krsmith17

Looking at this trade alone, it doesn't look too bad from Vegas' perspective, but the whole Tatar situation (Holland fleecing McPhee) just makes it look awful. They massively overpaid for a player, and then without giving him much of an opportunity, shipped him out (retaining $500K), along with a prospect and pick, for a player that will essentially replace James Neal...

No. He's 29 years old. I see Mantha as a similar style player as Pacioretty (hopefully he can produce at a similar clip). Any players we acquire via trade should be within the age of the rest of our young core (19-24 years old).

F*** that noise. Tatar sucks, and last I checked we still shutdown extraordinare, Jonathan Ericsson...

$4.8M for Tatar is a little closer to what he's worth. Trade looks even better for Montreal.

I agree. A rare reasonably good trade by Bergevin. Of course it all depends on how Suzuki develops and how that 2019 2nd rounder pans out, but overall, not a bad haul for Montreal in my opinion.

Exactly my first thought as well. That doesn't make it okay to trade away picks all willy-nilly though... I think Bergevin would be smart to trade Price. That is if any team would even give up the pieces to get him. $10.5M for another 8 seasons (39 years old)... I wouldn't want that contract for a goaltender...

I've never been a big Tatar fan, but he's obviously not as bad as he appeared to be in his short stint in Vegas. I'm sure he would revert back to a regular middle six, 40-50 point winger, regardless if he stayed in Vegas or was shipped off to another team. I don't think Tatar's contract is terrible, but I'm glad it's no longer on our books... I think this trade is a lot worse from Vegas' perspective. They basically gave up a 1st, two 2nd's, a 3rd, Suzuki (highly touted prospect) and Tatar (middle six winger) for potentially one season of Pacioretty (top six winger)... I think Suzuki has the potential to be a solid top six center / winger. He has high end skill, and just put up 100 points in 64 games with Owen Sound. Time will tell if his game will translate to the pro game.

My personal top 3 would be... 1. Cholowski 2. Veleno 3. Zadina

For sure.

He actually only put up 2 points. He banged in the rebound on the first goal, had nothing to do with the second goal and potted the empty netter. It was Veleno that assisted on Cholowski's goal, not Ras. Oddly enough, it wasn't even him screening the goalie on Cholo's shot, it was Holmstrom. The bold I agree with. Why? Because they're both tall? They don't play a similar game whatsoever. If anything Rasmussen should eventually make Abdelkader expendable.

Who's hating on Rasmussen? He's one of our top prospects. He'll likely be a fixture in our top six for the next 10-15 years. He has the potential to be one of the better net front guys in the NHL. The only "hate" I've heard on Rasmussen is that he's probably better suited to play on the wing than at center... I would have liked to have taken Vilardi over Rasmussen, but I don't think about that when evaluating Ras as a player, and I doubt many people do. I wasn't a fan of the Cholowski pick but he's one of my favorite prospects now. I think he has the potential to be a very good, maybe even top pair two-way defenseman.

What makes you think he will be the Wings best player in the tournament? I don't think he was the best player in either of the first two games. He played better last night, but I'd still say Zadina, Veleno, Cholowski and McIsaac have been as good or better in the first two games. It is kind of telling though that when Rasmussen was switched from center to wing at the end of the first game and all of the second game, that he looked more noticeable out there. Same thing happened when he was switched to wing in last year's playoffs. He's definitely more suited on the wing in my opinion. Cholowski and Veleno should have the lead with 4 points a piece, but for whatever reason Rasmussen was credited with the 2nd assist on the 2nd goal last night. It was clearly Veleno that passed the puck to Cholowski, not Rasmussen.

I think he'll be 33.333333% as good as Mantha, which is still pretty f***ing good. Mantha will be a 35-35-70 player... You do the math. I'm way too drunk... You know that little star you have to click on to go into the thread? It took be 10 minutes to get in here... Don't even ask how long it took me to write this response... Thank you auto-correct... I love you @The 91 of Ryans even if you're way too high on your boy Ras and not near high enough on my boy Veleno...

Very, very, very undisappointing?

No!

I agree, although I'm not so sure that his skating is what would hold him back from being a top six center. I think it's just more of his style of play, which you mentioned. He's good along the boards and down low, behind the net and in the crease. He's not a great setup guy, more of a finisher, most of his goals coming within five feet of the net. I still think he'll be a top six forward, regardless if he plays in the middle or on the wing, which is fine. We'll need another top six center to play behind Larkin, and I really think Veleno will be that guy.

I'd say he was very, very, very disappointing last night...

Rasmussen is lazy and he sucks...

Smith is a player that continues to impress me as well. I think maybe because there's still a lot of negativity surrounding him, for whatever reason. I think he'll be a solid bottom six winger in the not so distant future. Another player I'm looking forward to watch in GR this season.

Assists from Cholowski and Veleno.

Zadina with a bomb from the right side on the power-play!

I'm excited for the season to start regardless. I'm looking forward to see how the kids develop in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Drummondville... It's going to be a fun season, even if we do lose a lot of games...

HOCKEY!

THIS SEASON! Nah, I'd say realistically he's at least two seasons away, maybe three...