Drake_Marcus

Thanks to NHLSourcesSay on Twitter: He posted that ten minutes ago. Here's that guy's website: http://www.hendrickshockey.com/ He seem to have had some inside tracks on rumours recently (Tangay for example), so he seems like he could be credible.

Dude- I'd love to be underestimating Filppula. I'd love him to put up 60 points this season. I'm a Wings fan first and foremost-- a Red Wings player on a long term contract far exceeding expectations? Awesome. If Filppula rocks our socks off and ends up with a McFarlane action figure I'll gladly buy it and add it to my collection. It's not like I dislike Filppula man.

Filppula's ES scoring per minute isn't better than Hudler's. Filppula's anything scoring per minute isn't better than Hudlers I never said Holland saw a specific scouting report on Filppula. I referred to any scouting report on Filppula. They all project him as a second line player. Sportsnet, TSN (when they still had them), the reports we saw on him back in the 06-07 season, MY EYES, my mom, uummm... a magic 8 ball I found on the bus one day. Everything.

How many more minutes do you think Filppula will get? He played one less minute a game last year than Hossa did. And Filppula is weak on the PP-- he already gets a minute of PP time a game and doesn't do enough with it. If he did he'd play more PP time-- Babcock f***in' loves him, there's no way Filppula is some magic undiscovered offensive gem. Go read scouting reports man. I've said it a thousand times- he's an all-around 2nd line centre that provides a polished game in all areas without being a star. All the evidence agrees with me. 70pts in the NHL is phenomenal production. Less than 2 players a team will score 70 points a year. Filppula's not that offensively gifted. He's not one of the top 40 offensive players in the game, sorry. At the same stage in their development, with 3 less minutes of ice time Hudler's cracked the top 30 centres in the game list by getting 57 pts. Filppula will be lucky to hit that mark with the help of his team mates. Hudler did it fully on his own skill. Hudler consistently played with inferior linemates and still managed to rack up the points. 55 points for Filppula next year is far more realistic, and definitely achievable if he stays on the 2nd line all year and manages to get 2 mins of consistent PP time (which he'll have to earn by actually producing on the PP). As for the bolded part... Considering Hudler's a superior offensive player compared to Filppula, that's just foolish. Filppula's inferior in every offensive aspect to Hudler, but he's superior in every other aspect (skating, face-offs, 'grit', defense... etc). People need to stop painting Filppula in such an unrealisistic light. If he scores a bunch of points and puts up 70+ pts it will be a pleasant surprise, not an inevitability that a select few members of LGW saw and NHL scouts didn't.

The offer was 3 million for 3, 4 or 5 years (Hudler's choice). He may have gone as high as 3.5, people have said that. We do know that he at least offered 3 million. The 2.5 million dollar arbitration award? Holland debunked that last night. It was never true.

Thanks for the link. I enjoyed the article.

I wonder if it got Z the discount...

Crazy, eh? Realistic expectations misconstrued as pessimism.

How is it a huge jump for Hudler to go from 23 to 30 goals when he's got amazing hands and puts up more points every year? Hudler's got the shot of a pure sniper. Give him more than 13 minutes a night and he'd hit 30 goals.

LeftWinger hates Hudler on such a base level you'd have to assume Hudler raped his sister or something.

Well said.

No he didn't. Sammuelsson was sixth. Cleary was seventh and Filppula was eighth. In the case of ties the player is ranked by number of goals. Interesting that in your cute little rant you completely missed my posts in this ******* thread. Oh yeah, I'm totally bitching about Filppula not scoring enough. I'm not appreciating him. Or maybe I'm just trying to get people on here to have realistic expectations of Filppula. Then you mossy on in and call me to task for not appreciating Filppula even though I've already spelled out exactly what you think I don't appreciate him for.

I firmly believe that Holland wants all 23 players to be the best hockey players he can ice. If some of them also fight it's a bonus, but he won't remove a PKer or supplementary scorer to throw a guy out there who's only talent is giving the other team the stink eye and throwing his fists around. Know what I mean? That's why this Callahan kid makes me happy- he seems like he might be just that kind of "hockey player who also fights" guy.

Doubt it was the Ducks. They just happened to find some kids who can scrap AND play and were still there when the Wings got to them (without a better option sitting in front of them). Callahan looks like he could be really fun. He's a good skater, has NHL hands (not top six hands necessarily, but good enough to contribute) and appears to be dedicated and full of energy. That and he loves hitting things with his fists. Can't wait to see him play!

I follow them on Twitter and they seem fairly legit. They mentioned that the Wings were pursuing Sundin (almost a certainty since Holland's pursued him twice before), but nothing about Shanny. It's well known that Shanny wants to stay in the NY area because his kids go to school there so anyone who is speculating Shanny to Detroit (probably) doesn't know enough about the circumstances.

Interesting that with 16:06 mins per game Filppula saw the 6th most time on ice among Red Wings forwards last season. Now that he's a member of the top six (ignoring the fact that he already was last season and parts of the season before when Z was injured) we should expect his time on ice to be in the top six. Yeah, he's been screwed with his ice time. I mean being only the 6th most used forward in your third year? Poor guy. All his defensive responsibility is weighing him down- he should throw all caution to the wind like the rest of the Red Wings, but alas he's the only guy asked to play a strong two way game and his point totals are suffering for it. No way that has to do with the fact that he's just not an elite offensive player. EDIT: Sorry to sound like a dick here, but I find it just a little silly that I'm the one being told his expectations are skewed.

You seem to have completely missed my point with Lebda. And as for Filppula's hands-- well guess what? McCarty has a highlight reel Cup winning goal. Does that mean he has great hands? I have video evidence. Scoring a couple of highlight goals doesn't suddenly make you an offensive dynamo. You seem to be forgetting how many times Filppula holds the puck for to long, makes a s***ty shot, or fails to get his pass in tight. He's got above average hands. He doesn't have "great hands". If he had great hands he'd have more to show for his 3 seasons in the NHL than a 40 pt maxout when a player who gets 5 minutes less a night, Hudler, has out paced him by at least 25% at every step. Edit: I've consistently rated Filppula as a 2nd line centre who plays a strong all-around game. Go find me a scouting report that disagrees with me and sides with your speculation that he has 70pt potential (and thus is capable of being a 1st line centre who scores at a near point per game pace). 39 forwards scored 70 or more points last season. And you think Filppula's offensively talented to be one of those guys? Only 17 centres scored 70 or more points last season. You think Filppula's good enough to be one of the top 20 centres in the league!?! The 30th centre in scoring put 57 pts up, far below your expectations for Filppula this season. Thus we see that you believe Filppula will walk in this season and be good enough to be a #1 centre. Oh, and guess who tied for 30th place in centres? Hudler.

This.

How long have you been watching the Wings? Lebda has about one end-to-end goal a season. 70 points? Are you aware how hard that is to achieve? Filppula doesn't have the hands to get 70pts. He could play on a line with Zetterberg and Datsyuk and he wouldn't hit that number (see: Holmstrom). Sorry man. And Filppula- prove me wrong man. Nothing would make me happier than being wrong about Filppula's upper point limit. Preferably have this break-out season sometime while you're still making 3 mil a season.

Datsyuk and Zetterberg showed more offensive brilliance in their first years than Filppula has at any point in the last 3. There's a huge difference between showing flashes of brilliance and making a handful of great plays. Lebda has shown some flashes of offensive greatness with the odd end to end rush that impresses everyone. Is he an awesome offensive force in the making? No.

^This. I can't believe people here think he'll get 50-65 points next season. Amazing. People obviously don't understand how offensively talented you have to be to get that many points in the NHL. Hudler's got some of the best hands on the team and arguably the best shot. 57 points was a great run for Hudler. Filppula's hands aren't half of what Hudlers are. Sorry guys-- unless he suddenly becomes an offensive force thinking he'll easily break 50 pts is insane. Filppula's career upper limit looks to be 60 pts. Filppula isn't Datsyuk junior. Filppula's an excellent defensive forward with great face-off skill, versitility, the ability to hold onto the puck under pressure and above average offensive skill. He's not a superstar waiting to happen guys... he's a great 2nd line centre to have on the bench, but not a budding superstar.

I really don't think we'll see more rookies than Ericsson, Leino, Helm and Howard. Having more than 4 rookies just isn't the Wings' style. Too many unknowns for one season...

^This. Still miss Kozlov, and he's had good seasons in Atlanta.

This. Hudler won't stay in the KHL forever. Who knows if the league will be around that long. Maybe he'll get sick of not being paid when his team loses money. Regardless, 2.5 mil for a player of his caliber is peanuts. We'll likely have him in two years when he's near his prime for dirt cheap. Cool.

Wow. Just read this on TSN: What a great way to treat your owners Bettman.