krsmith17

I would honestly be surprised if we took a goalie this year. We have taken a goalie every second year for the past decade like clockwork. We took Chase Perry in the fifth round last year, Jake Paterson in the 3rd in 2012, Mrazek in the 5th in 2010, McCollum in the 1st in 2008, Daniel Larsson in the 3rd in 2006, and Howard in the 2nd in 2003... We're set in goal with the Red Wings for the next 5 plus seasons, with Jimmy and Petr, and by that time, I expect that Paterson or maybe even Perry will be making an impact on the organization. It's also still a possibility that one of McCollum or Coreau emerge as legit goaltenders within that time. Despite their struggles prior to this season, they're both putting up great numbers down in Grand Rapids this season. Coreau is putting up spectacular numbers (9-6-1 / 3 SO's / 0.930 SV% / 2.07 GGA) with the Griffins this season, and is only 23, which is still very young for a goaltender, and has great size (6'5", 235lbs.) to his advantage. I would bet on us continuing the trend of every second year and waiting until 2016 to pick another goaltender...

nyquististhefuture, first of all, the contract I think we should give him? I never mentioned anything about a contract, salary or term... I think we should give up the minimal assets to get him before the trade deadline, and then if we do happen to land him, we do everything we can to make him happy, by winning hockey games, going deep in the playoffs, and showing him what the Detroit Red Wings organization is all about. Then in the offseason we do whatever we can to re-sign him. I think anywhere from $4.5-5.5M on a 4-6 year contract would get it done, and I absolutely would give him that. I'd even go a little higher, although I don't think it would be necessary. He is absolutely a very good 2/3 defenseman in the NHL. As for why the Leafs would be giving him up? Because they probably are (should be) in full fire sale mode. The players I would be holding onto if I were them, Bernier, Van Riemsdyk, Kessel, Bozak, Franson and Rielly. Why they're not holding on to Franson? Very simple. They're the Toronto Maple Leafs... So what, if he isn't "ahead" of any of those guys? (although he is...). Keep Kronwall and Ericsson together and put Franson on the second pair with any of the other three... I would either go with Smith - Franson and DeKeyser - Quincey OR Quincey - Franson and Smith - DeKeyser. No matter what, that's three very solid pairings. A hell of a lot better than it looks right now, and better than it would look with any of our prospects in place of Franson. In no way would we be "handcuffing" ourselves by signing Franson to a contract...

LeftWinger, Kip asked me the same question a few pages back and I'll tell you the same thing I told him. Yes, I would absolutely trade Smith, plus for Franson, IF we knew he would re-sign. There's no way I trade Smith for Franson or any other pending UFA defenseman though, unless it was 100% certain that they would re-sign here. nyquististhefuture, so let me get this straight... You think Kindl is the only player on the Wings that Franson is better than? Give me a break. He would step onto this team, instantly being one of our top defenders... Why not wait for a real number one to become available? Because a real number one will never be made available in free agency, nor will they be available via trade, unless you're going to ridiculously overpay. Let's just say a guy like Pietrangelo becomes "available", would you be willing to give up Smith, Sproul, Mantha and a pick? I certainly wouldn't. We could potentially have a second tier defender as good as Franson (and yes, he is a really good 2/3 defenseman) without giving up any of that, maybe just a 2nd round pick and a mid-level prospect... Like you said, realistically we have Kronwall, Ericsson, DeKeyser and Smith here for the long term, we have Quincey for another year, and we add Franson now, that's 6. Then we add in one of Sproul or Ouellet after next season, unless one of them beat out a defender (unlikely) or we get an injury or two (likely)... What's not to like about that? That is a legit blue line.

nyquististhefuture, give me a ******* break... I've followed Franson since he entered the league. I watched every game he played against the Wings when he played those couple years in Nashville and I could tell just from those handful of games that this 22-23 year old kid was going to be a big time player in this league. I remember when he got traded to Toronto, my buddy (who is a die hard Leafs fan) knew very little about this Cody Franson guy, and I told him that Burke just robbed Polie on this trade. Franson is going to be an awesome player in this league. Since he has been traded to Toronto, I have watched a TON of Leafs games. Who are you to say, I only watch Saturday night games or whatever? My girlfriend is a big time Leafs fan, and she watches most of their games, so therefore I'm stuck watching them, when the Wings aren't playing, not to mention every one of my buddies are huge Leafs fans, so I'm always hearing it from them as well. You can hate on Franson all you want, I could really care less, but he would absolutely be worth the rumored asking price. Name 6 defenseman on our current team or out of our prospects that are better than Franson... There obviously aren't, but yet you don't want him... Because?...

Raise your hand if you've watched a lot of Leafs / Predators games since Franson has entered the league, and followed his individual play very closely... People that don't think Franson will be worth it or won't fit in here, clearly are unaware of the type of game this guy plays... I've said it before and I'll say it again, Cody Franson is exactly the type of defenseman this team needs. Him alone would make us an instant threat come playoff time. He is worth the "asking price" as a rental, and he would be worth re-signing after this season. So what, if we have to give up one of our defense prospects to fit him in here long term, he'd be worth it...

Richdg, the more you say, the less I believe you know about our players and prospects... Sheahan is without a doubt, a legit second line center. He is "on pace" for 41 points in his first full season and I fully expect him to be a 50-60 point producer in this league as early as next season. He is already relied upon to match up against the toughest competition in the league, all while being able to produce at a very reasonable rate. Athanasiou has arguably had the smoothest transition from junior to pro than any player in the Red Wings organization in the past couple decades. He has excelled at every level and continues to impress, but yeah, it's completely reasonable to think he will not make it... So these very promising forward prospects might "stall out" but all those defense prospects are a sure thing right? Why is it that we're inevitably going to lose these forward prospects to trade but not the defense prospects? Is it because, maybe we are much deeper at forward than defense? Huh... Who woulda thunk it?... Final thought. It doesn't matter where we pick in the first round, I trust the Red Wings scouts to get it right, and my bet is on them taking a defenseman. We shall see...

I didn't say anything about not likely rentals, I'm really not sure where you're getting that... I've actually said numerous times that I would like a rental, as long as it doesn't involve any of our high end prospects or roster players (unless it's Kindl or Andersson...). Hence, why I would do a trade for a lower-end prospect (Ferraro) and a second or third, but not for a higher-end prospect (Athanasiou / Pulkkinen) and a first. And that goes for Franson or Green or whoever...

I'm not worried about whether or not he would fit in with our team at all. I don't think there's any question that he would be a great fit here, but I think being able to re-sign him after this season is a legitimate concern. In saying that though, if it's only a second round pick and Ferraro (which I highly doubt would get the deal done), it's well worth it. Even if it just ends up being for the remainder of this season and post-season, he could be a huge help down the stretch and potentially help us make a decent run in the playoffs. And if we did get close or even win the Cup this season, I think he would re-sign at a reasonable contract. However, if it's a first and a higher end prospect like Athanasiou, I wait until the offseason, and try to lure him in then...

Although I don't see Ehn or Vahatalo becoming players for us in the future, it is possible that one of them could surprise. But I remember after last years draft, I said that I thought that Kadeykin would be a steal in the 7th, and I still like his chances. He's putting respectable numbers in the KHL so far this season, 9 points (4 goals, 5 assists) in 20 games. Certainly not earth shattering, but decent none the less. If he has any interest in coming over to play in North America, I'd keep an eye on him for sure.

This team needs more TRUCULENCE!!! Without TRUCULENCE, we're going nowhere...

dirtydangles, we have much more than just Larkin as future top 6 centers. Larkin, Sheahan and Athanasiou will all be legit top 2 centers in this league in the future. We also have a bunch of guys that project to be more of 3rd line centers, but some could surprise and become 2nd line centers; Turgeon, Nosek, Janmark and Holmstrom. No, none of them are Datsyuk or Zetterberg caliber, but realistically were Datsyuk and Zetterberg Datsyuk and Zetterberg caliber when they were drafted? As always, some players will surprise and some will disappoint, but I think we should definitely be set down the middle for years to come...

Richdg, so what about the group of young guys (Sheahan, Nyquist, Tatar and Jurco) we currently have on the team up front? That's 4 top 6 guys right there. Are they not going to be around in a few years?... Also, you're severely underrating Athanasiou if you think he has an outside chance in being a top 6 player in a few years. It doesn't matter how many "high end prospects" you name on the back end, it doesn't change the fact that most top out at 3rd pairing guys. Other than DeKeyser and Smith (...and many would argue this guy as well), Sproul is the only guy that we have that has "top end potential"... No matter how you slice it, defense is our biggest need when it comes to a first round pick. We absolutely need another top end talent on the back end in the next few years. Now, of course it is possible we wait until the second if Holland and co. think there is a player going to be available that is an absolute steal, and it's also possible we trade one of our first two round picks either in a trade for a player at the deadline, or to move up or down in the draft. But this will, in all likelihood, be a defense heavy draft for us, unless, like I said, there is a forward available that we just can't pass over... You may do your research on upcoming drafts, and actually have somewhat of an idea what you're talking about here, but chances are you have never seen any of these guys actually play a game. I watch a ton of Griffins games, and even a fair amount of junior games, and I'll tell you for a fact, that we are much deeper up front than we are on the back end in the future. However, all of this is basing it on us not making any trades or any free agent signings, and the chances of that happening are zero. If we add a top 4 defenseman before the draft (which I think we will), that could change our priority in June...

Ouellet and Marchenko being ahead of Sproul means absolutely nothing. He has a much higher ceiling and will be the better NHLer in a few years. Where did I agree that there are "potential holes in the forward corp"?... I believe that our forwards of the future is our area of strength, our back end is clearly still our weakness... Our top 12 could round out with any combination of other guys, including Abdelkader, Helm, Glendening, Nastasiuk, Callahan, Ferraro, Turgeon, Nosek, Janmark, Holmstrom, etc... All of the other defenders either project to never make the NHL or at best as 3rd pairing defensemen. The highest ceiling out of those guys is Backman and he's gone back to Sweden.

I'm beginning to think you don't know much about our prospects Richdg... There is no way forward is our number one need of the future... Other than DeKeyser, Smith and Sproul, we don't have anyone who projects to be a top 4 defenseman. Up front we have Larkin, Mantha, Sheahan, Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, Pulkkinen, Athanasiou who all project to be top 6 forwards. Nastasiuk projects to be more of a bottom 6 forward. McKee, chances are will never make this team. Marchenko projects to be a bottom pairing defenseman and you have our two most promising, Sproul and Ouellet on the third pair... Also if you're going to spend this much time to go through all this every year, why not learn how to spell our players names? And if you have trouble with the spelling, just do a quick internet search... Who are Marsek and Coreu?...

Jimmy, Franson is absolutely a very good 2/3 defenseman, regardless of what team he plays for. He is the best defenseman on the Leafs right now, and would arguably be the second best on the Wings.

My bet is still on a defenseman in the first unless there is a forward available we just can't pass over. We need defensive depth, we're set at forward for years to come.

WingsallTheway, Yandle is your "favorite for what we would have to give up in a trade"? What exactly do you think it would take to get Yandle? Because I think he would be the most expensive out of any of the possibly available defensemen...

We still have our 2nd round draft pick in this upcoming draft. We lost our 2015 3rd round pick in the deal with Columbus that moved us up to get Dominic Turgeon last year. We have 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 as far as I know.

... and then he woke up...

He turned down a multi-year deal worth $4.6M by the Leafs, but I think that was more about not wanting to re-sign with that mess of a team, than the actual money he was offered. I think if we traded for him, and he was willing to re-sign, he would sign for something similar to what he was offered in Toronto. But yes, I would go as high as $5M per for Franson without hesitation.

I agree zombo, that's why part of me is hoping he doesn't get traded and hits free agency, unless he gets traded here of course. Kip, I'd definitely consider DeKeyser for Franson but in the end, I think I'd probably back out of that deal.

I would absolutely trade Smith, plus for Franson. IF we knew he would re-sign. No way I trade Smith for a rental though.

He'd keep a not as talented NHL ready defenseman down in Grand Rapids... So what? I'd play Franson over any defenseman in Grand Rapids right now and I'd trade any of them in favor of Franson except for Sproul... He's not a great 2/3 defenseman? Again, I'll ask you, do you actually watch Franson play? Like I've said before, I wanted him since his days in Nashville, and I still watch a ton of him now, because my girlfriend is a Leafs fan... He is a really good second pairing guy. How many defenseman in the league put up similar numbers and are better defensively? Not many, and the guys that are, are the elite of elite. He is worth much more than a second round pick, even as a rental. If we could somehow be sure that he would re-sign, I'd give much more than that for him. He is better than over half the defenseman on our team right now, and you don't want him for a second round pick? But yet you're willing to drain our prospect pool, give up roster players and picks for Ekman-Larsson? Franson is the exact type of defenseman this team needs. Get it done Kenneth!

I disagree. I think we will, like always, take the best player available, but I think we should definitely be concentrating more on defense than offense, especially in the first round. We have a few prospects (Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou and possibly Pulkkinen) that project to be top 6 forwards, on top of an already young group (Sheahan, Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco), but only one (Sproul), maybe two (Ouellet) that project to be top 4 defenseman, to go along with DeKeyser and Smith. We picked 6 centers and a goaltender last season, we need another elite level defenseman to add to the organization. If I were Holland and co. I would try to get the best defenseman available in the first, then take the best player available in the remainder of the draft... Defense should definitely be an area we try to strengthen in June. Nicolas Meloche and Brandon Carlo are a couple players I would be watching for...

Dickie, are you serious? Franson isn't that good? Not good enough to warrant a 2nd round pick? Give me a break... Have you watched Franson play? He is a great 2/3 defenseman, and is EXACTLY the type of defenseman this team needs. Give up the 2nd, I'd even throw in another conditional if he signs after this season.