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I'm officially going on record saying Wallstedt is gone before 6 and Cossa is gone before 22. Forcing Yzerman to acquire Alnefelt and Palat from his old buddy for the low price of a 5th.

A buyout saves Detroit $500000 in real money. Should be reason enough.

He is buying out Nielsen. I am not even sure that's debatable. He is no longer a 2C, the biggest hole in the forward lineup. He makes way more than other forwards who can easily replace him. And there are guys like Svechnikov, Veleno, and Smith who need roster spots. He gone.

I'f I am a GM in this situation, I simply trade down with pick #22 to try and add an additional second from someone who may really want the other goalie. If the BPA at 22 is a goalie, and I'm happy with the guy I got at #6, I straight up just try to increase my odds at hitting a gem a little later.

Simon Edvinsson is my top choice at 6th overall, Edvinsson-Seider would make a sweet top pairing some day.

My thinking is basically this: "It's looking like we found a Norris-caliber cornerstone defenseman at 6OA, against all odds. Now, what if I told you we could cheat the gods again and double our winnings on that front? What if we could come away from Year 3 of the Yzerbuild with an all-world D pairing? What if we could come away from this draft having secured that elusive 'X factor' advantage that could soon have Wings-hating analysts saying, 'Well, *of course* Detroit has to be considered a Cup contender now; any team that can roll out [Hughes-Seider] has to be considered a contender'?" It's greediness on my part. [Crusty vet]-Seider would probably be ok. But why settle? Why not pair him with a high-end left-side defenseman who perfectly complements him?

All this back and forth about Larkin and whether he is our #1 C and if he should have the C because he may not be our #1, but in the glory days, Yzerman was not our #1 C either, that was Fedorov. Yzerman is not going to award the C to Larkin and then take it away, that is not his style or this organization's. This is not San Jose or any other Mickey Mouse team that pretends to be as prestigious as us. Yzerman can draft or trade for a REAL ELITE #1 C and Larkin will still and always (while he is here) be our Captain. That is just how this organization is.