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Cholo has barely played 20 games with the Cougars and he's already been named their captain. That's promising.

The Pens have a very good defensive BL and 1 great offensive Dman in Letang. The last 2 years they alsoi had Daley helping with the O. Yes DD you agreed with me about the Preds. They had a great D but couldn't score. They had the best Dman in the game in Weber in the prime of his career and missed the PO's more often than making it. Plus Jones Josi etc.... Yet they couldn't score and didnt make it to the PO's. That is my point. Moving our O to get better at D may not make us a better team, which is the goal. As for replacing a Mantha, there is no one in our organization as good as he is. Period. He is a potential 40+ goal scorer that can set himself up offensively and play physical. I love Svechnikov but he isn't in Mantha's league. Mantha tops out at 40 goals 80 points. Svechnikov is more a 25 goal 60 point guy-he is a very good play maker. Yes he is a potential top 6 F but he is not a potential top 2 or 3 F like Mantha is. Fact is Mantha is our best F. Better than Larkin AA or anyone else. He is a potential top 20 player in the league. Like Shanny was.

Only a S(m)ith deals in absolutes.

These are the GM's (along with McPhee and a few others) that Holland should be calling on a daily basis. Can you imagine what Bergevin would give us for Ouellet? Galchenyuk straight up. Maybe not, but I'd take McCarron off their hands... Quebec kid for a Michigan kid. Win-Win.

I dont think players look at it that way, most player are happy for guys when they get their "payday" especially on a team like the Wings. I get your point with the boss thing, but most people think they do more/know more then their boss, because most people have no clue what their boss does behind closed doors. Granted hockey is different as its all out there, but I really dont think players resent other players due to their contracts.

I agree with pretty much all of this, except the bold. While I agree Abby will not be captain, I dont think the GM and coach take caphit into consideration, and they shouldn't.

You're right. Honestly, I didn't watch them - was just going off what Buppy said and knew of Schultz's beast year. At most you could probably just say they replaced Letang with Schultz's year/playoff performance. So, yeah, they definitely lacked the elite Dman. I Think there something to that saying that a laking elite D can be overcome. But if you're looking at Pen's as the example, you would need the best player in the game, a 2C who's really a 1C, A 70 pt winger (Kessel), and throw in a low cost rookie Entry level contract scorer who produce almost a PPG (Guentzal) in the playoffs. But I do think a solid, deep D group could do it with a strong Goalie and great offence. I'm not big on having any formula like Elite 1C+F+1D=success.

Nice piece by Nick Cotsonika: Red Wings want to be great, not just good

MATT DUCHENE UPDATE Matt Duchene has no points in his first five games with the Senators and the team has lost three straight. #Duchadenfreude

Watching the recent game where Larkin was mic'd up, you could see how vocal Larkin already is in directing other players. He's quietly taking over the 1C position so far this year and I think he continues these trends of being central to the team, I think it will be him whenever Z retires. I'd be very surprised if Abby is ever in consideration. I think Role players are usually chosen when a team's skilled players are too new to the team/league: eg, Mackenzie was chosen since Ekblad was in his 1st year there, Trocheck, Barkov in their 2nd year (+huberdeau was looking like a disappointment). Z discounted that report and said he'll play until he's unable to. Even if he stopped with 2 years left, Larkin would be 4 years with the team/league and, I think, experienced/respected enough.

Silver lining on the cloud of not having a real 4th line. But is it a true cease fire, or are we just out of ammo? Can't wait for Frko to get back so we can resume hostilities.

Like a boss.

Sure, I get that it's not always the best player. But between Abby and Larkin, I'd say it's a pretty easy call for the powers that be. We're used to ties going to the veterans and all that, but Larkin is taking over as the straw that stirs the drink and everyone knows it and everyone's loving it. I have trouble envisioning a realistic scenario where Larkin doesn't inherit the C from Z. The future is now!

Nah, I'd take the bet on Larkin being the next captain over Abdelkader. I know the captain doesn't necessarily have to be the best player, and it can go to a role player, as we've seen with Steve Ott captaining the Sabres, or Tim Taylor, the Lightning, or Andrew Ferrence, the Oilers... But are we willing to set our captaincy standard to that level? We're going to go from Steve Yzerman, to Nicklas Lidstrom, to Henrik Zetterberg, to Justin Abdelkader? I'd be very surprised if that were to happen, and to be honest, a little annoyed. Abby is a great alternate captain, I just wouldn't want him wearing the C... Larkin will get the C when Zetterberg retires, Abdelkader will keep his A, and DeKeyser will get the other A when Kronwall retires. If we ever decide to go back to 3 alternates, maybe Mantha, Rasmussen or Cholowski get it...

I really don't see Abby getting the C. By the time Z has retired, Larkin likely will have established himself as this team's most important player and bus driver. I don't think they say, "Well, let Abby have it for a few years and then Abby will give it to you. I know you're our best player and you're our leader and whatnot, but you're not ready. Give it a few more years." Not happening, IMO.

A little nit picky, i know, but I would say more so an elite 1C plus another all star forward.. (ovi and kane come to mind as wingers that are franchise cornerstones). Also, Seguin wasn’t in the top six on Boston because they’re terrible at managing players But I do agree with the overall idea of your post.

I can almost smell the 1st round draft pick...

If E was 22 and was being paid league minimum, nobody would have a problem with him on our third pairing. Given he is 30+, being paid 4mil+, and is on our 1st pairing, he's under a microscope.

he's not great, but he hasn't been that bad either. He's just another overpaid player on ateam full of them

Right. I saw that you got it, but it seemed like not everyone picked up on it. Leafs fans and the Toronto media are so screwy that you'd be forgiven for thinking the piece is just your standard Leafs fan saying standard Leafs fan things. On a related note: Peter Chiarelli, Marc Bergevin, and maybe a couple of other GMs are really heightening my appreciation of Ken Holland.

you know who else likes Fleetwood Mac?

Thought this post game interview with Blash was interesting. He talks about AA, Mantha, Larkin a lot, but specifically the part at 5:13 I thought would be interesting to everybody. Certainly a big criticism around here has been Blash's treatment of these young guys. But it seems that, to the coach, they've turned a corner and will be traeted differently. He says specifically around 5:45 (paraphrase)"The learned a lot of tough lessons last year...at some point...as they learned that, you got to let them go a little bit."

Hronek has 7 points through 12 games.

My mom's dead.