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Lucic is a piece of s***. An absolute scumbag. I don't give a damn how good of a player he is, it would be an embarrassment to have him in a Wings jersey. There's a lot of players I hate that would be great on the Wings and I would be more than happy to suck it up and bring them in (Weber, et al) but Milan "Human Garbage Can" Lucic is not one of them. f*** that guy.

God the ads all over that place are hideous.

The Wings need a top pairing d-man and some size/goal-scoring ability at wing. - This post brought to you by the years 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Presenting the Minnesota Wild. Your free pass to the Western Conference Finals

Lilja TKO'd Sheldon Souray on November 20, 2008.

Speaking of big guys who are totally awesome, and could help the Wings; have you heard of this guy Brian McGratton? He's an AHLer in Calgary's organization and is just the kind of power forward that Detroit needs to A) keep the rats at bay, B) deter cheap shots against our stars, and C) create space for Dats and Zetterberg. Just a thought. Ya know, because he's the biggest Laffy Taffy of them all.

Win a Norris trophy.Or the Stanley cup.

I think Dan Cleary needs to publicly call out Devellano for these comments.

Nice to see Mantha responding a lot more thoughtfully than Jimmy D did. I can imagine Holland facepalming when he heard Devellano's comments.

Can someone help me out here... What is the true meaning of a "#1 Defenseman"? By definition, there should be 30 "#1" Defensemen in the NHL, correct? The answer: It doesn't really matter. This is because Defensemen play in pairs, they are tandems built based on chemistry and synergy that hopefully play greater than the sum of their parts. Based on definition, I think it would be foolish to say Nick Kronwall is not a top 30 Defenseman in the NHL, so yes, he's #1... But not an elite #1. The other question is, how can anyone honestly rank Defensemen? Points are only a small indication of Defensman's true value to a team... I watched all and (attended 2) of the Red Wings playoffs games this year and can tell you that Kronwall did as good a job at shutting down Steven Stamkos as anyone else, which is his primary responsibility. The comparison to Nick Lidstrom is completely foolish, yet so often made. Lidstrom is arguably the best defenseman to ever play the game - Bobby Orr was revolutionary and of course had more offensive talent - but there isn't a Defensman in the history of the game to consistently do more for a team than Nick did, don't forget Bobby only played 9 real seasons in the league. To support that point even further, Lidstrom also played with Brian Rafalski for a good chunk of his career - where Kronwall has played mostly with Brad Stuart and Jonathon Ericsson, so its easy to see where a big disparity in point totals would come from. I would define a true #1 Defenseman as a player who plays on the top pairing, against the other teams best, playing in all situations - contributing offensively (with a good first pass) while being responsible defensively (limiting turnovers) and demonstrates leadership to support the growth of others.

Pretty stupid comments by him no matter his intentions. There are much better ways to motivate a player than by completely dismissing him after one half of one pro season.

Today I learned that apparently you have to score points to be considered a top defenseman in the league despite your position name having "defense" right in the title. I would take zero point #1 shutdown defender in the league anyday over a chuck it at the net goon. Let the offense do the work and put your d guys who have good shots on the PP.

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Finally, I don't think Devellano's comments are that big a deal and Mantha respond to them in a good manner. I think it would have been better to keep it behind closed doors, but he was just saying what we and Mantha already knew. I just really thought your response was over the top, Kip. Maybe it was to counteracted everyone who's very against the comments?

I'm just saying if not liking a player for his on-ice antics is the sole reason for not wanting him, we've had players who have done plenty of dirty s*** in the past on the team.

MmmmmmmmmmmmCinnabun.

For me it's not that it might have hurt Mantha's feelings. When the coach does it, it's one thing. It's usually a calculated move. This just seems so random. Especially because he makes it sound like the Wings have already given up on the kid. I don't really follow the prospects that closely but has Mantha been benched, or even criticized publicly by anyone before this? For the Senior VP of the NHL club to call out a minor league player is pretty much going nuclear. And isn't something I can ever remember the Wings doing ever before. It's just odd, which makes me think it was Devellano running his mouth more than a plan to light a fire under the kid.

It isn't the organization -- it is one man with a history of making unfiltered comments. When has this ever been done previously? I can't recall anyone being put on blast publicly like Mantha.

25 games is 25 games, no matter how many seasons it's spread over. It's a small sample. The numbers I gave are his regular season numbers from the same 3 years. That puts him 11th (or 10th if you count Burns as a forward) in defense scoring in that span. He also plays in all situations and against the top opposition. That he hasn't had many playoff points in that time doesn't diminish that. In the last 2 years he has 1g, 4p in 11 games. Not all that good but not really that bad either. Your stats are skewed by the one year he only managed 2p in 14g. You could argue that we need a Norris caliber #1 on the basis that almost all the Cup winners in the last 25 years or so have had one. You can say that Kronwall is not Norris caliber. You can say Kronwall needs to produce more in the playoffs. You might even argue that he's a below average #1. But to say he's not a #1 at all is just silly.

What's iirc? As much of a piecepf s*** people might think lucic is ... Having him in detroit would be huge

Of you don't think Kronwall is a #1, you have a very narrow definition of a #1 and think there are only 10-12 in the NHL. 210 defensemen in the league on active rosters at any given time, there aren't 20 guys better than him, putting him in the top 10%.

BOOM *Glendening flies away from your triflin' ass on the wings of a bald eagle wearing nothing but American flag underpants*

62 of 82 is between 75 and 76%. He played 3/4ths of the season while trying to come back from a broken leg and adjust to pro level hockey. His stats (62gp,13g,18a,33pts) are actually really similar to Tatar's (58gp,16g,16a, 32pts) first year in GR. I'm not overly worried yet.

For me it is really simple I know what I like and I also happen to know what I dislike/hate and one of these things is change for the sake of changes. For decades ! hockey has been seen as a niche sport for a niche audience and there is nothing wrong with that, so why not play to the strength of an already established audience of fans ?! I don't care if some people are turned off by physicality, fights or tight defensive systems because if they are guess what ? Watch something else that's the beauty of choice. When players are reaching the point where they don't even know what is and what isn't a penalty and what leads to a suspension and what doesn't then the league does much bigger problems than putting out some pro-made videos trying to find reasons for suspensions. I don't care if it's understandable for me but the point is it should be understandable for the players, coaches and GMs because they are the product so to speak. I've said it before and I'll sayit again there are so many advantages of being and niche sport and having that audience basically locked up (I mean 3 lockouts and some fans went right back to paying for NHL stuff again), so why not do the things the existing things want and expect ? If things I happen to like are changing for the worse damn right I'll call the responsible people out for that especially if they don't have any skill nor respect for that great game of icehockey.

The funniest part was Stamkos tossing Prusts's elbow pad to a fan in the stands. http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2015/5/3/8541285/watch-steven-stamkos-toss-brandon-prusts-elbow-pad-into-the-stands There's a gif of it out there on the internets but I can't get it to work here. Hopefully someone smarter than me will (there should be plenty of qualified candidates).