Drake_Marcus

He has great offensive instincts, so it'll be interesting to see what happens. I can't wait for people to say he's horrible at it after his first time playing the position in 5 years or so.

Agreed. Especially since the content of the sentence is as retarded as the structure.

Good thing I was drunk on a pubcrawl tonight. Thanks Wings. I haven't read the GDT yet, how many people shat on Ericsson for being on the ice during zero of the goals? Looks like we need a new scapegoat to blame losses on!

I haven't knocked a girl up but I sure as hell plan on having kids one day.

They hope that will be a bargain but come on man, 5 million is only going to be a bargain if he's a top 10 player in the league. His full seasons so far: 23pts/16pts/37pts/59pts/66pts(on pace for 75 in 82 games) The 16pts season is the only one where he didn't play at least 80 games. So he's got 86g 120a 206pts in 391 career NHL games. That's a 0.53 ppg career rating. And he's locked in for 6 years at 5 million a season? I'm sorry but that's a gamble man. He very well could end up being a ppg player-- he definitely has that potential, but he will most likely end up being a 60-70pt guy who does all the little things right. That's worth a bit less than 5 million but it wouldn't be devistating for the Canucks if this was the peak of his potential. The biggest danger is that this season doesn't represent the norm and he'll fall down to the 60pt level or even drop below it. At least he does all the other things really well. I can't help but think that he's cashing in on a career year. There's no doubt that he has the potential to get better, I think you have to treat guys in this situation with a bit more caution-- the NHL is littered with players who had career years, cashed in and declined.

The Wings will be in a tight spot if they keep Eaves and Miller AND Maltby returns. Ritola is out of minor options and they definitely don't want to give up on him so he'll be up in Detroit as well. What would the forward group look like? Franzen-Datsyuk-Holmstrom Filppula-Zetterberg-___?___ Eaves-Helm-Cleary Miller-Draper-Abdelkader Ritola If you add Hudler and a FA signing to that group some players have to go. There's no room for Maltby, either. This team definitely needs to add scoring in the offseason so that means something has to give. Bertuzzi wants to return as well, so where do you put him? If you add him to Zetterberg's wing the team will still struggle to score. I'm sure a huge part of the scoring drought has been injuries, but Holland can't risk another garbage season to prove that theory out.

Interesting. There's no way Chicago can afford him and he's probably smart enough to know they have so much depth right now that it'd be very difficult to crack the line-up. Dallas is very budget conscious and doesn't play the Wings style, so I have a hard time imagining that those two teams are more attractive options for this kid...

This!

This. Coaches just worry about winning and let the of the details work themselves out. I know it sounds simplistic but it's not an easy thing to do. Just ask Gretzky.

Honestly, you'd have to offer Backstrom much more than 6 million and for a very long term. If you want him shorter term we're talking like 8 million a season ore more before the Caps would let you take him. This kid is going to be a superstar. I think he'd be worth offering 7 million a season for 8 years or something along those lines but even that is something the Caps would likely have to match. You'd pay out your nose for him in picks too. If the Wings offered Datsyuk for Backstrom straight-up I don't think they'd take the deal. That's just how valuable he is. A kid that's that good at such a young age is worth his weight in gold. (and no I'm not saying he's better than Datsyuk now, I just think the Caps would value his future offensive potential too much to make that trade... they want to keep their core of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin intact) I do think you might be able to buy Semin from the Caps because there's no way they can afford to keep all three and have a competitive team without Semin and Backstrom taking big paycuts to sign super long term deals. Backstrom deserves more than the Kane/Toews deals and those would be the minimum deals for a guy like Semin. Semin might not be putting gaudy numbers up right now but he was a 1.42 pt/game player last season and held the scoring lead for a brief period if my memory serves me. There is zero chance Kenny buys a big name goalie unless Howard has a spectacular melt-down this season or in the playoffs. And I mean worse than Legacy had.

Nyquist is the consensus #1 pick for the Hobey this year with Smith usually ranked 2nd or at least 3rd. Hopefully there isn't an upset!

Friday: Minnesota @ Columbus San Jose @ Calgary Detroit @ Edmonton NY Islanders @ Anaheim Saturday: Carolina @ Pittsburgh Ottawa @ Dallas Montreal @ Toronto St Louis @ New Jersey Philadelphia @ Atlanta Buffalo @ Florida Washington @ Tampa Bay x2 Columbus @ Nashville Chicago @ Phoenix Detroit @ Vancouver NY Islanders @ Los Angeles Sunday: NY Rangers @ Boston Calgary @ Minnesota Buffalo @ Carolina Tampa Bay @ Florida Nashville @ St Louis Atlanta @ Philadelphia Phoenix @ Dallas San Jose @ Edmonton Colorado @ Anaheim

I hope so. I think it'd be comical to see SJ and Chicago let the 'yotes slip by them and grab first. Plus I suppose it couldn't hurt hockey in the US to have that team turn things around.

Agreed. Seabrook got hit like that because he made that dirty hit on Perry. I'm surprised that only one got suspended there. He clearly tried to give Perry brain damage... Except the NHL's past tells us that they'll f*** up at least half of the suspension calls after this. If the NHL could send a clear, consistent message with intelligent suspension choices we wouldn't be arguing about this. Prove me wrong Campbell, please prove me wrong.

Man, I loved watching the Wings in the 90's. I'd kill to have those teams again but the game has changed and the emphasis right now is on skill/speed instead of size and strength. Obviously size and strength are very important, but it's not such a crippling disadvantage to be short these days. Obviously I'd love to have another Shanny-- who wouldn't?!?! But I'm not going to turn down an undrafted FA signing that could make the team better at zero cost in terms of assets just because the kid can only score. You weren't supposed to notice that until the 3rd act. Vlady

While I agree with you on almost all of those points I think you're off about his speed. This kid is not slow. Hell, he isn't even average. At the Olympics he definitely looked like an above average skater.

Have you even seen a Wings game between 2006 and 2009? Hudler's definitely a better passer. Filppula can hold on to the puck much, much, much better but in terms of making a smart saucer pass I'll take Hudler first.

You don't follow Wings prospects, do you? I can tell you haven't seen Tatar play because "soft euro" as a label only makes sense if you're basing it off his birthplace and height. Tatar is about as soft as Zetterberg or Datsyuk (in other words he's not soft but because he doesn't fight and comes from Europe people will accuse him of such). Score one for Micah.

Riiight... so you're not just stirring the pot looking for lolcows? Would you mind making a weekly "Howard or Osgood?" thread too? That way other threads aren't dragged OT. Why not do the same for "Crosbitch or Ovechkin"? That's another common OT generating topic.

Bingo. I blame Colin Campbell for continuing to let this bulls*** happen. It's not like these head shots haven't been happening for years-- they just weren't brave enough to address the issue before the media chatter reached critical mass.

Still trolling, eh? Or did you think you were posting on LGW circa 2007?

Why does it bother you so much? If two of out 19 players in any given game are really short how does that hurt your enjoyment of the game? So what if 10% of the team is small? The Wings definitely have size, they might not have a San Jose team with every player over 6'0 but how many cups has that collection of giants won? How many Conference Finals have they even been to? Does winning hockey games really mean less to you than the average skate size of the players? It's not like having a pair of short guys forces the other 17 players on the bench to play less physical hockey. If this kid can score and makes the team better I could give two s***s how tall he is. All I care about is the Wings winning hardware and scoring goals. If I want to watch giants lumber around I can watch basketball.

Filppula is not now nor has he ever been Hudler's equal offensively. Hudler has superior hands and offensive talent. Hudler's PP proficiency was earned not given. You can't just assume Filppula will instantly get PP points when he's never been that good in that situation. You can say they both have similar even strength scoring in a season, sure, but once you look at the relative difference between their ice time at even strength your argument falls apart. I'll agree that Filppula is better than Hudler in every aspect other than offense but come on man-- you're nuts if you think Val's got Hudler's offensive talent.

Damn man. You've sold me on him! Now fax this to Kenny.

I hope so!