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and he is starting tonight. Also, holy hell the state of the name of the Pens arena. Little Caesar's Arena is a blessing in comparison. PPG Paints Arena. Rolls right off the tongue sure.

I think the real issue is how passive the team is defensively. Everyone just crowds the slot and tries to block shots and passing lanes. Opponents have free ice around the outside and just rip shots and passes into the slot at will. With all the bodies in front it's way more likely to have pucks deflected into the net.

$2000 says he'll never be the future Hasek. At best future Jonathan Quick or Carey Price--ish.

You make me laugh (not really).

I like this kid. 6-2/210 LHed shooting RW. Has scored 15 goals in 23 games for the Storm so far this year. Has one more year of Junior left after this year. Might be the replacement for Abby in a couple of years. Maybe an upgrade offensively.

There is no conflict. There is only Coreau.

Coreau has been unreal in Grand Rapids. I'm assuming we'll see him in his first NHL game tomorrow night. I expect good things from this kid...

He will be either #1 or #2 in the 2018 draft. There is little doubt about this. He is a much better offensive prospect than Patrick is. Patrick is a much better all around player-read 2 way 200ft player. Andrei is on pace for 40 goals this year. Not bad for his first year in Juniors.

For those that are hoping Blash/Holland get fired; long list of injuries for the Red Wings only gives management and coaching reason why we may not end up having a successful season.

Who's to say he won't end up beating Mrazek out anyway? It's not like the kid has a been lights out consistently.

When I think of Power Forward, the first two names that come to my head are Keith Tkachuk and Cam Neely for whatever reason. I think Todd Bertuzzi when he played with Naslund and Morrison was a Power Forward. I havent thought of that line in a long time, that was a damn good line. I would agree that Abby is one in today's NHL.

Abby is a PF in today's NHL, yes.

You're not wrong. But there's absolutely zero to suggest Howard wants a change of scenery. He signed a long deal with an NTC here. That's indicative of a player not interested in moving. Can that situation change? Sure. The point I'm trying to make is that I would certainly not count on or expect Howard to waive that NTC, or list realistic trade partners.

I wouldn't say either is the clear number 1 right now. They're both fighting for that spot still. You don't know that that is Howard's priority. He originally negotiated an NTC into his contract because he DID NOT want to be traded. Can that situation change? Sure. But you don't know that it has. He has played his entire professional career in Michigan. He has a wife and young kids. There's good reasons why he worked that NTC into his contract. I think fans lose sight of players being real people with families and lives outside of hockey. I've moved around the states quit a bit because of work. It's fun when you're young, but once you get older and have kids that's often far from the case. Simply put, you leave dollars on the table to get an NTC so you know you won't have to go through a trade to a new team and new city. Howard is playing well this season, and there's nothing to suggest he wants out of Detroit. The power is in his hands.

There are good players on bad teams all the time. Vanek and Tatar are not going to will us into the playoffs. Vanek went to NYI for Moulson + Conditional 1st + 2nd. Then to MTL for a prospect selected in the 2nd round + 2nd. I don't think it's unreasonable to think we can move him for a low 2nd at this point of his career. Florida gave up a 2nd and a 4th for Hudler last year. Tatar will certainly garner more.

Nice :/

miller but if i had a choice I'd call up Callahan

But......but his wife only wants to be in California where there's plam trees, beaches and good tacos.

What an extremely boring team to watch.

Bring back Brad Stuart.

I got your Yzerman cup pic right here

At least we're fighting a lot. As for Larkin, his sophomore slump started after the ASG last season. We don't need to mimic the Leafs. They're one of the most hapless franchises in sports.

..... "for nothing"... aka Brendan Shanahan. Just because you say that Bowman didn't want Coffey (maybe he didn't, but I doubt he thought he was worthless like you claim...) doesn't mean he had "zero value". In a trade scenario, it's the other teams in the league that dictate how much a player is worth. No matter how many times you say it, Coffey absolutely did have value as a point producing defenseman. Otherwise he wouldn't have played another 5 years until he was 40, playing in 255 games, putting up 121 points... Imagine how valuable Kronwall would be if he played another 5 years putting up those kinds of numbers...

It may take 5 years if you get your picks perfect, but when you get a couple wrong it takes ALOT longer, and that's if you ever get it right. Chicago made the playoffs 1 time in 11 years between 1997 and 2008 LA didnt make the playoffs for 7 years.between 2002 and 2009 Pittsburgh didn't make the playoffs for 5 years, their re-build was actually done fairly quickly but lets not forget they got lucky with Crosby as that was the year where it had nothing to do with standings. but rather a random lottery where every team had a 1/30 chance to land him. Lets not forget, these are the best 3 examples. Lets look at some other team that have done this and not had the same success with the "top 5 picks guarantee everything to change" philosophy: Columbus Blue Jackets - Came into the league in 2001, missed the playoffs 13 times, made the playoffs twice and did nothing. All those high picks did nothing for them. But hey, they got Nash. Atlanta/Winnipeg - Came into the league in 2000, missed the playoffs 14 times, made the playoffs twice and did nothing. All those high picks did nothing for them. But hey, they got Heatley/Kovie/Kari Lehtonen Carolina Hurricanes - Since their Cup, they have made the playoffs 1 time, missed the playoffs 9 times. Still waiting on their franchise player that is going to lead them to a cup. I wont even go into the Oilers pre McDavid, its just too easy. I could do more teams, but what's the point. I hope you see what I am getting at. Sure drafting high gives you a higher probability of finding a franchise player, nobody would deny that. But you are making it sound like re-building is some easy task that will always workout buy constantly bringing up the 3 outliers. Re-building usually fails and leaves a large percentage of the teams out of the race for years, some times up to or over a decade. Do you really want this? Do you want the Wings to become the Lions? I would prefer the Wings trade away/dump some vets (E, Howard, Ott, Miller) play a combo of kids/vets but put more of the focus on the kids. I don't want to see every decent player older then 25 gone and traded for picks. It's not like players like Tatar/Nyquist are going to get you top 5 picks anyways.