Leaderboard

If I recall correctly Kaski grew up playing forward, then at WMU Andy Murray moved him to defense (when Kaskii was like 20) to use his shot from the point. So Kaski has been playing D for like 4 years now.

There's no C in TAAAANK *

Having a huge physical center with offensive upside feels like sucha weird thing to have these days, but by god what a flex option down the middle. Veleno at 1C and Ras at 2C in GR this season should be a pleasure to watch.

Big fan of the fact that both Blashill and Yzerman see Rasmussen as a center long term. Gives me a lot more confidence in our depth at that position. He's a unique player because he can essentially to slotted in as a "shutdown center" but because of his powerplay ability he's still gonna score 20 goals a season. And even without him on the wing we have Mantha, Bert, AA, Zadina, Berggren, Mastrosimone, Svech, Grewe, and Hirose as options for top 9 wingers. Allows for a lot more versatility in next year's draft too.

YUUUGE news:

I'm all for a Cholowski - Seider top pairing in Grand Rapids.

***should've

I don't really buy that Yzerman needing more time to get to know the players is why they're holding off. I don't think it's necessarily the wrong call to hold off tho, and I'm sure they have good reasons for going this way. We've lost two bedrock leaders in a two-year span in Zetterberg and Kronwall. And that's happening right in the middle of a painful rebuild. And Yzerman has given every indication that he expects the team to suck this season. And Larkin is an emotional guy who maybe doesn't need to be shouldering the weight of a tank team's shortcomings any more than he did last season, all when what the organization truly needs him to do in the here & now is focus on becoming a Selke-caliber heavyweight centerman in the mold of Ryan O'Reilly. Work on the two-way game (-6 last season). Cut down on the penalties (75 mins last season). Keep improving at faceoffs (54.5% last season). So I'm guessing they're protecting Larkin and the other top young roster players. Let them focus on playing hockey. Guard against a "Wings fans thought the future was now. Turns out the young core isn't ready for prime time. Now the question becomes 'Where does the organization go from here?'" media BS. Or maybe they're just gonna give Larkin the C at the end of camp. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯