kipwinger

Not at all, I just think that he’s going to have a longer development curve because he needs to do a lot of work on getting bigger and faster. The Canes don’t need defense, they need scoring. They also don’t need futures because they’re trying to win now.

You’re allowed to have more than one good player per position lol

Something else to pursue: Carolina needs offense, they don't have a ton of money, but they do have a really good right shot defenseman that's buried in the depth chart behind Brent Burns and Brett Pesce. Scott Morrow has eaten up the NCAA for two years in a row and is clearly ready for the NHL. He's 6'2, 200 lbs, and makes plays all over the ice. Perhaps something centered on Kubalik or Berggren? I'd start him with someone safe like Maatta as a rookie but he's clearly a top four dman in the making. Walman-Seider Edvinsson-Chiarot Maatta-Morrow

What we can't afford to do is fetishize draft picks. Even top picks have a pretty good likelihood of falling flat (anybody remember Filip Zadina?). We didn't trade Bertuzzi and Hronek just to cross our fingers and roll the dice on a replacement. We traded them to get assets...assets that can be used to do all sorts of things to improve the club. You can't fall in love with your own picks and prospects and when quality players become available you need to try to land them (if you don't have comparable players in your system). It's not like trading our additional 1st and 2nd round picks is going to gut the club. We'd still have our own 1st and 2nd rounds the next two years...AND one of the deepest prospect pools in the league. We need upper end talent. Guys like Debrincat and Dubois are already there and the likelihood that a mid round pick becomes as good as either of them is small. If you can get them, do it. I also REALLY like Barbashev and think SY needs to take a LONG look at the guy. If Vegas wins the Cup he'll likely be on the chopping block as they look to gain cap flexibility. He's really skilled himself, compliments other skill player well, is SUPER hard to play against, and plays responsibly all over the ice. I imagine after the playoffs he's had he's going to command a decent salary, but he's worth it. He'd be a target for me for sure.

The Wings need to sign Barbashev. That dude is a beast. His board play is amazing.

Can someone who knows better tell me, is Bruce Cassiday an awesome coach? So, Eichel’s a tough b*stard.

Obviously this is dependent on whether they'd sign extensions, I'd also be willing to add any of Zadina, Fabbri, Perron, Kubalik, Chiarat, Maatta, or Zadina if either team wants roster players: To Det: Dubios To Winnipeg: 2023 1st (Islanders) + 2023 2nd + (one of) Wallinder/Sodorblom/Johansson and then... To Det: Debrincat To Ottawa: 2024 1st (Boston), 2023 2nd + (one of) Wallinder/Sodorblom/Johansson and then... Get your backup goalie and RHD in free agency Ras-Larkin-Debrincat Copp-Dubois-Raymond Kubalik-Kasper-Perron Berggren-Veleno-Mazur

As far as his on-ice coaching my biggest issue with Babs was that his game plan was always to clog up the game to the point that nothing was happening and then count on individual moments of brilliance from his stars to provide offense. Offense was entirely incidental to his game plan. During his tenure as coach think about the Wings' breakouts. As soon as we had the puck we'd circle back behind the net and move forward as a 5 man unit instead of stretching the ice. That's insanely conservative. Likewise, there's a quote (I'll try to find it) where he says something to the effect of "I don't want Lidstrom playing as much in the offensive zone". The problem is that the deeper you go in the playoffs the more likely that the other team will have some pretty high caliber stars too, and maybe they'll be the ones providing the moments of brilliance. Secondly, because offense never factored into his strategy he didn't have any good way of generating it in the event that something bad happened. Datsyuk is hurt? You're screwed. Down by a couple goals? You're screwed. Opposition has a hot goalie? You're screwed. Powerplay not scoring? You're screwed.

I'll say two things about Babs. First, his success in Anaheim was entirely because the lockout hadn't happened yet, the rule changes (removal of the red line) weren't instituted, and inferior teams could still trap their way to success if they had a great goalie. What he did in Anaheim could never happen in today's game. Secondly, because of that season he ended up getting his job with the Wings, and then the Leafs, both of which were powerhouse teams that were going to be successful with or without him because of their talent levels. I've already commented on how well I think he utilized both teams' talent (spoiler alert: really badly) but those factors (as well as the Olympics) are the foundations of Babs' legacy. He's never been that great of a coach, he underachieved far more often than he overachieved, tons of coaches have ton more with less...BUT he was exceptionally successful at managing his career. I fully expect him to fall on his face with CBJ, just like his mentor Ken Hitchcock did, now that he's going to have to coach a modern era team that isn't loaded with superstar talent to carry him.

Much as I hate to say anything positive about Mike "No Event Hockey" Babcock, he basically did this with Anaheim in 2003 when that team rode J.S. Giguere (and trapped their way) to the finals. That team was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

What a f*cking finish.

But who would take care of the houses you own all over the country?

I’ll keep you in mind in case an “Obnoxious Tw*t” position opens up.

What not to like? Good salary, great benefits, and I don’t have to interact with the public.

You can have him. My pud will always be KRsmith

Sure you have. People are always giving out personal information on the internet. I’m sure you were, as usual, the picture of honesty.

I’ve been here a loooong time and you’ve been a pud the whole time. If you were going to get under my skin it would have happened years ago.

Wait, did you just do “I know you are but what am I?”. Lol In between lying, trolling, and making sock accounts do you ever look in the mirror and realize that you’re a f*cking man baby?

Huuuuuuuge goal!

Yep, I’m sure they’ll use him completely differently than they did last season. That would makes tons of sense.

Yep, you have a friend whose uncle’s brother knows a scout. And you’re a business owner who travels all over Europe. And you’re a national champion athlete. And and and. You’re a liar man. You’ve done it for years. Your credibility is zilch.

The refs are ruining this series. There’s a penalty every 3 minutes. Edit: 11 penalties through two periods. This is unwatchable

While those are both good players, I wouldn't like this draft strategy. We'd still be lacking a competitive forward corps and you're not likely to get impact forwards outside the top of the draft so you're just kicking the can down the road yet again. Another way of putting it would be: If I could only have 4 all-stars on my team I'd rather they be two centers and two defensemen than 4 defensemen or 4 centers. You can compliment star players with good free agents and be ok, but you can't build and entire forward corps (or defense corps) through free agency. Side note, can you believe that the Red Wings have been looking for a quality 2nd line center since signing Stephen Weiss TEN YEARS AGO? It is completely insane to think that we've had a glaring hole in our lineup for a DECADE and every attempt to fill it (not that there were many) has been a half-assed failure. Weiss, Richards, Neilsen, Suter, Copp. Losers.

And Datsyuk was hurt too. But you'll recall it was Pittsburgh's 3rd line that absolutely killed us that series. I think we were icing Hudler-Filppula-Samuelsson and they had Kennedy-Staal-Talbot. That line came up huge for them.

IMO 2005-06 was the worst. He had SOOOO much talent. FOUR 80+ point players. EIGHT 20+ goal scorers. Stars on offense, stars on defense, quality depth goaltending. Leadership. Youth. Everything. Lost in the 1st round to bottom feeder Edmonton. What a f*cking disaster.