kipwinger

I’m definitely ready for Ken, Mick, and the boys to call my games. Preseason is always a little “off” without them.

It's supposed to be on DetroitRedWings.com, they'll update it right before game time.

Copp’s a horse. He’s not appreciated (even by me at times) but he’s asked to carry a pretty heavy load and he shoulders it. Just like Ras, Fischer, and Seider. I’ve always respected those tough minutes guys. I think Copp is a genuinely tough dude and a hell of an all around player. He’s this team’s Kris Draper.

Lalonde's out here talking about "we need toughness and also someone who can play" in reference to Austin Watson. Does he think we forgot about his handling of Klim Kostin? Didn't we already have a better version of this exact guy on our team?

And I'm here to say Kasper is going to be an absolute beast. He had three shorthanded scoring chances last night. Two were shorthanded breakaways and the other he dangled out of a corner past two defensemen. Dude is an absolute winner and I can't wait till he out there wrecking defensemen on the forecheck and scoring game winners.

Mazur reminds me a lot of Michael Bunting. As a 2nd/3rd line guy who plays a first game and has 20 goal upside he’s really valuable

I didn't think MBN was dominant or anything, but he's a first year rookie, so my expectations were tempered. I thought his line with Kasper and Sodorblom was one of the Red Wings most effective and I really liked his forechecking a lot. He's also got way better handles with the puck than I'd been anticipating. For being one of the youngest guys in the game I thought he more than held his own.

Larkin in criminally underrated. He played 99% of his career on a historically bad re-building team and has still hovered around a point per game. Then suddenly he's got Raymond, Dcat, and Kane and he's over a point per game. What a surprise. Give the guy actual talent and he thrives, but make him drag around losers like Mantha, AA, Kubalik, and Bertuzzi and he'll get them career seasons doing all the work himself. If we win a Cup with Larkin as the 1C people will suddenly "discover" how good he is, but only after trying to convince us that they were right all along and he's only now "taking it to another level" or something dumb like that. I've got more respect for Larkin than I do for almost any other current NHL player. Half these "superstars" walked onto teams loaded with top talent (cough...McDavid...cough...Mathews...cough cough...Kucherov). Larks has been like Moses leading his people through the desert. A true leader.

Yep, my only point was that we gave up a lot to move Walman and I'm not convinced Fowler is any better than Walman was. His counting stats are slightly better and his analytics are much worse. He's undoubtedly more expensive tho when you consider we A) gave up Gibson, and B) costs more. If SY went out and acquired Fowler after moving Walman I'd be pretty irritated by the poor asset management.

Bingo. I’ve always been pumped about Gibson and apparently he’s done nothing but excel since being traded to Nashville.

Anybody know who scored in the Red and White game?

Every team has a collection of mid junk who eat minutes for cheap. That's how you can afford to pay the top of the lineup guys. Eetu Luostarinen, Nick Cousins, and Ryan Lomberg played 226 combined games for Florida last season, scored 24 combined goals, and all made about what Veleno has made up to this point.

I’m genuinely not convinced Cam Fowler is any better than Jake Walman…the guy we gave up a stud RHD prospect to get rid of. More expensive tho.

I'm loving the new Raymond contract. I expect Seider signs for somewhere just south of Larkin...something like 8.5-8.6 million per year. If we can have Raymond, Seider, and Larkin signed long term for under 30 million collectively we're in a really good position to go big game hunting in free agency over the next couple years. Huge win for us with this contract.

Either MBN is bigger than his listed size, or Nate Danielson is smaller, because they stood next to one another during the national anthem in Game 1 and MBN towered over N8.

I saw an article speculating that Toronto could trade Conor Timmons in an effort to clear space for Max Pacioretty. Any thoughts? I don’t know much about him but his stat line and analytics seems pretty strong.

It's too bad James Reimer isn't still around. His refusal to wear a jersey which promotes sexual promiscuity and drug culture would have been so inspiring for all of the christian fans.

I'm not worried about Kasper. Yall are nuts and are going to have egg all over your faces on this one.

I do agree with most of this. He reminds me a ton of Zach Hyman stylistically. Who doesn't want that guy riding shotgun on your top line? He's been awesome so far and I'm further in love with our farm system than I was before. He's a keeper and is going to look good on this team for a looooong time.

This is all just made-up media narrative because it's a slow time of year. Raymond and Seider both want to be Red Wings and they're both going to get PAID. You think it's an accident that we have just enough cap space to give them both 8.5 million dollar contracts if it comes to that? SY has a history of driving a hard bargain on contracts and this is no different. If Kyle Dubas was the GM they'd already be signed, but thankfully Yzerman uses his leverage a little bit better and gets his guys on good contracts instead of handing them the bag. Both these guys will be signed by training camp, you can bet on it.

How's everyone feeling about Michael Brandsegg-Nygard's start to the pre-season. I know its the SHL pre-season (and international friendlies) but he's got like 4 goals in 3 games or something like that. Dude can absolutely bomb the puck. I think he's going to be a great pick and I already can't wait to see him on a line with Larkin and Raymond. Can you imagine having a hard working power forward on that line who is ALSO a trigger man? I'm sold.

It means that the price is set. Either Edmonton matches or St. Louis gets them at the contract that was accepted in the offer sheet.

He's got three 20 goal seasons and two 30 goal seasons under his belt. If he's truly a comparable then I'd imagine Lucas would make less than Konecny given that his track record of success is much shorter.

You said Edvinsson didn't grab a special teams role as a rookie the way Seider did. I'm just pointing out that he did have a significant special teams role. He played over a minute per game shorthanded. And it's a little misleading to add Walman to that list since the majority of his PK time came when Edvinsson was still in GR. During Edvinsson's late season callup Walman was either injured or healthy scratched and Edvinsson did considerably more penalty killing than Walman during that period. You're welcome to think what you want about the guy, but he's pretty clearly earned the trust of the coaching staff based on his play and I don't think people are off-base when they say he's a lock for the roster based on his play during that late season call-up. Edit: Also, Yzerman confirmed during his press availability that he "expects Edvinsson to play a bigger role". He was already playing 18 minutes a night and killing penalties. Sure sounds like the GM is figuring on Edvinsson to A) make the team, and B) play in the top four.

You're welcome to think whatever you want about him but it's simply not true that Edvinsson didn't play on special teams. He was on the PK and logged more shorthanded minutes per game that "defensive" guys like Maatta, Fischer, and Veleno. It's not a stretch to imagine he'd have logged even more special teams minutes if he were trying to beat out guys like Hagg, Juolevi, etc. (as Seider did) rather than trying to take minutes from guys like Seider, Chiarot, and Walman. Overall I think it's a good thing that young guys have tougher competition for roster spots and the team is going to be better for it, but it certainly effected the types of minutes that were available to Edvinsson as opposed to Seider. But again, I'm not trying to convince you of anything. I don't really care if you like the guy or not. I'm just suggesting that if I HAD to put my money on the line I'd wager that Edvinsson starts the season in the top four based on his play last year and the coach/GM comments about his play during that stretch.