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No. What has turned this franchise into what it is is having sustained long term success in a league designed to prevent it. Implementation of a salary cap without even a luxury tax preventing signing of meaningful free agents, and then overpaying pending ones. Going long periods of time without high end draft picks, and missing on the lower ones that were awarded based on the way the draft is set up (punishing success, rewarding failure). No longer having the best scouting staff and pulling gems out of later rounds. Being incredibly unlucky in drafting defenseman and getting duds (Kindl, Smith), as well as fluke injuries/medical issues regarding defensemen who were actually very good (Vladi, Fischer, Kronwall). This team would not be any better today bringing up any of its past prospects sooner than it did. Blaming this team's current state of affairs on how it has handled its prospects in the past is quite irrelevant IMO. It's like that person you work with who blames all of their problems on whoever the President is. In reality, this has very little to do with their personal issues, but they don't like him, so he's a convenient scapegoat. In summary, this team's issues are multifaceted (as mentioned above). It's handling of prospects has never been one of them that i can recall. But it's easy to blame our downfall on that perception for those that didn't agree with it. It's just human nature I suppose.

No.

Holy wall of LeftWinger posts

I don't think you understand what a "fact" is. Those are opinions...

No he shouldn’t be resigned. He had cervical spine surgery. How is this even a topic of debate. This guy is literally a walking liability. If Holland does resign him, better be for a year to trade at deadline (if Green even makes it to deadline healthy).

Your e-mail can be titled “should it be retired”. It would be a catchy title and they would immediately open it.

If you're going to respond to a week-old post at least have the decency to read the thread so you can offer something new to the discussion. You made me think I'd stumbled on to time travel, and now I'm sad. Jerk. Also, if your intent is to ask if the Wings will retire a number, you should edit the title. As worded it is clearly asking for the opinion of the respondents.

Most of those Hall of Famers were much past their prime. Most of the best players of the 08 team was young. They would have beaten the 02 guys at their age in 2002. The Nashville and Dallas struggles you mentioned are nothing compared to the 02 struggle Avs gave the Wings. The Wings in 2008 were just better than most teams in every way. They literally had puck possession most of the game in every game. 08 team is underrated around here because we get spoiled by names like Hull, Robataille, Yzerman. Guys who were pretty far past their prime in 02. Yep. Sure can.

I hope Bawston seals the deal tonight. The Leaf fans chirping is ridiculous where I live and would absolutely love if they could be done tonight!

That first Moose jersey makes me think of the "Anaheim Mighty Moose". Down right hideous.

Yeah, the Leafs must be intimidated, scared, or something. In their own zone, they look like they have no idea what to do. Like Don Cherry said after Game 4, this is the NHL they're playing in, they should know things like, on a 2 on 1, take away the pass, but instead they go after the guy with the puck, leaving the goalie to fend for himself. It's basic stuff. I would expect a Babcock coached team to know it. Unless Babcock is letting it happen, to get his player's attention. Either way, they need some toughness back there.

Let's not exaggerate things here. What I said is that kids absolutely do have opportunities to make the team. Because they do. "Purely on merit" is fallacious. "Merit" isn't a thing unto itself. A player's past performance (which some could consider as veteran status) is inextricably included in any evaluation of merit. Organizational depth is also a merit worth considering. As can be putting players in suitable roles and/or weighing the difference between playing a big role in the minors versus a minor role in the big league. I didn't mention forwards because if I did someone would have said "we're talking about defense, that doesn't count". But since you bring it up, I have often argued the same thing in regards to all players. "Overripe" is more of a fan meme than a true organizational philosophy. Larkin, despite the ironic attempt to use a kid who made the team in his first camp at 19 as an example of bias against kids, pretty well proves my point. But even if you want to believe that "veteran status" is given undue consideration, that cannot explain these supposed examples of kids "not being given a fair chance" because of the simple fact that we have never had a roster comprised entirely of veterans. Any kid you point to as being passed over in favor of a vet was also passed over in favor of a different kid. You say Holland wouldn't move Jensen or Ouellet, but why? They aren't exactly vets, and even if you did want to define vet liberally enough to include them, I would still question why you'd think we wouldn't move them. We just recently moved Marchenko in favor of Jensen. Kindl, Smith, Quincey also fairly recently moved out. Clearly the team is willing to get rid of players when they want. I'd say people are upset not because there's a bias toward vets, but rather that there isn't a bias against them. They just think those are the same thing.

The fundamental problem here is that the Wings' system is extremely low on players with really substantial trade value. (Another way of saying we don't have enough high-end talent.) This means that in addition to our trade options being incredibly limited, any big trades that we could pull off probably wouldn't do much for us -- and, indeed, could easily hurt us. Trade Larkin for a stud defenseman and now we're in need of a stud centerman, with only one other high-end centerman in the system (Rasmussen) and with no guarantee that the stud defenseman we're getting is going to work out for us the way we're hoping he will. Trade Mantha for a stud defenseman and now we're in need of a stud scoring winger, with essentially zero comparable wingers in the system and, again, with no guarantee that the stud defenseman is going to be a stud for us. Trade Svechnikov and you're not even getting a 1st-round pick in return. Nyquist might get us a 1st at next season's trade deadline. Trade Hronek or Cholowski and you're giving up one of our top two D prospects. This is why I'm so excited about the next couple of drafts. The Wings have learned to scrape by in drought conditions, but now they're finally in for some heavy rain. 21(+) picks across two very deep drafts means a hell of a lot more to the Wings than it would to most other organizations. The 2018 draft alone could totally reshape our talent pool. We could double the number of Rasmussen/Cholowski/Hronek-tier prospects in our system practically overnight.

So I didn’t know where else to put this so right here since these last handful of games mean nothing besides tank train. Apparently the Wings had a “competitive” practice today lol.