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Just wanted to talk about one of the newest articles from the athletic: The agent poll Voting: Q: Best front office to deal with? 1. TBL & Minny (6 votes each) 2. Dallas (4) 3. Florida (3) 4. NYI, Philly, VAN, Avs, & DET (2 each) No comments in the article about Detroit in regars to this Q, but agents heaped a lot of praise on Jim Nill... "the classiest and most honest guy in the league" said one agent about Nill. Q: Most unstable and poorly run franchise? 1. Buffalo (6) 2. Ducks (5) 3. Chicago & SJS (4 each) 4. Carolina (3) 5. NYI & DET (2) Hawks and Wings recieved votes here because their respective rebuilds have been big "let downs" according to agents. One agent said about the Wings "theyre really unstable. There's no plan, though they may say there is one..." Disheartening to hear this... i wonder if these two agents represent Walman or Fabbri... or if their answer may be different without the early season lalonde struggles and firing... The agents also dragged Pat Verbeek pretty hard... basically saying he's very old school, grumpy, and a "ridiculous" arsehole. Draws lines in the sand and irrationaly sticks to them, and its hard to even get simple ELC contracts done with Anaheim. IMO I bet Verbeek reads these comments and wears them like a badge of honor... Q: Best ownership in the league? 1. TBL (7) 2. Leafs, Cats, and VGK (3 each) TBL bc Jeff Vinik hires good ppl and lets them cook. Doesnt micro-manage. Leafs because MLSE has more money than god, so they treat their players like gods. Only comments from this section... Q: Worst ownership? 1. Carolina (10 votes) 2. Buffalo (5) 3. Ducks & Nucks (2 each) Basically Dundon in Carolina micromanages everything and is basically the real GM. But with the recent sucess theyve had he probably wont stop this stiffling meddling behavior, as he sees the recent success as his own doing. Conversely, Ducks and Sabres owners are out to lunch, and dont have a hand the wheel. When sometimes they should... My personal takeaways: 1. Interesting to see the variety of personalities that the Holland & Yzerman brain trusts have produced. Normally I'd expect underlings to adapt and conform to their bosses style/approach and the front office's culture.... but you have Nill and Brisebois being gushed on about how nice and classy they are... and then you have Verbeek over in Anaheim being a total azzhole lol. Yzerman has some questioning his vision, but he at least got 2 votes for best office to deal with. I would be curious to see this poll done during the Yzerman/Verbeek years in Tampa. Their good cop bad cop skills together were probably intense. The little ball being used as the attack dog, but SY always there to reign him in when needed. Now it sounds like Verbeek is missing that steadying SY presence, as his AGM is Solomon, who is described as just as big an A-hole as Pat... which leaves me wondering... is Verbeek's presence something SY is missing...? He chose to take Verbeek with him to Detroit over Brisebois (the nice guy) even if Pat wasnt here for long. So does anyone think Horcoff Draper or Lidstrom has filled those shoes? We know Drapes and Lids pretty well... and I dont see it in them. I havent gotten that impression from Horcoff either, who's more involved with GR. 2. We fans probably took it a little far when we memed "yzerplan" into existence, but comments about "no plan" isnt good. And I have been worried about this. After some good trades and drafting early on SY has done some suspect stuff as of late. The bizarre departues of Kostin, Walman, and Fabbri. Picking no direction to go at TDLs. Failing to do backgrounds on Campbell and Vrana. A goalie carousel that continues to spin like mad and destroys the tenders on the ride (are we gonna ruin Cossa too?). Hiring his guy in Lalonde only to back pedal on that choice quick. Suspect contracts and trades for guys like Holl, Gustafsson, and Petry. Again, maybe SY needs a bully lapdog like Verbeek at his side. Someone who tells agents to eat a richard when they say "my client Holl wants $3+ mil a year". Whatever it is, IMO, SY has approached a lot scenarios with seemingly no plan lately. Unable to decide which way to go at last years TDL tells me theres no grand plan behind what were doing. Giving Walman and Fabbri new contracts, only to completely change your mind on that a short time later and pay to be rid of them, shows lack of planning and foresight. Constantly failing to notice troubled players in Vrana and Campbell (and possibly Fabbri and Walman) shows lack of due dilligence. Picking up bad coaches = more lack of due dilligence. I worry SY has taken his foot off the pedal a bit... He is basically immune to firing due to his status as a Wings legend, so he doesnt need to grind harder than others. He's returned home and built a room filled with all his buddies from his playing days. The best minds you could gather just happen to be Draper, Lids, Kronwall, your brother, Wallin, and Cleary? Hmmmm thats quite a coincidence that the best happen to all be your friends... My point being, even if his foot is still on the pedal, does he really have the best minds around him? We watched how the brain drain slowly destroyed Hollands teams... and mistakes are starting to pile up. "I only hire guys Ive worked with and trust" How's your trust in Lalonde these days Stevie? He wrecked that lil philosophy of yours pretty quick... Do we want to build an elite hockey club, or do we wanna build a kinda good one where all your buddies can have jobs and parade back through Detroit to reminice about the good ol days? We cannot just draft a Hakan guy early every year and then sit back and wait... Sorry for the negative post guys. I just think this front office might need a shakeup much like the bench did. Not Yzerman. His underlings. In the article agents talked about up and coming they think could become a future GM. Not one of SY's AGMs was mentioned. The instability of these last two seasons needs to get buttoned up.

At the end of 2019/20 James Devellano led Jimmy Howard to the fiery center of Mt. Weight Watchers, the only place where the one hoagie to feed them all could be destroyed...... But the hearts of goalies are easily corrupted... "CAST IT INTO THE (TRASH) BIN JIMMY! IT MUST BE DESTROYED!" Devellano exclaimed. Eyeing the precious dbl meat, dbl cheese, and extra mayo hoagie, and with a devious smile begining to creep across his face, Jimmy Howard replied with only: it was on that fateful day that the evil of sandwiches triumphed over the hearts of Detroit goalies. Jimmy cast aside his job, his team, contract and money... all for extra deli meat... dooming the net of wingkind for generations: 2020/21 - Jimmy's heir, Bernier, assumed the net. But he would be quickly injured, traded, and then retire. He lasted just 34 games before the hoagie hex consumed him. 2021/22 - Next in line: the young calder finalist Ned. He made it about 64 games with the wings before the curse too devoured him. 2022/23 to present - Husso made it 74 games. HM to Reimer and Greiss. Howard's hoagie got those goalies too along the way. RIP. Lyon and and Talbot currently sit at 67 and 33 GP respectively. How much longer do we think they have? One hoagie to feed them all, one hoagie to find them, one hoagie to bring them all and in au jus we dine them

Since McClellan took over we have beaten a bunch of the top teams in the league. I doubt we keep ripping off 7 game win streaks but I think staying well above .500 the rest of the way isn’t unrealistic for this team. We are a good squad.