Drake_Marcus

That sure would be nice, though.

True... you don't get paid $500,000+ to do it, so I guess we can expect them to work a bit harder for their six or seven figure contracts.

Wow. I guess he wasn't ready to make the jump to the NHL and wasn't willing to do the AHL thing.

Let's see the dollar values before you go and say the people who predicted this would doom them under the cap were right. Three top notch players mean nothing if the supporting cast is all AHL scrubs.

Uggg... why did you have to drag this pointless thread up again Shoreline? Stop throwing kindling onto the fire that is this retard rodeo.

Exactly. If we're comparing him to a non-goaltending prospect you could say he's "shown glimpses" of being a starter. No rookie player is fantastic every night, but the truely good ones show glimpses of their potential. The game against Vancouver was one of those glimpses. He's capable of being an excellent goalie if he can string it all together. Not being able to have much fluctuation between good and bad is why goaltending prospects are so notoriously difficult to develop into stars.

Ericsson logically gets the edge because he's got the better hair.

I enjoy your directness Mule.

Veteran fans save their panic for minor roster moves.

Agreed. It's legally retarded to give up on a former blue-chip goaltending prospect after a dozen or so NHL starts. If every team did that 99% of the goalies in the league would've been dumped by their first teams.

Chicago is jealous. They haven't had a significant sports team since Jordan retired (the first time).

I'd like to see Larsson get a start just to take a peak at him at the NHL level and to light more of a fire under Howard's ass...

Free failing.

I agree with those rankings. If Holland picked up a 3rd line centre it would solve these problems, but I think he'll stick with growth from within. That probably means keeping Abs on the 3rd or using Williams there.

Bert's beard would be hanging lower than his chin-strap after 2 months without shaving.

At no point has Quincey ever outplayed Ericsson in his entire career. Does he have more points right now? Yes, does he have a better point per minute played? No. Is he capable of putting more even strength points up per minute? Again, no. There's a reason why Quincey was waived-- the Wings felt that Ericsson would be playing in a year anyway and was the superior player. Ericsson's top end potential is certainly higher than Quincey. Give Ericsson the most PP minutes on the team and put him out there as the #1 d-man and he'd put up more points than Q. The difference in E's offensive instincts, shot and puck carrying ability is huge.

How so? Filppula is an average 2nd line centre at best (if we're talking solely about point production). On the other hand, he's one of the best 3rd line centres in the league. So what's better? Having an awesome 3rd centred by Filppula or an average 2nd? The only time there's any justification for having Filppula in the top six is if Dats and Z are together. (and no, I'd never put Val on the wing on this team-- his defensive and face-off contributions are too important to justify that)

Lilja's beard pwns both of them anyway.

This. Switching Franzen in for Bertuzzi gives the 1st line a HUGE boost. Like someone said above-- Franzen is better than Bertuzzi at everything (yes, even when it comes to growing beards). Datsyuk is FAR more effective when he has an elite scorer to pass the puck to. This team only has two guys who fit that description-- Zetterberg and Franzen (while you can argue that Franzen's not a truly "elite" scorer during the regular season he certainly is in the playoffs).

Filppula will not play wing on this roster. You'll only see him as a centre unless there's a trade that brings a new centre into the system. When he played Datsyuk's wing the team had Lang as the 2nd line centre. Also note that Helm isn't good enough offensively to justify playing him as the 3rd line centre on a balanced, healthy Wings team.

Draper-Helm-Eaves isn't a third line on a cup winning roster. Helm doesn't have the chops for that yet. Put those three as the 4th line and the line-up is ten times more dangerous. Having a 4th line that applies constant pressure and you can trust in every situation is much, much, much better than an average 3rd line. Furthermore, Leino's useless on the 4th line-- he's a top six style player not a grinder. If you don't give him capable linemates he's wasted. On top of that you've decided to keep Abdelkader over Williams, Miller or Maltby?!? Abdelkader hasn't shown enough right now to justify bumping Williams or Maltby. It's debatable whether he could bounce Miller since Miller has superior PK ability. Abs will be in GR when the injuries are cleared up. He's better off playing 20+ mins down there. These would be my ideal lines: Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Leino-Zetterberg-Cleary Bertuzzi-Filppula-Williams Draper-Helm-Eaves If we're going to see Dats and Z together (which I love): Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Franzen-Filppula-Cleary Leino-Williams-Bertuzzi Draper-Helm-Eaves Keeping Z and Dats together AND keeping Draper and Helm together will result in centre trouble on the 3rd line. Williams has played his share of time as a pivot, so he'd have to prove he can do it on this team. Overall Babs would likely have to chose between keeping Z-Dats together or keeping Draper-Helm together.

Why would you want to keep the Homer-Datsyuk-Bertuzzi line together and break the Leino-Zetterberg-Cleary line up when Datsyuk's line is the one struggling to develop chemistry and Z's line oozes chemistry!?! Replace Bertuzzi with Franzen. Datsyuk needs someone to pass to that can actually bury the puck.

11/21? *sigh* I was hoping to stop my slide down the rankings this weekend.

I think it's pretty obvious that the current line has way better chemistry than the old line with Williams. Their first game together was fantastic and they haven't looked back since. Williams doesn't go to the dirty areas and isn't particularly adept at holding onto and dishing pucks. He also doesn't dog the opposing puck carrier. Leino does all those things and that's why he's meshed better with Zetterberg in my opinion.

Well the Wings happen to have the longest travel schedule (in total distance) in the NHL, so sending them to a team that's only 4 hours away just wouldn't keep that record in D-town.