Red Wings

[jaadam4]

Hell yeah I knew who Hudler was. He was the steal of that years draft when he slid to us in the bottom of the second round. Scouts raved about his scoring touch but said he couldnt play a lick of D. He was projected as early 1st rounder and we stole him.

This shouldve been the year he really broke out. I hope Holland makes it work. Dont sleep on Hudler people. He's a legit top 6.

[FCRhodes]

Helm > Hudler. Abdelkader > Sammy. Leino < Hossa.

[jaadam4]

Helm and Hudler are two very different players. Helm's game is energy based and Huds is a natural scorer. Helm won't be a fixture on the PP while Hudler would. The reverse can be said of the PK tho where Helm will be the next Draper and Huds would never see the light of day.

Helm will never be a top line scorer IMO and Jiri will.

[chemiclord]

The Wings have plenty of scorers. Many of them long term.

What they lacked was that "energy" and "hustle" player. Maltby used to be that, but he's losing tread on his tires... hell, who am I kidding, those tires blew a couple years ago and are running on rims.

Where it went south was once players like Helm and Lieno and Abdelkader were pulled, and Pittsburgh started winning all the hustle plays. Hudler was redundant in that regard. He's another scorer. Would it have been nice to have him? Sure... but the Wings are not exactly lacking in firepower. It's not that huge a loss.

[nhwbrooklyn]

Whats crazy, even for more money, is to play in Russia over playing for the best pro hockey franchise by a mile.

[Rocky Bleier]

THN.com Blog: How will Hawks fly through cap mess?


Jason Kay
2009-07-11 09:52:00

The Chicago Blackhawks have gone from amazing to a maze.

Last season?s feel-great story, the Hawks, under GM Dale Tallon, have constructed a salary cap labyrinth from which navigation could prove anywhere from tricky to heartbreaking.

Here?s the need to know:

Chicago figures to butt right up against the salary cap this season following the creative Marian Hossa signing and the embarrassing qualifying offer foul-ups that accelerated dollars due to Kris Versteeg and Cam Barker.

Toss in the curious contracts handed to Brian Campbell and Cristobal Huet last season and the Hawks, according to numbers posted on capgeek.com, have already spent their $56.8 million, or darned close to it depending on creative accounting and bonus payments.

They could opt to defer to next season as much as 7.5 percent of bonus monies owed to players such as Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane, assuming they hit their marks. And the Hawks may be forced to do so if they reach the ceiling in 2009-10.

But it isn?t this season the Hawks and their fans really need to worry about. It?s 2010-11, when Kane, Toews and Duncan Keith (not to mention Andrew Ladd and Ben Eager) all qualify for restricted free agency.

As things stand, Chicago has 12 players under contract for the season after next and have committed approximately $42 million in cap space (assuming Brett Sopel gets demoted or bought out). Conservatively, Kane, Toews and Keith should fetch $15 million combined in terms of cap hit beginning in 2010-11.

That pushes Chicago beyond this year?s cap number with only 15 players under contract. Even if they paid an additional seven players the league minimum, they?d still be up around $60 million, not including any deferred bonuses from this coming season.


The kicker, of course, is everyone in the industry expects the cap to fall next season; estimates range from $50-to-$55 million.

If little changes between now and next summer, one or more of Kane, Toews and Keith could be highly attractive for an RFA poaching.

[Drew]

I'll stick with what I said about Hudler. I like him, but he doesn't add that much. He's a good scorer, but that's it. I think the only place it may hurt is during shootouts where Hudler is very good.

[Malto Marko]

NHL is contesting Hudlers contract with the Russian league.

They are saying he applied for Arbitration before he signed the contract and the Arbitration is binding.

[jaadam4]

We lost almost 80 goals between Hossa, Hudler, and Sammy. We need proven goal scorers not could be's from GR on our 2nd line.

[chemiclord]

Oh please... 29 teams in the NHL would kill to have Detroit's current scoring depth.

The Wings need grinders who can get the tough minutes and win battles to the puck. They need that next generation of Maltby, Draper, and McCarty, not more scorers.

[jaadam4]

We're who we are because of our depth. That depth isnt so plentiful right now.

[Rocky Bleier]

Wings just lost their top goal scorer and their fifth leading goal scorer. That's a lot to make up for Datsyuk, Franzen and Zetterberg.

[Malto Marko]

We lost almost 80 goals between Hossa, Hudler, and Sammy. We need proven goal scorers not could be's from GR on our 2nd line.

Yes, we lost goal scoring from last year.

However, we gave up too many goals which is not a trait of the Wings.

Toughen up on the blue line and the loss of scorers from last year will be a wash.

Wings did not do well in shootouts even though Ozzie played well in the playoffs.

Playing well in the post season makes you a hero and a person of interest to Management when it comes to contract negotiation.

........note.....there were rookies this year that contributed big time to get them through the first two rounds then were not even dressed in the Finals.

I would like to suggest. When a player is hot, you let him play until he cools off, you do not sit him because protical says the Vets get the ice and the rooks need to watch.

[FCRhodes]

Training camp start yet?

[Drew]

I saw that the RWs start the season with a home and home with St Louis on consecutive days. That is so stupid of the NHL. Give the players at least one day of rest between games.