toby91_ca

The guy really should retire. It's not really a knock on Chelios, I just feel that his time has come, there are many more players available that will be able to contribute more to the team than Chelios.

He definately isn't underrated, especially if you consider the hardware he was won (i.e. people thought he was good enough to give him awards). You don't hear too much about him nowadays simply because he retired 20 years ago. He's one of the all time greats, but there are others that simply overshadow him, so with that fact in mind, mentioning someone else instead of him doesn't mean you are underrating him, it just means that the other player is simply better.

Yeah, I'm not sure about that one. I'd say Vinny, if anything, is overrated. By this, I mean, the following: I think he is an excellent player, one of the best in the game today, however, many people were calling him the best player in the world for the better part of last season, which is overrating for sure. I don't think he is overrated though since I think some people simply got a little too excited about him and threw out "best in the world" comments without thinking too much. He certainly isn't underrated.

My first instinct was to try and figure out why there instead of all the offers from Toronto, but then I snapped out of it and realized that his son is the assisstant GM in Chicago, so that probably, at least partly, answers the why question.

I haven't heard about any Pens fans complaining about tampering with respect to Hossa, I think someone here just brought up a simple question about where that line is drawn.

There is no clear definition (apart from what you'll find in a dictionary), but the essence is that you cannot negotiate with a player who is under contract with another team or do anything else that would restrict the other team in potential negotiations they are holding with the player. The exchange between Babcock and Hossa after the handshakes was nowhere near tampering. Babcock's comments were really just letting Hossa know that he played a good series (i.e. why don't you come to Detroit, we liked what we saw).

Not up there with the greatest of all time, but since I don't think they were mentioned yet, I'll throw the Legion of Doom out there.

16 minutes is a lot of time for a 3rd line, I doubt they'd get that much.

On the surface, this looks like a huge overpayment. He certainly hasn't earned a $3 million per year contract yet, but the fact that he got $15 million over 5 years tells you what potential management thinks he has. I don't have much of a problem with it, could turn out to be a complete steal of a deal in a couple years and if he never really develops much, then a $3 million cap hit shouldn't create too many problems anyway.

Crosby can play in all situations, he definately does not suck defensively, he is actually pretty responsible defensively and is improving. He was getting regular PK time before his injury and hasn't played much since then due to fear of injury. The last thing you want is your best player blocking a shot and being put on the shelf. I'm sure you'll see him get regular PK duty next year when he's back to 100%. He's also the team's best faceoff guy. He's not great yet, but he certainly doesn't suck and this is another area he has improved on each year. I think you have some work to do if that's all you can come up with in terms of him being overrated. Is Ovechkin overrated because he's not great defensively? Didn't think so.

It is very difficult to assess as you need to consider how a certain player is actually rated. What criteria do you use? His salary? Take Nash for example, why do you consider him overrated. His cap hit is $5.4 million. That seems like a pretty low amount for what he gives you. You compare him to a guy like Ovechkin, whose cap hit is $9.5 million. The thing is, you can be the best player in the world and still be overrated, it all depends on how we define it.

You're correct, he's up there, 10th best in terms of career +/- stat. Interestingly enough, he's the only non-HOFer in the top 10. Also interesting, his +83 (good for 10th all time in a single season) was not good enough for best that year, Mark Howe had +85.

What player with those accolades is not in the hall? I haven't bothered to try and dig up such a player, so maybe they do exist, but I highly doubt it. I know it is only your opinion, but I think your opinion in extremely flawed. How on earth can you simply look at offensive numbers to assess whether someone is worthy of the HOF? It makes absolutely no sense. Someone already mentioned Gainey, I think he's a good example. This is a guy who maxed out at 47 points, his second best total of 45 came in the year Gretzky had 215. Even though his offensive stats were not impressive, check out this quote: I can understand the argument for Fedorov not having his number retired in Detroit, but I cannot agree at all with any argument that questions whether he is worthy for the HOF or not. Also, in terms of scoring stats, I'm pretty sure when he retires, he'll have the most goals and points by a Russian born player, which will, in fact, mean something. It is likley that he would only hold that distinguishment for a short period of time as Ovechkin will likely overtake both.

What?

I think $4 million looks like a lot due to Fedorov's production over the past few years, but that's only due to expectations from him. If you only look at his production compared to others in the league making $4 million, it doesn't look that bad. Also, Fedorov's worth goes way beyond offensive production, it always has, but even more so now.

Probably. I'm no Jagr fan, I was just responding to the HHOF question, which is pretty obvious. List of guys who have won the scoring title 5 or more times: Gretzky Lemieux Howe Esposito Jagr

646 goals, 1,599 points in 1,273 games reg. season games 77goals, 181 points in 169 playoff games 5 scoring titles 1 hart trophy 2 pearsons

I read this earlier: The Penguins have indeed moved on, but several players tell us they still believe Hossa wanted to return. This is consistent with what we were told by players three weeks ago -- that Hossa was expressing optimism to them he would come back. To quote one player: "Everybody on our team knows what screwed this up -- it wasn't Marian and it wasn't (general manager Ray Shero)." In terms of the quote at the end, not sure what that's all about. Is the reference to Terrien? Could be since I've heard a lot about players not wanting to play for him over the past couple weeks. The only other possibility would be Winter.

Hossa is excellent defensively, no question about it.

What are you talking about? For $6.5 million to be worth 1/3 of what it was 13 years ago (1995 lets say), it would suggest there has been average annual inflation of about 9%, when in fact, it's been less than 2%. Even using an aggressive 2% per year (even though a lot of years have been 1%, 1.4%, etc.) you are looking at $6.5 million back then being the equivalent $8.4 million these days, not $19.5 million. The real reason player salaries are so much higher is because revenues are so much higher. There is no mystery here. In 1995, total NHL revenues were approximately $600 million. I believe they are closing in on $3 billion these days (500% increase vs. inflation of 29%). I'm pretty sure that it is safe to say that players today are taking a lot less of the pie then they were back in 1995.

I suspect he'll struggle at the AHL and I'd be shocked if he ever makes it to the NHL level for any extended period of time. Not to many star players end up spending 5 years in Junior.

You need to look out 10 years at the age of 38 since the contract doesn't kick in until after next year. It looks like a fair deal right now, but there is plenty of risk. Is there going to be decline at the age of 35, 36, 37, 38? We assume the cap will keep going up, but there is a chance the cap will actually be LOWER 10 years from now, you never know.

If I were the commish, I would really have no control over the rules of the game.

Malkin is not a free agent.

Shooting "left" has nothing to do with being left-handed.