SHOCKER: Rafalski set to retire says sources

shabbs wrote:Gonch... heh heh... bounce back year?

I hesitate to say it couldn't get worse, but...yeah, it could, he could retire I guess.

SpezDispenser wrote:

shabbs wrote:Gonch... heh heh... bounce back year?

I hesitate to say it couldn't get worse, but...yeah, it could, he could retire I guess.

35+ contract though... bah. He's gotta earn it.

shabbs wrote:
35+ contract though... bah. He's gotta earn it.

Yeah, that's what I meant. If he wakes up one morning and says F this noise and retires, we're on the hook. I guess this would be the best time for that - not that I think it's gonna happen, but we have cap to waste.

I think he can bounce back. I'll stick by that and hope to heck.

SpezDispenser wrote:

hemlock wrote:Why does the title say Shocker????

He'll be 38 by next regular season.

He had 1 more year left at 6.5 million, he scored 50 points last year and was a HUGE part of Detroit's PP and PK. He's solidly entrenched in their top 4 D-men with Kronwall, Stuart and Lidstrom. He's 37, but he's not really declining from what I saw and there was no rumblings or hints about this whatsoever. I was shocked, a lot of people are surprised. You're not?

It doesn't surprise me because he's at an advanced age (for a pro athlete). Maybe he feels he's on too much of a decline, or maybe he's just tired of playing hockey. There's lots of reason. If he were even 35 I probably would be surprised, but at his age, I would suspect his body just isn't what it used to be.

He's retiring because of injuries folks.

this is a shocker. imagine if lidstrom did retire this year? how crazy would that be? losing their top D-men.
I have to agree that Gonchar should be a player detroit takes a look at. Kuba is just wishful thinking on our part, and we should offer him as well, but if I was murray i'd take a walk past detroits table at the draft....

Kuba AND Gonchar for a 1st.

I think Ken Holland and Mike Babcock are smart enough to stay away from Kuba. Gonchar is interesting though. Imagine the damage he could do with guys like Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen... Detroit would be taking a monster-hit if both those guys retire. Still, they'd have $10+ million to spend to replace those two. I'd imagine they go for Bogosian, or even take a stab at Kaberle.

They could also be looking into signing a Carkner-type as they don't have much in terms of a gritty, shutdown defenceman.

Meanwhile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7VpnD9M86I

marakh wrote:Meanwhile

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7VpnD9M86I

If you all miss the old "embed" button in YouTube, then here is the 'old" way. Just strip off the "watch=?" part and replace the "=" with a "/" and enclose the whole thing in flash tags, like so:

Code:

[flash]http://www.youtube.com/v/v7VpnD9M86I[/flash]

And then you might want to make it a bit larger:

Code:

[flash(425,349)]http://www.youtube.com/v/v7VpnD9M86I[/flash]

Or, as I just discovered, the embed script is still there. Just click "Share" and then "Embed":

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:I think Ken Holland and Mike Babcock are smart enough to stay away from Kuba. Gonchar is interesting though. Imagine the damage he could do with guys like Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Franzen... Detroit would be taking a monster-hit if both those guys retire. Still, they'd have $10+ million to spend to replace those two. I'd imagine they go for Bogosian, or even take a stab at Kaberle.

Yeah, first I agree, Gonchar is the kind of guy that could be amazing for Detroit - and wow, if Lidstrom hangs them up as well...

Actually I was just too lazy to do it

wprager wrote:If you all miss the old "embed" button in YouTube, then here is the 'old" way.

It's still there... you just gotta click a bit more...

Click Share... then Embed...

^That's neat that you can take a little screen shot like that. What do you use to do that in terms of software?

SpezDispenser wrote:^That's neat that you can take a little screen shot like that. What do you use to do that in terms of software?

HyperSnap.

http://www.hyperionics.com/hsdx/

Red boxes using... wait for it... MS Paint.

shabbs wrote:

wprager wrote:If you all miss the old "embed" button in YouTube, then here is the 'old" way.

It's still there... you just gotta click a bit more...

Click Share... then Embed...

You should really read to the end of my post

shabbs wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:^That's neat that you can take a little screen shot like that. What do you use to do that in terms of software?

HyperSnap.

http://www.hyperionics.com/hsdx/

Red boxes using... wait for it... MS Paint.

LOL. I use ... wait for it ... Word.