Falling stars

Two years ago, names like Fedorov and Shanahan were big free agency draws. Spector says now the old guard is roster filler.

How much?

Is Brian Campbell really worth $56.8M? With the extreme free-agent spending, Spector wonders if GMs have lost their minds.

Lightning strikes

The Lightning made quite a few deals on the first day of free agency. But The Pucks Stops Here isn't sure they'll work.

Plenty of Conn Smythe candidates out there

At home in Prince Edward Island, Canada, he's known as Lyle Richardson. But around these parts, he's known as Spector, FOXSports.com's Prince of Pucks. Check in with Spector's Blog on FOXSports.com for NHL rumors and analysis.

Updated: May 20, 2008, 5:18 PM EST 34 comments

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The Conn Smythe trophy is awarded annually to the most valuable player in the NHL playoffs, and there's no shortage of potential candidates for the award this year.

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Detroit Red Wings forwards Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk have earned praise for their strong two-way play. Zetterberg currently leads the Red Wings with 19 points in the playoffs and is tied for the league lead, while Datsyuk is both second in team scoring with 18 and tied for second among the playoff point leaders.

Equally impressive is their defensive play, as Zetterberg and Datsyuk lead the league in plus-minus at plus-14 and plus-12 respectively. The two log nearly as much ice time on the penalty kill as they do on the power play and have been the standouts in the Wings' playoff run.

Teammate Johan Franzen's 12 goals still leads all of this year's postseason performers but his recent sidelining with post-concussion symptoms will likely hurt his Smythe chances.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have also been led by two star forwards in youngsters Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

Crosby is currently the Penguins' leading playoff scorer with 19 points and tied with Zetterberg for the league lead, while Malkin is second in Penguins scoring with 18 points and tied with Datsyuk for second overall in playoff scoring.

Zetterberg and Datsyuk have several years of playoff experience under their belts, while youngsters Crosby and Malkin have done extremely well with considerably less experience.

Malkin attracted more attention than Crosby earlier in the playoffs with his offensive prowess but his production has declined as the playoffs have progressed, while Crosby seems to be thriving under the increasingly tougher conditions.

Another Penguin worth consideration for the Smythe is goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who currently leads the remaining playoff goalies in wins (11) and has the best save percentage (.935) and second best goals-against average (1.84).

Teammates Crosby and Malkin command most of the attention but without Fleury's superb goaltending the Penguins wouldn't have advanced as far as they have this spring.

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