Richdg

Yes the % goes down, but that is yet to be seen. For whatever reason the second round is where you get a ton of great Dmen. As always the draft is a crap shoot. Lets wait for him to play a few seasons in detroit before we put him in the HOF or call him a bust. If he becomes a #1c or a #2c or a #1 f does it really matter? Nope. We need him to become a 25 goal + per year player. I dont care if it is as a winger or center or if its on the top line or second line.
 
BTW at the time of the injury Rasmussen had played 22 games and had 16 goals and 31 points. Just for a reference Tippett had also played 22 games and had 14 goals and 31 points. Point is same production.

The Pens have a very good defensive BL and 1 great offensive Dman in Letang. The last 2 years they alsoi had Daley helping with the O.
Yes DD you agreed with me about the Preds. They had a great D but couldn't score. They had the best Dman in the game in Weber in the prime of his career and missed the PO's more often than making it. Plus Jones Josi etc.... Yet they couldn't score and didnt make it to the PO's. That is my point. Moving our O to get better at D may not make us a better team, which is the goal.
As for replacing a Mantha, there is no one in our organization as good as he is. Period. He is a potential 40+ goal scorer that can set himself up offensively and play physical. I love Svechnikov but he isn't in Mantha's league. Mantha tops out at 40 goals 80 points. Svechnikov is more a 25 goal 60 point guy-he is a very good play maker. Yes he is a potential top 6 F but he is not a potential top 2 or 3 F like Mantha is. Fact is Mantha is our best F. Better than Larkin AA or anyone else. He is a potential top 20 player in the league. Like Shanny was.

Over the last 3.5 NHL seasons here are Faulks rankings for the league:
7th in goals
37th in assists
25th in points
22nd in TOI/game
34th in hits
100th in blocked shots
42nd in giveaways
3rd in takeaways
He is clearly a top 30 Dman in the NHL. Not much debate about it. The weakness in his stats is blocked shots.
Faulk plays on a bad team that is offensively challenged. The Canes have been a bottom 10 team offensively for the last 3.5 seasons. He has been their best offensive player for most of his career. May not have to big name of some others but he is very good and would make us better. We are a much better team with Faulk than we are with AA. But that requires Holland doing something. Sadly I doubt he will.

Geno has 3 goals in the last 2 games. Lets hope he is starting to warm up! Still 40ish games left in GR's season. Love to see him get to 20+ by the end of the year. He has 5 atm IIRC. 15 in 40 or so is doable for a guy with his talent.
But if he stays hot for a while bringing him to Detroit after the deadline would also be good. Get him 20ish NHL games to get a better judge of where he is at development wise.

Before the day gets any older and we get any drunker..... lol. I do want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! To our friends in Canada and the rest of the former British Empire, Happy Boxing day!
Yes we all love the RW's and love to talk. The best part is most of the time we do so without getting all personnel. Thanks for another great year talking about the Wings! Hope everyone has a great time this holiday season with their friends and family!

Before the day gets any older and we get any drunker..... lol. I do want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! To our friends in Canada and the rest of the former British Empire, Happy Boxing day!
Yes we all love the RW's and love to talk. The best part is most of the time we do so without getting all personnel. Thanks for another great year talking about the Wings! Hope everyone has a great time this holiday season with their friends and family!

This I do agree with. It will be hard for us to get any of these guys. Why would a top level UFA want to come here to suck?
We need to show some direction to land those guys again. Play it out in our minds for a minute. We do nothing big this off season. Miss the playoffs again after the 2018/19 season and have another bottom 10 season. All 3 of Karlsson, OEL and Doughty become UFA's. We free up 15 million in cap in the meantime. Does anyone really think that any of those 3 guys are going to want to come here? Why would they? Doughty isn't going to leave the Kings and a SC caliber team to come to a bottom dweller. OEL has been on a sucky team for most of his career. You think he wants to continue that? Karlson the same?
Now flip it the other way around. we make a move or 2, show we are on the upswing with a good young core. Maybe even make the PO's next season, and we have the cap. Maybe.... just maybe we can lure one of these big timers to join us. Still a very slim chance, but the odds do improve.
I do not beleive for 1 second that Carlson alone or the other Karlsson for that matter is going to make us a PO team again. We need 4 or 5 pieces added, 2-3 on the BL. But we have to start somewhere. If not then in a couple of years Oiler fans will start talking about us sucking for so long like we used to joke about the Oilers.......

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!
 

Many of us have been iffy to hating Blashill since he was hired. Even so the players seemed to like playing for him. But the last 2 games, giving up 16 goals to a bad Habs team that struggles to score AND looking lifeless while doing so, makes one ask. Has Blashill finally lost the team? No he doesn't assemble the roster. Yes he makes bonehead moves. But these last 2 games were 100% on the players. They simply didn't care. So your thoughts?
 
I think he has. I think he forgot to be his own man/coach and the players now seem him as a pretender. Just my 2 cents.

Many of us have been iffy to hating Blashill since he was hired. Even so the players seemed to like playing for him. But the last 2 games, giving up 16 goals to a bad Habs team that struggles to score AND looking lifeless while doing so, makes one ask. Has Blashill finally lost the team? No he doesn't assemble the roster. Yes he makes bonehead moves. But these last 2 games were 100% on the players. They simply didn't care. So your thoughts?
 
I think he has. I think he forgot to be his own man/coach and the players now seem him as a pretender. Just my 2 cents.

We are 2 points ahead in the standings. But the team does look better and is playing better. There is far more energy on the ice most nights. We are much faster most nights. The last couple of years the team looked like if we gave up 3 goals they knew we would lose the game. They don't play like that anymore. They know they can score 3 or more goals. Doesn't mean we are going to win but the effort is there all 60 mins most nights. I still think with better coaching we win more, but that is another thread.

The Pens have a very good defensive BL and 1 great offensive Dman in Letang. The last 2 years they alsoi had Daley helping with the O.
Yes DD you agreed with me about the Preds. They had a great D but couldn't score. They had the best Dman in the game in Weber in the prime of his career and missed the PO's more often than making it. Plus Jones Josi etc.... Yet they couldn't score and didnt make it to the PO's. That is my point. Moving our O to get better at D may not make us a better team, which is the goal.
As for replacing a Mantha, there is no one in our organization as good as he is. Period. He is a potential 40+ goal scorer that can set himself up offensively and play physical. I love Svechnikov but he isn't in Mantha's league. Mantha tops out at 40 goals 80 points. Svechnikov is more a 25 goal 60 point guy-he is a very good play maker. Yes he is a potential top 6 F but he is not a potential top 2 or 3 F like Mantha is. Fact is Mantha is our best F. Better than Larkin AA or anyone else. He is a potential top 20 player in the league. Like Shanny was.

The Pens have a very good defensive BL and 1 great offensive Dman in Letang. The last 2 years they alsoi had Daley helping with the O.
Yes DD you agreed with me about the Preds. They had a great D but couldn't score. They had the best Dman in the game in Weber in the prime of his career and missed the PO's more often than making it. Plus Jones Josi etc.... Yet they couldn't score and didnt make it to the PO's. That is my point. Moving our O to get better at D may not make us a better team, which is the goal.
As for replacing a Mantha, there is no one in our organization as good as he is. Period. He is a potential 40+ goal scorer that can set himself up offensively and play physical. I love Svechnikov but he isn't in Mantha's league. Mantha tops out at 40 goals 80 points. Svechnikov is more a 25 goal 60 point guy-he is a very good play maker. Yes he is a potential top 6 F but he is not a potential top 2 or 3 F like Mantha is. Fact is Mantha is our best F. Better than Larkin AA or anyone else. He is a potential top 20 player in the league. Like Shanny was.

If we traded a great young F for a great young Dman are we better? For the last 10 years or so the Preds have had the best BL corp and 1 of the top 3 G and they barely made the playoffs. It wasn't until they added high end F's that they became a great team. So does having only one good group work? I would say no. The Kings, Pens, and Blackhawks have all won multiple SC's over the last 10 years or so. All have had great F's and great Dmen.
So do we have both? No. Do we have enough assets to make the trades required to have both? No. We have to draft and sign UFA's. If we had 6-8 young high end F's that would be different. But we are not there yet.

How many true #1 Dmen ever get moved? The only deal I can think of was subban for weber...2 Dmen moving for each other. Becasue they are so hard to find no one trades them. So draft and develop. It is the only answer. Maybe sign a guy like Carlsson.

I agree with you that the coaching is better and that starts at the youth level. GK are also better with larger equipment. The league has become a defensive league. But the high end isn't nearly as good. There isn't a player in the league as good as Howe, or Gretzky, or Mario or Orr. They don't exist. The bottom on the other hand is better.
Yes Yzerman would still score a ton. He would blow past most of todays Dmen and it wouldnt be much of a challenge. Same with Federov. Look what datsyuk used to do in todays game.... Federov was a way better player and athlete.

In a ideal-not perfect world we have a top 10 pick, a bottom 10 pick after trading Green, 2 2nds and 2 or more 3rds..... How would I draft?
top 10 pick: Wilde 6-2/195 RH shooting Dman known for his booming shot and physical play.
Bottom 10 pick: Matty Samuelsson 6-4/215 LH shooting Dman. Think a poor mans Hedman from TB.
These 2 need to play every minute of every shift together for the next 20 years. They should become a legit top pair at the next level.
In the second round now I go for a couple of F's.  2 guys I like are:
Jachym Kondelik 6-6/220 LH shooting C. Think Martan Hanzel.
Conner Roberts 6-4/215 RH shooting RW/C.
In the 3rd I would go with:
Alexis Gravel 6-2/210 G.
Philippe Lapointe 6-0/195 RH shooting RW-Martys kid.
Just because I like to be ahead. 2 guys for 2019:
Tag Bertuzzi 6-2/200 LH shooting LW-Todds kid should be a 1st rounder.
Mason Primeau 6-4/190 LH shooting C. late 1st/2nd rounder.

In a ideal-not perfect world we have a top 10 pick, a bottom 10 pick after trading Green, 2 2nds and 2 or more 3rds..... How would I draft?
top 10 pick: Wilde 6-2/195 RH shooting Dman known for his booming shot and physical play.
Bottom 10 pick: Matty Samuelsson 6-4/215 LH shooting Dman. Think a poor mans Hedman from TB.
These 2 need to play every minute of every shift together for the next 20 years. They should become a legit top pair at the next level.
In the second round now I go for a couple of F's.  2 guys I like are:
Jachym Kondelik 6-6/220 LH shooting C. Think Martan Hanzel.
Conner Roberts 6-4/215 RH shooting RW/C.
In the 3rd I would go with:
Alexis Gravel 6-2/210 G.
Philippe Lapointe 6-0/195 RH shooting RW-Martys kid.
Just because I like to be ahead. 2 guys for 2019:
Tag Bertuzzi 6-2/200 LH shooting LW-Todds kid should be a 1st rounder.
Mason Primeau 6-4/190 LH shooting C. late 1st/2nd rounder.