Drake_Marcus

So, hypothetically, a 1st overall Finnish kid couldn't get an exception from military duty (or deal where it would be 100% in the summer) to come right over to NA and play at age 18?

As far as Maltby goes-- he'll clearly be passing through waivers to come up and down. There's no way Holland signs him to sit in the press box all season. I doubt other teams would make a statement by grabbing a near-retirement grinder like Maltby if Holland was clear that the waivers were a formality and not intended to get him off the Wings' hands. Frankly I think it'd be nice to have a loyal veteran like Maltby in Grand Rapids mentoring the kids there. He trains like a pro, thinks like a pro and has leadership to spare. He'd be a great influence on the young kids in GR. I bet Holland would ask him to keep a close eye on Smith and act as a positive influence on him.

Where's the ~4.2 million they owe in bonus overages?

I'm conflicted about this. On one hand I'd love to see him finish his career in Michigan. On the other hand I feel like the bottom 6 needs to stay open for young players to prove themselves. Wouldn't it be cool if Mursak or Tatar could play themselves onto the 3rd line in camp and the preseason? It's a long shot but it's virtually impossible once you add yet another NHL forward to the mix. This move really makes the most sense if the Wings don't keep one or both of Miller and Eaves. Of course that would mean Modano would have to log a lot of PP time as well. I'm really hoping one of the young offensive prospects will play his way onto the team in camp and make an impact early.

Can someone explain to me why Ottawa pissed 5.5 mil away on a 36 year old veteran offensive defenseman when they're supposed to be rebuilding right now?

My parents should've tried this with me.

I'm not mad with you. I dislike the trolls. You've been nothing but reasonable. LGW needs more fans of other teams that are willing to honestly discuss hockey instead of trolling. If we can love Duck Guy after the 07 playoffs we can love anyone. (Except Pronger. f*** him) At least you guys were smart enough to trade them to crappy teams in the East and for the record I think Stalburg will be good for you guys. He's got great hands.

Toews and Kane had a reported $5,000,000 in combined bonus targets. Mirtle is reporting that they hit all of those bonus targets. Stan Bowman's (apparent) insistence that only $1,300,000 will count against the cap is complete bulls***. He stated that this was only for the Conn but that supposes that neither Kane nor Toews had even a penny more in performance bonuses in their contracts-- which is absurd given how rookie contracts for lottery pick players are structured. The final nail in that story's coffin should be this-- people claim that Bowman said only $1,300,000 will count against the cap. It has been verified that 1.3 mil is the amount of the Conn bonus alone. However, the Hawks had approximately $300,000 in cap room left at the end of the season (apparently). The rules for cap overages state that only the overage carries over. Thus it's impossible to have the entire 1.3 mil count against this year's cap according to the story constructed by hopeful fans. Frankly this whole 1.3 mil thing smacks of desperate fans clinging to the only number they know for sure while the rest of the hockey reporting world has moved on. Bob McKenzie, for the record, is rarely ill informed. He's quoting the 4.19 million dollar cap hit for bonuses right now and I'll take his word over conjecture from biased fans. This is completely reasonable and I doubt you'll be disappointed. The other side of the coin is the trolls we get here from some of the Hawks forums that think the result of these moves will be minor (if anything).

Great post. Annnd cue the hawk troll's denial.

In a perfect world we'd see a new Joe built near by with all the amenities but the same JLA feeling inside and the same name.

I'm not worried. Teams generally don't take RFA runs at 3rd and 4th line talent. It's really not worth pissing other managers off for grinders. No one honestly thinks Helm is a top six player so they won't overpay for him and thus Holland can easily match an offer.

But it's not a Hawks board. The number of Hawks threads on here is proportional to volume of Blackhawks related hockey news. You're reading the "General Discussion" boards of a hockey forum. The Blackhawks trades and potential trades are dominating TSN and the rest of the relevant hockey news media. Why would you expect our general discussion forum to be any different? The difference is that you're playing the role of the antagonist in every ******* Hawk thread. You haven't contributed to anything on here-- you're shaking up a bee's nest and giggling like a ******* 8 year old girl. TL;DR : f*** off with the trolling. You provide nothing of substance on these boards and are an annoyance.

Don't the Blackhawks have their own forums? This is a pretty boring brand of trolling.

A young top six forward-- that's the best part. Burke needs to keep the incoming players under 25.

We all knew Stan Bowman was full of s*** when he said he didn't have to make more deals. Like I (and virtually everyone else) said-- there's zero chance he could've stood pat without magically changing how the cap works.

Good signing for Philly. Leighton was their MVP at times during the playoffs.

I don't really see him bouncing from NA to Europe and back to NA. Usually once a player gets to NA they stay here so they can maximize their chances of making the NHL.

I wasn't really thinking about the lines with Savard. My mind was on the lines without FA signings. Sorry. Yeah, if we had Savard as the 3rd line centre I'd be more than happy to see Hudler as the recipient of his passes. Savard is a world class centre so that would make our 3rd line insane. Do you post about anything other than Hudler? I swear it's like he slept with your wife or something.

In terms of his shot? Cammalleri makes sense. The Wings' Finnish scout compared him to Jari Kurri.

Boyd would look good on the Canadiens. I wonder what they'll do with Sergei's useless brother...

So we have 6 players who can score more than 57pts a season? Didn't think so. Nice try, though. It typically doesn't benefit the team to try and bury a 2.875 million dollar scoring winger on the checking line when he isn't an effective checker.

I'd rather see him transition to North American hockey sooner than later. But right now the focus is on making sure he stays healthy for a full season. Part of that is proper strength and conditioning training (not S&T in general, but a properly designed plan to keep him flexible, conditioned and strong). If that means bringing him to NA and having a personal trainer assigned to him then so be it. The Wings should be most concerned with getting him in the hands of the best possible physio and trainers.

Unfortunately he'll be gunning for something along the lines of 4 mil so he's way out of our price range. I do wish the Wings could grab him but there just isn't room.

I felt the same way at first but I think youth and internal growth is too important right now. The Wings need to keep giving guys like Abdelkader, Helm and Ritola as many mins as possible.

Hudler. He's never had an official fight. Why? No one will drop the gloves with him.