Nevermind

I would have preferred McCann as well. Also good defensively but with higher offensive upside IMO.

Kesler to Anaheim. Pierre LeBrun @Real_ESPNLeBrun · 1m Anaheim will trade Bonino, Sbisa plus 24th overall pick and teams will swap third-rounders once deal goes through

Then I agree. Even though O'Reilly doesn't finish very many checks, he's definitely difficult to play against due his speed and hustle. I originally thought you meant someone more like Dubinsky, actually. Someone who has a pest-like mentality to go along with a great defensive conscience.

O'Reilly is not a physical player. He had all of two penalty minutes and 22 credited hits last season. Even Nyqyist had 18 hits in about 25 fewer games. That said, O'Reilly does have tremendous hustle and defensive instincts. But I doubt that's what you meant by "difficult to play against".

but we cld trade down

florida wld not do that

That's a lot of defensive mistakes just waiting to happen on the right side there. And compared to Sproul, Ouellet and Marchenko are certainly more reliable and NHL-ready at this point.

Kane dove like a Hab there.

I'm sure there have been threads like this before. But I was working on a comprehensive list the other day, and thought some here might want to see it. Overall, we're certainly an above-average team at the draft. And it seems like a lot of recent picks are turning out to be NHL-level prospects. Beneath our draft picks are arguably comparable or better players with an NHL pedigree. Red indicates a bust pick. Green indicates a perfect pick. It's still too early for the recent draft years (as such, the drafts from 2009 onwards have some question marks and might miss players who will make it to the show later on after more development.) Draft Year (# of NHL players produced / # of players drafted) 2005 (3/9) 19. Jakub Kindl 22. Tuukka Rask 24. T.J. Oshie 25. Andrew Cogliano 28. Matt Niskanen 29. Steve Downie 33. James Neal 35. Marc-Edouard Vlasic 41. Ondrej Pavelec 42. Justin Abdelkader 44. Paul Stastny 51. Mason Raymond 62. Kristopher Letang 67. Kris Russell 72. Jonathan Quick 79. Cody Franson 80. Cristofer Lofberg 84. Mark Fraser 85. Ben Bishop 96. Chris Butler 101. Jared Boll 103. Mattias Ritola 105. Keith Yandle 106. Vladimir Sobotka 107. Tom Pyatt 108. Niklas Hjalmarsson 112. Alex Stalock 132. Darren Helm 137. Johan Ryno 142. Nathan Gerbe 152. Jeff May 155. Mark Fayne 156. Ryan Reaves 175. Juho Mielonen 181. Tim Kennedy 190. Matt D'Agostini 195. Joe Vitale 200. Sergei Kostitsyn 204. Colin Greening 214. Bretton Stamler 216. Anton Stralman 230. Patrick Hornqvist 2006 (2/7) 41. Cory Emmerton 44. Nikolai Kulemin 45. Jeff Petry 46. Jhonas Enroth 47. Shawn Matthias 50. Milan Lucic 54. Artem Anisimov 57. Mike Weber 62. **** Axelsson 63. Jamie McBain 66. Ryan White 68. Eric Gryba 69. Steve Mason 71. Brad Marchand 74. Jeff Zatkoff 75. Theo Peckham 85. Tom Sestito 92. Daniel Larsson 99. James Reimer 106. Reto Berra 112. Matt Beleskey 120. Richard Bachman 125. Chad Johnson 160. Andrew MacDonald 161. Victor Stahlberg 177. Mathieu Perreault 182. Jan Mursak 189. Derek Dorsett 191. Nick Oslund 196. Benn Ferriero 211. Erik Condra 212. Logan Pyett 2007 (2/5) 27. Brendan Smith 43. P.K. Subban 58. Nick Spaling 61. Wayne Simmonds 79. Nick Palmieri 88. Joakim Andersson 95. Alec Martinez 109. Dwight King 112. Colton Sceviour 129. Jamie Benn 141. Jake Muzzin 148. Randy Cameron 160. Anthony Peluso 161. Patrick Maroon 168. Carl Hagelin 172. Luke Gazdic 173. Nick Bonino 178. Zack Torquato 179. Paul Byron 194. Carl Gunnarsson 201. Justin Bruan 208. Bryan Rufenach 2008 (1/6) 30. Thomas McCollum 31. Jacob Markstrom 32. Slava Voynov 34. Jake Allen 38. Roman Josi 42. Patrick Wiercioch 43. Justin Schultz 45. Zac Dalpe 51. Derek Stepan 53. Travis Hamonic 55. Marco Scandella 60. Jimmy Hayes 69. Michael Stone 79. Zack Smith 82. Adam Henrique 91. Max Nicastro 93. Braden Holtby 96. Matt Donovan 111. Dale Weise 114. T.J. Brodie 117. James Wright 127. Matt Calvert 148. Matt Martin 121. Gustav Nyquist 151. Julien Cayer 152. Mark Barberio 156. Jared Spurgeon 157. Cam Atkinston 169. Ben Smith 177. Tommy Wingels 178. Zac Rinaldo 181. Stephen Johnston 186. Jason Demers 190. Matt Bartkowski 207. Anders Lindback 211. Jesper Samuelsson 2009 (1+/7) 2. Landon Ferraro ??? 33. Ryan O'Reilly 34. Carl Klingberg 35. Kyle Clifford 38. Alex Chiasson 39. Jakob Silfverberg 44. Drew Shore 45. Jeremy Morin 46. Robin Lehner 52. Richard Panik 54. Eric Gelinas 59. Brandon Pirri 60. Tomas Tatar ??? 64. Tyson Barrie 69. Reilly Smith 75. Andrej Nestrasil ??? 84. Nicolas Deslauriers 85. Cody Eakin 90. Gleason Fournier 92. Casaey Cizikas 93. David Savard 98. Craig Smith 104. Marcus Foligno 106. Sami Vatanen 127. Roman Horak 132. Gabriel Borque 149. Marcus Kruger 150. Nick Jensen ??? 161. Darcy Kuemper 180. Mitch Callahan ??? 182. Erik Haula 186. Jordan Nolan 210. Adam Almqvist ??? 2010 (2+/7) 21. Riley Sheahan ??? 23. Mark Pysyk 24. Kevin Hayes 26. Evgeny Kuznestsov 28. Charlie Coyle 29. Emersom Etem 30. Brock Nelson 37. Justin Faulk 38. Jon Merill 42. Devante Smith-Pelly 47. Tyler Toffoli 51. Calle Jarnkrok ??? 66. Radko Gudas 71. Michael Bournival 81. Louis-Marc Auby 90. Joakim Nordstrom 111. Teemu Pulkkinen ??? 135. Justin Florek 141. Petr Mrazek ??? 147. Brendan Gallagher 171. Brooks Macek 181. Frederik Andersen 201. Ben Marshall 2011 (2+/9) 35. Tomas Jurco ??? 37. Boone Jenner 39. John Gibson 41. Dmitrij Jaskin 43. Brandon Saad 44. Matt Nieto 48. Xavier Ouellet ??? 55. Ryan Sproul ??? 58. Nikita Kucherov 85. Alan Quine 87. Jonathan Racine 115. Marek Tvrdon ??? 145. Philippe Hudon ??? 146. Mattias Backman ??? 175. Richard Nedomlel ??? 205. Alexei Marchenko ??? 208. Ondrej Palat

Well, so much for Anaheim.

Been watching the 2nd period so far. Mantha reminds me of Jeff Carter.

Is it just me, or has Crosby become rather lazy defensively? He was never the greatest defensive player, but he seemed really bad tonight. There were quite a few shifts he floated on the backcheck or went for a change when the puck was going the other way.

Doc sounds so depressed. Pierre is speechless. And I'm a bit too happy about this game!

$7 million cap hit and not very good in his own zone. No thanks.

Don't worry, Holland would never overpay for a 38 year old player past his prime.

Thornton = $6.75 million Marleau = $6.67 million Couture = $6 million Pavelski = $6 million Burns = $5.76 million That's $31.2 million for 5 forwards headed into next season. LOL. What will they do?

Trouba is already Winnipeg's best defenseman, ahead of Bogosian/Stuart/Enstrom. He's not going anywhere. I wouldn't mind Morris as a stop-gap option. But only if we can't get someone better (i.e., Niskanen).

I don't think Jarnkrok will ever be as good as Z. But that doesn't mean we didn't overpay for Legwand.

Depends on how Jarnkrok does in the next few years. He had 9 points in 12 games with Nashville this year after being called up. Plus, he's a hard worker and defensively responsible.

Uh, oh. I'd rather he replace Kindl/Lashoff. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/04/rookie_xavier_ouellet_skating.html

Not that I really care about player's personal lives, but I'm curious...is Datsyuk re-married? Ansar Khan said girlfriend.

How good is Matt Niskanen? I don't watch many Penguins games, so I'm not too sure. He's a pending UFA and will surely have a lot of teams interested in overpaying for him this summer. I know he can put up points, but is he reliable defensively?

I'd settle for just the bag of chips.

Unless used jokingly, that spelling's gotta be a cardinal sin on this site.

OMG Babcock read my post!!!!! http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/04/mike_babcock_shuffles_lines_at.html