kipwinger

I listen to the Winged Wheel Podcast (for some reason) and those guys fall all over themselves making excuses for Zadina. But they seem to have settled in on, "it's Blashill's fault". Despite Blash moving him up and down the lineup, giving him powerplay time, and constantly defending Zadina's lack of production to the media. But the thing is, this is all a misconception caused by an over reliance on certain types of analytics. We've seen it before (B. Smith, T. Pulkkinen). The analysis bros would have you believe that points don't matter, and even shots on goal don't matter. What matters is...wait for it...shot attempts. And THAT'S what Zadina is good at (supposedly). When he's on the ice the Wings have the puck in the offensive zone more. Does that lead to shots on goal? Nope. Goes it lead to scoring changes? Nada. Does it lead to blocked shots and misses? Bingo. This is why Zadina can be heralded as having good "fancy stats" despite having fewer goals, points, primary assists, goals/60, points/60, and primaryassists/60 than a dude like Rasmussen (someone analytics folks hate). Because they're counting missed shots too, and BOY can Zadina miss shots. And they're just certain that if he keeps getting premium minutes, and keeps missing shots, that his numbers will soon go up through the magical process of "reverting to the mean".

Gotta agree with Neo here. Jack's characters in "One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest", "Five Easy Pieces", "Easy Rider", and "Witches of Eastwick", "As Good as it Gets" and "Departed" are all exactly the same character despite being in vastly different types of films. It's just him sneering and rolling his eyes for two hours. "This time he's a sneering, smartassy, gangster". "This time he's a sneering, smartassy, writer". He mostly blows. But I do love his Joker. It's the only time he was cast correctly. No disrespect to other good Joker portrayals, but at least Jack joked around and laughed a bit in his.

Durrrr…He doesn’t suck, he’s young…durrr Some things never change around here.

Sure, and I presume that’s SY strategy unless a package comes along that knocks his socks off (like the Mantha deal). Bert is a heart and soul guy, but he’s also a valuable commodity. Steve is gonna do his best to sign Bert long term and if he can’t he’s not gonna let him walk for free.

Pretty unlikely Bert is traded at the deadline this year (or at all really). Next year would be more likely when he's expiring, and IF it seems like he doesn't wanna sign in Detroit again. Only way I see it happening this year is IF a contender wanted to overpay in young talent to win now. If Colorado wanted to throw us Newhook and a decent pick for Bert I'd strongly consider it if I was SY. But it would have to be something like that. Even then it comes with risks. I've said before, GMs have to take into account personalities as well. Not a great way to maintain team cohesion if SY trades away all of Larkin's buddies right as it's looking like we'll be good again.

All the better if we pick earlier, but we're closer in points to the teams above us than the teams below us. We have a pretty tough schedule for the next little bit, but it evens out over the rest of the season. Down the stretch we play: Bad/Mediocre teams: Ottawa (three times), New Jersey (twice), Vancouver, Seattle, Philly, Columbus, Arizona, Winnipeg, NYI, and Edmonton. Lower End Playoff Teams: Pittsburgh (twice), Boston, Calgary, Rangers (twice) Lots of winnable games coming up against bad/mediocre teams. And we maybe will go .500 against the lower end playoff tems. Quite a lot of those bad teams are going to be in tank mode at that point too (whereas we'll only really be losing Leddy and Namestnikov). I think it's more likely that we gain a few more points in the standings than lose ground to the teams that are worse than we are, but that's just a guess.

I'm completely finished watching bad hockey. With Larkin playing the way he is, and with the emergence of our other top end young players, I don't think a Bedard is necessary. Besides, with the new rule changes you can only move up 10 spots max. We're going to finish around 12-15th this season. Next season we should be the same or better. So even if we won the lottery we couldn't move up high enough to take Bedard. As far as our center pipeline, we should be able to completely turn it around with the picks we currently have. There are lots of good centers coming along this year in the draft. A few guys I'd target by round: Round 1: Nazar, Kasper Round 2: Ostlund, Bystedt Round 3: Kaskimaki, Ronni Round 4: Sjodin

Larkin Nazar Eichel (My mistake, I didn't look closely enough and assumed that was his draft year) Hughes Other notable Development program centers: Zegras: USHL: 1.48 ppg USDP: 1.45 ppg Keller: USHL: 1.6 ppg USDP: 1.7 ppg The point of all this? Nazar is a very good center whose offense is in line with some of the better centers in the world (at the same age). If you can get this guy at 10-15 in the draft you don't overthink it.

Fun thought: When Lucas Raymond is 24 he’ll basically be Kirill Kaprizov.

Guess these players USNTDP players in their draft years: Player 1: USHL: .93 ppg USDP: 1 ppg Player 2: USHL: 1.5 ppg USDP: 1.2 ppg Player 3: USHL: 1.8 ppg USDP: 1.6 ppg Player 4: USHL: 2 ppg USDP: 2.24 ppg

#FrankNazar

Geekie is slow and Lambert plays like a p*ssy. Give me Nazar or Kasper.

Maybe they are kicking tires?

Maybe he’s a Brayden Schenn looking for a St. Louis. I’d at least kick the tires.

I'll take your word for it, again, I don't know much about the guy. I mean, is he that much better than Suter? I guess I don't see it. His best career offensive season was last year, and you're saying that was primarily on the wing? I'd really like someone with solid offensive chops. I think to move us into legit contender status I'd want a 2C closer to Larkin than Suter. Hence Trocheck/Hertl. I guess maybe Copp as a 3rd option, but I'm not excited about it (admittedly with limited familiarity with his game).

Id also consider re-signing Merrill too, if I couldn't get one or the other of Gustafsson or Kulak. Obviously he'd be cheaper than 3 mil. I don't know a ton about Copp, but if I'm not mistaken he doesn't actually play center. He's like Filip Forsberg, he's listed as a C/W but has only ever played wing in the NHL if I'm not mistaken?

Here's what I'd do if I'm Yzerman (barring trades for similar type players): Acquisitions/Promotions: 1. Push hard for Trocheck or Hertl. Trocheck is the local guy so that would be my preference (to help get a better deal) but either will do. Carolina is up against the cap and have a few decent players to re-sign, including Necas (who is essentially Trocheck's replacement as 2C). Hertl is almost certainly hitting free agency. Contract: 7.5 mil X 5 years 2. Sign Gustafsson and Kulak. Both are on dumpster fire teams and would both be getting top four minutes in Detroit. Overpay a little if necessary. Contract: 3 mil x 3 years 3. Sign Brayden Holtby. Good track record, bad year, bad team. Contract: 5 mil x 3 years. 4. Promote Berggren on ELC 5. Promote the better of McIsaac or Edvinsson: ELC 6. Promote Sodorblom: ELC Total Money In: 18.5 mil (roughly) Trades/FA losses: Nemestnikov (trade at deadline): 2 mil Gagner (UFA loss): 850K Rowney (UFA loss): 825K Leddy (trade): 5.5 mil Dekeyser: 5 mil Staal (trade/FA loss): 2 mil Stetcher (trade): 1.7 mil Greiss (FA loss): 3.5 mil Total Money Out: 21 mil (roughly) This leaves you about 14 mil over the cap. Sit on this money, the next offseason you have to re-sign Larkin, Bert, Suter, and (maybe) Lindstrom and Veleno. Lineup: Bert-Larkin-Raymond Zadina-Trochek/Hertl-Vrana Berggren-Suter-Fabbri Veleno-Stephens-Ras Sodorblom Gustafsson-Seider Kulak-Hronek McIsaac/Edvinsson-Lindstrom Oesterle Ned Holtby

He's listed as a center but hasn't played there much on his last two teams. Columbus is STARVED for centers and they don't even play him there. I'm all for Yzerman going big on a real 2C. But Domi probably isn't the answer there.

Constantly hurt. Recall reading an article a year or so ago about how he'll never play at 100% again because of the seriousness of his back injuries. And that was before this year (he's already missed about 20 games this season).

For better or for worse, there's a GDT. Tonight is Darren Helm's first time back in Detroit as a member of the Avs. Always loved that guy and wish he'd gotten a little more love as his career tailed off in Detroit.

I find Mickey Redmond absolutely intolerable to listen to these days. He used to have fun anecdotes and goofy sayings. Now he just ******* about how much better the good ol’ days were.

I'd argue that we should accumulate as many picks as humanly possible for the draft this year. A whole bunch of pretty good OHL (and Euro minor league players too) kids didn't get selected last year because they hadn't played in a year and teams weren't able to scout them properly. There are gonna be a ton of pretty good overagers this year on top of the first year draft eligible kids. The more 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks you have the more shots you get a guys like Linus Sjodin (my darkhorse candidate), in the middle and later rounds. As such I'd honestly trade Namestnikov for a 3rd and a 4th (or something like that). Same with Leddy, Greiss, and whomever else. Think about this, we got Carter Mazur with a 3rd last year. Red Savage with a 4th. And Dower Nilsson with a 5th. Those are really good players at those draft positions. This year will be no different. Stack them picks.

He's a possession defenseman, kinda like Troy Stetcher but scores a little more. This also precludes the possibility of a trade for a better, cost controlled, defenseman. Something that is likely to happen given that the cap hasn't gone up and teams will need to sign their FAs. Either way, Lindholm just doesn't make a ton of sense.

McIsaac is the best defender in GR and is improving every game (considering he missed basically two full years of development). But I'm not even advocating throwing an all U25 defense out next season. Sign someone like Gustafsson or Brett Kulak (or both) to a 3 year deal at half the price as Lindholm. You'll get similar results (or better defensive results), have a veteran presence in the lineup if the young guys aren't ready, and they won't be an albatross in a few years if more young LHD (aside from Edvinsson) are ready. Something like: Kulak-Seider Gustafsson-Hronek Edvinsson-Lindstrom