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A review of this years UFA class: 1. Alex Debrincat Class: xXx_ELITE_Sniper_xXx Strengths: 360 no-scope head shots Weaknesses: Smol cuterino 2. JT Compher Class: Old Fren Strengths: Will aid in you in your quests. Can call on him anytime. Always picks up the phone. Thank you fren. Weaknesses: Knows all your secrets 3. Klim Kostin Class: Soviet heavy tank Strengths: Drunk and violent Weaknesses: Violent and drunk 4. Daniel Sprong Class: Divorced middle-aged father Strengths: Not actually divorced, middle-aged, or a father. Master of disguise, which he uses to fool opponents. Weaknesses: Not actually a master of disguise, just aging very badly for a 26 year old. 5. Christian Fischer Class: Acquaintance Strengths: Gives you the silent downward acknowledging head nod that all men do when you pass by each other, and doesn't push your relationship farther than that. Weaknesses: Just some guy at the office that you're aware of. You have no idea what he does there and often forget his name. 6. Shayne Gostisbehere Class: Ghost Bear Strengths: Can pass through walls and will bring you salmon Weaknesses: Your trash bins are flipped over every morning 7. Justin Holl Class: Bad defenceman Strengths: Makes your other defencemen look good Weaknesses: Makes your defense look bad 8. James Reimer Class: Cleric Strengths: Hates rainbows Weaknesses: Has none since he accepted Jesus and Mel Gibson into his heart

This is another instance in which I don't think we're seeing the same things. I saw Berggren making plays all over the ice that his linemates couldn't finish, not the other way around. At one point his linemates were Zadina and Veleno, there was no chance either of those dudes were finishing the plays he set up.

It's all Stevie Y, and Mo is a product of him. That said Mo is a generational talent. I stand by that. He's 22 and arguably one of the best Dmen in the league. He's on pace to shatter hitting and blocked shot records. He also scores points if that matters. We drafted our own Chelios. 53 is going to end up in the rafters one day.

I respect everyone's opinions on this. But I'm prepared to throw down over this. Or at least rant a bit. My opinion: We need scoring punch in the worst way, and we've needed it in the worst way for the better part of a decade, and we've had all these draft picks and all these prospects and all these free agent opportunities and all these trade opportunities......... .........yet somehow we still desperately need scoring punch. I wanted Matthew Tkachuk. "Too expensive," people said. OK. Fair enough. But if you want a bigger, grittier, more complete version of DeBrincat, you're basically looking for a unicorn - unless you want to pay out the ass, or unless you get really lucky in the draft. I think the time's come for us to get serious about really, truly moving forward. I love David Perron - but I hate that he's one of our top two wingers at this stage of the rebuild. It's unacceptable to me. We've got a lot of good young players in our system right now, that's true. And that's good. And we'll need them to be good. And they probably will be good. But there's no rule that says we can't trade for other teams' young players. We can sit here and say "Nah, f*** this goal-scoring punk. If he REALLY wants to be a Wing, he'll sit out for a year and wait until free agency next summer." And we can watch that ship sail away. And that will be the 415th ship we've watched sail away since the start of this rebuild - because "Nah it just didn't make sense for us, given where we're at. I'd rather we do the other thing [which we won't end up doing]." And we can spend another year losing close games because we can't score goals. Or......................... ...............we can say "F*** the police" and grab the 25-year-old right-shooting goal-scoring winger right now and sign him to a big deal and take our chances with that investment. "But do you really want to chance it?" Yes, I do. We have all the cap flexibility an organization could ever want. All the money in the Bertuzzi fund can now be used for other stuff. All the money in the Vrana fund can now be used for other stuff. And we also have draft capital. "Yeah, but our young guys are going to start eating up cap space really quickly." Maybe they will, maybe they won't. What I care about now is getting solid footing. Tangible things. Known things. Alex DeBrincat has scored 40 goals twice. He's a natural scorer. He can and will put up points. These are known things. I don't want to go through the motions for another 82 games and accept that we don't need to ice the best damned lineup we can ice "because it's just not time yet. I think we need at least one more really good draft." We've been saying "We just need one more really good draft" for the past 500 years. Enough already! If we can land DeBrincat without giving up our 1st, I think that's a major coup. Pick a name out of a hat for that pick. Let's call it Nate Danielson. If we land DeBrincat and Nate Danielson, I think that's bloody fantastic. All of a sudden we're talking about Larkin, Kasper, Danielson, Veleno down the middle. All of a sudden we're talking about flanking those guys with DeBrincat, Raymond, Mazur, et al. I don't want to wait a second longer than we have to on taking the next step. I don't want to rush it, but I do want to push it. I don't want our young leaders to grow any more accustomed to losing than they already are. We need to start winning games. We need to start doing that whole "winning culture" thing now - not two or three years from now. So. Give me a proven scorer. Who's 25 years old. And who shoots right. And who's from Detroit. [/rant]

Get DeBrincat and Severson and let's make a push next year, jerks. Also: hi.

Ok, this is probably going to be a long post, I am going to try to cover all the drafts, signings and trades that Yzerman has made since he came home. I think once it is done up to date, we will see that he has moved us much closer and faster to glory than Holland could ever had dreamed of. With that being said I will start with what Holland left us with his last season. YEAR ONE 2018-2019 Red Wings: Record: 32-40-10 (74 points), Finished 7th in NHL Atlantic Division Detroit Red Wings hire Steve Yzerman as GM and VP 4-19-2019 5-01-2019 : Signed C Joseph Veleno to a three-year, entry-level contract. 5-05-2019 : Signed D Dylan McIlrath to a two-year, $1.4 million contract extension. 5-28-2019 : Signed D Oliwer Kaski to a one-year, entry-level contract. 6-22-2019 : The Buffalo Sabres acquired a 2019 fifth round pick (#143, Filip Cederqvist(LW)) from Detroit Red Wings for 2019 sixth round pick (#177, Gustav Berglund(D)) & 2019 seventh round pick (#191, Carter Gylander (G)) 2019 Draft: 7-01-2019 : Signed C Valtteri Filppula to a two-year, $3 million contract. Signed D Patrik Nemeth to a two-year, $6 million contract. Signed G Calvin Pickard to a two-year, $1.4 million contract. 7-14-2019 : Signed D Moritz Seider to a three-year, entry-level contract. 8-14-2019 : The Tampa Bay Lightning acquired a 2020 fourth round pick ( #116, Eamon Powell (D)) from the Detroit Red Wings for Adam Erne 10-06-2019 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Alex Biega from Vancouver Canucks for David Pope 10-23-2019 : Waived D Jonathan Ericsson. 10-28-2019 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Brendan Perlini from the Chicago Blackhawks for Alec Regula 11-06-2019 : The St. Louis Blues traded Robby Fabbri to the Detroit Red Wings for Jacob De La Rose 11-30-2019 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Eric Comrie from the Arizona Coyotes for Vili Saarijarvi 12-09-2019 : Waived D Madison Bowey. 12-12-2019 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Kyle Wood from the Carolina Hurricanes for Oliwer Kaski 12-18-2019 : Waived G Eric Comrie. 2-21-2020 : Acquired D Cody Goloubef off waivers from Ottawa Senators. 2-23-2020 : The Edmonton Oilers acquired Mike Green from the Detroit Red Wings for a conditional 2020 fourth round pick (conditions weren't met, we kept the #107 (Bednar) pick) and Kyle Brodziak 2-24-2020 : Acquired LW Dmytro Timashov off waivers from the Toronto Maple Leafs. 2-24-2020 : The Edmonton Oilers acquired Andreas Athanasiou and Ryan Kuffner from the Detroit Red Wings for Sam Gagner, 2020 second round pick (#45 traded to LA (Brock Faber (D) for #51 (Theodor Niderbach) & 2020 4th (#97 Sam Stange) and 2021 second round pick (traded NYI (#52 Atu Raty) along with Richard Panik for Nick Leddy on 7-16-2021) 2020 Seasons stats: Record: 17-49-5 (39 points), Finished 8th in NHL Atlantic Division Significant step backwards, did we try to tank? Either way, this was expected with the mess Holland left and Yzerman trying to patch holes. 2020-2021 Season 4-29-2020 : Signed LW Mathias Brome to a one-year, two-way contract worth $925,000. 8-24-2020 : Signed C Robby Fabbri to a two-year, $5.9 million contract extension. 9-26-2020 : Acquired D Marc Staal and a 2021 second-round draft pick from the New York Rangers (traded to Dallas (Artem Grushnikov) along with #23 (acquired in Mantha deal) (Wyatt Johnston)) and 2021 5th (Ottawa #138 (Jack Barr) for 2021 1st (#15 Sebastian Cossa)) for future considerations. It is unknown what the future consideration were. 10-06-2020 : Red Wings buyout Abdelkader contract 2020 NHL Draft Day 2 draft day trades: 10-7-2020 : The Los Angeles Kings acquired 2020 second round pick (#45 (Brock Faber)) from the Detroit Red Wings for 2020 second round pick (#51 (Neiderbach)) and 2020 fourth round pick (#97 (Stange)) 10-7-2020 : The Minnesota Wild acquired 2020 third round pick (#65 (original Sharks (Daemon Hunt))) from the Detroit Red Wings for 2020 third round pick (#70 (Eemil Viro)) and 2020 fifth round pick (#132 (Alex Cotton)) 10-7-2020 : The St. Louis Blues acquired 2021 seventh round pick (#198 (Ivan Vorobyov)) from the Detroit Red Wings for 2020 seventh round pick (#203 (Chase Bradley)) 10-9-2020 : Signed RW Bobby Ryan to a one-year, $1 million contract. Signed D Jon Merrill to a one-year $925,000 contract. Signed D Troy Stecher to a two-year, $3.4 million contract. Signed G Thomas Greiss to a two-year, $7.2 million contract. Signed C Vladislav Namestnikov to a two-year, $4 million contract. 1-09-2021 : The Red Wings claimed Christian Djoos off waivers 2-14-2021 : DeKeyser was waived by the Detroit Red Wings 2-21-2021 : Nielsen was waived by the Detroit Red Wings 3-03-2021 : Filppula was waived by Detroit 4-09-2021 : The Colorado Avalanche acquired Patrik Nemeth from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2022 fourth round pick (#129 (Maximilian Kilpinen)) 4-10-2021 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired David Savard from the Columbus Blue Jackets for Brian Lashoff. The Tampa Bay Lightning acquired David Savard from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2021 fourth round pick (#128 later traded to Vegas (Jakub Demek) along with #38 (Daniil Chayka) for #36 (Shai Buium)) 4-11-2021 : The Montreal Canadiens acquired Jon Merrill from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2021 fifth round pick (traded to Dallas (Jack Bar)) and Hayden Verbeek 4-12-2021 : The Washington Capitals acquired Anthony Mantha from the Detroit Red Wings for Richard Panik, Jakub Vrana, 2021 first round pick (dealt in Cossa deal) and 2022 second round pick (#52 (Dimitri Buchelnikov)) 4-16-2021 : Raymond signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. The deal will begin with the 2021-22 season. 2021 Season Stats: Record: 19-27-10 (48 points), Finished 7th in NHL Central Division Slight improvement, especially since it was another shortened season. 2021-2022 Season: 5-20-2021 : Jonatan Berggren signed a three-year, entry-level contract 7-16-2021 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Nick Leddy from the New York Islanders for Richard Panik and 2021 second round pick (#52 - from Edmonton (Atu raty)) 7-21-2021: The Seattle Kraken acquired Dennis Cholowski from the Detroit Red Wings in the expansion draft 7-22-2021 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Alex Nedeljkovic from the Carolina Hurricanes for a 2021 third round pick (Originally Vegas pick acquired in Tatar trade (Holland deal) #94 (Aidan Hreschuk)) and Jonathan Bernier 2021 Draft Draft Day Trades: 7-23-2021 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired 2021 first round pick (#15 (Cossa)) from the Dallas Stars for 2021 first round pick (#23 (Wyatt Johnson)), 2021 second round pick (#48 originally Rangers in acquired Staal trade (Atrem Grusnikov)), and 2021 fifth round pick (#138 originally Ottawa pick acquired via Montreal in Merrill trade (Jack Bar)) 7-24-2021 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired 2021 Second Round Pick (#36 (Buium) from the Vegas Golden Knights for 2021 Second Round Pick (#38 (Chayka)) and 2021 Fourth Round Pick (#128 (Demek)) 7-24-2021 : The Vegas Golden Knights acquired 2021 fourth round pick (#102 (Jakub Brabenec)) from the Detroit Red Wings for 2021 fourth round pick (#114 (Red Savage)) and 2021 fifth round pick (#155 (Oscar Plandowski)) 7-28-2021 : Suter signed a two-year, $6.5 million contract. Oesterle signed a two-year, $2.7 million contract. 7-29-2021 : Witkowski signed a two-year contract. 7-30-2021 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Mitchell Stephens from the Tampa Bay Lightning for 2022 sixth round pick (traded to LA #169 (Jared Wright)) 7-31-2021 : Bertuzzi (back) signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract 8-10-2021 : Vrana agreed to terms on a three-year, $15.75 million contract 8-19-2021 : Red Wings buyout Frans Nielsen contract 12-14-2021 : Robby Fabbri signed a three-year, $12 million extension 1-19-2022 : The Red Wings claimed Gemel Smith off waivers from Tampa Bay 2-18-2022 : Gemel Smith was placed on waivers 3-06-2022 : Olli Juolevi was claimed by Detroit from Florida off waivers 3-20-2022 : The Los Angeles Kings acquired Troy Stecher from the Detroit Red Wings for 2022 seventh round pick (#212 (Brennan Ali)) 3-21-2022 : The St. Louis Blues acquired Nick Leddy and Luke Witkowski from the Detroit Red Wings for Oskar Sundqvist, Jake Walman, and 2023 second round pick (#42 (Andrew Gibson)) 3-21-2022 : The Dallas Stars acquired Vladislav Namestnikov from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2024 4th Round Pick 4-24-2022 : Edvinsson signed a three-year, entry level contract 2022 Season Stats: Record: 32-40-10 (74 points), Finished 6th in NHL Atlantic Division 5-16-2022 : Pontus Andreasson signed a one-year contract 5-22-2022 : Steven Kampfer signed a one-year deal 6-09-2022 : Elmer Soderblom signed a three-year, entry-level contract 2022 Draft: 7-8-2022 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Ville Husso from the St Louis Blues for 2022 third round pick (#73 (Aleksanteri Kaskimaki)) 7-13-2022 : Marco Kasper signed a three-year, entry-level deal 7-13-2022 : Copp penned a five-year, $28.125 million contract. Maatta agreed to terms on a one-year, $2.25 million deal. Chiarot signed a four-year, $19 million contract. Kubalik signed a two-year, $5 million contract. Perron signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract. 7-25-2022 : Hagg agreed to terms on a one-year, $800,000 contract. 8-10-2022 : Walman signed a one-year, $1.05 million contract 8-26-2022 : Zadina signed a three-year, $5.475 million contract extension 11-23-2022 : Detroit claimed Magnus Hellberg off waivers from Seattle 12-19-2022 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Michael Del Zotto from the Florida Panthers for Givani Smith. The Anaheim Ducks acquired Michael Del Zotto from the Anaheim Ducks for Danny O'Regan. 12-23-2022 : Amadeus Lombardi signed a three-year. entry-level contract with Detroit. 1-18-2023 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Jasper Weatherby from the San Jose Sharks for Kyle Criscuolo. 2-16-2023 : Olli Maatta signed a two-year, $6 million contract extension 2-28-2023 : Jake Walman agreed to terms on a three-year, $10.2 million contract extension 3-01-2023 : Dylan Larkin signed an eight-year, $69.6 million contract extension 3-01-2023 : The Vancouver Canucks acquired Filip Hronek and a 2023 fourth round pick (#105 (Ty Mueller)) from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2023 first round pick (#17 original Islanders (Axel Sandin Pellikka)) and 2023 second round pick (traded to Nashville (#43 (Felix Nilsson)) for #47 (Brady Cleveland) and #147 (Kevin Backer)) 3-02-2023 : The Boston Bruins acquired Tyler Bertuzzi from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2024 1st round pick (possibly going to Ottawa in Debincat deal) and a 2025 4th round pick 3-03-2023 : Alex Chiasson signed a one-year contract 3-03-2023 : The St. Louis Blues acquired Jakub Vrana from the Detroit Red Wings for Dylan McLaughlin and a 2025 7th round pick 3-03-2023 : The Minnesota Wild acquired Oskar Sundqvist from Detroit Red Wings for a 2023 4th round pick (#117 (Larry Keenan)) 3-09-2023 : The Arizona Coyotes acquired Steven Kampfer from the Detroit Red Wings for future considerations 3-28-2023 : Carter Mazur agreed to terms on a three-year, entry-level contract 2022-2023 Season Stats: Record: 35-37-10 (80 points), 7th in NHL Atlantic Division Again, slight improvement, more kids playing and more assets acquired. 2023 Off Season thus far: 2023 Draft 6-29-2023 : Kailer Yamamoto and Klim Kostin were traded to the Detroit Red Wings from the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday in exchange for future considerations. Draft Day 2 Trades: 6-29-2023 : The Nashville Predators acquired a 2023 2nd round pick (#43 (Felix Nilsson)) from the Detroit Red Wings for a 2023 2nd round pick (#47 (Brady Cleveland)) and 2023 5th round pick (#147 (Kevin Bicker)) 6-30-2023 : Kailer Yamamoto contract bough out. 7-01-2023 : Klim Kostin signed a two-year contract. James Reimer signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract. Justin Holl signed a three-year, $10.2 million deal. Alex Lyon signed a two-year, $1.8 million contract. Daniel Sprong signed a one-year, $2 million contract. JT Compher signed a five-year, $25.5 million contract. Shayne Gostisbehere signed a one-year, $4.15 million contract. 7-02-2023 : Christian Fischer signed a one-year, $1.125 million contract. 7-03-2023 : Filip Zadina was placed on waivers for purpose of contract termination. 7-08-2023 : John Lethemon signed a one-year, two-way contract 7-09-2023 : The Detroit Red Wings acquired Alex DeBrincat from the Ottawa Senators for Dominik Kubalik, Donovan Sebrango, a conditional 2024 1st round pick, and a 2024 4th round pick. There were a lot of minor league transactions I did not include, along with a lot of recalls and waivers and demotions. If you look at what Holland left us compared to today, the Yzerplan is working, and working well. I predict we will be in the playoffs this season. Please feel free to add to this things I may have missed. Thanks for reading this all!

I would have to say Yzerman more so. Only because I do not think Holland would've drafted Mo at the #6. If he would've been drafting D, I see Holland still taking Broberg. If he was going forward, you would hope he would've gone with Zegras or Cozens, but he probably would've reached with Poulin or Holmstrom. Although Raymond came out firing, I think he still needs more time to see if he can be a 30-40 goal scorer. Simon is a stud, hopefully he spends only one more season in GR and makes the team soon! I also hope that Kasper and Danielson make a splash sooner rather that later, because I do believe the days of The Wings drafting in the top 10 are over. So (even though we've had the worst lottery luck in NHL lottery history) we'll never get to draft that #1 or #2 generational player. BUT, that being said, injuries play a huge role in a team's success, and although I am ready to have them turn the corner, I wouldn't mind having a shot at Cole Eiserman. So, IMO, Yzerman changed the direction with his surprising selection of Mo Seider and also dumping most of Holland's trash.

We don´t need $11m players on our roster. Two good $6m players have imo more worth. Look at Toronto and Edmonton,they struggle to assemble a good and deep lineup because so much money is locked in their "starpower". Keep all of our top picks the next two drafts and let the young guns develop. It takes more time, yes, but that way we load up with more talent. Talent we will need to be competitive for years and not only a few seasons. Talent we need as potential improvement to our roster or as trade chips. It´s not the time for a big splash, not yet...

Remember how Arizona lost a first-rounder because they had their own little combine for prospects? Remember how New Jersey lost a first-rounder because they signed Kovalchuk to a contract that was well within the rules of the CBA but the league decided to cry foul? Yet the team who covers up sexual assault for 10 years gets barely a slap on the wrist. Clown league.

Why are fans so obsessed with "no tanking"? Who cares? We tanked and literally everyone was in favor of it. Chicago does it, and gets luckier in the lottery, and now we have to regurgitate this same "tanking is bad" narrative again. Most rebuilding teams tank. We did, Edmonton did, Ottawa did, Buffalo did, Arizona perpetually tanks. Why do we have to have the most convoluted draft order of any major professional sport to combat something that pretty much everyone (except Gary Bettman) agrees is good to do once in a while? Just do reverse draft order and if teams like Edmonton want to be bad for 15 years in hopes of landing a McDavid one day, more power to them. Meanwhile a lot of non-McDavid teams are out there competing for and winning Cups. If nothing else this year's playoffs has shown that generational guys don't really make your team more competitive. Seattle has no players of that caliber. Vegas has a few high end guys, all of whom they traded for, and none of whom required winning the lottery. Same for Florida, Carolina, and Dallas. Edmonton, Jersey, and TO are the only teams that A) tanked, B) won the draft lottery, and C) are still playing hockey. And none of them are performing well enough to suggest that this strategy is some sure fire way to build a winner.

The Red Wings have dropped 8 total slots in the lottery during their rebuild. If they move up 8 slots they get Connor Bedard. Tonight is the night, boys. Tonight is when this team gets aligned with the universe.

Kasper and Edvinsson in for the Red Wings tonight, Wallinder and Mazur playing for GR today. F*ckin' A.

Edvinsson was pretty raw during training camp. He was turning the puck over A LOT and wasn't defending well. I suppose you could make the argument that he could have learned to manage those parts of his game in the NHL but I tend to agree that the NHL is not for development. In the video I posted in the other thread Edvinsson said himself that the jump from Europe to the AHL was much bigger than from the AHL to the NHL.

I need to look into how to do this. I'm 47 years old, so this isn't as simple for me. But it would be cool if I hosted it. "Good afternoon, fellow Red Wings Fans AKA Complete Retards. Today, we're going to be talking about Jakub Vrana. Sixer, let's talk about his cocaine habit and whether or not he can hide it from the boss. I don't think so, but why don't you let us in a little bit on your knowhow here." "Well, Jonas. It's only easy to conceal if you're not doing 50 grams a week. Sneaking an 8 ball into a club now and then is as easy as wearing a third sock on one of your feet and nobody noticing. But he must be ingesting an enormous amount for him to be this lethargic, lazy, and suck this much without it." "Interesting. Is Marc still on the line?" "Yah, he's been waiting for 20 minutes. Want to go to him now?" "Marc, tell us what you think about the Jakub "The Iceman" Vrana." "Well, I ..." "Thanks Marc. Good input as always. Now, onto the Carley vs Daniella - Who's more bangable and why debate. I'm going to have to take this one seeing as FMichael hasn't had sex in 6 years, and 6er and Akabuto are both ***. I'm gonna go with Daniella here. Let me tell you why ..."

Bernier? Is that you?

Tony DeAngelo would have a job if one of two things were true, 1) he played defense decently, 2) he didn't play defense but scored 80-100 points like Karlsson. He does neither and nobody is going to accept how bad he is defensively for 40-50 points. Not when you can get guys like Shayne Gostisbehere for cheap. Players' politics only matter when they suck. I used to say the same thing about Colin Kaepernick. If he was as good as Tom Brady nobody would care about his politics. Brady used to golf with Trump and nobody in the NFL really cared too much. Certainly not enough to threaten his career in any meaningful way. Kaepernick's politics got a very different reaction because he wasn't any good to begin with.

Yeah, I don't think you and I really strongly disagree on anything we're talking about here. You may be a bit more bullish overall, but we agree that Yzerman's building a really solid team that's gonna be really hard to play against when it all comes together. When I said we're probably gonna be short on superstar talent, I wasn't really trying to be a buzzkill; all I meant was the vision is more "Big, lean, fast, aggressive, relentless" than "Look at how many $10M players we have; we're clearly the superior team here." I don't want this to reply to read like cope, but on some level I feel like "elite, elite" star power means less and less as we get deeper and deeper into the age of parity. Or, rather, it's becoming more and more important that the star power is backed by teeth and claws and guts and smarts and give-a-s***. Stuff that wins when the games really, truly mean something (i.e. in the playoffs). Can you roll four lines and three D pairings all game every game? Can your players consistently win their matchups at home and on the road? Can you execute your system better than the other team executes theirs? Are you loaded with forwards who'll empty the tank on the backcheck, steal the puck, and then hit a streaking teammate with a perfect stretch pass? If you struggle to hang with the opponent at even strength, can you win with your special teams? ^^^Those questions are, I feel, just as - if not more - important than, like, "Where's our 60-goal scorer?" And so I look at our forwards and, while I certainly do lament the fact that we only have one proven young gun scoring winger after years of rebuilding...I'm not super-concerned. That's largely/mostly because of Edvinsson-Seider, but it's also because I do think one day we're gonna take a look at our forward lines and be like "Holy crap, we're actually really, really deep up front." That is, I'm thinking it's not gonna be evident...until it is. It'll slowly come together, and then it'll all click. I reckon that's how it's gonna go.

Pretty sure the Wings current strength coach used to be UofMs strength coach. This will be the summer of Kasper. Marco and Mo working out together next to a shrine dedicated to Arnold Schwartzenegger. With that classic photo of Arnold from Golds gym as the mantle piece. On the otherside of the room is a two way mirror, behind which Lidstrom, Kronwall, and a team of nazi scientists hired from Nasa study there every lift in pursuit of the dream of creating the first uber-wing. In the doorway into this secret subterranean wings gym lies an Uwe Krupp jersey, so that Marco and Mo can wipe their shoes on his failed career as a Wing. And they are fed a healthy stream of coney dogs, but the dawgs are replaced with german bratwurst for maximum protein gains. The german translation of eminem songs (90s eminem, not late 2000s soft eminem) are blasted over the speakers to keep Marco and Mos aggression levels up. At workouts end the two of them ring out their sweaty towels into a plastic water bottle marked "F. Zadina" as they hope he will build up his testosterone levels by unknowingly drinking their sweat.

Zadina will be a bottom 6 POS until he slinks back to Europe with millions of unearned dollars.

What? You are too young to have witnessed it, but vets were absolutely discriminated against who came home from the Vietnam War. And the way the VA cares for veterans now is tantamount to the same thing. And if a player refused to wear a military jersey or one honoring Cops, the league would not do anything, and the wokies would hypocritically applaud their"courage". Also, the alphabet community is not oppressed. They have the same civil rights and government protections as any other group. And it's not about "equality" or "acceptance" anymore either. That already exists. It goes beyond that. It's about cramming an ideology down the throats of others, and chastising those that don't embrace it.

How I feel about Yzerman thus far in this year's trade deadline...

and this is new?

If anyone here is religious, like really genuinely religious, then when you're brushing your teeth before bed tonight you should look at yourself in the mirror and think, "I'm one of the dumbest f*cks alive today". Just profoundly, disgustingly, stupid. Tyler Bertuzzi stupid.

Last night Flames Rasmus Andersson was hit by a car in Detroit while riding a scooter Welcome to the motor city scooter fayg