kipwinger

I was more interested in the 30 and the two 2nd rounders. I figured Bouchard. We could be sitting a lot worse had those two not slid.

Doubtful.

All joking aside, I would love to see last year's Red Wings draft board just to see who we would have taken if not for Zadina and Veleno sliding.

Podkolzin sucked at the U20s, and that's going to hurt his draft stock considerably more than it would other guys because his MHL and KHL numbers were generally not good either. I think the perception that he was a top 3 guy was based on the flashy nature of his game. People go nuts for flashy players, even if they aren't that good. The story seemed to be, "yeah he doesn't score much, but he's bound to break out. Just LOOK at him, he oozes skill". Basically the exact opposite of Arthur Kaliyev. But that can only last for so long if you don't ever show up on the scoreboard. I think this guy tumbles pretty far this year.

Even with that lineup, someone has to be your 7th defenseman. Why not have it be Ericsson or Daley? As a 7th they wouldn't appreciably hurt the team, and burying both their salaries (plus signing someone else to be the 7th) essentially wastes about 8-9 million bucks of the owner's money. Something I can't imagine Chris Illitch has much of a stomach for. Then again, given that they've spent almost no money on their "District Detroit" pipedream maybe ol' Chris has a few extra (tens of) millions to throw around.

Karlsson doesn't wear them in a post game press conference in front of the logo of the team he's currently playing for (but has been reluctant to commit to long-term). Not that it's a sure thing. Nothing is until a deal is signed. But if there was ever enough circumstantial evidence to warrant hedging your bets a bit, it's probably now in the case of Jacob Trouba. Throwing assets at Winnipeg for this guy is dumb, that's all I'm saying. Well, that and the Tigers hat is indeed awesome. I'd post a pic in mine, but you plebeians don't deserve to gaze upon my superior visage. @Dabura

They were loaded with guys who were ABOUT to become really good players, but none of them were quite there yet. If you check out their regular seasons stats you'll notice two things, A) almost all of them later became household names, B) almost none of them were highly productive individually. Kane was the only player with 30 goals. Toews wouldn't have been considered a top 5 center (and maybe never will be). None of Byfulgien, Ladd, Seabrook, or Campbell topped 40 pts. Hjalmarsson didn't even crack 20 pts. Troy Brouwer and Kris Versteeg were their 6th and 7th most productive players. I think it's a matter of hindsight. We know now that all of those guys went on to win more Cups, and be more productive throughout their careers. But if you looked at that one season on paper you likely wouldn't conclude (at the time) that they were about to be a powerhouse. Definitely not more impressive than Toronto or Tampa were this season (again, on paper).

Red Wings signed 23 year old, Finnish, defenseman Oliwer Kaski to a 1 year ELC today. Kaski was 2nd in the Liiga in defensive scoring this season and had previously played at Western Michigan for two years so he's familiar with North American hockey. Oh, and he's a right shot for the dopes who over value that particular characteristic. https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2019/05/13/detroit-red-wings-oliwer-kaski/1191355001/ And his highlights package: https://youtu.be/OKbOJyjwwTM

Might wanna check the stats on that one bud. Assuming Tavares, Matthews, Nylander, and Marner are Toronto's core forward group, that's probably a more productive group than Chicago's Kane, Toews, Hossa, and Sharp were during Chicago's run. Then TO has Kadri, Kapanen, Johnsson, and Hyman, all of whom were 40+ point players and three of whom scored 20 or more goals. None of them individually are better than a Saad or Panarin, but they're more productive collectively. Morgan Reilly just put up 72 points, which is better than any season in Duncan Keith's career, the difference offensively between Jake Gardiner and Seabrook or Hjalmarsson are laughable, and Muzzin is certainly their equal defensively. The only obvious place Chicago was better was in goal. But regardless of how you value individual players (or even if you conclude that Chicago was better) the gap is pretty slim. The hard part for TO will be losing guys like Johnsson, Kapanen, Kadri, Gardiner, etc. and replacing them with comparable talent. Chicago essentially did that twice.

Unless he's just insane in training camp I'd start Cholowski in the AHL next season. If he dominates, then he's the first call up and he can do what Hronek did last year. While I agree that he's probably a better player than Daley or Ericsson at this point, he still struggled pretty badly. If he has indeed taken another step in his development he can prove it for the Griffins and then take over in due time. That said I'd still waive one of Daley or Ericsson if Kronwall retires, give Green top line minutes to pump up his trade value, and Kaski up full time. My lineup would be something like this. DK-Green Kronwall-Hronek Ericsson/Daley-Bowey Kaski

The only way I trade that 6th pick is if it's on draft day, and it's only a few spots back, and the board is favorable. We still do not have elite center depth. We can get it this year with one of Turcotte, Zegras, Cozens, or Dach. Our prospect pool on defense is really good already. We also made shrewd moves with Bowey and Kaski. Between those two, Hronek, Cholowski, McIsaac, Lindstrom, Regula, and Barton we've got some really good young defensemen in our system. As also have as good as shot as anyone to sign Trouba if he hits UFA (the dude wears Detroit hats in post game pressers FFS). You don't trade your best possible shot at creating dangerous center depth given all that.

I think TO will be fine. Chicago showed you can have all your cap tied up in a handful of players so long as those players are really good. Tavares, Matthews, Nylander, Marner, and Reilly is a pretty good core. You can fill in around those guys with bargains and entry level deals and still field a really competitive team.

I think Zadina's struggles have less to do with age, though he does have maturing to do physically, and more to so with the fact that prior to this year he had only played 57 games of North American hockey. He came over from Europe, played in the Q where he dominated a bunch of kids who weren't on his level skill wise, but learned very little about playing "correctly" because the Q is a garbage league. His first real exposure to North American systems was this season, against a bunch of guys who are more physically developed and who know the NA game intuitively. So the learning curve was very steep. Reminds me a lot of Mantha, who also came from the Q and therefore had no idea how to play right. He struggled just as badly, and he was 20 instead of 18.

Yzerplan step by step off-season guide: Step 1: trade Mantha, Lindstrom, and potentially the 6th for the 8th pick for Ryan Nugent Hopkins. Step 2: Use 8th pick (trade back if you still have the 6th for more assets) to select Matthew Boldy or BPA if better. Step 3: Sign Gus Nyquist to 5x5 deal. Have this in a few short years: Bert-Larkin-Nyquist Boldy-RNH-AA Ras-Veleno-Zadina Svech-Glen-Berggren/Hirose Abby

Anybody at all concerned that in his entire career as a general manager Steve Yzerman never drafted a defenseman who was worth a damn?

And so is Jack Hughes. He's the Garry Kasparov of the Hockey world. Mark it.

Like this ^^^^^^^^^ Or worse?

Says the dude who wrote a page long response to my late night ribbing, outlining everything I've said bad about Jack Hughes in the last 6 months. Probably feels good to get that off your chest huh? Reminds me of that time you gave me a stern talking to for being so mean to the poor little MAGA dips***s. Boy you really put me in my place that time too.

I'm old enough to remember you not slobbering all over Pettersson in his draft year like you did with Hughes. Again, he's chess right? He's just playing a whole different game than everyone else. So who cares about his tourney stats, he's not a phenom like your boy Jack.

Hasn't Kakko been better all season? He just had a record breaking season in a much harder league.

William Nylander might actually be better than Larkin. He has been better for significant portions of his NHL career. The only year he was obviously worse was this year, so that's actually a terrible example of what you're trying to prove.

I agree with everything you say, but I'd add that many analysts believe Hughes projects as a winger at the NHL level and he's most often compared to Patrick Kane and Johnny Gaudreau, both wingers. So this take - though sound in principle - might not be that relevant in the case of Kakko and Hughes.

That's just because Hughes is chess, and Kakko is checkers. Hughes' impact takes a really long time to set up, he'll probably deliver the coup de grace in USA's final game...long after they're out of medal contention lol.

So Kaapo Kakko is still torching NHL players at the World Championships I see. Not bad for a guy who's definitely not even close to as good as Jack Hughes eh @Dabura?

He's cost controlled, and nobody knows what he's going to turn out to be. Might as well hang on to him and see what you've got. Given his limited NHL time and injuries you wouldn't get s*** for him in a trade anyway.