kipwinger

This is another instance in which I don't think we're seeing the same things. I saw Berggren making plays all over the ice that his linemates couldn't finish, not the other way around. At one point his linemates were Zadina and Veleno, there was no chance either of those dudes were finishing the plays he set up.

What's everyone's thoughts on Berggren's season? I saw an article in Detroit Hockey Now that said he "needed to be better" or some such thing. I thought it was an odd take considering he was A) a rookie, B) banished to the bottom six with a bunch of puds, and C) still ended the season fifth on the team in goals and ninth in points. I'd also point out that management gave him the directive to play less on the perimeter and if you look back at his highlight package on youtube you'll see that quite a few of his goals were scored in and around the crease. All in all I thought it was a pretty solid rookie season, but it seems like there are a least a few voices out there saying otherwise. Your thoughts?

I'm wrong about things all the time, but it's fun to guess. Look, I'm not going to throw a fit if the Wings sign Kane. He's a legend and it would be fun. I just don't see it making sense is all.

Kane specifically chose NYR, not because they were the best team, but because that's where he wanted to play. He has 3 Cups, loads of money, and total flexibility. He's not signing anywhere he doesn't want to play. He's not Tomas Tatar, he can afford (both figuratively and literally) to be selective. If he doesn't get the offer he wants he'll retire.

If you're wanting a high(ish) end offensive guy who doesn't really play defense that well my pick would be Tommy Novak out of Nashville. I've had my eye on him for a while. Could be a sneaky good acquisition that would allow us to flex Copp to the wing so that he could be another power guy in the top six.

Nobody is suggesting the Tkachuk brothers. I'd take Jake Debrusk (as an example). I don't like the idea of Kane for a few reasons: One, he almost certainly doesn't want to play here so we'd have to pay A LOT to change his mind. Recall that the only trade he was willing to entertain out of Chicago was to NYC. That's it. Two, at this point in his career he's probably not better than Debrincat, but is better than Raymond. So either you play all three of those midgets in the top six (and lose every board battle you have) or Raymond sees his ice time diminish...which is obviously not ideal for his development. Three, it's not even like you could flip him at the deadline for quality draft picks. He was so picky about his landing spot last year that Chicago lost all leverage and only got conditional 2nd round pick and a 4th. He has less trade value than most rentals and he's not going to put us over the top and/or sign longer term...so what's the point?

This is...not ideal. I'll be curious how the Wings handle it. It's bad press for sure. Almost every article I've read has "Red Wings' Daniel Sprong" at the tippy top. Then again, it happened in the offseason and outside of the hockey sphere, so maybe they'll conclude that it's a him-problem. Personally I don't really care if he got into a scrap with another dude while they were obviously drunk, not the end of the world, but I can envision a scenario where the organization doesn't like it very much.

NHL Network ranked the Top 20 centers in the NHL (see: https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-current-players-ranked-top-20-centers/c-345506390) Larkin was 19th on the list. Here's a list of players ahead of him who I think he's better than (at this point in their careers): Malkin Kopitar Stutzle Aho Hischier Hintz Petterson

No thanks on Kane. I think we need a youngish power winger that can play at the top of the lineup. Someone who plays like Rasmussen, but with a little bit more offense. That's really my only quibble with the long term outlook of the roster. We've got top centers, defense, goalies, and a couple of higher end wings. I just want to see us get that power element. Maybe Ras gets there, and Kostin and Sodorblom still could, but I'd like to see a legit 20 goal/50 pts top line power guy.

He's eligible for the AHL after his season in the WHL concludes from what I understand. He's about to drop 100 points in the WHL and then look really good in GR. Watch.

I'm REALLY liking Nate Danielson as the summer wears on. I think this kid is going to be a stud. I think he's about to completely run over the WHL and make his way to GR at the end of their season and not look out of place (Kinda like Mazur but at an earlier age). We got a good one here.

Fake news. You said Maatta-Holl would be a good third pair, not Chiarot-Holl. You said Chiarot would "disappoint". Not surprised you're trying to steal my takes though.

Bro, go back a page. It's not YOUR hot take if I've already said it.

Ken Daniels said the same thing on the Winged Wheel Podcast. Kostin's goal share (On-Ice GF%) was amongst the best in Edmonton a year ago. It'll be interesting to see what he does with a few more minutes of ice time and some newfound confidence. FWIW Compher and Sprong also have really good possession numbers and goal shares. I wouldn't hate a Kostin-Compher-Sprong line.

Even if he's adequately "recovered" he still missed an entire offseason of training/conditioning/development. If you broke your leg and it took six weeks to heal you'd technically be "recovered" but I doubt you'd be out running 10Ks immediately afterward. Personally I'd prefer he start in GR and stay there until he's up to game speed. Once he's dominating, call him up. I don't see any reason to rush it considering we've got seven NHL caliber defensemen on the roster without him.

I definitely don't think he's a bad player. I just don't think he's a superstar either. I'm perfectly happy to talk about him in the same way I'd talk about Toews or Kopitar, but it just feels like he gets more love than that. Maybe I'm overblowing it though.

I wasn't trying to suggest there was some great "Datsyuk vs. Bergeron" debate amongst NHL fans or anything like that. I was just saying that Datsyuk's defensive prowess was noteworthy because he was also an elite offensive performer. Bergeron is not elite offensively, so he just always seemed like a better than average shutdown center. Like Jordan Staal with a little more offense. But in some NHL circles he's talked about like he's a superstar, which I don't get.

I promise I'm not trying to be a troll when I say this, but why is Bergeron so highly thought of? It's not like he's Datsyuk, winning Selke trophies while putting up 90 pts. And it's not like he won a bunch of championships or anything. If anything, Boston underperformed as much as exceeded expectations. I get that he's good, and a class act, and tough as nails, and all that. But is he as good as he's hyped up in some circles? Or is he Jonathan Toews without the rings? What am I missing?

100%, and I don't think enough is made of the fact that having top six centers that score 70-90 pts and play excellent defense is a better situation than having someone that scores 100+ that gets shut down and/or can't stop other (marginally less talented) opposing forwards. Yzerman is building a powerhouse, the right way, and I think we're only a year or two of development away from seeing that strategy bear fruit.

Compher is going to help this team a ton, but defensively as you've pointed out. His defensive metrics are exceptional. He can matchup against top lines and find success, which should help Larkin and Copp's lines significantly. The last two years Larkin has scored nearly a point per game despite being keyed on every single game (perhaps more than any other player in the league). Imagine how he'll score if he gets even a 10-15% decrease in quality of competition? Outside of Larkin our best defensive center last year was Suter (woof!). Compher is a great get, and he's going to be huge for us.

Boston is cooked. They've lost too much already this offseason and their best remaining players are due for regression in the coming years.

I don't think they've got better players than we do, they're just a couple years older. We're a similarly talented team now, and most of our best players are still on the way. All of their best young players are already on the roster. They've got nothing coming, we've got Edvinsson, Kasper, Danielson, ASP, Mazur, Cossa, Sodorblom, Lombardi, and Wallinder coming. They've got one of the worst prospect pools in the league. They've got four or five guys on their NHL roster right now that are pretty good (Stutzle, Norris, Chychrun, Chabot, Tkachuk, and Batherson) and they only finished ahead of us because we didn't have Bertuzzi, Vrana, and Fabbri on the roster for most of the season last year. That's it. Get average seasons out of those three players last year and we finish ahead of them. Also, we got substantially better in the offseason, they didn't. Bert is more or less equal to Dcat in production, but Compher is WAY better than Suter as a 3C, Kostin is a better winger than Zadina, Sprong is more or less equal to Kubalik, Reimer is better than Ned/Hellberg, Holl is better than Oesterle/Hagg/Lindstrom.

Am I the only one who doesn't think Ottawa is ahead of us? They finished three wins ahead of us despite us having horrendous injury luck all season long. You go down their roster (and organizational depth chart) and we're just as good as they are. They beat us up in those two games, but that shouldn't be misunderstood as being further along. We're going to smash that team this year AND probably Buffalo too. Best news is that most of our best young players aren't even on the roster yet, theirs are and they still only barely finished ahead of an injury plagued Detroit team.

Geez take it easy. I didn’t think it was too much to ask you to name a few podcasts you listened to enough to let them inform your opinion in this way.

Which podcasts?