Drake_Marcus

Not good to see Hudler and his team choking in the playoffs if he is going to come back to play for the Red Wings.

With all our regular season chokers it might be a nice change.  

If Frazen played 82 games I can see him hitting 40 to 45 goals.

Actually my mistake, I meant mid-level draft pick.

In that case-- hell yeah.

Another solid mid-level prospect find by Kenny and company?

I think he has the potential to be a 1st line player.  I wouldn't peg him as a mid-level prospect just yet.  Give him a chance to play some pro hockey before deciding he won't be a star player.  

Opps... I guess we have a smaller quota for + votes each day... I just used mine up trying to give each poster in this tread a positive vote.  Heh.

Yeah, there is no hope. People are just going to downvote things the disagree with.

So unless you want to agree with everyone, you're going to have a negative reputation unfortunately.

Yeah.  I just hate that some people are abusing the system to give people negative reps.  From reading the thread about the new boards I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people are getting inexplicable down votes.

Is anyone else getting stupid down-votes on their profile due to people spamming the + - buttons for replies?  Fight back by adding a + on good posts you read.    I'm doing it but obviously I can't + my own posts.  

Assuming Ozzy wants to continue playing I'm not sure why you'd go with someone else for the back-up position.  Chris is used to being a back-up and can teach Howie a lot about being a goalie for the Wings as well as being a great teammate.

once he gets to around 200lbs I'll be happy with this kid. Drake, I'm sure you and I will be debating him and Smith for the next few years, eh haha.

Probably.  Smith looks like he'll be another Kindl:  
-->He's big but doesn't play a particularly rough game.  
-->He's offensively talented (more so than Kindl) but has had trouble putting his defensive game together.

I'm just hoping that unlike Kindl he's able to make the next leap to playing competent defense at the pro level while still honing his offensive game.

Check it out.  Gustav Nyquist, a Wings pick from 2008, is considered the favourite for the Hobey Baker trophy this season and he's just been named the player of the month by Hockey's Future:

http://www.hockeysfu...h_february2010/

The February Prospect of the Month has been one of the most consistent scoring forwards in the NCAA, but has yet to earn as little as an honorable mention on this list. His consistent scoring, however, bloomed into enormous offensive output for the month of February. With a total of 18 points in just eight games, Detroit Red Wings draft pick Gustav Nyquist is the Hockey’s Future Prospect of the Month for February.

Nyquist took a somewhat different route to pursue his dream of playing in the NHL – leaving his home in Sweden to suit up for the University of Maine Black Bears in the NCAA. Nyquist’s move to North America appears to have been beneficial to his development. The 21-year-old has led his team in scoring all season as a sophomore and now sits atop of all division one scoring with 54 points in just 32 games.

Nyquist has also continued to improve down the stretch as February has been his best month this season, scoring three goals and adding a whopping 15 assists in a mere eight games. The importance of Nyquist to his team is no more emphasized than in the fact that the second highest scorer on the team sits 15 points behind with 39.

Nyquist’s consistent offensive efforts this season have him eclipsing an assist per game with 37 in 32 games while also being able to add 17 goals, including four game winners. He’s likely to spend two more years ironing out his game at the University of Maine, but either way, the Red Wings may have another Swedish steal on their hands.

Edit:  Just some quick stats on him--
Height-5'11  Weight-176lbs
Shoots-L  Position-Centre
Birth date- 09/01/1989
Drafted- 4th Round (121st overall) by Detroit
Team- Maine Blackbears (NCAA Division 1)

I was gonna say that they may go after Neideritter for the same reasons they went after Tatar.

I have to agree.  If they can find another Tatar quality kid I'll be pumped. It's been a long time since they drafted a kid who was able to start his pro career in his draft year.

I don't know if it's possible but to only have available the positive one. If you don't like it don't vote if you do then give it an up. I think it would take the fun away from the abusers. Just my thoughts.

While I do agree with you there, I also like that trolls get their posts beaten down.  I guess having the "report" option there makes up for that.

Why not have it set-up so only posters with a certain number of posts can up/down vote people?  This would reduce the ability for people to use sock-puppet accounts to spam ratings.  You could also track when someone down votes the same person multiple times in a row and flag them for further observation.  Maybe allow for only one down vote on a specific poster with each account.  That'd force ******-bags to have one account for each vote the spam the system with.

Edit:  I'm not sure how much flexibility is built into the code for this software, though, so most of those suggestions might be moot.

Now can you let us see who up and down votes us?  I'd love to see who's spamming the ratings system.

Pretty much Im thinking theyll be in worse shape than we are this year unless someone gives them a gift from god and takes that Brian Campbell contract off their hands.

The funny thing is if they buy the Campbell and Huet contracts out they'll just look bad in the eyes of future free agents and people who want to re-sign in the future.  Both of those guys were brought in on high-profile 'key piece' contracts... buying them out now sends a pretty clear message about how they treat their players.

I give these lines 1 game as usual...at the end of the day, we just don't have the right balance to ice multiple consistent scoring lines.

And I think people are too worked up about Osgood/Howard one way or the other. For all of Osgood's rust and supposedly "bad" play this year, he hasn't been near as bad as last year. I'm not saying that the whole benching thing helps much, but I think you'll see Osgood finish strong. I think the writing is on the wall with this quote...

"I think Ozzie’s had some real good practices in a row and battled hard and I told him his job is when he gets an opportunity to try and run with it. He understands that. I don’t know when that is. I didn’t make any promises.’’

I am not trying to take away anything from Howard's stellar play for most of this season, but he's been cooler for awhile now and while not bad, not real good either since the Olympic break. As much as Howard's proven this year, he's still a rookie. Osgood's a veteran with 3 Cup rings, plus 2 outstanding playoff runs in a row now. When Howard was playing lights out, it was a no-brainer to give him the majority of the starts. Then Osgood and Babcock had some spats which no doubt has something to do with Osgood not getting as many starts, but they seem to be on better terms now.

In all my years of watching Osgood, I've learned never to count him out. He knows this is it, Babcock knows this is it, and no matter how great Howard has played this year, management is going to want Osgood starting in the playoffs if they can at all help it. This has to be all the more true since Howard hasn't been "outstanding" lately. I'm not saying that as a knock on him either; if you're at all thinking of going with a rookie over a veteran Cup winner who was in game 7 of the finals a year ago, he better be playing "outstanding" all year, and even then it's no sure bet that he's going to get the nod.

I'm calling it now, if the Wings make the playoffs, my money is on Osgood starting. Make no mistake, he'll be on a Hasek-sized leash, but he'll start.

And whether it seems unfathomable now or not to some, he may be the Wings only prayer come April...

Hmmm... it's a bold prediction but we do expect those from you.