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Honesty, when it comes down to the playoff format and giving teams that are "IN" also the shot at #1 OA, I do think 'Parody" is a very appropriate way to describe it!

Did you miss the part where we traded him to Edmonton?

I don’t think “parody” means what you think it means...

I just hope Yzerman and his crew have done their homework. Gotta knock this pick out of the park.

Thanks, @Jedi!

Detroit will draft no lower than 4th. So one of Lafrienere, Drysdale, Byfield, Stutzle, Rossi, Perfetti or Raymond. I think we'll be ok at #4. Lets hope it turns out this way though!

Hello everyone! First off, sorry about all the recent spam attacks. It sucks, but unfortunately there's not really much the mod or admin staff can do to prevent them from happening in the first place. Since we can't do anything preventative, we have to focus on being reactive when the attacks come in. When an LGW user uses the Report function, it sends an email to each member of the staff to alert us. Granted, there aren't as many active mods now as there have been in the past, so it may take some time for us to get to it. LGW's mod tools make cleaning up a spam attack very easy, so once we're aware of the spammer, we can clear it out quickly and easily. I can't promise that I will be more active on LGW like I was in years past. Family and work concerns understandably take up a significant chunk of my time. But I will promise to at least be more reactive to reports from members, and address any future spam attacks in a more timely manner. Thanks for your patience, and thanks to the members that have posted reports about the spammers.

I don't see Yzerman bringing him back. Hronek, Dekeyser, Nemeth, and Biega are all under contract for next season. Seider, Lindstrom, and Cholowski are due to be on the roster. And Bowey is a RFA and will probably be re-signed. That's one too many D as it is. I have no problem sending Biega or Bowey down since they've peaked as lower end D-men, but I wouldn't bring back Green in favor of Seider, Cholowski, or Lindstrom being on the roster. Those 3 are still developing and should fill in the right side nicely. Green would just be a RH plug, and we already have 2 of those in Biega and Bowey.

The people at this place are fantastic, but the mobile experience is atrocious. Half the time one is about to type or hit a button, strategically placed pop ups get in the way and irritate the user. Then the site goes down for days at a time. I get it. Matt makes money from this page, but has other priorities now. I really do get it. What I dont understand is why he wont let some of the long time users help him keep the site 1) up and running, and 2) user friendly. Those of us over at the discord havent left this place. We just want to see it taken care of.

The Billion Dollar Question: Has giving 15 teams a shot at a top-three pick actually helped combat shameless tanking and fostered Parity™? Maybe it's too early in the experiment to reach any solid conclusions, but...I kinda feel like the answer is no. The Wings are coming off a historically awful season. The Sens went all-in on a cynical/realistic blowup and nuked their roster from orbit. A couple years ago the Avs were dreadful. The Devils are back to being a Mickey Mouse team. The Sabres are the Sabres. It took the Oilers this long to get their act together. Point is: Teams sucking is very much still a thing. "Yes, but GMs and owners understand that they can't necessarily count on the draft bailing them out." OK...but has that actually changed the equation in a meaningful way? Yzerman could've added players who are better than Filppula and Nemeth. He didn't. Why didn't he? I think you could make the case that he sat on his hands because he decided the Wings "had to" suck this season. Why did the Wings "have to" suck? Because the Wings need a superstar and you have to draft that kind of player, and you can't expect to find that player outside the top 3 in any given draft. Hardcore sucking wouldn't guarantee us the 1st overall pick, but apparently that's a moot point, as it seems to me the mentality at the top of this organization's pecking order is "We want the best shot at 1st overall that we can give ourselves." And the Wings aren't exactly unique in this regard. "Everyone has to spend some time at the bottom" is, to me, a euphemistic way of saying "Tanking is still a thing. And, in fact, the way things are set up now, we've actually created an ecosystem where tanking is an institutionalized necessity." There are counterpoints, of course. I like that the Isles flipped reality the bird and said, "Screw you all. We went out and got Barry Trotz because we have no interest in being a basement team. Our mediocre-ass team is making the playoffs this season." I like that the Coyotes and Canucks have been patient and seem to be on the verge of turning things around, all without hardcore tanking and a single recent top-three pick between them. At the end of the day, it's on the GMs and owners and coaches and players and scouts. The Detroit Red Wings haven't been victimized by the draft lotto. They don't have to play the tank game. No one's forcing Yzerman to not go playoffs-or-bust. I guess my point is that Yzerman, like any GM, is a pretty smart guy who hates losing and believes in the importance of integrity...so, for him or any other GM to be like "Yeah, we're gonna be bad for a while. What can you do, y'know? It's just the way it is. [shrug] No sense in adding marquee UFAs at this time"...that sucks, man. I don't like it. I've never liked incentivized tanking. The more I think about it, the less convinced I am that the 15-team lotto system actually disincentivizes tanking in any measurable, meaningful way.

I used it horribly, some of my favorite movies are parodys. This whole draft seems to be a mockery, a spoof if you will of a normal NHL draft, yet still not funny to me. It wasnt all lost! It could very well be a parody, just not a funny one. Somewhat like my joke

we can still give him a one year contracton july 1st and trade him again at the deadline...

Honestly, it wouldn't be a *huge* surprise to me. Getting Lafreniere would be a gamechanger for our rebuild. Assuming Green is gone, we need to add a veteran top-four puck-moving defenseman, preferably one who's a power play monster. That's with or without Lafreniere. In this regard, Krug is a fit. (In certain other regards...maybe not so much.) And there's also the Michigan connection, though I doubt that means much. If we add Hall on top of Lafreniere, we have a Cup-caliber top-nine winger group of Hall, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Lafreniere, Fabbri, Zadina. In theory, that would compensate for a lack of gamebreaking talent at center and a thin blue line. Also, we'd finally have a legit position of strength (in theory), so maybe we trade a winger for a defenseman. Am I expecting us to get Lafreniere? No. Even if we get Lafreniere, would I expect Yzerman to make some huge moves? No. But...at the same time..."31st overall team picks 1st and signs a couple of big UFAs" is maybe not as unrealistic as our pessimistic brains would have us believe.

Fun fact, Johan Franzen and Kyle Brodziak contracts are officially done this summer...not that it mattered - but the fact that Johan's was 11 years makes me feel a bit old

It will be funny to see who jumps back on the LGW bandwagon once we get back to the playoffs...heck they might even start coming back if we are lucky enough to draft Lafrienere. Honestly, the few of us that are here still should get some badges or something for keeping this place afloat!