joshy207

Terrible defenseman + terrible contract = TERRIBLE SIGNING. 3 years too long, $9.75M too much. This was a kneejerk reaction to other GMs being PROACTIVE in acquiring free agents!

I saw somewhere recently that Bettman told Balsillie he wouldn't be opposed to him owning a team in the future, as long as he played by the rules. But, like someone said earlier in the thread, RIM/Blackberry is struggling and falling way behind its competitors, gotta wonder if Balsillie would still have the money to be a successful owner...

Not at all surprised. One can only ram his head into a wall so many times... I just hope the highest (or ONLY) bidder is Quebecor and this whole charade is put to rest. !Vive les Nordiques!

Holland turned one pick (#24) into two picks (#35 and #48). Without making this move, the Wings only get one of those players. THAT is the point!!

They'll wear dark helmets with their raspberry uniforms.

I doubt the Wings get Burns without having to give up Smith...

Not at all uncommon in the Major Junior drafts. Players use college to leverage themselves out of being drafted by poor teams. Similar to what happens in Major League Baseball's draft.

I like Salo. I know he's injury prone, and I forgot he's already 36, so signing him might not be a great idea unless you plan on Smith getting in 30 or so games. I'd also like to see Bieksa and Ehrhoff here. If Lidstrom decides to retire, maybe Holland could steal all three if Vancouver doesn't sign them by 7/1...

Filppula hasn't been able to carry the second line. If he would produce more, Datsyuk and Zetterberg could stay together on a full-time basis. When they're split up, it's because the Wings need production from 2 lines and Filppula is not a #2 center.

Is this the same Jovanovski that Helm made his ***** all series? Pass. There are defensemen available who will be younger, cheaper AND better. If I'm running the Wings, here's what I do with the existing players: -Trade Hudler and Filppula, as long as I can get a decent return. I think Hudler has value around the league, he had a bad season but could thrive in a different atmosphere. Filppula also has value, but he hasn't played himself into the 2nd line center role like he was supposed to. -Sign Eaves and Miller. -Let Modano, Salei, Ericsson, and Osgood walk. Here's what I'm looking for in free agency and trades: -Basically, acquire an entire second line that will put up about 60 goals and 150 points and add a physical edge to the team. -Find a high quality defenseman who's solid in his own end to play in the top four. I'm not looking for ANOTHER "puck-moving" defenseman to fill Rafalski's void. Need someone who's good below the faceoff dots. -Look for a cheap, experienced vet (like Salei) to play 12-16 minutes a game. (Janik could be an option here.) -If Lidstrom retires, look for a #1 type defenseman. -Find a cheap, veteran goalie to back up Howard. (MacDonald if there's no better option.) As for the Griffins: -Mursak, Emmerton, Tatar fight it out for an extra forward spot. Draper can be included in the mix if he's willing to go through what Maltby did last summer. -Janik and Smith are considered as options for the defense. If Lidstrom returns, Smith becomes more of a possibility. Janik could fill the 7th defenseman spot and replace Kindl or Smith at times, or anyone who's sick or injured. -MacDonald could be in the mix for the backup goalie spot, depending on who's available and at what price. I don't know if Larsson would consider returning to the Wings, or if he's even progressed enough to be considered. Where I'm looking for players: -UFAs, obviously. -Players on teams that are in early cap trouble for next season. -RFAs that aren't tendered and become UFAs. -Players whose teams walk away from their arbitration awards. -As training camp comes to a close, the waiver wire. My roster, with possible Griffins in parentheses: F- Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Franzen, ?, ?, ?, Abdelkader, Cleary, Bertuzzi, Helm, Eaves, Miller, Holmstrom, ?(Mursak/Emmerton). D- Kronwall, Stuart, Lidstrom or replacement, ?, Kindl, ?(Smith), ?(Janik). G- Howard, ?(MacDonald).

For years, Howe never really did much to negotiate his contract. He was a pretty trusting guy, a little naive really. Adams would tell Howe he was the highest paid player in the league and, with a handshake and a wink, told Howe to keep it quiet so the other guys wouldn't get jealous. Howe would eventually find out there were three or four guys on his team alone making more money than him... my guess is he found out after the union push by Lindsay, but until that point, he was pretty loyal to management.

Separate leagues, separate drafts. When the WHA was around in the 70s, they and the NHL would draft the same players. Just means the team that drafts that player owns his rights in that league.

I also have a 4-division alignment I've been kicking around for a while... here it is, with the teams we have today: Smythe/West division: Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Anaheim, San Jose, Phoenix, Colorado. Norris/Great Lakes division: Minnesota, Chicago, Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Toronto. Patrick/Southeast division: Florida, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Carolina, Nashville, St. Louis, Dallas. Adams/Northeast division: Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, NY Rangers, NY Islanders, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Washington. Divisions with 7 teams play each other 6 times for 36 games, and play all other teams twice for 46 games. 82 total. Divisions with 8 teams play each other 5 times and play 3 of the teams a sixth for 38 games, and play all other teams twice for 44 games. 82 total. No conferences, just the divisions. Top 4 in each make the playoffs, first 2 rounds are played within the division. Top point-getting divisional playoff champ will play the bottom, middle 2 play each other. Winners of those series play for the Cup. Realignment would have worked better had Phoenix moved to Winnipeg rather than Atlanta, but it can be done.

Holland deserves credit for having a great support staff in place and for listening to and trusting their opinions. He has made some good moves, but also some questionable ones (like Maltby's last two contracts, 2-year deal for Holmstrom last summer) and a few of his deals that could have worked well just plain didn't (Modano, Hatcher, etc.) Giving away Leino, I can't fault him for that... Babcock wouldn't play him because he had no work ethic and he wasn't a proven commodity in the league, so they weren't going to get a lot in return. The biggest issue I have is the extent of the "loyalty" that goes on with the franchise. Other than Lidstrom and Yzerman, I wouldn't have let any other player decide if he's going to return when he's clearly past his prime and well on the way to useless. They are getting better though, pushing Chelios and Maltby out the door. I'd like to see the same thing continue with Osgood and probably Draper. There are too many young players who need the opportunity to play at the NHL level for Draper (and Modano) to have a spot next year. However, I feel most of the "loyalty" decisions come from above... as in Ilitch. All that said, Holland is the better choice for GM right now. Had he completely lost his marbles or passion, then Yzerman or Nill should have been installed, but that's not the case. And I don't see Yzerman wanting to ditch the team he will have built in 5 years to come back to a Detroit team that may very well be in need of its own rebuilding...

A lot of your stronger skaters are a little bow-legged.

Did you know, the Red Wings have not lost one single game in the last 10 years? Not one! They have been beaten by the refs though, on multiple occasions. Those games appear as "losses" in the standings because there's no other place to put them. The Wings have never beaten the refs, though, or won a game with their help. Must be some kind of Bush/Obama government conspiracy.

The contract is negotiated. Lidstrom, at his advanced age, has told the Wings that he won't sign for anything more than one year. Since he's their captain, their best player for the last 15-20 years, and one of the best defensemen in league history, the Wings aren't going to force his hand--and risk losing cap space--by only offering him only a 3 or 4 year deal. He's earned that respect from the organization. And yes, he's had a great season, it may look like he has "3-5 years" left in him. But if you look at his season just a year ago, he appeared much closer to retirement than to continuing to play long term. His kids are in or approaching high school, and it's tougher with each additional year for the body and mind to put in the work to prepare for another long season. There's no Brett Favre drama, no "I'm done, I might want to play, I'm working out but not going to play, I want to play, I'm done, I'm going to play but I won't come to training camp, let's do this again next off-season, here's a picture of my junk." Lidstrom made his decision within days of talking to Holland and Co. last summer. We can all expect him to do the same this off-season, and after each additional season he might play. Winning a Norris and a Cup might inspire him to come back for another year. Or it could inspire him to go out on top. Only he knows...

Just so everyone knows... this isn't a "nomination" for the Norris trophy, these 3 players are the "finalists", meaning they were the top 3 vote-getters. Voters choose 5 defensemen and rank them 1-5. A first-place vote gets 10 points, 2nd gets 7, 3rd gets 5 points, 4th 3, and 5th place gets 1 point. The points are tallied and the top 3 are announced as finalists. After the awards ceremony, The Hockey News used to (and I'm guessing still does?) publish the entire vote/points list for all NHL awards.

I'd be really, really cautious about handing out long-term deals to anyone over 35, let alone 40. Also, you have to be prepared for the possibility that, if the Wings win the Cup, both Lidstrom AND Rafalski could hang up the blades...

The location of the CCM tag was changed in 2000. You can see the different placements on these mock-ups from www.nhluniforms.com: http://www.nhluniforms.com/1999-2000.html http://www.nhluniforms.com/2000-01.html

The CCM logo used to be placed on the hem, where it is on the jersey in the picture. Also, there was no NHL logo on replicas at that time.

Exactly! This has been their problem for a long time. When the puck-possesion isn't working, they just keep trying to play the same style. Regular season or playoffs. That's why they've looked so bad in some of their playoff losses. No desperation, no change of style, disappointing early exit. It would be great to see a team that can play both styles as needed.

Looks a little Toronto-ish. It's not bad, but I think some silver or grey stripes would have looked great.

Garth Butcher is a great name. But my all time favorite is Bob Beers!

A few interesting things from that season: -Despite their brutal record, the Wings had five 20-goal scorers (John Ogrodnick, Kelly Kisio, Petr Klima, Warren Young, and Gerard Gallant). Yzerman had 14 goals in 50 games, he surely would have hit 20. And they also got 19 goals from both Reed Larson and Ron Duguay before trading them away late in the season. (Both would top 20 with their new teams.) So, they were one injury and two trades away from having EIGHT guys score 20 goals. No other player scored more than 9 goals. -Danny Gare, Eddie Mio, and cup-of-coffee Wing Ed Johnstone were the oldest players on the roster. They were 31. -The Wings used a total of 5 players in their 30s. They used 8 players under the age of 21, including Yzerman, Probert, Klima, Kocur, and Shawn Burr. It was definitely a young man's league back then!