[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by dobbles

wanted to drop my 2 cents here since i spent so long as the resident wings troll in years past!

i am torn on hudler. he was widely hated by the fan base the last couple years but i feel much of that was emotional due to him screwing the team over for the khl. i do also think its funny that wings fans are so excited he is gone, yet we brought in samuelsson for 3 mil? i would have rather given hudler 4 myself...

i do feel his numbers were sometimes the product of his linemates, however, this year, as mentioned he was the one going to dirty areas to finish the play. hard to fault the guy for playing his role and getting points for it.

i feel one of his strengths was his even strength play. lots of players can pad numbers on the PP, but jiri was one of the most consistent 5on5 players for the team this year. its also hard to fault him for lack of PP production; the wings team was definitely off this year and his 2nd unit never found any chemistry. personally, i think the scheme was bad and not anything hudler was doing. also, he spent a lot of time on the point which didnt help his numbers. though the thing it did bring out was that his footspeed was so terrible. he gave up many shorthanded chances when coughing up the puck and getting beat down the ice.

many wings fans didnt want hudler back at all. then again, most of them were penciling in parise to replace him in the top 6... personally, i would have welcomed him back at a reasonable salary. for me, 4 mil was the top end of that. i was hoping the wings could bring him back for 3.5ish.i think most reasonable wings fans were close to my opinion where they would want him back but had a specific price they thought was too much.

Originally Posted by dobbles

prepare to be disapointed then. hudler is a 40-60 point guy most likely. and decent linemates? all due respect to iginla, but hudler played all year with zetterberg and calgary has no one as good as him to play with. also on that line was filppula who has become a pretty legit top 6 guy... so its not as if he was playing with scrubs. sure the extra minutes will help, but at least in detroit he was sheltered behind datsyuk, zetterberg, franzen, and filppula. i dont think he will be able to hide in calgary as well.

Thanks for both of these posts dobbles.