PavelValerievichDatsyuk

Thanks to Vegas for this! It will be interesting to see how much space we'll have. But that will all depend on whether we're planning on bringing back Green and where Mrazek fits into things. Anyway, good thing for a big offseason where we have to re-sign Mantha, Larkin, AA. to deals (Frk too).

Okay, my mistake, but that doesn't effect the point at all: she was quite settled in Slovakia at least 3 years before competing for them.

But Kuzmina was living in Slovakia and was married to a Slovakian with child 3 years before the 2010 olympics. She had a Slovakian passport in 2008 - 2 years before representing them in the olympics. That's a lot different than a Russian hockey player with no ties to another country getting citizenship and representing them in 2 months time. Sure there might be some Russians that are settled in other countries that can play for those countries, but how many of Russia's likely Olympic team will that apply to? I'd guess they'd mostly be KHL players living in Russia. And Nedved had defected to Canada 4 years before the 94 Olympics

Go Wings!! I think it's time for Z to go into beast mode to break this losing streak.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for that kind of trade if we could find it - I just don't think they're around very often or much at all. For instance, you mention players like Montour, who I also really liked. The problem is that The Ducks also liked him a whole lot even before he blew up - there was a lot of hype around him. I doubt you would pry him away from them, especially if you're talking about a trade not involving Larkin and Mantha Same with Bean and Fabbro, I'm sure their teams like them very much. They're both 1st round picks and developing nicely - I doubt you're prying them away without giving one of our 1st round players player who's more promising or more proven (aka someone like Mantha, Larkin). And you're right that we don't know who's available, but we do who's been traded and I don't know many trades like you describe (unproven high end dmen/propect for someone less valuable than Mantha) If there were some examples from the last while, I'd be more inclined to think that there's some of these possible trades out there for Holland to find. The Sergachev example is one, but like I said Drouin was more valuable than even Larkin or Mantha. He had just had a 53 pt season and was a 3rd overall pick. So I don't think you can use that as an example of the type of trade you're talking about. The Shea Theodore story is weird, but he was only given up as a way to protect Manson just as much as to protect Vatanen. I think Vatanen was kept around in case Montour was a flop, but has now proven expendable. Also, they were trying to get rid of Clayton Stoner's caphit (maybe so they could re-sign someone? I forget why...)

Happens to everyone. Buffalo is where players go to be forgotten, after all (sorry Wilson)

I wasn't arguing that young Dmen aren't traded. It's more about krsmith saying unestablished guys that would be cheaper than an established top defender and that we could therefore pull off. Larsson was already 5 years in and chosen to an All star team, playing more than 22+ minutes as a top pairing D man. He was establish and cost a hell of a lot. I don't think we have a piece as valuable as Hall was - I mean he was a 1st over all pick, a captain with 5 50+ season (and an 80 pt season under his belt). To me that means it's not really a feasible trade when we're talking about "why doesn't Holland make a trade." Just whether a trade happened isn't the full consideration. Seth Jones was closer to being unestablished since he was under Weber, Josi, Ellis, and Ekholm in the depth chart, but he still cost Ryan Johanson, who was 4th overall, 5 years in with 2 60 pt seasons (1 at 71 pts) under his belt. I don't think any of Larkin, Mantha, or AA would be valued as much that. So to me, It's another trade that isn't really feasible for us at the moment or recent past. So, I still don't see examples of trades that have been pulled off for high end young D men that are all that feasible. The Hamilton example is there (and we could debate whether giving up our 1st+2 2nds would be a good idea right now - Not sure what I'd do - It'd be hard to think of now that we could be in line for a top prospect this year) But, I agree that we should look for a young Dman by trade and I'd give a lot for one, but they are rare and unlikely when we don't have a proven elite forward to offer in return. P.S. you say if Winnipeg loses Kane, but they lost him years ago in the Myers trade.

But what such players are, have been available? I think Sergachev fits into that category, but I don't Mantha or AA would be valued as much as Drouin was. Tyler Myers (though he was already established at the time) for Mantha was a rumour, but I'm glad we turned that down. But even when looking at that trade, Jets had to give Kane and Bogosian to make that work. I don't even know if Mantha would have been enough to get it done. But anyway, that and Hamilton, Burns and other trades for young Dmen were for guys already pretty established. Few teams trade such promising Dmen when they haven't even been given a chance to establish themselves. I don't think there's many of these trades out there just waiting if our GM just has some gumption (my oldtimey word for the day). Less that are worthwhile/feasible since so much is asked in return for young promising Dmen. Otherwise, they would be made by some of the GMs that are more trade-friendly.

If you mean because we're struggling, you have to remember that Sabres are last in the league. And they're even worse than us in the past 10 (1-8-1). But, if you mean because he might have a chance to play a bit more, then maybe. I'm not sure how much more icetime he'll get, though. Anyway, good move - it's good to get something for him. Now the return for Sheahan is like getting this 5th rounder in addition to upgrading a 5th for a 3rd from the Pens.

Petruzelli has a 3.98 GAA in 5 games as the backup for Quinnipiac. Their team seems to be pretty bad, since they're 9th out of 12 in the ECAC. Is it transitional struggles or maybe a bad situation?

Hilarious. I checked out at 6-0. It's not going to be fun tomorrow living here in Montreal.

Wow 6 loses in row. Only Philly, Buffalo, and Ottawa have been worse in the past 10 games.

For me, they've ruined their interesting storyline. I really liked Edmonton when they had Hall and Eberle and they felt like the bumbling band of good guys who could never get it together due to well intentioned but incompetent management. I've always been watching them and cheering them as the underdog. But since they got rid of those guys that rode through the hard times and that the city loved, - and signed that #%^& Lucic - It's no longer the band finally making good. There's no guys getting redemption now that McDavid's there. So, I says let the s*** show continue!!! Let's go Wings!!!!

You're right. Honestly, I didn't watch them - was just going off what Buppy said and knew of Schultz's beast year. At most you could probably just say they replaced Letang with Schultz's year/playoff performance. So, yeah, they definitely lacked the elite Dman. I Think there something to that saying that a laking elite D can be overcome. But if you're looking at Pen's as the example, you would need the best player in the game, a 2C who's really a 1C, A 70 pt winger (Kessel), and throw in a low cost rookie Entry level contract scorer who produce almost a PPG (Guentzal) in the playoffs. But I do think a solid, deep D group could do it with a strong Goalie and great offence. I'm not big on having any formula like Elite 1C+F+1D=success.

Watching the recent game where Larkin was mic'd up, you could see how vocal Larkin already is in directing other players. He's quietly taking over the 1C position so far this year and I think he continues these trends of being central to the team, I think it will be him whenever Z retires. I'd be very surprised if Abby is ever in consideration. I think Role players are usually chosen when a team's skilled players are too new to the team/league: eg, Mackenzie was chosen since Ekblad was in his 1st year there, Trocheck, Barkov in their 2nd year (+huberdeau was looking like a disappointment). Z discounted that report and said he'll play until he's unable to. Even if he stopped with 2 years left, Larkin would be 4 years with the team/league and, I think, experienced/respected enough.

Not to mention Justin Schultz who had 51 pts and was 7th in the league in defensive scoring last year. So they had 2 of the best offensive Dmen in the league at playoff time this past year - Hard to match up against.

The Avs are currently in a playoff spot. And they're 2 pts. behind us with 2 games in hand. They're not really a bottom feeder - like us, they're currently a bubble team.

I agree that draft and develop is the way to go since these trades are so rare. But there have been other pretty good Dmen traded: maybe not all #1 guys, but all of Hamilton, Burns, Byfuglien, Erik Johnson, Seth Jones. But anyway, I wouldn't be desperate for the top D trade right now and would have to be quite a player to think of giving up one of these guys like Mantha Larkin, AA who seem so important for the future. We have a few years of drafting and rebuilding so hopefully we do find some good Dmen through the draft.

Thought this post game interview with Blash was interesting. He talks about AA, Mantha, Larkin a lot, but specifically the part at 5:13 I thought would be interesting to everybody. Certainly a big criticism around here has been Blash's treatment of these young guys. But it seems that, to the coach, they've turned a corner and will be traeted differently. He says specifically around 5:45 (paraphrase)"The learned a lot of tough lessons last year...at some point...as they learned that, you got to let them go a little bit."

I don't see that at all. Ericsson was one of the first ones in to the pile going after Tkachuk. When Howard started in on the opposite side of the pile, E was already pressed up against the boards by a couple Flames and tied up with Jankowski (and a ref) for any of the time Howard was involved. For me there's no cause for criticizing E here. He also jumped in to stand up for Tatar at the end of the game. He did well trying to protect teammates. P.S. I just noticed in the video, it looks like Ferland runs over might have hit Ericsson from the bench.

We've been playing with 11 forwards and 7 Dmen for at least a couple games. I liked the interview with Blash after the last game where he connected the strategy to AA getting the chance to play Center and wing as he's getting double shifted to cover the missing forward. It's all good with me. Especially with the Dmen we have - I'd rather not having anyone playing huge minutes. This way we spread out the icetime for them.

I always think of this great weird new wave song when you bring up the plastics. Everybody knows!

Oops - just my brain checking out for a moment there. Maybe just the effect of a late night post, haha. That's not exactly true. If you look at the conditions of his NTC, the NTC can be voided in the last 2 years if he's not top 9 for TOI or if we don't make the playoffs. And if you're interested, so far this year, he's 7th in forwards for ice time - with AA, Frk and Nielsen below. If he plays himself below these 3 (i know, I know some will say he should already be there) or any newcomers: Ras, Svech, Tavaras(haha) then he won't have a NTC. Or if we're still out of the playoffs.

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/redwings Capfriendly has this info if you hover over the "NTC" or "NMC" indication. Green's is a straight NTC, but I'm sure he'd waive that at the trade deadline for the opportunity of going to a contender to try to win a cup. P.S. forgot that we have 5 out of 7 d men with a NTC.

Only 7 players put up 80 pts or more lasr year. 4 of which were Centers. So...by your view there would only be 4 1Cs in the entire league: Crosby, McDavid, Backstrom, and Schiefele. To me, that shows your standard is unrealistic.