Leaderboard

See, IMO Larkin and Horvat down the middle is not a strong core down the middle. I think that's a very average mediocre center group that won't ever win s***. Sure it's better than what we have today, but with those two down the middle i suspect we never win a cup and draft later than we would without them. f*** that s***. I like when the Wings pissed excellence. I DO NOT want to build an avaerage team. And I will ride with Yzerman until he acquires Elite centers, not just pretty good ones.

I was gonna say something to this affect. I think you have to have good centers, but I think people confuse good centers with super offensive centers. Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli is not an especially strong 1C/2C combination. Neither is Kopitar/Carter, O'Reilly/Schenn or Bergeron/Kreci. Of the last 10 or so Cup winners I'd say Crosby/Malkin, Backstrom/Kuznetsov, and McKinnon/Kadri were the strongest. Obviously the best current centers are McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins and they've got nothing to show for it so far. I don't think there's a blueprint to a Cup winning team, except that you have to have a ton of really good players. Chicago had elite defenders and wingers, and good but not elite centers and goaltending. Tampa has elite wingers and goaltending, but overall less good centers and defense. Pittsburgh had elite centers and goaltending and less good wingers and defense. St. Louis had nothing elite, but solid defense, centers, wingers, and goaltending. There's no recipe. The one thing all these teams have in common is that no part of their team was noticeably bad. If Detroit has good but not elite centers and wingers (meaning top end 70-80 point guys with a few 50-60 point guys added in) and elite defense and goaltending in a few years I don't see why they couldn't win a Cup.

Horvat to the Islanders for a (lottery protected) 1st, Anthony Beauvillier, and Aatu Raty. Definitely less than I thought the Canucks would get for him. But going to the Island seems like it increases the chances that he makes it to free agency, so that's good.