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Did I miss something? Didn't St Louis just win with a 29 year old Pietrangelo and a 28 year old O'Reilly leading the charge. Not to mention Bozak - 33 Bouwmeester - 35 Perron - 31 Steen - 35 Now they had good players in their prime and some young guys too. Basically, Larkin will be 28 in five years, Matha 29. Zadina, Sieder, Hronek, Rasmussen etc will be in their primes. Pack a few young sub-24 year olds around that. This team has time. No need to rush anything IMO.

I believe we have one bona fide cornerstone player in Larkin and everything else is up in the air, because we've only been rebuilding for a couple of years and we haven't struck gold yet (that we know of). I think Mantha, Bertuzzi, Athanasiou are solid players and I'm hoping we'll soon get to a point where there will be less of a focus on them as other young players start to become NHLers and we get an actual roster. Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Athanasiou, And Maybe Hronek (Question Mark) isn't a roster. We're in a holding pattern for at least one more season. Just the nature of the rebuild beast.

Dude - grab a Snickers...You're getting a bit cranky.

More like 2 months.

I don't think this team has the assets, or will be able to develop or acquire the necessary assets to be competitive within the next 2 seasons. I tend to think Yzerman likely agrees with that notion based on the 2-year stop gap contracts he handed out this offseason. that said, I think we can we can become competitive again after this 2 year stretch ahead of us. What I mean by competitive is: A team with salaries more in control, a team ready to add meaningful FAs or meaningful players via trade, and a team flirting with and/or making the playoffs. After two years of being "competive" and improving the roster I think this team could develop into a cup-contender. A team like Boston/Tampa/Toronto etc who has a superb roster and is expected to go deep in the playoffs. I hope that's clear. If AA/Bertuzzi/Mantha were 33+ at that time, I would agree with you. 29 year old players are valuable assets IMO and will help with a playoff or cup push Again, 29 is too old in your mind, but adding via FA (players who are likely 29 or older) is an option? Keeping AA/Bertuzzi/Mantha isn't just about leadership to me. These are valuable players who contribute in significant ways. I'm ok with moving them, but I'd prefer a lateral move. I'll point out again too that Yzerman doesn't like to build via FA. Star players rarely move teams. I'm not the least bit concerned about Larkin. Hopefully the kids force the issue and the team is forced to become competitive faster. I would like that, but that could be good or bad for this team too. Accelerating too quickly can become a problem I think. But again, I too would like to be relevant sooner. I think management will likely sell off assets this TDL. Draft high again. And do the same again the season after. Yzerman preached patience for a reason. Hopefully the kids success will make him more eager to accelerate sooner.

There's a lot of bloat on this team and our current core -- Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Athanasiou -- is basically a placeholder as we wait to see what we have in the ELC kids we're drafting in these rebuild years. So, we're running out the clock on a number of veteran contracts and we're waiting to see if these draft hauls pay off in the form of a roster full of really good young players, a roster that deserves and demands to be supplemented by big moves. The hope is that we're only a year or two away from having that roster. If, say, Hronek performs like a top-pairing defenseman in 2019-20 and Seider performs really well through a couple dozen NHL games like Hronek did this past season, that's a quantum leap forward for this rebuild -- if not the end of it altogether. I'm not sure which side this puts me on in this back-and-forth you're having with CRL (I've kinda skimmed over it), but, yeah, that's how I see it. We're waiting for things to unfold naturally and we're hoping the result is a good one.

I really believe that Seider is playing at least a few games this year in Detroit, we will see. Here is some info on our 2019 draft picks, a lot to learn and love about them.

As long as she's a fan of the Wings she'll understand...Might even give you a discount.

I bet you friend was happy. Leafs fans love meaningless hockey games.

Veleno just may end up better than Zadina... question is, what do we do if Veleno outplays the other C's this fall and deserves to make the team?