Richdg

Over night? No. But it has been 4 years already and we are still getting worse. We don't need 10 new players added to the team/system. We need our youth brought up and 3-5 additional guys almost all need to be on the BL. We also don't have any high end BL prospects. Cholowski is most likely a 2nd pair guy and he is our ONLY legit BL prospect. If you look at our team, we have 11 F's that are signed our RFA's next season and beyond. That leaves 3 spots open for Lil Bert, Svechnikov, and Rasmussen to be added. That completes our F rebuild for the most part. But when we look at the BL it is down right ugly. We have 1 legit 2nd pair guy in Dekeyser and everyone else is a borderline 3rd pair/AHL caliber player. Kornwall is done due to injury, Ericsson never made it, Daley is toast, Oullett and Jensen are at best 3rd line guys. Witkowski is a 3rd pair guy that brings toughness. But to add we need to free up the roster spots and the cap. That has to come from somewhere. You start by getting rid of the 2 high priced Dmen that are done in Kronwall and Ericsson. By LTIRing Kronwall and buying out Ericsson you free up 7.5 million in cap space and 2 roster spots. Add that to the 3-5 million we have left over after resigning Mantha, Larkin, AA, Frk, and bringing up the 3 young guys and you have 11 million or so to add a couple of Dmen. You add a Carlson and 1 of De Haan and Cole-both legit second pair guys, and our BL takes a giant step forward. Now work hard to find that super to lead the BL corp and we are ready to start going up the mountain again. To do what I want still is going to take another 1.5 seasons. That means at best we are ready to roll for the 2019/2020 season. Trying to do thing strictly through the draft will take another 5 years. Minimum! Do you or any fan really want to wait that long? I don't. I want a team that wins Cups! Not "wins" top 5 picks!

The points per game is nice, but he is closing in on nearly 1 goal per game. 16 goals in 22 games. That is the bigger stat for him to me. Put the damn puck in the net big boy! He is!

Ya. He can't be any worse..... Ok maybe he can.... Damn we need a serious upgrade on the BL. Just really ahrd to do via the draft. It takes so long and with Dmen you just never know......

I hope he has a good second half. He started out this year playing on the 3rd line, worked up to the second, now I see he is back to the 3rd line. Might just end up being a lost year. I hope not because there are 3 F positions open in Detroit next season. Geno, Ras, and Lil Bert need to take hold of those positions.

If you buyout E it costs us 1.5 million per year. There is no way to trade him and only retain that amount. Buying him out also frees up 2.8 million per year. if we want to add major pieces we need both the roster space and the cap space. De Haan and Cole are kinda twins. Strong defensive Dmen that will get you 30 points per year. In other words good second pair guys. We need 1 to pair with DD. Both are LHed is their only negative. No Carlson is not a #1. He is a #2. We badly need both. He is a great defensive player and good for 40+ points per year. That will not change. Having Carlson, DD, and 1 of the De haan/cole pair makes a very strong 2 through 4 on the BL. Now everyone is playing in the correct position which will greatly help! Next year when we are more ready we can go after a #1. I doubt Hicketts ever amounts to anything in the NHL. He doesn't have a dominate physical trait. Be it size or speed or agility. I just don't see him making it. Give him a shot? Sure. Lets find out if I am right or not. Then we know.

Back a page or 2 ago when we were quoting Holland..... makes me wan to throw up..... Holland said something along the lines of you can't turn over the entire roster in a year. There in is the problem. We don't need to turn over the entire roster. Even if we needed to NO ONE expects it to happen in 1 year. We need to make 3-5 moves this season/summer and 3-5 next season/summer, outside of the draft. That is not only possible many teams do it. Let me provide an example. Outs: 1. Move Green and Mrazek by the trade deadline. Move 1. 2. Trade Tatar before the draft. Move 2. 3. LTIR Kornwall. Move 3. 4. Buyout Ericsson. Move 4. Not sure there is a RW fan out there that is going to really disagree with any of those moves. Ins: 1. 1st round pick in 2018 for Green. Move 1. 2. Pick up a young Dman who is just making the NHL for Nyquist or Tatar. Move 2. 3. UFA a John Carlson and a good defensive Dman like De Haan or Cole. Move 3. 4. Call up Lil Bert, Svechnikov, and Rasmussen. None of what I have listed is out of the realm of possibility. Yes the names can change. But what part of this list isn't possible? Now do the same next season. Look to move out Howard, Nyquist, Helm, and if at all possible Neilsson. That is 8 maybe 9 guys out over 2 seasons and 6 coming in.Plus 3 1st round draft picks that could make the team.

So gets called up. Plays a game and gets sent back down. IIRC we are only at 22 players. Is Lil Bert our new yo-yo player?

Tough year for Geno to date. Missed much of training camp and plaaying on a struggling team. I wonder were are all the negative comments from the RW's leadership? When Mantha went through this everyone was questioning his work ethic... saying he was very very disappointing.... etc.... Well Geno was drafted higher than Mantha was and not a peep. Paging Jimmy D.... come on man be consistant! Or do we only bash french canadian players?

He is working his way back into game shape while playing vs. those that are already in top form. Need another month to make any judgements on him this year.

I hope he is ready so he can replace Daley in 2+ years. That would be a best case senario.

There was a story a while back about him being very disappointed that he didn't make the RW's out of camp. They were guessing that might have lead to his slow start. Now Rasmussen is on fire. up to 1.41 points per game. Startijng to dominate again. 31 pts in 22 games. 16 are goals. That is 108 pts over the full season if my math is correct. I bet he is over 1.50 pts per game by the end of the year.

Was this at practice today or something? Who is the C on the 4th line? All 3 are wingers... If true and just because a team practices this way.... Doesnt mean they play this way. But with dumbass Blashill this could happen. If so, fire him at the 1st intermission.

Gotta love how the rumors thread turned into the team direction thread! LOL

Yes! Bring Mike home! The Habs tried to make him a C which he is not. Adding him would give us the second big front of net F we need for the PP. McCarron on 1 PP unit and Rasmussen on the other. Now you move Mantha to the Slot-were he is at his best! Same with Svechnikov. Think of the top 6: Mantha-Larkin-McCarron AA-Rasmussen-Svechnikov That could be one of the best top 6's in the league in a few years. You have every thing you need: Size, Speed, Skill, touighness, good O and good D. The only thing I don't think you have right is what we send to get him. Montreal needs O. So Nyquist and Green to the Habs for McCarron and their 1st. That would work. Maybe even through in Mrazek if a little more is needed.

I hope our coach gives Mantha more than 14 mins of ice time and AA more than 10. Last game Helm was the leader amoung the F's. There is no excuse for Mantha, Larkin, and AA not getting 20 mins+ per game. None!

Kliq I get your a fan of Karlsson. So am I. You said he is a generational talent. No he is't. He is a great player but to date-and there is still time, he isn't the best in the league. He isn't the best offensive Dman-he is very close and he isn't the best defensive Dman. That means he isn't generational. Would I love to have him? Yes. Now is he overall better than OEL? I doubt it. One can made a very good arguement that they are equal. That is my point.

He isn't even the best Dman in the league right now. Not sure he is even the best offensive Dman in the League. Burns is. So stop with the overhype. He is a top 10 guy and so is OEL. For the past 10 year Weber has been the best overall. Now it might be Josi. All are great! Now lets get back on point. We need help on the BL. Man do we need help. Not a single Dman from our team in the top 50 for goals, blocks, hits, or takeaways. That is weak!!!!! Only Green is there for points and he is a UFA. So the question once again is what do we do about it? Is there much hope Holland will do anything? There are options. 1. Trade for Karlsson who may be available. 2. Trade for OEL who could be available. 3. Sign Carlson as a UFA. 4. Sign one or both of Cole and/or De Haan to improve the depth and talent. It takes work to do any/all of this. It takes a GM with guts. Does Holland have it anymore? Now can a combo or 2 1st round picks, tatar or AA, cholowski, and Mrazek get one of Karlsson or OEL? I don't know. Until we ask we dont know. Yes Carlson will cost money. So what? Shattenkirk signed for 4 years with a average cap hit of 6.65 million. I would think Carlson will end up with a 7 yr/7 million per contract. Would I do it? In a heart beat! he is a legit top 50 Dman in this league, most likely a 2 not a 1. We need both. Now just think for a minute. Holland acts and we go into next season with this as our BL corp: OEL-Carlson Dekeyser-Cole Daley-Jensen Oullett That is pretty good. Might have become one of the top 5 units top to bottom in the league. Is it possible? yes. Willing to bet on it? Nope.

Nope. Over the last 4 full season 2013/2014 through 2016/17 OEL has more hits and more goals. Karlsson has more assists and blocks. Karlsson plays on a much better team as well. There is no real difference between them as a player. OEL is also a year younger and bigger with no major injury history. Now we are debating about who is better between two great players. But to say one is way better than the other is wrong. They are both great! The biggest question is which one is available? Can we afford either one? The problem with trading your best scoring F to get a top scoring Dman, 75% of the points that Dman produce are assists. If no one is there to put the puck in the net, what happens to their points? They go down of course. If we trade potential 35 goal scorer in Mantha to get a 20 goal scoring Dman in Karlsson we lose goals. So someone has to make up that difference. We don't have another guy in the system capable of scoring that many. We have several guys that look like 20-25 goal per year guys. Now if I could get Karlsson for our 1st, the 1st we get for trading Green, AA, Cholowski, and say Tatar do I do it? Hell yes! I make the same deal to get OEL as well! Then I work on signing them long term.

Is Karlsson good? Yes. Is he worth our best young players? No. That would be just moving chairs around on the deck. Now if we can get him for this years 1st, AA, Tatar, and another, I would do that deal. if they are talking Mantha and/or Larkin I pass. If I was going to make a move for a big time Dman, I go after OEL anyway. He is younger and a better all around player. Blocks more shots, gives more hits, and has the same type of offensive numbers. Fewer injuries. I still go all in on John Carlson as a UFA this summer. Another very good Dman and only costs us money. Him and either Cole or De Haan makes our BL much better overall. Of course that requires a GM willing to make moves......

There are only 2 answers: We are trying to win the Stanley Cup OR we are trying to build our team. That is all that matters. Notice he didn't say he was trying to win the cup. He also taked about the Jets being an example to follow. Then he pointed out that they started their build/rebuild in 2008/ That was 9 years ago. They are just now becoming good. Does this mean we have to wait for 9 years before we are good? 9 years.......

Well we lost badly to a poor Habs team that couldn't score.... twice! So that means we beat the high scoring 1st place Jets? Ok.... Lets go with that!

Listening to Holland on the pregame tonight..... Blashill is doing a great job with the roster he has! That statement speaks VOLUMNS about our issues. Another nugget: up until 2 years ago or so I was trying to make the playoffs every year. Is/was Holland that blind? Even if we made it everyone knew we were not going anyway. Not enough talent, aging talent, and a lack of young talent in the pipeline.

Neither have any real trade value. Howard still plays good most nights. Prior to Saturday he had a .920 save %, which is well above average. Mrazek just needs to go. Non-tender him and save us the 3.5 to 4 million it will take to resign him. He needs a fresh start and we need the cap space.

Just some random things about this. 1. When Babs left IIRC there were a couple interviews but everyone knew Blashill was getting the job. I seem to remember Blysma getting an interview. 2. It takes more than 3 players. You need a good core of 8 players or so. 3. Blashill didn't create this roster and no he cant change it. But the players are not playing anymore. 2 weeks ago they still were playing hard and we all talked about it. Since then the team has largely quit. 4. Why is Z leading our F's in ice time? That is something the coach controls. Mantha, Larkin, and AA all should get 22+ mins per night. That is our best chance to win. Plus it develops them. 5. Green, daley, and DD are all good Dmen. None are great. So lets not say we only have 1 NHL quality Dman. It sure isn't Jensen either. He is a 3rd pair guy at best. As for who to replace him, Tippett is available, Blysma is available, and if we have an opening in the summer I would bet Gallant would be interested. All 3 are better NHL coaches than Blashill. All have a history of developing young players as well. Yes all 3 have a question or 2 about them.

He is making a very strong case! Larkin might still get it because he is from Michigan. But the draw of wearing the C for his grandfathers teams might keep him here for a long long time! Mantha with the C, Larkin with an A, and we will see who earns another A.......