kipwinger

You heard it here first, Zegras is the new Marchand. He'll run is mouth and then hide behind refs/teammates and he'll never ever get what's coming to him. The fact that he's good will only make this more annoying. He's the next great heel in the NHL.

Big weekend for Edvinsson, Sodorblom, and Vrana down in GR. Gotta like what you're seeing out of those guys.

RAS!!!! What a snipe! 1-0

Good at hockey. He’s currently not ******* good at hockey.

I’m trolling someone. Hold tight.

So you admit Bertuzzi is a dog f*cker? I win.

Meh. There's "New Jersey Good" and then there's "Actually Good" ya know?

Sebastian > Yesssper. Name one decent Jesper. I dare you. Sebastian was that singing crab in The Little Mermaid. That dude ruled. You could total win a Cup with that crab in net.

Typical. Always trying to deflect. Your boy f*cks dogs and his play fell off a cliff. Let's see if he can even manage to register a secondary assist tonight. You need to jump on board the Fabbri train, that dude is everything that Bertuzzi used to be AND he doesn't let silly things like injuries stop him from being a good hockey player. Bertuzzi = Zadina/Vrana.

Like I said, I'm not gonna lose my mind if we trade for him. BUT LD is probably the deepest part of our organization. I see no reason to believe that Edvinsson won't be just as good, or better, than Chychrun. And then we have Wallinder, Johansson, Buium, and McIsaac after that. I guess my "older player" comment was the wrong way of wording it. Established is probably better. I don't want to trade lots of assets for established players when we could use them on something we really need, like a 1C prospect. Chychrun is a luxury, I'd definitely look at guys like him in free agency, and admittedly I've advocated trading for him before. But with how Edvinsson and Wallinder have turned out I don't think he's necessary.

I would ditch every draft pick we have for a #1 center prospect. Aside from that one piece we've got a solid foundation to build a perennial contender on, PLUS we've got enough good veterans to teach them how to play/carry the load until they're up to speed. What I wouldn't do is ditch our picks on an older player like Chychrun or Horvat. I'd look at the latter in free agency, and (much as I hate to gamble) I think the former is a luxury we can afford to pass over.

Sample size schmample size. We saw Vrana do it a year ago. We saw Fabbri do it this year. We even saw Larkin play through a hand injury and still produce. What none of those guys did was totally f*ck dogs upon their return to the ice. Your boy though? Total dog f*cker.

Dude, Fabbri blew out a knee a missed almost a full season and he looks WAY better than Bert right now. I'm not sure what Bertuzzi's problem is. Maybe he doesn't wanna be here anymore. Maybe he doesn't like Lalonde's systems. I don't know. But he's playing like sh*t. I don't even think it's an effort thing (like Vrana). It's a contract year, so there's every reason for Bert to be performing well. He just isn't. Wasn't before his injuries, isn't now. He blows.

To be clear I was talking about a few years down the road. Obviously Larkin fits into the top six now and in the near future. Just maybe not when he's 30+. A few other things I'd say. Kasper just matched Lucas Raymond's D+1 scoring rate despite playing a harder position on a worse team. He's also bigger, stronger, and faster. Based on everything he's done up to this point in his career (which is all we have to judge him on) there's absolutely no reason to think he won't be a top six player. He's not flashy, but flashy isn't the same thing as effective. Larkin's not flashy, wasn't when he was drafted either. I don't see any reason why Kasper couldn't develop into that. Likewise, Mazur is...a stud. He's not David Pastrnak, but he's very likely another Tyler Bertuzzi or Riley Smith type winger. He was one of the top NCAA freshmen a year ago and played like a monster on Denver's way to the National title. Then he was USA's best forward in the World Juniors. And now he's tied for 2nd in the nation in NCAA goal scoring. On top of that he brings decent size, plenty of grit, and tons of speed. While I think he can play up and down the lineup, those type guys (think Alex Killorn for Tampa) are not out of place at all in the top six on a contender. Which brings me to Ras. Ras has been the best player on the ice for the last 5-6 Red Wings games. Not coincidentally he's playing a power forward role in our top six. And he's scoring. A lot. And he's only going to continue to improve if they keep him in that role. He's an absolute force every time he's on the ice, not just with his physicality but with his skill. He's beating goalies clean with his wrist shot (he did this a lot last year too) and his playmaking is massively improved. He's another guy who can play up and down the lineup, but he's showing every game that he's a top six winger. If he finishes the season with 20(ish) goals and 50(ish) points as "the other guy" opposite a scoring winger it's hard to argue that he doesn't belong. Especially when you consider he spend most of the first part of the season centering a 3-4th line with guys like Erne and Sundqvist.

If I'm not mistaken he only had surgery after the 2nd injury. The first didn't require surgery. However, after watching him play last night it wouldn't be hard to convince me his hands had been surgically swapped with Michelangelo's David. In other words, at one point they were stone and now they're just gone completely. #hesucks

He's obviously an amazingly talented player, but I've operated for years under the assumption that the best player (at any given position) in the draft isn't THAT much better than the next best player (at that position). And generally I've been right about that. Even when I've been wrong I haven't been THAT wrong. Sure McDavid is WAY better than (pre-injury) Eichel, but Eichel is still a stud 1C. Same with Matthews. He's definitely better than Tage Thompson, but I wouldn't be crying if the latter was on my team right now. And most of the time they're closer that that (see Lafreniere and Stutzle or Raymond). If we land Bedard I'll be over the moon, but I'll be exactly as happy if we managed to land Fantilli or Carlsson because as good as Bedard is offensively, it's not hard to imagine a scenario where one of the other two turn out to be comparably good pros.

Well you'd have to imagine that in any "move up" scenario our 1st round pick would be the center piece of the trade package. Like, the 8th overall pick plus a bunch more stuff for the 3rd. If we win the lottery our first round pick would be spoken for. Honestly though, if there was ever a time to even land the 2nd pick with the lottery this would be the year. I don't even really give a sh*t about Bedard. I'd be thrilled with any of the top three centers. Stylistically Bedard is roughly comparable to Matthews, Fantilli to Eichel, and Carlsson to Barkov. Stick any of those guys on our team with what we've already got and we're winning the Cup at some point down the line.

I'd be more concerned if it was nagging injuries, like groin tears or knee problems (see my criticisms of the Fabbri deal) or whatever. But he's been out all season because he's breaking bones while blocking shots. Nothing that worries me. He did have the back issue, but that hasn't flared up at all since his surgery.

Agreed, and Fantilli/Carlsson are bona fide 1C players. These aren't tweeners like Kasper. They're GOING to be top line centers. A handful of other guys (Smith, Yager, Heidt) all have 1C potential, but they're not locks in the same way that Fantilli/Carlsson are. We have the assets and are about to get a bunch more. Go get your guy and you've got a powerhouse team in the making. I would literally just throw assets at whoever has the #3 pick as long as they aren't part of our 23 and under group.

I'd give him long term if it's 5.5 or less. Why not? When I say long term I don't necessarily mean 8 years either. 5-6 years is still pretty long term. Would you be that mad at Bertuzzi for 5x5? I wouldn't.

I've thought about Chychrun a lot. He's an awesome player and I wouldn't hate it. But given what we've got in the pipeline I'm willing to gamble that our LD will be just as good with or without him in a few years. It's a risk, but not an insane one given how good Edvinsson and Wallinder are and how good Walman has turned out to be. What we don't have is a genuine #1 center prospect. A Fantilli or Carlsson would give us that. If I'm the GM I'm putting every single asset I have to use finding that guy. A top six and top four that looks like this in a few years would be siiiiiick: Ras-Carlsson-Raymond Berggren-Kasper-Mazur Wallinder-Seider Edvinsson-Hronek

Here's my newest, and perhaps smartest idea yet on how to improve this team. Fire sale everyone that isn't essential. Bert, Maatta, Suter, Erne, Zadina, Vrana, Ned, maybe even Kubalik and/or Perron. Get what you can get, firsts are great but don't turn your nose up at 2nds or 3rds. Then turn around and package the best of those assets at the draft to move up. We'll likely be drafting somewhere around 8-12. Trade that pick, plus the best assets you got in the trades, and maybe a decent prospect to get into the top three. Bedard's going first, and nobody is trading that pick. But Fantilli and Carlsson are both REALLY good centers. Land either one of those guys and our rebuild is basically complete. At that point we'd have depth at center (Fantilli/Carlsson, Kasper, Veleno), productive young wingers (Berggren, Ras, Raymond, Mazur), and studs on defense (Seider, Edvinsson, Wallinder, Johansson, Buium). That's a powerhouse organization in the making right there.

None of those young guys are going anywhere. Aside from Larkin they're our best players every single night, they're all improving, and they're cost controlled for years to come. All of our trade chips are the same as they've always been. All the UFAs, Zadina, Perron, Kubalik, Vrana, and Ned...and then Bertuzzi. Bertuzzi. What to make of this guy's situation. Prior to the season we realistically could have expected a first round pick and prospect. And HE could have expected a bigger contract than Detroit was willing to offer from some other team. But now? We're not getting a 1st rounder for a guy who hasn't played all season. Similarly, he should be expecting to cash in in UFA given that he hasn't played all season, and when he has he's looked like s***. Last night he looked SLOOOOOOW, and he couldn't hit the net if he tried. Maybe, just maybe, his agent assesses the situation and says "We're not gonna get as much as we'd like in FA, let's just sign for 5-6 million in Detroit (long term) and maximize your profit that way". Because he's DEFINITELY not getting 7-7.5 million on a 7 year deal elsewhere after this season.

The Red Wings broadcasting crew has been pumping Ras's tires for a few games now. You gotta give some love to the goal scorer but I think everyone knows Seider and Ras made that play happen. Fabbri straight up gave all the credit to Ras. They need to leave that guy on the wing and never ever move him again. He's an absolute truck on the wing.

Ras with a sweeeeeet assist in overtime to Fabbri to end it. 4-3 win for the good guys.