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I'm all about these guys remaining in our bottom 3 (5,6,7) positions for defenders going forward. Gost, while weak 5 on 5 during the first 40 games, has received the message loud an clear for the last 40 and responded beautifully. Somebody got in his ear and told him the floating has to stop and he needs to play defense. He's been an awesome 3rd pairing guy since that. Maatta has been our best defender other than Seider this year, imo. We should reup this guy for 5 years as soon as he can be re-upped. He's earned a longer contract. +16 on the year, and helped make Gost look like a 2-way defensemen and not a forward playing defense. I value Maata 3rd most on our back end, even before Walman. It's hard to find a stalwart defender at the payrate he's getting. The big question with these guys is "Will they play for 3 million a year each?" We can't have Gost chew up 5 mil per and Maatta take up 4 mil per. If their agents start getting aggressive, it's going to be time to pull up the Tuomistos and Wallinders of the farm system and get them the reps. Hoping we don't need to break those guys in so fast though. They are not NHL ready, and probably won't be for a good 3-4 more seasons. If I'm Yzerman, I'm looking to lock up Maatta and Gost at 3 mil per for the next 5 years and let them know the 3rd pairing is theirs to man. One thing Lalonde actually does well, in my eyes, is spread the minutes for our defensemen. Maatta and Gost will probably be able to get more $ from other teams, but I don't think they'll get the same minutes OR play with a team as good as the Wings will be over the next few seasons once the handcuffs (Chiarot, Petry, Perron, Husso) are removed.

Veleno had a few early flashes but absolutely nothing overly constructive since. Surprised Yzerman has given him such chances, he clearly isn't big on Holland's guys.

Once again it’s Lyon standing out…The team in front of him is so below average way too often.

Yah, it's brutal. Seider and Edvinsson look so comfortable. I'll be so happy when ASP, Johansson, and Wallinder come up and Petry and Chiarot are dust