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Seriously? The guy's twice the size as Tkachuk. Both hits were clean. He can't keep his cool. Lays a beating. Gets a double minor. Team gets game winner on power play. Says even though they lost he'd do it all again. THEN he calls the guy a ***** on TV. Not a good look. I don't want Zack Kassian on this team. Take the hits like a man. But I guess I'm in the minority here.

Here's my basic logic...which is a cop out really, but it's true at the same time. Those suggesting Larkin has proven himself as a 1C.....I want to say are wrong, but at a minimum, would have a hard time supporting that. I'm not going to say he won't prove to be one over the course of his career, but he hasn't shown the consistency yet to suggest he's "proven". Did it look like he was well on his way last year after building and improving on 60+ points the year before? Absolutely. I'm guessing he'll bounce back at this year is just a stumbling block. Bad teams or not though, that can't be a big excuse. There are + and - in terms of being able to produce based on how good your team is. On the flip side, has this season proven anything regarding his ability to be a 1C going foward? Absolutely not, however, it's fair for people to be concerned.

The best 1C's do both. We know Larkin can do either or at this point. Let's just hope he can put that together. It's pretty clear his focus on defense this year is what has impacted his scoring. So if right now Larkin is a great 2C with the potential to become a legit 1C, I'll take it. As I said, he's had HUGE responsibility thrust into him very early. In such a sink or swim situation, he certainly hasn't sunk. Has he struggled? Sure. Most players his age in that role would. I'll be concerned if he struggles as much next season. But for the time being, he is showing signs of heating up offensively again. I do, however, agree that the team needs an Alfredsson-type of veteran to help out. We've needed that since Hank hung them up. I think Larkin has done well considering he's had no such help. The great sign is that he hasn't given up. The guy is still working his ass off to improve. So I strongly disagree with the idea that he is drowning. He's fighting through it and is starting to get rewarded for it.

Well I REALLY hope we dump about 3-5 players this deadline. Not that we need the cap space this year for anything, I am just tired of seeing certain players wear this jersey. Not that we'd get anything great in return for them, but I just don't want to watch them on this team anymore. I hope the Howard and Green "rumors" come to fruition. IF they could be dealt, I wouldn't mind seeing Helm, Filppula and Nielsen gone as well. Ericsson and Daley can just fade away, I hope they never put the jersey on again. I'd like to see if there is any interest in Ehn also. Of course all of this will not happen, and I don't want to gut GR because we'd have to bring players up, but if we could thin our team out up here sooner than the off season, it would be awesome. I am wondering what Yzerman's plan is with Cholowski, rumors of him having a poor attitude does not help his case in getting back to Detroit. Maybe a trade to Western Canada would help his attitude and he could at least get back to the NHL. He could be packaged or just sent alone for a 2nd maybe?

For Stevie, I think it's all about seeing what kind of character is in the locker room this season. On the bright side, Lafreniere has a reputation for being a great locker room presence. I do hate that Abby still gets an A

With Yzerman stepping in, I don't think it's all that far fetched for Stevie to have had chat with Larkin about focusing more on defense this year, and ensuring him that the points will come. As for the Datsyuk and Zetterberg comparisons, Larkin was also thrust into the 1C role at a much younger age. Even when Dats and Hank were the go to guys, they had each other to lean on. Larkin is seeing more responsibility at a younger age, and it's not like he is s***ting the bed at it. He is having growing pains, but it would be insane to not expect that. The guy has the skill set, IQ, and work ethic to keep getting better. So I have no doubt he'll do so.

Well then Yzerman needs another lotto pick in the 10-14 range because it's looking like that's where Askarov has fallen to in most rankings now.

To be fair to @Dabura I wasn't trying to say this team doesn't need those types of players. And I don't think he was saying that signing said players should be THE priority. I'm just saying that this team sucks because it SUCKS.

Sure. Right after we find some guys with elite skill.

By all accounts, Vanek was really good for our locker room, a solid veteran mentor. Maybe there was something to that. Maybe this team needs some weird uncles like Vanek, Ott, Witkowski. Filppula seems like a nice guy, but he also seems like a boring guy. Nemeth seems like a nice guy, but he also seems like a boring guy. Every veteran on our team seems pleasant and boring. Half of them are taking beatings every night and we just...kinda...take it. Because we're a team that is nice and boring and the Nielsens and Greens and Howards are just waiting for the sweet release of retirement at this point. Maybe Mantha's "FITE ME BRO" crusade is actually a cry for help. Gimme some character. Gimme a pulse. Gimme some Weird Uncle Energy. Gimme some guys who will break your jaw for running our goalie or maybe even for no reason at all. Milquetoast Wings hockey was tolerable when we were still winning lots of games. We're not winning lots of games. Even if we get Lafreniere and add a good UFA or two, we still won't be anywhere near as deep as last season's Lightning...who, for all their high-end talent, got swept out of the first round by a blue-collar underdog team that knew how to jam and check high-end teams, because that's what Tortorella teams do. Seems like Tkachuk is pretty good at walking the thin line of (il)legality. That first hit he put on Kassian last night technically isn't illegal and I'm not sure he was hoping for head trauma. Second one was boarding. I honestly can't remember Torres's worst infractions, so I dunno how Tkachuk's trademark antics stack up against Torres's. But I think Tkachuk does count as a star player and that probably gives him a layer of "suspension armor" that Torres was never going to own.

JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL

He's stuck with the Wings for another year. UFA in 2021

I've stated why I believe Larkin is having a down season. It's not my fault you refuse to acknowledge or accept it as valid reasons... This is the worst iteration of the Red Wings any of us have ever witnessed. They're historically bad. If you want to place the blame on Larkin, go for it. I think you'll be hard pressed to find anyone that agrees with you on that though. His offensive stats have not been 1C caliber this season. No one is arguing that. That does not mean he isn't / won't be a legitimate 1C. He's working his ass off defensively, and it's showing. LOL you do that... Yeah, that's exactly the same thing... Let's relate your analogy back to the NHL... How often does a rebuilding team trade their number one center, just entering the prime of his career, because he's having a down season? I guarantee Jeff Blashill and Steve Yzerman are looking beyond Larkin's sub par offensive stats. They're looking at the big picture. They know how bad this team is / was supposed to be this season. They see his defensive game evolving. I'm sure Yzerman remembers conversations with Scotty Bowman 30 years ago, about how he needs to be a more defensively responsible center. Yzerman learned to sacrifice offense for defense. I'm not saying Larkin is the same caliber player as a young Yzerman, but I'm sure he's learning a few things from the man himself. AGAIN, no one is saying that Larkin is having a good season offensively. He's not. In saying that, he could still easily top 60 points this season. You must have missed @Dabura post yesterday... I'll quote some of it here... Datsyuk was 23 years old for his his whole rookie season. He put up 35 points in 70 games. The next season, he put up 51 points in 64 games, as a 24-year-old. Season after that, he put up 68 points in 75 games, as a 25-year-old. Season after that, he exploded: 87 points in 75 games, as a 26-year-old. Zetterberg was 22 for his whole rookie season. He put up 44 points in 79 games. The next season, he put up 43 points in 61 games, as a 23-year-old. Season after that, he exploded: 85 points in 77 games, as a 24-year-old. I'll also add that Datsyuk and Zetterberg played most of their career on one of / if not the best teams in the entire league. Larkin is currently playing on THE worst team in the entire league, and it's not even like they're really underachieving. They were supposed to be bad. That is not the fault of Larkin. Does he need to be better? Sure. Does he deserve the blame for this awful season? No.

I've never really understood saying that bottom tier players "suck". There is a need for 3rd pair D, 4th liners, and even depth players. If a guy is capable of playing those roles, then why does he "suck"? Expendable, replaceable, unremarkable, all accurate descriptions. But saying that a capable, lower level player sucks, just isn't fair, IMO. Does the guy who cleans the toilets at work suck because he works a menial job? If you made him an accountant, yeah, he'd probably suck at it. But if he's a capable janitor, does he really suck as an employee?

I've always had somewhat of a hard on for Kassian. I like grinder types that can fit into a top6 when needed. Good example of a player who overcame bad off ice problems too. Doesn't always feel like it, but those guys can be great role models of what not to do and how to fix it for younger guys. I saw someone making this point: Are these not the exact same style of hits Raffi Torres used to level on people? Taking a bunch of strides and leveling someone behind the goal-line? Torres would get suspended every time for those but the league looks the other way on Tkachuk cause he's not a "goon". I'm not saying the league should suspend Tkachuk. I just want some consistency there. I think the league had it out for Torres really. Which is therefore racism because he's Mexican...

Mentioned this in the GDT: Kassian probably went overboard. He definitely disrespekted da code. But I don't even care. Going mercilessly HAM on a team's alpha after that alpha has taken at least two runs at you is pretty much the only form of deterrence that's actually worth a damn. I unironically want Kassian in a Wings sweater next season. If we get Lafreniere, I unironically want Kassian playing on Lafreniere's line.

@ChristopherReevesLegs @krsmith17 thanks for the entertainment.

For what? Like I said in the GDT, we'd be lucky to get a conditional 7th at this point.

Bernier was supposed to play and got sick (again) right before puck drop. There is something strange going on in this very fragile locker room

We should sign Zack Kassian this summer.

Would be nice but i doubt they’d be looking to trade lauko . Outside of him and beecher i think thats all they have coming up front . But yes adding 1sts/2nds for backes/alzner or whatever else we can do should be our #1 priority Our best draft in a long time was when we had 4 picks 2 years ago in like the top 35 . We need to add a few more picks in the top 60 somehow to speed this up Good bottom 6 seven years ago

Zadina has looked a lot better through the last 7-10 games. Credit where its due. In fact, to rope in my Larkin bashing into this, I think he's shown more of a scoring touch than Larkin has, even despite Larkin's recent offensive uptick. If given Larkin's icetime he prolly outscores Larkin this year. Unfortunately for Zadina we need Larkin's defensive presence which Zadina doesn't bring. With Bertuzzi there definitely is/was a different standard of expectations. Only like 40% of 2nd rounders are gonna move on to the NHL. Meanwhile a #6 pick has like a 90% chance of making the NHL. 2nd round players tend to become on average about 0.2 pt per game players (Dmen and goalies included in that number) and top10 picks tend to average 0.4 - 0.8 pts per game (D and G included) over their careers. So there's a huge difference there. I'm not only expecting Zadina to easily make the NHL fairly quickly, I'm also reasonably expecting him to become top6 winger on the team, and I'm hoping a first line winger. Any butthurtness from me over Zadina is cause I personally don't see that 1st line potential I'm hoping to see. Bertuzzi on the other hand, if he doesn't make the team it sucks but whatever really. Lots of 2nd round players never workout. If he does make it and contributes in the bottom 6 yeah yayyyyyyy. But my comparison to Bertuzzi was really only meant in terms of what they are as players right now, and not what my expectations are. But lets address it anyway. Bertuzzi never got noticed for the great player he is today I think firstly because of his skill set. Bertuzzi isn't very naturally talented. His skating, his hands, his shot, etc etc is all pretty average and boring. He seems to make up for all of that with incredible IQ and having a big fearless personality. To detract a little, I care a lot more about personality these days than I ever did or thought I would. I think Bertuzzi and Seider are phenomenal examples of players who seem to dictate the game almost purely on sheer will and refusal to be intimidated. We need 300 players like this. But back to my point about IQ, I think the problem with IQ is it's incredibly hard to scout for for guys like you and me. Most of the time we are just casually watching the game, but I think to scout for IQ you really need to pick the player you want to learn about and focus only on them throughout the whole game. I do do this, but very rarely, and only with players I'm very excited about aka Zadina and Seider. So yeah maybe if I had done this with a 21/22 year old Bertuzzi I would have noticed something there? IDK I don't wanna say I'm that good, but maybe, who knows. And I admit there's also quite a huge observers bias going on here. Because they are both under my microscope the tendency to nit pick or over exaggerate one positive or negative is definitely a thing. My evaluation of Zadina and Seider are also both based on my own personal taste. Seider is how I would design a Dman. Almost to a T. Zadina isn't necessarily exactly what I hoped for so far. So it's not hard to imagine why my duality of one being amazing and one sucks exists. Don't get me wrong Bertuzzi is probably my favorite player on the team right now. I just have zero tolerance for losing. If Yzerman thinks he can make a deal that makes this team better and it involves Bertuzzi then F Bertuzzi honestly. Let heads roll.

Definitely not good enough, offensively. But not bad, considering his defensive game this season. Far from blameless, but also far from THE blame. Everyone shares the blame from top to bottom. Absolutely. No denying that. Larkin is / will be a legit 1C, but if he's our 2C in a couple years, we'll be in great shape.

Even if Larkin made the comments jokingly, Burke is 100% in the right to criticize him. Larkin is 23 and isnt going to the playoffs. He doesnt need the time off, he wants the time off... cause hes lazy and he sucks. The team being bad does not earn u time off. In fact it earns u the exact opposite. This entire team should be bag skated every day of the all star break.

He'll be the great french ambassador for Lafreniere since Mantha will miss 50 games and Veleno will still be in GRs.