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I would definitely say no on that one.

As seen on the pre-game show before Game 3 on the CBC:

They won't?? What was Lashoff then?Reality is, we have too many prospects. Some will be traded Realistically only one prospect makes it. Kronwall-Ericsson New guy-Smith DeKeyser-Prospect

So where do our highly touted defensive prospects go?

Well, let's agree to disagree on this one, I just don't like the trade. But I'm sure Kip and a few other would agree with you I would just be really reluctant to give up Smith and Tatar, plus other assets, when I believe Smith will be much better than Ehrhoff and on par with Yandle in just a few years. I would prefer to sign a decent UFA this season, and wait for Smith and DeKeyser to reach their potential and then add in Sproul and maybe one other of Ouellet, Backman, Marchenko and Jensen.

DD I agree. As has been talked about many times, for whatever reasons Dmen take longer to develop. late 20's seems to be the common age of when most get it. That is part of the question surrounding all the young Dmen prospects. It will be 5+ years before most truly make it, if they ever do. We need help now.

I think Smith will have a similar path that Ericsson had. Early in Ericsson's career he had flashes of brilliance laced with terrible defensive mistakes. He eventually learned the game and is now a solid defenseman. I think Smith has a bigger learning curve then we would like but I think the talent and potential is there. Give him one more full season and I don't think we will be discussing trading him.

Yeah, it's a bit of a letdown. espn will spend even less time on hockey now, and more time sucking Lebron's dick. Good thing the World Cup starts this week.

Ekbald's fav player "perfect human"

Am I the only one that doesn't think Smith is a top 4 dman?

Sometimes the easiest way to improve is to let your young players get better. Smith is ready to be a top 4 guy. Dekeyser is improving his puck movement. I don't want them to get someone who isn't head and shoulders better than those 2 kids. No Boyle. No Orpik. No Markov.

Lest we forget Jamie McLennan's final moments as an NHL player... Might explain why he never voted for a Red Wing until he had no choice...

Well, full disclosure: I'm biased. I really like Mrazek, a lot. I think he's good enough right now to be a starter in the NHL. I'd like to see him make his case for being our #1.

A couple of reasons: 1) Mrazek won't get any better in Grand Rapids. Or at least, he could improve much faster playing in the NHL, even as a backup. 2) If Holland makes the moves he should make this off-season, the team won't be so terrible and the quality of our third string backup won't matter as much because a loss won't kill us to the same degree it did this season. 3) What's the point in having high quality replacements if the players they are replacing aren't significantly better to begin with?

I totally agree with this. I was salivating when I heard Carter was available from Columbus and Philly and Nash was available from NYR. What this team needs is a trade for a 25-28 year old established NHLer who is getting traded for a change of scenery. I think Tatar is the main piece we should dangle along with maybe Pulkkinen, a young D prospect, and a 1st rounder. I think we can afford to move our young wingers (not Mantha) considering we have so many of them and that position is the easiest to fill via free agency although I'd like to hold onto Nyquist if possible. Every year there will be a player like Alfredsson, Iginla, etc. that will come in as a mercenary and play wing on a cup contender - I'm not getting hung up on keeping all of our winger prospects. The key is - we need to trade our youngsters in the sweet spot where they have hype and potential - wait too long and they can taper off - wait too little and we sell them too cheaply. I would rank our young wingers in terms of long-term value as: Mantha Nyquist Jurco Tatar Pulkkinen I think we can afford to lose 2 of the bottom 3 in addition to picks and a D prospect like Ouellet/Backman if it returns us a solid player in their prime.

I say bring Mrazek up and give him every opportunity to steal the starting job from Howard. I don't care if Kenny was brough up too soon and it scarred him for life and now he's trying to protect this young goalie or whatever. Mrazek is awesome.

Your entire point earlier was "what if Zetterberg and Ericsson played". You're playing the "what if" game too. I'm just being a little more realistic. Odds are against any of the kids being as good as Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Babcock and Holland have each said so explicitly. So resting our hopes on "the kids" is a recipe for failure. It would probably be a good idea to move SOME of them for established NHL talent while they've still got value. Otherwise we may find that five years from now we've got a bunch of decent talent and nothing to write home about. The two teams in the Cup right now are full of star players that weren't drafted by either team. Mike and Brad Richards, Jeff Carter, Rick Nash, Martin St. Louis, Marian Gaborik, were all traded for and they're playing huge roles for their respective teams. They weren't acquired for peanuts. We've got HUGE amounts of young talent. Would it kill us to move SOME of it for established players?

Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Weiss, Franzen, Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Sheahan, Mantha, Alfredsson, Athanasiou... We need a top-four defenseman like whoa.

Ericsson, Dekeyser and Quincey are not Jack Johnson type defencemen. Especially not the calibre he was when he was traded. We also don't have the 8th overall pick to offer. As far as how many 2nd and 3rd round picks have worked out...in the Wings case the answer would be many. Ouellet, Sproul, Jurco, Tatar, Bertuzzi, Nastasiuk, Janmark etc. Just because better people have been passed over doesn't mean we didn't get good players with our selections. Hats off to the Kings for their success, but we don't need to emulate every team that wins the cup...The Wings system has been proven successful too.

Looks like the Slovakian's really want Tatar to win.