Category: Wings-Penguins, Stanley Cup Finals
Posted by John Niyo (The Detroit News) on Thu, Jun 5, 2008 at 9:22 AMWings might be even better next year
Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock will sign a new three-year deal in the next day or two. I bet it'll be announced Friday -- just a guess, though.
Dallas Drake said he didn't want to make a decision right now on his future. Too emotional, he said. But living away from his family all season was brutal, and now that he's won the Cup, I expect he'll retire.
Ditto Dominik Hasek, who doesn't get enough credit for the composure he showed the last six weeks. His son graduated from high school last week (Dom missed it, as he was on the road) and Michael is headed to Michigan State in the fall, but I know Dom's daughter and wife were ready to move back to the Czech Republic a year ago, so now's a perfect time to do that.
Chris Chelios hated sitting in the Finals, but he's not ready to quit and he'll be back for another year.
Brad Stuart? Now that he's been on this side of the fence, the lure of the West coast isn't quite as strong, I'm guessing.
Andreas Lilja? Probably gone, replaced in the lineup by Jonathan Ericsson.
So what does all that mean? The Wings have about $40 million committed to next year's roster, and the cap is expected to be upward of $56 million. Some of that will go to resigning RFAs Filppula, Howard and UFAs Stuart and Chelios. But that'll still leave a good chunk of money to spend in free agency.
Scary as it sounds for the rest of the league, the Wings might be even better a year from now.
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Congrats to the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings!!!
Yo, GhostofProbert:Well said! Gary Bettman wants to market the game of hockey that the NHL sells. The population of Canada is something like 30 million people. I've read time and time again that hockey should be taken away from warm weather markets in the U.S. like Florida, Carolina and California. But what is the population in those areas? Surely way, way more than 30 million. So, do you really need a Canadian budding superstar to peddle your game? I think you could use a great two-way player on the Stanley Cup Champion like Henrik Zetterberg who doesn't seem too impressed with himself to market this game world wide. Bettman needs to stop thinking Canadian and start thinking universal if he truly wants to sell this game and secure a major tv network contract. The last two Finals that the Wings skated in are also the last two biggest tv draws! GO WINGS! Cup#12 in 2009!
Congrats to the Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings!!!
First of all, Go Red Wings!!! We now get to call them, once again, Stanley Cup Champions at least for the next year!
I have a question for the group - a subjective question. Is it just me? I am just too much of a homer, or did it seem to others that the Wings not only had to beat each team on their way to The Cup, but had to beat the entire NHL Management? The way the calls went in every series...how many times have you seen a single team have multiple goals called back in a single series, or even a single playoffs? The calls in Game 5 in OT...even the calls last night...it seemed to be very evident that Bettman and Co. wanted just about ANY team except Detroit, to win.
IMHO, Bettman has made every mistake and continues to market the game incorrectly. The Wings should be the perfect model of a team - it SHOULD be hard to pick out a single super-star because victory for Detroit is a total team effort. There are at least half a dozen Wings who I would have been happy to see win the Conn Smythe, Hank included.
Instead, the NHL chooses to market a player and, well, one in particular who we all know. I understand needing a "face" to some extent, but please - hockey is the most exciting game in the world! Market the game! Market the teams...don't try to virtually fix a series so that your 21-year-old poster boy (I swear Bettman has Crosby posters above his bed in his room!) can hoist The Cup. Let the best team win!
And they did, so all this doesn't matter - the bad calls, the voided goals. That makes it, for me, all the sweeter. We beat not only 4 of the best teams in the NHL but we beat - the NHL.
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