Richdg

Kronwall is our default #1 Dman. Just a few years ago when he was 28/29 he was our 3/4. Nick, rafalski, were clearly better and Staurt was equal or better. This is not to say that Kronwall is bad, because that isn't it at all. But when on the same team with guys that are 40 and 36, he was secondary. Now if you want a list, go to the thread I started about Mark fayne. I posted 24 names there and yes I missed a few. Now you may have a different list, but ask yourself the same question. How many of those guys I listed in a 1 for 1 trade would we be able to pick up for Kronwall? Very few. No, it is not all because of talent. Age and contracts do come into play.

When doesn't Gus have groin issues? Been that way his whole career.

True. Many have different talents. Some better at scoring others better at prevention. The point was, NONE ARE AVAILABLE. The rest is personnel opinions. After another year, there is a good chance that Kronwall isn't even the best Dman on our team.

Go young. Enough with the old broken down fossels. If the choice is Alfie or Pulk, go with Pulk everytime. He is younger, faster, cheaper and is part of our future.

We do have a buyout left to use this summer. Weiss? Franzen? Or waste it on TooToo?

Since you asked..... Hjalmersson Keith Seabrook Suter Weber Shattinkirk Pietrangelo Fowler? Doughty OEL Yandle? J Johnson McDonagh Girardi martin? Orpik Letang-pre stroke Carlsson Chara Subban karlsson Hedman Gudas Phanenf Now some are clear cut and some it is personnel preferences-better on O or on D. But of those 24, they only one that Kronwall would be able to bring back in a trade by himself is Letang due to his stroke. Now in some cases the talent is close and age/contract becomes a bigger factor. But yes, that is 24 guys of the top-(ok it took me 5 mins) that are feel are better than Kronwall. A year from now the list will change again as older players decline and young guys develop. Bogo could move ahead, Dekeyser will move ahead, Braun with SJ, etc.... Biggest issue however is, none of these guys are available.

We are full at the inn, no need to bring back most/all of the old UFA's. Baring trades of course we already have the following lineup for next season: Z-Dat-Franzen Jurco-Weiss-tatar Nyquist-Helm-Pulk Abby-Sheahan-Callahan Miller-Andersson-Glendening E-Kronwall Dekeyser-Smith Lashoff-Kindl Almqvist Howard McCollom The only one of our UFA's that I am interested in bring back is Legwand, but we need to open a spot for him first. If resigned-in the 2.5-3 million range that frees up Helm, Andersson and 1 more to make a move.

MP you are correct. You draft for 3-5 years down the road. At that point in time Z with his bad back, Datsyuk with his bad knee, Franzen with his bad head, Helm with his general made of glassness could all be gone. Even if we were to resign Legwand-he would be 36-38 and will be done. The need is at F right now. Ideally we would have 2-3 prospects for every guy we are losing-law of averages on who works out. The only D we lose-baring trades are Kronwall and E. But we have 6-8 D prospects in the pipeline already. Add more in the later rounds. F's are the focus-unless a super drops.

Dekeyser is not RHed, he is a lefty. That is why Fayne makes a ton of sense. with Fayne being 27 and Dekeyser being 24? they should be a good pair for 7 or 8 years.

Dekeyser-Fayne as the 2nd? pair would be a major improvement. Having a solid D partner would allow DD a chance to develop as an offensive player.

That is true. I prefer him as a PF and worry about he C in the 2nd round and in the 2015 draft.

I am still on the Tuch bandwagon. He has over a point per game for US NTDP this year. 50 points in 45 games. he also has played C for them, not sure he has the speed for that position at the NHL level. But we are talking about a 18 year old. Plus he is 6-4/225 and RHed. Both things we need more of.

Now some names. Unless a super falls, or we win the lottery the following guys are pretty much out If we are picking between 12-18. Draisaitl Reinhart Bennett dal Colle Nylander Ritchie Virtanen Goldobin Perlimni All are very good and highly rated F's. Most if not all will be gone in the top 10-12 picks. So, what is left for us to look at? Ok lets look more in depth. McCann 6-0/185 LH LW/C. High energy, good 2 way guy, with high hockey IQ. Barbashev 6-1/185 LHed LW/C. good quickness and anticipation. Pastrnak 5-10/165 RHed LW/C. A Tatar type of player. Ehlers 6-0/170 LHed LW. Speed to burn. Kapanen. 5-11/175 RHed RW. Good skill but plays tentative. Larkin 6-1/190 LHed C/LW. Great 2 way player with some grit and has skill. Tuch 6-4/225 RHed C/RW. Big, strong, good on his skates, great shot. Needs to be a bit quicker.

because of our ages and time, many don't fully understand just how good guys like Howe, Abel, delvecchio, Lindsey etc..... were. As much as I love The Captain, he isn't even our best all time C. Howe is regarded by just about everyone as the greatest of all time. Even Gretzky considers him so. hell the Soviet Union was always rumored to have patterned their entire hockey program on him. This is not meant to cast Nick in a bad light or anything. He is either the best or second best Dman of all time. In some ways he gets overlooked. he was so quite and steady. Never hurt, never angry, never dirty play, just went about his business every day and did his job-which was to shut down the other teams top forward line.

Ok with the trade deadline pass, time for a little reset. As of today the RW's have the following roster for next season-only includes those that are signed or are RFA's: Z-Datsyuk-Franzen Jurco-Weiss-Tatar Nyquist-Helm-Pulkinnen Abby-Sheahan-Callahan Miller-Andersson-Glendening E-Kronwall Dekeyser-Smith Lashoff-Kindl Almqvist Howard McCollom That is 24 and doesn't include TooToo. At that point we should have 16 million or so left is cap space. Now the griffins: Mantha-AA-Nastasiuk Tvrdon-Nestrasil-Frk Oullett-Sproul Wheaton?-Marchenko McNulty-jensen nedomlel-Nicastro Backman-DeHaas Mrazek Coreau Some of these guys may be in Toledo with guys like Paterson, or 1 more year in Junior or some college players. As I have talked about before still a little thin at F. We do need 1 more F heavy draft to fill things out a bit. Now, were/when we will pick? I firmly believe we will pick between 12-18. Even if we miss the PO's, it will not be by much, and it is a very small chance to win the lottery for the number 1 pick. Before I get into draft picks again, I will remind everyone that soon the undrafted college/junior free agents get signed. 2 names to watch: Barcley Goodrow. he is a 6-2/215 LW that loves to play in close to the G's. he has 30 goals this year for North Bay. had over 20 last year. Spent time at our prospect camp this past summer. Would love to see us sign him. His skating is the question mark. he isn't very fast, been then again neither was Homer. Could he become that type of player in the pros? Another name: Trevor van Riemsdyk. 6-2/190 RH D. He was one of the top NCAA Dman before he hurt his ankle this year. He does have 1 more year of eligibility IIRC, but the rumors are he will sign. If he is half as good as his brother, it would be money well spent. 1 or both would be awesome signings. Free talent!

Good. Play him asap. In fact, once Mantha, AA, and nastisauk's seasons are over in junior, bring them to Detroit for a bit as well.

After the last 21 games play out, the draft takes center stage. It will b interesting to see how the young guys do carrying the team. They do have talent. Can we get 21 out of the 42 possible points? Is that enough to make the playoffs? Or do we fall short? I still believe w end up somewhere in the middle. On a draft note, the NHL gave NJ their pick back. BOOOOOOO

Can we get 21 points? That would be playing .500. If all of our young players are truely good players, should be no problem right? After all we have played the whole season without Z and/or Datsyuk, so there should be no excuse. These guys are just to good to be put into a package deal for a proven STAR.

21 games.

Ok trade deadline is no over. 21 games to go. How do we finish and where will we pick? Just going back..... Some wanted to bash me for suggesting that little Tuzzi was a waste of a pick, when guys like Fasching were still on the board. He was the piece sent in trade yesterday for Moulson IIRC. Also, before many were talking about Jarnkrok as a prospect, now everyone has joined my opinion that he wasn't top teir, while trying to defend picking up Legwand. Interesting.....

If management wishes to move this, feel free. But this is way beyond just the trade. 1. A couple of years ago the RW's and Hawken were running around talking about Jarnkrok is "NHL ready right now". he was in our top ten prospects list. Yet he only has 33 year old UFA checking C value in a trade. This all can't be right. If he is good, then he would have much more value. Are the RW's way over valuing our prospects? 2. What is the difference in performance between Legwand, Helm, Andersson, Abby, and Sheahan? TBH I don't see it. Yes there are some size differences etc.... But in terms of what they bring to the RW's in game, there isn't much. All play a 2 way game. Most bump and bang a little bit, and once in a while they all score a goal. By my math, that makes 5 guys that are 3/4 C's at best. So what did we gain? 3. If we did over value jarnkrok, are we doing the same thing with others? As the smoke clears we will hear many of the proposed trades. Some we have already heard rumors about. It sure seems like the rest of the NHL has much lower opinions of our "prospects" than we do. The same thing happens here with our fans. We can't trade..... "insert prospect name here" because they are to good! Well, if they are so good, then we should make the playoffs no problem. We have 21 games and 42 points available this season. If Tatar, Nyquist, Jurco, Sheahan etc... are really good young players then we should be able to play at the same .500 level we have been at all year. After all we have been without Z and/or dat off and on all year. 4. Fact is Holland lied to the fans and got screwed. he said several times: "No rentals". Legwand is a rental. UFA this summer. He is also old and LHed. Bringing him in doesn't solve any of our issues or problems. No I am not bagging on Legwand. In fact I like him as a player. If we did this deal 5 years ago, it would be a much better deal. he was signed long term then. Holland talked for days in not a couple of weeks that he was looking for a hockey trade. Sorry but this isn't one. This is a panic move and a rental. 5. Now the moves made not made. For the past week many on here were discussing the +/- of kesler. he is 29 and has a cap hit of 5 million. Legwand is 33 and has a cap hit of 4.5 million. Kesler is looking even better now isn't he! In fact the idea of moving a helm, jarnkrok, 1st, and one more prospect doesn't look so bad does it? We paid almost the same for Legwand. Now granted we don't know what the Nucks were after or if Kesler would even say yes to a deal. But it is the perspective I am talking about more than the deal/no deal. This also brings us to helm. legwand has a cap hit of 4.5 million per year. helm is a similar player. Better on D not as good on O. 6. Holland. There are many of us that have been doubting Holland for the past couple of years. Not sure if he has "it" anymore. days like today reinforce that belief. Fails to make moves to try to improve the team, bad UFA signings, and now I am getting more worried about his drafting. Our prospects don't have much value. Young guys that we trade or let walk are failing to develop for other NHL teams. A few years back it was Rottila. Last 2 years it was Mursack and Emmerton. Now we will find out about Jarnkrok, tatar, nyquist, sheahan, jurco etc..... 7. TBH I wasn't expecting a deal today. After what we did, I wish we would have stood pat and done NOTHING. There is no doubt in my mind that if we wanted to, we could have signed Legwand as a UFA. So we have paided 2 players and a draft pick for a guy that would have gladly signed here. 8. The only positive from today is, some of the guys we were after are still with their teams and will be available this summer. kesler will be out there, edler will, Myers will, erhoff will, etc..... The real question is, will we have a GM willing to go after them? same with the UFA's vanek, moulson, Callahan, etc..... Ok flame away!

dats sick.....On February 26, 2014 Hockeysfuture.com updated the top 20 prospects for the DRW. Mantha was 1, Mrasek was 2, Jurco was 3, Jarnkrok was 4, Dekeyser was 5, etc........ Now think about that group. Our Future top line LW, future starting G, future second line LW/RW, future top pair Dman and maybe captain, and jarnkrok. Now only 1 or 2 things can be, either all of our prospect rankings are wrong, or Jarnkrok was a highly ranked prospect that we just wasted on a rental. can only be 1 or the other.

SOW, just keep in mind, we have 1 fewer prospect to use in a trade......

???? have no idea what you are saying.

I have spent the last 3 days out of town on business. Only had time to check his forum a coupe of times while gone. Made a post or 2. I raced home today hoping that Holland would have rolled the dice and made a hockey move. Now we knw a few things. 1. Holland said: " No rentals". He lied. Legwand is a rental. 2. Holland: "would like to make a hockey move". This is a bad hockey move. 3. Holland gets screwed in every trade he makes the last few years. A 3rd round pick by itself is enough for Legwand.