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I'm embarrassed to admit that when I saw all the draft day photos of the kids going around I had a brief moment of "WTF why are they all wearing Vladdy's number smh."

Number 2 is a big assumption by you and many others, people are trying to create the definitive narrative that Detroit passed over Chychrun in order to make this trade, there is no guarantee that Detroit ever wanted him and if they picked at 16 they very well could have picked someone else just like the 15 teams before them. If you are Detroit, and you are not planning on drafting Chychrun due to his injury history, what better move to make then to trade the pick to a team that does want him, add a second, and get rid of Datsyuk's contract. Now, is that what happened? Who knows, only a hand fill of people could answer that question. But my point is you cant say that trade cost us Chychrun as we have no clue who they would have drafted at 16 had they picked.

Did it ever occur to you that there is a reason about 10 other teams after the initial top picks passed on him as well?

The contract has to be signed AFTER he turns 35. So a 34 year old can sign a 5 year deal and retire early without cap implications

Do not trade Larkin

Just when my opinion of Kenny was at its lowest, he goes and does something like this. AND TOTALLY REDEEMS HIMSELF! (maybe not TOTALLY)

I bet all the Holland haters will still figure out a way to give Bowman the credit for this

Did it ever occur to people that some guy on a message board read 2 paragraphs of a scouting report and decided that this kid is the next Scott Stevens and therefore Holland screwed up yet again and now this franchise is doomed forevarz?!?!

Here are our 7 picks with very short descriptions and a quick read. They all look pretty solid to me. Even the small defenseman we picked up that Lefty was unimpressed is described as "Despite his lack of size, isn’t afraid to play physically." http://www.detroitnews.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2016/06/25/meet-all-red-wings-draft-picks/86384258/ The only thing that seems questionable is the goalie we picked up lol. Why a goalie?

I'm a big fan of our picks going the college hockey route. One thing that's true of college athletes across the board is the amount of time they have to dedicate to fitness. They have required gym times that are typically overseen by accomplished trainers and nutritionists. For a guy that's undersized, I think it's the best bet. Not that Canadian junior teams don't emphasize fitness, but I think all things being equal a player comes out of college hockey more physically mature than they do out of Canadian Juniors. Also, anybody else impressed with Tyler Wright's drafting? He's put together some very solid draft classes the last 3 years and you really don't hear too much about him otherwise. He's sort of below the radar within the organization, but I like what he's doing.

If I'm Backes, my thought would be that I need a long term deal to be locked in with a NTC so I'm guaranteed pay until I'm 38. If he signs a 2-3 year deal and his contract is up at say age 35, now he's worth nothing more than maybe $1 million dollars. But with a long term contract he'd be getting paid $4 million + till he's 38, regardless of how much he's declined. I say Backes should be a Plan D. Stamkos, Okposo, Eriksson, Ladd should be considered first. And even if we bring him here, I think I'd rather him play Winger. I think the only real Center to go after his Stamkos. If that doesn't work, have Larkin, Sheahan, AA, Z, Glendog as your center rotations and try to land some wingers in the market.

I *love* Backes, and it's no secret that I've wanted him on the Wings for awhile. That being said, I wouldn't sign him for more than a 3 year deal to start.

Or maybe Holland thought that the guy we got is pretty close to Chychrun and that the draft was pretty deep upfront. At least Holland already told Chayka ahead of the draft that he'd be willing to trade his pick. I also agree that it's not sure we would have picked Chychrun but it would have been the obvious choice. And, that's for sure, the deal only happened because Chychrun was still available at 16. Chychrun was the guy the Yotes wanted. If he's not available at 16 there's no Datsyuk-deal. We got a little lucky there.

Does Backes still seem practical? He's going to want a long term and he's already 32 and his production was worse than Zetterberg's. It got to a point where St. Louis was using him on the third line. 2 year deal would be ideal but I think he's going to want a long term deal.

I agree. If Detroit believed this guy was a franchise defenseman, they would never trade the pick away just to get rid of Datsyuk's contract. They had other offers on the table and other avenues they could have explored. My belief is they weren't high on Chychrun and used his hype to their advantage. Time will tell how good he is but I don't think he was as high on our draft board as other teams.

Radulov back to KHL, he was looking for long term $7.5M min per season... What a punk. Now, Radulov is a TRUE piece of s***

Compared to the Suter situation at least there's this interview process now. By the time Suter said we were out of the picture, all the other UFAs were gone and we missed out some other good guys. Hopefully with the interview, he'll say his decision and, if we're not the choice, then we can chase Ladd, Eriksson, Okoposo, etc. Picking up wingers would be good too, but I think that would pretty much force us to rely on Z and Larkin as the top 2 centers. Larkin hasn't excelled there yet and we don't know how long it would take for him to transition to the spot. Alternately, it seems to wear Z down too much. It would be better to only need 1 of them as centers and have the other as relief. Otherwise, we could have AA or Sheahan as a 2nd line center and I don't think that's ideal. Stamkos is pretty much the only center on the market (Staal, Backes, but both are probably in decline)

Could be a sign and trade, could be trading his rights, could be a deal. Could be nothing. It's Saturday night, he's 26, he could be clubbing in Club Prana in Ybor city, Tampa with the ladies. (Great club btw I snuck in there back when I was 17. Highly recommend 10/10.)

Maybe a team takes a big risk and trades for his rights to try and negotiate before July 1st?

He is the best player theyve ever had

I actually think it would be hilarious

I'd imagine they start by trading Lupul and Bernier. But even then they'd have to shed more salary to re-sign their own RFAs. Weird seeing a rebuilding team so close to the cap. On the flip side, it has been 100% media and fan speculation that Toronto will go for Stamkos. Babs himself has said the time is not right to go shopping in free agency.

*put down pipe

It's not like Larkin made the team his first year after being drafted either. He was drafted two years ago and spent a full season developing in college before making the team out of camp last year... I would have loved Chychrun at 16, but that was a great trade for us. I would have also loved Jones at 20, but none of these kids available at 20 would have been making the Wings this season, likely not next season, and maybe if we were lucky, they'd make it in the 2018-19 season... There's obviously something about Cholowski that our scouts seen that not many other did. Hopefully they're right and he develops into a solid 2nd pairing defenseman for the Wings in a few years...

Best deal Holland has made in 10 years. Easily