centcougar07

http://www.quanthockey.com/TS/TS_AverageAge.php http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/72103/hockeys-future-organizational-rankings-spring-2012-1-10/ Anything else YOU want to make up? Good morning, good afternoon and good night.

1. Nobody gave LA a chance at the beginning of the year when they were struggling. If you need proof, google it. You're a big boy now, I'm sure you can find it all by yourself. 2. Well, it starts at the bottom. Better prospects. 6 or 7 of which will be turning pro this season. Then you look at the core group. There aren't any real superstars yet they still managed to lead the league in points for a 1/3 of the year. In the end, injuries killed their top 6 and they had no depth and could not recover. If you take the injuries out of the equation, maybe the Wild could have been a playoff team I don't know. Then you look at Detroit. Average prospects. 2 or 3 might turn into something but certainly won't be the caliber of a Datsyuk, Zetterberg or Lidstrom. Even if everything goes right with the prospects we currently have, we're still looking at a bunch of players who couldn't come close to standing up to the superstars that we have now. 3 straight years of early playoff exits, a core group with only 1 player under the age of 30, no 1st round pick this year, no Lidstrom. We're on a path right now where things are only going to get worse in Detroit if major changes aren't made starting with the young talent. Meanwhile, Minnesota has top prospects, a good YOUNG core and money to spend in free agency just like us. All signs point to a changing of the guard and we need to do everything we can to start lessening the blow that will be losing Datsyuk and Zetterberg in a few years. I'm not sure you understand the meaning of upswing. Minnesota has built from the ground up doing a full rebuild in 3 years total and now have one of the most talented and deepest prospect pools in the NHL. Those prospects will be turning pro THIS year. Like it or not, that's how championships are won, from the ground up. You also conveniently left out at the injuries they had. Dany Heatley was the only forward who played all 82 games and he did so on an injured knee. I could go on but it's evident that you think history is the end all be all of the NHL.

I am an NHL fan first and foremost and though I am a Red Wings fan, I'm able to look at things more objectively because I don't let bias affect my opinions. I am not blind enough to believe all is well in Red Wings territory though. Anyone with half a brain can see how uncertain the future is. Even next year could be a complete toss up at this point. So you may not like what I have to say as a fan, but that certainly doesn't mean I'm not one. And all your ridiculous statements only help to prove my point.

I live in Howell, MI. I just remember seeing crazy attendance numbers a couple years ago for a team that hasn't made the playoffs in 4 years.

Didn't they sellout for like 10 straight years?

The same was said about the LA Kings last summer by the so called "experts". Id say Minnesota is in a better spot to win for years to come than Detroit. And it's not even close.

Parise talk starts at about 28 but I was trying to give some perspective on the conversation by having people listen to a couple minutes of other hockey talk. I think it's bad news because here we have an expert with an in on the whole situation saying he would be shocked if he didn't end up with the Wild. The conversation also goes on at the 35:45 mark as well.

You are seriously misinformed. First of all, this was reported by a MAN as a direct quote from the owner of the Minnesota Wild. I trust that he knows how much they will spend since it's his money. Backstrom will not be resigned because they have 3 very good goalie prospects, one of which is Matt Hackett who performed extremely well during his stint with the Wild this year. He might even be traded if a team is desperate enough. Heatley will not be resigned and if he is it will be at a serious discount from what he is earning now. Latendresse probably won't be signed this year as an RFA and Ortmeyer is a career AHL'er and always will be. To say he is "an important part of the chemistry" is beyond stupid, I'm sorry. Also, if Parise does want to sign long-term, Minnesota makes more sense than Detroit. They have the #2 ranked prospect pool, cap money now and in the future, a very smart GM and an owner willing to spend more than Holland ever will. Detroit has an aging, declining core of players and fairly average prospects with no viable replacements on the horizon AND no Lidstrom anymore. So if he and or Suter want to go and be a low seed playoff team for a couple years and then have a huge drop off when Datsyuk and company leave/don't produce anymore then maybe they want to come play here. I've said this on here a million times but I'll say it again, Detroit needs to start thinking about a rebuild. Do it now so that it's not such a long, tough transition in a few years.

If Detroit doesn't sign Suter (which I don't think we will) then Detroit won't be much of a competitor at all. Below average defense and almost no goal tending depth with an aging offense. Doesn't sound very appealing to me if I'm Parise. Especially not if I can be making an extra million or so with an up and coming team that gives me a good chance to win for the next 7 years or however long my contract is for.

Oh I know. I just don't need the social approval of others so I'm not going to tailor my opinion to suit the fancy of you or anyone else.

Congratulations. You have been awarded "arrogant statement of the year". This one is even spewing with entitlement too! The verbal vomit you're spitting up isn't worth the Red Wings toilet paper you wipe your homer ass with. I've been around a lot of years and seen a lot of ignorant fans, but you sir take the cake. Let's review your statements. 1: Ken Holland is a hockey god and because of his "track record", we are going to be just fine and soon we'll be dominating the league once again because we are the Red Wings and we just will cuz I said so. 2: Our prospects are the best in the league and can do no wrong. It's only a matter of time before the next Datsyuk, Zetterberg and Lidstrom arrive at training camp. We're totally set! It's actually a good thing we have no first round pick this year. Then we'd have way too many blue chip prospects! 3: Detroit is the only place FA's want to sign. Even though we have had 3 consecutive early exits in the playoffs thanks to an aging core of players who are slow and losing production, we're still the best! Ken Holland actually has to beat FA's away with a stick in July. He actually has to have 8 different cell phones ready on July 1 because every single FA is calling HIM just BEGGING to be signed by the Wings. Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are so desperate to sign here that they've actually agreed to play for free.

Kronwall, 55

It would be hard to get Clutterbuck from Minnesota.

Sad news today. The second best defenseman to ever play in the league right behind Bobby Orr. Plan the jersey retirement for next years season opener. The question now becomes does this make it harder to sign Suter? A big draw for him had to be the chance to play with a once in a generation defenseman and learn from him. In any case, congrats to Nick on all his accomplishments. He can hang em up with no regrets.

No he lived in the cities till he enrolled at Shattuck.

Sad.

Im not going by assumption. I'm going by Zach Parise himself saying it when he was talking about Minnesota and where he grew up on a radio interview. He spent about 3 and a half years in Faribault when he played for Shattuck before he went to North Dakota. Look it up.

First of all I think the long-term outlook of a team always matters to potential FA's. Second, there is reason to think it might be now. 1. The numbers: The numbers of all our 'core' or 'star' players are and have been falling in past years save for Filpulla. 2. IMO, there are no prospects with real star potential to replace these guys that are getting older and watching their production fall. I think Smith is the closest thing to that and even he could be a bust. And even if he makes something of himself, is it going to be Nik Lidstrom something? Not likely. 3. It all starts and stops with Lidstrom for me. I think his retirement (be it this year or the next) is going to be the beginning of the end of our twenty year run. It always seems to me that when Nik goes, we go. He's the leader of this team without question and it's going to be hard to compensate for the loss of him.

Yes another article. Even older. There's been a whole entire year to view and reevaluate prospects. And it looks to me like it was written by one guy who seems to think very highly of average to slightly above average players. And HF literally used word for word the same writeups and called it "new".

Improve? Yes. But you can't pin the stability of an organizations future on two FA's who may or may not sign

I see only one source. That being hfboards. I went to look at the Minnesota and Detroit write up. They have Colton Gillies as "lost to graduation" on Minnesota's write up. But he was cut by them halfway through the season.. That tells me that this was probably written a long time ago. EDIT: haha.. Yeah I just read the HF rankings from last year and compared them to this "2011-2012 post-season" set of rankings and they are word for word the same. Hardly credible.

I question the credibility of this list.

The only place they are ranked higher is in old, non-updated articles. I said that on another thread too. P.S. I don't feel like going to find it. I believe it's either on the early part of this thread or another thread that got heavy into the prospect situation.

Overestimating the potential and talent of our prospects. And I wrote a huge comment regarding my opinion on all our prospects and what I think of them and why. Feel free to dig it up. It took forever so I'm not going to type it out again though.

And as I've said before those lists aren't updated. They also have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins as the #1 overall prospect. And he's not a prospect anymore so.... Not very credible. Same with ESPN. Not only that but what does ESPN know about hockey? They show about 1 hockey highlight every 2 months.