chrisdetroit

And which damn good d-man where you going to get for $1.25M?

Wins, losses and GAA have more to do with the team playing in front of you. The most important goaltending stat is save %. In the playoffs Turco .914 Niemi .910 Almost the same. In Turco's last playoff 2008-2009 he had .922 save percentage. I'd take Turco ad 1.2M over Niemi at 2.75M any day. But neither are elite goaltenders.

Anything can happen but it is unlikely that the Chicago Blackhawhs are going to get very far after losing so many of their depth players. it's possible but not probable. Incidently of all those teams that you mentioned, none of them won the Cup. I think that they are all stuck in phase 1. 2-5 will come before Christmas

The Hawks could lose their entir "core" and some of these Hawls fans would tell us that they should repeat because of all their awesome prospects. At least there won't be many more sell outs in Chicago with them losing half their team and jacking up season ticket prices 20% Are they stil planning on having a banner raising ceremony in Chicago or did that get cancelled?

Actually, they are pretty comprable in terms of save percentage. You can't compare reqular seasons because Niemi hasn't played enough games but in career playoffs Niemi .910 Turco .914 How that ranks among the leagues best? Bryz .925 Giggy .925 Kipper .921 Luongo .919 Bodeur .919 Miller .917 Khabby .917 Ward .917 Ozzie .916 Turco .914 Fleury .911 Niemi .910 Lunquist .907 Neither are great. It's not a terrible move by the Hawks. They save $1M+ in cap space and get an equally mediocre goalie. The only downside for them is that Niemi is at the begining of his career and may improve while Turco is what he is. He had a .913 last season which is about the same as his career .911 regular season average. It's good for the Wings because Turco historically does not play well against the Wings.

They lost most of their depth. They will not be sucessful without good depth players, plain and simple. Stop trying to convince yourself that they will be contenders. And as far as all these great prospects, everybody has "great" prospects. The difference is that the Hawks will use them on their starting rooster while teams like the Wings can leave them in the AHL. no depth = no Cup

"no more trades needed"

Maltby didn't have to make the team. He was kept because of loyalty. Williams had his chance and won't be back. Downey had his chance and won't be back.

It's not as simple as they make it out to be. Not all penalties are created equal. High sticking for example is not a judgement call. Neither is that stupid puck over the glass so the amount of times that those penalties are called have nothing to do with officiating. The same goes for too many men on the ice. The penalties that are or can be influences by the refs are interfernce, roughing, boarding, slashing, hooking, etc. These "judgement" penalties should be the ones in the article.

That's ok at least I won't have to watch the Wolverines. 3 straight years of losing. This is great. God I hope they never get rid of Rich Rod. Go Green Go White

Actually he said that there were no more trades NEEDED which is an even dumber thing to say. There were 29 other GM's that knew he was blowing smoke up their asses. I agree with your assement. The arbitrator will award Niemi between $3-4M and Chicago will walk away. Huet will be the starter next year, Sharp will be gone and it wouldn't surprise me if they traded one of their "core" guys to get below the cap.

This says it all With a portion of the Blackhawks team gone, Kopecky is a vital piece. hahahah It has come to this for the Hawks. Kopecky is a vital piece....

Wings (with Modano) will win the Cup in June, 2011 and Nick will announce his retirement shortly thereafter. He wants to go out on top, that's why he is coming back this year. He hasn't "accomplished everything that he wants".

hahahah And what has he accomplished since 1997. Do I need to go over the details? 1998, 2002, 2008. 'nuf said But, the sucess that Holland has proves you wrong. Yes, Holland has not made enforcers his priority and the result has been winning and lots of winning. So you point out that he has not made enforcers a priority. So what? Your point is moot.

Damit! Why did I waste my time opening this thread when I knew sombody would post that?! Duh!!! no no no no no no....

I can't believe that this thread made it all the way through 1 1/2 pages before that same old tired argument came up...

Most buffalo wings Gretsky Most goals scored by a single player in a 4 game playoff series. (9) Franzen 2008 against Colorado

My prediction, they lose Niemi, keep Sharp and start Huet. And lose most of the bandwagon fans. Balance has been restored to the Force...

Why do people keep saying this? None of these other deals were anywhere near as blatant as this one.

Both of them have 7+ years more to play. It's to early to say. Z already has a Conn Smyth and Dats has 2 consecutive Selkes. Time will tell... That's how it works. You start out getting a game here and there and if you do well enough you get more. Ozzie never got past the game here and there. It's Ozzie's fault, nobody elses.

Here's the save percentages. First, Career ranking by regular season with at least 80 games Hiller .920 Luongo, Lunquist, Backstrom, Thomas .918 Voukun .916 Miller, Kipper, Brodeur, Bryz, Rinne .914 Anderson, Giggy, Huet, .913 ---yes, that's Cristobal Huet Turco .911 Quick, Khabby .908 Fleury .906 Ward, Ozzie .905 Howard and Niemi not enough games Now Career Playoffs with at least 20 games Bryz, Giggy .925 Kipper .921 Luongo, Brodeur .919 Miller, Khabby, Ward .917 Ozzie .916 Turco .914 Fleury .911 Niemi .910 Lunquist .907 All others less than 20 games. Sorry about some of the spellings. So, if playoffs are more important than the regular season, then the 10 best proven playoff goalies are Bryz Giggy Kipper Luongo Brodeur Miller Khabby Ward Ozzie Turco As I suspected neither Niemi or Fleury are in the top 10 for the playoffs. They are overrated.

This is silly. Lots of goaltenders have 1 good year and then fizzle. Even friken Cristobal Huet had 1 good year. Therefore, Jimmy doesn't qualify and neither does Craig Anderson or Steve Mason. 2 or 3 good years as well as at least 1 good playoff IMO is necessary. Therefore, strike Luongo, Jimmy, Peke Rinne, Steve Mason, etc.

Modano scored 16 goals in 59 games last year which projected over 82 games is equivalent to 22 goals. We would be adding a 20 goals scorer with strong veteran presence and leadership. As a result, we will lose either Ritola or Miller most likely. Which do you think gives us a better chance for the Cup?

Chicago needs to trade one of their high priced guys for 2-3 medium priced guys. It's that simple. If they were smart which they obviously aren't they's trade either: Kane $6.3M Toews $6.3M Hossa $5.2M Sharp $3.9M Keith $5.5M Hjarlmasson $3.5 Seabrook $3.5 Nobody is going to take Huet or Campbell so the have to part with one of these guys. Plain and simple. Kane, Toews and Keith have NM Clauses so let's get on with it - Hossa, Sharp, Hjarlmasson or Seabrook?

Ok. I stand corrected. He is an RFA. They would have to sign him then trade him. That's what I meant and it would be to free up cap space. They'd sign him then trade him for some more of those prospects that the silly Hawks fans are gushing over.