krsmith17

I find it silly that people believe that just because Holland said that he's building through the draft, he's ONLY building through the draft. To my knowledge, Holland has never said "I will not make any big trades", "the only way we're going to acquire a top pair defenseman is through the draft"... GM's say a lot of things. Just this past week Holland was asked if Sproul was traded to make room in Grand Rapids for Saarijarvi. Holland said "I think Saarijarvi will stay there (Toledo) for a bit. I don't know if it's all bad in Toledo. It's a good league for a young player. Probably leave him there for a bit and let him play." He then proceeded to recall Saarijarvi up from Toledo two days later... Point is, everything a GM says should be taken with a grain of salt. Do I think Holland will make a trade to acquire a top defenseman? No. Do I think he should? Absolutely. Will I voice my opinion. Yes, yes I will.

Griffins have just recalled Saarijarvi from Toledo. You'd have to think that was the driving force behind trading Sproul. I do wish they could have moved literally any one of the other vets, but I'd assume Sproul was the only one that drew any sort of interest. Puempel will likely debut Wednesday against Tucson. Hopefully they insert Saarijarvi as well.

The first thing a new GM generally does when coming to an organization, is make his mark on the team. That would include shaking things up by making trades and likely even hiring a new coaching staff. Assuming of course that they don't hire from within... But of course they will. Draper will be the next GM and things will remain status quo... I'd like to see them hire from outside the organization, but I highly doubt that will happen. So you're probably right. I'll likely be in for a huge disappointment...

I don't think a single person expects a trade, nor do I think anyone is surprised that Holland won't make a big trade. That doesn't mean we can't b**** and complain that he won't make a trade... I personally believe teams need to be good at drafting and developing, signing free agents (RFA's / UFA's) AND making trades to be successful. We've been above average at drafting and developing, great at signing RFA's, not so great at signing UFA's, and inadequate at making trades. We have a ton of high end talent up front, and very little on the back end. Common sense says to trade from an area of strength to fill an area of weakness. Of course, nothing will happen, but THAT is the biggest reason I don't think Ken Holland is the right man to get this sinking ship back on course...

I would take a team of Zetterberg's over a team of Lucic's. What's your point?... Rasmussen is out performing a player that has yet to play a game this season. Awesome... I wasn't saying that Rasmussen isn't doing well. I just want to see more out of him this season. If he can get above 1.5 points per game, that would be great.

I think he's a below average AHL goalie. But what I think is stupid about the situation is, we let a 23 year old Paterson walk, and brought back a 27 year old McCollum. We also had another option in Machovsky. I'm just not a fan of McCollum, and I don't think it was a smart move to bring him back, but whatever.

I'd be okay with sitting Ericsson in favour of Hicketts. Who else is sitting though?

Bringing McCollum back was stupid, but not because of the pick, because he sucks... really bad... We won't ever lose that pick anyway. It was a conditional 7th and the conditions were something crazy, like him playing 20 games with the Wings or something. Never going to happen. EDIT: Condition: Flames only acquire the 2018 7th round pick if McCollum plays at least 20 minutes in 15 NHL regular season games. Still not going to happen.

Wilson is playing tonight. Athanasiou will likely be another week or so...

Booth hasn't looked great, but definitely better than Witkowski in my opinion. I agree that it will likely be Booth sent down before Witkowski, but it shouldn't be... Why would we call Hicketts up after demoting two 4th line forwards? DeKeyser will likely be back sometime this week, so it's going to take at least two injuries before Hicketts gets a call. And even then, they might just throw Witkowski back there...

We're not going to make a one for one swap like the Drouin for Sergachev trade. Any trade we make would have to be some sort of package including picks / prospects, but we do have the pieces. Who would we trade for? Not sure, but like kliq mentioned, Trouba could be an option, as well as a number of other young defensemen. Just look at what it cost Calgary to get Hamilton out of Boston, a 1st and two 2nds. That's the type of move Holland should be trying to make. I've also mentioned many times, I'd even be okay if it were for a highly touted defensive prospect. There are options out there, Holland just isn't willing or able to pull the trigger... This.

Tatar, Nyquist, Svechnikov to name a few, along with pick(s) / prospect(s). You can't actually think it's impossible for this team to upgrade their defense through trade...

I don't think you need to have elite players to make a big trade. I'm not expecting him to go out and acquire Doughty or Ekblad or anything, but a top 3 defenseman should be attainable with the pieces we have, without giving up a Larkin or Mantha.

I'm not going to go through the trade history of every team / GM, but I would say most, if not all have made at least one big(ish) trade over the past 10 seasons. Holland has made plenty minor trades (some good, some bad), but nothing of significance in that time.

Wilson will make his Red Wings debut tonight wearing number 23. Witkowski still in the lineup. What the f*** does Blashill see in this guy? Hopefully when Athanasiou gets in the lineup, there's no more Witkowski...

7 actually. A trade is a trade I guess, but what I'd like to see, and I assume people that say "trades are hard" would like to see, is a big trade. A trade that actually has a big impact, like acquiring a top pair defenseman or top defensive prospect. Trades of this magnitude (bottom six forwards / bottom pair defensemen) aren't "hard", but Holland hasn't been able to pull off a big trade since when? 2007/2008?...

I loved Gordie Howe. Care to explain what Gordie has to do with this conversation? I like tough players. I don't like players that hurt their team by taking needless penalties every game. High PIM's are a negative in my book. I'm not jumping to any "major conclusions"... You're the one that brought up his point totals 8 games in. I'm just saying I'd like to see more out of him. Hopefully he picks it up. A player drafted 9th overall should be able to score in all situations. If we wanted a power-play specialist, we should have drafted him in the 2nd round or later.

Yes both picks are 2018.

I was a big Sproul fan, but he was never going to get a real shot in Detroit, so this is essentially a minor league trade. I'm not sure why though. I'd still prefer Sproul on the Griffins than Puempel. Maybe it was made to make room for Hronek and Saarijarvi...

This seems like a decent trade for us. The upgrade in pick from 5th to 3rd and freeing up cap space to sign Athanasiou makes it a win in my book...

Matt Puempel and Scott Wilson for Sproul and Sheahan? Great haul Holland...

That would be a terrible trade for us. If we're trading Sheahan, it should be for a mid to high pick (2nd or 3rd). I'd do that trade for sure. It's a trade I've actually mentioned in the past. Not sure if the Habs would pull the trigger though...

I was actually thinking the opposite. It's $1.387M but he'll still only get paid the amount Holland originally offered ($1.25M for one year). Didn't Athanasiou already lose around $150K or something for sitting the first 8 games? Maybe Athanasiou said he'd agree to sign, if he can still get approximately the same amount as the original offer... Who knows, I could be way off... He actually signed for slightly more than the original offer of $1.25M for one season. Not sure if he'll get all of that or not though. We'll see when the contract is actually finalized...

Yeah, not bad. Still not where I'd like to see him though. He's 71st in points, and 56th in points per game. Not great for a big centerman drafted 9th overall. Same as last season, most of his production is coming on the power-play. 3 of his 4 goals have been scored with the man advantage. I'd like to see him score more at even strength. Also, he's on pace for 36 goals and 45 assists, which is pretty much what I predicted he'd score. Again, good but not great. Hopefully he can pick up the pace and score at more of a 1.5+ points per game pace, rather than the 1.125 he's currently scoring at. Why do you include his penalty minutes as a positive? I've never understood that. Penalties hurt your team, they don't benefit. Granted, I just looked up his penalties over his first 8 games, and I guess if there's a positive I take out of the number of penalties he's taken, it's that most show he's playing aggressive (roughing, charging, cross-checking), rather than lazy (holding, hooking, slashing, tripping). Still, I'd like to see him cut his PIM's in half.

Ericsson with some very subtle nice plays out there early on. Keep it up Big E.