Haliax

5. Terry Sawchuk - He suffered a dislocated elbow playing rugby and hid it from his parents (who knows went on in THAT household?). The lack of medical attention cause his right arm to be half a foot shorter than his left, was extremely crooked, and caused him considerable pain for the rest of his life. In fear of losing his job, he kept injuries to himself, and suffered quietly through many elbow problems, appendicitis, a collapsed lung, severe hand problems, broken foot, and too many cuts to count. His playing style of an extremely low crouch left him with a permanently bent back and ruptured discs, which meant that he couldn't sleep longer than 2 or 3 hours at a time.

Wow. I did not know any of that. That is some crazy stuff.

@jammer2

Haha yeah, sorry about that confusion. That would definitely be a big blow.

@jammer2

Yeah, it isn't quite the same, but certainly similar.

Mursak has left for the KHL. And I don't blame him. Detroit certainly wasn't going to give him a real look anymore.

EDIT: to be clear, I'm talking about Mursak the forward, not Mrazek the goaltender.

hehe. The thing I remember most about that season was when Roy started punching McCarty in Net and Hasek skated over to challenge him.....But then slipped, fell and ended up tripping Roy in the process. Since I hated both guys as people, I laughed. I still respect both though.

it seems like a prerequisite to being a superstar goalie is to also be a huge jerkoff

Edit: here we go haha

Watching that game, I remember thinking "What is Hasek doing! He's going to get his butt kicked!", and was rather relieved when he just tripped and fell.

Hasek has a peak unmatched by many except Sawchuk. 2 hart trophies, 6 Vezina's on weak teams. He won a cup immediately when he went to a contender, but did not seem as dominating.

I disagree with saying that he did not seem as dominating when he went to the Wings, especially in the playoffs. His stats may not seem as spectacular for the regular season, but in the playoffs he had 6 shutouts, an NHL record at the time (I don't know if that has been beaten since, I know it has been matched), to go along with a 1.85 GAA and .920 save percentage. There was an argument to be made for him as the Conn Smythe winner. Its really only after he retired and returned that he didn't seem quite so dominant.

And I still think his regular season was pretty great.

It is good to hear that the organization is impressed by his play. After the disappointment that McCollum turned out to be, the Wings were in pretty bad shape in terms of goaltending depth. Hopefully he does well in the AHL, that'll be the real test when he gets there.

Holland doesn't always make the right choice. Exhibit A: keeping Meech over Quincey, and then back tracking by making that horrible trade to get him back, giving up a first overall pick. Pure mismanagement of assets right there. I also think they misplayed their cards with Mursak.

Roy

Hasek

Plante

Sawchuck

Brodeur

Just outside for me: Hall, Dryden

I don't think Hasek is getting enough credit so far. Guy was just insane, and I don't think should be outside of anyone's top 5. The only reason I have Roy ahead of him is playoff performances. His peak is easily the best we've seen from a goaltender, and I think it will be a heck of a long time before we see anyone match it.

Well, I think it's actually fairly well-known here in the States. But to your point, I cannot imagine why any ally would be on board...especially since it's fairly obscure even in neighboring Canada.

Fair enough. I've only heard briefly about it here, and not very much discussion overall.

I honestly don't think that this would happen. The issue isn't well known enough, or severe enough, for the American government to be able to justify an Olympic boycott to citizens.

Tatar and Gus have to be regulars next season. Frankly I don't see a position in the rotation for Cleary, especially if Sammy and Bert are ever healthy at the same time. Tatar is out of options so the minors wont work, we need a veteran seventh d-man much more. Thanks for the memories Cleary, time to move on.

What? No faith in Lashoff? But he plays realgud and is big!

Not sure what Babcock saw in Lashoff at first. Can't say that I'm all that enamored with him myself. I do think they need a top 4 dman rather than depth, but the point remains the same; forward is not really the position they need to add anymore.

I won't disagree with the fact that Cleary has redeeming qualities, but I do think that his effectiveness has come to the point where he is replaceable by a younger player. At some point you need to make room for prospects, and I think the time is now. Tatar needs a permanent spot on this team. It's wasted talent otherwise.

Just my opinion.

For the foreseeable future, certainly. But no one really thought the ABA was going to challenge the NBA and few really thought the AFL was a "threat" to the NFL - until the Jets won the game they set up specifically to show that the AFL was inferior (The Super Bowl).

It's a global stage and "World" championships will start to actually be more "world" oriented. The provincial attitudes we have in North America - where the winner of North America is the "world" champion - will certainly change.

I think the effort that should be made is for the KHL to appreciate the importance of the Stanley Cup.

I didn't know that about either the AFL or ABA. Though would that not be closer to the NHL and WHA than to KHL? Not that it matters all that much. We'll see how things develop, it should be an interesting decade or so.

@Haliax

I welcome you as well! Are numbers are beginning to swell! Maybe we'll overtake all the Flyers fans on this Board! Maybe not...

Echoing others, good post. The other "bonus" benefit to have Alfie on the team, which was pointed out by @hf101 is that come February, he's gotten half a season's worth of chemistry with the better part of the Swedish Olympic team. He might be just blessed enough to have his swan song include a Stanley Cup AND a gold medal.

I have also been wondering why Holland hasn't used the second buyout option. He's always been known to reserve his funds and options until a sure bet comes along, but he's been eagerly trying to move some staff around to make room for Danny Cleary. Cleary wants back in too, and reportedly turned down a higher offer from Dallas to stay a Red Wing. Holland's got another month or so to negotiate prior to training camp, but it seems that he'll use the buyout if he runs out of time. It seems likely that he's trying to deal any combination of Tootoo, Eaves, and Emmerton to clear up some cap space. But if nobody bites, he'll likely buy out Tootoo.

Thanks for the welcome!

I think that is definitely part of Alfredsson's motivation in coming to Detroit. Hopefully him and Zetterberg do develop some good chemistry. Can you imagine a line of Datsyuk-Zetterberg-Alfredsson, with them all clicking? Would be really fun to watch.

Holland can't use his second compliance buyout until next June now. Holland is going to have to make room via regular waivers or trade. I don't really want to see Cleary back on the team. I appreciate what he has done for us up until this season, but I don't see room for him on the roster anymore. We have too many young players that look good enough to be on the roster. I think that Tatar could more than replace Cleary.

Was this last lockout really about "reversing the poor standing of the less profitable teams?" If you listen to the NHL, practically no team is profitable. Virtually every team has another business venture propping them up on the back end. "Hockey operations" is not where money is made or lost.

There is no dispute that the KHL has a long way to go. But if they continue to grow, expand responsibly into Western Europe and even have the same economic model as today, they will be competition for the Swede, Finn, Czech, Slovak and Russian players who reinvigorated the NHL game in the 1990s. And they will have enough money to upset the NHL's old boy network of free agency and draft restrictions even for Canadian farmboys.

I'm not sure what the lockout was about if it not to try and make the league more profitable overall. I've not paid close enough attention to individual teams claims about their fiscal positions. But I find it hard to accept any owners claim last year, when they had real incentive to claim they were losing money as leverage against the PA. If I remember correctly just a couple years ago 2/3rds of teams were making money. That is less than fantastic, but it isn't the picture that has been painted recently.

Overall though, I don't think our opinion on the KHL is that different. I see it as a threat to the NHL, but certainly not immediately. And I think the further west they move (out of Russia), the more accountability in terms of how teams are operated will be demanded. Along with that, I would assume that there will be some type of push for some sort of PA. It will be interesting to see how things develop, but I don't see it as being a horrible thing for hockey fans. If the KHL grows and brings more exposure for hockey, I see that as a win. You'll see countries invest more in their hockey programs which will hopefully result in more high end talent developed in what are currently less traditional hockey countries.

End of the day though, I think the NHL will always be the top professional hockey league in the world.

Ovechkin's another player I can see bolting for the KHL. He's made his fortune already.

I could see it at the end of his current contract, but I'm not sure that he would do it before. Depends on how motivated he is to win the Stanley Cup, I guess.

@yave1964

@jammer2

Thanks for the welcome! I look forward to getting to know everyone. I live just up the 401 from you Jammer, in Chatham.

And Yave, hopefully all their prospects pan out and we don't have to worry about signing anyone.

But yeah, we do have some cap flexibility next year. It'll be interesting to see if Holland opts to use his second compliance buyout.

It's exactly the model that the NHL uses.

We just had the third lockout in the last two decades because the owners claim they can't make money doing what they are doing.

In the KHL they have a lot more direct control over players because there's no real "union" and, honestly, no real threat of having one. But the top players are certainly in a better position to make demands and have them met.

There's also a reason they have the special exemption for players coming back from the NHL on their salary cap - because the owners are crazy enough to do something like offer a player $13 million this year plus a salary and then $13 million next year plus a salary.

I don't really think that it is the same model. The NHL still operates with the goal of making money. Otherwise, as you mentioned, there would not have been lockouts in order to try and reverse the poor standing of the less profitable teams. We've seen the last decade that the NHL has had a keen interest in moving towards a system with more parity. Obviously with the hope that more "non traditional" teams will become more competitive and develop stronger fan bases. This is a model that is still in its infancy, but overall the progress has been positive. There are still teams struggling, and that could be a result of poor conditions of the economy as much as anything, but league revenues grow every year. The KHL model seems to be that a few teams have "bucket loads" of money to spend, but overall there is a general lack of funds. That is what I see as not being sustainable. They need to try and better support the teams on the bottom.

And I'm not sure that the lack of a union is really a positive in favour of the KHL. It may give them more control over costs, but the lack of a body to represent the players is certainly not going to work in favour of them drawing talent that isn't Russian. These are the types of changes that will be necessary if the league hopes to succeed long term. Overall, I hope that the KHL does become competitive, because competition is always a good thing. I just think that they have a long road ahead of them.

http://www.hockeydb....HL2009&sid=2013

Because professional sports has very little to do with "profitability." These guys have deep pockets and are doing it more for personal and "Russian" pride than anything else.

Which isn't a sustainable model. The league would have to change substantially if it actually wants to compete with the NHL long term. I'm sure that plenty of players are wary of the fact that money in Russia is far from guaranteed.

@hf101

It is odd that there is not something in the CBA to address that situation. It isn't as if a player has never decided to return from retirement before.

For some reason I thought that they had already worked out an agreement for the players to go to Sochi. If this affects that decision negatively at all, I think it would be a mistake. I think all that would achieve is creating ill-will among Russian players still in the NHL, and I'm not sure that that is something that the NHL really wants to do. I think Ovechkin has already commented that he would be attending regardless of the NHL's decision, and I'm sure that there are other Russians that would follow that example. I hope they handle the situation properly.

@hf101

Thank you for the welcome.

That is actually an aspect of the signing that I had not considered. While I've never really thought that the differences between conferences are as great as some seem to, he at least can provide feedback on players within the conference that the Red Wings have not seen much of.

It'll be an interesting season, that's for sure. I wonder how he will be treated in Ottawa when the Wings make a visit.

The hysterical thing about this is that the writer believes this 14-year deal, rejected once by the league and the team was penalized for, was ever made in anything resembling "good faith.

Both sides knew going in that he was not going to finish that contract and would retire in advance. The only question was when.

When the deal was made, the "cap recapture" clause wasn't in place. He's scheduled to make $10, $11, $11, $11 over the next four years (plus change, if memory serves). The Devil's penalty only goes up over those years.

Moreover, as has been noted, the Devils are in serious financial trouble and dropping both Clarkson's contract and Kovalchuk's saves them a lot of cash.

Kovalchuk, on the flip side, can take a huge payday in the KHL and take advantage of the cap exemption for players coming from the NHL (which might seriously be the thing to make a Sochi pullout based upon).

"Good faith." LMAO.

This is about as succinct a response as there exists on this situation. There were already rumors when the shortened season began that Kovalchuk wanted to remain home in Russia. Those rumors included Datsyuk, but thankfully that turned out better. So if Kovalchuk was going to leave, now was the best time for him to do it. Well, maybe a week earlier would have been better, when they had more options to fill his role. Unfortunately the Devils will still lose that 1st round pick, and for a contract that they barely got anything out of.

Now what happens if he decides he doesn't like it in Russia a few years down the line and wants to come back to the NHL? Is he still obligated to the Devils with that contract? Or would he be able to go elsewhere?

Not addressing anyone specifically in this thread, but there are a couple of advantages to this signing that speak to long-term planning perhaps even better than keeping Brunner would. I think that the Wings see bringing in Alfredsson as an opportunity to provide some added mentorship for a couple of the young players coming up next year, and more specifically Nyquist, while at the same time filling a team need on the wing. Alfredsson is a leadership presence, and their is no denying that, and I think they are as much paying him for that service as they are for his play on the ice. So I see him as somewhat of a stop-gap until Nyquist is ready to take on a bigger role.