kipwinger

What say you Wings fans?

If Hughes, Kakko, Cozens, and Byram are off the board I draft Zegras or Turcotte. This is a no brainer. The next best defenseman is Broberg, and pretty much everyone says he doesn't have much offense...so hard pass. And you DEFINITELY don't trade a 6th overall pick for a guy who's going to hit free agency at the end of next season. Ever. Never never ever do that. People are really overthinking this. There is going to be a ton of high end talent left at #6, likely at key positions. Don't overthink it. Just take the top end center that's available (Zegras, Cozens, Turcotte, Dach) or Byram.

I blame Larkin and AA. If they had each scored 10 few goals we'd likely have been even worse and our lottery odds would have improved by a few percentage points, thus basically ensuring us Hughes or Kakko. The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves.

This is a legit argument and one of the big reasons I've liked Zegras so much. By all accounts his playmaking has elite upside. Having a guy like that passing to a Zadina or AA or running a powerplay is a huge upgrade offensively. You need to be able to score in different ways in the NHL. We have pretty good transition scoring, and as Rasmussen develops I think he and Bert will give us all the greasy goals we'd ever need. But I don't see someone like a Nick Backstrom or Giroux who can pick you apart with their vision and passing. Ovi is the best goal scorer of all time, but a huge contribution to that has always been Backstrom making cross ice passes through traffic look simple. Also, I have some crow to eat on Mantha. I talked a lot of s*** about him being a p*ssy, and he definitely is. But he really impressed me with his playmaking this year. His passing is WAY better than I thought and he scored at a 30 goal pace on top of it. Hard to ask anything more out of the guy. He may not be a 40 goal guy like I thought when we drafted him, but he might end up being more valuable if he turns into a 30 goal, 40 assist guy.

I like Connor McMichael early in the second. I'm not crazy about Broberg. Every single scouting report I've read suggests his offense isn't too good despite his excellent skating. Sounds a bit too much like Brendan Smith to me. If we don't select Byram I'd prefer we wait on a defenseman.

I genuinely don't think so. Khabib is an absolute monster on the ground, and his pace will kill you if he gets you there. But GSP has plus level wrestling, grapping, AND striking. His takedown defense would be too good for Khabib to do what he typically does to everyone and GSP would pick him apart standing up, just like he did to Bisping. I think GSP, Woodley, and Usman are the only guys who have a real change against Khabib because they all have plus level wrestling AND the striking. Khabib's striking sucks (minus that sweet right hook he dropped on Conor's stupid mug).

Me too. Really bummed they couldn't make a fight with Khabib work before he retired. I love Nurmagomedov too and it would have been one hell of a bout.

Fun stat for fight fans, George St. Pierre retired a few months ago with a 26-2 record, having avenged both fights he lost. Upon retirement he'd beaten every man he ever stepped into the cage with, he's a 4 time (2 Division) champion, and defeated 8 champions or former champions. And he did it all without the use of PEDs. Legend. Sweet. Penalties are down.

I want Columbus to win this series so f*cking bad. Aside from the fact that they're a fun team with a non-obnoxious fan base and they'd absolutely love it, I'd also LOVE to watch all the talking heads fall all over themselves trying to explain how Tampa Bay could actually lose.

I've also seen him compared to Ryan O'Reilly, and him a HUGE fan of his.

I know I have been all season. I think, in part, it's because he was injured for so much of the season and there are just so many other guys coming out of that team to keep track of. I certainly won't be upset if we end up taking him. Imagine trying to play against Larkin, Turcotte, and Veleno shift after shift. Better get your cardio in.

Haha, I literally thought the same thing. Although in the Kovalchuk situation I think it's more the coach than him. Everyone knew what they were getting when they signed a 35 year old sniper who's never been known for his systems play. Or they should have anyway.

That entirely depends on who's doing the ranking. I've seen Zegras as high as top five, and Dach as low as 12-15 and vice versa. Generally though Zegras has trended up while Dach has trended down, and Chicago places a premium on skill and not so much size. Total speculation that they'll pick him, but it's logical speculation at least. At any rate I think all of Zegras, Cozens, and Turcotte go before Dach, so I think he goes somewhere in the 7-10 range. I really like him and think he's going to be a very good player. He's almost identical to Gabe Vilardi in his draft year. Similar production, similar strengths and weaknesses, and similar upside. In a vacuum I would really like to have him in Detroit, I just think that if things play out like I discussed above you've got two better options in Byram or Turcotte. Byram because we need the defense, and Turcotte because he's like Larkin but with more offense (Brayden Point) and I think the organization has been skewing heavily toward speed as a team identity. If we take Byram we're in a pretty good spot defensively, but we're a little weak offensively. If we take Turcotte we're way better offensively (in addition to him we can move AA back to wing). Plus imagine having to face Larkin, Turcotte, Veleno, and Glendening down the middle. That's a meat grinder. Trouble is we'd have to go shopping in FA for defense. The good news on that front is that Trouba is an FA next year and he fits our group age wise. So I think I'm leaning toward Turcotte and crossing my fingers Trouba wants to play at home. Bert-Larkin-Mantha Ras-Turcotte-Zadina Berggren-Veleno-AA Svech-Glendening-Abby Neilsen Cholo-Trouba McIsaac-Hronek DK-Lindstrom

I don't see Podkolzin going 3rd. Chicago is pretty set on the wing but they're fairly weak down the middle in terms of their top end prospects. Have to think they'd want a center. Colorado is another team that's organizationally weak down the middle and stronger on defense and the wings. If anybody is going to take Podkolzin before Detroit drafts it will likely be Los Angeles. Three of their top four prospects (according to Pronman) are centers so they're good on that. They're not great on defense, so taking Byram at 5th would be a fine move, but you have to think that if the consensus 3rd overall falls to 5th they'd scoop him up. So here's how I see it playing out: NJ: Hughes NYR: Kakko CHI: Zegras or Cozens COL: Cozens or Zegras LA: Podkolzin DET: Byram or Turcotte

I'd sooner try to reach out and grab the moon than attempt to decipher the thought process of idiots. Edit: Also, the bigfoot thing isn't really a conspiracy. If bigfoot exists, as the dummies contend, it would just be a biological fact. Now, if the truth of bigfoot existence were being covered up by the Bilderberg Group or something it would be a conspiracy. In which case I assume all these dummies would "want" is proof of the existence of the aforementioned bigfoot.

Here's why you can be sure there's no NHL conspiracy. Because Gary Bettman still has a job. If the owners, who tell Gary what to do, wanted him to conspire to make Edmonton a championship caliber team through draft picks then he's failed miserably. If they wanted him to stop Detroit from being successful then he's failed miserably. If they wanted him to make New Jersey relevant to the NHL then he's failed miserably. And billionaires generally don't let failures run their enterprises for too long. There is no conspiracy, it's just something stupid people think when they don't get exactly what they want.

Why would NHL owners rig a lottery against themselves? Or did you think Gary Bettman was like the NHL dictator? Also, it's not "closed door". Every NHL team has a representative in the room during the lottery. Maybe look into these things?

Ummm, not to nitpick but the very definition of "lottery" precludes one from being a "screwjob".

Whelp, one of Zegras, Byram, or Cozens will be available at 6. I'm totally fine with it.

And it's that type of deep insight that keep you relevant around here. Thanks for the hard hitting analysis bud.

Letang was hurt during the Pens cup run and didn't play. And it was only AFTER the Caps won that people started saying Carlson was an "elite 1D". Prior to their win the consensus around here was that he was a step below all the other guys you mentioned. It obviously is better to have a stud defender than not, but after watching what Vegas did last year without a single top tier defender I wonder if systems are changing enough that they're not absolutely required anymore.

The CHL doesn't post ice-time stats so I couldn't find those. He did score a bit on the PP, but not sure if it was net front or on the point. I know he manned the second unit until Bouchard got back from his NHL stint so there was time to pick up a few points. But his role was significantly smaller than it would have been on most other teams either way. Here's their even strength scoring though: Boqvist: 37 pts Bouchard: 28 pts Regula: 30 pts. In the NHL not everybody gets to run a powerplay. Likely, Hronek and Cholo (or Byram if we draft him) will get those spots in Detroit. So it's never a bad thing to have a guy on the D-core who can score regularly at even strength.

Probably needs a couple years but he looks like the real deal. Petruzelli looks solid too. And we took two goalies in last year's draft that were both pretty lauded. Hence why signing Jimmy for another year was so important. I expect Larsson starts for Grand Rapids next year, gets a little coaching and maybe a late season call up, and then competes for the Detroit job in two.

I agree. I think I said elsewhere that the trend seems to be toward having good pairs that you deploy in particular situations and not having a 1D who plays a billion minutes a season.

The article that came out the other day compared him to Rick Nash. I can see that a little bit stylistically.