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So last year during all the commotion of evaluating the team's picks during the 2016 NHL draft, I thought it would be fun to go back five years and see how those players panned out, and more specifically what LGW was saying at the time of those picks. It was a fun and relatively informative thread, and I thought it would be just as fun and informative to do it again this year. One thing worth mentioning is that five years ago, LGW did not have nearly as loud of a voice in prospects as we do now. So there isn't as much "Holland should have picked X instead of Y" like we have today, but its still fun to look back at our opinions. So without further ado, here is a look back to the 2012 NHL entry draft. Note: the '2012 NHL Entry Draft Discussion' was a general thread, whereas separate threads were made for the discussion of each of our selections. Those are also below. Round 1: Wings traded 1st round pick (19th overall) to Tampa Bay for Kyle Quincey. With that pick the Lightning selected goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Round 2: Wings selected Martin Frk (49th overall). Discussion is here: LGW was overall pleased with this pick. Frk was originally slated as a 1st rounder but dropped to us at 49th. Some were considering it a steal. Round 3: Wings selected Jake Paterson (80th overall). Discussion is here: Not much overall talk on him from LGW. A couple voices were happy with the pick. Round 4: Wings selected Andreas Athanasiou (110th overall). Discussion is here: No complaints on this pick, even back then (at least in this thread. There was a grumble or two over this pick in the 2012 entry draft discussion thread). People loved the speed. Comparisons were made to being a second Jurco or Tvrdon (in a positive way lol). Round 5: Wings selected Mike McKee (140th overall). Discussion is here (and 300 other places on these forums. This is prob the most popular draft pick to never play an NHL game): I would say hindsight is 20/20 on this one but I know there are still people here that are creaming themselves over this guy so whatever. Poor Buppy was the lone voice trying to temper expectations. Round 6: Wings selected James DeHaas (170th overall). I was unable to find a specific thread on this pick. Round 7: Wings selected Rasmus Bodin (200th overall) Discussion is here: Not much here to write home about. 2012 Entry Draft Discussion Thread: A lot of this thread is overshadowed by the Suter and Parise sweepstakes. A cute little gem: "i like the frk and mckee picks as well as the potential of bodin ....good draft day considering we dealt our 19th pick id say ... not sold on athanasiou being a player but overall pleased" and nice foresight from ogreslayer: "To me, the most intriguing pick is Athanasiou given what's been said of the kid's speed & skill. Discipline & hard work can be taught, natural speed & skill can't. If there's a player the Wings drafted this year that will be known as the steal of his draft class, I think he could be it." this draft was rated by one of our resident posters as one of the best drafts in a long time: "I have been doing some reading and research on the Wings picks...I can honestly say this is one of the Wings best drafts in a long time. I can also honestly see all 6 of these kids being in the Detroit when their time comes. The only one who may have an issue is the goalie, Paterson, only because Howad is still young and Mrazek is doing so good too! Now, he may not be a Red Wing, but he could make it somewhere else, but the other five? I can see them filling certain and different roles on this team within the next 3-7 years. I think McKee and Bodin are going to be HUGE (no pun intended) surprises to the NHL world and once again, Holland will deemed a genius! De Haas may have a bit of a challenge too considering Detroit's interest in Suter and Schultz. If Holland lands those two or even one of them, the Wings have a great young core of defenders who will be here for a long time. Kronwall, Ericsson, Suter, Smith, Schultz, if he signs Dekeyser, and also there are two kids in the top 10 prospects Sproul and Ouellet. If Holland gets Suter/Schultz then eventually Dekeyser I can see Sproul and Ouellet even having a hard time cracking this lineup anytime soon, but again De Haas looks like a great young defenseman and should make some waves in GR and eventually, if not for the Wings, somewhere in the NHL too... Good on ya, Holland!" As of right now, the only player from that draft to reach the NHL ice is Athanasiou. So 1 for 5 from 2012. 20% success rate for rounds 2-7, which is essentially the league average for that span, as I show below. For the record, here is a list of the entire 2012 entry level draft: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/draft/nhl2012e.html The first 20 picks in the first round essentially all made it to the NHL. Griffin Reinhart (4th overall, Islanders), Derrek Pouliot (8th overall, Penguins), and Slater Koekkoek (10th overall, Tampa Bay) are the only three in the top twenty to play less than 82 games of NHL hockey. After pick 20 it gets more dicey, only 4 of 10 playing more than 82 games, and two of those four barely make that cut. Four players played less than 20 games in the NHL in that back 10. The second round only produced 8 hockey players to play more than 20 games in the NHL. Frk is not one of them. Ten players from the third round have played more than 20 games in the NHL. Notables from this list include Shayne Gostisbehere (78th Philadephia), Colton Parayko (86th St Louis), and Frederik Andersson (87th Anaheim). Six players from the fourth round have played more than 20 NHL games, including Athanasiou. Five players from the fifth round have played more than 20 NHL games. Mike Mckee is not one of those five. Nine players from the sixth round have played more than 20 NHL games. Nobody from the seventh round has played more than five NHL games. Overall there isn't a lot of star power outside of the first round in this one, and after pick 20 the odds of finding an NHL player diminish considerably. Round 2 had a success rate of 26% of producing an NHL player. Round 3 is 33%. Round 4 is 20%. Round 5 is 16%. Round 6 is 30%. Round 7 is 0%. So final thoughts on this one: Holland's 20% success rate about mirrors the league rate for round 2-7. Not having a first round pick hurt this year, considering the success rate in the top 20 picks, and the paucity of success thereafter. Athanasiou was one of the better players to come outside the first round, though, so the Wings organization at least has that going for them.

I hope that each one of you some day meets a girl or guy that looks at you like Blash looks at Rasmussen

The ONLY issue I have with Ken Holland are the Helm, Glendening, Dekeyser contracts and the length of the Abdelkader contract. I don't even fault him for the Ericsson contract as at the time it was a good one - then Ericsson started sucking and became exposed when Kronwall started to slow down, so it turned into a hindsight thing. The picks in the last 4 years have actually been good. Larkin, Mantha, Svech, Rasmussen gonna be good too, ya'll just wait.

What does excepting mean Helene?

random notes on that January 1st rule.. originally thought to be that teams couldn't reaquire a player lost in the expansion draft, it appears that's not the case.

If I was Holland I would be trying to unload players. Here is specifically what I would be doing: I would try to trade E for the roster spot. DO NOT buy him out, we dont need the 6 year cap hit. Trade him and retain 80% I dont care. I would ask Nielsen if he would waive his NMC if the trade was back to the NYI, then I would contact NYI and ask if there was any interest. If you get yes and yes, trade him for whatever. Contact Toronto and see if there is any interest in Glendenning, I think Babs would love him as a 4th line C. Then we can role down the middle with Z, Larkin, Helm, and Sheahan. We have no need for Nielsen or Glendening at this point. Lastly I would try to trade Tatar and picks/prospects for a top 4 D-man. If that includes AA or Svech, so be it.

Toronto area writer doesn't like the wings stuff? Shocking

No he won't and no he shouldn't. Resign RFA's Tatar, Athansiou and Ouellet, let all UFA's walk and stay away from free agency. Any upgrades to this team should come from within or through trade.

I wonder how quickly this kid will get to the NHL (assuming he does). The idea of him and Mantha protecting the puck on the same team, potentially the same line is exciting to think about

Covfoofoo

What a bunch of Tomfoo-ery!

Spencer Foo colluded with Russia, source says.

Well the Red Wings did sign him right before graduation. Obviously they have some hope for him. He should be on the squad by 2027 at the latest. I think college hockey was the wrong choice, and a huge setback for him. Although i admire his decision to look outside of sports and get a degree under his belt. Cant say Id do the same as a 5th round draft choice of an original 6 team. He would have excelled in the role of a tough guy in the CHL, or another league that condones fighting, I believe. Look at Mcilrath. He was able to raise his stock to become a top 10 pick playing the same style. Biggest difference between the two is Mcilrath is a horrid skater, where as Mckee can get the wheels on the bus moving. I think the other issue was his move to defense. Not sure why Murray moved Mckee there. My best guess is his 2013/14 forward core was complete and Mckee, not being a player who was going to contribute to a scoring line (and you can run 4 scoring lines in college), was transitioned to a shutdown defender. Regardless of why, i think at the time this was a clever move by Murray, that just didnt work out how he hoped. And it ultimately impacted Mckees career negatively. Mckee, as far as I know, is not known for his lateral or backwards movement. His known for his ability to accelerate quickly going forwards. AKA he has the tools to become an enforcer/checking line forward, like you said youd hope hed become. Lets see how he does at higher levels. Glad he graduated and is now moving up. Does anyone know if he played D for Toledo this year? Hoping they moved him to wing.

http://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2017/03/chris_dienes_and_mike_mckee_si.html welp according to this he signed a contract with the Wings back in March of this year, and McKee will be moving on to the ECHL to play for the Toledo Walleye

Bashing Holland. I can handle that. But you leave Long John Silvers out of this.

Obviously it's in spite of Holland. I bet it will be Draper or Wright that talked him into coming here, Holland probably wanted to take him to Long John Silver's for dinner when they met. Moron.

Holland took over a team that was a Stanley Cup Champion so you literally couldn't take a team over at a higher high then that. It's really not fair to ask if the team in 1997 is better of worse then the team in 2017. Either way, IMO to answer you question is this: He took the team over at a high ('97), kept it there for a year, saw a slight regression, brought it higher with putting together one of the best teams in NHL history ('02), saw a regression, then again brought them back up to being champions in 2008, and since then yes has seen a decline. I think there is no question which list is has more on it, its "pro". Now if we are grading based on the criteria of "what have you done for me lately" then no doubt "cons" would take the cake. The question for me, is can he bring this team back. Unfortunately some fans (not saying you) have a tendency of nitpicking and tearing apart every decision he now makes because of where the team is which in all fairness is natural in the cynical nature of sports. Holland's strong suit is his ability of creating a great culture for his team, and his ability to retain players. When the team was good, he rarely lost a player that he wanted. Holland's biggest fault is his cap management, the guy just doesn't seem to get that you can't pay every player like it's 2006. Contracts today will bite you in the ass tomorrow. I don't think any one single contract was awful (at the time of signing other then the term given to Abby), but collectively he has put the team in a bad position. Is Holland good enough to succeed? Honestly, I dont know. If he learns how to manage the cap, I think yes. If he doesnt, I think no.

I have seen Lindström play live. He will play top 4 in Red Wings in time, no doubt in my mind. Excellent puck control, forwards and backwards. But he needs work, there is no way he can handle the speed of the NHL yet. I will be following him in Allsvenskan (2nd highest Swedish league) where he will get top minutes this coming season. I'll write something up if it's noteworthy.

Can we talk about someone besides Rasmussen? Kids Im most excited about: Lindstrom: Hakan pick, gotta love those. Sure he was taken a bit early, but so was Bertuzzi, and look where he is now. Hakan says today "were gonna work on getting the N out of that name" lulz Kostkansalo: big reliable defender. Excellent defensive positioning and gap control. I see him as a steady partner for a high flyer like Saarijarvi or Hronek. Zablocki: disruptive bertuzzi type. Loves to mouth off at opponents and agitate. Petruzzelli: massive goaltender. Very highly regarded. Many saying he should have went higher. Think we might have a steal here. Setkov: hakan pick. Mostly unknown on draft day a lot like Datsyuk was, which screams steal in my book. Big and still growing. Excellent outlet passer. Webb: played very few games so theres a cloud of mystery there. Guessing the wings saw something in him that piqued their interest. The mystery adds a bit of excitement in my mind. Gilmour: played for Saginaw so we most likely have a big inside track on the kid. Like with Webb, that mysery adds some excitement to me. Rest of the boys look big and rugged. If anyone has some interesting background on one please share.

Takes a big man to keep calling 17 and 18 year olds derogatory names.

Always has. His best player is still Zetterberg, who's rookie season was nearly 15 years ago. He hasn't picked up or drafted ANYONE good enough to move him off the top line yet. I know Z is still damn good, but it is kind of a concern when he's entering his twilight career years and still can't step into a bit easier role because no other player on the roster can handle taking his current role. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just because he doesn't get "wins" or his plays don't lead to "goals" or his d doesn't "stop pucks from going to the net" and his goalies don't "make saves" doesn't mean he is a bad coach.

Can we all agree to blow our lids when we miss Foo like how we blew up when we missed Suter? Might feel more normal around here.