mangothrower

Rounded UP to the nearest .01 million: (Does not include Lilja) Forwards: Filppula ($3.00) Cleary ($2.80) Franzen ($3.96) Abdelkader ($.85) Datsyuk ($6.70) Zetterberg ($6.09) Draper ($1.59) Hem ($.60) Holmstrom ($2.25) Maltby ($.89) Total: $28.73 Defense: Lidstrom ($7.45) Rafalski ($6.00) Stuart ($3.75) Kronwall ($3.00) Ericsson ($.90) Lebda ($.65) Meech ($.49) Total: $22.24 Goalies: Osgood ($1.42) Howard ($.72) Total: $2.14 Grand Total: $53.11, so $3.69 in space for Hudler and Leino.

Hudler at $1.15M last season, in my mind was a huge value for the team. What no one seems to want to mention is that he only played 13 minutes per night. I created this a few weeks ago, it shows what each forward's production would have been, prorated to the number of games / minutes played by Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Hossa throughout the season: 1. Datsyuk: 31G, 62A, 93 Pts 2. Hossa: 44G, 34A, 78 Pts 3. Hudler: 31G, 45A, 76 Pts 4. Zetterberg: 30G, 40A, 70 Pts 5. Franzen: 39G, 29A, 68 Pts 6. Holmstrom: 25G, 41A, 66 Pts 7. Cleary: 16G, 30A, 46 Pts 8. Filppula: 14G, 32A, 46 Pts Sure, this isn't a perfect assessment. But when it comes to points per minute played, Hudler performed in line with Hossa, Zetterberg and Franzen. Holmstrom wasn't too far behind either, who has gotten a bad rap from a lot of fans this past season, considered he played injured for most of it. Jiri Hudler may not provide the two-way play that others on the team do, but I think casting him off as a insignificant part of the Red Wings is ridiculous.

As far as lineups go, how about this for 06-07.... Hudler/Lang/Shanahan Williams/Datsyuk/Grigorenko Filppula/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Maltby/Draper/Franzen Bootland Lidstrom/Fischer Schneider/Kronwall Delmore/Lilja Meech Osgood Howard That's not too unrealistic...with all the young players at capped levels, I wouldn't expect the payroll to exceed $45 million with those players...less if we succeed this year and players are willing to take a pay cut to return.

I'm one of the biggest fans of Lidstrom that there is...but with the salary cap, I have to say that at $7.6M even he is overpaid.

I wouldn't mind have Mike Knuble or Wes Walz. Of course, not above Datsyuk or Fedorov, but they would knock some other players out of their current slots on the team, and a few years ago I believe Walz was rated THE fastest player in the league if I'm not mistaken.

Williams is a slam-dunk answer.

Wow...I forgot that Fedorov had reached over 101...

Nobody ever even came CLOSE to what Iafrate would shoot, up to 105 at the shot competition, but was gunned at up to 110 at other times.