kipwinger

So far as I know, Zadina, Brome, Seider and Rasmussen have the out clause. McIsaac and Veleno don't.

The AHL is most likely not having a season this year. So no, they couldn't have. Have you guys not been paying attention to all the news about that lately? The AHL season is HIGHLY in doubt. Which is why the Red Wings loaned guys like Veleno and McIsaac (who have no chance of making the NHL roster) to European league for the entire season, while the loaned buys like Seider and Zadina to Euro clubs with an "out" clause so they could play in the NHL.

It's really not that hard to figure out. Having a couple million, and a roster spot, laying around might be the difference between a few more Marc Staal moves or not. Plus moving out trash, and moving more in, isn't blocking some kid either. At worst it's a lateral move. P And then there's the signal that it sends to guys like Larkin, Mantha, Bert, Hronek, etc. This is your team now boys.

I have lots of friend in Muskegon and visit often. I'm sure I'll be seeing him, drunk and obnoxious, around town before too long. Being a West Michigan f*ckboi is what he's been working his whole life to accomplish. He's got the wife for it already.

Small and nontraditional market success is lame and is for pinko commie losers. Who wants to see Tampa win the Cup after years of near misses and heartbreak? And don't even get me started on Washington. Much better if the Blackhawks just win every other year. It's the way it should be.

Hard breakup for Abby and the Wings. They've been through a lot together. Always hard to face up to the fact that you're no longer wanted. Though, I'm sure if he tries really hard he'll can console himself by resting his head on the pile of money he made the last few years while being absolutely f*cking horrible at his job.

In that scenario I'd just take Nugant Hopkins from Edmonton and let them pursue Stamkos. In any event Detroit is situated to benefit if good players/big contracts are gonna get moved.

The problem with "clearing space" is that there's nobody willing to take on contracts. Detroit's in the driver's seat because we aren't close to the cap limit AND we don't have an internal cap. Most other teams are either right up against the cap or are on an ownership imposed budget.

Yeah, that's probably my starting ask. I'm sure there are other teams who could offer more, but the sticking point is the flat cap. Edmonton (for example) has about 10 million in cap space with only 34/50 contracts signed and lots of quality free agents to sign over the next two years. Could they move out a big contract, maybe? But other than Detroit and a few others there aren't any teams willing to take on bad/big contracts with the cap stuck at 80 mil this year (and probably next year too). Normally I don't think a team like Detroit, with an offer like mine, would be in the running but this isn't a normal year and we may just be able to capitalize on that.

Yeah, totally agree. They don't NEED to dump him and he's still got TONS of value. Again, any trade for Stamkos would be a cap dump. They don't want to take a big contract back I'm sure. They'd want futures/prospects. I'd definitely do it if the ask was futures. First, he's a genuine difference maker who would help us win games. Second, in doing so he makes us more desirable for UFAs. Third, if nothing changes you trade him to a contender 3 years from now for a haul because he'll still be able to score at 33 years old. For Veleno/Rasmussen and two 2nds I'd do it.

I'm probably the only one here who thinks that Sergachev, while good, is probably overrated huh? He's not an especially offensively talent player. He has a worse career points per game average than Filip Hronek, despite being on a vastly more offensively talented team. He's also solid defensively, but not a rock or anything. For the right price I'd definitely trade for the guy, but I'm not sure he's going to be top line defender or anything.

What do you mean by hockey deal? Because traditionally that means giving something of equal value in a 1 for 1 trade. But the whole point of trading Stamkos would be to clear cap space, so they can't really take on anything of equal value. It would have to be futures.

That's the thing, because of the flat cap there aren't too many teams can afford to take on that contract. If they really want him traded this offseason we're one of the only teams that could accommodate the cap hit.

They're trying to clear space so I think all they'd want are futures. I'm thinking Veleno/Rasmussen + 2020 2nd + 2021 2nd. It doesn't really fit our timeline, but he's a hell of a player, and it would completely change the dynamic of our rebuild. Plus, it basically legitimizes Detroit as a reasonable UFA destination going forward. If we could get him for something like what I mentioned above I'd probably not complain too much. This top six isn't too shabby. Stamkos-Larkin-Mantha Bert-Rossi-Zadina

I'm not sure what difference these numbers make. Lafreniere (like Rossi) would have always been one of the olders players, relative to his peers, irrespective of which Jr. year he was playing. So he would have always been one of the older 16, 17, or 18 year olds. Same as Rossi. You're free to attribute Lafreniere's dominance to his otherwordly talent, and Rossi's to age, if you like. But I'd counter that the only reason Rossi didn't put up insane numbers a year ago (his only other CHL season) is because he was switching from European hockey to NA hockey, and pretty much everyone agrees that trasition is hard. Put him in NA when he was 15 and he'd have dominated here too. Similarly, he's consistently lauded for his defensive game. Not too hard to imagine him outscoring guys like Lafreniere or Perfetti if he didn't bother playing defense. Finally, the "lower scoring" argument for the QMJHL is a bit silly. All the leagues in the CHL play by exactly the same rules, there are no differences in game play. As a result, the "highest scoring" and "lowest scoring" leagues change almost annually depending on the talent in the league in any given year. Not too long ago the QMJHL was considered the "all offense" league.

Rossi is about 20 days older than Lafreniere. How much of Lafreniere's "domination" do you attribute to his age?

I can't imagine it's a fit for Detroit, but man it's fun to think about.

People think I'm complaining about the trade and the signing, I'm not. I'm okay with the trade and the contract. I'm not okay with them actually playing games, or very many games. Trade for Staal, get the pick, waive Staal and play Cholo or Lindstrom. Gagner sucks less than Staal, but if he and Filppula are the 2C and 3C then we'll still be terrible, and Michael Rasmussen won't be playing games at center for the Red Wings like he should.

If you really believe all this then why do you bother? Who cares?

Because Yzerman said that Staal will play in the press conference he gave. If that's not true, then great. I'm just taking Steve-O at face value.

I'm pretty sure he's saying he doesn't want bad players actually playing. But I'd also add that "bad contracts" do not always equal "bad players" though in Staal's case that seems to be true.

For the millionth time, I'm not bothered by the trade. I'm bothered that he intends to play Staal, specifically to tank, and is trying to paint a silver lining by talking about veteran leadership and culture and blah blah blah. I have ZERO issue with using the cap space to get future assets. I have a big problem with a defense made up of Dekeyser, Nemeth, Staal, and not Cholowski or Lindstrom.

You realize that when Mackel says Zadina is a "bust" it's just to rile you up right? At the risk of exposing Mackel's world class trolling here a bit, I feel like you should know. Matter of fact, he'll probably deny that's he's trolling you after he reads this, specifically so he can troll you more. My guess is that his true feelings about Zadina are something along the lines of "He's not as good a player as I thought we were getting when we drafted him". But the minute he throws that "bust" hook out there you gobble it up.

You should just watch the presser. He said all the stuff I said he did. But again, I'm not complaining about the trade. I'm bummed that we're deliberately tanking again because as a fan it blows watching a team be awful on purpose. If the opening night roster doesn't have Mark Staal on it, and he's the 7th dman or in the AHL or something, then I'll be more than pleased. I'm just taking Steve-O's word for it, because in the presser he said they traded for Staal intending for him to play. Same with Gagner. I'm fully aware that he isn't some big problem relative to all the other issues with the team. But the prospect of watching a team with Helm, Abby, Nielsen, Glendening, Filppula AND now Gagner too is stomach turning. There's just not a lot to be excited about as a fan this year and I had hoped that last year was as bad as it was gonna get.

I don't know why you keep referencing writers. They're all just quoting Yzerman's press conference. HE'S the one spinning this. He's the one that talked about "the culture" and "veteran leadership" and "filling holes in the defense". And it's not as though I expected us to be good. Though if we're going to be bad I might rather see Cholowski or Lindstrom in that LD spot, and Rasmussen or Veleno in the center spot. At least they have the ability to get better as the season progresses. Which is more fun for me as a fan, rather than watching Mark Staal slowly decay on ice.