kipwinger

Another goal for Vrana so far tonight. Hanas with the assist. You love to see it.

Like I said, there's a way to help ourselves now and in the future. I think we need to do everything we can to move up and land an elite talent in the draft. But I'd only look to free agency for Horvat and the two holes in the roster I have listed below. The long term success of this team isn't dependent on whether we go big game hunting. It's dependent on what Seider, Edvinsson, Raymond, Berggren, Kasper, etc. develop into. I don't have any problem whatsoever going into next season with this: Ras-Larkin-Raymond Berggren-Horvat-Kubalik Perron-Copp-Vrana Sodorblom-Veleno-Fabbri Walman-Seider Edvinsson-Hronek Chiarot-??? Jusso ??? The above roster should be Wildcard competitive, assuming continued growth from the young guys and a full season of Horvat, Vrana, and Fabbri. AND you've still got really good players like Wallinder, Kasper, Hanas, Johansson, and others (Mazur, Buium, and Lombardi will be with GR) developing in the minors without having to rush them.

I'm looking back through all the Stanley Cup teams since 2010 right now and there are some REALLY unimpressive center combinations. Bergeron and Krejci had 57 and 62 points respectively in 2011. Toews and Madden in 2010: 68 and 23 points. Kopitar and Richards in 2012: 76 and 44 points. The list could go on. But I think it's safe to say two things, A) well rounded centers win just as often as high productive centers do, and B) Larkin/Horvat wouldn't even be in the bottom five worst center combos to have won since then.

I was gonna say something to this affect. I think you have to have good centers, but I think people confuse good centers with super offensive centers. Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli is not an especially strong 1C/2C combination. Neither is Kopitar/Carter, O'Reilly/Schenn or Bergeron/Kreci. Of the last 10 or so Cup winners I'd say Crosby/Malkin, Backstrom/Kuznetsov, and McKinnon/Kadri were the strongest. Obviously the best current centers are McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins and they've got nothing to show for it so far. I don't think there's a blueprint to a Cup winning team, except that you have to have a ton of really good players. Chicago had elite defenders and wingers, and good but not elite centers and goaltending. Tampa has elite wingers and goaltending, but overall less good centers and defense. Pittsburgh had elite centers and goaltending and less good wingers and defense. St. Louis had nothing elite, but solid defense, centers, wingers, and goaltending. There's no recipe. The one thing all these teams have in common is that no part of their team was noticeably bad. If Detroit has good but not elite centers and wingers (meaning top end 70-80 point guys with a few 50-60 point guys added in) and elite defense and goaltending in a few years I don't see why they couldn't win a Cup.

Depends on what his workout habits are. Essentially you'd be getting him from ages 28-34 if you have him a max 7 year deal. Is he a Jordan Staal type guy that can play on your 3rd line, provide leadership, and still give you solid production down lineup at 34? I honestly don't know, but I do know that good teams have guys like that on their roster. Depends on his fitness level I guess. As far as the money goes, the league is growing again, so I don't see any reason why the cap won't continue to go up every year or two. Meaning, in a few years, the 8.5 (or whatever he signs for) won't be a big part of your cap. What I really really want to avoid is a Buffalo type situation where they burnt their whole organization to the ground in order to tank for McDavid and then realized that later that they had to go out and find good veteran player to teach their stud prospects how to actually play in the NHL. Edmonton had this same problem and never did learn. Best players in the draft year after year and they still get beat by less talented teams. Detroit is in a position where they can invest in the future AND the present at the same time and not be totally screwed for it. If I'm SY I'm doing everything I can to lock down a top flight center prospect at the draft this year, and then surrounding the core of Seider, Edvinsson, Raymond, Berggren, Kasper,Wallinder, and Rasmussen and the new 1C with guys like Larkin, Horvat, Chiarot, Perron (or whomever) so that they're learning from veteran guys on the ice just as much as they're learning from the coaching staff. You have to have both.

Yeah, roughly. I’m not too beat up about not getting him via trade. If he’s there in FA go after him, if not start thinking about how to move up in the draft.

Horvat to the Islanders for a (lottery protected) 1st, Anthony Beauvillier, and Aatu Raty. Definitely less than I thought the Canucks would get for him. But going to the Island seems like it increases the chances that he makes it to free agency, so that's good.

You can almost be fooled into thinking that, and then you remember it was his draft plus two season in the CHL...the best season of his career...when he scored 84 points...which is roughly 20 points shy of noted offensive juggernaut Joe Veleno's career high in the CHL. He is not good, the CHL is just THAT s***ty. It'll be a miracle if that kid ever plays more than a couple NHL games.

That play cracks me up. Notice how he turns his back to the defender at the blue line when he's trying to gain the zone? Just imagine what would happen if he did that to Seider lol.

I read the same article about the three teams interested in Bertuzzi and aside from the fact that it was by a blogger (and therefore has no credibility), in every case he proposed trading Bertuzzi for a 2nd round pick and some pud prospect with obvious flaws. Stranges' skating will hold him back, another guys was like 5'8, 165 lbs, and the third prospect is tiny, already 23, and riding a 26% shooting meager to very pedestrian NHL production. I want nothing to do with another team's castoffs. Bertuzzi blows, but he's not THAT bad. Speaking of castoffs, has anybody watched Jesse Puljujarvi actually play? I remember there were a few guys wanting to trade for that big pud a year or so ago. He's absolutely abysmal. Makes Zadina look like David Pastrnak.

His skating is "ridiculous" in the sense that he skates all goofy footed and unorthodox. He's not fast or anything. He just looks unique because his skating is weird. He's not a good AHL player even, and he's get wrecked in the NHL trying to skate laterally the way he does.

Antonio Stranges is garbage. I'd take Wyatt Johnston though.

I'm not gonna get too bogged down by who we should have drafted. What's done is done. But I will eat a little crow on Evan Bouchard. I wasn't a big fan of him in his draft year when he was rumored to be coming to Detroit, but I've caught a couple Edmonton games lately and he's turning into a really good dman. The knock on him was his skating, and I really liked what I saw there. He's not super fast or anything, but he more than keeps up and he's a very strong skater. I know the points aren't really coming along yet, but he's a solid defenseman. In hindsight I was wrong about that guy.

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.