krsmith17

Cholowski looked to have cleaned up his own zone play quite a bit in the pre-season games. The regular season is a whole different beast, but I think Cholo and Bowey could be a very good bottom pair, especially going up against bottom six lines. Regardless, he's no worse than Daley defensively and much better offensively. Same applies to Bowey. The thing with Daley is, if we want something for him, we probably shouldn't play him... The more he plays and teams see how terrible he is, the lower that trade value gets... The most we'd get for him at the deadline anyway, would be a 3rd round pick (I doubt we'd get that). I'd just assume give up that potential mid to late round pick and scratch him every night. Play the younger, better defensemen (Cholowski / Bowey) every night...

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Athanasiou still nursing that injury apparently... That bottom 9 is disgusting...

Ehn and de la Rose should be the 13th and 14th forwards, and only play in a pinch (game day injury). Daley should be the 7th defenseman, and only play in a pinch (game day injury). I'd prefer Bowey over Kaski though... Pickard had one great pre-season game. That doesn't make him better than Bernier. Bernier is a solid backup, and the least of this team's concerns... Why would we want Santini? He's a plug. Hronek / Seider / Bowey / Kaski / Lindstrom >>>>> Santini I'd prefer Sprong over Ho-Sang, but yeah, either would be a low-risk, med-reward signing... Also, any player that is claimed off waivers must remain with the (NHL) team for X amount of games / days (not sure on the exact number). You cannot claim a player and immediately send them to the minors...

Jurco had a pretty decent pre-season with 3 goals, 2 assists in 4 games. He got bumped up to the top line with McDavid and Neal in the last game and is practicing with them now. It looks like he will get an opportunity to play with the best player in the world, at least to start the season. I know it's only pre-season and Ty f***ing Rattie had 11 points in the same number of games last pre-season, but I hope Jurco can keep it up, and carve out a decent career for himself in Edmonton. The skill is there. I'm just not so sure about the will...

I refuse to believe any fans are that dumb... If we were to trade Abdelkader, it might cost us a 2nd or 3rd round pick (with retained salary), but it certainly wouldn't cost us anything close to a Seider level prospect... I'm okay with keeping Abby around for the "leadership" / "locker-room presence"... I'm even okay with him being the highest paid 4th liner in the league... as long as we get rid of every other bad contract on this team. Green, Daley and Ericsson will all be gone after this season. Helm can easily be traded next season, in the final year of his contract. Nielsen is the player I would work hard on trading in the next year or so... We went from being the highest salary team in the league the past few years, to now in the bottom 3rd of the league in total salary. We should even be lower than that after this season. We're in great shape going forward, in terms of cap flexibility.

Your opinion was wrong... That seems to be happening more and more lately. What's going on with you? Everything okay?

What do you mean? He looks ecstatic. Most I've ever seen him smile to be honest...

F*** what you say @ChristopherReevesLegs, this Griffins team is going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch...

Me neither... I disagree with this. If we're giving Seider a 9 game look at some point this season, I'd much prefer it to be towards the end of the season. Let's see what he can do in a very strong American league. If he dominates (I don't think he will), then call him up. If he struggles (possible), it's better for him to struggle in GR than in DET...

Maybe he did have a "Holland off-season", but my point is, at this stage of the rebuild, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. You're right though, if you had told me a few months ago that Yzerman was going to sign Filppula and Nemeth, I would have never believed you. I didn't see those moves coming at all. I think they were both unnecessary. I do see them as stop gaps though, and I don't think there will be a need for any more stop gaps after this season. Next offseason, the goal should be to start moving some of the bad contracts, and bringing in the youth. Until then, I'm still going to watch every Wings game to see the growth of our young players of today, and watch a lot more Griffins games to see the development of our young players of tomorrow (so to speak)...

I feel like the same conversation is going on in multiple threads, so I'll just say this... We're rebuilding. There's absolutely no rush in getting Seider in the NHL. He will likely play some games in Detroit at some point this season, but if he spends the whole season in Grand Rapids, destroys the competition and helps the Griffs win another Calder Cup, I don't think it's the worst way to develop a player...

Are all of these things "Holland moves" though? Or are they "typical NHL general manager moves"? 1. He took his guy. It's ballsy and I like it. Probably because I also like the player. You said as much on draft day, and obviously think the same now. 2. More and more Euros are being drafted every year now. A lot of very skilled players over there. 3/4. Like I said, I wasn't a fan of the free agent signings, regardless of who made them. 5. Never a bad move to add depth for cheap. 6. Maybe Seider isn't quite NHL ready... Maybe he needs more development... Holland did a fantastic job the last year or two, when he finally admitted to himself and everyone else that the team needed to go through a proper rebuild. Yzerman is continuing on that same path. This is a good thing. He might re-sign Howard as a stop gap. Maybe, which wouldn't be a bad move. Green will be done after this season. He will make trades as long as other teams are willing to take on some of our old, broken down garbage. Like I said, we will continue to get younger. I highly doubt he signs any old players next free agency. Never a bad thing signing free agents from Europe. Even if they never play a single game in the NHL, it's depth for Grand Rapids. Seider is not competing for a spot with DeKeyser, and even if he was, I strongly disagree. I'm honestly not even sure if you're actually serious about any of this... None of this aligns with your usual MO... Is "Mo" making you go crazy?

Sprong is a player I was hoping we would have picked up last year when he was on the block. I'd prefer to give him a shot on the 3rd line in place of Ehn (over Ho-Sang)...

Okay, so what is "Chris and Jim's grand scheme"? To sabotage the entire organization? Purposefully make the team bad? I'm not following your line of thinking on this one... A lot of Red Wings fans, myself included, were not happy with the moves made this summer. Whether it was Holland or Yzerman that made those moves, makes no difference to me. I don't believe for a second though, that Yzerman is going to continue adding old plugs beyond this season. We've gotten younger, and we'll continue to do so in the next couple seasons. Seider looked really good in Development Camp / Training Camp / Pre-Season, but he wasn't perfect. He could use some seasoning in Grand Rapids, but I wouldn't rule him out of getting a look at some point this season. We're not seeing the over-ripening that we have in year's past. Every single one of these prospects that were sent down, could use a little more work in different areas of the game. We'll be fine. I hope you will be too...

I've never heard of that... As far as I know, that's not how it works... The last place team can claim 7 players off waivers as long as they don't exceed the 50-man roster limit. At least that's how I think it works...

Yeah, I'll never be against no-risk waiver pickups, unless it's at the expense of a younger, better prospect. In this case it's not, so I say why not?...

Bad attitude. In saying that, I wouldn't hate it if he took the spot of an Ehn or de la Rose...

Nah, I don't think so. 2-3 up front, 2-3 on the back end, and 1 in goal. That's enough veterans in my opinion. But yeah, we'll see how it plays out. Regardless, they should be a "fun" team to watch...

Yeah, I hear ya, and I know you're not as high on Veleno as myself, but I do think he's more than capable of handling it. Having a veteran winger (Terry / Puempel) on each of the top two lines, I think is important though, to shoulder some of the load offensively and defensively. It may be another slow start for the Griffins again this season, but once they start geling, I expect them to be one of the top teams in the league...

You think Veleno being the 1C in Grand Rapids is a "Fantasy"? Why? Sure, it could go to Rasmussen, but as you know, I (most Wings fans) see Veleno as the better center now, and in the future...

If serious... You're dumb. If completely joking, poking fun at what other dumb fans have said of Holland over the years... I agree. Yzerman has done things very similarly to the way Holland has done things in the past, and probably would have done things this off-season. That's not a bad thing though. The Red Wings were the most successful organization in the league under Holland's tenure. Yzerman learned a lot from Holland, but I do think he will do things a little differently going forward. Sending Seider to Grand Rapids was the right decision. Same goes for Rasmussen, Veleno, Zadina and Svechnikov. They can all use a little more seasoning in the minors for different reasons. Rasmussen and Veleno need to learn how to play center against grown men (pro's). Zadina needs to get his confidence back. Svechnikov needs to get back up to speed after missing a full season. Seider needs time to get used to North American ice. This, on top of what I mentioned in another thread... This team shouldn't be in any rush to win now. No need to rush, and potentially stunt the development of any of these top prospects. The amount of dead weight on this roster is frustration, but stop gaps for one more season I think will prove to be a good thing for the development of the kids...

Isn't this what I was saying just a few weeks ago, and you were arguing with me? Anyway, yes I agree (or you now agree with me)... We are in bigger need on the left side than the right at this point. Unless a trade falls into our lap, I'd just assume stand pat for now. No need in making any monster trades until we see what we have in some of these prospects.

I don't think he will ever carry a line the way a Kucherov can, but I do think he will be a key cog in this team's top six. He will need a quality center (Larkin or Veleno) that can get him the puck in scoring areas. His confidence is at an all time low right now, but once he gets that swagger back (I believe he will), he will "fill their nets with pucks"...

There's just too big of a log jam of mediocre players on bad contracts on the big club right now. I expect much of that to be resolved in the next calendar year though, be it by trade or contracts expiring. We should be looking one more year until this team starts trying to turn things around. We don't want our top prospects playing in a losing environment every night. Playing in Grand Rapids allows them an opportunity to play in a winning environment, while also gaining chemistry playing together. I don't see these moves extending the rebuild at all. If anything, it may speed things up by possibly getting a higher draft pick next June in a(nother) huge draft for this team. Hopefully we can make a trade or two at the deadline that will get us another mid 1st round pick...