Probert 5 For Fighting

Highly doubtful. Sundin still plays at a very high level and he doesn't figure to retire anytime soon. Signing for one year suggests he's throwing in the towel.

It's pretty much a given we have the Selke, Byng, and the Norris locked up. Babs should be a slam dunk for the Adams, but the voters seem to have a vendetta against teams that are consistently at the top of the league, understating the contributions of a coach like Babcock.

And who is going to sign for JUST the 2008-2009 season? After that, we'll be capstrapped with the extensions of Zetterberg and Franzen. Think big. We cannot afford to dish out huge contracts just because we have a cap windfall for one season. We're a team with a lot of guys like Zeta, Franzen, Flip, and Hudler playing at bargain bin prices right now. If we want them to remain Redwings going forward, we can't just go on a spending spree this summer and expect to work out the cap problems later on. Our front office, fortunately, is much smarter than the people who post here.

A-frikken-men. And the prospective markets offered up are pathetic. Hamilton? KC? Portland? Americans have a difficult enough time recognizing any team not named Redwings, Rangers, Flyers or Habs. Let's just throw more teams into this watered down clusterf***. And for eva to actually write out a Jump To Conclusions map about his phases to expansion is just creepy.

Bull. Brad Stuart would qualify as a top pairing defenseman on quite a few teams in this league. He is by far the top #4 guy in the league, and is a more fundamentally sound defender than Kronwall. They're asking him to take a paycut because they'd rather not be paying their 4th guy so much money, but they'd really like him back.

Not a single mention of Ulf Samuellson. For shame. My brother actually bought his Wings jersey after the deadline, the dumb bastard. Could have been worse: I bet those Wendell Clark jerseys were selling like hotcakes.

I'll take "Fly-by Jokes" for 800, Alex.

Who's "against" Sundin? I'm guessing most of us just don't find it economically feasible. Unless he signs a one year deal - which he wouldn't - we can't afford to pay this guy two or more years down the road. Sundin's a great player that any team would love to have. You've got to keep your expectations realistic with free agency, though.

Did he share Emma with you? That'd make him a real MVP.

LA should offer Torts big money STAT. He's a perfect fit for them. And if LA doesn't mind, could you trade Jack Johnson to us for Andres Lilja? Much appreciated.

You have to understand that the cap room is a bit of a mirage. Unless one of these guys decides to sign a 1-yr deal, we don't have the capacity to offer guys 4+ yr, 20 mil contracts. That cap room will disappear after next season when Franzen and Zeta will both be locked up long term. The biggest possible acquisition I could see is a replacement for Stuart if he leaves. Wade Redden comes to mind.

You menstruating whiners really need to take off the rose-colored glasses. Our Wings got away with so many infractions themselves it's not even funny. I applaud your attempted moxie, but you're swimming in a red sea of bitching and moaning like the rest of them. Put a sock in the officiating argument. They got a way with a lot, we got away with a lot, and that's how the game goes. If you would like to continue to complain, by all means, write a letter to Colin Campbell instead of sullying the integrity of Wings fans by whining about officiating.

He's not, but keep trying to tell yourself that a lot of wins ensures a spot in the HOF. The difference between Brodeur and Ozzie is that Brodeur has always been a bonafide #1 goalie who backstopped his team nearly every game of the whole season and put together some record-setting playoff runs. And unlike Detroit, New Jersey has always been an average or weak offensive team whose success has always been contingent on Brodeur's play in goal. You're also talking about a guy whose twice had a GAA under 1.9, and under 2.18 five other times. He has way more career SOs. His career save percentage is 6 points higher. And really, playing with the stats is getting you nowhere - since Martin HAS won THREE Vezinas recently and could have won a few more if Hasek wasn't setting the league on fire back in the day. Outside of 1996, Osgood has never led the league in GAA playing as the #1 goalie. I don't know where you get your numbers from. He led the league this year, but he was splitting time - y'know, like all great HOF goalies do. The only other times he was near the top of the league were 1998 and 04 in St Louis. If you're saying Ozzie's GAA was better than most average goalies of the time, than yes, you may be correct. That's exactly what Ozzie has been - above average. His GAA was nowhere near the GAAs of guys like Hasek, Brodeur, Roy, Belfouretc during the dead puck era(97-04). Hell, Roman Cechmanek produced more memorable seasons back then. The bottom line is, you're trying to build a case for Osgood based solely on his wins and how good Detroit has been. Sorry, but that's not enough. Manny Legace was producing the same sort of wins and stats Ozzie was recently, and probably could have produced the same career numbers if he in Ozzie's spot. In fact, a number of guys could have. And point out to me how many HOF goaltenders were dropped to WAIVERS in the prime of their careers. He is regarded as a good-not-great goalie leaguewide. If you don't want to believe it, that's fine, but I can assure you nobody who votes in the Hall agrees with you.

It was so biased, we had more PP opportunites!

Wins are a poor barometer of a guys HOF worthiness. I'm not naive enough to cut and paste a guys W-L record and determine his case based on such cut-and-dry numbers. The bottom line is this: The best coach in NHL history didn't have enough confidence in him to make him a bonafide #1 goaltender at any point in his career. His career save percentage is a barely-above average .907 - and this was during the deadpuck era, when save percentages were routinely above .915. His career GAA is also average for a deadpuck goalie, at 2.43. If you do enough research, I think you'd find that 99% of goalies who post similar career GAA/S% numbers average nowhere near as many wins as Ozzie per season - making the point that he's the product of a great system fairly obvious. Wins are not personal numbers. Playing them off as such is foolish - it's like bragging about a pitcher who wins 18 games but posts an ERA over 4 and a WHIP over 1.3. Roberto Luongo's W-L record might have sucked in Florida, but he was better than Ozzie at any point in his career during any of his seasons there from 2001-2006. Call him a HOF lock all you want. Thankfully, nobody that matters in HOF voting will think that way. Guaranteed. It's not a knock on Ozzie, just a defense of what the HOF is truly supposed to be about.

People seriously think Ozzie is worthy of having his number retired? He's been a good goaltender who backstopped 2 championship teams, period. Leave it at that. If his number is retired, Fedorov's should be draped over the roof of Joe Louis Arena and a statue should be erected in his honor.

I could have sworn SouthernWingsFan and I made these same points last week. As for your recommendation of meetings to iron it all out: It will ultimately be fruitless. There will always be a lot of bad calls, whether its football, basketball, baseball or hockey. It is inevitable, and it's best for everyone to roll with it. These guys all do their best, and they miss a helluva lot more than you and I do sitting in the comfort of our own homes.

I would. Why? Because I'm over the age of 12 and realize the game is being played by the players, and not the officials.

Sorry, but that's BS. If you think we need an improvement, fine, but don't say he's not fit for this team. He's exactly right for this team. Big, strong, fast and loves to hit. He's not a great offensive player, but he's got the kind of physical presence a young Dallas Drake had.

Great. More ammunition for the whiners who still want to bash the officiating after we've won the Cup. It's always going to suck, fellas. It sucks when you lose, it sucks when you win. I'm just glad we have a guy like Babcock who tells everybody to STFU, play through it, and wait for the calls to go their way.

Anybody else worried that we may get Dustin Penner-ed with Filppula? About the only signficant additions I expect on the roster next year are Leino, Helm fulltime, Howard as a backup, somebody like Redden if Stuart isn't signed, and perhaps a 2nd line center if Flip gets stolen from us.

Alls I know is, the team that gets Torts is making the best hire of the offseason. The new ownership here in Tampa is running that franchise into the ground. Outside of Babcock and Ruff, coaches don't get much better than Tortorella.

It's easy to do this in hindsight, but it's pretty incredible to note that the most trouble this Wings team had with any their opponents(which increased in "talent" every round) was back with Nashville in round one. Since then, there hasn't a been a definitive stretch in any game against COL,DAL or PIT where the Wings were definitively outplayed. To watch this team become increasingly more dangerous in each game since we closed out a tough Nashville team is pretty impressive, and should be lauded. Save for miracle performances by Fleury and Turco, they have played to near-perfection for 3 rounds. And Nashville can hold its head up higher than the rest, knowing they were the only team to scare the heebie-jeebies out of the Wings.

Fiiiiiiine we'll take Orpik off your hands.

Solid player. Fits what Babcock wants. Backchecks, forechecks...dude just needs to work on his shot. He could be a terrific, inexpensive 2nd line center who can put up 50 or so points regularly and contribute on the PK.