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I love this trade. Having watched a TON of Capitals hockey over the last 5 years I'll give you my take. Basically... I don't agree with your assessment of Vrana. In the last two years he's scored 36 goals in 108 games. Good for 3rd on the Capitals behind Ovechkin and Oshie. 35 of those goals came at even strength. He also did this despite significantly lower even strength ice time than most of Washington's regular forwards. During those same two years he had 15 powerplay assists despite being on Washington's 2nd powerplay unit. If you watch the Capitals you'll realize that they rarely give time to their 2nd unit, and if they do it's not much. The reality is that Mantha relies more heavily on the powerplay for his production than Vrana does. Vrana is a much better even strength goal scorer and he's about to see a sizeable increase in ice time with a top center (his best center previously was Lars Eller). Plus now that he's on a top powerplay unit he's likely to see a significant increase in PP ice time, which is good for Detroit (and Vrana's stat line) because he's a great powerplay passer and the first legit playmaker we've had off the half wall since Datsyuk and Zetterberg. Vrana's warts are these: He's not super defensively responsible, and he's not super physical. It's legitimate to wonder how he'll handle better competition that comes with increased icetime, but with that said he's not Andreas Athanasiou either. He's more competitive and responsible than THAT. FWIW he's also been one of Washington's better possession forwards over the last two years. I think we actually got the better player here, he just needed to not be buried down lineup. Especially when you consider Mantha is likely to take a hit in icetime. This will hurt especially bad on the powerplay because his usual spot is occupied by a playmaker in Washington's system (typically Backstrom or Kuznetsov). He'll be the shooter on the second powerplay, and as I've already mentioned that unit doesn't get the same icetime that Mantha was getting in Detroit. Edit: Final thought. I'm pumped about the 1st too. I think Washington is getting bounced early. Nobody on that team gives a sh*t anymore and it's evident. They won their Cup and now they're content to go as far as their talent takes them without doing the hard work. They're primed to get beat by some hardworking up and coming team. I don't see them making past the 2nd round and maybe they get bounced in the first depending on their matchup.

nb

Fingers crossed he uses the extra first to pull off another Vasilevskiy

Our reality is that the draft has given us top end talent on a slow path of development. Seider and Raymond will be fantastic players BUT they are draft year +3 or 4 type guys. Our "luck" in the lotto means we've not been able to get draft year or draft year +1 type guys. The 2017 and 2018 drafts are what might have been drafts, I don't think we'll have many or any of those guys on this team when we're competitive.

Wallstedt first , everyone else is being projected as 2nd liners/2nd pairing dmen etc... give me the guy whos projected to be a lundqvist any day (dont care about the too early to draft a goalie stuff) washington pick if were lucky enough to be in 20-24 range , simon robertsson... lambos if hes there but i dont see it, if we dont take wallstedt with our 1st should make sure we end up with cossa with that pick or move up with our early 2nd to land him

I definitely think so, but I'm biased because I've always liked the versatility of his game. He's a strong possession player and he's super fiesty, with enough offense to chip in and compliment skill guys. His only real issue is that he's not going to play on the powerplay or penalty kill so his value is limited in that way. Personally I'd use him as a 3rd line puck retrieval guy opposite someone skilled. Maybe do Panik-Rasmussen-Fabbri. The last few games we've had Filppula on Rasmussen's line, he's easily a better option than that.

Sometimes folks have to hit the very bottom. Either they fight to come back or they don't. Offer a hand up like Tampa Bay did with Antonio Brown. With the agreement no misunderstanding that with the very very very first f'up you are gone period end of story. My guess our GM isn't the type to p*ssyfoot around with things like that anyways.

He is 25 and could fit into the rebuild timeline. I wish Yzerman had claimed him, but as always, none of us know what's going on between the GM's. Despite what my neighbors, friends, ex-husbands, former butcher says!

Jurco - Larkin - Mantha Smith - Sproul Mrazek Babcock took this from us

You forgot "dumb"