krsmith17

Filip Hronek was selected today by Saginaw of the CHL import draft. Hopefully he reports so we can keep closer tabs on his progress.

^ This ^ Well said PVD.

Haha poel still going on with his/her same old s***... For Shattenkirk (or Trouba), I think they would both start with Mantha or Svechnikov, and we would counter with Nyquist or Tatar. We would of course have to add in other pieces, such as other prospects / picks. In the end though, I could see Nyquist / Tatar, Ouellet / Marchenko, 1st / 2nd round draft pick being a pretty reasonable package for either of those players... The problem is, Edmonton are looking at both of these players as well, and if they're willing to give up Hall, I'm not sure if we can match them. However, if they're only willing to give up Eberle, we have them matched with Nyquist, and I'm sure Ouellet is better than any defenseman they'd be willing to part with as well...

I agree that shot blocking is important, I just think it's somewhat overstated. There's a reason players like Miller block a ton of shots and players like Athanasiou don't. And no, it's not just balls, it's skill and smarts. I'm sure Athanasiou would be willing to block shots, and would likely eventually get very good at it. However, players like Athanasiou don't need to rely on their shot blocking ability because they're on top of their man long before they're able to set up for the shot. Speed kills, especially on the penalty kill. That's why Helm is and has been one of the best penalty killers in the league, that's why Glendening and Sheahan are decent, and that's why Larkin and Athanasiou had great numbers in their short samples. That's also why Miller spends the entire minute he's out there on every penalty kill, chasing and blocking shots...

DatsyukianDekese, are you looking at all ice time or just short-handed ice time? I was under the impression we were just comparing penalty killing ability... Anyway, here are the numbers I've come up with and it seems to me that Miller has been very underwhelming on the PK pretty much every year when it comes to the advanced stats... I looked at the past 5 years since I feel that is an appropriate sample size... 2011-12: CF%: 6.9% (7th among 7 forwards) Helm was 1st with 13.8%, Abdelkader was 6th with 8.1% 2012-13: CF%: 5.3% (6th among 6 forwards) Datsyuk was 1st with 16.0%, Cleary was 5th with 6.7% 2013-14: CF%: 6.0% (4th among 5 forwards) Helm was 1st with 17.4%, Glendening (rookie) was 5th with 5.8% 2014-15: CF%: 8.0% (4th among 5 forwards) Helm was 1st with 19.4%, Glendening was 5th with 7.6% 2015-16: CF%: 5.7% (5th among 6 forwards) Helm was 1st with 11.9%, Andersson was 6th with 4.5% Looking at corsi for percentages, you can see two things, Helm is a beast on the PK (most know that anyway), but also that Miller is awful on the PK, aside from blocking shots (which I admit he's great at). We can look at virtually any other advanced stat across the board and he's toward the bottom as well, while Helm is at the top. Miller is 32 years old and isn't likely to improve on past numbers. And while Helm and Abby aren't that much younger, they are both still on the right side of 30 (29). Glendening is 27 and Sheahan is just 24. Athanasiou hasn't had much PK duty yet, but has been spectacular in the small sample size. He's just 21 years old and has speed to burn. Larkin as well, very small sample size, but was lights out when given the opportunity... Anyway, like I said right from the beginning, it's not a terrible signing, because I don't believe any player signed at around $1M can be considered a bad signing. I'm just trying to rid this notion that Miller is this god on the penalty kill, because he's really not. There's a reason our penalty kill has been average at best defensively over the past few years, while we're toward the bottom of the league every year in SH goals for. Most other teams play top players on the penalty kill, while we play scrubs that can't do anything but block shots...

Elite number one center, top 6 gritty winger, top pair defenseman... Yeah, I'd say we'd be Cup contenders... I'd prefer Trouba over Shattenkirk, but hey, I wouldn't complain too much with those three additions...

Man, how awesome would those two look in the Winged Wheel... Unfortunately Stamkos is going to be tough enough to reel in, no chance we get both...

Dickie, what does offensive output have to do with anything here? Neither Helm or Miller are scorers and no one is claiming they should be. Both should be used in the bottom 6 as shut down guys regardless of what team they play on. Helm however, is at least 3 times more valuable than Miller in my opinion. So I guess a contract somewhere around $3.5M would be fair, and I'd be okay with that, and use Miller as a 13th forward...

I don't doubt for a second that there are many lists out there that would support your claim that "Miller is a very good penalty killer"... The problem is, the people that are making those lists, I'm assuming like yourself, are using basic stats to come to that conclusion. What basic stats can you use that indicate a good penalty killer? SH blocked shot? SH takeaways? Is there really anything else other than team PK%? Once you get into the advanced analytics, that is when you would see a completely different story regarding Miller and his PK prowess... Among our top 5 penalty killers (Helm, Sheahan, Glendening, Abdelkader and Miller) Miller is last in virtually every category, including SH corsi/60, SH fenwick/60, Oppcorsi/60, DZ time/60, scoring chances for/against/60, etc, etc. The point is, while Miller is very good at taking away lanes and blocking shots, that's all he's good at. Others on the team provide a lot more than hard nosed defense on the penalty kill. To me, Miller is an adequate penalty killer, and terrible at even strength. I would much prefer a player that is good on the penalty kill, but can also provide the team with something 5on5 as well...

The only truly elite player available in free agency is Stamkos, everyone else are secondary scorers / depth players. If we're unable to land Stamkos, our best option is probably the trade route. Unfortunately though, we need both an elite level center as well as an elite level defenseman, and we likely only have the assets to acquire one or the other via trade (without completely gutting all future assets). I'm not even sure who's been rumored to be available at center other than Nugent-Hopkins, Duchene, Bozak and possibly Hanzal. None of which are close to the calibre of Stamkos and all would cost a ton of assets. On defense there's Trouba, Shattenkirk and Fowler. All would be upgrades to our back end, but again would cost a ton of assets... I think the chances of Holland making one big trade is slim, and the chance of him making two, zero... We need Stamkos, I'm just not so sure how comfortable I would be with him signing $12M for 7 years...

The problem though is that the penalty kill going to s*** had little to do with Miller if anything at all. Our penalty kill has suffered in the later stages of the season the past 3 years. Miller was healthy for the previous 2...

Any idea on what the Wings may have offered Helm?

The unfortunate thing is, as long as Miller is healthy he will be in the lineup. Slim chance he sits games and even slimmer that he gets sent down...

How would playing Larkin on the penalty kill "expose" him? As for over playing him, I'd personally prefer him on the penalty kill than power-play, but that's a whole other topic... Like I mentioned before, in the past our best players played both power-play and penalty kill and excelled in both areas. Why should it be any different now?...

People think because Miller can block shots that he's a great penalty killer. Well there's a hell of a lot more that goes into a penalty kill than just blocking shots... You know who doesn't block a lot of shots and is a great penalty killer? Athanasiou. You know why? Because his aggressiveness and speed allows him to get on top of the shooter quicker, before they're able to get in a shooting position. You know why our PK was so successful 10 years ago? Because we had our best players killing penalties. Datsyuk and Zetterberg were great penalty killers and how many shots did they block? They killed penalties with skill and smarts, not heart and grit... Houda is our new defense and PK coach. You know why the Bruins penalty kill was so successful? Because he had some of their best players (Bergeron, Marchand, Eriksson, Krejci) killing penalties. Of course we had Draper and Maltby killing penalties as well, and Boston had Kelly and Campbell, but the best penalty killers are always the smarter, more skilled players in my opinion. Speed certainly doesn't hurt either, which is something Miller lacks, and a number of other players on our team have to burn... If it were up to me Helm would be back and Miller would have been let go, and we would have had a penalty kill unit filled with skill and speed... Glendening - Larkin Athanasiou - Helm with Abdelkader and Sheahan subbing in when needed and Callahan and / or Bertuzzi if / when they get a look...

Again, Miller's penalty killing is 'Incredibly Overrated'... ^ Prime example... Yes, there absolutely are better penalty killers on team currently that will get less time with this signing, as well as players down in Grand Rapids that won't get their shot due to this signing...

People still believe Miller is needed on this team? I don't get it. He's terrible 5on5 and is incredibly overrated on the penalty kill. I'm not going to complain too much about a $1M depth signing, but there are a number of kids that could have stepped in and provided everything Miller can plus more, and would have costed slightly less...

Here is our newest addition Jordan Sambrook with Kris Draper, 2 days ago after being selected in the 5th round by his favorite team, the Detroit Red Wings... And here they are 18 years ago with the Stanley Cup, after the Red Wings won back to back Championships... Pretty cool stuff!

I agree that you draft the best player available in the 1st round, maybe even the first three rounds, but I don't think teams generally draft by need in the 6th and 7th rounds. Realistically there isn't that much of a difference in projected talent level that late in the draft. Like I said though, this Larsson kid must be a goalie that Andersson felt we couldn't pass on. Maybe he had him projected to go in the 4th or 5th round. And if that's the case, great, maybe we'll have a stud on our hands.

I understand that it's just one pick, but it's one pick that we could have used on a position of need, rather than a position that we're overloaded in. For over a decade we were drafting a goalie every two years like clockwork, and to me, that's around what it should be. We've now drafted a goalie 3 straight years... It's not like I'm pissed with the pick or anything, just seemed a little odd to me. Maybe it was a goaltender that Andersson feels is the next Lundquist and he simply couldn't pass up the opportunity to draft him...

Yeah, I didn't understand taking a goalie last year, but it really doesn't make sense that we drafted yet another one this year... With Mrazek set as our number one for the foreseeable future at just 24 years old, and at least two of Coreau, Paterson, Perry and Pottelberghe as viable options for backup in the near or not so distant future, I really didn't think there was a need for another goalie in Larsson...

It's not like Larkin made the team his first year after being drafted either. He was drafted two years ago and spent a full season developing in college before making the team out of camp last year... I would have loved Chychrun at 16, but that was a great trade for us. I would have also loved Jones at 20, but none of these kids available at 20 would have been making the Wings this season, likely not next season, and maybe if we were lucky, they'd make it in the 2018-19 season... There's obviously something about Cholowski that our scouts seen that not many other did. Hopefully they're right and he develops into a solid 2nd pairing defenseman for the Wings in a few years...

Bob McKenzie - TOR gets Kerby Rychel from CBJ for Scott Harrington and a conditional pick. I would have liked Rychel. Pretty good trade for the Leafs...

I was skeptical of Cholowski, but hopeful he turns out to be a steal. Love the Smith and Sambrook picks, not sure on any of the other guys, so time will tell... Hopefully they're Hakan specials...

Final pick is Elfstrom... So much for Kenny Johnson... Oh well.