Drake_Marcus

I'm inclined to agree but you forget that Williams hasn't been in a corner in years.

Just to back up what I said about Leino not going to GR:

To quote Kenny Holland:

I was kind of hoping he stuck with 21 But an unusual number would work too. 77? I'm kind of partial to the higher numbers... What about 98?

Implicit in Leino's signing to a one way contract was that he was a full time NHLer. He stated in the summer that he'd already paid his dues in the AHL and wanted to play full time NHL hockey this year. By signing him to a one way contract Holland is agreeing with that assessment. For example, Eaves was signed to a 2-way contract, so he has to expect that there's a possibility he will have to spend some time in the AHL. Leino's a former Finnish MVP who's already 25 and came to the Wings to play in the NHL, not be a long term project player. He was very patient last year and played almost the entire season in the AHL. Before his contract was signed he flat out told the Wings management that he wanted to play NHL hockey this year, so when they signed him to a one-way NHL contract the implication is that he's not going down to the AHL. Considering he's making $75,000 less this year it seems clear that he sacrificed some of his pay to get the one-way contract status (what other concessions would they have made to justify a pay cut when he was a 0.75 ppg player during his call-up and excelled in the AHL?).

Because he has a completely different role to play. Helm is a grinder who's great on the PK. Leino is a talented top six scorer/playmaker. Once your top 6 is full the best guy to plug into the bottom six is a player who plays a grinding game. Leino's usefulness this year has nothing to do with the fact that he was a spare part in the playoffs because we lost 3 guys with top six scoring talent. Holland brought in two other guys to replace those minutes-- Bertuzzi and Williams, with Leino being the guy who will fill the third spot. Obviously that makes for more than 6 "top six" type players, but that's the way the team was before since it allows for more depth and injury replacements.

It will take 3 seasons for Helm to hit 25 goals (and that's the career number, not an individual season number). He just doesn't have the hands to be a 25 goal scorer. Guys who can score that many goals aren't as common as you'd think. Hudler has absolutely amazing hands (his wrist shot is arguably better than Datsyuk's while his passing is somewhere near Zetterberg's, but certainly not as good as Datsyuk's) and he only scored 15 goals and 10 assists in his rookie season. Expecting a guy who doesn't have half the offensive skill of Hudler to easily put up 20 goals in his rookie season is a bit absurd. I'm expecting Helm to put up something around 5 goals and 10 assists this year. He likely won't spend most of the year centring the 3rd line unless Williams ends up s***ting the bed in that regard, although I expect Babs will give him more than a few shots at centring the 3rd. My guess is that Helm will play the majority of the year split between the 3rd and 4th line (depending on injuries) with some 2nd unit PK replacement minutes mixed in there as well. There would have to be a TON of injuries for Helm to get PP time. For the record, here are Helm's regular season NHL stats (combined): Regular Season: 23 games--0 goals--1 assist--1 point Playoffs : 41 games--6 goals--3 assists--9 points If we average those out and apply it to a 82 game season we're looking at a total of 13 pts. Helm is an excellent player who will serve this team very well over the next few decades, but expecting him to be a significant scorer is just silly.

I'm Canadian, we're still respectful of the original spellings of (most) words

Calling Williams a euro is an insult to guys like Ovechkin who aren't puss-bags. Williams hasn't been in a corner since 2006.

I have a hard time seeing this team slipping a great deal. The core of the team hasn't changed at all, with only Lidstrom and Rafalski aging to the extent that their play might decline this season (although Lidstrom's play only got better after he recovered from his facial injury in the preseason, so I don't think his season this year is going to be significantly worse, if it's worse at all). The Detroit Red Wings of 07-08 didn't need Hossa to win the cup, they just needed a focus on defensive play. So I have a hard time seeing the loss of Hossa as being as significant as some think it is. The fact remains that the Wings are a better team when they have to play defensive hockey instead of relying on scoring bunches of goals. Not having Hossa to save their bacon early in the season will force them back into that mindset, which can only be a good thing. Once again, the rumour of the Red Wings' demise are exaggerated.

Fair enough. Leino's on a 1-way contract (if I remember correctly), so he's playing regardless.

Lebda doesn't make enough money to make the difference in that situation. As it stands now it looks like Lilja will start the season on LTIR, with Holland having to do some suffling before bringing Lilja back in. My guess is that Lebda will be traded since Meech is cheaper and can play forward (plus he wouldn't get much return in a trade anyway). With Lebda gone the Wings would still need to dump $320,000. In that situation I imagine they might end up sending Helm or Eaves down to GR since they're both waiver exempt and the Wings have 13 forwards anyway. They're probably best off saving as much cap room as they can by keeping the 13th man in GR until he's needed, although Holland's already said he wants to carry 13-7-2 in October.

Why they'd put Eaves on the third line instead of Leino is beyond me. Smacks of someone who doesn't understand how well Leino played during his call-up. Hell, Leino would've ended up outscoring Eaves during his call-up if they only kept him a handfull more games. Going 5-4 in only 12 games is just sick for a rookie. I do agree that Helm will most likely end up playing on the 4th, although I wouldn't be surprised to see Babs give him a decent number of opportunities to try being the 3rd pivot.

A few things are worth noting about that +/-: 1. No one on the Flames posted impressive +/- numbers (aside from Conroy's +20, Bourque's +18 and Glencross's +14): ....Iginla -2 ....Cammalleri -2 ....Phaneuf -11 ....Jokinen -7 (in only 19 games) (however it's worth noting that Bert's -13 was a team worst) 2. The team wasn't playing a very strong defensive system (as indicated by the poor +/- of his peers) 3. Bertuzzi also lead his team in giveaways (67, with Phaneuf's 64 GvA ranked 2nd). This will have to change if he plans on getting significant ice time in Babcock's system. Bertuzzi didn't exactly have a terrible year last year, though: 1. 15 goals in 66 games (projects as ~19 goals over 82 games) 2. 44 points in 66 games (projects as ~55 pts over 82 games) 3. 6 PP goals (ranked 4th on the team) 4. 16 PP points (ranked 4th on the team, 3rd among forwards) 5. 4 GW goals (tied for 2nd on the team) 6. 1 OT goal (tied for 1st on the team) 7. 50% in Home Shootouts (ranked 1st on the team), 100% in Road Shootouts (ranked 1st on the team) ....Total: 2 goals on 3 shootout attempts (ranked 1st on the team) ....Game Deciding SO goals: 2 (ranked 1st on the team) Just some stats to chew on.

I doubt Leino will make his doghouse very often. Babs seems to really like him.

Fixed it. The loyalty Holland has towards his committed veteran players might on occasion seem like a bad thing on the surface, but it's always a smart move for this organization. How did the Wings get Franzen for less than 4 million a year? By showing him that they are 100% committed to the guys who are 100% committed to them. Same goes for Zetterberg's cheap contract. Look at how the Wings play this game: --> They allow their vetrans to retire on their own terms, holding onto them as long as they can (no strong-arm tactics) --> Fischer suffers a heart attack and can't play. The Wings give him a full time position in the organization and make sure his family doesn't have to worry about their big bread earner suddenly losing his means of livelihood because of a tragic medical flaw. He was injured in the line of duty and Ilitch made sure he was taken care of. --> Ilitch makes sure players get the best treatment- a private jet for road trips (many teams charter or fly on commercial jets, which sucks if you're injured and need to maximize comfort and room) --> Ilitch makes sure the families of his employees get the best possible treatment including setting up spots in private schools for the children of employees. --> The team is 100% committed to competing for the cup every year no matter what it costs. --> The team painstakingly ensures a family atmosphere exists at every level of the organization --> Rookies and free-agents are eased into their roles and given all the time they need to adapt Doing this isn't cheap and, in some situation, it isn't necessarily the best short-term choice when you look at it at face-value. But it allows the Wings to retain their players cheaper and contributes to the winning atmosphere and players' commitment to the organization.

Don't worry Mindfly-- he's definitely going to be the odd man out. He won't be home playing with his kids all season, but he will be sitting in the press-box for more than a few games. As it stands now the top 12 are set in stone: Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Franzen-Filppula-Cleary/Leino Bertuzzi-Williams-Leino/Cleary ?-Helm-? In those two open slots on the 4th you have some combination of Draper, Maltby and Eaves. Eaves gives you everything Maltby does and then some. Draper is still fast and has elite face-off ability. In my mind at least, Maltby is the 13th forward. Holland mentioned in interviews that he wants to carry 13 forwards and 7 defensemen in October, so it looks like these lines are set. Those that theorized Abdelkader would be better served playing 20 mins a night in GR look to be right on the money. I love that Abdelkader is playing in Grand Rapids, by the way. Look at it this way-- in Grand Rapids, Abdelkader has the following factors going for him: --> He'll play 20+ minutes a night --> He'll get regular PP time --> He'll be the first line centre, with all the responsibility and trust that goes with it --> As the 1st line centre he's going to have tons of responsibility and leadership opertunities which is great for his development --> He's an excellent young player that will give the Wings an excellent injury replacement player all year long --> He's only 21 years old so it's not like giving him a second year as a pro in GR is going to slow his development All in all I love this move. Holland isn't pushing Abdelkader into the NHL before he's ripe. There's still lots of room for him to develop down in GR. There's no way playing 20 mins every night and being the go to guy for an AHL time isn't going to make Abdelkader a better player.

Another 15 goal scorer for 1.5 million. Yes please.

I can see that happening. He was rock solid for them last year.

Hey now, you don't consider Maltby and Draper solid scorers on our 4th line last year?

Ummm... that's ok if you can ice as many people as you want each game. Hudler would be scoring more than 23 goals and 57 points all from a wing position on the 3rd line. You can't exactly compare one guy to three (an entire line) and say it's a fair comparison... I see what you're getting at though. Also, the arbiter gave him 2.875 million a year for two years, so we'd have to make the comparison based on that number

I just went through my spreadsheet and if Bert is being offered 1.5 million that will take the Wings over the cap by $921,868... Dumping Meech or Lebda won't fix that. The only way to fix that is to either keep Helm in GR AND dump Meech or Lebda OR dump Lilja. Dumping Meech AND Lebda would be too risky because it wouldn't leave enough to hire a league minimum injury replacement on defense. Given that Meech is making less than $500,000, I don't see him leaving this year. If the Wings keep Lilja on LTIR entering the season they'll only have $328,132 in cap space going forward. Once Lilja is healthy they'd be forced to dump Lebda or Meech and given that every other GM would know the Wings have no choice but to dump a d-man odds are they won't get much if anything for the guy they dump in that situation. The other option is that Bertuzzi is only getting 1 million a season and the Wings are going to dump Lebda. That'd only leave $228,132 in cap space, which is a dangerously low amount... Ideally they'd likely want to have somewhere around $500,000 in cap space to allow for injury replacements this year. Is there a possibility that Holland knows Maltby, Draper or Holmstrom plan on retiring before the season starts? Maltby or Holmstrom could retire without a cap penalty, but Draper's contract would count against the cap since he signed his last deal when he was over 35. I know it sounds crazy, but this kind of pick up is so expensive it seems possible that one of the current 12 forwards is not going to be around in October. Intriguing...

Earlier in the summer it definitely seemed that way. But now? Why would you strip a player you're trying to sell to someone else of their captaincy? That hardly helps you sell them. If there was an expectation that he'd be traded this off-season then surely they wouldn't hurt his value by saying he's not a good enough leader.

He deserves the recognition he gets in the playoffs. Joe's yet to put together an above average playoff run. This year he put up some points but couldn't do it when it mattered aside from a single game. Why did Boston dump him? He was a playoff choker for them. As it stands he's yet to prove he can elevate his game in the playoffs or even play consistent playoff style hockey.