krsmith17

You are giving me everything I want. Unfortunately Jeff Blashill would not give me everything I want. Not because "veteran bias" though, because reasons unexplained.

I'd love a trade involving both Howard and Nielsen to the Islanders. If they lose Tavares, maybe they'd consider it...

I guess the difference is, I want long term solutions to our right-handed forward deficiency. I don't care to sign aging vets to improve our offense or power-play for the short term. If Vanek were 24 years old, I'd be all for signing him or even trading for him. He's not. He's 34 and would be long gone before the rebuild is complete. If we sign him, I don't see a scenario where all of Rasmussen, Zadina and Svechnikov are on the roster. And personally, I'd prefer all of them on the team over Vanek.

I agree that Holland has signed some bad contracts and he should be trying to move some of those contracts now. However, the team was still in win-now mode when those contracts were signed. We can debate all day whether they should have been signed or not (I'd agree that most of them shouldn't have been), but that direction was likely coming from ownership, not the general manager. Now that we're finally rebuilding, it's time to start getting younger, but that doesn't mean getting rid of every player over the age of 26. Even as a rebuilding team, we need some veteran leadership. To say we should get rid of all of Zetterberg, Nielsen, Nyquist, Abdelkader, Helm, Glendening, Kronwall, Ericsson, Daley, DeKeyser and Howard is asinine. Who's going to lead the kids? Or do you not think leadership is a thing?

Assuming Hicketts makes the Red Wings out of camp, and Hronek is sent down to start the season, I would assume some combination of Cholowski, Hronek, Sulak, Saarijarvi, Lashoff, Russo, McIlrath. I'm sure there will be other depth guys signed as well, but that will likely be the top 7 barring a trade. Renouf is a UFA, and I doubt he's brought back.

... it was just a one time thing... there was copious amounts of liquor involved... I didn't know what I was doing and one thing led to another... I'm sorry...

I agree entirely. What do you think would be a reasonable expectation on a return for Howard?

I was a big Filppula fan, and was sad to see him go, but I'd break things if we brought him back at this point...

How are we going to have a "very young roster" if we "sign 2-3 UFA vets"? We're already the oldest team in the league and we're somehow going to get younger while adding more veterans? There are already plenty of vets on this roster (Zetterberg, Nielsen, Nyquist, Abdelkader, Helm, Glendening, Kronwall, Ericsson, Daley, DeKeyser and possibly Green). How many vets do you want on a rebuilding team? There's absolutely no need to add any more...

Uugh, I hope not. This was my thought as well. I'm hoping we're buying him out for the roster spot, not the cap space. We could just waive him and assuming no one claims him, send him down to Grand Rapids, but with there already being a log jam down there on defense, that would be a bad move. The buy-out could also be a favour to Ouellet. Gives him a fresh start. I'd like to see him get claimed, but even at $1.25M, that could be a little too high for some teams. With a buy-out, I can see a team signing him at close to league minimum for a depth 6/7 defenseman.

Because it's the natural cycle of every team in a league with a salary cap. We were a perennial playoff / Stanley Cup contender for over two decades. Because of that we never had an opportunity to draft high enough to get any truly elite talent. We lucked out with some gems, but that's becoming more and more rare in the modern NHL, due to better scouting, covering the entire map, rather than just North America. I can't believe some fans are so irrational to be upset about a rebuild after decades of success. Especially a fan in his 40's. I could somewhat understand if you were a kid, and success is all you've ever known, but you lived through the "Dead Wings" era. You should have a better understanding and patience with a rebuild. Holland has done a fantastic job so far, adding picks and building through the draft. It's not going to happen over night, but we're well on our way. This was a huge draft for us. We're pretty much set up front (other than adding some right-handed snipers). We have a lot of high end goalie prospects. We just need to add some high end defensive prospects. We didn't do that in this draft, which is kind of disappointing, but Holland absolutely made the right picks. The only thing I can think of that Holland could have done in this draft that he didn't do, is trade up into the top 10 when Bouchard slipped. I also think Holland likely tried to do that though, but the price was too high. Which is fine. Coming out of this draft with four 1st round ranked prospects is HUGE! This rebuild isn't over yet, so those that don't understand the process, it's going to be a long torturous few years. I'm actually enjoying the rebuilding phase more than I ever thought I would. It's fun to see the influx of young, skilled players coming through the draft, rather than signing / trading for old sloppy seconds from other teams...

Welcome and thanks for the insight. I'm not sure about NHL ready, I think another season in the Q may be best for him. He didn't truly dominate until he was traded to Drummondville, and he could use another full season down there. HOF may be getting a bit ahead of ourselves too, but I agree that he has the potential to be a special player and the steal of the draft.

12 left-handed forwards... I know you don't put much stock into handedness, but holy s*** man, we need some balance up front. I don't think it makes a huge difference at 5-on-5, but our power-play will suffer. We need at least one Zadina / Mantha level right-handed sniper to add to that top six / power-play units. Other than that, I agree. Great looking forward corp.

If they had planned on trading Nyquist, it should have been on the draft floor. Otherwise, I'd rather keep him until the trade deadline. Also Nyquist >>> Vanek.

I'm pretty sure any hockey fan can explain this to you Jonas... You don't need to be a scout or have any insider knowledge to understand that this team is rebuilding. And when a team rebuilds (properly), they should be a bottom 5-10 team for a few years. Common sense...

Assuming Rasmussen and Veleno both have top 6 potential, I'd much rather have Larkin / Veleno as our 1-2 punch down the middle and have Zadina, Mantha, Rasmussen, and one of Svechnikov, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, or whoever on the wings. I still say we desperately need to add an elite right-handed sniper or two to the top 6, but not sure if that's going to happen any time soon...

I'm not worried about Howard's cap hit. We don't need the cap space anyway. But if we can gain future assets for him, I'm all for it. I just don't see Holland trading him and signing two UFA goaltenders to fill the starter and backup positions. I don't see goaltending as a low depth position for us at all. I think we have better depth at that position than most teams in the league. We have at least three (Larsson, Petruzzelli, Fulcher) that could be future NHL goaltenders. The problem is, they're all a minimum of 2-3 years away. We just added two more that are in a similar time frame away. We need a stop gap or two added to the organization. Maybe Howard is that guy. Maybe Rybar, or maybe a UFA... The Caps just traded Grubauer, I doubt they'd trade Samsonov. Ouellet needed to go. He's a borderline NHL defenseman taking a spot from a kid in Grand Rapids. I hope he gets claimed but I doubt he will.

Yup, I mentioned the exceptional status earlier in the thread. One of only five players ever granted such an honor into the CHL, and first ever in the QMJHL. Tavares, Ekblad, McDavid and Sean Day were the previous four. Three number one overall picks, Day was drafted 81st overall by the Rangers two years ago (due to concerns with work ethic / attitude), and our boy Veleno inexplicably dropped to 30th overall this year. Still no idea how that happened to a player that was on everyone's list to go in the top 15-20... And yes he's a phenomenal skater, has great hands, great passer, great work ethic and thinks the game at an elite level. The only thing he seems to lack is a shot, and it's not that it's that bad, just not that great. Another thing is, he was one of the best in the draft from the CHL at gaining the offensive zone. I'd much rather a center that can skate like the wind, stickhandle through traffic, thread the needle with passes, works his ass off, that only has an okay shot. That's what his wingers are for. Zadina and Mantha are elite snipers, we just need a couple right-handed snipers. I think he has 2C potential, and if he reaches that, and Larkin reaches his 1C potential, we should have a very strong forward corp in a few years.

I really doubt Holland moves Howard, but I'd be curious to know what kind of offers he's receiving. If he could get us a couple high picks (2nd / 3rd round), I'd move him and sign any of the UFA goalies as a stop gap before one of the kids emerge. This could be a reason we took that 2nd goalie yesterday in the 6th round, Victor Brattstrom. He's an over-ager (21 years old), and could be the closest to being NHL ready among all our goalie prospects. I doubt he has the highest ceiling, but has put up great numbers in Sweden's 2nd tier league. He'll be playing in the SHL this season, so we'll see how he performs against the best players in Sweden.

My brother-in-law was livid. He wanted Zadina so bad. I was stoked to see him fall to the Wings.

Yes, but you still have Glendening healthy scratched, which I'd be completely fine with, but I don't see it happening...

Glendening will not be healthy scratched. So assuming there are no trades and everyone is healthy, yes he would be keeping a kid down that's NHL ready.

5'8", 137lbs? WHAT THE F*** HOLLAND? WORST PICK EVVVVERRR. DRAFT RUINED!

Otto Kivenmaki