Richdg

I want the players that will be here for the next 10+ years to start building chemistry. That can only be done by playing together. By not playing Larkin and Mantha together we are delaying their development. Same is true with using Larkin as a winger instead of a C. The only way for him to get better as a C is to play the position. Take our lumps now, let the young guys learn and improve so that 2-3 years from now we are trending back up. Z getting 20 mins per game is bad for Z and bad for the team. His body can't handle it over the course of a season.

Mantha was second in ice time for the F's-that is good. Z was first-that is bad. We need to put Larkin and Mantha together and play them each 20+ mins per game.

where did I say that? Not here. But if we could get a 2nd for each that would help us rebuild faster. neither is key to any future success.

Here is a very quick story about the USHL: http://thehockeywriters.com/is-the-ushl-taking-over-the-nhl-draft/

Not true at all DD. Lots of players have played in the USHL and then been drafted. They may not have been playing in the USHL the year they were drafted however. Often the top guys in the USHL go on to either college or a CHL team for a year before they get drafted. It is not a lessor league in any way.

The good news is we are heading in a direction that we could be picking in the top 5......

He will be either #1 or #2 in the 2018 draft. There is little doubt about this. He is a much better offensive prospect than Patrick is. Patrick is a much better all around player-read 2 way 200ft player. Andrei is on pace for 40 goals this year. Not bad for his first year in Juniors.

You are wrong. No one ever refers to just the city named when talking about city size. if all we were talking about was just the city of Detroit, the NHL would strip it of its team! The city is a dump and 90%+ of all the fans that go to the game live outside the city limits. So do the players. Which of the 7 borroughs is actual NYC? Manhattan? Queens? Brooklyn? Staten island? Bronx? The answer is all of them. All the leagues look at the metro area when placing teams. They want to know how many people are potential ticket buyers and TV viewers within a 50 mile radius. That is the number that matters most. Here is a helpful link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_statistical_area#List_of_combined_statistical_areas GR is just behind hartford, ahead of OKC, memphis, and Buffalo.

Look at the metro area, there are 1.45 million + in the GR area, that is the number that matters. Kent County is over 900K then add in Ottawa and Muskegon. Again a larger population than all of those cities. Calgary is about 1.25 million and Buffalo is about 1.2 million. Same is true for Detroit. Its not the 700K that lives in the city that matters, its the 4 million in the metro area.

Wrong. GR is bigger than Buffalo, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and QC. The Van Andel Arena was designed to be expanded to 15,000+ fans. If they decided to build a new one anyone of the De Vos or Van Andel families could write a check for $300 million tomorrow and have it done. Back in the late 1990's Harvey Gainey was trying to buy the Penguins with the intent of moving them here. That was before they got their new arena. It will happen at some point in time. The only question is when.

Blashill got the job because that was the plan dictated by Holland. Not because he deserved it. There were no other options even looked at. This was the plan from the start and we all know Holland doesn't make any mistakes. Blashill is in over his head. Much like Asmus is with the Tigers. He is trying to be Babcock 2.0. When you have a bunch of vets that have polayed together for 8+ yes like Babcock did while here, you can juggle your lines game by game and yes shift by shift. You can't do that with young players. It takes playing time to develop as a unit-something we lack. He makes bad in game decisions-look at yesterdays game. Why is Kronwall out there? He is clearly hurting and unable to be effective. Yes Holland needs to IR him but Blashill can also not dress him. So once again Kronwall makes a bad mistake that leads to the last penalty of the game and we are down by 1. Of the 5 on the ice: MANtha, Z, Nyquist, Kronwall and I forget the other D, we put MANtha in the box. Why? MANtha had a great game and was one of our best players yesterday. Kronwall is hurt. 1:47 to play. We can go with 4 Dmen for that long. Now there is no way of knowing if we would have scored-I would bet we didn't. But why put one of our few offensive threats in the box? Micky sarcasticly meantioned it on the air. "they put MANtha in the box? Hummmm".

Hey now, stealing my thunder? LOL. To early to even think about this. That being said, Foote is my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice.

Now that MANtha is up the title needs to be "Watch MANtha". So I have been. TBH he has been one of our best players since coming up. Doing the things he does well: shooting the puck, passing, retrieving the puck out of the corners etc... Even his D has been solid-his supposed weak spot. Hist goal yesterday was classic MANtha and shows how he should be used. He started off right of the goal ripped a hard shot that went to the glass, went behind the net and retrieved the puck, came back out in front to the left side and fired a great shot into the net. Those are the things he can do that no one else on our team can. if that was Nyquist what would have happened? he would have been knocked down to the ice. That is also how MANtha needs to be used. he needs to setup up 15-20 ft out in front of the net in a spot he can either shot the puck or drive the net with the puck. That is how he scores. Using him as a front of net guy is not his strength. Yes he can do it but that is not putting a guy in a position to be their best. On the PP Abby should be in front of the net, MANtha in the slot, The Larkin and the Dmen on the outside controlling the puck with passing and skating looking for the good scoring chances.

If/when Jimmy is moved the team that makes the most sense is the Isles. They need a new G-Halak is in the doghouse or was, and Jimmy is a NY kid. In fact I would do that deal straight up. Howard for Halak. It helps both teams. The Isles get their starting G and we get 1 year of cap relief. Halak can then be Mrasek's backup and as a countryman help him out.

To many teams=talent spread to thin. Very simple. As for GR the city is already on the minds of the NBA and NHL. When the Grizzlies(NBA) left Vancouver it came down to Memphis and GR. Memphis got the team. The Griffins are one of the top AHL teams year after year and there is big time money (De Vos and Van Andel families) that are sports fans and want to own more teams. The De Vos's own the NBA Magic, a minority share of the Cubs, the Griffins, and there was/is interest in the NFL Lions. None of those teams will be relocated to GR. They do want teams here. If I was a betting man I would bet on 1. a NHL team and then 2. a MLS team.

Good to see Jimmy bounce back after his last game. Much of the love/hate between Jimmy and Mrasek goes to style of play. Jimmy plays a positional game vs Mrasek plays an athletic game. There is also a belief amoung all fans in all sports that the next prospect is better than the vet in front of them. One thing no one can deny is Jimmy has been the better G this season to date. That drives up his trade value. This is a good thing.

The NHL has too many teams. More teams than talent. Makes for bad hockey-which we have been seeing for 15 years now. This is the biggest reason why scoring is down. As for moving teams, Seattle, Milwaukee, QC, Hamilton, and here is the shocker Grand Rapids will all have a team over the next 15 years. Yes the Canes will move, maybe the Yotes, I can see one of the NYC teams moving, LV after it fails and one of the Florida teams could also move.

Forget the 8 year thing that the OP started this with. It doesn't take that long. The Hawks, Pens, Kings, etc... all have 3-5 top 10 picks, not 6 or 7 or 8. The Pens have Crosby, Malkin, and MAF. The Hawks have Kane, Toews, Hossa, and.......I am forgeting one. Back to our drafting history, how many of the 10 picks we traded away ever turned into anything? 1 or 2? Green is the only one I can think of off the top of my head. So its not the teams drafting, it is the position that all the teams are drafting in. Below 20 and the returns are slim.

Coffey was a throw in. Bowman wanted him gone and Hartford wanted Primeau. That was why he was traded away by Hartford after 20 games. I realize this was 20 years ago now but Coffey was driven out of town by the greatest coach in NHL history for nothing.

90 and 91 were bad years. That is how we ended up with the 3rd overall and 10th overall picks: Primeau and lapointe.

12 years is not on the fly. It was a long time coming. Yes Holland is completely to blame for this team. Everything about it is because of him-be it good or bad. If you read my post before this it shows how bad we have been at drafting. Fact is Holland got lucky 20 years ago with Z, D, and Homer. If we hadn't we would have been drafting top 5 years ago. Yes it is interesting that all the trade rumors that we are involved in have never have names like Nyquist or Tatar in them. Why is that? maybe because they just don't have any trade value?

Over the last 25 years here are our 1st round draft picks, sorry if I mispell or forget someone: 92 Bowen-nothing 93 Eriksson-nothing 94 Golubovsky-nothing 95 Kuznetsov-very little 96 Wallin-nothing 98 Fischer-very little, only one because of health/injuries 00 Kronwall-long and successful career 05 Kindl-very little 07 Smith-very little moving into the bust range 08 McCollum-nothing 10 Sheahan-3rd liner at best 13 Mantha-still too early to know 14 Larkin-still too early to know 15 Svechnikov-too early to know 16 Cholowski-way to early to know That is 15 1st round picks over the last 25 years. I am and was completely fine with trading away the picks we moved. It helped us win cups. But look at the guys we drafted. The first 12 names on the list were all taken in the last 1/3 of the draft-pick 20 or later. Only 1 amounted to anything-Kronwall and only 1 still has a chance to do so-Mantha. The last 3 it is still too early to know anything. The NHL average is 2 out 3 1st round picks turn into regular NHL players. We are below that. The first 11 guys have all been around long enough to have real actual info on. 3 have made it, 8 failed. TBH this is terrible drafting/developing. If it wasn't for the luck we had 20 years ago with Z, D, and Homer we would have been drafting top 5 a long time ago. For anyone to believe that we can build through the draft without having top 5 picks, the facts don't lie. We as an organization have shown 0 ability to do that. Only 1 of our last 15 1st round picks have made it. Only 1 of those 15 is due to bad luck-Fischer. Yes the last 4 still have hope and promise. Just don't expect all 4 to make it/become stars.

Yes. he was single handley blamed for our loss in the 95 Cup for his complete lack of defense. He didn't even try to play and Bowman ran him out of town because of it. His value was low because of his age, salary, and lack of D.

Ward wasn't our pick we traded for him. Coffey was toast and being run out of town. He had 0 value at that point. Even though we traded for Ward and Murphy they were still top 5 picks. Murphy was a HOFer. As I have said many times you need top talent. Don't care if you draft it, trade for it, or sign it as a UFA. But the top talent is top 5 in the draft year after year. With the UFA market dead and Holland unwilling/unable to make trades that leaves us with one option. Draft it. But heck, we can't even play the 1st round picks we do have and most of them over the last 25 years haven't worked out. Eriksson, Fischer, Kusnetsov, Wallin, Kindl, Smith, etc... and the yet to be seen MANtha, Larkin, Svechnikov, and last years pick.

I swear some of us most be losing our minds. When we made our first cup in 95 and finally won in 97, that was the end of 12+ years of rebuilding the team. It wasn't done on the fly and yes we had some bad years along the way. Lets review the roster: Stevie 4th pick in 83. Kozlov 45th pick in 90. Shanahan 2nd pick in 87. Picked up in a trade for Primeau 3rd pick in 90. Lapointe 10th pick in 91. McCarty 46th pick in 92. Lidstrom 53rd pick in 89. Pushor 32nd pick in 91. Ward 5th pick in 91. Murphy 4th pick in 80. Point is it took years to bring all of those guys in and develop the team. Then there was the Russians all of which were drafted much lower than their talent warrented because no one knew if we could get them out from behind the iron curtian. Jimmy D did a GREAT job drafting, trading, and signing UFA's. Yes this was before the cap, but everyone was also in the same boat.