kipwinger

You and I probably don't agree about how good Larkin is vis-a-vis Brayden Point. I'd argue that they're more or less the same caliber player, the only difference is that one of them played on a dynasty team with Nikita Kucherov as his most common linemate and the other was on a rebuilding team with puds like Mantha and Bertuzzi riding shotgun.

It's basically the same way that Los Angeles built their Cup teams.

I disagree with your assessment of John Gibson, but that's not really the part of this I'm responding to. I think you could pretty safely replace Veleno in the lineup with Henrique and be a better team for it. Veleno is also on an expiring contract and I don't think it's a guarantee that he even gets qualified. I think he's been fine this year, but Henrique between Sprong and Kostin is probably a better line right now, and I don't think Veleno has been so good that he's locked in his roster spot. Also, keep in mind that there is no roster limit after the deadline so as long as we can fit everyone under the cap we can have as many people sitting as we'd like. So if you were really gearing up for a playoff run you could experiment with everyone for the rest of the season and then choose the best 2 of Henrique, Copp, and Veleno to center your bottom two lines. The third could sit. That said, I'm basically happy with our centers right now so I don't think I'd make the proposed trade. Let them deal Henrique separately. But I'd definitely use this same strategy on the wing. Bring in someone like Vatrano and then let him, Fabbri, Perron, and Kostin battle it out to see who plays and who sits.

I like the idea of Vatrano more than I like Chychrun. Both are good players but I think the acquisition cost will be high on Chychrun because A) Ottawa gave a pretty solid package to get him, and B) Ottawa is in our division and Chychrun doesn't have the same leverage that Debrincat did. I'm sure SY would rather not trade his first rounder and I don't see how Ottawa can trade Chychrun and NOT get a 1st back without it being a complete disaster. Also, is he even that good? I mean, I haven't really followed his career but he seems a little like a Mantha type in the sense that it SEEMS like he should be good, and everyone keeps waiting for him to be good, but is he actually good? I might rather have Hanafin. Similar attributes but scores more, is outside the division, doesn't have the injury history, and has a longer track record of success. I guess if you're thinking your first round pick is going to be in the 23-26 range then maybe he's worth it anyway.

Considering how we fell apart in December after starting the season strong in October and November, is anyone else nervous about how this team is going to come out of the All-Star break? We've got a good thing going here and I wish we could just keep playing while we're hot.

You guys are getting carried away. We DO have a legit 2C in Compher. Look at Tampa's 2C (Anthony Cirelli) and you'll see exactly how Yzerman (and Lalaonde) envision the role being filled. Lalonde has already said that he was a huge fan of Compher before he was even signed by the Wings. These guys like their 2C to be extremely good in the defensive zone (Compher is) and must be able to carry water offensively (Compher does).

I really like Lindholm too, but I'm starting to think he's just a clone of Compher. Like, if you put Gaudreau and Tkachuk on Compher's wings COULD he score 80 points? Based on what I've seen this season I don't think it's out of the realm possibility. I think teams are built all sorts of ways now, and I don't think that's a bad thing for Detroit. If we want a center that can essentially make up the difference in production between Compher and Elias Lindholm why not trade for a dude like Tommy Novak and let him center Kostin and Sprong? I guarantee you'd get a bunch of points out of it and you wouldn't have to give up Lindholm level assets. IMO we don't really need to address our centers at all. Put Guentzel and Kane on Compher's wings and I suspect we'll have a really great 2nd scoring line AND they won't get caved on defense. But if I absolutely HAD to bring in another center it would probably be someone who can replace Veleno, not Compher (who is fine at 2C) or Copp (who is fine at 3C).

He's a doosh.

I also think that in general SY doesn't want to deplete his prospect pool too much. Replacing guys like Fabbri with guys like Mazur (on an entry level deal) is going to create a competitive advantage for this team in a few years. I doubt SY is in a rush to trade away a bunch of cheap NHL caliber talent for a rental right now. Maybe in a year or two when we're really close to competing for a Cup. I can see our 2nd/3rd round picks and B-level prospects in play, but outside of Berggren (who I think it probably gone at the deadline) I don't see him moving any prospects of any value (Mazur, Kasper, Edvinsson, Danielson, Cossa). Maybe Johansson, Wallinder, Lombardi are in play for the right deals, but I don't see them being moved for the sake of a middle six rental or something like that. They've got more value to our team as cheap replacements for our depth guys.

Basically. They think the Wings are a pretender and that Lyon is propping up the team. Because they clearly haven't watched the last 10 or so games and seen how well our defense is playing in front of Lyon and how easy the shots he faces are.

That's fine for a fan, but if you're going to make money off "My thoughts on hockey are worth your time and money" then you need to do better than "I was wrong". You need to analyze why you were wrong and not make that mistake again. But how much do you wanna bet they'll be all over the next highly touted, offensively inclined, prospect with good possession numbers?

It's the entire reason I loathe that podcast. I don't care about the terrible "take" to be honest. It was how self-righteous they were about it. Like, they were very explicit sometimes with their "you'd have to be an idiot not to see how good Zadina is" narrative. Then, unsurprisingly, Zadina WAS just as bad as everyone else thought and it was crickets from those guys. They just moved on to the next thing. Their boy Prashanth Iyer of the "Expected by Who" podcast does the same s***. He once penned an article entitled "Brenden Smith really is that damn good" for Winging It in Motown. In the article he compared Smith favorably to guys like Hedman, Doughty, and Lindholm. I pressed him once on Twitter about Smith and he was insanely rude about the whole thing. Then - surprise - Smith sucks and he just conveniently never mentioned it again. I don't respect people in the "take" business if they don't spend as much time analyzing what they got wrong as what they got right. If you say "Zadina is dominant and you're a fool if you don't agree" and then he ISN'T dominant then you pretty much HAVE to analyze why you were wrong or else you have no credibility. And if you have no credibility then why would anyone care about your "takes"?

Bingo. The very same guy that called Rasmussen a "career AHLer", and said fans were stupid if they didn't see how "dominant" Zadina was a couple seasons ago.

Kasper was a monster again on Saturday night. SIX shots on goal. He's going to need to continue working on his finishing (as I've mentioned), but he's going to be an absolute beast. Can't wait for this kid. The obnoxious guy on the Winged Wheel Podcast said Kasper is most likely to turn out like Veleno in a recent episode. But that guy was also a ride-or-die for Mantha, Bertuzzi, and Zadina and a notorious hater of Hronek and Rasmussen so I think his judgement is a little suspect.

You're better than this.

source?

Lyon is going to remain the team's starter unless he falters. BUT he can't play as much as he has been and have any gas left in the tank for playoffs. He's going to need competent backup and there's a big opportunity for that to be Husso unless we make a move from outside the organization prior to the deadline. Husso looked pretty solid the two games he played before his injury. I hope that was because the team was starting to come back around. Nevertheless, he'll get a chance to play a role in this team's success and I sure hope he grabs it because we don't want to overtax Lyon down the stretch.

I agree. We have been as good as them or better since the new year.

I agree and have had many the “if you think gentrification is so bad you should come see what it did for Detroit” conversations with people in DC. Lotta credit for that goes to Dan Gilbert. I know a lot of people who graduated college, got good starting positions at Quicken, bought subsidized condos in Gilbert’s buildings downtown. Then all the bars and restaurants moved in to cater to the crowd.

I came down to Detroit in 2009 from upstate to watch Michigan State in the final four. At the time there were few bars and restaurants downtown and they were all at capacity. Because there was no place for people to go the owners of all the downtown buildings had opened up the storefronts for cash-only 'pop up" bars. You'd walk into a totally empty storefront, buy a can of beer out of a plastic kiddy pool with cash, and watch games on a flat screen sitting on a table or something. One night we were just talking down the middle of Woodward with a 30 rack, along with about a million other people, just screwing off. No police, no traffic, and nobody gave a sh*t. 15 years later all the buildings a full and lit up. There are restaurants and bars all over the place. There are people all over the place. The public spaces pretty much always have events and people are gathered around. I've seen ice rinks in the parks, skateboarding competitions, you name it. Go sit any any restaurant downtown on any weekend and the place will be full of people waiting for an event at St. Andrews, or the Masonic Temple, or any of the casinos or sports arenas. Oh, and the place LOOKS nicer too. Building have been renovated, murals painted, greenspace, lights, the whole nine. Walking up Woodward toward the LCA from Jefferson Ave. now is genuinely beautiful. The turnaround is incredible.

Tomas Tatar is a pretty good comparable for Sprong in terms of what Sprong brings RIGHT NOW. He's a 20 goal, 40ish point winger with great possession metrics who can play up and down the lineup. Obviously Tatar did it much more consistently than Sprong has. After scoring at that rate for three seasons in a row (four if you count his 19 goals in 73 games as a rookie) he landed a 5.3 mil x 4 year deal at about the same age Sprong is now. Because the cap has been flat for quite a long while, and because he doesn't have the track record Tatar did, I'm going to guess Sprong falls short of that. 4.5million x 3 years (on the open market) is a guess I can get behind. Someone who needs scoring will give it to him, and I think it's likely that team won't be Detroit unless we clear someone like Fabbri or Copp off the books. My hope is that he'll value stability after bouncing around so much and take a little less for more term. 3.5 million by 4 years and some goal scoring bonuses might entice him.

I'm genuinely concerned that we'll make a trade and screw up the team chemistry that we're building right now. If we're still playing like this heading into the deadline I'd really only like to see an addition in goal (just to shore things up alongside Lyon, not necessarily replace him as starter), or a top six winger that plays fast and tenaciously, or maybe a depth RHD if one is available. But probably not all three. Our boys have bought into Lalonde's defensive structure and we're seeing great results. We've been beating the sh*t out of top teams for a month. I REALLY don't wanna change things too much. Like, if we add John Gibson and Jake Guentzel we might legitimately win a Cup if we keep playing like this.

Not if you're winning games. Not to mention the fact that our 1C and 2C are both less expensive that most competitive teams' rosters so we're saving money there. Take this with a grain of salt because I didn't verify the source, but according to this article the line had a 91% expected goals share against Philly. For those of you not overly familiar with the labyrinthine world of hockey analytics that's a very...VERY...good number.

Another great goal by the Ras-Copp-Fischer line. They're monsters right now.

I'd f*ck Osgood.