joshy207

Ash, there are a lot of leagues around the Livonia area. Some only accept team registrations, but some accept individuals as well. Here are the leagues I know of that accept individuals. Either they are draft leagues, will place you with teams looking for players, or have sub lists: www.rspi.net/ Plymouth/Canton area rinks www.suburbanicefarmingtonhills.com Suburban Ice in Farmington Hills (beginner league) www.noviicearena.com Novi www.hna.com Hockey North America (Dearborn, Melvindale, City Sports in Detroit) There are other leagues that only take full teams: Livonia, Garden City, Hat Trick Hockey (Canfield/Redford), Farmington Hills... And plenty of other leagues if you're willing to drive, like Troy, Royal Oak, Hazel Park, Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills, Kensington Valley in Brighton, MSE in Trenton, Fraser, and Mt. Clemens, Rochester Onyx, Ann Arbor Ice Cube... Your best bets are to talk to any friends who play in a league and see if they need subs or know of any teams looking for players, and to hit up some of the local rinks for drop-in hockey or "sticks and pucks" and talk to players there. I play in the Livonia league on Friday nights, it's pretty well-run and competitively balanced, we have a lot of fun! Good luck, I hope this helps!!

...like Cleary, Samuelsson, Bertuzzi, etc? If the last 2 seasons have shown us anything at all, it's that the kids are ready. Or at least close enough that they can be brought up and play meaningful minutes.

Damn shame about Derek Sutton's fractured skull. He would have gone #1 in the draft.

If he retires, his entire cap hit counts against the Wings. If he stays with GR, they at least get the $100K in relief from sending him down. So there's that.

Another pretty solid game. Hopefully this can continue...

As already said, that's on the goalie and on the USU center. Goalie has to be ready, center should check his guys. Not the ref's responsibility.

All depends on how the Wings are playing and where they are in the standings in the week leading up to the deadline. If they're playing well and in the thick of things, like they have been the last couple weeks, then look to add a defenseman. If they're falling out, maybe look to move a piece or two and make room for guys next year.

The only way to get experience is to get experience. These prospects deserve more of a chance to show what they can do than the Wings tend to give them. Holland would rather "overbuild" his roster and try to get rid of a guy or two, than to leave a spot or two open and motivate a younger player to step up and make the NHL, even if for only a while. This lets the Wings know what they truly have coming up the pipeline and it lets the prospects see firsthand what they have to do to be successful at the top level. The way it is now, most of the younger guys have little to no NHL experience by the time they run out of waiver options. They're forced to sink or swim, but nobody told them how strong the current was... Yes, there are a lot of young players in the lineup right now, most without much experience. But there are still a lot of veterans playing, too. The inconsistency is club-wide, not just the youth. Inconsistent and erratic is what this team is. It's been this way for the last 2 years.

Almqvist, I believe, is out of options after this year and would need to clear waivers to return to Grand Rapids, so if he's re-signed, I would think he gets first crack at a Detroit roster spot over all the other D prospects. Backman will start in Grand Rapids unless he completely blows everyone's doors off and beats out every D prospect. Also, Backman is 3" taller than Almqvist, but is 4 lbs. lighter. He'll have to put on some muscle before he gets a legit shot.

22 is too old to be drafted. Max draft age is 20. Toledo is having a terrible year, I'm sure they're looking for help anywhere they can find it. The Walleye are also affiliated with Chicago, so it could be their influence...

Wow. Incredible good luck/incompetent officiating on that goal there. And FSD ups the ante by going to commercial DURING PLAY IN OVERTIME?

If by "bold", the author means "insane", then yes.

I'm sure Samuelsson has pride and that he'd rather be playing and isn't happy sitting out or playing few minutes when he does dress.

The injury "thing" is beyond ridiculous...

2 years is not "a little rough patch". That's a long time. Yes, there has been a lot to overcome--the loss of 3 top defensemen in 2 years, a ton of injuries, some bad contracts, etc. This is a team in transition, a transition that is going to take a couple more years. Plenty of good or great coaches get fired. If Babcock is to be fired, it will not be because he is a bad coach. It would be because the time for change will have come.

I think the main thing to take from this article is the unprofessionalism displayed by USA Hockey and its officials. This type of insider information, while craved by all of us, should never be released to the public. If after the announcement, a coach, GM, or other official wants to say "this is why we took/didn't take Player X", that's fine, but it can then be a more polished statement. Also, players who have been part of the program for years--like Johnson--and were passed over deserved a call before the announcement. It's just the right thing to do.

How about just referring to players by their NAMES?

Should that happen, I would expect the return to be similar to what was acquired for Jagr or Iginla. Nothing too exciting like a 1st-round pick or a top young player/prospect.

Consistently inconsistent. This is the same team that was on the outside looking in with a week to go last season. It's also the same team that rallied to get the #7 seed, took out Anaheim, and had Chicago on the ropes before falling apart. It's a team that can completely pick apart an opponent one night, then look like they have never played the game the next night. You never know which team is going to show up.

He has been. He was a pretty important part of the '08 and '09 teams. His drop-off seems to be noticeable to everyone but Babcock. Credit where credit is due though, Cleary has played well lately... he just can't produce anymore. The "mistake signing" label could be put several of this off-season's contracts, as far as the roster- and cap-crunches go, but Cleary was the late signing that really put the Wings in this jam, so he'll always be the scapegoat. If there were 3 more spots and $3M more in cap space going into training camp, it wouldn't have been an issue.

I'm sure waiving all these guys (Tootoo, Eaves, and whoever else is going to have to go) and benching Samuelsson is going to do wonders for Detroit's image for free agents... bringing Cleary back has been a colossal error.

They all have NMCs, but not all of them are in writing.

...something Holland has been unable to do since July. He'd have to get Buffalo to take on guys like Quincey and Samuelsson.

That's a lot of salary to take on... and Ehrhoff is signed through 2021. Do we want another long-long-long-term contract here? I did read somewhere (probably on Twitter) that Moulson seems to be happy in Buffalo. Is that enough for him to consider staying there? I would figure Buffalo would want prospects and/or younger, established players in return, but they would also have to take on salary to stay above the floor. It would have to be a big trade in terms of the number of players involved...

You're over the cap with no extra defenseman... what did you do with Lashoff, anyway? And Samuelsson?