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His play back a few years was impacted by his size, which is not a tremendous issue for him anymore. Jarnkrok is a great prospect, there really shouldn't be a need to try and downplay his talent. The whole situation comes down to several reasons that are largely just based on opinions, Bad Trade: 1. You think this season is a loss already, and should have kept future potential. 2. You think Legwand is only going to play 20 games with the Red Wings and the Wings lost Jarnkrok for nothing. 3. You like Legwand, but are sold on Jarnkrok becoming a top line center. Good Trade. 1. You like Legwand, and think the evidence is there that he will resign. 2. Wings filled an immediate need by giving up a player that wouldn't fill that need for years. etc. Personally I think Jarnkrok was a great prospect his play the last few months has been fantastic, he's great with the puck, his defense is very underrated, his skating is good, there isn't a negative about him other than he's not going out and hammering people into the boards, but I also felt the Wings need for a center for the present season, outweighed the risk of hoping the development of Jarnkrok a few years down the road.

http://deadspin.com/the-best-goal-youll-see-all-year-is-from-the-ontario-h-1539359126

Haven't said much in this thread but I will say this... We are fickle fans. We demand Holland make more trades for impact players but then crucify him if we have to give up anything of value. The trade was never going to be Eaves a 3rd and Ferraro/marginal prospect. Nobody wants that. There's next to no value in that trade. We can all debate future and potential but none of that is certain so it's all conjecture for now. Legwand would be a core piece and top 6 guy on any team in this league. He is that good whether people want to admit that or not. No he's not a flashy/sexy player like Vanek, but he also isn't a known, pure rental and probably(hopefully) has a future here I also have faith they wouldn't have made this deal if they weren't confident he will re-sign here. No that does not equate to him being a shoe-in to come here in the off-season regardless of the trade or not. It means a lot to a player when a team pursues and "wants" you and is willing to give up assets to get you. It sends a message. Anyone can throw money come UFA time. Combine that with our culture, great group of very well-liked and respected leadership group, young future players and the fact that his he's from Michigan and you've got a great appeal and likeliness to re-sign. Starting next season (possibly this post-season if we can get healthy) we are going to have a very talented and deep group of forwards and I personally cannot wait to see what they are capable of.

you know hes a hockey player when...

Per TSN : Dr. Gil Salazar: "we treated [Peverley] for cardiac event successfully" "According to Dr. Salazar, Peverley was aware of where he was when became conscious and wanted to get back in to the game."

I like it! Reminds me of a faster, better coordinated, thinner, better skating me.

I don't think Smith's behind schedule, development-wise. I think we'd just set our expectations too high. Pairing him with Quincey for so long probably didn't help. Edit: Reply #27. Of course.

I remember watching the game when the jiri fischer incident happened,after it happened i sat in my room and cried,because it was so scary to watch on my computer I will be praying for peverly and the dallas stars Shea Weber's Slapper's are very deadly,would not wanna be in the path of one

We do need better defense. And having one NHL caliber centerman (who isn't Crosby or Stamkos) and a bunch of kids, is not noticeably better than having a bunch of kids and no NHL caliber centers. With or without Legwand, unless some key guys get healthy quick we're not making the playoffs. Which is why I'd rather have kept the assets and risked ending the streak...or...spent the assets on a defenseman who was signed for more than this season. But that's just me. I stand behind my objection to the terms of the trade.

Smith is an offensive defensman; I think we can all see that in his game. I agree with Kip though, that Babs cares about defense before offense, so Smith needs to learn to take care of things on the defensive side of the puck, and adapt his offensive game without sacrificing scoring opportunities against us. He's getting better every week at this. Last year most of LGW wanted him off the team, earlier this year more folks started believing that he could be solid for us, and now we have a thread dedicated to "the real Brendan Smith" finally showing up. I still believe he has a ways to go, and ultimately see him being the Brian Rafalski that we've been missing in a couple years. Time will tell if he reaches that potential or not, but he's trending in the right direction.

You sure that's not the Penguins in the 09 finals?

Haha, there are soooo many smart ass things I want to say right now. Instead I'll try to be productive. Move Abby back to center for the time being and call up Pulkkinen or Callahan. Other option is to finally give Ferraro a ticket to the big show.

The graph previously posted shows the number of trades has nothing to do woth success or winning Cups. You've got winners all along that spectrum.

I also think that "he is trending in the right direction", and I think that is a good way to phrase it. I think that with his skills, at all lower levels of hockey that he has played until the NHL, he thought of himself as somewhat of a badass - a hockey player being like a gunslinger that hasn't met his match to date. He was always mostly a big fish in a small pond, but now, he can't out maneuver the opposition based on his above average physical skills alone (skating, stick handling, etc). The complete opposite was Nick Lidstrom, who despite a laser slapshot, relied mostly on smarts, and I think that we can all agree that he flourished this way. He wasn't Coffey fast, Weber physical, etc., but his positioning and anticipation were superhuman, and hopefully, Mr. Smith will take some of that to heart one day soon, and combine his God-given abilities with intelligent hockey. I think you can tell from interviews that he is not just plain dumb, so it must be that he still hasn't accepted the fact that the skills that allowed him to dominate at lower levels are not so unusual in the pro game. I think that (hopefully) if and when he ever catches on and buys into the program, watch out!

This was literally the first thing I thought when I saw the picture Why yes, I am still enjoying my sour grapes almost 5 years later, thank you very much.

Fire the Strength and Conditioning coach. Something ain't right in the D.

I actually think with Kindl it's about guts, and with Smith it's about smarts. Kindl won't take a hit to make a good pass...Smith WILL take the hit AND THEN turn around and make the bad pass. It's hard to gauge what's worse, a coward or an idiot.

We're not attacking him over today's game. That would be stupid. We're attacking his overall numbers for the whole season. They aren't good. I understand the want to look at each goal against individually and say "That one was tipped, not his fault." or "Not getting any help from the defense, not his fault." and in some instances that true, not all of the goals he gives up are his fault. But at some point you have to look at his overall numbers and realized he's just not getting it done. When he signed his new contract he was paid as a Top 10 NHL Goalie. Most of his stats currently rank him in the 30-40s, not Top 10. The guys record is 13-25 (Don't be fooled by the W-L-OL stat. A win is a win and a loss is a loss!). THIRTEEN AND TWENTY-FIVE!!! That's not the kind of record and not the kind of stats you want out of your Top 10 Starting Goalie. If it was one or the other that was bad and the other was reasonable, that might be more acceptable, but as it currently stands its just not good enough. The Team is already struggling enough as it is, we don't need a shaky goalie w/ confidence issues added to it.

Wow! It might be a bit premature to write him off so early, isn't it? This is only his second full season with the Wings, so couldn't a light go off in his brain, the coaching sinks in, and the mental part that has given him so much of a problem click in at some point? I would like to think that this is still possible, since he does offer so much promise if and when he finally understands what a defenseman is supposed to do. Like they say, defensemen do take longer to develop the mental aspect past of the game, so I would hope for our sake that there is still time.

Alfredsson moved his whole family to Detroit. If he wasn't serious about staying, the family could have lived in Ottawa. I think he'll play another year or two, and he should. He's been great.

It was a committee of people. Yzerman had the final say, but it wasn't him sitting home in his man cave or Buffalo Wild Wings drafting a fantasy team. Babcock and everyone else had input too.