Drake_Marcus

This. A signing like this can only benefit the team.

I know man-- we're definitely in agreement here.

It must be getting harder and harder for you to continue being a CrosTroll given how resoundingly Ovi is destroying Crosby in a season where he'll end up playing at least 11 fewer games.

I agree that it's tough to make those stats hold a ton of water, but damn, it's hard to completely disregard them. This is a similar effect to what we saw in 07-08 when the Wings played completely different in front of Ozzy.

If he's really enterprising he'll show up in 30 years and tell them he's ready to start getting paid 2.375 million.

This. I'm starting to agree with you more and more Carman. I'm not sure whether I should be terrified or not...

lol and there it is-- -1. Thanks for proving my point whoever you are.

Yeah, because the team wins and loses based on the play of their #6 defenseman. If the smallest cog in the entire machine falters and the other 18 players can't make up for it the team is pretty pathetic. You seem reasonable and intelligent. That's an interesting angle to have on these boards.

Bad news for the 'nucks. Worse news because he's so damn streaky. Who knows what he'll be like when he returns.

57pts. Was he a minus? Nope. How is that even a question for you? Yeah, Hudler's 12 mins a night of ice time was totally enough to put up 65-80. And "may be able to put up 40-50 points"? He hasn't dipped below 40pts since his rookie season. His NHL numbers were 25/42/57 in his three years of play. Your description is as fitting as saying a new corvette may have 200 horsepower. Oh really? Which forwards topped that on the Wings last season? How much are they making this season? Seriously-- look it up.

Hilarious. Posts that mention Hudler in a positive light consistently get voted down on here. Someone out there feels spurned by a certain midget who can shoot the puck.

Yeah, if we ignore his play in the last 3 games he played you're on the button. Were you one of the people who whined about Quincey. Well it'd likely be the same damn thing with Ericsson except E was a highly regarded prospect before entering the NHL and Q was considered a run of the mill type of guy. By all means piss away the best defensive prospect the Wings have in the pro ranks. But it's good that guys with actual decision making power have the intelligence and understanding of defensive prospect development not to make such asinine remarks. Could be that Lebda has zero upside and all Ericsson has is upside. Who knows. Christ, if the guys here ran the NHL Jack Johnson would already be run out of the league. Don't forget how well he played as a call-up in 07-08 and 08-09. Ericsson's struggled this season, yeah, but he's excelled literally every other year he's been in the Wings system. Only a retard would walk away from a 6'4 defenseman who's had that kind of success based on his play in his rookie season. Newsflash-- 95% of the d-men in the NHL struggled in their first season. That's the norm.

He's riding a 7 million dollar a year contract with 5 years left on it. Oh and he has a NTC that allows him to give the Hawks a list of teams he'd accept a trade to. So to go through this... Campbell is grossly overpaid, has 5 years remaining on this contract, can nix a deal he doesn't like AND the entire NHL knows that the Hawks are desperate to trade him. The Hawks can't sit here and think about how much they can get for him, they have to figure out just how much they'll have to give up to convince another team to take his bloated contract. A buy out is about all they can do other than trade him. If they try to demote him they'll never be able sign a big name FA again... Players won't forget how the Hawks handle this situation with Huet and Campbell.

I couldn't find the article I was thinking of, but there was recently an article that detailed Holland's plans to woo Hudler back to the Wings and it mentioned there that having him back for the playoffs was out of the question. It must have to do with the status of Hudler as an NHL player right now. He's basically defected so it isn't the same thing as a player who's injured and wants to come back. Also, why does this have to be addressed to "Hudler slappies"? Do you considered all Wings fans who like Hudler "slappies"? That's just stupid. I have to chuckle at how some Wings fans will do anything they can to diminish Hudler's perceived value to the team. The stats don't lie-- we could really use his offense right now.

That'd be awesome but there's no way they'd give him up. This. Hell, Williams is better than Wellwood.

That's a scary stat.

Glad you agree.

A man can hope! Maybe some day he'll get there I think he could be a 70+ pt guy some day if he can improve his skating.

He had exactly 57pts last year in the NHL so I'd expect him to score more than that next year... Fair enough, but man has our 2nd PP missed him.

I honestly can't tell if you unknowingly talk out of your ass or if you're just trolling us... A. Cleary was the 4th most productive forward in the 09 playoffs: 23gp 9g 6a 15pts. That translates to a 32g 21a 53pt season over 82 games. Franzen and Zetterberg had 11 and 12 goals, respectively, that playoff run. By comparison Hossa had 6g 9a in that playoff run. So Cleary out produced Hossa and you're full of s***. By the way, in the cup year Cleary had 2g 1a for 3 frigging points. I guess losing a step must make you a superior player in the playoffs... B. That playoff run where Cleary was highly productive was less than a year ago. Over the last three years he's produced 40/42/40 pts. Lost a step over the last few years must mean lost a step since October 2009. C. You're right that his production is directly related to his effort level. So kudos on being right on something. To be honest I haven't been terribly impressed with Kronwall's play since he returned from his knee injury but then again I wasn't expecting him to come back and be effective right away. I am a bit surprised he's taken so long to get back up to speed. I'm betting that all it will take is a goal to get him revved back up again.

lol The same Kopecky who's only got his name on the cup because he played the requisite number of regular season games. If the Wings had the change to take Toews AND Kane or just Keith I'd still take Keith. That's how much better Keith is than those two.

You're right. I have no idea how you think these parallels can be drawn between a rookie d-man who's struggled in his first season and a 4th year forward who's gotten better each year and just put a 57 pt season together. Ericsson had games where he was very good, games where he was good and games where he was horrible. That's what you expect from a rookie defenseman. Luckily Holland is smart enough to give Big Rig more time to put his NHL game together.

They should fear us. The Wings have a team full of Cup winners. The Hawks have yet to prove themselves giant slayers.

I wouldn't say he isn't known for scoring... he's usually good for 20 goals and 20 helpers a year. That's respectable. He's not a star but he does everything pretty well. You're right, though, he's been terrible since the Olympic break and wasn't exactly hot before then. Cleary has a habit of scoring in bunches anyway, so once that first goal goes in we're golden. Same for Bertuzzi. If those two can get going again the Wings will be really rolling going into the playoffs. 2pts in 10 games = 0.2 ppg 0.2pt/g * 82g = 16.4pts [(40pt - 16.4pt)/(40pt)]*100% = 59% So there you go. That's a 59% difference between the current pace he's on and what he's expected to produce.