[Roof-Daddy]

All this talk about Wings fans laughing at us for signing Hudler to that deal, here is a take from what appears to be a very knowledgeable Wings fan from another board:

Red Wing fan here. Really jealous of you guys. Hudler was underutilized and under appreciated his whole time here, and I always thought Hudler was a key barometer for the direction our team was headed.(it seemed like a bad sign to me that somebody as talented as he is wasn't be used just because his physical tools didn't allow him to play the coaches system)

I don't think Hudler was properly developed, and think he should've been in the group of secondary/younger franchise players under Datsyuk and Zetterberg, along with Kronwall and Filppula(though now that Filppula is apparently being turned into a winger, I'm not sure what his value is)

Hudler has terrible acceleration, and Babcock condemned him for it. He's slow to get to the point on defensive zone faceoffs, isn't going to stop anyone if he's flat footed in the neutral zone, and can't skate the puck out of danger/the defensive zone. He does have good quickness/change of direction on the boards in the cycle though, where range/stride length don't matter.

He's a willing forechecker, but some games he's always just a step late and behind contact, causing leaks, but other games he does a surprising job staying on checks. Hit or miss.

Everything aside from that is a pro. He is one of the smartest players in the league. His vision, creativity and passing skills are elite. He sees the ice 5on5 in every situation. He'll pull up on a 2 on 1, if the 4 on 3 is going to generate a better chance. He's never above making the simple play if it's the right one, but has the ability to find a crack against the grain and cross up a defense with one pass. You should have fun waiting to see what he does when he gets the puck inside the blue line. I became a fan early on, as I was astounded by how often good things happened when the puck left his stick, he's very consistent at making the first pass that starts generating offense.

He's not a sniper by any means, but forced into the role, he developed a good knack for finishing plays, placing a puck around a moving goalie, or getting a stick on net front pucks.

He worked through a lot of adversity in Detroit, nobody on the team had a shorter leash, if he passed up a shot, or gave up a scoring chance defensively, that's all it took for his role to be reduced. Despite that he always had the guts to play his game, and was consistently working his way out of the depths of the gameplan.

Last year was the first time I ever saw a red wings team give up. Hudler was one of the few engaged players in the playoffs, and showed good leadership skills during that series/disaster.

It remains to be seen, how much Hudler was being held back simply by his lack of athleticism, and how much of it was lack of faith from the coach. It is possible that the new NHL is too fast for Hudler to fully utilize his tool set, but I think with the right gameplan, you guys have a shot at putting his skills to better use than the Wings did, and getting more than your money's worth. I am hoping the Flames run the second line through Hudler, and feed him the puck on the sideboards, where he can start the offense.

That's my biased take, I'll be watching both teams over the next few years to see how it turns out.

Seems like unbiased take from a fairly knowledgeable fan who's seen a lot of Hudler over the years.

The bolded part is what really caught my eye, and that part is probably what drew Feaster /Weisbrod to him in the first place. Hockey sense is priority #1 in Flames country these days.

I remember reading a quote in here somewhere from Jim Nill as well, where he said Hudler's hockey smarts was second to none.