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Seider named top defenceman in the tournament, hell of an accomplishment for a 20-year-old playing on a team that didn't win a medal. Can't wait to see him on the Wings.

Yeah. I guess Zadina's an NHLer. You're probably right.

My two cents. Judging a guy's correct role on a team by the points he scores can be misleading. Especially when you're talking about the linemate/ice time effect. Remember when Ian White came to Detroit and immediately had a career best year because he was paired with Lidstrom? Sure looked like the expanded role and better partner upped his game. But did it really? Probably not. He was never a top pair defenseman, despite Lidstrom dragging him around the ice. His improved stats only obscured the fact that we now had a bum on our top pair and the team was worse off for it. Same with Abdelkader riding shotgun with Datsyuk. Sure his stats improved, anybody's would have. But was the team better for having a 3-4th line tweener on the top line? Nope. Whether or not Larkin scores 50, 60, or 70 pts., he's not the kind of player that drives play at both ends of the ice if his offense is reliant on his linemates. And that's the type of guy you probably don't call a 1C. Or rather, if it takes Bertuzzi and Mantha/Vrana to get Larkin to 70(ish) points then imagine how much a real playmaking center would score with them? In an ideal situation you'd have a line with an offensively capable center, and offensively capable wingers, and that line would score a lot. And then a Bertuzzi-Larkin-??? line that scores at a solid, but unspectacular, rate and can match up with top lines. That creates a competitive advantage. Giving really great offensive opportunities to a line centered by Larkin is a bad idea if you've got better alternatives.

Fair. But the point isn't that Larkin is Bergeron. Rather, the point is that if you put Marchand and Pastrnak on Larkin's wings, the "Larkin is a wholly inadequate 1C" criticism likely disappears.

He is a poor man's 1C. He is not elite, but certainly better than your average 2C. If we could draft and develop a center better than Dylan Larkin and drop him to the 2C spot, that would be great; but the idea that this team HAS TO, is problematic. If we had 2 Larkin caliber centers on the top 2 lines, this team would be fine. You can win with that, so long as you have the complimentary wingers to go with them (presumably we do). The knock on Larkin's scoring is also biased. Do even his biggest critics think he wouldn't be a top 15 or 20 scoring center if he had Patrick Kane on his wing? And yet he finishes in the 30's in points among centers without ever having a winger eclipsing the 25 goal mark, and he's a 2C? The way I see it, he's a 2nd tier 1C. Larkin is not elite, and will never generate a lot of scoring on his own. But give him at least one bonafide scorer on his wing, and he will be a perennial 65 to 70 point center. And the same could be said about a good portion of NHL centers deemed worthy of the title "1C".

NHL draft-eligible Chaz Lucius is more than his goal scoring Pros: Center. Righthanded. Goalscorer. Cool name. Cons: Skating(might be long term injury related). Defense.

Remember when u agreed to fight me in the parking lot of the dundee cabelas and then didnt show up? U got me good bro.

In fact u should be excited when Yzerman drafts the #25 at 6. It means Mo Seider 2.0 incoming.

maybe even AHL....

Completely disagree. A 1C's job is to generate points - a lot of points - and also to do that while dealing with often the toughest matchup trying to shut u down. If larks cant handle that responsibility hes not a true 1C. Furthermore we've watched Larkins linemates excel and grow. Bertuzzi, Mantha (except this season) Fabbri, Zadina, and now Vrana. Yet Larkin regresses while they develop. So your theory about its just his weak ass linemates, isnt at all true. Larkin is an impressively fast, defensively capable, top 6 center. He does not possess the play making ability to ever be a true backbone 1C in this league.

I think Zadina's more of a 4th line winger. Other than that, great post!

This is truly incredible when you think about it.

He was just trying to troll on Zadina. No bites this time. I'm getting Nyquist vibes from him. Solid turnout for a 2nd round pick, but not too exciting.

Larkin ain't no Bergeron. With or without wingers of your choosing.

s***, Bergeron didn't start hitting ppg numbers until he was flanked by Pasta and Marchand.

I say worry about D and C in the draft. Take care of any holes on wing ( if any when the time comes) through UFA/trades. Much cheaper to get wingers than it is to get dmen and centers.

Yup, I agree with all of this. I've said this a number of times and I'll say it again: Jonathan Toews has never been a monster scorer, and that's with *PATRICK KANE* glued to his hip for the entirety of his career. Larkin's had good-not-great talent on his wings, absolutely zero help behind him on the center depth chart, and an ocean of ass behind him on the blue line. Every team's game plan against the Wings is three words: "Shut down Larkin." That's it. It's all they have to do. Larkin's not the kind of player who can put up a ton of points with no help. For a guy who was billed as "Darren Helm with hands," that doesn't come as a huge surprise. HOWEVER, what Larkin's been able to do with the lack of high-quality help is pretty impressive and suggests the best is yet to come.

Like I said, there's risk there. Personally, though, I don't feel Lucius is significantly more boom/bust than a lot of the other candidates. You could argue that a guy like Johnson is more rounded and therefore has a higher floor, but to that I would say if Johnson doesn't live up to his potential, he's going to be a run-of-the-mill bottom-sixer. Would that be more valuable to us than a goal-scorer who can't score goals? I mean, I guess...? Then again, this assumes Lucius does not in fact have much else to offer, which isn't necessarily true. He's good on faceoffs. He's got great hands, as mentioned. He's not an elite playmaker, but he can thread passes and make plays that the average Wings prospect can't. Great stickhandler. Can hold the puck and run a cycle. Likes to drive the net, buzz around the net. Not afraid to battle along the boards. His defensive shortcomings are more an "I'm a goal-scorer and my team needs me to score goals, so of course I'm gonna cheat and fly the zone early" thing than they are a "I don't know how to play defense and I don't want to learn" thing. The Wings have drafted lots of rounded players, lots of pass-first playmakers, lots of great skaters. One thing we've been sorely lacking is players who just flat-out know how to put the puck in the net. Our power play has cost us countless games over the past several years. Not being able to find that one goal in the third period has cost us countless games over the past several years. An inability to seal the deal in OT has cost us countless games over the past several years. So we definitely have an organizational need there. If we can trade down and add Lucius at, like, 11OA? To me, that sounds great. But I'm not Steve Yzerman or his scouts.

My point is that people shouldn't get upset if Yzerman picks someone not even discussed in the top 10 leading up to the draft. Nobody knows how this is going to shake out. It's a weird year and the players that gets the most talk are the ones who played the most games that scout could actually watch.

Except it's been done for years already. High sticking? 2 minutes. Blood? 4 minutes. And a hit doesn't have to be both dirty and illegal. I dont think the hit was dirty, but it was against the rules that protect players. According to NHL Rule 42, a charging penalty: Shall be imposed on a player who skates, jumps into or charges an opponent in any manner. Charging shall mean the actions of a player who, as a result of distance traveled, shall violently check an opponent in any manner. A "charge" may be the result of a check into the boards, into the goal frame or in open ice. Said the NHL of its decision to suspend Scheifele for charging: "This is a player who has traveled a considerable distance, is moving with exceptional speed and is fully aware of his momentum, who chooses to charge into a vulnerable opponent with a high, predatory hit that causes an injury." While I disagree with the term "predatory", I agree with the rest of the statement and the decision to suspend. What is so hard about this to understand?

Chaz Lucius is a Marvel hero. Kent Johnson is a DC hero.

Vrana -- Larkin -- Raymond Bertuzzi -- ??? -- Zadina Fabbri -- Veleno -- Berggren Erne -- Rasmussen -- Niederbach ??? -- Seider ??? -- Hronek Johansson -- Tuomisto UFA/Trade goalie UFA/Trade goalie So, three holes: 2C, 1LD, 2LD. It's entirely possible Veleno or Rasmussen becomes a legit 2C, but for the time being I'm going to assume they ultimately settle in as bottom-six centermen or complementary wingers. If Hronek or Seider can play the left side, we may already have a future top pairing in Hronek/Seider -- Seider/Hronek. Just some food for thought. We can address one of our key holes with our first pick in the upcoming draft. Then we can address one of the remaining two holes with our first pick in next year's draft. The UFA and trade markets are always an option. I'm fine with getting our goalie(s) via free agency and/or trade. Bernier and Greiss have performed well behind an AHL-caliber Wings team and each of them is arguably good enough to win a Cup as a 1G. Guys like Bernier and Greiss will always be available.

That's mainly gonna be other teams' fans tho. As for Wings fans? The stats nerd blogger commentariat class and the Calder Trophy voters – these people don't represent the average Wings fan. The average Wings fan will be delighted to have someone who 1) is roughly as effective as Rasmus Dahlin and 2) actively tries to murder opposing players. And we're getting him at 20 years old, as opposed to the standard 22 or 23 that we're so used to. So dude's got some leeway and runway. The murder thing is gonna be big. That alone will earn Seider so much goodwill and love. If the "Vladdy 2" branding catches on, he's golden. Because what was great about Vladdy, what we LOVED about Vladdy, wasn't point totals. Vladdy was never a monster scorer. What we loved about Vladdy was that he was a complete player. Who actively tried to murder opposing players. Other Seider propaganda campaigns I'm currently formulating in addition to the aforementioned "Vladdy 2": "Moritz Seider Is Going to Finish What Vladimir Konstantinov and Jiri Fischer Started." "Remember Brad Stuart Crushing Sidney Crosby? Wasn't That Great?" "The '96 Wings Weren't Mean and Then They Got Mean and That's Why They Won in '97 and '98" "The '08 Team Had Kronwall, Stuart, Chelios, Lilja. This Is the Way." "Seider Does Not Suck. It's the Team That Sucks. And That Is on Cryin' Chris Ilitch, Who Refuses to Retire #91. Cowardly!"

Seider is lazy and he sucks.

The Seider lovefest on Twitter is glorious. People from all around the globe are loving on this dude and he hasn't even played in a single NHL game yet.