kipwinger

Hmmmm, maybe I use the number 6 on Wahlstrom, draft skilled defensemen and centers with the remaining picks and go all in on Carlson, or OEL, or Karlsson in free agency. Land one of them over the next two years, add a high end scorer (Wahlstrom), and some higher than average depth, along with Larkin, Mantha, Ras, Svech, AA, Cholo, Hronek, Bert and I like the way the team looks in a few years. I'd also look to move Nyquist for picks at the trade deadline, and very heavily shop all of Howard, Dekeyser, Glendening (or Helm, not both). You need guys in the locker room to teach the young guys how to be good pros. Abby, Z, Kronwall, Daley, Ericssson, Helm (or Glendening), and Neilsen all provide that over the next few years.

Canes have a new owner too, so I doubt that is still a thing.

Will be interesting to see whether Quinn Hughes' play at the World Championships under Jeff Blashill will have any affect on the Wings' draft strategy. He's currently got 2 assists in 3 games against NHL caliber competition.

Bingo.

Don't care if dummies would hate it. The team would be better.

I'd do it even if we got the first overall pick in this year's draft.

I do this trade without batting an eye if I'm Detroit.

I'd take Wahlstrom or trade back and take Wilde. If I draft offense early I take defense with Vegas' pick and vice versa.

Not really sure why so many are down on Wahlstrom. Kid came through the same developmental program as Larkin and bested Dylan in ppg at each stage. If he projects as a center in the NHL I'd be happy with the pick, if he projects as a winger then I pass. But he's a damn good prospect.

Bouchard just seems like another of these lower ceiling higher floor kind of guys to me. I'm not going to pretend like I've watched a bunch of his game or anything, I haven't. But nothing about him stands out to me (aside from his stat line). The fact that he's been compared to Larry Murphy scares the living crap out of me. Larry Murphy is not an ideal for a modern hockey player in my opinion. Again, I don't know. I fluctuate a ton on all these prospects, but right now I'm looking at Boqvist or Hughes if I'm Detroit.

I'm on board the Columbus bandwagon for the playoffs. I'd also find the Caps, Preds, or Jets acceptable.

I've heard Bouchard's skating isn't great. Gives me a ton of pause if true. I like Hughes though. Supposed to be super creative and our team could certainly use a little dynamism.

Ummm...I think Nick Lidstrom was a very, very, very, good hockey player. But he's absolutely NOT my "beloved". If you feel that way about him, you probably need a break from hockey...for like...a while.

Look, I'm glad we lost so I hate that I'm in a position to defend anyone here, but we got outshot 41-27 after going up 4-1. This is hardly Howard's fault. If not for the posts, and Howard's second period play, we probably lose this game 7-4 in regulation. Like most of our problems, this is largely on the league's worst defensive unit.

Not really. Any faceoff that's important enough to match up righty/lefty is important enough to send out your best FO guy, regardless of which hand he is. In 2008 we were the best FO team in the league with Dats, Z, Filppula, and Draper. All lefties. I don't really think in the long run it matters much. I realize that in some really particular instances you might want to win a FO to a particular spot, but over the course of the season I don't think that matters all that much.

Your entire position is based on the premise that we would only get a 5th rounder for him, i'm not sure where this comes from. Given the prices that other similar talents have fetched I'd say he'd return more (despite the fact that a 5th might have been the initial ask). I mean, if he's as valuable as you say why wouldn't he get a bigger return? Secondly, our penalty kill is ranked 22nd in the league, and we are 23rd in faceoffs. So a) it's not like these are team strengths that we need to maintain in order to have a competitive advantage, and b) you're probably overestimating how good he really is at these things because he happens to be marginally better than a bad cast. For instance, his 58% FO is pretty high but it's really only because he doesn't take that many faceoffs. Riley Sheahan has a 54% record but has taken about 320 more faceoffs this season than Glendening. Compare these to truly exceptional FO men and you'll see why it's overblown. Ryan O'Reilly has won 60% of 1949 faceoffs. That's 1306 more faceoffs than Glendening has even taken. So while Glendening is one of the better FO guys on our s***ty team, he's not actually all that good in absolute terms. Certainly not good enough to keep around on a rebuilding team when picks (especially this year and next) are so valuable for a quicker rebuild.

Because while he's not a problem, he's not a solution either. And because Helm can do the same job and is harder to trade. And because even the best 4th liners are replaceable. And because they're replaceable it's rare that anyone offers anything for one so you should jump at it if you have an extra one you don't need. And because if we want to accelerate the rebuild (as Holland and Draper and Martin have said) then we need picks sooner rather than later. I don't dislike Glendening, but he's not so good that we can't live without him. Right now we need the picks. I'd SERIOUSLY entertain any offer for guys over 25-26 who can get us picks now and who will likely be too old to be helpful in 3 to 5 years when we are good again.

Agreed, but that belies the point that both Ericsson and Dekeyser play for the same moron coach, so the coaching factor is a wash. Nevertheless, I agree with you overall premise. Dekeyser is absolutely a 2nd pair defenseman on the 5th worst team in the league. He's Marc Staal or Dan Girardi...but without the track record of offensive success lol. In short...he's pretty mediocre. Maybe worse than that.

I hope Dekeyser gets traded, or falls in a well, or something between now and then. I genuinely cannot believe that teams were interested in him, Helm, and Glendening at the trade deadline and none of them got traded. FML

I think he mean an ineffective ***** who is currently putting up the same points per game as Jonathan Ericsson.

I presume you mean aside from Weber, but your point is taken. They weren't really talking trash, just pointing out the obvious (our defense is awful and slow and unskilled) in its current iteration. They referred to our defense as "old school", which is true, but probably the most damning indictment of the current state of the Wings. In an era where everyone else is doing what we used to do (drafting on skill and speed instead of size), we're trying to be the 1995 New Jersey Devils. Ugh.

I've never seen the kid play but his offensive number for the NCAA are pretty good and he was doing it early in his college career too, so it's not like he's just benefiting from being an upper classman. One scouting report said his speed was good but not great, which is a concern, but I'll temper that criticism with the knowledge that pretty much every player who isn't blazing fast is criticized for their speed so it's hard to tell if it's a legitimate criticism.

I don't think he'll even be a bottom pairing guy. He's smaller and slower than any of Ouellet, Jensen, or Sproul were, and isn't noticeably better offensively. I see no reason to believe he'd fare any better than any of them have. Small guys can make it in today's NHL (Ryan Ellis), but you have to be able to skate. This kid is going to get dominated if he plays consistently for us. But it's just like the Red Wings to hold back a better player because Hicketts "earned" it or whatever. I was watching the Montreal feed of the game last night and their announcers were going on and on about how awful our defense was. Particularly how slow and susceptible to the forecheck we are. In response we called up a guy who's both slow and small. Bang up job with personnel management this team is doing.

I'd rather see Hronek. Hicketts has no future in Detroit. Maybe if he could skate, but alas. Small and slow really doesn't have much use in the NHL, despite how good his story is.

Sutter, Todd Richards, Tippett. None of the rest of those hacks even get an interview if I'm the GM.