Richdg

Except for the fact that they are now getting hurt more often and this will only get worse as they age.

Ok, let's go back to the top for a couple of minutes. let's pretend I am right about where the team is in 5 years. Of course no one knows where that really will be, so all we can do is guess. D and Z have retired and are heading to the HOF. So what kind of lines can we put together? 1st line: LW Mantha C???? RW Frk 2nd line: LW Jurco C???? RW Tuch 3rd line: LW Abby C Helm RW Callahan? 4th line: LW Andersson C Sheahan RW Nastasiuk That is not a bad 10 of 12. Bottom 2 lines are solid. Good size, speed, grit and skill. We could get 60 goals per year or more from those 6 guys. Not bad at all. The top 2 lines are set at winger. Great size, good speed, and great goal scoring potential. mantha looks like a guy that could score 35+ goals per year. frk has shown the ability to lite the lamp as well. mantha is LHed and Frk is RHed, so good balance. On the second line we have Jurco-LHed and he looks like a future 25 goal per season guy once he gains more weight and strength. Tuch is RHed and also looks like a guy that could be a 25 goal per year guy. Second line is in balance between RH and LH as well. Now if you notice, we have 2 holes at C. Well unanswered questions is a better way to say it. But we also have a couple of guys not listed here: tatar and Nyquist. That provides us with some options. if one of the guys in my lineup doesn't make it, they can fill in. if we decide to trade for a proven C in a couple of years, they can be the bait. if Jurco has to be moved to get a great C, then maybe Nyquist stays. Point is, OPTIONS. None of this factors in one of the other picks making it. maybe Kempe proves he can be a #2. Maybe Pope from last year, or MacInnis becomes a C, and of course we have the 2015 draft, 2016 draft etc......

Right now we are 20-16-10 with 50 points. Under the old scoring are we even a .500 team? We could have as few as 40 points under the old scoring and be 26th in the league. yes I said 26th. if you look at win totals there are only 8 teams with fewer wins. There are 3 others with 20 wins. So just from a win total we are somewhere between 18th and 22nd. Now and this is real scary, where are we as a team without D and Z carrying us? That should run tremors of fear through every RW fan. The fact that they turn 36 and 34 before next season starts should set off red lights flashing everywhere. We are not a great team right now. In fact we are not really a good team right now. We have to make player changes in a big way. We can't sit back and wait for 1 or 2 prospects to be ready every year and expect to get to the top of the mountain anytime soon.

Now whatwould my ideal draft look like this year? Ok, here you go: 1st: Tuch 6-4/225 RH RW 2nd: Kempe 6-2/190 LH C 3rd: MacInnis 6-4/190 LH LW/C 4th: Mantha 6-5/225 RH RW/D last 3 rounds grab a G, and 2 best avails......

Some 5th through 7th names to watch and follow: Simon Kindschi 6-3/215 LH D Solid skating swiss Dman oskar Lindblom 6-2/175 LH LW Needs to work on his skating, but has top notch hand/eye coordination. matt schmaltz 6-5/200 RH RW/C Strong defensive C with good skating ability. Not much O to date. Still young and can skate. Daniel Bagenda 6-2/190 LH LW typical Swedish winger. does everything well. Nolan Stevens 6-3/185 LH C Good size, speed, and skill. Just needs time and coaching. More names will be added later. Guys always are moving up and down. Gems are found etc...... One last thing. I have not watched all of these guys, in fact very few. All I do is take scouting reports 2-3 most of the time and try to boil down the opinions on each guy. Every player has strengths and weaknesses. last thing, you never know what gems Hawken will find over in Europe. if everyone knew about them, they wouldn't be "hidden gems" now would they.......LOL

4th round: Alexis Pepin 6-2/230 RH RW. Plays C in Junior but doesn't have the speed for that in the pros. has good size, strength, toughness, and scores in close. He isn't going to score from 30 feet out. front of net type player with the ability to play the walls. Vladislav Kamenev 6-1/180 LH C Classic Russian C. Skates well, good speed, plays all 200 feet of the ice. great passer and good shooter. there is that old "Russian factor" though........ Ryan "no relation" Mantha 6-5/225 RH Dman Big, fast, strong, tough, plays his position well and has a strong shot. Will defend his team mates. This is his first year playing D. has been a F all his life. Markus Pettersson 6-4/165 LH D Tall thin and new to D. Skates well and passes well. A long term development project. needs to add 40 pounds of muscle.

3rd round: Keegan Iverson 6-1/210 RH RW/C Loves to hit and never stops moving. has a good heavy shot as well. At this point likes to skate through the D and force home the puck. Ryan MacInnis 6-4/190 LH LW/C Would you be surprised to know Al's son can shot the puck? He has all the skills to be a superstar, hasn't found the consistency yet. But he is only 18......... Aaron Haydon 6-3/200 RH D A true modile tough guy. No he isn't a scorer. But he loves to hit, fight, check, and has the speed and skating ability to get there and bring the pain. Christian Dvorak 6-1/170 LH LW Great skater and a great shot. needs to add muscle and strength. Currently he has to hang onto something in a stiff breeze and gets pushed off of the puck. But when he has time to shoot, he is deadly......

some 2nd round guys: Adrian Kempe 6-2/190 LH C. A Swedish power forward in the making. One of the younger guys in the class, but shows some promise. Austin Poganski 6-1/190 RH RW. High energy guy who loves to throws his body around. Jared Fiegl 6-2/195 LH LW Power forward that is developing as a skater. Could be a top 6 guy if his skating improves. I like Tuch (pun intended). Think of him on the RH side with Mantha on the LH side. 2 big fast scorers. Now just need a C.......

Ok, first round targets: Jake Virtanen 6-1/210 LW LH. Considered to be a physically punishing forward who skates really well. Known to have a good hard shot. Plays for the Hitmen. Dylan Larkin 6-1/190 LH C. Strong 2 way C that shows a lot f grit. Plays for the US NTDP U-18. Alex Tuch 6-4/225 RH RW. Big American Power Forward with a great shot.

History says unlikely. On average 1 maybe 2 guys per draft turn out. Juniors is not the pros, minors is not the NHL. Each step is huge and many guys fail to adjust. But more on this in a few.

If I come across as doom and gloom, that is not the intent. I true to be honest and realistic with what we are. we are an average team at best right now. yes we can still pull off the hot streak where we look good-most teams can. But success is more often than not how you do when things are not going great. can you struggle and still be .500? Do we have some strong spots? yes. Do we have some weak spots? yes, more than strong....... It took a long time for us to get to the top of the mountain, I am hoping we can retool/rebuild quickly and get back there.

A 41 year old UFA is not going to get a 1st round + return. Now could we move him? yes. Will we? no.

I would love to see us dump the old broken crap and go young. Even if that means we miss the PO's. Just going so we can be "one of the best 16 teams in the NHL" doesn't do much for me. We are not a cup contender right now and could really be 2-3 years away. We have to have better players. be it trade, UFA, or draft.

I am not a CBA expert, but the rules did change on this. IIRC and trust me I could be wrong, once a player signs his first contract, there is a 3 year window before waivers are required.

Trade? Sure. But as always to get high end talent, you have to pay for it. Now if you look at our team you see a bunch of role players, a few stars-all 32 or older, and a bunch of young talent under 25. We have no stars between 25 and 32. There is a big hole in that regard. The real question is what do you give up? if you look at next year, we currently have 14 forwards under team control for the 14/15 season: datsyuk, Z, franzen, Weiss, 22, Abby, helm, tatar, nyquist, Jurco, Sheahan, Anderson, Miller, and Glendening. That about empties GR of NHL ready talent at F. Maybe Puk and jarnkrok but both look like they need another year or 2. Mantha is coming, but he needs a full year in pro hockey before he joins the varsity. On D it is pretty much the same. Kronwall, Ericsson, DD, lashoff, Smith, and Kindal are all under control for next season, with almquist, Oullett, marchenko, and Sproul looking like they are ready for next season. That doesn't leave much room to add players. But we do need to do so. if you are looking at where we have a surplus it is on the D. With the new rules in the CBA you only have 3 years of minor league control, then players have to make the varsity or you lose them. we have 10 Dmen that are or are really close to being NHL ready. That means we have 2 extra that we can move. Now if we were to take a Kindal and say Almquist, what could we get for them? Don't know. But that is the type of package we can put together to pick up another player. What do we need? IMHO RW's with size and scoring ability. Out of the 14 forwards that could make our lineup next year, only 2 are RHed.

Great 1st. Watching the young guys fly around makes everyone wonder.... WTF was Holland thinking wasting the money on Cleary, Sammy, Weiss etc....... Yes the young guys will make mistakes and have learning opportunities, but man let them play! If nothing else they bring energy.

neither is going to get fired. yes I expect Holland to retire sometime over the next couple of years, but both will be here as long as they choose to be. Now the Holland vs babcock debate over who is responsible is a solid both. Holland builds the roster. he assembles the team. Babcock then takes the roster and fields the best team in his opinion. So when a Cleary gets 15 mins of ice time who's fault is it? babcock for playing him or Holland for not having someone better on the roster to play? It does become a chicken vs egg debate.

This is a by product of to many rules. For many years when a guy came charging at you like that, you were allowed to protect yourself by putting up your arms and yes your stick. The only one that gets hurt is the guy doing the charging. Micky talks about this all the time that players can't defend themselves anymore. Nor do player know how to take a hit anymore. When DD got hurt he showed the replay and talked about it, then compared to a hit Helm took where he was face up to the glass and used his arms to cushion the hit. But then again the NHL stopped calling charging years ago and this is what happens.

Everyone wants Sammy gone. Well maybe not the guy that signed him.......

Good. I doubt it helps, but good none the less.

So then when Kronwall turned into the hit a few weeks ago, all of you were ok with that hit as well? just trying to find some consistency on this stuff, because there is none. Q hit him-very lightly granted, from behind. That should either always be a penalty or always be ok. I love physical hockey, but hits from behind should never allowed. If you see if coming you can protect yourself. You can't if you don't.

many reasons for it. helm for example. His body is too small for the style of hockey he plays. he will always be a guy that is fighting through injuries. yes being on the small side doesn't help vs bigger guys. Having a bunch of over 30 guys don't help either. Players tend to get hurt more and take longer to recover the older they get. having guys with years of injury issues just adds to the problem.

BTW, Franzen has another concussion and is already out for tomorrows game. That is his 3rd or 4th that I seem to remember in the NHL. These only get worse the more you have. easier to get concussions as well.....

Oh yes the injury card. we are hurt. yes. have been for 5 freaking years! It is only getting worse! You would think someone would try to change that, wouldn't you.......... yes some of the injuries are new-datsyuk, DD, and Abby. but Z has had back issues for a couple of years, bert for about 6 years, Sammy is always hurt, Weiss has been injury prone the past couple of years, franzen always misses 10 games per year, on and on and on. So with this bunch of old and brittle group we move to the east, were the 10 of the top 15 in PIM and 10 of the top 15 in hits are located at, and some wonder why we are not healthy????? LOL This isn't a surprise.

Then Holland is remembering wrong. We started to win Cups when guys like Shanny were added, McCarty and Lapointe matured, Kocur was on the Grind Line with Draper and Maltby (that was the original version), all of which were tough pesky players and most would drop the gloves when needed. we scored a lot of goals and raked up record number of wins and points prior to 97. but we didn't win until the team had the right balance of skill and toughness. This formula worked in 97, 98, and 02. 08 was were our organization began drifting to the all skill side and we haven't won a cup since, nor are we going to for a few more years. heck even our skill is as good as it was 5 years ago.