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I'm all for making the playoffs. Sucking sucks. The cap ecosystem punishes success. The lottery system doesn't necessarily punish failure, but it's basically a total crapshoot in how it rewards failure. And drafting has always been a crapshoot. So it's at least two levels of crapshoot. I hate that I'm being conditioned to defend the learned helplessness that Yzerman seems to have embraced. I mean, I get why he's embraced it. It's not surprising to me nor is it illogical to me, given the realities of today's NHL. I don't hate the player, I hate the game. I hate that the Smart Take is that the Wings need to suck. I hate that Detroit media was all "It's good that Athanasiou is getting a long look at center cuz that's his natural position" and now those same people are all "It's good that Athanasiou is moving back to the wing cuz that's his natural position." Make the playoffs. Go on a run. Give the Parity Gods and Internet Intelligentsia the double middle finger salute. Make Larkin the new captain because he hates losing as much as he loves winning and this team needs a pulse. Do stuff.

I think it's telling that Filppula and Nemeth are both signed for two years. I think that's the exact amount of time Yzerman wants this rebuild to last until we start to accelerate. At that time our core will look like: Mantha, Athanasiou, and Bertuzzi: 26 Hirose: 25 Larkin and Svechnikov: 24 Hronek and Cholowski: 23 Rasmussen and Larsson: 22 Veleno, McIsaac, Berggren, and Zadina: 21 Seider: 20 That's 15 players who could be on the roster at that point at 26 or younger. More than a few still may be on ELC's too. In the meantime Filppula can fill the hole that Nielsen was never able to. And in terms of Defense we could be without Ericsson, Daley, and Green next year. Nemeth I see as a decent flex option there.

Sound of a mic dropping on stage...boom

'A' cuz it's Stevie F-ing Yzerman.

I pretty much agree with everything you said CRL. One thing though, I'm pretty sure head coaches usually have a big say in who their assistants will be. For that reason, I think Ferschweiler was likely on his way out anyway, and I'm not so sure Blashill is necessarily on the hot seat. I've been a little disappointed so far in the Yzerman era. I wasn't a fan of any of the free agent signings. Not that any of them are bad, I just don't think any of them were necessary, aside from the goaltender (Pickard) for Grand Rapids. I was a big Filppula fan, so for that reason, I'm happy he's back and has a chance to retire with the organization that drafted him. But outside of that, I don't think he was needed. Of course, I'm also of the opinion that Athanasiou or Helm could play center until Veleno is ready (and that could be sooner than a lot of people think). The Nemeth signing still doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. We already have a log jam on defense. Unless one or two of the vets are known to be out long term, or a trade is coming, I don't like the signing. Again, neither signing hurts us long term, but neither really help us short term or long term either... Aside from the Seider pick, I was pretty disappointed with much of the draft (the 2nd round in particular). I was hoping for a couple really savvy moves to gain assets, like trading for Marleau or Callahan. It's still really early, and hopefully Yzerman plans on stockpiling picks at the deadline. I agree though, C is around where I'm at as well right now.

Fixed

We don't need anymore overpaid depth defensemen anyway

Whenever I'm traveling in Europe and someone tries to show me some dumb castle or something

If I was Dubas I'd strongly consider taking the four 1sts right now. It would save them a significant amount of cap hell in the future, and they will still have a very strong team without Marner. (8) 1st round picks instead of (4) over the next 4 years could potentially set them up as a perennial contender for a longggg time too. I think the fact that Dubas might opt to take the picks should scare a lot of teams away. Not being able to sign Marner because of the Horton and Clarkson LTIR kicking in at the start of the season, could be Dubas almost daring a team to offersheet Marner.

I thin the 2020 rebuild should involve making the playoffs in 19-20. I am tired of watching throw away season's and not even draft as high as we should've. The lottery system stinks. If we could've drafted 4th this year we'd have Byrum. But even if we made the playoffs, and lost inthe 1st round, and drafted around 14-16, the names that went in those spots were Caufield, Krebs, Newhook, so it's not like we would've have crap to choose from. I happen to feel that we have done better in the 15-20 range anyhow, ie. Larkin, Mantha, Cholowski. In the past 3 drafts, if we would've made the playoffs and lost in the 1st, here are some names that were available in that Range: 2017: Foote, Liljegren 2018: Farabee, Ty Smith and 2019 listed above. Not that those guys are any better than what we chose, but my point is, we wouldn't have lost out on anybody really. ( I get that Zadina and Seider remain to be seen what they can do, but you see what I meant by it.) We've made lateral moves this season, I don't see Yzerman buying out Ericsson or Daley, so it looks like we are basically going to be yet another lottery team that wants to be "competitive" and we'll wind up draft 6-10 again, losing out on a franchise type player in the top 4 and drafting a player that may not be worth the spot again. I'm just saying that I want to see us back in the playoffs this year. Whether we lose in the 1st, so what, I'd be perfectly happy drafting at 14-20 as I would 6-13. Here is an early 2020 prospect list top 31: https://prospectpipeline.ca/2019/06/20/2020-nhl-draft-ranking-top-31-off-season/