Mickeyisms Rule!

I'm not sure that its Markov per se that is asking for this outlandish increase in salary. Does anyone know if he has the same adent as Alexei Yashin? I mean, that guy is the king of overpricing.

I think the Lions' current slogan is "We're undefeated!" Of course the season hasn't started yet.

Who will be in charge of keeping him out of the casinos? I'd be worried for the guy that the glowing casino sign right across the river, not to mention the downtown casino would be too much temptation for the guy.

Its called building a team- that's why you save the cap space to resign Z to a long term contract. In order to have a strong building, you have to have a strong foundation. Right now we are building around Z, Dats, Rafalski, and to a lesse extent- Kronwall. According to the powers-that-be, they are the future of the franchise. The Hawks don't have a franchise-type player. We are lucky to have Z and Dats- 2 franchise guys. We also have Rafalski nailed down for a good term. Just because we will someday lose Lidstrom, Chelios, Hasek, Drapes, Malts, etc, doesn't mean that the future of this team stands no chance. The old guys are there supervising to make sure that the foundation and the franchise that gets built around them doesn't have any cracks in it. Don't you worry, the future will be fine. Its not like all the Wings from the 97 team are still there, or even still were for the '02 cup run. The faces change, but the glory remains. Luckily we have Mr. I watching over things, and I don't think that he would hesitate to make a change of he saw things going in a direction that he didn't like.

Ummmm... that's actually a Nirvana song, Mr Music Major.

Yashin will score 32/43 for 75 pts. (Said just to poke some of the haters)

We get it. You don't like Dallas. Its all good. Instead of arguing how good this person would be and how bad this guy is going to be, why don't you just drop the argument until the season starts? Beating people over the head with your hatred of the Drake signing is getting almost as bad as Draperfan's hatred of Bertuzzi.

I like how you can't wait for our future to get injured. Maybe you should think before you spam any more of your drivel on this board.

If Hudler gets sent to the minors then he has to et through waivers to get there. As stated above, he won't see the minors again except for a conditioning stint coming back from an injury. He led the AHL in scoring 2 seasons ago. While he may never ead the NHL in scoring like he did the AHL, he can, does, and will produce at this level.

They were actually just quoting Guerin's age.

You have Lebda on the 2nd and 3rd denfensive pairings and forgot to mention the guy you named yourself after. I still think that Kenny has got some plans for this off season yet. He's just waiting for a real opportunity to come up and not have to worry about getting into a bidding war for someone.

Its nothing to do with being classy or anything like that. It has to do with the way that Ken Holland is building the team and not wanting to waste cap money on a guy that will score one goal but drop the gloves 50 times per season. While I agree that the team needs to have grit, the people here that are moaning about the signing of Hudler are aiming their barbs at the wrong guy. Hudler is not the guy that is signed for the grit he brings. he is signed for the scoring that he brings to the team in the limited time that he is on the ice. Throw your barbs at Ken Holland and the fact that he hasn't signed Asham yet, or that the defenseman he signed to replace Schneider is smaller than Schneider is and has even less grit. Burke is rebuilding the Flyers of old. More power to him. But we need to remember that there is more than one road to the Cup, and the game has changed. As we can't sign all the big tough guys (they all play for Anaheim, apparently) we need to get the guys that can foil that path, and go their own path.

B-b-but I thought that the Red Wings was like Florida! Where old hockey players go before they retire! Oh well. There's one more old guy that we don't have to see break his hip as a wing.

Maybe the people screaming about this signing should just give up and be fans of the Duck. I live and breathe Wings hockey. If a player is wearing the Winged-Wheel, I support them. Some of you may want to think about that. If you want to watch a team with goons and fighters, then this isn't your team.

No Yzerman in this one, but here's Pronger after Stevie took him out in the playoffs: edit fixed picture

Reminds me of something that I said in another thread. We were spoiled by Illitch and Holland during the no cap days. We need to get used to the fact that not all of our players are going to be definite HOFers= they might develop into them over time, but they won't be shoo-ins like Hull, Robattaille, Yzerman, and Shanahan. Its like the old thing about people looking for a job but the job they want is requiring experience. How do you get experience without having the job? We can't go out and pluck all these experienced guys all the time anymore. We have to work within the boundaries of the cap, so we need to do in-house development. Its happening, but way too many people on this board are so used to seeing Kenny sign all of those 600+ goal scorers, they have forgotten what its like to watch the player develop and SCORE all of those goals in our uniform.

From NHL.com career notes: He never played a game for the Wings, he played for their farm team at the time, Adirondack. The Griffins weren't made their farm team until 99 or 2000 IIRC.

Smyth to the Wings was never going to happen, and you thinkiing that it would doesn't make it so. Maybe Kenny was courting him, maybe not. The fact is that he is in Colorado and he won't be a Wing, probably ever. We have someone already that fills that role and he is cheaper anyway in Holmstrom. I am one of the guys that thinks that Asham would be a good addition, but never on the first or second line. He's tough, plays with a chip on his shoulder, and isn't afraid to drop the gloves. He is exactly what we need to ride shotgun out there for smaller skilled guys like Hudler. Asham's TSN profile: I watched Hudler in Grand Rapids. He has a way of getting into those tight spots and coming away with the puck. He creates scoring chances and often can convert on them. I'm glad he's a Wing. There are going to be some changes to the Wings in the near future. I'm a Wings fan for life. I lived through the Dead Wings, I celebrated through the championships, and now I will (hopefully) celebrate another championship. We've got some great depth coming up through our farm system. Sometimes I wonder if we had been so spoiled for so long with the teams of the 90's and early 00's with all of the HOFers playing on them that we forgot what it was like to have rookies and younger guys playing that haven't come into their own in the NHL yet. Patience is the key when watching players develop. You need to look for the improvement and see how they are integrated into the system. I'm glad he's back, if for no other reason than I was starting to be worried that we would be the first team to play with 2 forwards and 3 defensemen on the ice at all times throughout the game.

I'm not seeing any notice of a signing by him. Did you know that he was a Red Wing once before? He was signed by the Wings on Aug 6,1998 and spent that season in Adirondack. The year before that he played for Grand Rapids in the old IHL. Big guy, but I'm not seeing any recent toughness. One major per season that last 2 seasons.

Looks like he's got the size: Height: 6' 3" Weight: 222 He has scored 20 goals/ year for the fifth straight year. Intriguing...

Its going to have to happen eventually. I know that many people are uncomfortable with the idea, but we have some kids in our system that need to get up to the big show. We can't leave the in Grand Rapids forever. Even if we just call them up to showcase their skills as trade bait, we need to get them up and going.

Well Nolan is off our list. According to Spector he signed with Calgary.

Well at least he will help us out by giving the puck away to us 8 games a year.

Maybe, just maybe, Hasek is holding off on signing to allow Holland some wiggle-room on his UFA signings. They could structure the deal for more incentives, which would go against next season's cap money as opposed to loading it all on this year's cap. If a half million is the difference between keeping Bert or not, then maybe Hasek is willing to work with Kenny.

Let this show you how bad Eklund can be at his predictions. On June 16 he said Nylander to Nashville, then Nashville got rid of most of its team. Nylander signed with the Caps today.