centcougar07

I wouldn't call Howard elite but like Osgood I think he is a great value goaltender.  He provides solid goaltending at a decent contract so the Wings can spend money elsewhere.

Without Lidstrom and the blueline in its current state, it'll be interesting to see if that strategy is as effective.

My point exactly. I want to see how he does post Lidstrom and without a good defense in front of him. He's proven he can be steady when he's got the best defenseman in the game in front of him but lets be honest what goaltender wouldn't look better with Lidstrom on the team. Not to mention Stuart who is much better than Kronwall in my opinion. I don't expect Howard will be awful, but I'm guessing his numbers will drop.

Nope, I have yet to hit the bong today, but I will heartily disagree with you  , Howard's proved himself to be a top 10 goalie in this league, and that's supported by the last 3 years of his play. We have not been a strong defensive club in the last couple seasons, yet his career numbers are well within the realm of "very good?" just for example here are some goalies that have been commonly labeled as elite the past few seasons , .917 and 2.41 respectively for Howard. Miller .915, 2.57, Price .916 2.56, Kiprusoff .914 2.45, Backstrom .918, 2.42, Luongo .919, 2.52, Fleury .909, 2.68, Ward .910, 2.74.

Just because you do not want to believe facts and projections don't mean they don't exist. He may not be Lundqviust(Who in my opinion has separated himself over this current generation after Brodeur), or Quick(yet) doesn't mean he's going to hurt us as a goaltender, he's a strength for our team and continues to improve year in year out.

Maybe the Wing's will stop being so aggressive offensively and stop giving up odd man rushes? We were caught pinching, with no forward high in the zone so many times last season and Howard still had a Vezina nomination type season especially before his injury.

So you basically just showed via stats that Backstrom = Howard. Howard had the same numbers on a far superior team and Backstrom isn't even that good. What does that say about Howard supposedly being "elite".

Pretty much agree with your opinions - however I disagree on Howard, and Hudler...

I personally don't think Howard is over rated as some would think, and I still feel Hudler is a glorified 3rd liner/pp specialist.

I'm not saying Howard isn't a good goaltender... But he's not elite status like Lundqvist, Quick or anyone else in that upper echelon of tendys. His career goals against is around 2.5 I believe. Not bad but during a regular NHL season that's about average. He's a good, solid goalie but he's being revered as one of the best in the league when really his numbers show he isn't deserving. If he has a season this year where he lowers his GAA and raises his S% a little bit, with 30+ wins.. Then we can start talking about putting him in the category of elite. As of right now, he's just above average for me. This year is going to be a tough test for him with a very suspect defense in front of him.

Howard? premier #1 goaltender
Kronwall? top 2 D-man
Filppula? top 6 forward
Hudler? top 6 forward
Quincey? top 4 D-man

plz keep ur crack smoking in Minnesota

Howard? Overrated. Let's see how he does with a porous defense where he might actually face a few shots.
Kronwall? Second pairing defenseman on a good team.
Filppula? Third liner. Guess how many times he's scored over 40 points? Once, last year. He has one good year and suddenly he's top 6 material? I don't think so.
Hudler? He's another third liner. Top 6 if he's playing with a good center maybe. Doesn't matter though, he walked.
Quincey? He's never scored more than 38 points in a season and has been a plus player only one time. He's a second or third pairing guy.

I think you're reaching A LOT here. None of these players are elite. Howard is the closest thing to it and even he can be pretty suspect at times.

hahahah says the guy who obviously knows nothing about our development system

Howard
Kronwall
Filppula
Hudler
Quincey
Helm
Abdelkader
Ericsson
all developed with the griffins....

the only way you go straight to the wings is if your name is Datsyuk or Zetterberg....we over-ripen the rest of em

Based on that list, you'll have a lot of overrated, average and bottom six NHL'ers in a few years! I'm not sure that's the plan you wanna have.