Zetts

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that my responses were supposed to be for your personal entertainment. I'm so happy that you were able to use your obvious intelligence to contribute to this discussion. So that I know for the future, what should I include? Dancing bears? Some sort of murder story?

When you say "what do you think the wings will pick" if you mean by position, it sounds like a defenseman is likely and it will NOT be a goaltender. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/20..._chances_o.html

x2 We really need to put some sort of note at the top of these forums so people stop suggesting this stuff.

No, but the issue with any sort of injury that doesn't put someone on LTIR is that they wouldn't have the cap space to call somebody up and there's no seventh d. Unless I don't understand the particulars. But isn't that what happened to Calgary? Hypothetically, 2 defense pull their groin (not unlikely) and we're literally playing with 4 d.

Yes, but what about our defensive depth? That leaves us with... Lidstrom Raffy Kronwall Stuart Ericsson Lilja ...and then what. If injuries set in, we're DONE. Maybe get all Red Wings fans to join into some sort of giant "anti-injuries dance". I apologize if that sounded stupid, but the thought just made me laugh. But that is seriously how desperate we'd be to stay healthy. And for god's sake, please do not say Kindl. Ignoring any arguments about him not being ready for the moment (which he's not), then HIS salary becomes part of the cap. Lebda and Meech aren't just sitting around for kicks, and their salaries are already very very low (only marginally higher than any minor league replacements). My apologies, you're right. But I still say that's not lucrative when compared to other deals he's been offered of over double that amount.

Perhaps we actually agree then? Like I said, I would take Hossa at 4 million. I wouldn't like it, since I still really dislike the guy, but it would be pretty difficult not to make that deal. Having said that, what are the chances of that actually happening? I'm thinking of a combination of a snowball and hell. As far as your comment about the same excuse being applied to Hank...I actually have no idea what you mean by that. Do you mean for Hank himself offensively? In which case, he was actually quite good. Or do you mean from the point of the view of the players that Hank shut down, in which case I would say that Hossa never had someone of Hank's calibre on his tail during the playoffs.

Not so much for Hossa, it's really not. But...where did you get 40 million from? I don't recall hearing about the deal being 10 years, either at a 4 million cap hit or any other number. Is that just speculation? Edit: For comparison I think the Oiler's offer last year was something like 9 years, 87 million. That's why to me 40 million (wherever that came from) is not lucrative.

Hossa has also been healthy in the playoffs. And isn't as good defensively. And even if you were to say that Datsyuk chokes in the playoffs (which I'm not saying/don't want to get into) how would that justify signing another playoff choker. Honestly, I could live with a $4 million Hossa. But "lucrative" to me does not mean 4 million, which is what this thread is about. The 4 million dollar speculation was a different thread, and one which I'm inclined not to believe. And you seem to look at this as though it's just passing up a great player. It's not. It's passing up a great player for depth. We already have our stars, all of whom I would rather have than Hossa. As far as "having someone up his ass every shift", welcome to the playoffs. What a terrible excuse. Edit: I almost forgot about the part that I disagreed with most. Hossa is not even close to the second best goal scorer in the league.

Sorry if this has already been posted, it's been news for a little bit but I couldn't find a thread on it. The most recent story on it, is here. And another story: http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2009/06/re...land_discu.html It doesn't seem like it's set in stone, although I certainly get the impression they're leaning strongly toward Howard.

Because he's still being paid peanuts. It's not like I've seen anyone give him 1 million. He's reasonably decent for his salary and role. It would be nice to see him learn to kill penalties so he's a little more useful though.

He could do it, but it wouldn't help our cap situation. It's the average of all years that's the cap hit.

Agreed. It's painful to think about the lack of depth this team will have if we sign him. And the management already said they want Abdelkader to spend another year in GR too, so I really don't know what would happen. I've never been a "Kenny, do this please" type of person, but please, Kenny, if you ever read this, even for s***s and giggles, DO NOT RESIGN HOSSA.

Interesting dream. Obviously wouldn't happen since it would only be Hudler's and Sammy's rights since they're UFA's to be...and even if they weren't the deal still wouldn't be made. It would be nice though. I completely agree on Hossa. I cannot express how little I want him back here. I don't care if he is a star or not, and if he actually is capable of pulling his head out of his ass in the playoffs or not. Like you said, it's a team, and that's how I want it to stay. I still think it's pathetic how he wilted. You want a damn cup Marian? You had your chance. Maybe, as our leading goal scorer in the regular season, scoring one in consecutive 2-1 losses in the finals would be nice. Thanks. That just gave me the impression he wants someone else to win a cup FOR him. He can come here to Deadmonton and his career can rot with the Oilers for that 9 year 87 million contract or whatever it was. It's what he deserves. Yes, I'm still bitter, does it show?

It must be scary when you drive.

Nill's comments did actually leave the door open for it not to be Howard. He just kind of hints that it will be Howard. Nill, from that article re Howard: Holland seems a little more definite about it being Howard, both with his quote from September and an interview with FSN which sadly I do not have a link to where he said something similar. Realistically though, if Howard if god-awful in training camp, there's no reason to think the Wings wouldn't pick up someone else. This more just shows their intentions/expectations for Howard.

I love this roster. It's not too unrealistic either, if Komisarek wouldn't mind playing on the third pairing.

This thread certainly has gone downhill fast. Do Pens fans need a reason to hate us? Maybe it's left over from last year, who knows. I mean, if you look at St. Louis fans, we never really did anything to them (except be significantly better than them...all the time) and they despise us. To the point where you actually wonder if they have some sort of mental damage. Personally, I like it when other fans hate the Wings. It makes me feel that much better when we destroy their teams.

I'm really hoping that's a joke. It would be amusing seeing if we could set a record for highest total of goals for/goals against in a season though.

You always hear about that being a weak year, but I just looked it up for the first time. My god was it bad. If 2011 is anything like that, I feel really bad for the teams who tank that season.

I'm still not convinced that we'll actually need another forward, but I suppose it really depends on salary demands of guys like Sammy and Huds (or Hossa if that happens obviously). If we do need more forwards, those are actually some of the best (/most realistic) suggestions I've seen so far.

I agree, that's classy. Although REAL class would be NOT spearing someone in the sack in the first place.

I believe that we save 33 thousand. No jokes. Conklin was 750 000. Howard is 717 000. Edit: Zombo, where are those numbers from?

If he does leave, someone else will need to fill his place on LGW for the new whipping boy. Kopecky doesn't have a large enough role to fully fill it. From what I've seen, I think Stuart could step up nicely, or maybe Holmstrom could fill the void. Ideas?

I'd love D and Z back together, regardless of what happens with Hossa. It seemed like they just got split up because Babcock/management/whoever didn't like the idea of the shiny new toy Hossa not playing with another superstar. I mean, we'd just won the cup with them together, I can't think of any legitimate reason to have split them up.

That's true, but it was the same case for Quincey.