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Things aren't even THAT bad right now. The young core had a great year, lots to build on. I see fans of teams that made/are still in the playoffs complaining about how their team sucks and chokes and all that, and I always think, f*** we've been spoiled as Wings fans for a long time. No fans of other teams can even bash us for sucking right now due to the quarter century of success we came out of.

He got a 1st rounder for KFQ.

Bring him home.

Could be. We all know how drafts tend to play out. I feel that if Cozens and Byram ate both gone, Turcotte will be the pick. You can always put a C on wing, but it's quite hard for a wing to go to C. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Steve took Cole Caulfield at 6, his stock is rising steadily. Probably still a bit high for him, but ya never know. That top 6 on team USA is lights out man!

It doesnt really change my cofidence one way or another. You gotta think that with the draft only 2 months away that Holland will still be heavily involved with this one, which makes sense considering his history as a scout. Having both Yzerman AND Holland at the helm for rhe draft gives me reason for optimism, but I dont think it changes our picks all that much if at all. Where I really think the advantage will be is with roster management. Yzerman can utilize buyouts or trade away bad contracts more easily than Holland could because he doesn't have to fix his own mistakes and allows Holland some measure of saving face. Also, I don't think he makes the same moves in free agency as Holland does, although I do think he lets Kronwall come back for another year if he wants to. Those 2 have history. I just dont think you'll see him bring in the Vanek types anymore.

Personally I'd like to see a Stars/Blues series next.

This is reminding me of the '97 Wings-Avs series. Wings won Game 4, at home, 6-0. Avs won Game 5, at home, 6-0.

Nashville has always played boring hockey. lol

Carolina playing sloppy hockey tonight. That and Ovie is everywhere it seems.

Yeah, Vegas made what ended up being some huge steals in that expansion draft, whether roster players, prospects, or picks, but I think a lot of that was GMs just not being prepared for it. They only had the rules set up in early 2016 (rules designed to make the new franchise more competitive out of the gate compared to previous drafts by limiting protections even further) and the league couldn't give a definitive date at that time on when the new franchise would begin play. Then the draft ended up taking place at the end of the 2016-17 season. No one wants to give anything away of course, and every team has to, but there are ways to minimize the loss when you have time to do so. The league is a buisiness that needs the best chance to succeed wherever it expands to in the end though, and opinions will always be mixed on if the Vegas success story was a good thing or a bad thing.

you are running this thread boss

Oshie's out indefinitely: https://www.nhl.com/news/tj-oshie-out-indefinitely-for-capitals-wont-play-game-5-against-hurricanes/c-306897762?tid=306191616 That's a big loss for the Caps. Oof. Is it just me or did each team's luck turn when Ovi took down Svechnikov? In hindsight, maybe Ovi really shouldn't have fought the kid. Doesn't really give Caps Nation much to cheer about (congrats, your 300-pound gorilla took down a rookie who'd never fought an NHLer) and very much DOES give Hurricanes Nation something to rally around.

The great irony, of course, is that everyone took one look at last season's Vegas roster after the expansion draft and said they were going to be historically awful. That's why I wouldn't expect Seattle to have the same success straight out of the gate. GMs are probably going to be more careful and conservative re: the expansion draft. Teams aren't going to take them as lightly as they probably took the Knights. Of course, again, everyone thought last season's Vegas team was going to be terrible, so maybe it doesn't even matter how the expansion draft goes. Maybe there's just some weird cosmic energy that comes with being an expansion team in this day and age. And if that's the case and Seattle has a Vegas-like first run, I guess I'd expect some owners to be a bit miffed. They'd have no one to blame but themselves, though. They own Bettman, so they own all the league's successes and failures and controversies.

He told you that over the phone?

Yeah I agree. 22 years is such a long time, even if he was a major part of Yzerman taking over, like the Wings are playing it out to be. No way it's doesn't effect him in some way. This was right after. He appears to be more up beat, I think?

He's handing over the job he's occupied for 20 years to someone else. That has to be, in some way, emotionally draining. It was probably sinking in at the press conference that its all done. He's moving on/up.

Yo @JTrouba, come to Detroit. We have a rich history of not losing to the Blues in the playoffs.