Andy Pred 48

put Eaves on the top line a few shifts, not sure if Homer has the legs to keep with the Euro twins all game. Use Homer on the PP and split shifts with Eaves on the 4th and top line.

Pulkkinen sits 10th in scoring in the Finnish SM Liiga, not bad so far for the 18yr old.

hey i dont wanna get on anyone ones case as it is too early in the season ie not even started yet. But 5 goals on 25 shots, i mean come on even our netty in the beer league would get roasted for that performance, and this time he had our so called top 6 in front of him. Babs will be a concerned coach after that showing, not just Oz but the whole outfit. Got 4 days to iron some big looking wrinkles out.

so if 20 games into the season Big E is a +5 and has 8pts or more do we all start retracking here or what? heres what we should do, we have some good prospects coming thru on the D who have some size. How about we convert Ericsson back to a forward and have Hommer teach him that front net pest job #96 does so well. Just think, Thomas has maybe just this year left, what better way to use E's size for when Hommer hangs them up. Just a thought guys.

Still on the FA list, skates ok, plays well enough for the 4th or 3rd line, has untapped potential possably the strongest player in the NHL and is a fr###ing beast! Evgeny Artyukhin Get it done Kenny, I can live with some of his dumb pens he'd be a cult hero in Hockeytown.

Could one of the rookies or tryouts push for a spot on d or up front? DOWNEY has only played twice so far and to all intents and purposes hasn't really done anything, he only got just under 2 mins of ice time on his last showing. Will the Wings offer him a 2 way deal on what they have seen so far? Maybe another game or 2 before they decide. The kid OWENS has looked a nice surprise, plenty of speed and some grit to boot. MURSAK has done well and is a close 2nd to Helm in the quickest skater in the org. Whats nice about him is that he has a scoring touch to. Think he'll get a look during the year when the injuries start. RITOLA has only played the once so far, and was pretty steady. Solid skater, but as yet not showing anything fancy to support his case for a spot on the roster. SMITH has a +3 rating so far and has been given over 20mins a game to show what he can do, but some have said he has been smoked a few times as well. JANIK has looked solid and realiable on the back end, while KINDL hasn't done much wrong or anything to stand out either. I feel that MEECH will suffer because of his injury. Unless he gets cleared for weds game i dont think that he'll have enough time to put his case forward and unless a trade/deal comes along he'll be GR bound. KOLOSOV has yet to ice in any pre-season games, is he injured does anyone know? I thought that he may have an outside chance for the 7th D spot.Him and SALEI have played together for Team Belarus and would have a good raport as our 3rd pairing maybe, both stay at home D men so maybe that would go against them being paired together for the Wings. Its an option that could be looked at if both KINDL and Big Rig struggle early on. So half way thru the pre-season, I would put the balance for the 14th forward as Miller,Ritola,Mursak,Tatar and Owens. The 7th D spot is set I feel for Kindl, unless the Wings go with the best player gets to play policy that they preach. Then I would say that Janik is making a strong case for himself. So Kindl,Janik,Smith and Meech with alot to do to have any chance of staying.

think i should take up scouting. Jared went in the 2nd round 32nd overall to Boston. Austin went in the 1st 18th overall to Nashville. Cam goes later than expected, 12th overall to Anaheim, at one point i thought we may have had a chance at getting him.

C Jared Knight in his first year at London Knights. 5'11" 180LB from Battle Creek has put up 10+11 in 40 games with a +9 rating. RW Austin Watson in his first year at Windsor Spitfires. 6'3" 171LB from Ann Arbor has put up 7+18 in 41 games with a +10 rating. Now I know that both lads are playing for 2 of the top sides in the OHL and that always helps you when starting off. But the numbers these 2 are putting up are pretty impressive for rookies. Both have fair size and with another 5 years to fill out so to say, they could be ones to watch. I'm all for having some local blood in the senior team, hence my calls for Booth or Moss being traded for. Just think they would give that extra grit we are always calling for.

The past 5 years no Redwing pick has played for the wings to date. In fact the only player to have made the show so far is Shawn Matthias who we traded away in the Bertuzzi deal. The '05 draft has 4 players having played for the Wings to date, Helm, Abdelkader,Ritola and Kindl. My question is who, in the past 5 drafts do you think will make his debut first?

anyone know when or if the front office are going to have any this year?

could the wings offer him a 2 way deal? can never have enough depth...........thou i think the Griffs have 8 D already.

Mitchell signs for LAA Kings.

with most fans on here pre-guessing who Kenny is going to cut loose or trade with the current roster 2 players over the limit, could he have any more surprises up his sleeve. General opinion is that 2 of Ritola, Miller and Meech will be traded or waived. But with the amount of UFA's still out there, could Kenny get another bargain? Is there any player out there that you think may be interesting the top brass, or will they go with what they have a nd have a few invitees at trg camp and see what happens?

Asham for $700k is a good bit of business on the Pens part. Eaves for $750k is good business for the Wings. Was Asham asking for this amount all along? Its what he was on last year at Philly, and after such a good year surely he'd be looking for a raise......? Maybe he had to take the same as no one has offered him more and beside's he is 32 and the Wings have a younger and bigger version in Abdelkader. Asham would only hinder our 4th line as he wouldn't be able to keep up with his line mates, Eaves,Draper,Helm, Miller and Abby are all very good skaters, not so sure Asham is in the same class, so he wouldn't necessaraly fit in with our system.

John Vigilante signs for Asiago in Italy. good luck John enjoy the exp of playing in Europe.

I hope Kindl turns out ok, and I think he could be a decent #3/4 guy.If he gets his head sorted out Smith is the guy the Wings are looking at being the top pair guy in the next year or two.

If you really want to expand the sport, take it where the fan base has been stable for some years. In the AHL, what teams are supported well enough to have a NHL side instead? Attendance alone last year only Hershey Bears,Manitoba Moose,Chicago Wolves and our own Griffins topped above the 7000 mark. The idea of Manitoba/Winnipeg being back in is good, but could they increase their ave of just over 8000 by nearly double to what they would need to have any chance of surviving in the NHL. Chicago Wolves ave just under 8000, but is that Hawks fans going to Wolves home games when they are playing away? The two are too close i feel to finacially support 2 NHL teams, would be rivarly thou. Hersey thou could be viable.Highly successful AHL team, ave over 9500 fans and not too close to neighbouring NHL sides, may be there are too many NHL teams in that part of the NHL map to warrant putting another one in there. Looking at another ex NHL area Quebec, supports its jnr team the Remparts to the tune of over 12000 a game. Would these same fans pay extra to watch a NHL team and would it impact the support that the jnr team currently gets? Its a tricky situation and the other aspect is all of these options would add to the East side of the NHL map. The logical options would be Winnipeg, Quebec, and maybe a team on the east coast in Seattle/Portland. The NHL would then have 33 teams which would cause an uneven amount for current 4 leagues, so my solution would be to have 3 Conf of 11 teams. They would be put into the following conf. WEST CONF: Edmonton, Calgary,Vancouver,Seattle/Portland,San Jose,Anaheim,LA,Phoenix,Colorado,Winnipeg and Dallas. CENT CONF: Montreal,Quebec,Ottawa,Buffalo,Toronto,Pittsburgh,Columbus,Detroit,Chicago,Minnesota and St Louis. EAST CONF: Tampa,Florida,Carolina,Atlanta,Washington,Philadelphia,Nashville,Boston,NYR,NYI and New Jersey. Each team to play each other twice at home and away in the same conf. Then once at home and away against each of the other 2 conf's. Making a total of 84 regular season games. The playoffs would be the top 4 of each conf qualify, and then the next best 4 overall point total's would make up the 16 qualifying teams. My idea would be the top overall team, ie president trophy winner plays the 16th placed team then the 2nd place plays the 15th place team and so on. This proceedure would carry thru until the cup final series. I just think that this would give us in the main, the best 2 sides competeing for the stanley cup each year.

think ive mentioned it somewhere before, but what if Tatar & Smith blow all the coaches away at camp? do we take Kenny and Babs for their word that the best players will play? I think Smith will have a year at GR and then be on the team, i mean Kindl could bomb and leave an opening on the 7th D, Smith would be wasted sitting in the box when he could be eating the mins at GR. Tatar is a different kettle of fish thou, in my eyes. Maybe some say he should spend another year in GR but I would have him on the team now. Getting some 3/4 line mins and maybe a little pp time. Tough one to call i know as the team is stacked at the forwards. I dont think that Ritola would clear waivers thou so if it comes down to it maybe they trade Miller/Meech/Ritola and get something back for them. Drapes aint going anywhere, Malts i think is gone interesting about Downey. Mentor in GR is the best i can see for him, maybe showing Callahan tricks of the trade. I think Draper Holmstrom and Kindl are the guys who need to do the business, they could be sitting in the box a bit this year.

I was just looking at our new D mans bio and thought I'd have a look at how he compares to the rest of his draft year. Well overall Ruslan is one of the most durable of the D men drafted that year. Derek Morris (13th) 869 Chris Phillips (1st) 863 & Zdeno Chara (56th) 847 have played more than the Belarus Capt 842. What got me looking thou was the players Detroit passed over when taking their 1st round pick that year. Hindsight is a great thing, but when the Redwings chose Jesse Wallin with their 26th overall pick they unknowingly missed some gems. Wallin played just 49 games for the Wings before falling into minor league hockey. Cory Sarich went with the next pick after Wallin, he has played 749 games collecting 122pts. There is another 10 players that have played over 500 games with Sami Salo being a 3rd from last 239th overall pick steal. He played 665 times and ammassed 273 pts! The list is more than interesting but the 5 that stand out the most are; Chara 56th o/a 847 games 363 pts and counting. Kubina 179th o/a 822 games 348pts and counting, Kaberle 204th o/a 820 games 482pts and counting. Ponti 59th o/a 787 games and 318pts. Lastly Mitchell 199th o/a 586 games 119pts and still an FA!!

So Kenny does it again, Modano and Salei for a combined cap hit of $2m upto $2.85m with potential bonuses.Last season this combo would have hit your cap for $6.475m or $5.525m salary. Not bad at all Ken, just lose some cap now, feel bad for the guys that will go now thou.

loyalty will mean that Drapes doesn't hit waivers. Kenny wouldn't do that to a guy who has worn the winged wheel over a 1000 times. Its his last year of his current contract and i believe that Kris will hang them up at the end of the year, Malts should do it already.

The permatations are countless really, I mean people keep saying that Drapes is gunna be a scratch most nights. Well I see Hommer sitting in the box too. If we look at it from a skating side players could move up and down all the lines. If Babs is going with Z and Pav on the top line, with all due respect to Hommer, the need for a more Elite skater would be better. Enter Eaves, the former first rounder has plenty of speed and also has 20+ goals in him. Hommers pluses are his powerplay nack, is this enough alone an to have him icing every game? maybe yes maybe no. With Huds back Flip now has his old sparring buddy back from the old Griff days, chemistry there. How about a 2/3 line of Bert Mod and Mule? Big and powerful with lots of experience. Helm Abby and Drapes as the 4th line, not to shabby either. Zetterberg Datsyuk Eaves Cleary Filppula Hudler Bertuzzi Modano Franzen Abdelkader Helm Draper Holmstrom Miller

im afraid this whole cap issue is going to slowly have an adverse effect on the rosters in the NHL. With the cap supposedly being lowered more and more UFAs who cant get what they feel they are worth will go to the KHL, whilst they have the money. The talent pool will then water down and the not so good GM's will have 2 lines of talent and 2 lines of mediocre players. The only way to eliminate this from happening is to either reduce the current 30 teams to whatever, or disolve the cap altogether. It will take a few years to happen but if the KHL stays strong then the NHL need to act accordingly.

if Downs has been trg for a year to beef up and get fitter then Ken should give him a chance to show him what hes still got. 2 way contract would be ideal, he did a good job with the Griffs in 08-09 he could look after the kids and come up when needed.