Drake_Marcus

Does he? His hands don't look like it. Helm is kind of alike a non-one-dimensional Lebda. His speed is the reason why he scores, not his hands. That can only take you so far. If Draper in his prime wasn't a top six I don't see Helm being one. All that being said- Helm isn't here to be a top six! He's here to hit everything that moves, win faceoffs, play solid defensive hockey and provide energy. Helm projects as a 3rd line centre with shutdown skill and high-end energy/checking ability. That's great because that's exactly what the Wings need right now- a long term replacement for Draper.

Perhaps they could do something like this: To Detroit: Anton Stralman (conditional on Hossa signing with the Leafs), 2nd Rounder To Toronto: Rights to Marian Hossa, Lebda, Meech. Adding the conditional part to Stralman is the only way a deal like that could work, but at worst the Wings would get a high second for Lebda and Meech, which is more than they'd get without it being part of a deal like this. If Burke is confident he can sign Hossa I'm sure a deal like this could go down.

Well f*** him then. I like Stuart, and he was amazing against the Ducks, but if Holland can steal Bouwmeester then he should. Yes the spot for Jay isn't open yet, but you've got to take a run at a kid like that if you can. I doubt we'll be able to get him, since I'm sure someone will throw more than 6 million at him, but you never know with Ken Holland.

This. On a more serious note, it looks like all the hockey insiders are shifting from "Hossa is all but garenteed to remain a Wing" to "Hossa is almost certain to leave the Wings". That shift started this weekend and is coming on strong. Either Hossa's making it known he wants more than a Franzen deal (something a few sources have been quoted as saying the Wings are offering Hossa), or he really won't sign for anything less than Zetterberg's deal. Obviously he's not going to get Zetterberg's deal, no freaking chance. So that leaves the following possibility: Lidstrom-Bouwmeester Rafalski-Kronwall Ericsson-Stuart With Bouwmeester signing a long term, front loaded contract for somewhere around 4.5-5 million a season. Part of the selling point to Bouw, aside from getting to play on a perpetual contender (and this is where his time on the Panthers helps us), is that he'll get to pair up with Lidstrom. Now he's a left hand shot, so that's going to be a strike against him in that department, BUT when Lidstrom retires we'll have Rafalski (right hander) paired up with another lefty (a possition Kronwall likely expected he'd have). As it stands now Bouwmeester is the type of strong positional player with high end defense AND offense we need to replace Lidstrom 5-10 years from now. Kronwall is proving that he's an offensive stud but only average defensively. Ericsson could get there, he's known for being defensively strong AND having great offensive numbers (when his wrist is healthy, although his defensive numbers were pretty decent in the playoffs given that he saw zero PP time).

Thanks for that link. When reading it I did see this: That's sick man.

He would certainly fill the sauciness void.

Your results certainly aren't bad at all- that's a good bench for three sets of 12 reps at your size. But Rajala's results?!? Ok, that's not very good if you're applying for the job of "pro athlete". That's like showing up for a job as a stripper only to fail the "attractive and under 400lbs" test.

True. See, these dudes should've switched to left wing... that's a far more open category.

In the words of Kyle's mom: What what WHAT?

Jagr was sweet, but Kurri is vastly overrated... once Gretz left his inadequacies were reveled (and for some- reviled).

This. Bossy was like Richard Prior. Under-appreciated. Brilliant. Loved to freebase. Ok, they didn't share that last one in common.

Rajala is impressive, but he projects as Hudler, at best, which is someone we've already got and who is still young.

I'm hoping that regardless of whether it's a dman or forward we get a right hander. A lot of the lower 10 first round projected players are righties. The Wings have so few right handers in the system it's scary.

When you're 6th all time in points and had nearly 700 goals, yeah it's pretty fair to assume you're a first ballot hall-of-famer!

Wow. You are crazy Ovechkin is the best forward in the NHL, so taking Malkin, the guy who's only arguably the second best (but certainly in the top 5) seem insane.

That's because they were listing UFAs not RFAs.

Post of the day! Good one Rome burner!

This. (although Chara did have a whale of a season, he was just too close to Lidstrom this year for Lids to pull off his 7th of 8 Norris trophies... the hockey writers wanted change, so anyone who came close to Lids had a much better chance all of the sudden) Props to Chara, though- he was fantastic out there and nearly had 20 goals while playing excellent defense. Did anyone else read the article from yesterday where a reporter is talking to Chara when all of the sudden Nick pulls up to the hotel in his car? Chara watched Nick check into the hotel then went on to tell the reporter how much of a fan he was of Lidstrom. I can't find the article, though. It was linked to on the Snapshots blog, but I can't seem to go to previous page of posts on that blog (it's so frigging annoying- why can't you just have a button that says "previous posts"?).

Tell me about it! I'm still pissed about how he got fleeced in 06-07.

It's true. Go read your spam box! Also I just bought this sweet Rolodex watch from them. I'm not sure why an address book company would make a watch, but this thing is supposed to bring all tha sweet pooty tang in.

I'm amazed how many people here seem to think that the Sedins contracts can't be similar to Z's just because they're not as good as him. If you go by that standard than 99% of the league is a joke. Zetterberg's deal was an absolute STEAL. Crosby, Ovechkin and Malkin all give you less hockey dominance per dollar. But that's not the point. Zetterberg gave the Wings a big break on the cap hit in exchange for job security. Cool, that works out for both sides. So that suddenly means guys who put up a point per game and play PK/PP duty aren't worth 5 million a year? WTF? This has nothing to do with comparing Zetterberg to the Sedins and everything to do with comparing a potential contract structure and the resulting cap hit to Zetterberg's. Comparing hockey skill isn't the question. This is about the Sedin kids' market value. And that's surely more than 5 million dollars a season each.

Really? You're overrating him. 45-50 pts is a fair ceiling for him. The playoffs this year was his best stretch of hockey in his career (note I said stretch, we're not talking a 5 game streak here). If we give him an 82 game streak of that hockey with not even a game slump, he's at 57 pts. That seems pretty good on the surface, but we all tried to calculate Zetterberg's 82 game total back in December of last year and we were pretty disappointed at the end of the year that he didn't hit 150 pts Well I was Filppula is a well rounded centre with s***ty finish. If Filppula had Hudlers hands he'd easily be a star player.

Yes in that we'll never find a team to take him off our hands.

Chara's numbers were inferior to Lidstrom in all but goals, PIM and height. Also Lidstrom has a bigger penis. An email told me AND it offered to sell me the special pills Lidstrom used!

I watched some of the Leafs games this year and I actually like them now. They're not very talented, but they work their bags of on the ice (thanks to Wilson, who isn't so useless when you're not asking him to win a cup) and they seem to be able to surprise you every game (often not a fun surprise, but sometimes it is!). Sticking with my theme of underdog teams, I like seeing the Coyotes win some games. They have a lot of really talented kids on their team and would be much better if they had a competent, experienced coach. I like seeing the "bad" teams get their chance to put together a really great month. I feel bad for the kids on these teams that have every bit the determination players on better teams do, but not the means to put a good run at the cup together (e.g. the pitiful Islanders). I was really happy that Columbus made the playoffs and thought they played really well this year. I felt bad that they drew the Wings in the first round, but in the end it was good for us. I'd also like to see Flordia keep Bowmeester and manage to clean up their act. They had some great stretches this season and just barely missed the playoffs. Oh, and anything that involves Ovechkin crushing the dreams of goaltenders. So: East: Leafs Panthers Capitals West: Wings Coyotes Also note that I've managed to skip teams that have caused me undue heartache in the playoffs