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Although Jensen was the most "tradeable" of all the defensemen, he was the last one who should have been traded. I would have preferred DD, Daley, E, or Kronner be traded. Green and Jensen are the only 2 I would have wanted to keep.

Our best forward and our best Dman are out? Holland and Blash understand the art of the blitzkrieg I see

Imagine, with a little luck on UFA day in a couple years you could have this defense: Byram-Trouba McIsaac-Hronek Cholo-Lindstrom

Don't look now but Bowen Byram is having one heck of a season. Kid has all the tools to be a top defender in the league. Hard not to think about a trade back scenario here. I still think I want Zegras at 3, given that I think he's going to be that damn good, but depending on how the lottery shakes out there's potential here to get a really good player and another higher end pick.

check out the hands on this Kakko kid

Yzerman heavily involved in present, but future uncertain with Lightning [NHL.com] "He is involved. He is so involved. I cannot begin to adequately convey how involved he is."

Same here. I spend so much time imagining how things COULD be with just the tiniest bit of luck. Trouble is, if you draft a Byram you HAVE to find another center somewhere. Go hard for Duchene or hope you get lucky later in the draft. Otherwise your center depth is still trash. Bert-Larkin-Zadina Ras-Duchene-AA Svech-Veleno-Mantha Abby-Glen-Nielsen Byram-Trouba McIsaac-Hronek Cholo-Lindstrom.

I'll admit I've been sleeping on the kid because I want a center, but he's pretty impressive. Definitely a big fan of his tool kit. Has a little of the Doughty or Keith in him in the sense that he's really good offensively but also is pretty mean and feisty.

Byram's third or fourth on my want list. He's a stud. Wouldn't be surprised if he's the guy the Wings end up targeting if they don't get one of the top two picks. All we ever hear about is how you can only get Bowen Byrams in the draft. Well, here's a Bowen Byram. Byram-Hronek could be a hell of a pairing. In theory.

I'm all for a trade back, depending on the return, and I agree, Byram looks like he could be the real deal. He looks like he could be a Morgan Rielly type defenseman in a few years.

Rumor was Babs liked Jensen so much that he would've driven Matthews to Detroit himself as part of the trade. On a more serious note - Jensen is real gud.

Zadina is GOOD. He will be the left handed Mitch Marner of our team. Excited to see him with Larkin and Kakko.

Agree completely. I'm okay with Holland seeing us through this rebuild, but I'd also be okay with Yzerman taking over. Same goes for Blashill. I'd be completely okay with extending him beyond this season, and I think we will. The people that are constantly complaining about Holland and Blashill, don't really understand how a rebuild works. They think it should be seamless, the way we "retooled" from the Yzerman, Fedorov era to the Zetterberg, Datsyuk era. We got extremely lucky back then, and it rarely ever works that way. This rebuild is not going to happen over night, and the faster people realize this, the easier it'll be.

That's fair. I guess I just feel like the Yzerman HYPE! assumes our situation is more malleable than it really is. I get that people want to see some changes, but I don't know that putting Yzerman in charge gets us those changes right now. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for Yzerman taking over this summer. I just wouldn't expect much to change in his first year or two.

For perspective: Kakko has 34 in 42 games and is the consensus #2 for the 2019 draft, while Kivenmaki has 14 in 30 this season in the Liiga. Considering Kivenmaki has 11 of those 14 points in his last 9 games is VERY encouraging. Kakko is almost exactly 1 year younger and is like 7" taller and 60 pounds heavier than Otto. Kivenmaki is now producing in a mens league at about the same clip as Kakko despite his size. Hes still a long shot for the nhl, but hes making the right strides in that direction. From what I've heard he's not exactly a defensive slouch either. Gives me tingles of Datsyuk. The ONLY thing holding this kid back is size. He's tiny. If our nutritionists can get him to become a Marty St Louis beefcake we might really have something here.

There's definitely whales in the puget sound, but they just pass through twice a year on their way to California or Canada/Alaska. There's like one pod of Orcas that hangs around the San Juan islands consistently. Still I love that Whalers sweater and name, wouldn't mind it. Interesting, but the NHL will scrutinize any trades with Vegas leading up to the Seattle expansion draft: Article I think it's kind of BS that Vegas is exempt in the first place. Vegas already has two drafts under their belt with 20 picks total. They will get another 3 drafts and some where between 18 and 25 picks depending on trades during that time. 5 drafts with added picks should be more than enough to establish a solid farm IMO. They also have that time to sign projects and NHL FAs and AHL FAs. They should have to give up a player. Screw the expansion fees.

I mean do you have any substantial evidence that proves this? Or is it all theoretical. Signing Nyquist now for 5 years when we’re not even a contender makes no sense. And don’t exactly know when we will be able to contend. It could be 10 years from now. If you hold onto al your players you don’t get draft picks other than the default ones you’re granted. If you’re trying to build thru the draft then you have to trade to get more picks. Thus is GM 101 and precisely why NHL GM throughout the league in every sport do this. You sign a secondary scorer when you’re ready to make the push. You don’t keep one around assuming you’ll contend tomorrow when in reality it could be 2030. By which time Nyquist would be 40+ but another secondary scorer might be 28 years old and we sign that guy at that point in time. It also goes both ways. Nyquist may not want to play here due to the fact that we’re not ready. He’s may end up staying in San Jose to win the cup who are closer to it then we are. It’s not as simple as you make it seem. It takes two to tango.

I'm so sorry.

Oh we wear em proudly

Two-game sample Wings have been a low-scoring team for years now Guy had 40 points last season, but, sure, let's act like he's the straw that stirred the drink and Holland definitely should've given him a $5M x 5 contract, I'm sure everyone here would've loved that

The Wings are going through a rebuild (finally). Holland has embraced the rebuild, icing a fatally flawed team and stocking up on draft picks. Holland has presided over two drafts in this new rebuild era, and from those drafts he's pulled five 1st-round-caliber players in Rasmussen, Zadina, Veleno, McIsaac, and Berggren. The Wings are currently in 30th place with 17 games left. The Wings currently own 10 picks in the upcoming draft, including our 1st, our 2nd, and two other 2nds. If the Wings keep playing the way they're playing, we could be looking at Jack Hughes or Kaapo Kakko. Getting Kakko would immediately accelerate the rebuild. Getting Hughes would change everything. Hell, getting Bowen Byram -- who no one's projecting to go in the top three -- would give us that elusive stud D prospect who projects as a legit #1 defenseman. All of which is to say the Wings are where they should be. Yzerman wouldn't be doing things in a noticeably different way. Yzerman wouldn't buy out Abdelkader and Helm and DeKeyser and Nielsen. Yzerman wouldn't say, "We need this roster to be filled to the brim with kids. Younger is always better." Yzerman probably wouldn't be making huge trades, because we don't have much to trade and we don't have any malcontents like Drouin. If we replace Blashill and we finish next season in 20th place, people will complain that we're not tanking properly.

As would I. My point was how some people think that draft picks and former captains are magical unicorns that will fix everything. Thats not reality. Put Yzerman in charge and trade every bad contract on this team for draft picks and its still a bad team. Its still a team in a rebuild. Plain and simple. Could Yzerman do a better job than Holland? Sure. Could Quenneville do a better job than Blashill? Maybe. But the idea that anything is better than Holland and/or Blashill is nuts. So is the idea that change is improvement. Not always. Put anyone you want as manager and coach and its still a lottery team. Its still years away from a full rebuild and contention. Yzerman doesnt fart rainbows. He cant change that. Y took over the TBL in 2010. Guess how many cups theyve won in the last 9 years? 0. Same as Holland, despite having better teams. Holland is in year 3 of his rebuild and everyone wants him fired. Yzerman had 8 years and won nothing, but everyone wants him instead. Where is the logic in that?

I generally like the way Holland plays the game for better and for worse, and that being said, I still wanna see how Yzerman would run this team. Holland can't do this forever, and Yzerman seems to be an A quality GM. I'd pull trigger.

It is what it is, I suppose. *shrug* With only two tank drafts under our belt, it's not surprising that we've quickly exhausted this season's supply of high-end(ish) young players. But Zadina's only up for a short while and Veleno and McIsaac should be joining the Griffins next season and we've also got the upcoming draft haul to look forward to. And I think there's a possibility that Gustav Lindstrom could be coming over to the States next season. So good things are coming for both the Griffins and the Wings. (Worth noting that the Griffins are having an excellent season.)