krsmith17

Karlsson will end up in Vegas...

Not really pushing my buttons, I just completely disagree. Again, there's no guarantee. You can speculate, sure, but you can't guarantee anything with an 18 year old prospect. I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that Zadina is guaranteed to be better than Mantha in a couple years from now, let alone today. Could he be? Sure. Will he be? We'll have to wait and see... Sure, he could be a Patrik Laine, but he could also be a Jonathan Drouin, or Alex Galchenyuk, or Jonathan Huberdeau. All very good 3rd overall selections, but would you trade the sort of package you mentioned for either of those three players? I sure as hell wouldn't... By the way, just for reference, Mantha scored 50 goals (0.75 goals per game) and 89 points (1.33 points per game) in 67 games, and Zadina scored 44 goals (0.77 goals per game) and 82 points (1.44 points per game) in 57 games in their respective draft years. Zadina is slightly better that Mantha was in his draft year, but what makes you think Zadina will be infinitely better? Enough so, that we can throw him away, along with one of our two top defense prospects, and two high picks? Mantha was later developing (he still is), but that's common for big "power forwards". Zadina can probably step right into the NHL (no guarantee) next season, but that doesn't mean his peak will necessarily be higher than Mantha's peak...

The problem with this theory is that NONE of what you're saying is a "guarantee". There's no guarantee that Zadina will be better than Mantha. There's no guarantee that Cholowski will be just another Smith / Kindl. And there's no guarantee that whoever we pick 30th and 33rd / 36th will be another Smith / Kindl / Sheahan / Jurco. I personally don't think Zadina will be significantly better than Mantha. By that, I mean both have the "potential" to be 35 goal scorers. Zadina may put up 10? 20? 30? more points than Mantha (I doubt it), and to me it's not worth all the other pieces lost. I also think Cholowski will be better than Smith and Kindl. He has the same skill set, but actually seems to have the hockey IQ that is needed to play at a high level as well. We could get a number of players in that 30-36 range that could develop into top 6 forwards / top 4 defensemen. I'm always for quality over quantity, but in this case, I think it would require a massive overpayment, and that's where I draw the line. Like I said though, I highly doubt Holland has any interest in making that sort of trade.

It's not that I wouldn't want Carlson, I just genuinely believe it's bad timing. Do we really need another big money, long term contract, veteran, when we have Kronwall, Ericsson, Daley, DeKeyser? The reason I'm in favor of signing Green is because I know it will be short term, at a relatively low cap hit. But hey, if we could somehow trade Ericsson and / or Daley, I'd be all about getting Carlson here. The other issue however is, I highly doubt he has much interest in coming to Detroit. I doubt he even hits the open market. My bet is he re-signs in Washington. Regardless, it certainly doesn't hurt to kick the tires on Carlson. He would be a great add for any team. This is pretty much exactly what I'd like to see as well.

I wouldn't. Who would your "huge package of young players" include? It would obviously start with Mantha, and you'd also have to include one or two of Rasmussen, Svechnikov, Cholowski, Hronek, as well as a pick or two. I like Zadina and Tkatchuk, but no prospect is worth that sort of package... Yes they would. Bergevin would jump at that deal. Luckily Holland isn't that stupid...

I agree. Hronek plays a similar style game as Green, but he's not going to step in as a top three defenseman, logging 20+ minutes a night, on the top power-play. IF he is ready, and that's not even a guarantee, Green is the exact type of defenseman I'd want him learning from. I'm all for bringing Green back on a short term, one to two year contract. Ouellet is as good as traded. Jensen can be traded. Maybe one of Daley or Ericsson get traded at the deadline. There will be injuries. Maybe a player (Kronwall) misses significant time this season. Point is, re-signing Green doesn't mean that all the kids are doomed for Grand Rapids all season. Hicketts, Hronek and maybe even Cholowski or Sulak will get looks, if not full time roster spots at some point this season. Given the cost? Sure, Carlson is going to cost a nice bit in cap space, but that's all it's going to cost. Going after a player like Hanifin (or to a lesser extent, Faulk) is going to cost a ton in assets, plus just as much to re-sign in a few years time. It will likely cost our 6th overall, plus to get Hanifin. You'd get a few years of great value on his ELC, but after that, he's likely going to get PAID. At least you'd hope his play would warrant that. In saying that, I'd probably stay away from Carlson. It's not so much the cost though, as much as it is his age and where the team is at right now. Bean would be my number one target out of Carolina, just because of cost vs potential.

To be fair, it's not LGWers that think they suck, it's dumb Wings fans that like to b**** and complain about everything. No, they don't suck. They're solid bottom six forwards. I wouldn't even say they're drastically overpaid. If both were making $500-750K less, they would be fair value contracts. It's the term that was the problem with these two contracts from the beginning. Both should have been a max of 3-4 years. Helm and Abdelkader ARE tradable. I think Helm will be traded in the next year or two, but Abdelkader isn't going anywhere. Not because he "can't be moved", but because Holland doesn't want to move him. No one would "prefer" Bean over Hanifin, it's just that the asking price for Hanifin starts with our 6th overall pick, plus. While I'd definitely consider that (depending of what else we'd have to add), if we could get Bean for significantly less and still pick 6th overall, that's the route I'd prefer. Bean may not ever be as good as Hanifin, but the potential is there. I'd prefer Bean and *Bouchard* over just Hanifin any day. I've been saying for years that if we're trading for a defenseman, I'd much prefer to go after prospects (18-20 year old), over already established (21-23 year olds), just because the price is usually significantly less for the former. Obviously the reason the price is lower, is because there's some risk involved, but I'd take the risk. This. There's no way Holland pulls that off without giving up Larkin / Mantha plus another couple high end assets. I wouldn't do it. Zadina will be a great player, but not worth what it's going to cost to trade up. I wouldn't trade up into the top 5. Draft 6th and then maybe try to move up using the 30th, 33rd, 36th plus other tradable assets if a player drops.

As he should be.

Meh, I think he stays, but I don't care too much one way or the other. As long as if he does stay, he doesn't get any more than two years, which he won't. I'm not that hyped about Hicketts either, and I've stated several times that I'd just assume keep Jensen in that role. But if we're moving "vets" out and "kids" in, that seems like the easiest move to make.

There's wouldn't likely be any trade protection if it were a one year deal, and if it were a two year deal, it would likely be something along the lines of "must submit 10 team trade list prior to 2020 trade deadline". Which would be fine. The thing is, Green has stated that he loves Detroit, and wants to be a Red Wing, so I think it would take more than a three year offer on the table for him to walk. My bet is on Green re-signing with the Wings for two years at around $4.75M per. Ouellet is definitely gone, and although I'm completely fine with Jensen as our 6th / 7th defensemen, I think he may be moved, and Hicketts will take on that role.

Just read that too. There's a one-year and two-year offer on the table. Holland not offering anything more than two years is a good sign of the direction of the team. I'd be okay with Green on a one or two year deal. Ideally we'd be able to ship out another defenseman, but I don't see that happening right away. Maybe at the deadline...

I'm not sure where you're getting that. Yes, you did read wrong. I said right in my post that it's a "dream scenario" and a "pipe dream". I do think it's possible, but it would take everything going right for it to work out... Trouba would have to hold out, and make it public that he wants to leave Winnipeg and move closer to home. - Unlikely (especially with Jets looking to be on the verge of something special). Carolina would have to really want to reunite the Svech bros and be willing to give up there top defense prospect to make it happen. - Unlikely Vancouver's 7th overall is likely out of the question, but I wouldn't say Edmonton's 10th overall necessarily is. However, this scenario would still require Wahlstrom to fall quite a bit. - Unlikely If I were to pick one of these "dream scenarios" to come to fruition, I'd probably want the top 10 pick. Even then, I doubt we'd draft both Bouchard and Wahlstrom, but I'd be happy with Bouchard and Kotkaniemi or Wahlstrom and Dobson. I certainly wouldn't blame Holland if he couldn't pull off these moves, because all of them are fairly unlikely. If he could pull one off, I'd be happy. I do think it's a reasonably good possibility that he could trade Athanasiou for a defenseman this off-season. I just don't believe that defenseman will be Bean. I'm okay with that, as long as he's in that age range with the same sort of potential.

I couldn't agree more. Dream scenario. There are also rumblings of the Jets possibly having issues re-signing Trouba again this summer. I'm sure they'll work something out, and much like Wahlstrom and Bean, it's just a pipedream, but imagine somehow acquiring Trouba as well... Our D could look something like this in a couple years time... DeKeyser - Trouba Bean - Bouchard Cholowski - Hronek And our top 6 could look something like this... Mantha - Larkin - Wahlstrom Bertuzzi - Rasmussen - Bokk But of course, none of this will happen. We won't make any meaningful trades or free agent signings, and we won't draft any of the players mentioned...

... and Svechnikov. If the Red Wings sign any 30+ year old free agent and it causes Rasmussen or Svechnikov to be the odd man out, I'd be pissed. The ONLY way I'm okay with signing Kovalchuk, is if it's a 1 year deal, for the sole purpose of gaining assets by trading him at the deadline. Assuming they have strong seasons, we could get a minimum of three 1st / 2nd round picks for Kovalchuk, Nyquist and Howard at next year's deadline. That on top of the three we already have, next year should be another HUGE draft for the Red Wings. IF we were to sign Kovalchuk (I still don't see it happening), I think one of Athanasiou or Svechnikov have to be traded in a package for a defenseman. Nyquist - Zetterberg - Kovalchuk Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha Rasmussen - Nielsen - Athanasiou / Svechnikov / Frk Abdeklader - Helm - Glendening

Yeah, $7M is too steep, but I would rather a higher cap hit for only one season than sign him for multiple seasons. F*** Kovalchuk though. I hope he signs anywhere but Detroit.

NOTHING! Holmstrom? Maybe...

Good riddance. He's way too right-handed anyway.

Pierre LeBrun - "Further to what my TSN colleague Darren Dreger reported over the weekend when he tweeted that Ilya Kovalchuk had weekend visits with Los Angeles and San Jose, my sense of the market for the Russian winger is made up of two groups. The top contenders, I believe, are the Kings (who met with Kovalchuk on Friday), the Bruins, the Rangers and the Sharks (who met with him Monday). Then I think there’s a second group of teams including Detroit, St. Louis, Dallas and Anaheim. Now, other teams can still get involved, no question, but at this point I think that’s your list, which is already pretty deep."

My thoughts exactly.

I actually kind of am... I know we're not going to sign him, but even the fact that we're "kicking tires" on Kovalchuk worries me. How does this make sense from either perspective? It doesn't. 35 year old problematic UFA. Sounds like a great signing for a rebuilding team... FFS I don't want any part of Kovalchuk. The only way I'm even a little bit okay with this, is if it's a one-year deal with full intentions to flip him at the deadline. But why would Kovalchuk do that when he can just sign with a contender now? He wouldn't. I'm not worried about actually signing him, because I know that's not going to happen. I'm just worried that Holland is even thinking about signing him...

.....

Fair enough.

I agree. Which is why I said... I'd just prefer if it could be done using a 2019 2nd, that's all.

This.