kipwinger

I've long been on record with the position that I'd never draft a goalie in the top two rounds. As for the bold, in Detroit's forechecking scheme the wingers do more skating than the centers, who play like a 3rd defenseman. Given that Veleno is a quicker skater I'd prefer him over Ras on the wing because of his potential to be more disruptive on the forecheck. Ultimately I'm not too concerned if either/both of them play center, but I'm my fantasyland where we have Johansen as a 2C Veleno seems like the natural choice to move to the wing.

Exactly. Only way I see them staying is if they're the "I only wanna play for one team" type of players that us Michiganders grew up with. Of course, all of Yzerman, Lids, Dats, Zetterberg, Kronwall, etc. won Cups early enough in their careers to have that luxury. DK and Glenny not so much.

Gotta figure that at least some of these older guys are going to want an opportunity to maybe go play for a Cup. Guys like DK and Glenny have never even whiffed playoff success and that might be tempting to chase in FA if they can latch on with a better team somewhere.

Not sure why you'd respond to a post about my proposed offseason changes and then disregard my proposed offseason changes, but okay lol.

Exactly, the talent will be there. The Wings just have to make sure they're not tempted into taking high floor/low ceiling players in those spots. Do that with your 2nd rounders if you have to. You want a star player in the 6-12 range you have to bet on skill and take your time developing their bodies. But in the last few years there has been TONS of talent in that range. I'm also not sure this is a "weak draft" as much as there's not an obvious pick at the top. There seems to be quite a lot of talent here, it's just hard to tell how good these guys are because they're playing in leagues they wouldn't otherwise have played in. In a normal year non of Power, Beniers, Johnson, Eklund, or Lambos would have played in the leagues they did. Instead they would have been feasting on 17 year olds in the CHL, or USDP and their numbers would have been insane. Instead they all just look sorta good because they're playing against 20+ year olds in the NCAA or in men's leagues in Europe.

Leaving a pair of Tony DeAngelo and Hronek? You'd have to shelter the hell out of that pair, they'd get lit up. I do get what you're saying though. I've mostly liked Cholo with Hronek these last few weeks, so maybe go with that and put DK with Seider. Either way, I mostly view our defense as the weakest part of my overall picture here. But just like the offense, I'd expect it to rapidly improve over the next two years or so.

Guys I’m really not sure who won the Mantha trade. I mean, it’s just really really close ya know?

I’ve seen it rumored that Nashville will leave Johansen unprotected in the expansion draft just to get his contract off the books. So if they’re willing to lose him for nothing then I’d assume it wouldn’t take much. But I’d want them to retain salary, so maybe a 3rd and a B level prospect depending on how much they’re retaining.

Offseason plan: Step 1: Draft Kent Johnson, William Eklund, or Chas Lucius with our 1st pick. Draft Mackie Samoskevich with our 2nd pick. Step 2: Trade Nashville for Ryan Johansen. They want cap relief, I want a top six center who can produce offensively (Johansen's a great passer) and can take some of the load off Larkin's shoulders and free him up offensively as well. Step 3: Sign Tony DeAngelo and Luke Glendening in free agency. After thorough consideration I've decided we need the boost on the powerplay bad enough to warrant the risk on DeAngelo. Glendening is a no-brainer. Step 4: Lock down all our RFAs Bert-Larkin-Zadina Veleno-Johansen-Vrana Svech-Ras-Fabbri Erne-Glendening-Panik DK-Hronek Cholo-Seider Stetcher-DeAngelo

Wilson is another Wayne Simmonds. I've got all day for those kinds of players.

Guilty as charged.

I'm expecting him to announce the hiring of Kevin Lowe as President of Hockey Operations at any moment.

You've had some doozies too, that's for sure. I'll definitely think of you and eat crow as I watch all-star center Alexis Lafreniere dominate the NHL. If I'd only listened to Wayne Gretzky lol.

You have to assume that with the recent firings of John Davidson and Jeff Gorton in NY they'll be back to their old way of operating (i.e. sign over the hill vets with name value every year). So Staal should be heading back to the Garden I'd think.

I'm in. I have it on good authority that Brendan Smith is a "dynamic offensive defenseman". Lol. The whole timeline of our rebuild would be different if Babcock had just let Smith partner with Kronwall.

This is absolutely the p*ssiest s*** ever. "Horrifying act of violence"? Give me a f*cking break. Anybody remember this? What's the difference?

Blash goes hard in the opposite direction though. Larkin starts in the offensive zone 47% of the time. Larkin EASILY plays the hardest minutes of any top line center in the league. Even top two-way centers like Barkov, Bergeron, and O'Reilly get more than 50% offensive zone starts. Larkin gets absolutely buried.

Must have been nice for Eichel though. He basically had the easiest minutes of any 1C in the league other than McDavid. Though it's a little bit easier to let McDavid feast on juicy o-zone minutes when you've got a Draisaitl there to do all the heavy lifting.

I'm looking at Buffalo's stats right now and holy hell was Ralph Krueger a dumbf*ck. He started Jack Eichel and Taylor Hall in the offensive zone 60% of the time. Meanwhile he started Mittelstadt and Cozens in the offensive zone 45% of the time. So basically he sheltered his workhorses and threw his young, developing, skill players to the f*cking wolves.

The guy I liked most in that draft class was Mittelstadt. IMO Buffalo rushed him into the NHL and messed up his development, but after they finally got their s*** together and put him back in the AHL for a while to fix his game he's started to come around. I'd love to see a "change of scenery" move, Mittelstadt for Cholowski.

Nah, give me Necas all day long over Vilardi.

Or those inexplicable years when he'd take like 7 grinders/depth defensemen. Take a look at that 2017 draft class. Woof.

When I look at this picture it's easy to focus on the shirt or the tattoos as visual evidence of his "don't-give-a-f***-ness", but the backward visor really is the icing on the cake. This guy f***s.

I'm loving the fact that we basically have a bunch of kids in the lineup right now and they're playing pretty even with some of the better teams in the league. The argument against bringing kids into the lineup too early has always been that they'll give up too many chances...and then they brought the kids into the lineup...and they didn't give up too many chances. For the first time in a long time I think there's going to be genuine competition for those bottom of the lineup spots.

FWIW, Pearson scored at a very similar rate to Veleno in their AHL rookie season despite playing significantly fewer (and definitely harder) minutes.