Slabby

the thing about Biggs is he had an absolutely terrible U-18s. While he's big and tough, there are doubts about his overall hockey sense and projected skill level. A lot of scouts are starting to believe that he might only be a 3rd liner at the NHL level. and as for Zibanejad and Landeskog, man, I wish. Those two will be looong gone by the Wings' pick. I'm holding out for one of Brodin or Klefbom, but I don't know if even they will be there.

I agree with your points, but those trades are just awful. Highway robbery (in the Wings' favor) on all of 'em. Letting Bogosian or Stewart go for such a crappy return would be reason enough to fire that GM.

May 2nd? Whoa. This article is from the future...

I'm not sure how to embed video here, but here is some video of him.

He's Zetterberg without the elite hockey sense or defense, but with better wheels. He seems to get a lot of breakaways at the college level. He was really a fantastic offensive guy at the college level, basically being Maine's franchise guy for the last 2 years. He should have won the Hobey last year, but Geoffrion's senior status put him over the top. Nyquist was the best player in college hockey by a long shot that year. He probably won't be a first line type guy, but he could be a damn good 2nd liner. I could see him playing well with Tatar.

Ekman-Larsson is going to be a good one for Phoenix. Kid is 19 going on 30 defensively.

Nobody can say that Mickey is a biased commentator. He sounds like a Coyotes color guy tonight.

Man, how quickly we forgot. Ericsson makes Kindl look like Lidstrom.

He became a setup guy primarily right after the lockout. His game was always about holding off defensemen while driving to the net, and they started calling that. Of course, they don't call it anymore, so he could start again...

He played better tonight than I've seen Ericsson play since his first playoff.

Mursak and Helm together would be just silly. So much speed.

He looks like the lovechild of Yzerman and Zetterberg.

Hawks and Pens. I hate the "lol, we're a dynasty now!" comments just because they won a single cup. They both seem to think they're the new Detroit, when in reality they're the new Anaheim and will be retooling before they know it...

his nickname is Tommy Potatoes. like an italian mobster.

How you are on the roids is more a function of how you train. Bonds was mostly concerned with hitting home runs, and with his media visibility on the issue, it's easy to associate a steroid user with a big, bulky guy. But at the same time, all of the guys in the Tour De France are on roids, HGH, etc. Most olympic-level sprinters are. Running backs, wide receivers, etc. It doesn't reduce your agility itself, it's just the case that most roiders don't care about it. It can allow you do to more and better bench presses, but you can do more and better squats and more and better plyometrics or sprints as well. The big helper would also be olympic lifts (like cleans and so on), which really give you a strong first stride. Now, do I think NHL players are all on the juice? No. That said, there is a way to be not "on steroids" but have high-normal testosterone levels, and I think that this practice is very much widespread in the sports world. By this, I mean HRT (hormone replacement therapy). Being on HRT is essentially a license to take steroids, as long as you don't take too much. I might take some flak on these forums for it, but it's a virtue certainty that Chelios and Lidstrom are both on HRT (hormone replacement therapy) at pretty healthy doses. Even looking at Lidstrom's physique in Z's wedding pictures tells you that.

It'd be a shock if Merrill fell to 21 at this point. He was great at the u-18s, and that particularly tourney holds a lot of stock in scouts' eyes. He could easily be early to mid teens. Of course, that means other good players can drop.I agree that McIlrath would be a good pick, but I think it would be a bad idea to try to grab the similar, but lesser player like Tinordi. You go from a guy who could be a force to a guy who...could be pretty good. The Wings could get a better player at that point.

I could see the draft going: 1. Hall 2. Seguin 3. Fowler 4. Gudbranson 5. Gormley 6. Connolly 7. Neiderreiter 8. Granlund 9. Johansen 10. Forbort 11. Skinner 12. Pysyk 13. Burmistrov 14. Campbell 15. Etem The actual order of those players is not quite so important, but I think those are the 15 players gone in the first 15 picks. I think from 16 and on is the window where Detroit could move up and grab a player, or have a player fall to them. That leaves, probably: Vladimir Tarasenko Quinton Howden Austin Watson Jon Merrill Nick Bjugstad Stanislav Galiev Evgeni Kuznetsov Dylen Mcilrath Jaden Schwartz Riley Sheahan Tyler Toffoli Kirill Kabanov John McFarland Calle Jarnkrok Teemu Pulkkinen Maybe a few tweaks in the Top 15 (especially in teams get bold on Watson and Tarasenko), but that's largely what we're looking at. I'd love Watson, but that's a damn good crop of players for 16-30. You take 5 players out of that list and you could still find a prospect you're happy with.

The thing with Kabanov is he's a major league headcase. He wants to be the next Ovechkin, and his dad is constantly meddling in stuff. Like a less-talented Russian Lindros. He can't go back to Russia because he's banned from the KHL for 3 more years, I believe. Next stop: Moncton. He got kicked out of Moncton because they felt like he wasn't giving enough effort, and some of his teammates had had enough with him. The team was STILL IN THE PLAYOFFS, and they decided he was done with the team and his dad negotiated Kabanov to go play at the Under-18 WJC instead. Kabanov never played; he got kicked off the team for being disrespectful to the coach. That brings us to now. Who the hell wants a player who's managed to get kicked out of the 3 last hockey teams he's played for?

Unfortunately, Nyquist likely is not going to win it. He wasn't even voted MVP of Hockey East; Bobby Butler was.

I don't think Babcock's lost the team. When he had all the rested injury replacements in, they were playing rock solid defense and winning some games. I think the truth here is that our main guys are ground down by all the games and they just don't have it in them every game, especially in 3rd periods. I know nobody wants to believe that the Wings aren't capable of winning the cup, but it isn't Babcock's fault that half of his team is near-dead in any given game. TBH, I think the best thing for this team long-term is to miss the playoffs this year and rest. That's hard to say, though.

That wasn't an Ozzy goal. That was a rocket shot while J-Ho was moving laterally. I hate the armchair goaltenders on this site

I think the team plays better in front of Howard because he's really predictable. He makes a first stop and he puts out a huge rebound. Now that the D knows to expect a rebound essentially every shot, they're in position and they chip it out. With Osgood, you have absolutely no idea what's going to happen. He might be the best goalie in the world and he might play like an AHLer with weak fundamentals, sometimes all in the same game. I think the team has confidence in Jimmy right now, and he's playing confident too. I mean, what do you say about a goalie when he's stopping the puck? That's the same crowd that ragged on Hasek for years for his style, yet nobody stopped the puck better in his prime. If Howard collapses, that's a problem. But you know you're a harsh fanbase when you're criticizing a rookie goalie for putting up a .924 save percentage and a 2.20 GAA. Reading this thread, it seems like some posters believe that a truly great goalie should never give up any goals at all. I guess being the goalie in Detroit truly IS one of the toughest jobs in sports. P.S. Counting the game tonight, Howard has a better GAA and SV% than Luongo. Is he as good as Luongo? Absolutely not. But you'd better believe that beating Roberto Luongo at goaltending, even on paper, is something to brag about.

Here's how I think the last few drafts have operated for the Wings: The first priority is Hakan's picks. If Hakan doesn't like anybody within range, they draft a depth guy with character and leadership. If there's nobody fitting that description that they like, they'll either try to trade down or draft for need (see McCollum). After they get the guy they want in the first or second, it's all about swinging for the fences. They seem to prefer getting steady character guys early in the draft and try for scoring in the later rounds.

I really do think this team is worn out. They have an inability to get scoring position on stronger teams. The Ducks here are holding them to the outside pretty easily. Every single line is reduced to cycling around the outside looking for a sneaky pass, and it's not happening. Maybe I'll look like an idiot in a few months (I hope so), but this is not a playoff team to me. It's not a talent or chemistry issue as much as it is a fatigue issue. I think the injuries are just part of the symptom of what the entire team is going through. They just don't have the juice, and the guys who do have something left in the tank are minor enough that they can't carry the team.

I remember reading in the preseason that his wife was staying in Russia with his kid for the season (supposedly so that the kid could get a russian education). I can see how that would start to break a guy down. You barely see your family, and you're not meeting your own expectations on the ice. I know I'll get flamed, but Pavel has claimed that he wants to play in Russia before he's totally done. If this situation gets bad enough, we could be looking at him heading to the KHL because of his family life sooner than later.