krsmith17

If Kronwall comes back at 100%, and Marchenko comes out of the lineup, I think it makes the team better. I just fear he will come back at 70-80% and make the team worse. And as long as he is deemed healthy enough to play by team doctors, he will be in the lineup every night. Even if he is making the team noticeably worse, I'm not sure Blashill would have the balls to "healthy scratch" him...

I think trading Tatar, Ouellet for Fowler and sending Athanasiou to Grand Rapids makes us significantly worse. Ouellet isn't even in the lineup, so who are you taking out? Marchenko? So now you're removing Tatar, Athanasiou and Marchenko from the current lineup and inserting Fowler. I think Fowler is a decent top 4 defenseman, but he's marginally better than DeKeyser, and isn't worth what it will take to get him. Overpay for Trouba if you're going to overpay for a defenseman. No need to overpay for Fowler, especially since our defence has been somewhat better than expected so far...

We're not carrying three goalies. The only concern with Kronwall coming back is who will sit. My pick would be Marchenko and just sub Kronwall in with Ericsson. We won't have to worry about sending a player down / waiving / trading anyone until Jurco is ready to come back in a couple weeks. And that's assuming there aren't any other injuries... I'm still not convinced Kronwall will be healthy at that time. We'll have to wait and see...

Trouba definitely wants to be a Red Wing, no question. Not just because it's his home state, and favourite team growing up, but I do believe that it actually is all about opportunity for this kid. He wants to play in the top 4 and on his right side, both of those are not an option in Winnipeg and definitely are in Detroit. I think the Wings would be a perfect fit for him, but for whatever reason I've always felt that he'll end up in Boston... I hope not... The problem is, I don't think either Detroit, Boston or Colorado (another potential trading partner) have what Cheveldayoff is looking for. So if they want to get a deal done, they may have to come down on their demands. I really can't see Trouba signing with Winnipeg at this point, and I really can't see him sitting out a full season. Fingers crossed he comes to the D...

Haha I meant I don't hate that they're trying to make the team competitive. F*** them if they take any of our RFA's though... I love Smitty but I'd be okay with trading him for an upgrade on the back end. If we lose him for nothing though, I'd be pretty pissed...

Russo left halfway through the 1st holding his shoulder. Hopefully he's okay... Edit: he's back out there.

Or they could... waive Miller...

They're really trying their damnedest to make this team competitive as quick as possible, aren't they? I don't hate it...

The only team I religiously watch is the Wings (do not / will not miss a game...) I watch quite a few Leafs games because my fiancé and all my buddies are sad, sad people... I probably can't say much, since my go-to NHL team after the Wings is the Oilers. I've always been somewhat of a fan of the Oil because I lived in Alberta for a couple years and seen my first ever NHL game at Rexall, against the Wings of course. It's nice to see them finally become relevant again with McDavid and co. But for the most part, if I'm not watching Red Wing hockey, I'm watching Griffins hockey...

I don't think it's a maintenance day, nor do I think it's permanent. Miller should be the odd man out, but I'm sure he'll be back in in no time...

F*** Cheveldayoff!

I'm not sure if he will or not. My gut says he will protect both Zetterberg and Kronwall, but this was what I want to see (or what I would personally do), not what I think Holland will do... I think it depends on if they are healthy when the time comes. If Kronwall only plays a handful of games this year, no I don't think he would be protected, because there's no way Vegas would draft him... Likewise, if Zetterberg has another set back or like other have mentioned, states publically that he would retire if they picked him, he would not be protected or drafted...

This. I don't agree with Dickie at all here, but I don't think goals for and against really tell whether or not the goals were due to solid team play or stellar goaltending. The more appropriate stats in my opinion would be shots, high quality scoring chances, save percentages, corsi, fenwick, and PDO... None of those stats we've been particularly good in, however I wouldn't say they indicate we've been bailed out in every game either. There's no denying though that both Howard and Mrazek have been great early on. We were awful against the Rangers, and Howard stole that game for us, but aside from that, I think we've looked good to really good...

Shanahan - Yzerman - McCarty Lidstrom - Rafalski Vernon

Really helpful tool. Thanks LeftWinger! I completely agree with kliq's picks, although I'm still hoping for a trade before the expansion draft... I might even consider protecting Green if he keeps up his recent play. My defense would be DeKeyser, Sproul and either Green or Ouellet depending on how this season goes for both. Also really interesting to see how many NMC's there are. The Hawks have 4 forwards (Toews, Kane, Hossa, Anisimov), 3 defensemen (Keith, Seabrook, Hjalmarsson) and goalie (Crawford) all with NMC's. They can only protect one more defenseman OR three more forwards. Not that they have a lot to choose from anyway because their depth is awful with their core locked up to massive contracts... The Jets really should be more aggressively shopping Trouba or Myers unless they're okay with protecting two less players (8 players rather than 7 forwards and 3 defensemen)... They could be one of the few teams that might elect to go that route though if they can get something worked out with Trouba...

Ken Daniels just mentioned the same thing. He must stay on the active roster for a minimum of 30 days...

I'd even be willing to take back a bad contract like Justin Faulk...

I do still think we need a legit number one at some point, but I do agree that we're not under near as much pressure to go out and get one immediately with the way we're currently playing. Maybe the price tag for Trouba goes down over the next month (before the December 1st deadline), if Winnipeg continue to play sub par hockey and Cheveldayoff feels a bit of pressure to make a deal... It's extremely foolish to think we need 2 or 3 though, and even more so to think it's even a possibility to trade for 3 top four defensmen...

Cool to see Frk and Nestrasil playing on the same line tonight. Hope we shut them down. I'm expecting Larkin to break out and another big game for Sproul...

According to Khan... "The Hurricanes are in the process of determining whether Frk belongs on their team. He must be on the NHL roster for at least 30 days after being claimed on waivers. But he can be waived after that."

Which reasonable contracts are you speaking of? I'll agree on Nyquist but both Tatar and Smith are on expiring contracts. Tatar will be looking for at least what Nyquist is making, and Smith could very well walk in the summer. Not very attractive to a internal cap team that has issues attracting free agents... You don't replace two of (arguably) your top goal scorers with rookies and expect similar results... I'm very high on Svechnikov too but he isn't close to being NHL ready in my opinion. Green doesn't "need to be replaced" as long as he's still producing and playing at a high level, which he currently is. I'd even consider re-signing him for another short stint at a slightly lower cap hit after next season if his offensive ability is still prevalent. I fully expect Kronwall to go on LTIR at some point, possibly this season, and possibly for the duration of his contract. Like I said previously, Ericsson is a very capable defender in a reduced role, slightly overpaid, but we'll have more than enough ELC's on the books over the next few years to even that out... Smith, although not the stud we all hoped he'd become is still a very solid top 4 defenseman, and that's about what you can expect from a late first round pick. So no, he certainly isn't a "bust". I'll agree it's too early to tell what we have in Marchenko, Ouellet and Sproul, which is all the more reason to see how they turn out rather than massively overpaying for three defenseman...

Thanks for clearing that up Buppy. I knew there was something about 30 days in there... lol

I don't know exactly what the ruling is other than that player has to stay on your active roster (doesn't necessarily need to play) for x amount of days. 30 rings a bell but that could be way off... And yes, they would have to clear waivers again if the team wanted to send them down to the American League after the minimum day or game requirement.

Did you just compare Dustin Brown to Martin Hanzal? Both as bad contracts we could trade Howard for?

So instead of arguing any of the multiple points I made about why this would be a horrible trade for both teams, you just add another reason why it wouldn't work? You say "to get you have to give", and follow that up by saying that Smith doesn't hold much value due to being a pending UFA, and Nyquist and Tatar are secondary scorers that can be found in any UFA class... Awesome pitch! Where does Cheveldayoff sign again? Our team is not at all the same as it was 3 years ago, let alone "5 years or so". We have had a huge turnover in that time, and we're continually getting younger (and in my opinion better) each year. We may finish between "6th - 12th in the East, but that's not reason for a team on the upswing to blow it up... Yes, this is a fan forum and everyone has an opinion (no matter how outlandish they may seem), but we should try to at least keep it somewhat realistic, shouldn't we? You said yourself, these are the (only) three big names on the market, and you think it's possible to get all three in a salary cap league? By the way, 40+ points for Green isn't out of the question. DeKeyser is a solid number 2. Although Smith doesn't produce the points we all wish he would, he still possesses the puck a ton and is a solid top 4. Sproul could become the offensive force on the blueline we've been longing for. Ericsson in a reduced role on the 3rd pair where he should be, has looked great. Marchenko is a decent bottom pair guy as well. Ouellet has looked good. Point is, while our defense isn't the strongest, it's not nearly as bad as you make it seem. If we landed ONE top pair guy, we would have a very good defense corp. We don't need to add two or three in my opinion...