jaymcfly

the rolston deal doesnt matter anyway cause minnys going to make the playoffs this year and like someone else said if the wings are going to pull players from the wild demitra would be a better choice than rolston. someone a little more realistic may be dumont from nashville. hes 29, has pretty good size, and can put the puck in the net. plus nashville is most likely going to be out of the race this year after their talent dumping.

I'll come back to this one.

now that samsonov's gone i guess the habs fans needed someone new to boo

penner may be worth the gamble from a money standpoint (especially considering the 4mil they dropped on bert) but for the ducks it was much more than just one player and one large salary. they have to sign up perry and getzlaf next year who are both younger than penner and arguably more talented (penner did have more points than perry this year though). also they have to resign kunitz next year as well. all three of them are potentially core players and will be looking at pretty big raises. all three of them would certainly like to use penner's salary as a reference so the ducks can't show that they're willing to pay that. no win for the ducks.

i wouldnt want to give up anything to get fedorov and forsberg is a better all around player, hopefully neither of them come though if there are other options

you forgot drake

West Detroit Anaheim Vancouver San Jose Colorado Calgary Dallas Minnesota East NY Rangers Ottawa Atlanta Pittsburgh Buffalo New Jersey Tampa Bay Toronto swing and a miss for philly despite forking out the cash. what team do you think is going to be the bottom in each conference? i go with phoenix and boston.

yeah i think even with this, hockey is looking pretty good right now, no dogfighting, no big steroid busts or targets, no official gambling scandals, now we just need to get people to watch

nope, i think you answered your own question, if we're not going to give cleary and the kids a shot at second line minutes then thats where the need at forward is, peca would be overpriced for an additional undersized defensive forward playing on the third or fourth line when the money should be going towards another d man or extra scoring punch if its going to be spent

all depending on who the wings bring back, but id like to see hartnell and pyatt and then preissing and sarich, those are my top realistic free agent signings, and then of course backstrom (probably not possible though) if hasek retires

there is a fair amount up in the air for the wings next year with some big FAs possibly leaving, a good piece of cap to throw around, and some prime FAs on the market. to start i think everyone will agree that calder and lang wont be back and that hudler and chelios will be. that leaves schneider, markov, bert, and hasek as the wings big FAs. personally i would mind having them all back but obviously the cap and retirement are issues. hasek if he comes back should get at least a slight raise over the 1.2 million he made last season maybe to around 2. berts gotta take a cut whether he stays or not. id love to have him back at around 3.5 million. markov is going to command a raise from the 2.5 million he made last year but anything more than 3 is an overshot with the eligible FA dmen available. schneider is big component of our success over the last couple years (especially on the pp although a lot of his stats are inflated due to favorable circumstances, mainly lidstrom) and i think he could get more than 3.3 million on the FA market but from the wings perspective i wouldnt pay him any more. there are other younger options out there and we have to give kronwall the chance to earn his check with more icetime (if he can stay healthy). even if we retain all of them assuming we can do so at the above estimates how ever inaccurate they may be and the cap rises to around 46-48 million, there will still be some room under the cap for pick ups. on to FAs. there are some great players available this year and the wings certainly have some options when it comes to retaining and new signings. taking possible contract demands into account, the forwards i wouldnt mind seeing on the wings next year are: hartnell, smyth, pyatt, blake, and handzus. i know drury and briere are out there but i think the price is going to be much too high. obviously smyth will be high as well but if the wings dont retain bert then smyth is the best option and may be regardless of bert. for dmen, i like sarich, preissing, stuart, vaananen, and hannan. a lot of this depends on who they end up retaining. if schneider leaves we'll need a little more offensive dman like stuart and if markov leaves we'll need a more defensive dman like hannan or sarich. overall, i think the wings are in a great position going into next year and we will be a main team of interest to the majority of free agents. who do yall want to stay and for how much and what new players do you want to see in a winged wheel?

i wouldnt say that smyth and homer are the same player, smyth is a great player and any team would love to have him, he is going to get top dollar this summer though and holland cant go out and make a multiyear deal on a large contract since zetterbergs will be up in two years, furthermore we need right wingers and a center (if babs keeps zetterberg and datsyuk on the same line) not more left wingers, almost everyone on the team is left handed, bert is the best immediate choice and then we should look at hartnell who would be a great fit and the price should be reasonable

^ yeah i agree, if we are able to bring scheids markov hasek and bert back i dont think we need to make a major splash plus we wont have the money to do so if we tie all them up, there are some good lower cost players out there we could add just to tweak like pyatt or barnes, i think smyths going to go for more than 3.5-4 so i think hes off the wings radar if we keep bert

^ my thoughts as well, i would love to have hasek back and he is definitely plan a but if hes not sure by july 1 then we need to move on to plan b and not getting stuck on plan a1/2, there arent too many options out there if hasek doesnt come back so holland needs time to get something together and make offers and/or trades

obviously it cant be a one for one replacement, kronwall and lebda and then whoever is brought in would have to share the offensive weight, schneider does a lot for this team and he is certainly an integral part of the pp but if he leaves its not the end of the world, there are some younger dman available that could share the weight or timonen stuart preissing and hamrlik are all available this summer, any of them could run the point

he's still going to be asking upwards of 4 million for sure which is too much

i think GMs have learned from last years bad dman signings and this year they will be a little bit more conservative, like i said at the start i think schneider probably deserves a raise and could get a higher contract on the market but i dont think the wings can offer too much more than the 3.3 he gets now, if we let schneider go holland wouldnt be looking to make a major acquisition anyway so we wouldnt be shelling out too much money

we can lose schneider and be fine, we would need to pick up someone else though we cant just spread the minutes, our young dman arent ready for those minutes and without another dman injuries become a real concern, he is great player and i would love to have him back but its not do or die especially with the available FAs, certainly he is best current fit but we could bring in someone else and spread the offensive reponsibility among the new guy and lebda

if for some reason we lose both schneider and markov, i cant see the wings standing pat with lebda and quincey as full timers. that leaves little room for injury (kronwall) and i think quincey could use another year. i think we'd pick up somebody if we lose both of them and there are plenty are available loaner dmen if they plan to move up quincey next year.

barnaby is free this summer but hes getting old and he had an injury plagued, lackluster season with dallas last year. i think ill pass.

happy trails lang, what will everyone use these boards for when hes gone?

gotta agree, when these guys are ready to step up theyll be moved up, filp is an excellent example, i dont think its a very big jam at d either though, all the guys you mentioned could use at least another year

no, i understand how it works, i had just read that he was on the outs with florida and since hes so young, the panthers are going to be looking for a long term deal, i know theres pretty much no chance it would happen but hes the best rfa out there and if theres any chance they could move him you might as well try keep on calling jessica

i dont think there is any way that the sabres would let vanek walk, theyll match pretty much anything offered and for the wings the price is just too high in terms of picks and also salary that would be needed to secure an unmatched contract, either way the sabres are going to lose at least one of briere and drury because they are going to command top dollar in the fa market in terms of other possible offer sheet targets, why not nathan horton, wings need another center if we're going to keep zetterberg and datsyuk on the same line next year and horton is rumored to be disappointed with the panthers organization, hes young hes got tons of upside and hes a good sized body down the middle, he made 1.1 million last year and had 62 points in 82 games, obviously he'll get a raise but itll be less than langs 3.8 for sure, i know that the panthers would be reluctant to let him go but if hes not willing to sign a long term deal with them then maybe something could be worked out

franzen actually makes more than maltby