Drake_Marcus

He'd be exposed to waivers if he was (and yes, he'd likely be picked up). Ritola has the right combo of size, youth, defensive play, willingness to get dirty and offensive talent to make him an easy choice for teams with a roster spot and waiver priority.

That's where he played in his 57pt season. There's no reason to expect he won't hit 60pts or at least hover in the mid 50's if he has a rough go of it. He's got too much talent to regress much. He had 42pts in his sophomore season. I doubt he'll drop below 50. No one in the hockey world would sound sane predicting that 97 to 70 drop for Datsyuk entering last season. There was zero basis to make that case until all of his wingers got broken. If we're talking predictions you typically go with the most likely scenario (which in Datsyuk's case would not have been a 27 point fall!). The pass didn't put that puck in the net.

I'll stick with the opinions of the Hall of Fame management. kthanxbi You know, you'd sound pretty retarded there if Modano had a Cup ring. ...oh wait.

12 people voted that Hudler would score fewer points than his two pro seasons. 3 of those people thought Hudler would magically regress to the point that he'll have his worst season since his rookie year. Amazing hockey knowledge on display.

Hahahahaha Housley, Modano, LaFontaine, Chelios, Mullen, Leetch, Richter, Roenick, Mark Howe, etc. To even suggest that Kane belongs among those names shows a pathetic ignorance of hockey history.

Damon had a whale of a game tonight!

Exactly.

If he plays for something at or below 1 mil I can see the two years being possible. Holland could look at it as just spreading the cost out over two years with the possibility of him staying the second year and making it a bargain. I'm not saying I'm happy with it, just throwing a possibility out there. He's over 35 so it would still count regardless of his potential retirement.

It's funny that you've ignored the stats that hurt your case. Statistically it's pretty much a wash. Yet you've been presenting it like it's clear cut superiority on the part of Eaves. I want both to stay and Draper to magically retire without counting against the cap.

Hudler and Filppula did. If Holland is forced to keep Abby down for cap reasons Babcock isn't going to make a big deal about it.

Yeah, if Modano is signed we can expect Miller to draw the short straw. I'm sure he's talked about the situation with Holland and there is likely a gentleman's agreement in place about what Holland will do if Miller's the odd man out. There are plenty of teams that would gladly take an energy line player who can score 10 goals and only makes $650,000. He's an asset they can use to create competition in camp or trade to another team. There's no point in throwing him away if Holland can get something for him (even if it's a 7th round pick).

Don't worry about the lines right now. Eaves, Miller, Abdelkader, Draper and Ritola will be battling for spots at camp this year. Someone is going to be waived/traded no matter what happens. Abdelkader has only played 2 seasons in GR so he still has AHL eligibility left as well (and certainly wouldn't be hurt by spending more time developing his offensive game given that he clearly isn't ready to consistently score at the NHL level yet).

It would be if we were in mid October right now. Holland isn't going to be carrying 3 spare forwards when the season opens.

Like PP goals? Game winning goals? +/-? Oh wait... Miller was better than Eaves in all those categories. But hey-- Eaves had 3 more points last year so he's head and shoulders above Miller! Only on LGW can a guy score 10g/19pts, be 3rd most used forward on the PK ice, have 3 GW goals (tied with Datsyuk) and be put down as a poor man's Eaves. Is Eaves better? Sure, although one could argue they're about even. Your post makes it sounds like people are comparing Cleary to Datsyuk.

This just in from HNiC's James Mirtle via Twitter: http://blues.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=533857&cmpid=stl-twt-070610 I'm still looking for financial details. TSN and other media outlets haven't picked the story up yet so we'll know more about the financial situation when that happens.

I hope they have to pay his weak-rebounding ass at least 4 million.

The thing about St. Louis is that people have been saying this for years and years. Every year we hear how they're bursting at the seams with blue-chip prospects and how they'll have a resurgence. But it never happens. It's interesting because there's no doubt that they do have lots of blue-chippers and they do have a promising young team with talented players. So why doesn't anything happen? You can blame goaltending but I don't buy that for a second. Mason was their MVP two years ago and other teams with weak goaltending (Pittsburgh) were able to develop their forwards and defensemen. Is it coaching and management? They seem stable enough from the outside looking in.

Update: James Wyshynski retweeted details of the deal This will be the comparable for Niemi and his agent (not that I think Niemi is as good as Halak).

Why does everyone assume Eaves is a better choice than Miller? Because he scored 20 goals as a rookie? I like Eaves' upside more but you can't discount how important Miller was to the penalty kill. With that in mind I'll break down the statistical contribution of each player below. Regular Season: Games Played: Eaves 65 Miller 80 Winner: Miller is more durable Goals: Eaves 12 (0pp, 1sh, 1gw) Miller 10 (1pp, 1sh, 3gw) Winner: Eaves, although Miller had 3 game winners to his 1 and was more useful on the PP. Plus/Minus: Eaves 0 Miller +2 Winner: Miller Time on Ice: Eaves 13:26 TOI/G ; 2:16 SH/G ; 0:19 PP/G Miller 12:42 TOI/G ; 1:49 SH/G ; 0:15 PP/G Winner: Eaves, who was 2nd on the team in PK time per game (Miller was 3rd) Real-Time Stats: Eaves 128 Hits ; 44 blocked shots Miller 97 Hits ; 47 blocked shots Winner: Eaves (give away and take away stats were nearly identical) Well statistically it looks like Eaves is the winner but they're both very close. He could be a core player... time will tell. I want to give him another season here before I decide that. In truth I think Miller deserves another season as well since he has nearly identical stats as Eaves.

Thanks to LeBrun: (emphasis mine) Holland must be happy about this. Meech's agent is deluded if he thinks the arbiters will hand his client a big salary for sitting in the press box. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean Meech will actually go to arbitration. He could be signed well before his hearing date. Edit: thanks to FireCaptain for the spelling lesson.

No. He has his priorities correct. Helm and Abdelkader: --Do not have arbitration rights --Will be signed to multi-year deals with an eye toward minimizing the cap hit --Are in a disadvantageous position to sign long deals due to their lack of production and thus their agents will resist the idea of signing them cheaply for a long time even if that's all they can really bargain for --These two deals are the most time consuming for Holland because there will be more negotiating involving trading term and yearly cap hit as well as arguments about the financial value of upside --In reality Abdelkader doesn't deserve a raise since he was overpaid last season for what he provided. Holland won't pay a million to score a couple of times a year. Is he a checker or a player with offensive potential. His AHL stats tells you one thing and his NHL stats tells you another. This means the two sides will likely be farther apart at the start of negotiation Eaves, Miller and Meech: --Not core players --Holland will be looking at one year deals to keep the cap hit low and the roster flexible --The players will be more likely to sign 1 year deals in the hope that they can produce a better season next year --All three have arbitration rights which means their contracts need to be sorted out as soon as possible

Offer him number 3 since 3x3 = 9 Edit: This assumes Lilja is gone.

Colaiacovo signed for 2 years with St. Louis. He got something between 1.5 and 2 million per. I think Exelby could be a smart choice because his stock is real low right now after being sucked into the Toronto black hole. Hnidy would be great but I bet he gets a decent raise. Sutton would cost too much but if he was willing to take a hair cut to come here I'm sure he'd receive a hero's welcome.

If Modano signs here I think Meech is gone. The Wings will likely use the 6th defenseman spot to inject hitting, a bit of fighting and a stable veteran presence on the 3rd pairing.

Never!