the other end of the ice, we have a lack of physical defensemen, even before we lost Fischer. That lack is even more obvious now. So when you have an abundance of one commodity (scoring forwards, specifically centers) and a shortness of another (defensemen), then it makes sense to trade one of your abundant commodities for one which fills your need.

I'm guessing that this new CBA is a lot like the NBA's CBA when it comes to player injuries and salaries. If a player suffers an injury that will put them out of action for an extended amount of time (longer than whatever the set timeframe is), then the team gets an Injured Player Exception or something like that (I forget the proper name), which allows them to sign a player to as much or less money than the injured player was due to make. In the event that the team uses the exception and signs another player, and then the injured player is OK to come back, then the team would have to clear out enough cap space to fit the returning player's contract under the salary cap before he can play again. EXAMPLE: The salary cap is $50 million. A team has a total salary of $50. A player who is making $3 million gets injured and is going to be out for a while. The team then signs someone to a $2 million contract to replace the injured player. The team then has the equivalent of a $49 million team salary. If the injured player comes back, then the team has to cut enough salary to get to a total team salary of $47 million, which would give them the $3 million in cap space needed to fit the injured players $3 million contract under the cap. If they can't clear out enough cap room, then the injured player wouldn't be able to return to the lineup. That would be the only reason I would be concerned about the Wings signing someone to replace Fischer. If it turns out that Fischer can return at some point, then we will have to get rid of some salary before we can get Fischer back on the ice.

I'd do that trade if I was the Wings GM. I'm not sure the Ducks would though. Hedstrom is looking like becoming a solid checking-line player for them, whereas MacLean is a borderline 4th liner. Lilja is, well, Lilja, and Salei is worth a lot more. We may have to bump the pick up to a 2nd rounder or something.

You know, I seem to recall asking WOULD you do that trade if you were the Red Wings? I'm not suggesting that this trade would work or should even be proposed in real life (which it couldn't be because we don't have Lamothe anymore), nor did I suggest that because it worked on NHL 2006 then it would work in real life. I was just asking, that IF you were the GM of the Wings, and you had the opportunity to do this trade, WOULD you do it?

Allow me to respomd to the two key parts of your post: 1 - Why would the 'Hawks want to trade for another goalie? Well, apparently (from what I have read), the 'Hawks aren't exactly thrilled with their big off-season investment. Things may have changed recently, but everything that I have read so far through the seasons indicates that the 'Hawks would be more than willing to pick up the phone if someone wanted to call them about Khabibulin's availability. Considering that they're not too happy with The Wall, they will most likely be interested in adding some depth to the goalie position, so that if they do get the chance to move Khabibulin, then they will have some guys waiting in the wings. So far, all they have in the pipeline as a goalie is some guy named Corey Crawford. I don't know much about him, but even if he's predicted to be good, they could use the depth. That's where we come in. We have Joey MacDonald, Drew MacIntyre, Jimmy Howard, Stefan Liv and Logan Koopmans all in the system. We have too many young goalies, they don't have enough. You do the math. Also, we've advocated giving them pick(s) as well, and the 'Hawks appear to be interested in building a young team through the draft, so some pick(s) may be appealing to them too. 2 - We are pretty set with our forwards. We have a lot of scoring forwards at the moment. You are correct in saying that. However, how many big, young, scoring power forwards do we have? Very few, if any. That's why we need someone like Bell. Sure, we have plenty of scorers, but they are all little guys, and we need someone with some size who can get to the front of the net and score to compliment the little guys we have. Sure, we do need defensive help, but that's not what this thread is about. We can address our defensive weaknesses at another time. This isn't about our blue-liners, it's about our need for size and power up front.

Well, you know how the old saying goes... Seriously though, it would be nice to get some discussion and some different points of view on issues around here without the personal insults and sarcastic name-calling all the time. Anywho, I guess we should take it as a sign that we all care a great deal about the team, otherwise we wouldn't give a crap if people bashed our players and things like that. As for the proposed trade, I'd say no thanks. As far as I'm concerned, Howard has as much talent as any goalie prospect in the NHL, and there is no reason to trade him. The kid just shouldn't be in the NHL at the moment, it's as simple as that. He's not ready yet, and he should be starting in Grand Rapids and getting a season or two of AHL hockey under his belt before we throw him in the deep end and tell him to swim. The way I look at it is like this: Howard is by far THE best goalie prospect we have, and as such his development is far more important than the development of any other goalie in the system. With that in mind, we should be doing what is best for him first, and then worrying about our other goalies. Sure, it may be better for Joey MacDonald or Drew MacIntrye to be starting in Grand Rapids instead of riding the pine in Detroit, but it's better for Howard to be getting starters minutes in Grand Rapids as well. Howard and his development is far more important to us in the long run that MacDonald is, so Howard ought to be starting in Grand Rapids and MacDonald should be sitting here as our backup. We should do what's best for Howard's career, and then worry about where our other goalies should be later. As far as I'm concerned, Howard should be in Grand Rapids, and any one of MacDonald, MacIntyre or Liv should be on the bench for the Wings.

I was saying the same sort of things when he was drafted. Last season was his first year of North American hockey, so it wasn't fair to judge him on that. I thought we'd see a big jump in production from him this season, and we have. In terms of his physical play, I'm not too sure how he will turn out there. He has the size to play physical (although not that Fischer-esque moster size), and although he hasn't shown much physicality yet, we can hope that it is something that will come along as he continues to adjust to the North American style and gets more and more experience under his belt.

That was something I was thinking about. This is the first time he's really shown any effort, and it just happens to come at a key season for him. It may be worth it to us to keep him around in Grand Rapids and see if he keeps improving, but he definatley shouldn't be put straight into the Wings lineup until he shows that he can work hard when his ass ISN'T on the line.

As much as I would love Kopecky to put it all together and prove that he belongs in the NHL, I just wouldn't say he is ready yet. He has 18 points in 22 games. That's not too bad, but it is definatley below what he COULD do if he really tried. However, 18 points after 22 games is a lot better than the 16 and 12 points that he had in the past two seasons, each of which he played 48 games. If he can keep up this sort of pace then he'll be looking at something like 40 points after 48 games. That would be enough to warrant some feelings that he's on the right track, but not enough to warrant giving him a spot on the Wings roster. His coaches should be praising what he's doing, but also encouraging him to keep improving, and if he does that, then MAYBE he'll be Wings-ready in another season or two.

I was just wondering if someone who gets a chance to see Hudler play could tell me a bit about how much speed the kid has? The reason I ask is because I've read a lot of stuff here and in other places about how guys Hudler's size really need to have great speed to be effective (see: Martin St. Louis), and that Hudler will struggle in the NHL because he isn't fast. However, I was playing NHL 2006 yesterday and I put Hudler at center on my 4th line, and I was shocked to see how quick he was. He was one of the fastest guys on the ice from the Wings and whichever team I played against, and he was able to create space between him and anyone chasing him. I know this is not realistic, but I thought if EA Sports has created Hudler to be that quick in the game, then maybe he is that quick in real life and I have gotten the wrong idea about him being slow. Can someone tell me? Is he a quick little guy or is he slow?

I would love to see the Wings pick up Mark Bell. We've got plenty of talented little guys, but we could really use a young talented big guy. Bell is playing really well lately though, so it might be an idea to wait until he cools off before making a move for him. I'm not sure what it would take to get him either. There has been a lot of talk about them wanting to dump Khabibulin, so perhaps if we offered them a prospect goalie (Liv, McDonald, MacIntyre, etc.) and a pick, they may be willing to trade?

It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure that Salei and McDonald are worth Lang. As someone else said, Lang is having a decent year himself but has also been centering a line where his wingers have both had great years. I would hesitate to break up that sort of chemistry. McDonald would be nice, but as you said, we have plenty of centers already. He can play on the wing, but what we need up front is a power forward, not another little guy. I love the idea of getting Salei to add toughness and to fill the hole left by Fischer's injury, but I was thinking about trying to get him another way. Burke seems to be intent on getting cap space, and there is a lot of speculation that he is clearing space to be able to take on a contract of a scorer in a future trade. If we were to send them a draft pick and/or a prospect for Salei, it would take his salary off the books for them, allowing them to get a couple of million more in cap space to go after a scorer in another trade.

So he's nimble and quick in bursts, but going end-to-end he wouldn't neccessarily be able to break away from chasing defensemen?

I'd be more than happy to see Bootland get a shot ahead of Mowers. Mowers is a solid enough player to fill in on the 4th line, but he doesn't really bring anything to the table. Bootland may not be the most talented guy out there, but at least he brings something to the team: toughness and an agressive edge.

According to HF: 'Kopecky has great size, power and skills. He is the only prospect who could translate into a future scoring power forward as the Wings lack these type of players in their system.' That's why everyone is fed up with him, because he has loads of potential yet he doesn't deliver. I don't know how many more opportunities Kopecky will get with the Red Wings organization at this point. Kopecky has 3-1-4 and +3 in 9 games, and he's getting third line ice time. Valtteri Filppula in those same 9 games has 3-2-5 on the second line, and is a -1. Hudler has just gone nuts with scoring, and he's taken Manlow and McDonell with him. Hudler 9-12-21 +8/Manlow 4-8-12 +6/McDonell 1-10-11 +5 We may not have a great deal of forward power and size amongst our prospects, but at least we have plenty of scoring talent.

Yeah, Kopecky is becoming REALLY annoying isn't he? He has all the physical talents and skills that you could ask for, but it's like he's deliberately going out of his way to not become a good hockey player. I don't know how much more we or anyone else can do for him. It really is up to him now to prove that he wants to become a quality player, and so far it seems that he is doing whatever possible to prove that he doesn't want that.

Like Abdelkader, people really got on Kindl on draft day, saying we should have picked someone else. However, I'm pretty happy we have him. He's big and doesn't mind playing physical, but he also has great skills and speed. He had a poor year last year as he adjusted to the North American style of play, but this year he has shown that as he gets more comfortable, he is going to keep on getting better. If Fischer develops that physical, mean streak like we all hope he will, then he and Kindl could form an awesome defensive pair in the future.