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Every off season takes years off Frank and Lefty's lives lol You guys need to relax and quit talking extremes with absolutely everything. Winnipeg knows Detroit is desperate? Well Holland also knows Winnipeg has an asset that won't sign. It works both ways. If Trouba is going to get traded for, there will be a sizable contract going the other way. The salary cap does exist and we are at the limit. This whole idea of Trouba for Mantha, XO and picks makes ZERO sense. You don't have to be an "excel nerd" to figure that one out. And no you can't just throw Helm in...

I don't disagree that Fowler can be considered a top-pair D (low-end at least), but the argument is that he does play on a good team. Very deep defense that rolls 3 solid pairs pretty evenly. In Detroit, where he might bear the brunt of the toughest defensive assignments, he might be exposed. His advanced stats are near the bottom for the Ducks. And even though he's young, after 6 full years it's hard to imagine he'll get any better. And you keep responding to comments about AA as if it's a straight "AA for Fowler/Trouba" proposal. I'd think even the biggest AA fans would do that, if they were convinced it was the only option. But people don't want to add AA to a package that already includes Nyquist/Tatar. And they shouldn't. A prime-aged, proven top-6 winger plus a top prospect is a star-level package. Fowler and Trouba are not stars. Nyquist and Tatar are as close to star-status as Fowler and Trouba. There's no reason we should, or should have to, include any of our top-prospects. I'll say again, if Murray thinks so little of Nyquist/Tatar that we'd have to add AA (or Mantha/Svech) rather than a second-tier prospect/pick, then he probably wouldn't be interested in the trade at all. They aren't rebuilding. Quantity is not going to trump quality. And unless Winnipeg is planning a flurry of trades this year, they aren't going to want two more young forwards to try to somehow protect, much less weaken an already weak defense to do it.

It would be Ericsson for me, not even close...

Jimmy Howard To Miss Start Of Season Due To Severe Burn

I remember a few articles praising Howard's masks as some of the best in the league, I guess Mrazek took that away from him as well

Howard will be hard pressed to have a mask as sweet as the one Petr had made. I have a hunch the customization job will be decidedly average.

It's always somewhere in middle Frank. You are making it sound like Trouba is an elite d-man right now, he is not going to get Winnipeg a guy like Larkin (not to mention "Larkin as a starting point". You have a history of overestimating a players value, this is just you doing it again. With that being said, he is going to get a lot more then second/third liners and d-men. Until he is signed, this is going to be interesting. This will never change lol, every year its the same doom and gloom approach, every year its the same "all of our players are crap, we will be lucky to not be in the bottom 5 in the league" mentality, and every year this is just wrong. This team definitely has a ways to go as we need to make the jump from fringe playoff team o contender as the re-build has failed to bring us a star d-man in the making (though DD is a great second pairing guy). At this point I do think that we need to trade one of our many forwards for a guy like Trouba.

You got to love it how what we need to give up for Trouba goes from Smith/Pulkkinen/Sheahan/XO to Larkin plus. Can we please stop going to extremes lol and just be a little bit more realistic with our discussion.

Except that after Pittsburgh wins the cup your argument about defense winning championships becomes less valid. It Kay be true some of the time. But not always.

I think it's pretty well established that we are not all in perfect agreement in our assessments of the players we're talking about. Yes, I think AA will be more valuable than Fowler or Trouba. Obviously you disagree. No need to wander in circles. Regardless, I think it's moot, as I explained in the previous post.

A second line forward is more valuable than a top pairing D? Fowler and Trouba are both young enough to be helping Detroit for several years.

Lol yeah that's true, Howard did have some good masks. I like what you did there though

I highly doubt that.

Damn Straight! Speak of which, I wonder what Howie is doing with his mask for the season? Oh that's right. Nobody cares.

I'm rooting for the young guns.