Andy Pred 48

Watching his play improve over the past 2 years, I think that Johan could really up his production this year. He showed that he can go to the net and is almost unstoppable when he does this. Given the right line mates this year, I see him potentially filling the void left by Bert with his size and putting up good numbers. Could he play 1st line? Well put him on the wing with Zetts and Homer and I think we have got a good mix for it. The rest of the lines could be interesting. If Sammy comes out slow he could find himself on 3rd or even 4th line duties. Grigs will possably start off on the 3rd or 4th but he is 1st/ 2nd line material and if he settles quickly I see him playing on the top 2 lines regularly and PP as well. Competition for ice time is going to be good this year, Flip will be vying for more, and what numbers could Rex put up if he gets 15mins this year? Drake has been brought in to cox the likes of Kopecky but who's to say either will see much action next year. I really do feel that we have 2/3 guys who are going to be pushing for a roster spot out of camp this Sept, maybe some of the senior players aren't as safe as they may think. Quincey, Kindl and Meech will all be pushing for the final D spot and I expect all 3 to see time in Detroit next year. Meech could be a casualty as he will be picked off waivers if he's sent back to GR. Could we see one of the forward invite's make a grab for the remaining roster spot, another Cleary type player wouldn't go a miss! So who do you reckon? My guess is that they'll go with Quincey although my choice would be Kindl. Surprise of the camp, depends on who gets the invites, but from our own prospect's Helm will do well and Mursak is going to be a Wing but not this year.

Does Grigs qualify for this ?

Any one know Gelech's actual size? He's stated on here as 6'3" 200 yet on the Griffs site he weighs in at 220lb, big difference if its the case.

OILERS SEND OFFER SHEET TO PENNER. TSN.CA REPORTS THE EDMONTON OILERS HAVE SENT A FIVE-YEAR, $21.5 MILLION OFFER SHEET TO ANAHEIM DUCKS FORWARD DUSTIN PENNER.

Keefe and Tardif have both re-signed for the Griffs. Walsh and Kinley also both re-sign. Griffs looking good so far

Jason Woolley, Ladislav Kohn, Pat Verbeek, Todd Gill, Dmitri Mironov, Tomas Holmstrom, Mike Ramsey, Sheldon Kennedy, Johan Garpenlov, Brent Fedyk, Paul MacLean, Mel Bridgman, Chris Cichocki, Claude Loiselle all worn the #15, but I can't recall anyone wearing #51. Anybody recall it being worn before?

At the end of the 85-86 season Detroit had 10 players with over 100 pmn on thier roster. 21 years later the Wings finished without a single player reaching that milestone. More worryingly for some is the fact that Lang and Schneider topped the charts with 66pmns each. The interseting fact was that in 85-86 we finished dead last in the regular season so missed the playoffs, where as last year we finished 2nd overall and made the conf finals. So I thought I would do a little research to see if we could find some sort of pattern. I have grouped the facts in 7 year sections with our overall position and playoff performance with the amount of 100+pmn takers for the year. The top and bottom takers are listed. as well as any notable other facst ref the pmns. Hope you find it interesting and the memories come flooding back. 85-86: 10 Players, finished dead last overall. Joey Kocur 377 with Danny Gare 102. Barry Melrose had 70 in 14 games. 86-87: 8 Players, finished 11th overall and lost in Conf finals to the Oilers. Joey Kocur 276 with Shawn Burr 107. Basil McRae had 193 in 36 games. 87-88: 5 Players, finished 5th overall and lost in Conf final again to the Oilers. Bob Probert 398 with Doug Harlwood 130. Both Kocur and Gallant had over 200 mins with Steve Martinson getting 84 in just 10 games, remember him? 88-89: 9 players, finished 10th overall going out in the 1st round. Gerard Gallant 230 with Lee Norwood 100. 89-90: 7 players, finished 3rd from bottom. Joey Kocur 268 with Torrie Robertson 112. Chris McRae had 45 in 7 games. 90-91: 6 players, finished 14th overall going out in the 1st round. Bob Probert 315 with rookie Keith Primeau 106. 91-92: 7 players, finished 3rd overall going out in the 2nd round. Bob Probert 276 with Shawn Burr & Brad McCrimmon on 118. New Russian D Vladimir Konstantinov has 172 pmn in his first season as a Wing. So from 85 to 92 the Wings have 52 players having 100+ pmns with their highest finish being a 3rd place twice and reaching the conf finals twice as well. No one is taking liberties at the Joe and getting away with it but no silverware either. More goon than grit and skill I feel. Overall Reg season record Played 560 won 231 lost 256 drew 73. 92-93: 5 players, finished 5th overall going out in the 1st round. Bob Probert 292 with Vladimir Konstantinov 137. Jim Cummins had 58 in 7 games. 93-94: 7 players, finished 4th overall going out in the 1st round again. Bob Probert 275 with Paul Coffey 106. Wings score a league leading 356 goals. 94-95: This was the short 48 game league season. Only Konstantinov had over 100 pmn but a pro-rata see's the Wings having 5 players over the threshold. The Wings finished 1st overall and made the Stanley cup final losing to the Devils. 95-96: 4 players, finished 1st overall losing the Conf final. Keith Primeau 168 with Stu Grimson 128. Wings win an amazing 62 games in the regular season. 96-97: 5 players, finished 5th overall Win Stanley cup. Martin Lapointe 167 with Darren McCarty 126. Joey Kocur return after a 6 year abscence. Has 70 mins in 34 games. 97-98: 3 players, finished 3rd overall Win Stanley cup. Darren McCarty 157 with Martin Lapointe 106. Wings retain the Cup despite losing one of the best D men in the league , Vladimir Konstantinov career is ended by a car accident. Vlad played 6 years having amased over 800 pmns hitting 100+ pmns in all 6 season's. 98-99: 3 players, finished 6th overall going out in the 2nd round. Martin Lapointe 141 with Darren McCarty 108. From 92-99 the Wings have 32 players having 100+pmns. They reach 3 finals win 2 Cups and 2 Presidents trophy's. Also a lose in a Conf final. Wings getting a more skillfull side mixing it with gritty play and not gooning it up as before. Overall Reg season record Played 544 won 313 lost 160 drew 71. 99-00: 3 players, finished 2nd overall going out in the 2nd round. Martin Lapointe 121 with Chris Chelios 103. 00-01: 2 players, finished 3rd overall going out in the 1st round. Martin Lapointe 127 with Darren McCarty 123. 01-02: 2 players, finished 1st overall Win Stanley cup. 40 year old Chris Chelios leads the Wings in pmns in the regular season with 126 and playoffs with 44. Brendan Shanahan the only other player over 100 with 118pmn. Detroits depth is eviedent as they put out a 4th line of Luc Robitaille, Igor Larionov and Tomas Holmstrom in the playoffs. 02-03: 3 players, finished 3rd overall but go out in the !st round. Darren McCarty 138 with Brendan Shanahan 103. 03-04: Only Brendan Shanahan hits the 100+ mark with 117. Rookie Darryl Bootland has 74 in 22 games. Wings finish 1st overall but go out in the 2nd round. 05-06: 2 players, finish 1st overall again but 1st round exit in playoffs. Chris Chelios at 44 years old leads the team in pmns with 108 with Brendan Shanahan on 105. 06-07: For the first time in the modern era and not since the 61-62 season the Wings don't have any player reaching 100 pmns in the regular season. They finish 2nd overall and make the Conf finals much to the surprise of many die hard Wings fans. From 99-07 the Wings have just 13 players reaching the 100+ pmns. They have seen the roster become more top heavy with European players, but have a very skillful core of players. There is no element of goonery on the Wings these days, and not as much grit as they had in the 90's. Saying that they haven't finished outside a top 3 place in the regular season. Have 1 cup win with 3 Presidents trophy and a Conf final appearance last season. The regular season record for the past 7 seasons is second to none. With 7 straight 100+ point tallies, this is a winning programme. Overall reg season record Played 574 won 352 lost 135 drew 53 OTL 26 SOL 8. My over riding question is this, taking our current roster as it stands at present. Who would you leave out if you could have Joey Kocur and Bob Probert in their heyday added to it? Would these be the difference from the Wings being a on the brink side to an unstoppable side? Would their style's actually hinder the current team? Maybe having just one of them on the roster would suit our current team, which one thou? Was Joey more of a deterrent to opposing teams than Proby was? All if's and but's I know and everyone will have different views on it, but the overriding fact here is that we are more successful without having multiple penalty takers on the roster. But also an out and out enforcer on the roster helped us get back to back cups in the late 90's. The 01-02 Cup win was different, we had 10 future Hof's on the roster, I mean Krupp and Slegr were the 7/8 D men! So what do you guys think ?

He will be paired with Lilja, Lids is getting Kronner the old Swede Gold medal pairing! Or maybe Lids gets Lilja again, well I don't think that Lids and Rafalski will be a pairing 5 on 5. Murphy had over a 1000 points before he became a Wing, I'll be happy if Rafalski has over a 1000 at the end of his Wings career.

Posted 19/7/2007: Zigmund Palffy (F) From Other to HK 36 Skalica Added By: Davide Tuniz, Status: Confirmed come out from retirement He is playing for his hometown team so I think the locals have pressed him into giving it another shot. I would be surprised if he came back over.If he gets the bug back and he feel's his touch is still there then he may look at coming across at the tradeline. At 35 he might have lost that speed he had.The Slovak league ain't too shabby and if he can put the numbers up anything is possable.

Think Emmerton will be back in the OHL/WHL along with Mursak as they are not old enough to play in AHL. They could of course make the Wings roster thou.

Well its looking more than likely that the roster is almost complete, and we'll head into camp with what we have. Or is it? Looking at the signings and the departures we seem to have lost a whole line, Schneider, Markov?, Calder Lang and Bertuzzi. Replaced Schneider and Calder with Rafalski and Drake. Now the general feeling is that Grigorenko will have to play himself off the roster at camp,so he should replace Bertuzzi and even if Markov does go we look set on D with Quincey or possably Ference filling the 7th D spot. So who fill's Langs spot? Filppula is being lined up to be the 2nd line C, so are we after a 3rd line C or a 2nd line winger? I'm not so sure there is a sure fire 2nd line scoring winger out there who could do the job for us. So will it be a 3/4 line C we go after? Now there are a few guys who could be had at a reasonable price but do we really need anyone? Have we enough depth to get into the playoffs and then use the saved cap $ and make a move then, I think we have but then I'm not Kenny. Holmstrom Zetterberg Samuelsson Franzen Datsyuk Cleary Grigorenko Filppula Hudler Maltby Draper Drake Kopecky call ups Ellis Hartigan and Cullen Lidstrom Kronvall Rafalski Lilja Chelios Lebda Quincey call ups Ference Meech Ericsson Kindl. Hasek Osgood Howard That dosen't look to bad, should get us to the post season. Of course there is also the possability that someone may have a great camp and give the coaching staff a headache as well.

ok they both got 5 year deals, if you look at there past 5 years i think we made the right deal. Souray 305 59+98 157 -51 512pmn Rafalski388 30+197 227 +43 126 pmn, So apart from being better at both ends, Rafalski is more durable too, as he played over a season's worth of games more over the 5 years.

A pretty decent pick up by the Wings in my view. He has put up good numbers in the AHL nearly a point a game, and will most likely be icing in GR. Has seen time in the NHL with the Ducks, Blue Jaxs and Thrashers scoring 26 points in 79 games. May have to change his number if he gets the call thou.....think #13 is in use!!

The Ducks are going to be the Powerhouse team for the next few years at least. Hopefully some of our own Big prospects will be ready to take the next step by 2009. Until then we need 1 or 2 vets to plug the holes on what is a very talented looking Wings roster. I just have a feeling that one of the guys out of camp is gunna grab a roster spot this year. A LW, who would complement a line of Dats and Grigs.

Carl Corazzini, well another C for GR I suppose.

Any one know if this guy is still available? he is still petty young at 26, has plenty of size and could play as the depth D guy, just a thought.

Samuelsson Zetterberg Holmstrom Grigorenko Datsyuk Cleary Hudler Filppula Mursak Franzen Draper Maltby Kopecky Lidstrom Kronvall Rafalski Lilja Lebda Chelios Kindl

Samuelsson Zetterberg Holmstrom Grigorenko Datsyuk Franzen Cleary Draper Maltby Kopecky Filppula Lidstrom Lilja Kronval Rafalski Chelios Lebda Quincey Osgood Howard Hasek UFA still unsigned Hudler Meech both RFA's. I could go with the D that we have with the likelyhood of Kindl coming in for Quincey. Not sure that Meech will get a look in as I think Ericsson will be looked at this year. If Hudler signs then we have 4 full lines signed up at the forward postions. Possably not as I have listed them, I think Filppula is earmarked as the new C for the 2nd line, but with who? Dats and Zets will more than likely stay together and I do feel that once Grigorenko settles he will be a top 6 guy. So is there any of the prospects going to come up if Hudler goes and we don't sign any UFA's? Will be interesting to see who the Wings invite to the camp in Sept.

Yeah, I say give Penner an offer sheet just to p##s off the Ducks!! If they can't match it we get a younger version of Bert.

It must be obvious that Schneider wanted to go, so Kenny had to get a offensive Blueliner in. No one in the minors is ready just yet to fill the void. Picking up Rafalski is a great move by him. I can't understand all the bitching going on on here about it. Top D are going to cost top $. The Ducks have payed Schneider $11.25m for a 2 year deal. He'll be nearly 40 when that expires. I think in the long term we have made a good signing in Rafalski. Forget the money, if he performs in the uniform as expected then I'll be happy, he's a proven winner and he's a Michigan boy to boot. Just a few pluses over Schneider; 1, Rafalski is actually a bigger body than Schneider 2, Rafalski comes to the team at a career +100 rating, Schneider was a -16 when he signed. 3, Rafalski is coming from a defence minded team with ave of .57 ppg Schneider had .55 ppg. Schneider has put his numbers up to .7 ppg whilst in a Wings uniform giving him a .58 overall career average. I believe that Rafalski will flurish playing in Detroit and will put up better numbers than Schneider has. His role in the team will depend on wether we re-sign Markov. If we do then I can see Lids having Kronvall as his partner, as the do playing for Sweden. Rafalski playing with Markov and then we have Cheli Lebda and Lilja as 5,6 and 7.

we don't need him anyway. too small for our new physical game.

2 D and 3 C picks, we do seem well stacked in the prospect's with these position's. My concern is the lack of wingers we have in the system.

You could come up with a number of options but within our org, I'd say if Kronner could stay healthy, he could do the job and then bring up either Quincey full time as your stay at home guy or give Kindl a tilt, but he'll need to be nursed along by Cheli I suppose. And if we don't re-sign Markov either then it will be down to the minors for replacements Lids Lilja Kronvall Lebda Chelios Kindl Quincey I think that Quincey and Kindl could become a good 2nd line pairing down the line so how about them on the 3rd pairing and Cheli playing just on the special teams.

Get a look at the new draft picks and all our other prospect's at the Joe in 2 weeks. Also get the chance to cast your eye's over the long overdue arrival of our Russian top pick Grigorenko who will also be at the camp on the 5th.

I got a feeling that the kid Mursak is going to see some time in DET next year. If he can fill out without losing any speed I can see him being a steal for the Wings.