Drake_Marcus

Depending on Kindl's season in the AHL, Kronwall's season defensively and who's availible, expect them to possibly make a run at a first tier defenseman if they do have the money. This scenario would involve using a certain player's newly expired NTC. I won't name that person because it immediately causes a knee jerk reaction around here.

How many games do they play in the SEL? What sized rinks do they use? How is the pace and physicality of the game different? Every goalie who comes over should plan for an adjustment period. EDIT: I'm not down on this kid-- I'd much rather him than Howard as our back-up because Gustavsson is at least an exciting unknown and neither would be trusted by Holland when it matters anyway . I just advise more tempered enthusiasm.

I agree with you that he's definitely going to be father ahead of the curve. But my Dad's an old school Leafs fan so I've warned him not to expect Gustavsson to live up to the hype but to expect him to have a great shot at being a very good goalie long term. It takes a lot for me to be sold on a goalie and in this case that'll be a season where the Monster hits the NA wall and recovers like Larsson did last season. Edit: Hey, if Gustavsson falls apart tell Burkie we'll give him Howard and a pair of season tickets for the Monster.

He's a rookie goaltender in the NHL. 99% of the hyped rookie goalies can't steal the starter's job. The ones who do steal it from rotten goalies like Toskala, true, but this kid hasn't played a full season of NA hockey. He'll hit the wall in January like nearly every European import does in their first year. This kid could be real good, but I can't bring myself to buy the hype on rookie goalies. Price anyone? A good rookie year then he fell into a pit of mediocrity (and that's being generous). Anyone seen his stats this preseason? Yikes.

Wait, they had a goalie named after a crime in civil court? EDIT: Opps. My mistake-- slander can be tried as a criminal action as well, depending on the jurisdiction.

Shocker! Huet massively disappointed. I can't wait for him to be laughed out of the rink this year and even further eliminate the chance of them getting rid of his overpriced ass. Of course they'd still be stuck with the most overpaid defenseman in the league (a trophy Finger is happy not to have anymore).

The Hawks walked onto the ice arrogantly, expecting the win to be handed to them only to end up getting outworked and start taking immature penalties (slashing)? What else is new?

Poor Atlanta-- they'll forever be the source of our laughter.

Woh! He beat up that Bowling for Columbine dude!

Best. Album. Name. Ever.

I feel exactly the same way.

Even that's insane. People here need to stop thinking every single prospect is a potential top sixer. Babcock himself said he doesn't have the hands to score at the NHL level. (obviously he meant score regularly) Offense isn't his game. Helm is an exciting young player because he provides everything else you could ask for.

About as well as anyone else with virtually no offensive upside would? The offense you'll see out of Helm in 6 years won't be much more than what you'll see from rookie Helm. He isn't playing in the NHL because of his hands.

I'm aware that he came and left in the 07-08 season. I'm talking about a second chance from an NHL standpoint.

I spent an evening doing up a spreadsheet with all the stats for the players this preseason. Took me a while because I had to paste in the event summary from each game and assemble it that way. If Matt wants it to host on the site he can PM me. The highlights would be that our best forwards in terms of points per game (ppg) were: Datsyuk-- 1 g / 5 a (1.20 ppg) Franzen-- 4 g / 1 a (1.00 ppg) Leino-- 2 g / 3 a (1.00 ppg) Williams, Jason-- 2 g / 2 a (1.00 ppg) On defense both Kronwall and Rafalski had a point per game and Rafalski led the team in turn-overs by a mile (11 in 5 games).

What a fool. I can't believe he pissed this opportunity away. He won't get a second chance.

I'm not sure why people like the idea of Chelios as an assistant coach. Playing ability and coaching ability don't really crossover. Gretzky proved that great players don't necessarily make great coaches. There are a handful of good coaches that were good or great players, but the majority of coaches didn't succeed at the NHL level since doing so doesn't provide a coach with anymore coaching ability.

May would be signed to a two-way contract. If he's down in GR on a two-way he doesn't count against the cap.

That's a fair assumption given his play during the call-up last season, his play in camp and his play in the preseason. In the preseason we only had three forwards that were at or above a point per game: Datsyuk, Franzen and Leino. Edit: And by "forwards" I mean "players".

No surprises here. Once Helm is activated Abdelkader will be in GR unless he manages to play his way onto the fourth line (unlikely given who's above him on the depth chart and how useless guys like Williams or Bertuzzi would be on the fourth). The Wings won't stunt Abs development by putting him on the fourth line in Detroit instead of the first in GR.

lol. Retarded. When there hasn't been a single regular season game played the first two choices on the power rankings are easy-- Cup winner & Runner-up. Anything else is moronic.

Well at least the night I took off from hockey to go to the Marylin Manson concert wasn't a good game At least Leino got a helper

This! Way too many guys get to stand around in front of Ozzie.

Call me crazy, but I seem to remember the Wings doing pretty well after some of the Olympic breaks...