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So like Franzen?

I may be in the minority, but I don't see Mantha as (or want him to be) a "net front" guy. I think that would ruin him. He's got the skill, shot, and speed to be a power sniper type guy in the vein of Rick Nash, James Neal, or Blake Wheeler. Let guys like Abby bang and crash in front of the net. That takes almost no skill. I want Mantha to have more freedom than that. Similarly, I think that's one of the problems with Jurco. He's big, so everybody wants him to play a power game. But that's not his forte. He's more comparable to Nyquist or Tatar than he is to Abby. But they keep trying to make him be that guy and it's awkward for him because he's never played that way. Reminds me a little of how they used to want Filppula to "shoot more" so they put him on the wing. It was always going to be a bad fit for him. Imagine if someone had repeatedly beat into Marian Hossa, or Nash, or any number of other guys, that they needed to play "heavy" and crash the net, and look for shot tips and rebounds. They'd have been wasted.

I'd be thrilled if Mantha turned out exactly like Franzen. Though I hope he'd learn to keep his head out of the way of traffic a little better than Johan.

LOL. Oh boy. Okay. Kid doesn't even have 5 goals in the NHL yet and it's already an insult to compare him to Franzen.

A guy who scores 25+ goals and 55 points a year is a bad thing?

But he was the top rated prospect on redwingscentral.com that means he'd be at least as good as guys like Corey Emmerton, Jakub Kindl, and Brendan Smith

Detroit has a ton of offensive wingers and no good D coming in. A smart GM trades a surplus for something he lacks. Trading Nyquist and another piece or two to upgrade the D is a net gain. There's some mythical idea that bug guys have to stand in front of the net like Homer did. It's Bullshtuff, they should be told to play roles that their talents allow them to excel at. Babs and Blash love pounding square pegs into round holes though. Make a grinder a scorer and a 's over a grinder, and God forbid the let an offensive defenseman play offense and give him PP time, oh no smart coaches make them kill penalties and not carry the puck past the red line.

But upgrading a defenseman doesn't necessarily only upgrade the defense. Shattenkirk scored more points, and only a few less goals, than Nyquist last year. Add to that having options like AA, Mantha, Jurco, and Pulkkinen all likely to be underused or not on the roster at all... Of course, when bringing in new players, there's always questions as to how well everything will come together and how well any individual will perform, but I don't think it'd be any more of a question than what we already have. It'd be one thing if our offense had been good last year, but it wasn't. It's already something we need to try to fix.

most definitely. If you're paying for a full service, it shouldn't matter where you are. They should give a discount for every blackout game, or every time we have to withstand Doc Emrick, and co.