Zetts

I'm proud of you Stevie! (as always) God, this just reminds me how much I miss him.

I was thinking that too, and kind of laughing to myself. People are comparing the stars on these other teams, but the 2002 team for pure star power may be unrivaled in history. Sadly, some of the guys were nearing the ends of their careers. But Robitaille, a first ballot hall of famer on the fourth line? Crazy.

I was thinking the same thing, I imagine the Sharks will make a big push for him. I really don't see Vlasic being traded though, he'll be amazing some day, but there certainly have been worse trades. Part of it depends on if the Sens are more looking for roster players or picks (although I imagine both will be involved to some extent). But if it's similar to Pittsburgh's deal for Hossa, I'm not too worried. I don't think the Sharks can handle giving up depth like that.

Meh, we can do without him. Did anyone hear anything more of those rumors that Sundin didn't want to come here last year? It just seemed like wild speculation at the time.

So you're saying screw Sammy's raise, his salary should actually be cut? Personally, I'd think something like a 1.75 cap hit for a couple of years would be fair.

I don't know if he's worth 3 million, but I hope someone throws it at him. I'd love a first and a third, there's no way the wings would match that. As far as Filppula, when he got the contract it was really more of a projection for what he'd be. Who's to say if Holland thinks it's a good or bad deal now. And that is something that Holland could always mention in negotiations if Hudler's agent did bring up Filppula's deal.

Haha, um...did I miss something?

Haha, this actually made me laugh out loud. Well said.

Ok, this thread is just turning into an argument between the two of us, so this is my last post on the matter. People keep making arguments for Datsyuk on these forums because of regular season stats. Yah, they're great. Zetterberg's aren't too shabby either. Yah, they were weak this year, but guess when his stats were good? The same time as always, the playoffs. There is no way to say Datsyuk has been better in the playoffs. In fact, you really just keep TRYING to refute my arguments, while never actually coming up with anything valid that I saw for the playoffs. There's two ways to look at the playoffs, either points, or what we'll call "other". Points-wise, we all know who wins. Once again, Zetterberg's career p/g is 0.894 to Datsyuk's 0.643. And BOTH have had injuries. If you, as I'm sure you will, come up with some reason as to why Datsyuk's numbers there are lower that's "not fair to him" then kindly actually do the math and show me what they should be instead of making unsubstantiated comments. And please, TRY to see both sides this time. If you take out some of Datsyuk's time because he wasn't 100%, do the same for Zetterberg. Zetterberg scored more points against Columbus and WAY more against Anaheim. We'll leave out the next 2 rounds to be fair to Datsyuk. And then we come to the "other". Zetterberg drew the defensive assignments. That shows what Babcock is thinking. Whether he failed defensively or not against Anaheim is subjective, but I'm sorry, who did Datsyuk play against? And despite his defensive responsibilities Zetterberg had 10 points to Datsyuk's 3. And if we go back to the finals in '08 you say that Malkin was invisible because of Datsyuk? Yah, Datsyuk did a good job there, I'm not taking anything away from him. Zetterberg had Crosby too though, didn't he? Nice for you to leave that part out. My argument isn't that Datsyuk's not good, his accomplishments can't be denied. The point was that Zetterberg is better. The stats support it, and the roles that he's been given support it.

The simple fact that you acknowledge that Zetterberg was supposed to shut down the best line, shows that Babs trusts Z with the big defensive assignment. And Zetterberg did a pretty good job of that towards the end of the series anyways. And against Crosby in the finals he was lights out. As far as points in the Anaheim series, Datsyuk had 3. Zetterberg had TEN while playing against Anaheim's best line. And in case you missed my above edit, take a look. PPG isn't even close. And stop arguing about linemates they both played with pretty much everyone. And Datsyuk "still put up 97 points playing with Hossa"? Hossa was good in the regular season...not BECAUSE of Datsyuk but because he's a great player. Yes...clearly I'M the one not watching the games.

Ooh, personal attacks, you really gained bonus points there! First, I watched probably 70-75 of the 82 games this season with my center ice and ALL of the playoff games. So, your argument with the first bit re Hossa is what...? Datsyuk is a better playmaker? Maybe he is, I never suggested otherwise. If we go with points, he had...2 against Columbus. Zetterberg had 4. Fair enough, there is more to hockey than that. Datsyuk was +2, Zetterberg was +4. If you want to ignore stats, all I can say is that I watched the games, and I think Zetterberg was better. And then you just brush off the Anaheim series because Datsyuk got shut down? THAT'S THE POINT. Look at the stats for that series. Zetterberg didn't get shut down (well, a bit, but not to nearly the same magnitude). My god, your arguments are just... 2008, you say Datsyuk was the third best player? Gee, I wonder who #1 was? Edit: I didn't want to get into this AGAIN, but here it goes Playoffs Datsyuk: 63 points in 98 games, 0.643 ppg Zetterberg: 76 points in 85 games, 0.894 ppg Yah, Datsyuk has had injuries. But Zetterberg has never had anything right? I mean, those chronic wrist and back problems must have been a joke, anyone could play with those.

I wouldn't really complain if they needed to do that. But I thought that Lebda played pretty well. Despite Meech being pretty useless, our cap crunch is the reason we need to keep him, not get rid of him. He can play forward or defense. That's valuable.

Osgood plays a different position than Zetterberg, you can't really compare them... If you mean, "would that have made Osgood as valuable this year as Zetterberg last year", then yes, I suppose you could choose to look at it that way. I don't want to get into all of the stats with the playoffs again, like in the Datsyuk/OV/Malkin thread. Let's just leave it at this. Zetterberg Datsyuk Look at the playoff stats and draw your own conclusions. They're really pretty far apart. And who cares about 82 games vs 24 games. The 24 games are MUCH more important. Sadly this is probably just going to keep going and become a full-fledged Datsyuk vs Zetterberg thread, but I guess we haven't had one of those in a while.

Because Zetterberg has more consistently shown up in the playoffs? Edit: Zombo beat me to it

I liked having him here, and I appreciate everything that he did for the Wings. However, it's past well time for the Wings to move on.

I don't think that anyone hates him... Maybe people don't talk about him as much because he's not as flashy though. Kind of goes back to that argument in another thread about why he didn't win the Selke. Personally, I prefer Zetterberg, but they're both amazing talents.

Someone would have to be ridiculously stupid to do that. Edmonton Oilers perhaps? If I was a GM, I wouldn't give him a cent over 2 million. And I'd cringe even at that.

I can't imagine Sammy getting a bigger role anywhere else. I mean, yes his time on the top two lines was cut down this year, but he's had a pretty respectable role...working in on the top two lines and getting decent powerplay minutes on such a strong team. I can only imagine him leaving if: there's a huge contract that another team offers or if he has personal problems with Babcock. And given the way in which Babs plays him, the amount of ice time he gets and Bab's description of Sammy as being, if I recall correctly, "an elite, elite player" I find a conflict unlikely.

I can't see Stuart being too happy with being a number 5/6 defenceman. He's better than that. And more importantly, I don't think we should be paying 3.75 million for a third pairing defenceman.

I didn't feel that I was skewing numbers at all. Points per game is a pretty straightforward stat... Omitting seasons / changing things / compensating for ice time was the idea of other people...and the numbers still couldn't change enough to support their argument. But yes, they are all amazing. I think we all agree on that. But if we just said in our discussions, "they're close enough, why can't we just love them all the same" things would get kind of boring.

I'm sorry, I will always take playoff stats as being more important. Particularly when the regular season stats are so close and the playoff stats are so radically different. And his stats were also for the regular season. Since this year is more accurate, should we compile those stats for the playoffs this year? I didn't think so. Even before ANY known injury, Datsyuk's points per game wasn't too hot in the playoffs this year. And of course, for convenience we're going to ignore both Ovechkin's pulled groin and wrist injury, right? Once again, I love Datsyuk, but some people need to take off the rose coloured glasses.

Perhaps you should have done some research. Before I say this, the argument that he played against a good goalie one year is ridiculous. He's an elite player. A good goalie is no excuse. But just to prevent this from getting bogged down in an argument about that, ok, lets do it your way and take out those first two years. 2004: 6 points in 12 games 2005: lockout 2006: 3 points in 5 games 2007: 16 points in 18 games 2008: 23 points in 22 games 2009: 9 points in 16 games Points per game average: 0.781 Is there another way you want to try to skew the stats to TRY to get his points per game in the playoffs on par with Ovechkin and Malkin? Because that one didn't work.

http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=282319

My impression was that he had issues with the coaching staff in New York. Maybe with a bit more time in Phoenix he'll get back to his old form. Him and Svatos looked like superstars a couple of years ago.

I really want someone who uses their size a bit. I'd be ecstatic with Kassian, but as has been mentioned, it's pretty unlikely. Slightly more likely would be Drew Shore, who's a similar type of player that I'd love to have. He'd have to drop a bit too though. More realistically? The guy TSN had us taking in the mock draft, Ethan Werek, sounds like a good choice. The typical good puck skills thing but he's got a decently big frame (6-2) and according to TSN: