kipwinger

Wait, are you telling me that a guy that missed two full seasons of development might take a little longer than a typical prospect? I'm shocked. But seriously, the exact same thing was true of Jensen and that turned out okay. All I know is that when I watch him play he looks like a guy coaches trust in high leverage situations. That's a good thing. And at 23, given his injury history, I'd absolutely give him more runway too. Just like the Wings did. I think it's WAY early to call this kid Lashoff 2.0

I don't agree with this. Dude missed a ton of his development so he's definitely delayed but I think he's still going to be a regular, contributing, NHL defenseman. Just maybe not with this team. In the last two years he's established himself as a strong and trusted defender. I've watched GR more than a few times over the last year or two and he's out there against the opposition's best, starting in the dzone, late in games, etc. On top of that his offense, while not spectacular, has improved each of the last two years and (most importantly) is driven by strong 5on5 play and isn't overly reliant on the powerplay (which he's not on). McIsaac gives me strong Nick Jensen vibes and I'm glad he re-signed...if only to be used as trade bate. I expect a big year out of him in GR.

All valid points on behalf of SY, but just for the sake of providing a counterpoint in favor of Seider I'd just say that pretty much everyone agrees that you need elite talent to win Cups. Most rebuilding teams hope to get that by bottoming out and drafting a superstar. Our lottery luck hasn't held up at all, so that was never an option for us. But we got that first elite piece in Seider. Nobody, including SY, though Seider would be THIS good. It's easy to preach patience and tell the fans "change is coming but we're gonna have to find players". It's another thing entirely to point to Mo Seider and say "the change is here". The post-draft development of Seider proved that we got a top two player without a top two pick, and as much as SY and company liked him on draft day I don't think they ever dared to dream he'd be this good this quickly.

Tony DeAngelo would have a job if one of two things were true, 1) he played defense decently, 2) he didn't play defense but scored 80-100 points like Karlsson. He does neither and nobody is going to accept how bad he is defensively for 40-50 points. Not when you can get guys like Shayne Gostisbehere for cheap. Players' politics only matter when they suck. I used to say the same thing about Colin Kaepernick. If he was as good as Tom Brady nobody would care about his politics. Brady used to golf with Trump and nobody in the NFL really cared too much. Certainly not enough to threaten his career in any meaningful way. Kaepernick's politics got a very different reaction because he wasn't any good to begin with.

Is Elmer Sodorblom our most underrated prospect? I talk to people all the time about how absolutely stacked our prospect pool is and lately I've genuinely been forgetting about Sodorblom. The guy is an absolute unit and I still think he's on track to be a force in the NHL. Thoughts?

Anybody watch the development camp or 3on3 tourney? I'm curious how Danielson looked? Bultman of the Athletic highlighted him, Mazur, and Lombardi has his top performers.

Great deal. Sets us up to be good now and great a few years from now.

Northern Michigan

Just getting back from vacation. Love the off-season so far. Fischer is better than Erne, Sprong is better than Zadina, Holl and Ghost are both upgrades over Oesterle and Hagg. Compher isn’t better than Bertuzzi but he’s close. We land Debrincat and we have had a solid offseason.

Some fun reading from the folks over at WingingitinMotown. Both Babs and Blashill have been committed to this notion that Luke Glendening should be out against the opposition's best. However, the raw numbers (at least this year) seem to suggest this is a bad idea. Glendening seemed to play great against the Johnson line in last year's playoffs, so I'm not sure what's gone wrong. The article suggests that we were a much better possession team last year (which is true) but I don't know how that would make Glendening a much better possession player individually. Thoughts overall? The following chart shows each player's possession numbers with, and without, Glendening. He seems to be a possession black hole right now. Here's the article in it's entirety. http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2015/11/2/9657724/luke-glendening-usage-a-halloween-scary-story-detroit-red-wings-nhl

Already thinks he's a superstar. Can't wait till the kid gets a steady dose of Mo Seider. Gonna be a little harder to be a hot shot when he's not playing on big ice against Russia's notoriously lackluster defenders.

I think most teams will see through that. I just don't want him because if we're moving up in the draft that far I want a top center. With Michkov you're basically getting a guy who's either Panarin/Kane or bust. F*ck that.

Fingers crossed that Michkov would be off the board by then.

Today's the day. With the 9th OA I want Dvorsky/Danielson/Moore (in that order) and with the 17th I'd like Edstrom/Honzek/Barlow.

I genuinely thought Regula was going to be a solid NHL player. I totally whiffed on that one.

The Wings are starting to remind of me the 2006-2013 Tigers. They have one glaring weakness (in the Tigers case, relief pitching) and they don't do anything to address it year after year. Just one cheap, stop gap, move after the last.

If we give up two firsts and DON'T get a f*cking center I'm going to lose my goddamn mind.

I don't buy that there are two 1st round picks involved.

This bodes well for our Bruins 2024 first round draft pick. Hopefully this signals something of a "retool" for them.

Yzerman is in a strong negotiating position here. The entire world knows he's interested in Konecny. Ottawa/Debrincat start asking for too much and he pivots to Philly and lets them figure it out with some other team.

Yep. If Dats had just retired I'd be more sympathetic. But he bailed on his team and then played five more years overseas. Screw that guy. Fedorov too.

Yep, any day now. It's too bad KRsmith disappeared before the chickens could come home to roost on these guys. Rubbing it in his face would have been pretty satisfying.

I imagine most people would agree with you, I definitely would. But retiring a number is a different thing than building a team retroactively. Retirement is about honoring a player whose career has already concluded. Zetterberg was a better Red Wing. Zetterberg lived and breathed Red Wing hockey AND had more points, assists, and goals. He was also a MASSIVELY important part of a Cup run. And he was the Captain. Those are the types of guys you honor, not guys who just had more skill.

So where Smith and Mantha's.

Fingers crossed Zadina is going back the other way. Seems like every few years there's a guy who is adored (and apologized for) endlessly by 50% of the fanbase. Then they get traded and suck on another team and everybody finally realizes they sucked the whole time until the next guy comes along. Brendan Smith, Tomas Jurco, Mantha, and now Zadina all fit the bill. I'll be glad when the debate is finally put to bed.