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If you told me a year ago that Emmerton would be playing in Sochi in 2014, I probably wouldn't have believed you.

I watched a good amount of the Memorial Cup games, and to be really honest I think this kid needs a year in the AHL. His size, skill, and speed are obvious for the world to see, but when he finally had to face some tough checking he was flummoxed. I genuinely think he'll be really good, but he needs to acclimatize himself to higher quality competition in the AHL. If not he'll get frustrated and get knocked off his game. If it's that easy for Guelph and Edmonton to do it, imagine how he'd suffer against NHL competition. I'd give him a full year in the AHL with the understanding that he'd be the first or second injury call up.

Holland has said will let him bypass the AHL if he can prove he can play as a top-6 forward, so it's all on Mantha at this point. A couple of recent quotes from Holland:

People want to silently shop Mantha now? wow, thank god your not the GM. We need scoring, Mantha scores. Forget all this no room for Mantha in the top 9. You do realize once he reaches his full potential, all the other guys named will be trade bait. People are quick to whine about Jarnkrok being traded, but Mantha should be on the block. Going to be a long wait until July 1st and these ridiculous proposals.

And here I thought he was talking about Emmerton or Nestrasil.

This would be possible IF Holland wasn't the GM.

Because his value is high. If he gets to GR and struggles, his value will drop.

can we honestly drop the Jarnkrok stuff in every thread already? he was never going to make the team, it's that simple. As far as mantha goes, the guys he will be playing with will be far and away better then what he had

It can take 3 hrs to get from Seattle to Rogers Place in Vancouver. Most Seattle sports fans know that Todd Bertuzzi did a bad thing to that one guy and now he's not allowed back in the country, and they'd be really hard pressed to name another Canuck. Probably as many Red Wing, Boston, and now Chicago fans as Canucklehead fans. Seattle is a bandwagon market. Right now, the Seahawks and Sounders soccer are hot, but Husky football and Mariners baseball season tickets are easy to get great seats. Sounders fans march across the city to the games, singing together, with other fans coming out of the pubs to job with them, just like in Europe. They meet with the team owner, comedian Drew Cary, at big outside gatherings in the city, and they tell him how they as fans want to participate in the whole scheme of Sounders Soccer and he actually responds quite favorably. They usually sellout the lower bowl, like 47,000 seats or something. That's what Bettman ought to be studying in Seattle. Check it out.

Legwands rights, Kindl, Tootoo, Weiss - let's get it done

I'd like to see Detroit try to move up in the draft to get a top 5 pick since we are in the first half of the draft and not at the end. Edmonton is looking for defensemen and maybe we could put a package together involving Kindl or Smith.

And we don't have to trade to get him

I know Miller didn't have good playoffs by his standards but him being a backup ? Oh my god I think people are really starting to underrate the guy, he will gezt a starting job easily somewhere *cough* Vancouver *coughs* and I think Miller could be a great mentor for a guy like Lack, who was clearly fed to the wolves by their former coach/gm duo. The monster/Howard duo should be far down the list, #1 needs to be defense #2 character, qualityguys and a more rugged gritty type of style for the third and fourth line.

Emdogovich

Somewhere The Axe is trying to figure out how to say Emdog in Russian.

Are people not watching these playoffs? Vanek is NOT the answer.

I agree. Boyle really can't be called "elite" anymore. That being said, I feel like I would rather see the Red Wings grab Dan Boyle or Marek Zidlicky for a year or two, instead of coughing up what Niskanens camp is likely looking for on a long term deal. I'm not sold on Niskanen for the $5.5mil he is likely to get on the open market. This was his "break out" season after being average for a few seasons. I can already envision the coal dragging he'll get here if he regresses to his pre-13/14 form (see Quincey, Weiss, etc.). If that happens, the Wings are stuck with an expensive hard to move dman, which will create a logjam for when Sproul/Ouellet/Marchenko/etc. are ready to be regulars. Grab Boyle or Zidlicky for a year at around $4mil. If they don't work out, you let whoever it is walk as a UFA the next summer and either promote from within or get another short term UFA.

Kronwall Smith DeKeyser Boyle Ericsson Sproul OMG THAT'S TERRIBLE IT NEEDS MORE YOUTH OR WE'RE SCREWED