krsmith17

How does that work? He was drafted in the WHL but elected to go the college route instead? To become eligible to turn pro sooner? If this is the thought process, I like it, although I guess he may still play a year or two junior...

I'll admit, I've never seen the kid play, other than a scattered highlight, so I have nothing really to base an opinion on other than stats (which aren't great). I don't mind them speeding up the development process though. The quicker he gets up playing against tougher competition, the better it will be for him and the Red Wings in the long run. Is he definitely turning pro or does he have the option of playing junior? I'm not really sure how that works, but I'd love to see him with the Griffins sooner than later. This season is the least amount of Griffins hockey I've watched in years, but I've been trying to watch more lately with Hronek and Holmstrom with the team. I've been very impressed with Hronek in the few games that I've watched and Holmstrom looked great (along with Svechnikov) last night as well.

Haha they actually were playing him in front of the net, but Nelsen actually has a lot of movement on his power-play units, no player is stationary. Blashill and co. could learn something... Holmstrom did spend a fair amount of the time on the PP in front of the net though. He also scored the game winner in OT, on a nice pass from Svechnikov. Looks like the two are already forming some nice chemistry.

Holmstrom gets his first point as a Griffin, cross ice pass to Svechnikov on the power-play.

Very surprised by this. I figured he'd spend at least 3 years in the NCAA. Looks like he will be turning pro after one medicre season with St. Cloud State. Regardless, looking forward to see what he's got. I wonder if he'll get in any playoff games this season...

Why all this talk about drafting 6-10? You mean if Holland decides to trade our top 3 pick for a pick in the 6-10 range plus a late 1st / early 2nd? I'd prefer keep our top 3 pick and take one of Patrick or Vilardi... Can't wait to win that draft lottery!

I'd like to see Svechnikov and Nosek on the 3rd line, Callahan and Frk as the 13th / 14th forwards, and Bertuzzi and Russo in the AHL for another season. In Grand Rapids I'm assuming?...

Hoping he plays tonight in Manitoba...

I'm confused. Do you think Valimaki is going to be the best player in the draft? Surely you can't be suggesting that. I'd be okay with that pick if we end up outside of the top 10, but even then there are a handful of players (Foote, Tippett) I'd pick before Valimaki. I agree we need defense, but this year isn't the year for defense in the first round. We should pile up on defensemen in the 2nd and 3rd rounds and possibly explore trading options to acquire that top pair defenseman.

Makes sense.

I make the voyage to Detroit and / or Toronto every year with a few of my buddies to see a Wings Leafs game, sometimes a couple. Unfortunately though, I wasn't able to afford to go this year because I've been forking out crazy cash for my upcoming wedding (next month)... It turns out, those same buddies I make the trip with every year are a couple of the best guys ever (despite being Leaf fans). They woke me up this morning banging on my door at 7am to tell me they have a surprise for me (early bachelor party). They handed me a ticket for the game Saturday night against the Leafs. I thought for sure it was some sort of sick joke, but anyway, packing my bags now to fly to Toronto, staying there tonight and flying to the D tomorrow. Never been so f***ing pumped in my life. Can't believe I'm getting down to the Joe one last time. Hopefully we can pull out the W! LGW!!!

Unfortunately, probably not much.....

Yeah, I think Trouba is a pipe dream at this point. The only way I see him coming here is as a UFA, and even that may be a long shot. I'd prefer to go after a left handed top pair guy to pair with Green. Right handed defensemen used to be a rarity for us, but now we have Green, Jensen, Sproul, Russo, Hronek, Saarijarvi, Sambrook and McIlrath. We may need to replace Green a year from now, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if we re-signed him next year.

Exactly my thoughts. Going to be a lot of pissed off people, from fans to players... Not sure why the NHL is doing this, but I love that we'll get this information. I think Holland is going to get blasted when we find out who he protects though... My guess is there will be at least two players protected that most fans will be upset about... Maybe Kronwall or Abdelkader, Helm, Sheahan or Glendening...

Just came to post this. Nice goal. Blast from the point, on a nice pass from Svechnikov. Excited for two of these guys.

I definitely did something wrong but I have no idea what... I did it on my phone earlier and could have sworn that's what the results indicated. Just ran it another 20+ times on the computer, and you're right, it seems we can't pick 4th, 5th or 6th... Is that right? What's the reason for that though? EDIT: Never mind. I'm assuming it has to do with us currently in the 6th spot, add in Vegas, puts us at 7. So we can either win the lottery (top 3 picks), remain in the 7 spot, or drop back if other teams behind us move up... Is that correct?...

No, I don't believe it is. I said "weak" and "strong" in quotations because that's been the narrative around here. I don't believe that to be 100% accurate though. This year we are seeing a weaker draft, in the sense that none of the top 3 players are McDavid / Matthews level elite, but I don't believe the rest of the draft differs much from any other draft class. Next year there will be a couple elite players (Svechnikov and Dahlin) available at the top, but it's not like every player outside the top 3 are expected to be any better than this year or any other for that matter. I think 7th overall this year is very similar to 7th overall next year, and much better than 17th next year. There will still be some very good players available around the 7 hole, so if that's where we end up, I say make the pick or trade it for immediate help. Why prolong the rebuild even further by trading a top pick, in hopes that we get a player just as good, but a year further away from making the NHL the following year?

Nothing drastic needs to happen, we just need to get lucky in the draft lottery, which is very possible. I just ran the simulator 10 times, and we got 1st, 3rd, 5th, 6th twice, 7th three times, 8th and 9th... We can still luck out and get a top 3-5 pick, but we could also have bad luck and fall back to 8-10... That's why "tanking" is such a flawed method. In saying that, I'd be totally fine if the only remaining games we win are against the Leafs and Devils. The problem with trading our 1st in this years draft to a team for their 1st in next years draft, is who do you trade it with? With the parity of this league, you never know where a team will finish a year from now. Let's just say we trade our 7th overall this season to one of the bottom feeders this year. Any of the teams at the bottom of the standings this season, could potentially make the playoffs next season. So now, you've traded a 7th overall in a "weak draft", for a 17th overall in a "strong draft". Not a gamble I'd be willing to take... I say keep the pick and take the best player available. Hopefully we get lucky, move up a few spots and take Vilardi... OR trade the pick for a top pair defenseman...

I know Tippett has fallen a bit in some mock drafts, but I'd be absolutely shocked if he's still there at 18. It's not even a guarantee that Hague would be there at 31. I think we should keep our pick, and hope we end up getting lucky in the lottery...

Again... Leaving Sheahan or any player unprotected and protecting other players would just be a formality if we could convince Vegas to take a specific player. They cannot take more than one player, so in that case we could leave Sheahan, Athanasiou and Mantha unprotected, and it wouldn't matter. Vegas will be looking to take on a few big contracts, just to reach the cap floor. So yes, getting rid of a player like Ericsson is a real possibility in this expansion draft, if we're willing to add another asset. Holland really needs to get creative this summer in order to rid this team of a couple bad contracts and set the rebuild off right.

Griffins have signed defenseman Patrick McCarron. 6'3", 198lbs. right-handed defenseman. He put up solid numbers this year with Cornell University (NCAA) - 25 points (6 goals, 19 assists) in 35 games.

I don't want to lose Sheahan, but if we did, it wouldn't be a huge loss. Helm is more valuable to this team, even with the injury history. I agree that Sproul has more upside then Jensen, but just coming off a season ending knee injury, it's hard to say where he fits in going into next season. I could see this organization giving Sproul the Jurco treatment. I don't think he has been utilized properly early on in his development, but who knows how they manage him going forward. All of this is beside the point though. The protected list is irrelevant if we're somehow able to persuade Vegas into taking a particular player (Ericsson). Of course you'd rather give up a 6th than a 3rd, but that isn't enough to get a team to take a bad contract, and giving up a 3rd round pick would be more than worth it to get a big contract like that off the books.

I've seen quite a few mock expansion drafts over the past few days and I'm just curious who everyone wants to see taken from the Red Wings. Most mocks have Vegas taking Sheahan, but I've also seen Helm, Glendening, Ouellet, Sproul, Athanasiou (never going to happen), Howard and even Kronwall... We have to lose one player, so who does everyone want to lose out of the players mentioned, or maybe someone else?... I'd be ecstatic if we could somehow convince Vegas to take Ericsson, by throwing in a sweetener (one of our many 3rd round picks). I'd also be okay with them taking Howard, although I think he should have some value if he keeps up his stellar play. I would also like to see either one of Abdelkader or Glendening taken, although not likely. I still love Helm in our bottom 6, so I hope we keep him. I hope we don't lose any of our young defensemen either. My protection list would be: Nielsen (NMC), Zetterberg, Nyquist, Tatar, Mantha, Athanasiou, Helm, Green, DeKeyser, Jensen, Mrazek. But in order to protect beyond those 11, I'd throw Vegas a draft pick and / or mid tier prospect, to get them to take a particular player...

We've all been saying for a while now that our biggest need is that right-handed, top pair defenseman. We definitely need that top pairing defenseman, but we have Green that is capable on the top pair, and I think Jensen is a very capable top 4. I'd be leaning more toward going after a left-handed, top pair defenseman to pair with Green, because DeKeyser clearly isn't one. Maybe we can somehow get Fowler out of Anaheim before the expansion draft. I'd like to see something like this going into next season... Fowler - Green DeKeyser - Jensen Ouellet - Sproul / Kronwall

Cody Glass is quickly emerging as one of my top draft choices. I hope we finish this season strong and get lucky in the lottery to get Patrick or Vilardi, but if we pick around 7, I'd be stoked to get Glass or Tippett.