Lateralous

That might be the dumbest article I've read in a long time. I wish I hadn't waisted the time.

That seemed to be the census a few years ago but there have been a lot of late bloomers. I think this is actually considered a pretty deep draft at this point. Nowhere near 2003 though.

Not the smartest or classiest move by Burish but still awesome.

Living at the time with a house full of Flyers fans, the Elias game winning goal 2 weeks before that was up there.

That's awesome!

It's been said several times here but drafting our future goalie with one of our 2nd round picks is the least of our worries. There are plenty of guys who can be signed for under a million that can be counted on to play the 15-20 we really need out of our backup in the short term. Actually, I didn't see anything out of Danis that suggested he couldn't have played 5-10 more games, especially those games where it was a back end of a double header against the Oilers, Islanders and Maple Leafs of the world that we lost with MB30 in net anyway. [

The Caps just resigned Backstrom for 6.9 per year for 10 years. If that could be used as a comparable for a new Kovy contract, I would be happy.

I would take this as a sign that both Glendale and the NHL are very confident that they will be able to eventually come to a deal with either Reinsdorf or Ice Edge. It does seems that if Bettman and Glendale's mancrush on Reinsdorf falls through the boys from IEH are always ready to step in. If the team sells, Glendale isn't on the hook for anything. This is just insurance policy for the NHL in return for not pulling the plug now and moving the team to KC or Winnepeg.

It's not tax money. They set up a CFD (Community Facilities District or something like that)around the arena which will collect money from surcharges on tickets, food and dining in Westgate and parking to pay for the possible losses that they may incur. In theory, local residents who are not Coyotes fans and don't go to Westgate won't have to pay a dime. Who knows though, the community leaders in Glendale seem pretty incompetent.

I worded that poorly, I meant the league's expansion Southward. I did not mean to dismiss the North Stars, Jets and Whalers. Still, the point remains the same, teams who were well managed have done pretty well in new non-traditional markets

I think they need to keep the team in Arizona for a few more seasons. Up until now, they haven't really had a chance to support a half decent team. The Moyes/Gretzky years were so backwards even real fans probably stayed away in protest. The only difference between the 90's expansions teams that have been successful (San Jose Dallas and to an extent Carolina and Tampa) and the ones who are treading water (Atlanta, Florida & Phoenix) are good management teams (which almost always translates to on ice sucess). With Don Maloney running the ship, I think Coyotes are in for several good seasons. If they're still not drawing fans in 3 years, then move them.

I like Clarkson but Lou has to be very careful here. We already spend way to much of our cap on secondary players (White, Salvador, Pando, Rolston) and David Clarkson is not a top 6 forward on a team that expects to be a contender IMO. I agree with those saying 3 or 4 years at 2 million per season MAX.

I'm completely up in the air on signing Kovy. I would love to have him stay for many years but I also think building a team where your 3 best players and top money makers are natural LWs is flawed. That being said, if you're ever going to spend $$$ on an elite player in the UFA market, I think this is the summer to do it for 2 reasons: 1. Relatively little competition since most of the other top teams (i.e. desirable destinations) are tight against the cap. 2. IMO after a few years of stagnating, the cap will start making significant increases each summer starting at the end of 2010-11 season. The recession is starting to ease up and hockey is becoming more popular so theres no way the NHL doesn't see a significant increase in revenue next season leading to a higher cap in 2011-12. This is significant because in the first 2 seasons coming out of the lockout, there were several contracts that seemed a bit high when signed but with the dramatic rise in the cap each summer, they were good value by the following summer. Look at Niedermayer, Lou offered him the max which would have been a big hit at first but within 2 seasons, guys like Brian Campbell were getting bigger contracts. With the Devils flameout in the playoffs, Kovy's value might also be as low as it's ever going to get.

I love the idea of adding Michalek (he's also a right handed shot) but I think he's going to cost 4 million or more which I would gladly have Lou pay for his services.

I haven't seen his name mentioned but I would love to see us go after Zbynek Michalek this summer for the back line.

6. Should Lemaire really be brought back for another season of shifting lines and putting our only 2 puck moving defenseman in the same pairing?

The major difference in the series was the defenses in front of the goalies. Seriously, Boucher mostly had clean looks at the shots and when he was spraying rebounds around (especially early in the series) we couldn't get anywhere near them. The second Brodeur leaves a rebound it's in the back of the net. While I've always been critical of Brodeur for giving up some softies, I think you would see a significant difference in his play if we ever go back to having more than 2 NHL calibre defenseman in front of him.

So bascially you want to see the exact same core again next year? Depending on what Martin wants $$$, I wouldn't mind replacing him with another D-man out of free agency as part of a total rebuild of the defense. We can't go another year with the redundancy of having both White and Salvador in the back when they make as much as they do but we'll probably need at least one of them back (presumably White because of his NTC). Also, depending on what Langenbrunners issue is, he might waive his NTC for the right deal. I would ship his ass out because he's still got some trade value.

I've always loved the consistancy of the Devils roster from year to year and the fact that we have so many homegrown players but I'm ready to see some significant changes to the line-up for next season. Regarding Paul Martin, if he doesn't want to take a discount to stay here I would be just as happy to take my chances with one of the other free agent defenseman on the market. Also, use Langenbrunner and Clarkson as trade bait to get us additional help at center or defense.

Play him. 1. He can't do any worse than some of the guys we have playing in the bottom 6 2. He never takes penalties which in this series is important 3. He can kill penalties as well as anyone and then maybe our top 6 won't look so worn down near the end of the game. 4. He can't do any worse than some of the guys we have playing in the top 6.

+1 He had a nice season but Brodeur will be a distant 3rd to these two in the voting. Still, as long as he's playing well enough to get nominated each year, that is all you can ask in the regular season.

Maybe, but I'm not sure it matters. It seems like it's always a buyers market for goalies. With goalies peaking later than other positions there are always plenty of young guys available who were rushed and need a change of sceenery (Kari Lehtonen and Carey Price come to mind this season). If we still have a team that's contending you can go for a shorter term/higher priced guy like Vokoun, Turco and Giguere. Drafting goalies is too unpredictable and other than the very top guys in the NHL they don't seem to have much trade value so I hope we don't spend any high picks on one over the next few years.

Hmmm, I actually thought Elias, along with Andy Greene, was our best player last night.

Wasn't he the one who whiffed on a point blank one-timer on a beautiful pass from Elias? Other than that I didn't notice him either.

That's only the beginning of it. They also got the 1st pick of the second round this year and Toronto's 1st rounder next year which will still probably be in the top 10.