Drake_Marcus

Hudler should be negotiable to a salary that comes in just over 2 million if we keep the term short (he's trending upwards so locking him in for a short contract allows him to cash in in the future- that's what Holland did with Zetterberg's previous extension). Since the Wings would get a 1st and 3rd from an offer sheet that exceeded about 2.6 million a season we know the Wings should be able to sign Hudler for an amount around 2.5 million or possibly less if they work their magic on him like they did with Z back when he signed his 2.25 million dollar extension. This. It's hopeful thinking, yeah, but the point is that Hudler locked in at 3 million or less is better than Filppula locked in at 3 million IF the Wings are able to retain Hossa on a deal like Zetterberg's. Hell, if they can get Hudler and Leino for around 3.25 million we're golden in that case. However, if Hossa walks I'd strongly advocate keeping Filppula in addition to Hudler.

Yeah- f*** the salary cap I want all the players I like to get paid the money they deserve and play for the Wings regardless of what the final total is for the team. *sigh* Where's your quote saying Filppula's more valuable to this team than Hudler? Hossa? Because I've got a spread sheet sitting right here that tells the truth of why Filppula's the odd man out. Assume we can get Hossa for the exact same contract as Zetterberg Next, Holland has to bring Ericsson and Howard up next season because they're out of options in the minors. If he doesn't bring them up we lose them to waivers. So Conklin isn't retained and Lebda is moved in favour of keeping the cheaper Meech. Kopecky, McCarty, Chelios and Downey are released as well. Helm is brought up from GR full time because he's too good to stay and he's dirt cheap. Roster spots empty: 3. Free agents remaining: Leino, Samuelsson, Franzen, Hudler. Cash: $1,757,223 (assuming the cap is identical to this year's cap, any rise would just provide breathing room) Ok, so you have to sign 3 players with under 2 million. That's $585,741 a person. Which of Leino, Sammy, Mule or Huds can you get for that price? Zero. So let's just buy up 3 scrubs at $585k each. Wait, let's throw Meech up into the line-up as a forward just to stay super-cheap. Ok, so now we have $878,611.5 per scrub. Nice! Still can't get Leino for that unless we're going to throw a massively long contract at him. Line-Up: Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Holmstrom Hossa - Filppula - Cleary Maltby - Draper - Helm Meech - Scrub - Scrub Lidstrom - Rafalski Kronwall - Stuart Ericsson - Lilja Osgood Howard Lost: Hudler, Franzen, Samuelsson, Leino, and the ability to call someone up without using long term injured reserve to free cap space. Translation: Lost: Scoring depth. Filppula's 3 million dollar contract kills the probability of this team being able to keep Hossa without destroying scoring depth and ruining the team (if Maltby - Draper - Helm is the best we can come up with on the third line next season we've taken a significant downturn). It's been made very clear that the Wings would like to keep Hossa. Hudler is more valuable to the team than Filppula AND he's a better player than Filppula. Significant changes will occur with this team, and without dropping a large salary the team is f***ed. Filppula's contract is the only one that's large enough to free significant cap room and doesn't have a no trade clause. The Wings will have to lose players they like this summer. It is impossible to keep everyone. Filppula is not safe because he's got a bright future when the people he's shoving aside are more valuable to the team. In summary: Anyone who thinks Filppula's spot on this roster next year is 100% safe is lying to themselves.

He is because he's still the best defenseman in the NHL. That's according to the responses of his peers in a survey mid way through this season. Lidstrom had a horrible first third of the season, the next third was mostly the Nick we've come to expect. So far he looks to be 90% of the way back to form. Wait until the end of the season- Nick will be back near his level of production by the time 82 games have passed. We've all seen Nick have slow staring seasons before. His facial injury at the start of the season and the accompanying addition of a visor, combined with switching to new skates, gloves and stick didn't help him get back in the grove. I'm still not sure he should've chosen this season to switch away from all Easton gear. Too much change is never a good thing for a hockey player.

I watch all of the non-Red-Wing-conflicting Capitals games. I'm a big fan of both Ovi and Feds. I can assure you- Green's defensive play is horrible. Terrible. Brain dead is definitely a good descriptor of some of his decisions from a defensive stand point. I think you're getting Green's defensive play confused with Duncan Keith's. Only one of the two is highly thought of as a positional player. The other is a reckless 4th forward who's got a damn impressive shot and set of offensive instincts (well not an offensive defenseman's instincts). Edit: (Torry) Spelling

Let's hope for his sake that his career is more significant than that of the man who held the record before him.

Ohhhh we're calling a "no trade clause" a "North American quota"? Cool cool... thanks for the heads up.

The intelligent posters on here didn't say he sucks. Just that Hudler's the better 24 year old player for this team to retain. Filppula's the most replaceable of the two given the prospects in the pipeline, he's the least important to this team's depth this season. He's the less promising player based on both player's play this season and each season before it. Sorry man, but it's a fact. I don't want to lose Filppula any more than you do but his 3 million $ contract is an albatross around the neck of this team. He wouldn't have gotten that salary if Hossa had signed first.

I disagree... today's NHL is tailored to allow small, skilled players to succeed. That being said, I don't think he's ready to be the #1 guy somewhere. I'm a huge Hudler fan, but I honestly think he's really not ready to be counted on as the major goal scorer on a sub-par team. Hudler's main strength is his ability to produce points with minimum minutes... he's the ultimate depth scorer.

He's a 3 million $ checking line centre on a team desperate to dump salary? He's one of the very few expensive, replaceable players on this team. I realize he's being paid for his future potential and he's being utilized in a role that's below his capabilities, but that doesn't change the fact that the role he's in right now won't significantly change in the future if the Wings can keep the players they'd like to keep.

You're kidding, right? How can you take that from the GR games when he's been so terrible in Grand Rapids? He's been a healthy scratch multiple times, doesn't seem to fight anymore and doesn't put up points. Last game one of our skill players, who's a rookie no less, was being pushed around all of the third period. What happened? The kid got into the fight. If Downey isn't going to stand up for rookies that don't normally fight then what's the point of having him?

Friday: Boston @ New Jersey Detroit @ Columbus San Jose @ Buffalo NY Rangers @ Florida Chicago @ St Louis Vancouver @ Dallas Montreal @ Colorado Saturday: NY Islanders @ Philadelphia Edmonton @ Los Angeles Pittsburgh @ Toronto Columbus @ Carolina Washington @ Tampa Bay Boston @ Nashville Ottawa @ Minnesota Dallas @ Chicago Calgary @ Phoenix Sunday: Philadelphia @ NY Rangers San Jose @ New Jersey Washington @ Florida Colorado @ Detroit Carolina @ Buffalo Atlanta @ Anaheim Montreal @ Vancouver Edit: I had to drop my choice of Toronto on Saturday after their performance tonight!

Holy crap... I completely agree with TheOwl. Plus, let's not forget that Lang had his own action figure. Green? Pffft. I don't see an action figure of him. Ok, he has his own colour- that is impressive.

Yzerman/Lidstrom Era: --Pronger (for the attempt at Stevie's knee, although the outcome was delightfully karmic) --Claude "the fraud" Lemieux (scum bag who delighted in being a cheap f*****, although he was clutch for the Devils) --Roy (purely for the arrogance, although his exchange, via media, with Roenick, is one of my all time favourite media moments involving the NHL) Datsyuk/Zetterberg Era: --Pronger (still a ******* scumbag, his antics with Holmstrom proved it for the thousandth time, as did his calf stomping adventure) --Tootoo (a scumbag little ball of hate, lack of ethics and poor sportsmanship, I hate him with every fibre of my being) --Perry (a ***** of the highest order who wouldn't say a word to someone bigger than him but delights in trying to threaten smaller, but infinitely more impactful, players like Datsyuk (much to Datsyuk's amusement))

Nope. The Bertuzzi trade was brilliant on Holland's part. He picked up a potential impact player at the cost of a marginal prospect. Said prospect later impressed in his first NHL call up (2 goals in his second game) but it should be noted that he hasn't cracked the roster since. Regardless, Holland didn't have a crystal ball. Based on the evidence at that time it was a brilliant trade.

And you're missing an equally important point: shipping Hudler doesn't free up cash for Franzen. Hudler's replacement would only make a few hundred grand less than he did this year. Franzen will be on the books for 4 million at the very least. Hudler isn't holding down a contract that can free up that cash so the choice isn't Franzen or Hudler, it's Franzen or Hudler + some other players. And that bolded part is silly. Neither player is on a ppg pace, so a difference that translates to a 1.2 ppg pace over the 8 game stretch doesn't help your argument.

? Are you serious? Drake wasn't on the books for this year, regardless of whether or not he planned to retire.

Heh- that would be the only way he could've come to that conclusion!

Green is too terrible defensively to fly in Detroit. He's suited to the run-and-gun era where d-men were just forwards that didn't line up at centre ice, not to an era where d-men are expected to take care of their own zone instead of pinching in every chance, regardless of whether there's someone to cover him.

Hahaha a blue chip prospect that the Wings are very, very, very high on and see as a top two d-man in the future traded for one of the worst starters in the league? What a joke of a speculative blog by the sporting news. And they compared him to Quincey? Hahaha they obviously didn't do their due-diligence.

So the cap just jumped by 5 million?

I trust mine eyes to Dr. Ramani and you should too.

Indeed. This type of computer optimization system is very similar to the type used by university registrar offices to schedule courses and exams. However, there will always be a multitude of possible solutions for this type of multivariable optimization problem (it is highly, highly unlikely that you'd find only one solution to a problem with this many variables). In other words- today's schedule is one of many possible solutions. Who knows why this one was chosen.

Did you watch the playoffs last year? Against the Pens Jagr was actually the best player on the ice in the last two games. Although, as we all know, the Red Wings would be third from the bottom in waiver wire pecking order.

Here's a good quote from the article: Once again the Ilitches prove that they're the classiest people around.

I was just repeating what I read in reports at the time of the signing. Again, I didn't say his agent was money grubbing, I just said he was a bear to deal with.