Leaderboard

I enjoyed this highlight video way more than those "Goals of 2017-18" ones. More hype and well made. A lot less play before the goal thou. You can describe every goal anyway you want Lefty, I don't disagree with you. The kid is lightning in a bottle. So much fun to watch. Every single time he steps on the ice and I see #72 out there my brain goes "oh s***, Athanasiou's out there" in anticipation. When I tune in this season, Athanasiou is going to be one of the largest reasons why. Where I disagree with you is here: He's not a huge part of this team. Not yet anyway. Huge parts of teams approach 20 minutes a night. Athanasiou plays 15. Less than Helm and Nielsen. Huge parts of teams breach 50 pts. Athanasiou had 33. We can talk about how he had worse linemates and how Blashill's an idiot who doesn't give him enough minutes. But at the end of the day it doesn't change a thing. He's simply not a major integral part of the Red Wings... yet. And I'm not just being generous when I say "yet". I really think this kid has the chops to be a very very good player, and "legit huge part of this team". The kid can score with fashion. Dastyuk had fashion. And speaking of Datsyuk, and I feel like no one ever talks about this, but Athanasiou is totally underrated when it comes to stealing the puck. When he wants it and he works for it, it's his. He's got the same sneaky stick Datsyuk had. And this ties in nicely to my point, I want this kid to be a Datsyuk, or at least come as close as he can. We both know he can score... So now that we know that, my attention is on the rest of his game... I see he knows how to steal the puck, I just don't see the effort to do so on a regular basis. I think as a total package (right now) AA's game has a lot of resemblance to Thomas Vanek. And it sorta makes sense, they're gonna be paid identical salaries this year. AA and Vanek are both very talented offensive players, but outside of that area of their game, they don't bring a whole lot. One-dimensional. I don't want AA to be the next Thomas Vanek, I want AA to be the next Datysuk. And it's the Red Wings job to try to get him there while he's still young and learning. If he wants bigger minutes I would expect to see him improve his compete level at defense, and not just on single anecdotal plays, but every. single. shift... I think he has a lot of potential to make big growth there. I wanna see him winning more board battles. I admittedly wanna see more breakaways because I adore breakaways and I'm selfish, but I really wanna see more points coming from plays in the offensive zone, cycling the puck. I think that's really important, he's nowhere close to Larkin's high level instincts/vision/playmaking-ability yet. I think we can both agree that he shows the potential to be a really great player one day, but I would simply point out, he isn't there yet. When I see his game start to round out and grow, my opinion of him will grow with it.

Yep because Blashill can actually coach. He's just a bit of a project. Much like the entire organization right now.

I'd be shocked if either happened. Blashill will be extended.

These lines are basically what I'm expecting/hoping to see, assuming everyone is healthy at the start of the season. Seems to be some recent stuff out there suggesting Z's back is worse than people thought (he didn't practice the second half of the season - Blash says he doesn't think Z plays if it's that bad again). Not to mention, the cap situation is pretty tricky, even with Franzen heading to LTIR (Custance article on The Athletic). Seems like an "easy" out of the cap mess/roster crunch is Z starting on LTIR. If that happens, I can see Nielsen jumping up to 2C and Helm shifting to 3C between Vanek and AA.

Bertuzzi-Larkin-Mantha Rasmussen-Zetterberg-Nyquist AA-Nielsen-Vanek Abby-Glendening-Helm DD-Green Daley-Ericsson Kronwall-Hronek Jensen Totally fine with Zadina and Svechnikov starting in GR and being injury call ups. Zadina can step in with a full pro year of development and challenge for the Calder next year. Rasmussen and Hronek make the team out of training camp. After the deadline we’ll see a much younger lineup

Agreed, whether I'm happy about it or not I see Blash being extended. I don't have that much faith in Bylsma as a head coach anyway, though I'm glad to have him on board as an assistant.

I just got around to reading the article and noticed that Rasmussen (and Svechnikov) are the odd men out, which is kind of odd considering Custance has been saying for weeks that Ras is all but guaranteed a spot in the lineup. He then goes on to say... "There are a lot of interchangeable parts here at forward. Michael Rasmussen is likely to make the team and break in at left wing, similar to the way the team eased Larkin into the league. Trading Athanasiou, which is very much a possibility, would open more time on the wing for Rasmussen. The odd-man out, among the kids, appears to be Evgeny Svechnikov, who had a down season last year in the AHL but showed glimpses of being able to use his big body effectively at the NHL level. A few things could help Svechnikov get regular playing time: 1) Zadina isn’t NHL ready. 2) Zetterberg retires. 3) Athanasiou is traded. There’s a good chance at least one of those scenarios emerges by the start of the season." So essentially he expects either Zetterberg to end up on LTIR, Zadina to start in Grand Rapids or a trade to be made to make room for Rasmussen. I know it will never happen, but imagine if we could somehow trade Glendening and Helm (or waive Frk or Witkowski), and role those top three lines with Svechnikov - Rasmussen - Abdelkader as our "4th line'... Our defense would still be a train wreck, but at least we'd have a pretty potent offense...

Its funny when people talk about when hockey players are old. They all look like kids...i wish I was that "old" again.

@ChristopherReevesLegs You are necromancing these dead threads with a mighty vengeance. It's beautiful.

What kind of Car? Like MrAZarati?

Canes fans seem pretty hopeful about Darling still despite how incredibly awful he was for them last season. I don't share their enthusiasm. I chalk it up to the same "Mrazek Syndrome" we experienced here in Detroit/LGW. They can't bare to admit he's mediocre to below-average. For that reason, I think you're right, Mrazek will probably get more chances with the Canes than anyone suspects. I think those chances will go about as well as they did here regardless of the defensive unit. I maintain that Mrazek will find himself in Europe sooner rather than later. The Canes will not be his savior. He lost the flame war and he's knows it. No need to kick a downed man.

I want to know if you get what I'm saying. Z gets $73 million regardless. But the organization wanted him to do it over 12 years rather than 10 to reduce his cap hit. It's the organization that cheated the system. Not Z. Z signing it is a favor he did for them.

I choose Coreau. IDK, but I am guessing that one has a username that rhymes with chaps

That never gets old. Paul Joseph Watson is the best!

Karlsson to Athanasiou, HE SCORES! Erik wants to be a Red Wing so badly...

"He did what the team needed him to do in order to succeed" Oh, like faking an allergy to go on IR and avoid recapture penalties?

I've been calling him the new Franzen since the day we drafted him Honestly surprised LGW hasn't turned on him already. After the 2019/20 season is up Holland will re-sign Mantha to a bigger deal and let Athanasiou walk, for good reason, but I will ***** and moan that he shoulda chose AA over that stinkin' floater Mantha till the end of time. It's gonna be great.

If I'm Karlsson I'm f*cking Ottawa as hard as I can on this one. As in: I'm doing everything I can to reduce their trade return. As in: I'll only go as a one year rental, then I'm hitting the wind as a UFA. edit: (then I'm signing with Detroit so I can help Zadina "fill Ottawa's net with pucks")

To play devils advocate, maybe that is the holdup in any trades going down, Karlsson want to become a UFA next July, maybe he doesn't want to get traded already signed. It's quite possible that he has a team or two that he wants to play in and he just doesn't want to signed a deal with any of these teams that are willing to give up the ransom to have him this year. You never know... maybe we'll be looking at DD selling his #65 come July 2019. I mean, do you think he'd take one and stay in Ottawa for his last season in order to get to UFA? Obviously there is no team going to pay a ransom for a one year rental. Maybe he could get dealt at the TDL for a playoff run for a contender.

If we're whispering in his ear, I just hope the message is "No sign-and-trade. Hit the open market next summer. We'll be waiting." If he can make it to next summer, I think we have a decent shot at landing him.

Nobodies talking about it, but Karlsson ALREADY is a Red Wing Ryan Whitney mentioned on the spittin' chicklets podcast that Cleary put on this trip. Does anyone have any doubt that there's secret motive to butter up Karlsson?

Current Red Wings Henrik Zetterberg Gustav Nyquist Niklas Kronwall Jimmy Howard Shawn Horcoff (Director of Player Development) Dan Cleary (Player Development Assistant) Ex Red Wings Valtteri Filppula Todd Bertuzzi Mike Commodore Randoms Ryan Whitney Ryan Malone Nicklas Backstrom Unknown Guy 1 Unknown Guy 2 Unknown Guy 3 Future Red Wings Erik Karlsson Side note: it's clear Zetterberg's career is done... Guy can't even stand up straight, hanging onto Malone for dear life...

You're right. AA never cheats on defense. It's an elaborate ruse concocted by fans, scouts, and the media. Ya got us. Oh don't pretend you're not just a hater, hater

Thomas Vanek is literally Hitler