Wings Would Like To Re-sign Kopecky

[Wingsallwin 0]

...trade Filpulla, that opens up $12.4 million dollars for next years Cap. Sign Hossa to a long term deal with an average cap hit of $6Million. Give Franzen a long term that averages $2.5Million against the Cap. That leaves you $3.9 million for one year deals to re-sign Sammy at 875,000, re-sign Leino at the same $875,000, re-sign Kopecky at the same $500,000, then bring up Ericsson, Helm & Howard (or re-sign Conklin at the same price.) In the end all these salaries equal about $13MM, but Holland The Magician can get the numbers crunch to where it's closer to $12 million.

...you's have to say goodbye to Filppula for a 2nd rounder and say goodbye to Hudler to RFA, getting a 1st and 3rd in return when he signs somewhere for $3MM...

(of course McCarty & Chelios say goodbye.)

Personally, I would rather keep Filppula. He has not been at the level we expect him to be but he is still young and Kenny would not sign with him at all if he thought one season for him would be particularly this bad, so I don't think we will trade him.

If we suppose that the cap hit will go up 2 more million, we have to take seriously. Resigning Leino and Helm for long term in cheap price will be good decisions. Besides, I think we can resign with Huds without any difficulty.

The problem left us is Hossa and Franzen. Hossa has been great this season and Franzen is also good. Can we keep them together? Yes, I think we can because if we do not resign with Sammy, Kopecky, Chellios, and Conklin next seasons, it will not make a big cap room but at least give us a flexibility. However, the question is do we have to? Then I say I don't know.

[Hockeymom1960 5,107]

hopefully another injury is in his future.

That's a pretty awful thing to say.

[eva unit zero 271]

Holy overrating!

Eva, thats the nuttiest thing you've ever posted. Kopecky is NOT a better player than Helm right now in any way shape or form. Kopecky has minimal assignments and can't even carry those out. In an NHL lineup, Helm is already being given more responsibility, and can fulfill what is asked of him swimmingly. There is NO contest as to who the better player is. Helm wins that show in a landslide.

Right now Helm can't play above the third line without being out of his role. Helm can lead the third line as the defensive center, but Kopecky has shown all season that he is capable of playing on the first or second line as the secondary winger in an offensive role, or playing on the third or fourth line in a defensive role. He'll never be a star player, but he has the tools to play on all four lines offensively or defensively and plays a physical game. When he was first competing for a spot on the team, I was one of very few who even supported keeping him around. Kopecky is now a 500k player who can be used in pretty much any spot on any line.

[Mors 201]

Looked great out there today with Kopecky benched, he wasn't missed in the slightest.

[Mors 201]

Right now Helm can't play above the third line without being out of his role. Helm can lead the third line as the defensive center, but Kopecky has shown all season that he is capable of playing on the first or second line as the secondary winger in an offensive role, or playing on the third or fourth line in a defensive role. He'll never be a star player, but he has the tools to play on all four lines offensively or defensively and plays a physical game. When he was first competing for a spot on the team, I was one of very few who even supported keeping him around. Kopecky is now a 500k player who can be used in pretty much any spot on any line.

For what? a professional filler-in case of injury? He can play in any spot and contribute absolutely nothing in any of them.

[LeftWinger 5,152]

Personally, I would rather keep Filppula. He has not been at the level we expect him to be but he is still young and Kenny would not sign with him at all if he thought one season for him would be particularly this bad, so I don't think we will trade him.

If we suppose that the cap hit will go up 2 more million, we have to take seriously. Resigning Leino and Helm for long term in cheap price will be good decisions. Besides, I think we can resign with Huds without any difficulty.

The problem left us is Hossa and Franzen. Hossa has been great this season and Franzen is also good. Can we keep them together? Yes, I think we can because if we do not resign with Sammy, Kopecky, Chellios, and Conklin next seasons, it will not make a big cap room but at least give us a flexibility. However, the question is do we have to? Then I say I don't know.

...we cannot keep Filpulla, Hudler, Franzen. That will take up nearly the entire cap room we have left. (9.4 million.) So you have to choose either Hudler or Franzen.

...if you don't trade Flip, you can only get 1 out of the 3 FA's signed because you HAVE to bring up Ericsson (he no minor league options left) same with Howard and Leino will sign somewhere else because he agreed to spend 1 season in GRR becuase of the cap issues and willnot re-sign to play in GRR again. SO that leaves you chosing Hudler or Franzen, siging Huds, means you lose Franzen for ZERO, NADDA, ZILCH, at least if you sign Franzen, you get comepnsation picks from Husler signing elsewhere. And if he signs for what he is worth around the league, we'll get AT LEAST a 1st and a 3rd round pick in return. Which one makes more business sense? So goes the Cap world, eventually you will lose somebdy, I'd rather get something in return for my loss, I don't know about you!

...trade Flip, you gain $3 million in cap space, $12.4. Hossa's cap hit will be $6mm, Franzen's cap hit will be $2.5 that leaves $3.9 for the rest of the youngin's AND Leino, Sammy & Kopecky...

Edited February 8, 2009 by LeftWinger

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

Right now Helm can't play above the third line without being out of his role. Helm can lead the third line as the defensive center, but Kopecky has shown all season that he is capable of playing on the first or second line as the secondary winger in an offensive role, or playing on the third or fourth line in a defensive role. He'll never be a star player, but he has the tools to play on all four lines offensively or defensively and plays a physical game. When he was first competing for a spot on the team, I was one of very few who even supported keeping him around. Kopecky is now a 500k player who can be used in pretty much any spot on any line.

You're basically saying he has a pulse. You can stick him anywhere where he can do nothing of note.

What's more, Helm was put as third line center because that's what he specializes at, something that Kopecky doesn't possess. He specializes at nothing. You could put Helm on the top two lines as a winger and he could use his speed and create at least as much as Kopecky has.

Better to let him go and find more guys from within that specialize in something than one guy that can do nothing everywhere.

[Echolalia 2,961]

Kopecky is -1, yet hes NEVER on the ice in key situations. Thats why his +/- is better than Draper and Maltbys. Babs will double shift Cleary or Filppula with the 4th line if its late in a game. Yes, he is our leading forward in checks, but they're pathetic as hell, and he usually takes himself out of the play, because he falls down after a check more often than not.

The fact that you're using a guy's career +/- of 0 says everything about Kopecky.

And no, even as of now, Helm is the much better player. Helm may make mistakes, but thats because he works himself into the play. He skates, backchecks, plays the body, works the neutral zone well, and more. Kopecky, on the other hand, will let Draper or Maltby take over on the backcheck, on man to man coverage, or along the boards. Helm is better than Kopecky in every regard.

You don't get brownie points just because you don't do anything bad. Which is the argument you're making for Kopecky.

A fourth liner's job is to keep the opposition from scoring. The whole point is "don't do anything bad", just keep the other team off the board. According to Kopecky's numbers, career +/- of 0, seasonal of -1, for the most part he's been doing just that. And Kopecky, if I'm not mistaken, has been seeing quite a bit of penalty killing time as of late, something that he didn't start the year off with. But apparently those aren't key situations. Just because Helm "works himself into the play" doesn't excuse the fact that he picks up a - just about every other game he plays. Yeah, he's ambitious, and he has potential, but all of his statistics show he has more work to do.

I would rather have a 4th liner who, like you said, "doesn't do anything bad", over a 4th liner who I'll probably have to pay more for who "works himself into the play", yet walks off the ice at the end of the game with a -, and no goals or assists.

[Heroes of Hockeytown 694]

Oh please, +/- is far from being a good indicator of defensive play. Watch the game, Kopecky and his accomplices Draper and Maltby spend most of their time pinned in their own zone against good opposition, and are lucky to get out of there without getting scored on or taking a penalty (the latter of which you won't find on any stats sheet). Then he gets inexplicably promoted to the top line with Datsyuk, where he still can't contribute in the slightest but porbably got his hella important +/- padded a little.

Yeah, Helm is a little raw, Kopecky's got, what, 150 more NHL games under his belt? Helm's got great wheels, good instincts, and brings energy.

[Wingsallwin 0]

...we cannot keep Filpulla, Hudler, Franzen. That will take up nearly the entire cap room we have left. (9.4 million.) So you have to choose either Hudler or Franzen.

...if you don't trade Flip, you can only get 1 out of the 3 FA's signed because you HAVE to bring up Ericsson (he no minor league options left) same with Howard and Leino will sign somewhere else because he agreed to spend 1 season in GRR becuase of the cap issues and willnot re-sign to play in GRR again. SO that leaves you chosing Hudler or Franzen, siging Huds, means you lose Franzen for ZERO, NADDA, ZILCH, at least if you sign Franzen, you get comepnsation picks from Husler signing elsewhere. And if he signs for what he is worth around the league, we'll get AT LEAST a 1st and a 3rd round pick in return. Which one makes more business sense? So goes the Cap world, eventually you will lose somebdy, I'd rather get something in return for my loss, I don't know about you!

...trade Flip, you gain $3 million in cap space, $12.4. Hossa's cap hit will be $6mm, Franzen's cap hit will be $2.5 that leaves $3.9 for the rest of the youngin's AND Leino, Sammy & Kopecky...

Oh, ok thanks for posting. Well yeah but I still think we have to keep Filppula. He has a lot of skill but he is just having a bad season. Let's see until the end of the season. If he has good games left for him and good playoff performances, it can boost his level of playing up immediately. Holland also stated that he will not resign any of the Wings until the Trade Deadline.

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

hopefully another injury is in his future.

I know he isn't a favorite of plenty of people in here, but this is absolutely a chicken s**t thing to say.

I'm not going to lose sleep if Kopecky is gone but management and coaching see something in him that us fans don't apparently. That's fine with me since they know more than us anyways. If they re-sign him, great. If not, same feeling. Whatever is basically the mojo here.

[LIDDYGIBBY5 1]

Looked great out there today with Kopecky benched, he wasn't missed in the slightest.

Holmstrom and Stuart were both out w/ injuries and weren't missed in the slightest. Does that mean that they are expendable as well?