krsmith17

Regardless of what a team does from year to year, it's ridiculous to suggest that a team can miss or make the playoffs based on the "momentum" from the previous year... Blashill didn't have a great year, but he certainly didn't have a terrible year either. He finished right around where most fans expected he would in his first full season. With the changes being made this offseason, and the growth of Blashill with his first NHL season under his belt, I expect a better result next season. Of course, depending on who is brought in to take over the two assistant positions and goalie coach, as well as what changes are made to the roster will determine how much better the results will be...

I don't know much about that Korn guy but Oates and Carlyle would be a hell of an upgrade to the coaching staff...

I think our defense was fine defensively, just not quite involved enough offensively, whether that's making a clean outlet pass, or stepping up in the offensive zone. I do think that is somewhat due to personnel though, which is why upgrading our defense is a much bigger concern than the defense and penalty kill coach in my opinion. As long as we can acquire a top pairing guy and play the guys that can provide offense from the back end (Green, Smith, *trade acquisition*), and continue to develop Sproul, I think we'll be in good shape. We definitely need to make some changes with the offense, but unlike the defense I think the personnel is fine, it's the coaching that's been the issue, in particular with the power-play. Whatever coach we get to run the offense and power-play needs to be able to utilize his players and systems a hell of a lot better than whatever Firschweiler was doing...

Yeah, I'd definitely agree that we should be looking at guys with more experience. I was just curious if Osgood would get a look or if he'd even be interested. Probably not. Either way, I'm just ecstatic that we'll have a new power-play coach going into next season. Anyone know any potential candidates?

Great news on Firschweiler. I liked Bedard, but he's been here forever. Any chance Osgood takes over? Would he be any good in a coaching role?...

FIN 5 vs. GER 1 Pulkkinen didn't factor in on the scoresheet, zero points, zero shots on goal in 15:11 time on ice... SWE 5 vs. DEN 2 Nyquist had a goal and 2 shots in 16:16 time on ice. He also had a 2-on-1 opportunity where he faked the shot, made a perfect spin-o-rama backhand pass, but Wennberg couldn't bury it... FRA 1 vs. SVK 5 Jurco had 2 assists and 1 shot on goal in 13:22 time on ice.

Down 0-3 in the series. Not looking good...

Sproul can't be sent down without going through waivers. He would most certainly be picked up by someone. Same goes for Marchenko, Ouellet, Jensen and Frk. Jensen will likely be waived and he has a decent chance in clearing and playing another season in Grand Rapids.

He should start next season as our number 7. He definitely has all the tools to be a top 4 defenseman at the NHL level. I'm hoping he can take over Green's role over the next couple years.

Sproul with an absolute bomb! 2-1.

F***! Werenski... 2-0 Monsters...

The Griffins have been the better team in 6 out of 7 1/2 periods so far this series... Athanasiou looks off his game. Hopefully he gets going really soon here.

BLR 3 vs. USA 6 Larkin had a goal and an assist and 7 shots on goal, and once again lead all forwards in time on ice by a wide margin (22:17). KAZ 4 vs. RUS 6 Datsyuk had two assists and one shot on goal.

Just had a great opportunity on the breakaway, mare a nice move but was stoned... Wow... what a save by McCollum... And just like that it's 3-3... F**** sake! Power-play with 2:04 remaining. Down 4-3...

Sarcasm? He's playing top line and top power-play...

Miele makes it 3-2 on the power-play. Great feed from Zengerle.

2-2. Ouellet on a beautiful pass from Athanasiou.

Tangradi cuts the deficit. 2-1 on a great pass from Mantha. 5 on 3 power-play goal.

Game 2 starting now! Frk is injured... Zengerle back in.

USA takes on Belarus today at 1:00 EST. Jacksoni, yeah especially considering "The Next One" is playing below him as 2nd line center...

Each player that we "could have taken in the 1st" or we missed out on, there are 29 other teams that missed as well. There are also players that we managed to "steal" in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rounds that teams missed out on 2, 3, 4 times each. It happens. Hindsight is 20/20 and you can't expect to land every big name on the board in any draft. Sure, there have been some questionable picks, some that I haven't personally liked (Saarijarvi), but I trust that management know what they're doing... When has Ken Holland ever said that he expects this team to improve while transitioning from the vets to the youth?

My top two choices are still Jakob Chychrun or Jake Bean, but unfortunately, unless Holland is willing to trade up (I'm not sure he is), I doubt either of them will be available when we pick. My next two choices would be Michael McLeod or Max Jones, and it's even questionable whether either of them will still be available at 16. So I'm hoping one of the four falls to us, or we trade up to get one of them. If not, I'd like to trade back and gain an extra pick in the second round. A few guys I like that are projected to go late in the first or somewhere in the second are Nathan Bastian, Lucas Johansen, and to a lesser extent Luke Green and Sean Day...

Re-read the first three words of my last post... "I don't understand". I seriously have no idea what your point is... Is it supposed to be something about how we haven't been good enough at drafting? I think I proved that theory to be wrong. We have been very good at drafting, considering our position at the podium every single year. And yes, you do need to include draft picks that are currently playing for other teams in order to correctly evaluate that... Our record has gotten worse because we are in a rebuild. We are transitioning from the vets (Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Kronwall) to the youth (Larkin, Mantha, DeKeyser, and company)... Seriously, how many times does this need to be said? It's mind numbing that some people expect us to go through a seamless transition, or even improve while we're in the process of a "rebuild"...

I don't understand the statement, "at that rate it will take 23 years to even field a full roster"... I think 1-2 players on average making it per draft for any team is pretty standard, and I don't think any team ideally wants to bring in any more than 1-2 rookies per year... I don't see the purpose of only listing the players we drafted that are currently on our team. If your trying to figure out our success rate in drafting I think a more effective way is to list all the players we drafted in that time frame that are currently or are going to make the NHL... 2001 - 0/7 < Traded 1st round pick > 2002 - 4/10 (Hudler, Fleischmann, Filppula, Ericsson) < Traded 1st round pick > 2003 - 2/8 (Howard, Quincey) < Traded 1st round pick > 2004 - 1/8 (Franzen) < Traded 1st & 2nd round picks > 2005 - 3/9 (Kindl, Abdelkader, Helm) 2006 - 1/7 (Matthias) < Traded 1st round pick > 2007 - 2/5 (Smith, Andersson) 2008 - 1/6 (Nyquist) 2009 - 3/7 (Ferraro, Tatar, Nestrasil) - (*Jensen*, *Callahan*) < Traded 1st round pick > 2010 - 4/7 (Sheahan, Jarnkrok, Pulkkinen, Mrazek) 2011 - 5/9 (Jurco, Ouellet, Sproul, Quine, Marchenko) - (*Backman*) < Traded 1st round pick > 2012 - 1/6 (Athanasiou) - (*Frk*, *Paterson*) < Traded 1st round pick > 2013 - 2/8 (Mantha, Janmark) - (*Nastasiuk*, *Bertuzzi*) 2014 - 1/7 (Larkin) - (*Turgeon*, *Holmstrom*) 2015 - 1/6 (Svechnikov) - (*Saarijarvi*) I think that would be considered pretty solid drafting if compared to other teams, especially considering we have never picked higher than 15th overall in that timeframe, we never had a first round pick in 8 of the 15 years, and our average first pick was 39th overall... Also, like PVD mentioned, our current team is stocked full with homegrown talent. Last season, of the 29 players that played a game with the Red Wings, 22 were drafted by Detroit, another 3 were signed as free agents straight from College / Europe. Some have / will move on next season, and they will be replaced either by more home grown guys or via trade / free agency. Either way, a team made up of 85+% of home grown talent have to be doing something right at the draft table. We have been very good at drafting and developing and we have a pretty good stable built, however we do need to start trading some of these assets to upgrade in some areas, mainly defense. Whether or not Holland can get it done, we'll find out soon enough...

I honestly don't see us missing the playoffs in the next two years. Holland will do whatever it takes to, at the very least, get us in this year (last year at the Joe), and next (first year at Little Caesars Arena...). I expect a couple moves this offseason, nothing earth shattering, but possibly a trade that brings in a future top pair defenseman. Next offseason, I would expect a few more changes as well. I don't expect this team to be a legit contender in the next two years, but I would like for "the streak" to continue in the final season and inaugural season of the two arenas... We do not need to be completely rebuild as some suggest. We have a lot of young talent, we just need to continue to develop and make some minor tweaks along the way. With Larkin, Mantha, DeKeyser, Mrazek, etc. as a core and a supporting cast of Athanasiou, Abdelkader, Nyquist, Tatar, Smith, etc. we're in pretty good shape. Some shrewd moves in the next couple years could get us back to the top...