Andy Pred 48

Slovak Mule - Mulica Horse - Konsky Stallion - Zrebec Stud - Chov Z, Pasha and Chov sounds a good combo!

Zetterberg Datsyuk Holmstrom Franzen Filppula Hossa Leino Hudler Samuelsson Kopecky Mursak Ritola Now that would really p##s Mssr Cherry & Bettman!!!

Lets make it a hat - trick and get big George off the Pens too. Im ok with what we have now, like it has been said before, the opposition have to catch our guys first!

If Brad Stuart heads back to Cali, would Kenny think about promoting one of our young blueliners and go after both Sundin and Rolston? I know that we look like we may only have an opening for Dallas's roster spot, but its a route that may be worth taking. Plenty of us have asked for the young Dmen to be given a chance and this could be a way of giving them all a run in the team. In a way Meech, Quincey and Ericsson could be handed a 15+ game run and see who makes the most of it. It would mean that more than likely Lilja would be on the 2nd pairing with Nic jnr but I don't see that as a major problem. With Cheli and Lebda as well, its more than likely that one of those 9 D will be traded. Lebda and Meech are very similar so it could be either. Kenny could then offer Rolston what was set aside for Stuart plus a little on a 1-2 year deal and he could offer Mats what he was going with anyway. Rols would be more than a replacement for Dally and then you have the bonus of adding a future HHOF to the line up. It would throw up all sorts of problems in the line department, but a 2nd line of Rolston Sundin and Franzen would keep the size vocalist's happy. Either one I would be happy with, but both would be awesome.

If this is true about Jay, then this is an opportunity that the Wings must take a look at. He could well be the guy we need to take over from The Capt on a long term basis. Yes we are loaded on D but we could off load 2-3 guys in the deal. Panthers will want top $ for Jay so the usual crap on here about what we offer isn't gunna work. We need to offer some serious talent to land him if the Wings are looking at the option. So who do you look at? Holmstrom, Lebda and Kopecky ? Cleary, Meech and Ritola ? Many will baulk at the thought of losing Hommer or Cleary but your gunna have to lose a main guy as well as other assets to get someone like Bouwmeester into the fold. Cap space will need to be made as well, both of these combo's will free up $3m+. Jay will want more than that, and the Wings could offer more down the line. Lids may well retire in 2 years, the Wings will have his salary cap to then play with. Offer Jay a 5 year deal, 2 years at $4m and then 3years at $6m, he may see the benefits of it long term. The biggest problem would be what the Panthers want for him. Still we can dream, if we kept hold of Brad too, the D would be sick. Lids & Raffi Kronner & Brad Jay & Big E'son Lilja & Cheli Won't happen but the thought is mouthwatering..

With the Wings putting in Mike Stothers at GR's last year and they now releasing him of his tenor as head coach, would he have a chance at the job?

Are the Wings offering Mac and Downey 2 way deals? I see this as a good thing. With the amount of potential skilled prospects that could be playing in GR next season it would make sense to have 1 or 2 guys looking after our next Dats and Z. And yes Babs does like big Jonathan alot, he gives the Wings that extra size and reach on the blueline. Is it a coaches call at camp or is he given the cards to play by the GM, the Wings have got to let a D or 2 go this summer but who? Kindl had a poor year in GR but he nearly made it out of camp the previous year. I seem to recall that Jakub is a guy that plays better with better players. You gotta earn it thou and this could be a big year for him in GR's.

No one knows what Brads intention's are except himself. At present he must be looking at where he is at and where he could end up. Money over ambition is the main issue here I feel. Yes he could get more, say $3.5-$4m elsewhere but what sort of teams are going to offer that? Probably ones that are struggling and in all likeliness not going to be in the race come post season. He stays at the Joe, looks at the roster and see's a team capable of repeating this years win for the next amount of years. Its a tuff call and when contracts differ by $1-$2m it is very easy to see why players make a call us Wings fans wouldn't. I hope he stays and signs for 3yrs, we would be set at the back end and could look to strenghten upfront with the cap space left over. If he needs any prompting on staying a Wing he should just have a look at what Cleary, Lilja and Sammy have done in the 3yrs they have been here. Their careers have been transformed from moderate journeymen to winners on a great team. But if your a guy who judges players on stats staying a Wing is a no brainer. Last year and before joining the Wings this spring Brad played on the Bruins Flames and Kings roster. He had 144 games in all with 12g and 32a but a poor -29 rating. Although he has only played 30 games for the Redwings his 2+9 and impressive +21 is want makes him a wanted commodity. This is what Brad should look at, and what could tilt the balance into the Wings favour. At the end of the day its his call and no matter what he does, he played a big part in the Wings getting their hands on Stanley for the 11th time. So for that we should be thankful he came here in the first place.

Well due to our cup run the Wings played 104 competitive games last season and only 1 guy played in all of these. I have used players that have played more than 20 games only. Games Played. Datsyuk 104 Hudler 103 Filppula 100. Top Goal scorers. Zetterberg 56 Datsyuk 41 Franzen 40. Most Assist's. Datsyuk 79 Lidstrom 70 Zetterberg 63. Top Points. Datsyuk 120 Zetterberg 119 Lidstrom 83. +- Leaders Datsyuk +54 Lidstrom +48 Zetterberg +46 +- Low Drake -10 Maltby -8 Meech -5. PMNS Downey 116pmns Lilja 109pmns Holmstrom 84pmns. Pts per Game FWDS Zetterberg 1.23 Datsyuk 1.15 Holmstrom 0.65 DFN Lidstrom 0.85 Rafalski 0.73 Kronvall 0.58.

It has been stated that Babs wants to bring Cheli back next season. He may be asked to play a lesser role, say maybe 40-50 games, would he go with that? An option I would thought may make sense with the departure of McLellan imminent is to offer Cheli the role of player-coach. His vast exp and undoubted knowledge would be of huge benefit to the Wings org as a whole. Now I know that Todd was the forward and power-play coach which might not fall into giving Cheli the position, but I can't think of anyone better to teach our young D the pro's and con's of the penalty kill and postional defensive play's. I just think that it's to good an option not to give it a go, if Cheli wants it that is. We have some good young players who need to be playing at the top level and I feel that Cheli may be holding up the progression of bringing them thru with his rolling yearly contract's. Not that he doesn't earn them, there's plenty of teams who would love to have him on their roster, let us start using his skills in a more wider range is what I'm suggesting.

Viktor Tikhonov Joel Champagne Joe Colborne Wingers with a bit of size we may have a chance at getting.

Well guys and gals, just 35secs from lifting the cup. Not long, but it'll seem like a lifetime to our boys who will be pondering over it the next day or two. I hope I am wrong but I just think that this will be a major mementom swing in the Pens favour. I fear our boys will still be thinking of what should have been on Wed and the Pens will take advantage of it. They'll feed off the home fans and take the series back to the Joe for the last game on Sat night. Maybe the the extra day off will let our boys re-group and re-charge for the winner takes all game 7. It has been a great series and if not for Fleury this would have been over by now. Is it me or do we always face N/M who play out of their skin when facing the Redwings? I would say over the series so far the Pens have played good for 4 periods and we have been by far the better team in the remainder. Story is we have outshot them 192-120 and outscored them by 14-8, and they have scored 7 of those in 2 games. Lets hope we can pull together and put on a display Wed night worthy of a championship team, I would love nothing more than to see Sid weeping in front of his own fans, as Bettman has to hand over the cup to Lids,

Damn, it just took me 20 mins to write it

was just reading thru the list of names and wondered when we are picking this year. didn't take to much notice of the high end picks as we don't get much higher than 29th so looking at lower range guys and thought that this kid might be worth a shot. Jori Lehtera. Will be interesting to see when he goes.

well if it ain't Lilja its Sammy getting the scapegoat treatment so nothing new there.

Just thought I would put something down for you to have a look at before tonights game2. Mainly this was to take my mind of worrying about the game but also to see what you thought about any of the players at the head of each league cat; I've just done the 4 main leagues as I don't believe any NHL calibre players are in any others. So first off is the Russian Elite League. 1.Sergei Mozyakin Mytishi 64pts. age 27 5'10" 172LB. drafted by CBJ not played in NHL. 2. Alexei Morozov Kazan 63pts. age 31 6'02" 196LB. drafted by PIT played 451 games 219pts. 3. Denis Zaripov Kazan 56pts. age 27 6'00" 185LB. undrafted. 3. Alexei Kalyuzhny Omsk 56pts. age 30 5'10" 176LB. undrafted. Leading penalty takers. 1 Darcy Verot Chekhov 511PIM. age 31 6'00" 199LB. Undrafted but played 37 games for the Caps in 03-04. 2 Denis Bayev Chelyabinsk 251PIM. age 24 6'00" 205LB. Undrafted. 3 Oleg Piganovich Chelyabinsk 179 PIM. age 23 6'04" 205LB. Undrafted. This is the player I mentioned that the Wings should have a look at. This was his rookie year and he finished 1st amongst D with 21 goals and tied 7th overall amongst all skaters. Looks like he has a mean streak to go with his shot. Czech League. 1. Petr Ton Sparta Praha 43pts. age 34 6'00" 187LB. Undrafted. 2. Pavel Patera Kladno 41pts. age 36 6'00" 176LB. Drafted by DAL played 32 games 9pts. 3. Jaroslav Kalla Kladno 40pts. age 28 5'10" 189LB. Undrafted. 3. Jaroslav Balastik ZPS Zlin 40. age 28 6'02" 205LB. Drafted by CBJ played 74 games 24pts. Leading penalty takers. 1. Martin Sevc Kladno 156PIM. age 26 5'10" 176LB undrafted. 2. Tomas Kloucek ZPS Zlin 142PIM. age 28 6'03" 235LB. Drafted by NYR played 141 games 10pts 250PIM. 3. Robert Schnabel Kladno 133PIM. age 29 6'06" 233LB. Drafted by NYI in '97& PHX'98. Played 22 games. 3. Tomas Divisek Plzen 133PIM. age 28 6'02" 204LB. Drafted by PHI played 5 games. 3. Boris Zabka Liberec 133PIM. age 30 5'10" 176LB. Undrafted. Swedish Elite League. 1. Tony Martensson Linkoping 67pts. age 27 6'00" 196LB. Drafted by ANH played 6 games 2pts. 2. Mattias Weinhandl Linkoping 62pts. age 27 6'00" 194LB. Drafted by NYI played 182 games 56pts. 3. Pavel Brendl Brynas 55pts. age 27 6'01" 202LB. Drafted by NYR played 78 games 22pts. Leading penalty takers. 1 Lance Ward Jonkoping 212PIM. age 29 6'03"210LB. Drafted by NJD'96&FLO'98.Played 209games 391PIM. 2 Andreas Jamtin Jonkoping 167PIM. age 25 6'00" 192LB. Drafted by DET. 3 Kristian Kudroc Sodertalje 156PIM. age 27 6'06" 240LB. Drafted by NYI played 26 games 38PIM. #Note; Fabian Brunnstrom finished joint 7th in the assist table(28) but didn't make the top scoring chart. Finnish SM Liiga. 1 Janne Pesonen Karpat 78pts. age 26 5'11" 180LB. Drafted by ANH. 2 Ville Leino Jokerit 77pts. age 24 6'00 182LB. Undrafted. Signed contract with DET for 08-09 season. 3 Hannes Hyvonen Karpat 66pts. age 32 6'02" 203LB. Drafted by SJS played 42 games 9pts. Leading penalty takers. 1 Sami Helenius Jokerit 198PIM. age 34 6'05" 225LB. Drafted by CGY played 155 games 260PIM. 2 Mike Siklenka Lukko 182PIM. age 29 6'04" 223LB. Drafted by WSH played 2 games 0PIM. 3 Semir Ben-Amor Lukko 162PIM. age 26 6'02" 210LB. Undrafted. Well are there any players on these list's who you'd like to see in the org, one has been in it and another is coming over to the pre-season camp to have ago at cracking it. Is Morozov worth a shot or is he past his sell by date? Alot of the others have been over and not really cracked it. I would like the Wings to send an invite to Piganovich for camp, not sure if they can do that with the IIHF rules thou. Anyway hope you had a good read and only 18 hrs to face off #2!!

No, its no typo puckbags, he did it in 43 games as well! He sits 19th overall in the AHL list. 1698 PIM in 397 games.

The BIG question is, who'll Babs sit for the Mule to return?

looks like this kid isn't one we are going to see again. Posted 23/5/2008: Johan Ryno (F) From Detroit Red Wings (NHL) to AIK Added By: Davide Tuniz, Status: Confirmed Not sure how long the deal is for but Ryno looks set to stay in Sweden.

Now thats how you close a series out!!

This is not an over reaction from game 5 but I feel that we need to freshen it up a bit. We have gone cold on the scoring front, our 2 stars are checking more than they should. Cheli has been found wanting again and a bad change by the vet resulted in the GWG. DMac isn't getting it done I'm afraid, and Babs 3+mins he gave him highlighted the fact. So, I honestly believe that Babs will make some changes for the game in Dallas Monday. Does he re-vamp the lines or just tinker with them? I doubt we will see Mule back this series. So what can he do with what he has in reserve? My choice's would be as; Sit Cheli and put in a pumped up raring to go Lilja. Bigger body, good pen kill and fresher legs. Abdelkader comes in for DMac. Same size, plenty of grit and energy with that more speed plus. I just feel that a 4th line of Hudler Helm and Abdelkader could be the key to us winning this series. Get us thru to the Finals and then Babs can re-think what he should do from then on. If he stays as he is I have a bad vibe about us progressing any further.

The other upside to this story is that Leino has played for his country, whereas Brunnstrom still has that step to make.

I believe that Matt Hussey played a few games over there so the Wings could have a bit of inside knowledge on Ville as a person as well as a player.

Hopefully we carry our reg season form against them into the WCF. 3-0-1 outscoring them 12-5. very close on the shot count though. 108- 96, which suggest's it could be down to who has a hot netty.

According to some of the Swedish media he is. Whilst some say he could do a decent job straight away others are being more cautious in that he really hasn't stood out from any of the other top drafted players in the SEL. In fact his team mate and Redwing pick from the 2003 draft Mikael Johansson actually posted more points than Brunnstrom this year. Its the size and speed factor that most GM's are looking at, and as he wouldn't cost any outlay, a 6'2" 210lb scoring forward with wheels will interest alot of offensively challenged teams. Fortunatly the Wings aren't one of those sides. Hence their sensible stand on not promising the young forward anything that isn't earn't. Igor found that out last camp, and we wait to see if he makes an apperance this Sept. I appauld the way the front office has approached this and its easy for us to want him to want to play for us, he has already stated as being a Wings fan. If he is the 'man' people say he is he wouldn't be put off by trying to make our roster out of camp. By him not committing to us I suspect he doubts his own skills and therefore confirming my thoughts that he isn't any better than we already have playing for us on our top 2 lines. If he wants the quick route to the show then good luck to him in his projected destination as he may only get the one shot, and I can't blame him for that. Most of us would do the same. Forward thinking on my part is that if he did look at the bigger picture and chose to come to the Joe, maybe playing on the 4th line next year with Helm and Abdelkader could be a fun thing to do. We will all find out before the end of the week I'm sure, but it won't hurt the Wings if he doesn't come here, we look pretty well stacked for play making forwards anyway.