Drake_Marcus

Rafalski was horrible against the Hawks and the Pens. For me, he was our goat this year until I read about his back injury. I can't really be that mad at him for his poor skating given he should've been in rehab, not on the ice. The fact that Babcock would switch Rafalski out for Ericsson after Brian made a goof midgame in the finals told us he must have been injured. Babs is usually pretty forgiving when an elite player screws up- he pretty much counts on that player to be self motivated to make up for it within the game itself. Bailing on a player by dropping him down the pairings tells you right off the bat he must not be healthy (at least when it comes to Babs).

Here's how I think it will go: --If Lilja is healthy and we're up against the cap: Lebda and possibly Meech are gone --If Lilja is healthy and we're not up against the cap: Meech is gone (his defense/forward status isn't as important) --If Lilja isn't healthy: Meech is gone (no cap room to hold onto him, Lebda becomes too valuable to dump) Lebda's amazingly cheap contract makes dumping him a hard choice for Holland. It's nearly impossible to get a d-man with his experience for less than $700k. Lebda's contract makes him attractive to other teams, even in light of his relatively small upside. He's one of the best deals in the league for a depth defenseman. Lilja will be very hard to unload if he's still hurt. Odds are the Wings will try and hold onto him if there's hope he can get healthy in the near future. The problem is how they can have the extra million in cap space sitting around waiting for his return. If they only have enough space to bridge the difference in salary between Lilja and Lebda the Wings are put in a very tough place. It would be nearly impossible to get a return for Lebda when other teams know the Wings have no choice but to dump him.

I can't help but find that imagine disgusting. I keep reading his name as "Tartar", like the fish dipping sauce. That'd be a pretty nasty addition to your potato snacks

Good question. I'd say, ideally, he'd either keep playing in Slovakia, or if the scouts feel he's already maxed out in that level of competition, your suggestions of the SEL or SM-liiga are both excellent options to throw him in with more demanding opponents (again, assuming the scouts feel he needs to make another step up in competition). The thing with the Wings system is that they seem not to interfere too much with their young European prospects when it comes to telling them what league to play in. Probably the best example of his is Ryno. Ryno's choice to leave the AHL at the start of the 07-08 season to return to Sweden was inadvisable, but what was worse was that he ended up playing in a second tier league and effectively dropping a year and a half off his development for what amounted to personal reasons. Now, almost two years latter it seems that the Wings have encouraged him to come back to the US and play in the AHL (which is pretty much the only way he can stay on the Wings' radar and earn a new contract, a fact that probably played a big part in his decision to come back to the AHL). Whatever they decide, I'm sure we won't see Tatar for anther 2 years at the very earliest. A more realistic estimate would be that he'd be in the AHL within 3 years, with international tournament play possibly pushing that date closer (see: Zetterberg).

It's funny because the fans in Philly would eat that s*** up.

Apparently the Wings are free agent shopping in the year 1999.

Oh everyone who saw his Warrior Hockey video is aware of his retarded level of talent. But he makes Feds seem overmotivated. Similar to Sergei, Kovalev's already proven he's insanely talented and a great hockey player when he wants to be. That's the one thing that killed me about Feds. But do we need another unmotivated guy to drive us crazy? Lang wasn't the star but he still drove us bats*** insane with his inconsistent play.

He was overpaid, but he wasn't bad, was he? I thought he was a pretty decent defenseman on their team, not worh 4 million by a long shot, but not useless. Like others have said- something's coming up in St. Louis.

Yeah baby- the future is looking bright for team Canada.

Kovalev makes Lang look like Cleary.

No shocker there. I wish Conks all the best and hope we get to see him in a winged wheel some day in the future. Thanks for the great games Conks, you'll be missed.

Love that video. That kid sure doesn't keep his puck on his stick for very long. And he can pick a top corner pretty effectively too. Plus he doesn't mind throwing a few dozen rights at another guy's face.

Can you imagine how many people would get layed out against that line? Hitter/Hitter/Hitter Yes please!

Sweet deal! Colour me excited. Chain Ryno to a spike on Holland's lawn so he can't go back to Sweden. He's 10 feet tall, 500lbs and has great hands.

The biggest connection between Kopy and Hossa is that come October they're both more likely to be wearing a winged musical note on their chest than a winged wheel.

Do it! Do it! DO IT!

f*** yeah. We need our next Probbie or Kocur.

Yeah, if Bouwmeester signs with Calgary you can bet your last buck he'll be first on the list of upcoming McFarlane action figures. f***, they're releasing one of Luke Schenn in the next group. Schenn before Franzen-- I'm not kidding, you can go check the website for the pure insanity

For me? Yeah. I'm pretty disappointed we didn't take Rajala, but I trust Nill without question. Ferraro looks really promising too. I love the idea that we just picked up a right handed shot version of Helm with scoring upside!

Who, Kindl?

Yes please. I'd gladly take two more Darren Helms.

Hey- I just noticed something. That photo is a fake. Pronger wasn't wearing those silly socks in the original pic.

I'm all for it dude. I want the Wings to take the number 10 and 11 ranked Euros tomorrow... both from Finland. We're stocking up on the Fins now. We just need some Finnish d-men to fill out the ranks and let us have a Swedish 5, Finnish 5 and crotchety old Canadian 3 (who I'll proudly cheer for).

Heh, sorry 'bout that. Pretty much everyone I know disliked me at first. I have that... talent. It's all good though.

Surely you wouldn't question my impartiality in a debate about Ericsson's awesomeness?