kipwinger

I got a couple things wrong in the OP. He was 1st in the Liiga in defense scoring, AND he hasn't officially signed yet. Won't sign until after the World Championships where he's got 1 assist in 3 games for Finland.

Mantha and Hronek looking really good at the World Championships. Happy to see both doing well. Larkin used that tourney as a springboard and it would be nice to see others doing the same. Kakko is currently dominating there as well. Dude's apparently a beast.

Ummm, we have a team in which Nielsen, De La Rose, and Glendening all took regular shifts at center last year and we don't have a spot for Datsyuk? Lol. Deplorables.

A few things about Mrazek. The knock on him in Detroit, and the reason Howard stayed over him, was that he wasn't receptive to coaching. He wanted to do things his way. So he got bounced to Philly. Sucked there. Signed a bargain basement deal with Carolina, which would likely have been his last NHL stop if he hadn't improved. I think it's likely that he realized he better start listening and doing things right rather than free wheeling it in goal, and THATS probably the cause of his improved play to a large extent. These coaches didn't get to the NHL level by being dumb. If they tell you to play a particular way you should generally listen. Guys who do, like Cleary or Mrazek, have longer careers. Guys who don't, like Brunner or Jurco, end up in 2nd tier leagues or in the AHL.

Have to imagine Podkolzin's stock fell a bit after a miserable U18 in front of all those scouts. He had like, 1 goal? My boy Zegras looking filthy though. 9 points in 5 games. Two fewer games than everyone else and still outpaced draft comparable like Cozens, Turcotte, Krebs in points per game. Newhook also raised his draft stock a bit with a strong tourney.

No, but if he's not willing to sign with a solid team in their Stanley Cup window then you have to think at the very least he wants to hit UFA. If that's the case we've got as good a chance as anyone, and probably better than most given that A) he's from here, and B) we have all the cap space in the world. Plus any team he'd likely to be traded to will be a bottom feeder because contenders don't tend to have an extra 7ish million dollars in cap space lying around. So given all that it'd be pretty dumb to trade for him. Agree with KRsmith, wait and sign him in UFA.

Matt Duchene is showing up huge for the BJs in the playoffs. Really solid pickup at the deadline so far.

This thread warms my heart in a way few others have over the years. I feel...complete?

While looking up Rasmus Dahlin's career stats I accidentally stumbled across the reason why the Buffalo Sabres continue to suck despite having good talent...because they're a team full of ginger dorks. How the hell are you going to win with these dweebs?

Fans seem to like Broberg more than scouts do. He has steadily fallen all year on pretty much every list I follow. At this point I'd be surprised if he goes in the top 15. Zegras probably goes top 10 though, so I'm not sure what they're thinking.

This is one big problem that will hopefully be addressed over the next year or so. You're absolutely right, Luke has been a third liner. But only because guys like De La Rose and Ehn are on the team. Getting Svech, Ras, Zadina, and Veleno into those middle six roles should push Luke, Helm, and Abby down the lineup where they belong. A fourth line of Helm-Glendening-Abby isn't terrible. A third line with those guys on it is a disaster. Since buying out Abby or Nielsen would cause as many problems as it would fix, I'd probably try to trade Helm. You'd get a taker, especially if you retained a bit of salary. Then make Nielsen-Glen-Abby your fourth line.

You can watch it live on the Red Wings facebook and twitter pages if you have either of those.

Tampa has drafted really well the last handful of years, but so had Detroit under Tyler Wright. I've been thrilled with how our picks have turned out since 2014, particularly the later round picks. So I hope they don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Hard to imagine all this happening without his knowledge/approval if he was always going to be GM.

This is an interesting thought. Everyone said Holland was an idiot for bringing back Blashill. So if Yzerman signed off on it, is he also an idiot?

Exactly. Plus he was gifted elite talent to begin with. I do like his propensity to buyout/waive older players and hope that his arrival will mean that the free lunch for guys like Abby/Ericsson/Helm/Dekeyser/Glendening is over. Not that I necessarily want to see ALL of these guys gone, but I do think they'd benefit from knowing that their jobs aren't as safe as they once were.

I'm probably not as nuts about this as everyone else, but it is what it is. I do feel a little bad for Ryan Martin though. Have to assume he had the inside track on this GM position until the Yzerman news. I'd expect him to be running an NHL team in the near future.

I'll like Larkin, Zegras/Turcotte/Cozens, Veleno, and Glendening more though.

I was genuinely just rolling my eyes as I read that. I'd go with something like "Hats off to you Columbus, you were the better team this year...but you've got a rival for life!" At least save a little face. Sure it invites jeers this year, but you don't seem like a bunch of whiny p*ssies. Or maybe even "Our bad fam, we thought they were just gonna roll over and die too". At least it would be honest and not that mawkish bullsh*t they actually put out.

It would be really hard for me to part with AA for the sole reason that the lion's share of his points are goals, but his point totals are relatively low. 50 pts guys in the NHL are a dime a dozen, but when 30 of those points are goals you're in select company. Why does this matter? Because he'll provide a ton of goals for a more modest cap hit than you'd expect. Given that his last two years have been lackluster my guess is he'll come in around 5.5-6 per year, which is great. I'd be MUCH more skeptical of giving that money to a 50 point guy who's primarily racking up assists. Two other things, if you're going to criticize AA for being a one trick pony at least acknowledge that burying breakaways is a pretty awesome trick. Not many guys can get those types of looks in the NHL and even fewer can capitalize. I'm also not even sure it's true anymore. In the past sure, but if you look back at a lot of his goals this year you'll see him shooting WAY more, using better positioning to score on backdoor plays/rebounds, and stickhandling through defenders to get open looks. Secondly, tons of fast skaters maintain their speed well into their mid-30's and I think AA is probably better than most of those guys. Off the top of my head Grabner, Gaborik, Selanne, Bure, Fedorov, come to mind. Power guys seem WAY more likely to fall off than excellent skaters. So EVEN IF AA scores most of his goals off breakaways (which is probably less true now than in the past) I'd bet on him keeping that up for a good long time over someone like, say, Bertuzzi who doesn't have that dynamic element to his game.

BULLs***! Keenan is for closers.

Safe to say if the BJs win this then Jarmo is safe for another year after a MASSIVE gamble at the deadline. Also safe to say that if they lose he'll be fired within 48 hours.

I actually don't really mind Tampa Bay. Though I genuinely like the Blue Jackets. It's just that I hate when any team is so good that people act like winning is a foregone conclusion. I pretty much always want to see those teams lose.

And Kucherov as well. Have to imagine this is a very different series if he'd played in any of the games...oh...yikes.

My girlfriend is in Columbus right now at a brewery and she said people are going ballistic every time the BJs score. She doesn't care about hockey at all, so she's bitching to me about how miserable she is. I'm trying to explain how insane what they're doing is, and she's annoyed because she can't concentrate on her book lol.