swedishconnection

I pretty much agree with your assessments.  Grading is somewhat subjective without a hard rubric, but I'm pretty much with in a + or - of your assessments, although I had to miss a couple of the games due to work, so my assessments might be incomplete or slanted in a different direction due to incomplete data.

 

However, I'm not posting this just to say that I agree.  I'm also posting to give kudos for a very well-written and well-thought-out piece.  It was an enjoyable read.

I think the Wings have got a shot. That said, I'm also in the fortunate position of being satisfied with the season already as of tonight. I'll enjoy it either way.

That's a shame, but I think after a summer of pro-level conditioning he's going to come back stronger and more prepared next season. I'm sure he's incredibly disappointed, but he's got a bright future ahead.

Hossa was a known, a sure thing. Franzen was a question mark. I'd go with the known.

 

I was on the Hossa band wagon since the start, but it wasn't that easy of a decision at the time. Hossa was the more known commodity correct, but Franzen was coming off a 34 goal season, after 27 goals. And two brilliant, I mean brilliant back to back playoff performances of well over a PPG. and 25 goals in 39 playoff games. It was a player that the people in the front office saw grow right before their eyes into one of the more dominating playoff performers in recent memory. 

 

Franzen was due a raise, he had deserved it, but Hossa was an elite winger that I really wish we put more effort into keeping, but I understand the cap troubles the team had. They wanted to keep their developed playoff beast in Franzen, but they also had a raise for Zetterberg coming up in a year to 6.7 million after playing 2.6 for million, they had to go sign Stuart as well. I wish the wings did sign Hossa to that long term deal, but it wasn't just about Franzen and Hossa.

No Emmerton! Yay!

 

Anyway, I'd prefer to see Eaves play with Miller and Helm and have Cleary play on the 4th line instead.

Bert and Cleary shouldn't be on Helm's wing. Miller should be on Helm's wing. Those 2 play with the most heart on this team.

 

Actually I'd love to see a Miller/Helm/Eaves line. 

I always liked the teams that Burke put together.  Vancouver was a solid mix of size and skill, as was Anaheim, as was the 2010 Olympic team.  Obviously that didn't happen in Toronto but I have to wonder how much control Burke really had relative to other GMs.  I mean, Toronto has a long history of internal power struggles, and resultant s***ty teams.  I wouldn't blame too much of that on Burke.

 

you mean like Ducks where he inherited very well drafted core (courtesy of Bryan Murray, mastermind behind current good youth at Ottawa) and was gifted Pronger deal? and then dumped all the assets to build a team with one shot which luckily worked out, because his old buddy Colin Campbell put a blind eye on Pronger's "specific physics"?

 

or Nucks where he had Bobby Lou and Swedish Twins. and still the team sucked a** ?

 

 

Burke is overrated but what I most hate about him is how he's media who*e who loves to bath in flashlights. the guy is perfect example of how talking a lot and having buddies builds a reputation of actually being knowledgeable, despite all the evidence to contrary.

 

Nonis is a good choice for Maple Laughs, unfortunately. he may build something decent in this mess. though, with new draft lottery system building team by pulling Penguins/Hawks (dwell at the #30 for a number of seasons) is no longer warranty of success so he might need a couple of years to really develop some decent core...

 

 

frankly, few things make me laugh as much as seeing Burke fail. can't stand this guy. hope he doesn't replace Bettman. the later might not "know the finer aspects of hockey" but is at least decent at diplomacy and knows not to stick with the same circle of old buddies... Burke and his hard nosed pals could be a disaster for the league...

Why is everyone blaming Kenny? I think if Babs said he wanted him, we would have him. I think this is more of a Babcock call to me.

If we head into the season as is our forward line up would look like

Nyquist-Datsyuk-Franzen
Brunner-Zetterberg-Flippula
Samuelsson-Helm-Bertuzzi
Cleary-Abdelkader-Tootoo

If Nyquist and Brunner keep their top 6 positions than our bottom 6 looks amazing... Lots of scoring, speed and hitting. That 3rd line could be a game changer every night. That Nashville series was lost in the bottom 6 matchup. Having Helm playing with some offensive guys would give him his real shot at being a scoring threat every game. Than our 4th line has more scoring than most plus very fast and strong. Having this bottom 6 in place is a Stanley cup winning bottom 6. Beef up the top 6 and D and our team will be solid in all aspects

Save your cap geek garbage for somebody else.  Your wrong on every level here.  Poile will match and he will be a pred for a very long time.  Deal with it

Cybulski & Co@Cybulskishow
Here is our interview with Shea Weber's agent Jarrett Bousquet - http://bit.ly/MocI6a

Did you not listen to Weber's agent and what he said? "everything changed July 4th" meaing when Suter left Weber knew it was time to move on and he said he weasn't going to go through another "rebuilding" phase. Translastion he wanted out.

As for the Capgeek link the number don't lie, granted it's all a numbers game, but at the end of the day Nashville will have a very hard time matching or trying to match the offer sheet. Your team isn't turning a profite on it's investment aka your franchise is losing money every year. Remember Jim Balsillie want to buy the Preds and move them to Hamilton, OT? If Weber signs with the Flyers all's you have is Rinne with a 7yr/$49M contract. You guys have lost Suter, Radulov, Tootoo, Kostitsyn and Bouillion and you haven't bothered to replace any of those players.

Polie keeps saying the Preds will match it and retain him...if that was the case Nashville would have already inked Weber to a deal. Since that hasn't happened now Nashville is in a huge bind and are looking to see IF they can pull off a match. At the end of the day Nashville has screwed this up and he signs with the Flyers.

These are the facts of the issue and this is the reality of it all.

Maybe

Neither of us have any idea if other GM's would match this offer. I suspect the # that wouldn't is higher than those that would.

I don't think its his caphit that is the problem (its quite reasonable actually, I miscalculated his age at the end of his contract so his cap hit is under 8) Its the bonus money paid upfront that would cause a lot of GM's to balk.

My point is that signing someone to an offersheet is not a better or cheaper strategy than trading or signing someone as a UFC. its impossible to sign someone to an offer-sheet that won't be matched without overpaying in some form. Otherwise his former team will match every time.

Any GM looking for a franchise defenseman and with the financial means necessary would match this offer, I have no doubts. If by "overpaying" you mean pay more than someone else -then yes. It is like buying a house, if you buy it, this mean you have paid more than anybody else was willing to and thus by the same definition you would have "overpaid". So what I'm objecting to is really the word "overpaying", because on this board it seems to be losely tied to some imaginery figure in people's minds with no relation to the actual market. Naturally there's a premium to lure away talent like Weber, but in support of the market theory, history show that most offer sheets have been matched (the only exceptions being Gratton and Penner). In order to evaluate an asset (a house or a player) I think you must also consider what it is worth to you.

In conclusion, I agree it is not a cheaper strategy, but it could still prove to be worth it for a financially strong team. It is all about how you evaluate the talent.

...And if Nashville doesn't match, the Pred's top defense pairing is...  Someguy and Someotherguy.

And we whine about Holland.  Imagine how we'd howl about Poile if we were Preds fans.


*Just for the record- had to look it up- if the Preds don't match/sign Weber, their D consists of Gill, Blum, Ellis, Josi, and Klein.

It's not just Flip, most of the team plays too team-conscious. I love a team-first mentality, but it seems like very few the past two seasons have been willing to just take over a game like they used to.  Teamwork is great, but SOMEONE has to be relied on consistently.

I agree.

The past two seasons, especially last year, I questioned the teamwork of this club. It seemed like no one trusted anyone out there and it showed up in our GAA. You had some players trying to do to much and others not doing enough. Multiple times during intermission interviews did we hear about trust not being there, people trying to do other peoples job on the ice. A couple of games after we would see the Wings play as good as they can but after that back to the normal inconsistent untrusting teamwork.

On topic:
What is a "breakout year" for Fil in terms of points?
60+ points


How many points will Filppula score in 11-12?
45-50 points is my guess. The only thing stopping Flip from being a legit 2nd line scoring center is consistency.

The guy had 84 point in 227 career games and he thinks hes worth more than 3 mil?

Hes not a forward... Defenceman get payed alot more because of the amount of ice time they get. Grebeshkov is a #1 on alot of teams, and a #2 on most.