kipwinger

Edvinsson was pretty raw during training camp. He was turning the puck over A LOT and wasn't defending well. I suppose you could make the argument that he could have learned to manage those parts of his game in the NHL but I tend to agree that the NHL is not for development. In the video I posted in the other thread Edvinsson said himself that the jump from Europe to the AHL was much bigger than from the AHL to the NHL.

Look at this horse. He's an absolute monster. Way thicker than he looks in his gear. This is probably my favorite interview all season. Edvinsson straight up shrugs off mentions of Nathan MacKinnon and Matthew Tkachuk like they're not sh*t and then very matter of factly threatens to beat the hell out of everyone in the league when Daniella and Art mention he knows MMA.

Stylistically Kasper reminds me most of noted sh*t stirrer Ryan Kesler. Big, fast, strong, in-your-face , good around the net, two way center.

For what it's worth, I saw in an interview with Villi Husso that he plans to spend the offseason in Detroit. Not sure if that's the plan for other guys or not. I'd definitely like to see all of our young guns (Raymond, Kasper, Mazur, Wallinder, and Edvinsson) on the Michael Rasmussen training plan though. Raymond especially needs work in the size AND speed department. The rest of those guys just need to fill out.

He's already really really hard for forwards to beat. His defense is already so good and he's a super heads up passer. Reminds me a lot of Ryan Suter at a young age. Probably not gonna score a ton of goals, but will have 40 assists per season (or whatever) and be an absolute rock defensively. During that scrum with all the young guys and Bunting I was thinking to myself "I can't wait until our guys fill out" because you can just see we've got a bunch of workhorses who still have teenager bodies. When Edvinsson is 6'6 and 225-230 lbs and strong he's never going to lose a puck battle.

I agree that Kasper looked fine. He definitely looked like a kid who just got thrown into the deep end (which he was) but he kept up and didn't look overwhelmed. I obviously really liked him kicking off the scrum that got Bunting ejected. I really like this approach with Kasper. Give him a few games to see how hard and how fast the NHL is and then give him an entire offseason to work on things before camp. He'll be ready. As far as Edvinsson goes, he can't play more than 8 games or else he'll burn a year on his entry level deal but the team has already said they're not going to cross that threshold.

Magnus Hellberg is absolute trash.

It makes total sense to scratch him. I mean, why give fans something to get excited about late in a losing season when you could just...not do that?

Aaaaand Kasper is a healthy scratch tonight.

Lalonde does baffling things with the lineup sometimes. Kubalik and Larkin play very well together, have since the beginning of the season and still do. Whenever Kubalik is playing with Larkin he finds the scoresheet. So naturally you'd only play them together when every other player on the team is hurt. Same with Hronek and Maatta. That pair clearly worked, so it only makes sense that you'd break them up for 2/3 of the season.

If he's in the lineup tonight you'd have to imagine he'd be on the wing somewhere. The Perron-Larkin-Kubalik line is clicking right now so maybe he fits with Copp and Raymond? Either way, I like breaking him in on the wing because it should allow him to absolutely murder a few defensemen on the forecheck (which he's already quite good at). I'm pumped about this game.

The way I see it we need a center, a power winger, and a right handed defenseman. I'd look to target the forwards with the earlier picks and the defenseman with the later picks. I like Smith/Moore/Yager/Danielson (in that order) with the first pick, Barlow/Ziemmer/Stramel with the second pick, and Dragecevic/Brzustewicz/Willander with one of our 2nd rounders.

Wallinder is going to be an absolute unit. I was watching a bunch of his tape last night and I'm a believer now. I've come full circle on him, always thought his offense wasn't good enough but I was wrong about him. All of these guys (Seider, Raymond, Edvinsson, Mazur, Kasper, Wallinder) need to fill out, but once they do the pure athleticism on our team (to go with Larkin, Walman, Ras) is going to be crazy hard to deal with.

Kasper on the trip to Winnipeg with the boys, hoping he's in the lineup tonight.

Well it looks like Kasper will be in the lineup very soon so we'll see where he's at. I'd love to see him wreck a bunch of vets like Seider did early on.

F*ck yes.

Not necessarily. I could see him being "the other guy" on a top line because he'll compliment skill players really well.

With Mazur I think you're looking at a Reilly Smith floor and a Zach Hyman ceiling.

Not a lot of info from the game, he had three shots on goal though.

Carter Mazur making his AHL debut tonight with the Griffins. Over/under on how long it takes for him to become a fan favorite?

Do you have a source for this? Edit: Nevermind, I found it.

Rogle staved off elimination today on the back of Marco Kasper's 3 pt. game. He'd been relatively quiet during the playoffs but this was a big time performance in an elimination game for Rogle.

I wish we didn't need a top center so bad because I'd love to see the Wings draft Colby Barlow. He's got Tkachuk Bros. vibes and I'm here for it. The thought of Mazur-Kasper-Barlow absolutely tickles my pickle.

When Edvinsson went back to the bench and the trainer was checking him out they were both poking and prodding his hip area. I'm trying to find footage of it now but they showed it on the telecast last night.

He didn’t get hit in the knee, it was his upper thigh/hip area that took the impact on that play.