kipwinger

Lol. Your pettiness has gone super saiyan. Still rather have Byfield. 6'4, 200+ lbs, centers who skate like the wind and have puck skills don't exactly grow on trees.

To be fair to Matthews though, nobody tries as hard to A) look idiotic, and B) come up with pedestrian excuses as he does.

Draisaitl is from Germany, so I don't see why it would make a difference?

I don't really have a horse in the race to be honest. I just love how indignant Button got about it. He acted like the mere thought that Matthews was a top player was completely absurd, but he's the only one who mentioned Matthews in the first place. Plus I can't wait to see how Maple Leafs' fans react to this perceived slight.

Score more? I think Craig's whole point is that Draisaitl scores a bunch anyway and is a Selke caliber two-way forward. And he's genuinely got a point. Matthews doesn't really play defense. Draisaitl is like 2008 Henrik Zetterberg, but in Peter Forsberg's body.

Super spicy take from Craig Button here. Love it.

That's pretty revisionist. He was traded to Philly from Detroit, and he totally sucked there. THEN he was picked up by Carolina, had a decent run though nothing spectacular, and now he's back to being pretty pedestrian again. So I'm not sure how Carolina "validated" him "continuing to improve".

Scotty typically won when he went to the Cup finals. Babs hasn't. Big difference. Also, there's basically no way that Babs beats Quenneville for 2nd all time in wins. By the time Babs tops 1,000 (if he does) Quenneville will be up in Bowman's range.

I made the bold prediction at the time of Blashill's hiring that he'd win a Cup with the Wings before Babs did with Toronto. Another early exit from the playoffs and Babs gets fired at the end of this year. So basically I'll win by default right? Anyway, this is my yearly reminder that Mike Babcock sucks. He's been living off that insane Anaheim run (Hey Giguere!), and the Olympics, his whole career. His NHL career has been above average, but not spectacular, despite having STACKED teams for most of it. Peter Laviolette has basically had all the same success with about 1/10th the talent and nobody fellates him like they do Babs.

In what bizarro world did I say ANY of those guys will be on the team next year? I'll wait. Also, I originally said this: " Wouldn't Veleno need to start scoring points, or even a point, before we can pencil him into the Red Wings lineup next year?". That isn't even close to saying "Veleno won't score all year". So again, what are you arguing about? I never said he wouldn't score at all, and I never said any of the five guys you mentioned (let alone all of them) would be on the team.

You thought I was suggesting he wasn't going to score a single point all season? Rather than the obvious point I was making, which was that it's premature to pencil him into next year's lineup (as you already have) before he's scored a single point in the AHL?

So you agree with me then. He needs to produce or else it's unrealistic to think he'll make the Red Wings next year. That's what I said to begin with. Not sure why you got your panties in a bunch.

You said, "They'll all likely get a look at some point this season, and be up full time by next season." Seems like the opposite of patient. Edit: Also, which part makes me a know-it-all? The part about Veleno not having any points? He doesn't. Or the part about him not making the big club if he doesn't start scoring? He won't. Seems pretty obvious to me.

Or maybe he's got more developing to do and as a result it might be unrealistic to think he'll be on the big club next year.

Wouldn't Veleno need to start scoring points, or even a point, before we can pencil him into the Red Wings lineup next year?

Good to see Rasmussen dominating in GR. Scoring at a better clip than Mantha in his short-lived, final, stint in the AHL. If he keeps playing like this, and we get a few lucky injuries, he and Svech might be able to start plugging that crater in our middle six forward lines.

Edit: Duplicate Posts

With respect to the Swiss League team: I don't think a bunch of NHLers half-assing it to avoid injury and ruin their multi-million dollar career in a meaningless game is an indication of the actual skill disparity between the two teams. With respect to the rest: You're comparing NHL teams to other NHL teams, which is kinda my point. Even a bad NHL team can occasionally beat a good one, so imagine what a bad NHL team would do to a bunch of AHLers? Dylan Larkin scores 40 points a period against AHL goalies. Fact. See above.

So their top five or six players are significantly worse than the Red Wings top five or six players and somehow you think they'll win? Imagine this, if the Red Wings played another NHL team who had five or six players who were better than anyone we had what do you think our chances of winning would be?

All valid points. Doesn't mean the Griffs would win a game. Against an AHL team, the Red Wings would just play AA-Larkin-Mantha, Hronek-DK like 30 minutes a game and win 75-1. It would be a blood bath. There's not a single player on the Griffins team that could do a single thing with Anthony Mantha. Hence why they're all still playing for the Grand Rapids Griffins. Edit: All of the best players in the AHL each season are guys who can't even crack NHL rosters. Wade Megan led the league in scoring a couple years ago and couldn't touch an NHL roster. Martin Frk and Teemu Pulkkinen were superstars in the AHL and blow in the NHL. It's a whole different game.

Aren't you always talking about how modern teams roll 3 scoring lines these days? If so, wouldn't Zadina be in direct competition with some combination of Abby, Helm, Erne, or Ehn who will make up the wingers on the last two lines?

Wait, you guys are being serious? Lol. Even the best iteration of the Griffins would be mauled by the worst NHL team.

Is the point that the team be better or the player be better? Because having Zadina with Larkin means one of Mantha or Bert isn't. And even the most optimistic projections probably don't have Zadina outperforming Bert or Mantha on the top line next year.

I think it's a stretch to say Nielsen is "washed up" and amongst the worst players in the league, as per your original example that I responded to. You make it seem like Zadina being centered by Nielsen next year would be some awful situation for the kid, when in reality that's probably the exact kind of usage you want to give someone when they're adjusting slowly.