up2here

Lets throw Team Michigan in the mix: Booth Kesler Grier Moss Legwand Larose Abdelkader Slater Hensick Porter Rolston Hall Gerbe Gleason M. Greene Wisniewski A. Greene Hunwick Martinez Finger Miller Thomas Johnson

Joe was awesome, lethal quick wrist shot and great skater and playmaker. Stevie posted back to back 60 goal seasons (Which hasnt been done very often) and was a better defensive forward as well. Not that Joe was a slouch but Stevie gets the nod by a nose.

I think we have to exclude Pominville as he chose to be American in International play, maybe add Jonathan Huberdeau in his place. Add Nathan MacKinnon to the Maritimes team also , hes probably better than 3 or 4 of those guys at 17. I'm also shocked that that's the best goaltending trio Team Alberta can muster.

Let them stay.

And what happens if the Canadian dollar ends up at .65 cents on the US dollar like it was about 10 years ago? We move those teams back? We need real revenue sharing and more league revenue.

Yes each teams Top Scorer wears the special helmet and jersey. I agree theyre butt-ugly but once you realize that players minor hockey program receives funding it kinda makes you hate it less.Its done a lot to help fund and promote minor hockey in Switzerland and other places in Europe.

Severed tendons, broken cheekbone this kid is like a real life game of Operation. I wouldnt go jumping any chain link fences anytime soon Helmer.

It never hurts to have an over-abundance of skill. You can always make trades to get players with the other skillsets you need. Omark doesnt turn 26 until February and averaged more than a point per game in the AHL.

Or maybe Edmonton simply have too much depth at Forward to give him the ice time he needs. If we dont give up much to get him whats the harm?

I guess he left the gloves on because he was fighting with a goalie but it still looks bad to me.

Omark is still only 26 so no one should be opposed to the Wings adding a young player as long as its for a reasonable amount of money or a fair trade.

We can agree on this: Laraque was smart enough to get out of this CHLPA thing. I also read that Josh Desmond (The cause of the lawsuit against the Mooseheads) has dropped his suit.

Laraque always seemed like a dummy to me now this helps confirm it. Too many blows to the head I guess. Maybe he can join an organization led by Alan Eagelson or Bernie Madoff next.

Just another example that the Russians who matter will not be staying in the KHL. They can keep the lazy, underachiving, overrated and declining Russians. Yes Mr. Semin and Mr Ovehckin, I'm talking about you.

I actually know a few guys who have played for the Mooseheads over the years and none of them have anything but good things to say. What the players get in actual cash per week pales in comparison to what they actually get. The Mooseheads pay for famalies to come visit as well as tudors and so on. This lawsuit will amount to nothing.

I dont see how Pegula could be against the lock-out. His team is losing money despite top 10 attendance and one of the lowest fan cost indexes in the league. He cant raise ticket prices because the economy in Buffalo is crap. Maybe I'm missing something.

Honestly the more I read on this the more skeptical I get. If more than half the league is losing money, including good markets like Minnesota and Buffalo, then whats their motivation for playing? Theyre making more money not to play. I guess I should stop reading. I should be watching Pavs deke defensemen out of their jocks and talking about the scoring leaders or how much of a crybaby Crosby is. Instead i'm digging into the finances of teams bleeding red ink. I stopped caring whose fault this all is a long time ago, soon I'm going to stop caring all together.

Pegula may not be crying yet but I dont think it will be long. The Sabres lost money in 2010-11 and then he increased their payroll from 15th to 4th while keeping ticket prices relatively the same. Its also not like the extra payroll meant many more fans. They drew just under 4000 additional fans after the payroll increase. Most experts beleive the Sabres also lost money in 2011-12.

Each NFL team gets roughly 160 million each from their TV deal. The MLB and NBA are a little more complicated because each team gets some national money and some local money but the average is somewhere around 40- 50 million each. Each NHL team gets about 6 million. Like it or not theres no big TV money without the southern population of the United States. Why would NBC show hockey games in Phoenix (6th Largest Market in the US), Los Angeles (2nd Largest Market in the US), Houston (4th Largest Market in the US), Dallas (9th Largest Market in the US) etc. if there are no teams there for anyone to care about? It doesnt make any business sense. The big TV money allows the game to grow and withstand some of the highs and lows. If the Canadian dollar was still .65 on the US dollar like it was 12 years ago do you think we would have a team in Winnipeg right now? The answer is no. How do we know the Canadian dollar wont revert back to that? Were already seeing the affects of having Southern US teams, there are players from Texas and California in the league and coming up in the league. Thats good for hockey and there will be some pain along the way but we cant just abandon the idea. Edit: I assume you would consider Minnesota a traditional hockey market. They lost money in 2010-2011 which shows its not all about the market.

Its easy to talk about moving more teams to Canada now that the CAD dollar is worth more than the American one but 12 years ago it was the American teams carrying the Canadian ones. We cant relocate franchises with the economy. Until the NHL gets a nice TV deal we have to ride the the highs and lows and get by. Without teams in the South there will be no big TV deal. Why would a major network pay big bucks to have 65% of the US population not even care?

Comparing the NHL to those other sports really isnt fair. The NFL is such a well developed league that a monkey could probably be commissioner. MLB has its issues but baseball is an American icon. The NHL is 4th in the US so the commisioner has challenges that those other leagues just dont have.

i'm not denying that equipment has gotten bigger, but it had been getting bigger before Bettman arrived and dont forget that he was commish when they reduced the size a couple of years ago. Blaming Bettman for this is perhaps the silliest thing Ive read on here in a long time. I get that people hate him, I dont like him either, but cmon.

I doubt it. I think were talking about Apples and Oranges. The lock-out is about money. The re-aligment plan is about what happens after the money is divided.

I agree. Thats why I included "Somewhat" likeable.

I believe this is true but regardless of whether its is, if the owners werent happy with Bettman they can have him replaced. The fact that they havent speaks as to whether they are behind him. I dont think removing Bettman would solve much of anything but he doesnt do himself any favors. That being said he comes across as such a weasely jerk that absolutely no one likes him. Just haveing a somewhat likeable commisioner probably wouldnt hurt.