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While you are absolutely wrong, it's funny how you basically balk at a 2nd round pick, yet if there is any talk of us giving one up you basically have a Legwand-esque meltdown.

The counter-point to trade AA is that he's an RFA and so he's still under team control. If he has a bad season this year we might be able to lock him down on a reasonable contract for a few years. While there are definitely deficiencies to his game, he's still got the ability to change games and put up big numbers in small minutes. Say you can re-sign him after a bad year at 2-3 years at 4.5-5 million to ride out his RFA years. That's a huge advantage down lineup.

AA trade value has never been lower. Keep him, hooe he starts scoring again and when we're WAY out of the playoffs at the TDL turn him for a 1st. If we can't get a 1st, hold on to him until after we win the draft lottery, then he becomes more expendable and we can package him along with a pick or two for a player we need.

Well, he is scoring at the same pace as Zadina

Hughes has 10 pts in 12 games as a 19/20 yr old rookie Dman. Zadina has 4 pts in 9 games in the AHL as a 19 year old forward

AA struggling a dozen games into the season on a bad roster will have minimal impact on his trade value. Especially considering he is known for having slower starts.

I just hope we don't trade him while he's goalless... Give him a ton of ice time and top power-play minutes, hope he breaks out and goes on a bit of a heater... Then trade him for a 1st round pick or high end prospect.

Nielsen needs to become allergic to hockey pucks and sent to the Island Republic of LTIR

Laugh all you want. Did you learn anything? I know you Americans are averse to opening ye old head brains when it comes to other cultures ( @kipwinger wiki search of Mozambique excluded of course) but laughing in the face of cultural knowledge is pretty a pretty jam-jock approach. Keep in mind, there are a bunch of us on here that actually care about your stupid ass country. We like the Wings FFS! And have paid good m@ey to go to Detroit! fFS! You know how much easier it would be for me to cheer fo Montreal? FU guys. You ungrateful prix.

Mercifully they are gone at seasons end. Hicketts should really play ahead of either of them. I think Steve will clear house this summer... I'd not be surprised to see a few Red Wings whitness relocated to Robidas Island.

This one perfectly encapsulates American-Canadian relations in 60 seconds. Remarkable. I love these. Canadian: *asks reasonable question about what hes doin* American: *responds hustlin' and gettin rich* Canadian: *reasonably says ok just dont break the law* American: *points guns and says F U* Canadian: *still reasonable, says go home ur drunk* American: *chirps Canadians the whole way home* *No one cares about Mexico* AHHH North America

I was one of those ppl lol The schadenfreude of watching a team collapse is the only thing that sustains me when we're not winning. Last year Tampa getting swept in the 1st, CBJ going all in only to fail, lose half their team they traded for, and only get 2 fourth round picks and a 7th round pick in the 2019 draft, plus Ottawa being Ottawa, was almost too much to handle. The Sharts will hopefully be a good collapse story this year. Like you say most of the team is tied up in long contracts, so they can't really rebuild, and they've already lost their 1st for the 2020 draft. They have a long home stint coming up though. I figure their fate will most likely rest on these upcoming 12 or so home games. If they're still a good ways out of the playoff race come American thanksgiving they're most likely F'ed unless they fire Deboer and pull a miracle STL season like last year.

Remember when everyone was demanding we get him? Edit: Not everyone. Some of us said stay far, far away.

All fair points. Just thinking there may be some connection with Krug/Michigan and Namestnikov/Yzerman. With goalies like I said Markstrom is the only guy who seems interesting. After this coming summer and onto next the guy I see becoming available is Jake Allen, and that's a hard pass from me. Of course things will probably drastically change between now and then.

Of the guys you mentioned I'd really only be interested in Markstrom. Maybe Krug, but I have concerns. I don't like Krug on a top pair, as he's pretty easily out muscled in the defensive zone, which means he'd have to be on a 2nd pair with Hronek (hate that combo for obvious reasons) or a 3rd pair where the lack of minutes would cut into his offense (thus negating any reason to sign him in the first place). I don't like Namestnikov because I don't like the idea of paying UFA prices for a 3rd line winger who's only topped 20 goals once in his career. I think we can probably find similar or better internally (Hi, Jonatan Berggren!). Ditto for Janmark, whom I like but who is probably not better than Veleno or Rasmussen are likely to be. I suspect we'll take a center in this year's draft as well, meaning only one of those two needs to be better than a Janmark. I don't think any of those guys are bad players mind you. I just think we have what they're offering (aside from Krug). I'd rather we not look at free agency until the following summer unless we're addressing the goalie issue.

Luckily our cap space should really open up this off season. Even if Athanasiou/Bertuzzi/Mantha get big raises, we should be looking at somewhere between $7-$12 mil in cap space after most of our RFA's are re-signed. If Athanasiou goes we're talking about potentially another $3-$5 mil on top of that. Yzerman will have room to play. I don't think anyone with a a big name will want to come here still, but I would take a hard look at Markstrom, Krug, and Namestnikov if I was in Yzerman's shoes. Our old friend Mattias Janmark might also be out there.

I mean, I'm not advocating trading AA. I'm just suggesting that it wouldn't surprise me given A) the likely return on a guy like him to a contender, and B) the type of player he is vs. the type of player Yzerman seems to want. I do think if it's not for a 1st then it definitely doesn't happen at all. Basically there are four ways to improve this team over the next two years: 1. Let our crop of 1st rounders in Grand Rapids develop into impact players. 2. Trade something of value for a 1st rounder and hope the pick is an impact player (alongside your own 1st a la Zadina/Veleno). 3. Trade for an impact player a la Trouba (unlikely given people don't trade impact players often) 4. Sign an impact free agent (unlikely given those guys down want to play for bad teams). Obviously Yzerman will do the first one. Trading AA is the only way to do the second one. And the other two are probably just not going to happen at this point in our rebuild.

Fersure. Part of me also thinks it also won't be straight player for picks trades with Yzerman this year. That he may do stuff like the Jensen trade last year where it involves a player coming back. Like: To somewhere: Athanasiou, Coming back: pick + Erne/Perlini type player (maybe in a different position) Would like to see Yzerman do something to address goaltending as well. Howard is still acceptable, but he'll be 36 this year and should start transitioning into a split time or backup role sooner than later. Not a huge fan of Bernier personally, but we are probably stuck with him next year. Just talking out loud, but I would be fine re-signing Howie on another 1 year contract. Riding Howard/Bernier one more year after this, with Larsson as the starter in GR next year. But after that wtf do we do? Howard will be 37 and Bernier (should) will be gone. I guess the hope is 23 year old Larsson + 37 year old Howard for 2021/22. But that could be amazing or a disaster. Alternatively, we can let Howard walk this year and chase Markstrom in FA this summer. This may be the best bet at a FA goalie, as the Canucks may opt to lean on Thatcher Demko after this season and let Marklstrom go. As of now I don't see a better option coming available in the 2021 offseason. Re-sign Howard, sign Markstrom, and trade Bernier would be my ideal, but probably not feasible. Agreed. There were a lot of sticks in passing lanes disrupting the oilers passes last night. It's something simple you shouldn't have to mention, but with this team it was nice to see.

I thought they did a markedly better job supporting the puck down low in their own end last night. The Oilers had some nice crisp passes from blue line to slot but down low the Wings did a very good job not getting outnumbered or putting themselves in no-win situations (Larkin turnover aside). Jimmy's puck control sure helped. It's just something that needs to become a calling card, not a one night event. They can't win many shootout games so everybody gets dirty down low.

For sure. Stack them draft picks. At this point they're likely not going to factor into our next Cup window, but having them around for trading stock is never a bad thing. I also think there's an outside chance that AA gets traded at the deadline, having nothing to do with how bad his season is going either. He an RFA with a track record of scoring, he's not really an Yzerman kind of guy, and he's likely the only asset on the team that is both expendable and likely to yield a 1st round pick.

I guess my hope is a scenario like last year. We play the crap out of Helm (Nyquist) and Green (Jensen) and whoever else. They get traded at the deadline, some kids come up, then the team comes together and builds some playoff heartbreaker swagger in the spring. If Helm continues to do ok to well on the top line, I'm sure at least one team will notice and think "Could this be the Patrick Eaves type player we can play on our Benn/Seguin Getzlaf/Perry line?"

I'm gonna need the Wings to keep Helm on that top line. Aside from the fact that spreading our offense out has seemingly made the team a little better, he keeps getting quality chances. Pump them stats up and someone will trade for him at the deadline. Bound to happen. And since we're likely not trading Glendening, and Green's trade value has fallen pretty dramatically, getting a 2nd for Helm might be the best case scenario on deadline day.

A win at last.. I'll take it.

Last year I moved into a new place, in a neighborhood that I totally expected to get trick or treaters at. None. So much candy I had to eat. This year no candy. Watch like 100 kids show up. I will shut off the lights and hide in my own home if I have to. Didn't wanna be that guy, but society has molded me this way now...

Yeah! dis gon be gud! first time around for the ps wars, what's the mo?