kipwinger

People are sleeping on Jeremie Poirier. He's probably the defenseman most like a Makar or Hughes in the draft. Those guys are putting up gaudy numbers so everyone conveniently forgets they're abysmal defensively. That's basically what Poirier projects as. A modern day Mike Green. I'd love that guy at 32.

Why are we debating Markstrom vs. Howard? We already have a better goalie than Jimmy Howard. Jonathan Bernier. Is Markstrom better than Bernier? Maybe, maybe not. But why dump big(ish) money into a guy that's not noticeably better than your current starter? Why not just sign a Halak or a Griess to backup Bernier for shorter term and less money?

Am I missing something? Markstrom is pretty old, and just lost his starting spot to Demko. Why do some people want him signed? Goalies are like quarterbacks. They are one of the last pieces I add to my team because there are always good ones available.

My hope is that we get a center at #4, and then swing a bit for the fences with our 2nd rounders in terms of skill. There's a good chance that either of Poirier or Lapierre fall that far, and both are high risk high reward types. Then I'd target Khusnutdinov, Weisblatt, Smilanci, or Mysak with my remaining second rounders. If we walk away with any 3 of these guys I'm extremely happy with the draft. Any more than 3 and I'm probably Yzerman's newest fanboy.

I don't really think Rossi had an "explosion" at all. He didn't perform as well as his talent would have suggested in his first year in North American hockey because it's a really big transition. After he had a year to acclimatize he dominated as much as he should have. This is part of the reason I am very interested in Jan Mysak with our 32nd pick. His numbers are good, but not great, but he came over from Europe half way through the season and was playing the first NA hockey of his life. I think he's probably better than his stats would suggest.

It was Ville Leino actually.

I agree he's a big deal around Montreal, and they're excited about him. But I think any excitement about him would be immediately eclipsed by how bananas they'd go to have a French Canadian power forward of Mantha's caliber. I don't really care about Domi one way or the other. The reason I keep throwing him into these trade scenarios is because he's a good player and he's probably the odd man out in Montreal. He's a guy they're going to probably deal anyway and his production is similar to Mantha's so it makes sense.

Whole lot of Marco Rossi on that list. This kid is a beast. Not often you’re a top offensive, defensive, special teams, AND face off guy in your respective league. Unless you’re Ryan O’Reilly.

Domi + Romanov gets the deal done for me.

So you're telling me we're getting Anderson?!?!?! But in all seriousness, I wouldnt trade a first rounder for him either. I love how he plays, but the injury concerns are valid. I'd do a 2nd and maybe add a mid level prospect. Anything more and I'd just wait a year and look at him in free agency.

Paragraph 1: Which people? Paragraph 2: Okay Paragraph 3: Because I don't want the team to be terrible for 3 or 4 more years before they start to improve. Paragraph 4: You're talking about outliers. I acknowledge outliers exist but most players don't grow 6 inches or zero inches. Most grow a few. Same with weight. Paragraph 5: Because everyone else has just as much potential to improve their skating as he does. He won't be developing in a vacuum. Paragraph 6: I'm skeptical that his understanding of the game is any better than Crosby, Bergeron, Eichel, Matthews, Backstrom, Girioux, Barkov, Malkin, Tavares, Point, Aho, etc. etc. etc. And those are just the top guys in the Eastern Conference. I don't see some sort of Gretzky-esque IQ out of him that those others lack.

I mean sure, each player is going to have strengths and weaknesses. But if I were a betting man I'd say Rossi, Holtz, and Sanderson hit the NHL sooner than Perfetti, Raymond, and Drysdale. Of the bunch I like Rossi the most, obviously, because I think he does more things at a high level than the rest, but he's not without flaws too. The other thing I'd say is that all of these guys are going to physically change, a lot, over the next few years. Even really big kids, like Mantha, grow much bigger after they're drafted. But they don't change much relative to their peers. So a short, slight, player can bulk up, but he'll still be shorter and slighter than the rest of the draft class because they're all gonna grow too. Perfetti is always going to be shorter and slighter than the average. His skating will probably always be behind his peers too. The question becomes, does additional size, strength, development give him enough of each that they are no longer a significant disadvantage and he'll be able to execute his game at the highest level? I don't know with Perfetti, but I do have doubts because it seems to me that his game is almost entirely dependent on being smarter and more skilled than his opponents. There doesn't seem to be much more to his game. In the NHL he's going to play against guys who are as smart of skilled as him every single night.

I want a center that plays like a center. I don't want a "center" who doesn't even play that position consistently and is kinda weak and kinda slow. I genuinely don't think Pefetti will play C at the NHL level without significantly more development. We're talking years. The kid looks like a tadpole and the creative part of his game, while significant, tends to get negated without decent skating. Look at Casey Mitelstadt (a guy I was VERY high on). He was supposedly an cerebral, offensive, dynamo too. But he was under developed and couldn't dipsy doodle around the ice in the NHL the way he was accustomed to. So now he's back in the AHL indefinitely trying to learn how to play like a professional center. And he was much bigger and faster than Perfetti. I think Perfetti is a talented player and might be a top five talent on offensive skill alone. But I think he falls on draft day. Maybe a team with a very long developmental curve picks him in the 8-12 range, but there are significant concerns about picking that kid for me.

JVR is still a very useful player. Sooooo, I'd trade for him and Philly's 23rd overall. Then flip JVR to a contender and retain about 2.5 million per year, for a couple of 2nds or a decent prospect.

Can we get Josh Anderson to be the other winger on that line?

This is an interesting dynamic that I totally agree will define the remainder of Mantha's time in Detroit. There's basically no way in hell that he should be getting paid more than Larkin right? Larkin gets paid 6.1 million AAV and outperforms Mantha in every single way possible. But you also get the feeling that Mantha isn't going to be okay with anything below 6 million AAV. Normally you'd bridge this gap with a short term deal to let Mantha prove he's the 35 goal, 70+ point winger he thinks he is (but hasn't been so far) but the team probably balks at that because they'd lose control of him at the end of it. Ideally they'd rather lock him up longer term. This is by no means an easy contract negotiation. I'm guessing he'll get about 3 years, 6 million AAV, but that's a super risky contract.

I can understand why you'd think this, but I don't think that the evidence (or logic) concur with your assessment. Here's why I say the BLM line is a beast: Premise 1: The BLM line is Detroit's only good line. Premise 2: As a result they get the highest quality of competition. Premise 3: They cave in that competition to the extent that their possession metrics are the 10th best in the league, as a line. https://www.dailyfaceoff.com/teams/detroit-red-wings/line-combinations/ Conclusion 1: The BLM line faces the best every night, and controls the play against the best every night in most instances. Conclusion 2: Throw the BLM line out against other team's top lines, cancel those other team's top lines out (or actively beat them) and let your 2nd line full of offensive guys (as per my original proposal) run up the scoreboard.

I genuinely don't think we're as far away as people think, IMO it's just a matter of getting people in the right places to succeed. We need a top of the lineup offensively capable center in this draft (any of Byfield, Stutzle, Rossi, or (maybe) Perfetti will do). We need that this year because this year is deep in forwards and next year isn't. Would hate to get a higher pick next year (which is loaded with defensemen) after taking Drysdale this year. Then take a LD next year. Preferably an offensive one. With my 2nd rounders in both years I'm looking at goal scorers. Jan Mysak fits that bill this season, so someone like that on the wing. The Bert-Larkin-Mantha line is a nightmare matchup for other teams top lines. They proved all season that they can play against tough matchups and succeed. Your "2nd" line is your bread and butter scoring line. Byfield/Stutzle/Rossi/Perfetti with Zadina and somebody to dig out pucks (I'm thinking Veleno or Rasmussen) would go in to take the offensive zone draws and put points on the board. After that it's all depth. One of Ras or Veleno centers the 3rd line with any combination of wingers, we've got a bunch of good depth options in Fabbri, Mastrosimone, Berggren, or anybody we draft in the 2nd rounds the next two years. 4th line? Who cares. Pearson-Glendening-Smith. Done. On defense you draft a Werenski to Seider's Seth Jones next year. You put one of McIsaac or Johansson with Hronek on the 2nd pair. Again, 3rd pair? Who cares. The other of McIsaac/Johansson and Cholowski, or Tuomisto, or whomever. The point is that we're probably two drafts away from being legitimately competitive. Maybe sooner if Yzerman swings a trade or two (to fill that hole in the left defense).

These are from The Athletic's Pronman, and I think say a lot about his evaluation system. When he ranked Detroit's prospect pool (released earlier this week) these guys were pretty far down the list. But when he scouted the European U20 camps later in the week look who impressed: Albert Johansson, D, Detroit Johansson was the top defenseman at Sweden’s camp. In the 2001 age group he’s historically been buried behind numerous first-round-pick caliber talents for Sweden on defense. But with all those players not at the camp, he had an opportunity to shine. He’s a very smart two-way player who can use his brain and feet to help his team’s transition game. “His game has grown a lot since playing all last season against men. He is stronger and more confident with and without the puck. He knows he can match his opponents,” Monten said. Elmer Soderblom, RW, Detroit Soderblom, drafted by the Red Wings in the sixth round in 2019, is trending up. He received praise from the coaching staff as one of Sweden’s top players at camp, along with Holmstrom and Johansson among the drafted prospects. Soderblom created chances for himself and others, and used his massive 6-foot-6 frame to get to the hard areas of the ice. “He’s a big guy but now he plays big. Gaining strength and quickness has helped his game become more efficient. He’s strong on pucks and takes them to the net hard,” Monten said.

Hate to break it to everyone but Yzerman's "plans" are to do very minor things, just like last year, and bottom out again.

I actually think that Bergevin is a sneaky good GM. He's especially good at trades.

I think it's irrelevant now anyway. St. Louis just traded Jake Allen to Montreal. They'll have no trouble signing Pietrangelo now.

I don't know a ton about St. Louis' system so I'm taking a flier here, but for the most part you only have one defenseman on the PK and St. Louis has Paryako and Scandella filling those roles. They're both excellent PKers. I'd be looking at Dunn for his offense though. Seems like we've got really good defenders in Seider and McIsaac and Hronek has all around ability, but we don't really have a guy who can put up big points from the back end. Dunn probably can do that, and I think it's encouraging that he's playing regular minutes on a Stanley Cup contender at 23. Probably not a complete liability if that's the case. To me the only real question is whether Detroit is convinced that Cholowski can figure things out defensively or not. He clearly has the same offensive upside, but if the front office thinks he can't figure it out on the back end then maybe they move on from him as their left side offensive guy.

All very valid points, but I think a big part of his playing down lineup has more to do with how stacked St. Louis is on defense. He'd have to dislodge one of Pietrangelo, Paryako, Scandella, or Faulk in order to gain more playing time. He's sorta lost in the mix with a bunch of other guys on the 3rd pair, but I don't think that's as much about his talent as it is about his age and how coaches tend to value veterans over youth in the playoffs. I'm not saying the kid is going to be the second coming of Brian Rafalski, but he seems like a candidate for a bigger role in Detroit.

I think with Dunn you'd be paying for his offense, and upside. He can run a powerplay, though obviously not as well as Alex Pietrangelo, he's got very good possession metrics, and at 23 has lots of room to grow. But make no mistake, you're not getting a workhorse. You're getting a high(ish) end left, shooting, offensive defenseman. I just think our left defense is pretty weak after McIsaac so I wouldn't mind an acquisition like that.