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I remember a certain RichDG whining and moaning about our 2013 draft selections. I'm beyond giddy that about 5 of those 8 are already showing stellar promise. When is Axe coming back?

Actually, I think the way the cap works is changing. Between lockouts 2 and 3 it was constant turmoil and teams only had a 2 or 3 year window to win the cup. Now, all the best teams have all their star players locked up on 6, 7, 8 year contracts. Because the cap will still keep going up they are able to afford to keep most of their good 2nd tier players which is what truly turns a team into a contender and the contending window is being pushed wider. Anyway, reasons for wanting the Kings to win 1) Because Detroit were the last team to win back to back cups. Lets keep it that way. 2) Kings wear black, white and silver these days, just as they should 3) Because Detroit were the last team to win back to back cups. Lets keep it that way. 4) Daryl Suter is pure awesome 5) Because Detroit were the last team to win back to back cups. Lets keep it that way. 6) Kopitar and Doughty don't get anywhere near enough recognition for their game because they play on the west coast. 7) Because Detroit were the last team to win back to back cups. Lets keep it that way.

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I'm sure there have been threads like this before. But I was working on a comprehensive list the other day, and thought some here might want to see it. Overall, we're certainly an above-average team at the draft. And it seems like a lot of recent picks are turning out to be NHL-level prospects. Beneath our draft picks are arguably comparable or better players with an NHL pedigree. Red indicates a bust pick. Green indicates a perfect pick. It's still too early for the recent draft years (as such, the drafts from 2009 onwards have some question marks and might miss players who will make it to the show later on after more development.) Draft Year (# of NHL players produced / # of players drafted) 2005 (3/9) 19. Jakub Kindl 22. Tuukka Rask 24. T.J. Oshie 25. Andrew Cogliano 28. Matt Niskanen 29. Steve Downie 33. James Neal 35. Marc-Edouard Vlasic 41. Ondrej Pavelec 42. Justin Abdelkader 44. Paul Stastny 51. Mason Raymond 62. Kristopher Letang 67. Kris Russell 72. Jonathan Quick 79. Cody Franson 80. Cristofer Lofberg 84. Mark Fraser 85. Ben Bishop 96. Chris Butler 101. Jared Boll 103. Mattias Ritola 105. Keith Yandle 106. Vladimir Sobotka 107. Tom Pyatt 108. Niklas Hjalmarsson 112. Alex Stalock 132. Darren Helm 137. Johan Ryno 142. Nathan Gerbe 152. Jeff May 155. Mark Fayne 156. Ryan Reaves 175. Juho Mielonen 181. Tim Kennedy 190. Matt D'Agostini 195. Joe Vitale 200. Sergei Kostitsyn 204. Colin Greening 214. Bretton Stamler 216. Anton Stralman 230. Patrick Hornqvist 2006 (2/7) 41. Cory Emmerton 44. Nikolai Kulemin 45. Jeff Petry 46. Jhonas Enroth 47. Shawn Matthias 50. Milan Lucic 54. Artem Anisimov 57. Mike Weber 62. **** Axelsson 63. Jamie McBain 66. Ryan White 68. Eric Gryba 69. Steve Mason 71. Brad Marchand 74. Jeff Zatkoff 75. Theo Peckham 85. Tom Sestito 92. Daniel Larsson 99. James Reimer 106. Reto Berra 112. Matt Beleskey 120. Richard Bachman 125. Chad Johnson 160. Andrew MacDonald 161. Victor Stahlberg 177. Mathieu Perreault 182. Jan Mursak 189. Derek Dorsett 191. Nick Oslund 196. Benn Ferriero 211. Erik Condra 212. Logan Pyett 2007 (2/5) 27. Brendan Smith 43. P.K. Subban 58. Nick Spaling 61. Wayne Simmonds 79. Nick Palmieri 88. Joakim Andersson 95. Alec Martinez 109. Dwight King 112. Colton Sceviour 129. Jamie Benn 141. Jake Muzzin 148. Randy Cameron 160. Anthony Peluso 161. Patrick Maroon 168. Carl Hagelin 172. Luke Gazdic 173. Nick Bonino 178. Zack Torquato 179. Paul Byron 194. Carl Gunnarsson 201. Justin Bruan 208. Bryan Rufenach 2008 (1/6) 30. Thomas McCollum 31. Jacob Markstrom 32. Slava Voynov 34. Jake Allen 38. Roman Josi 42. Patrick Wiercioch 43. Justin Schultz 45. Zac Dalpe 51. Derek Stepan 53. Travis Hamonic 55. Marco Scandella 60. Jimmy Hayes 69. Michael Stone 79. Zack Smith 82. Adam Henrique 91. Max Nicastro 93. Braden Holtby 96. Matt Donovan 111. Dale Weise 114. T.J. Brodie 117. James Wright 127. Matt Calvert 148. Matt Martin 121. Gustav Nyquist 151. Julien Cayer 152. Mark Barberio 156. Jared Spurgeon 157. Cam Atkinston 169. Ben Smith 177. Tommy Wingels 178. Zac Rinaldo 181. Stephen Johnston 186. Jason Demers 190. Matt Bartkowski 207. Anders Lindback 211. Jesper Samuelsson 2009 (1+/7) 2. Landon Ferraro ??? 33. Ryan O'Reilly 34. Carl Klingberg 35. Kyle Clifford 38. Alex Chiasson 39. Jakob Silfverberg 44. Drew Shore 45. Jeremy Morin 46. Robin Lehner 52. Richard Panik 54. Eric Gelinas 59. Brandon Pirri 60. Tomas Tatar ??? 64. Tyson Barrie 69. Reilly Smith 75. Andrej Nestrasil ??? 84. Nicolas Deslauriers 85. Cody Eakin 90. Gleason Fournier 92. Casaey Cizikas 93. David Savard 98. Craig Smith 104. Marcus Foligno 106. Sami Vatanen 127. Roman Horak 132. Gabriel Borque 149. Marcus Kruger 150. Nick Jensen ??? 161. Darcy Kuemper 180. Mitch Callahan ??? 182. Erik Haula 186. Jordan Nolan 210. Adam Almqvist ??? 2010 (2+/7) 21. Riley Sheahan ??? 23. Mark Pysyk 24. Kevin Hayes 26. Evgeny Kuznestsov 28. Charlie Coyle 29. Emersom Etem 30. Brock Nelson 37. Justin Faulk 38. Jon Merill 42. Devante Smith-Pelly 47. Tyler Toffoli 51. Calle Jarnkrok ??? 66. Radko Gudas 71. Michael Bournival 81. Louis-Marc Auby 90. Joakim Nordstrom 111. Teemu Pulkkinen ??? 135. Justin Florek 141. Petr Mrazek ??? 147. Brendan Gallagher 171. Brooks Macek 181. Frederik Andersen 201. Ben Marshall 2011 (2+/9) 35. Tomas Jurco ??? 37. Boone Jenner 39. John Gibson 41. Dmitrij Jaskin 43. Brandon Saad 44. Matt Nieto 48. Xavier Ouellet ??? 55. Ryan Sproul ??? 58. Nikita Kucherov 85. Alan Quine 87. Jonathan Racine 115. Marek Tvrdon ??? 145. Philippe Hudon ??? 146. Mattias Backman ??? 175. Richard Nedomlel ??? 205. Alexei Marchenko ??? 208. Ondrej Palat

I actually hope the Red Wings trade their first rounder for someone's first rounder next year and another later pick. Next years draft crop is supposed to be one of the deepest in a long time and it would be nice to have two cracks at the first round in 2015.

When it comes to big names on the market we have... Nyquist Mantha Tatar Jurco Sheahan Backman Sproul Ouellet Mrazek Pulkkinen Marchenko Athanasiou Callahan Think we should pursue any of those guys? that's only like 13 players that could probably step in and half ass Niskanen or Alfredsson's job at a fraction of the price. Screw it sign Niskanen and Iginla and let those losers walk

Babcock is lazy and he sucks.

I picked the Rags as my bandwagon team in the first round. On the one hand, I look like a smarty pants. On the other hand, I didn't put any money on them. Booo.

Holy crap, Rick Nash scored a goal.

Not that anyone has done this yet, but I kind of laugh when people bring up how other teams are built through the draft, then you look at their top players and they're almost all drafted in the top 10. Then you look at Detroit. Their top few scorers other than Alfredsson were drafted 121, 210, 97, 60, and 171 overall, their top 3 D 29, 291, and undrafted, and their starting goalie was taken 64th. That's one player of their top 9 players taken in the first round. The Pens, on the other hand, have gotten almost nobody outside of the top 5 in the last dozen years.

Even with the Cup they won, they beat a crippled Wings team where even Lidstrom was missing games and nearly every star was playing with significant injuries. And it still took game 7 and some very favorable calls from the refs to get there. Future headline: U of M Babcockblocks the Penguins

I'd like to see that happen, and then he actually ends up at Michigan. YOU CAN'T HAVE OUR BABCOCK!!

You don't want Boyle, who in his worst year he still had more points than any of those guys at the bottom have ever had in their careers. Other than maybe Gilbert I wouldn't want any of those guys. Stralman has never played a full season and only came close once. The other guys don't put up much for points either. I'd rather go with kids if we're gonna have stats that low, at least they'd be cheaper. I just don't see how any of those guys would make us a better team. Niskanen may not be a number one but I'd rather have a bunch of 2's and 3's than a bunch of 3's and 4's.

I'll write one here for Anaheim... f*** you, Anaheim. That is all.

Going to the game tonight. Really pumped to see Mantha. Go Knights. Go Mantha.

On a one or two year deal, he's perfect. Provides leadership, improves the PP, not taking a spot from the kids because he'd be replacing Quincey as DeKeysers partner. If we add Boyle and one of Marchenko/Sproul/Ouellet, our defence looks a whole lot better then it did in the playoffs. Plus no more Kindl or Lashoff.

As cool as another Original Six final would be, I don't want Chicago getting in again. They're already becoming what the Wings used to be. I don't want them to start having more Cups or finals appearances.

Mantha also scored five goals in six games at world juniors, so he has 86 goals in 87 games so far. Hopefully he puts up at least one more goal than games played in the tournament. Ninety-two total goals for the year would be a nice, Gretzky-esque stat.

Go whichever team can beat the Hawks

Excuse me while I go create the other 99,999 threads about what people would do for all the other possibilities of what could possibly happen regarding resigning Mantha in 2017.

Wow. In a few weeks Mantha has gone from, "maybe he'll have a chance to make the team next year", to the next Ovechkin. At this rate he'll be in the Hall of Fame by June.

Oh the joys of the offseason at LGW. No way do I ever see locking up any player at that cap hit a good idea unless he is the literal second coming of Wayne Gretzky and provides the offense of 3 top line players combined scoring over 200 points per season. Who knows what happens when players figure out how to defend against him better, and if he is selfish enough to command maximum contract he is likely the same class of player who will drop off in production after getting that contract. Look at the quality of player we get out of Datsyuk for the price, pay nearly double? No thanks.

You're bored, aren't you

No thank you. Besides, in the NHL there is something called interdivisional rape. Then there is Detroit rape. Then there are fair trades. They ask for the moon from a divisional rival, they ask for God's only son from Detroit, they accept 1980's Lake Erie from everyone else...