DickieDunn

You need good scouting and proper development in order to get value from your draft picks, as well as a solid plan (looking at you, Oilers), but a high percentage of the elite players come from the top half of the first round. Last year's top 8 scorers were first round picks, 3 first overall, a 2nd, a 5th, then 19th, 22nd, and 28th. Looking at the top 30 scorers, only 6 were taken outside of the first round, and 18 of the 30 were top 10 picks. Looking at defensemen by TOI/gm, 12 of the top 30 were first rounders, and 7 were taken in the second. Given that 18 year old defensemen are harder to project, that makes sense, but it still shows that you're far more likely to get a #1 defenseman in the first round than you are in any other round. They didn't. Yzerman and Fedorov were better players.

Holland has done that in the past. Del Zotto would have been a decent choice over Quincey, for example, but for whatever reason he hasn't wanted to in recent years. Maybe that's more on Babcock though.

The 3rd line spot is the only real opening the Wings have. I don't think Setoguchi would be an upgrade over Alfredsson, and there's a real possibility that he'd be a complete flop. If I was going to take a chance on someone, I'd rather that they take a chance on one of their own rookies instead of a reclamation project.

It's not s***ting on anything, it's honest. Start with '09, go back 15 years, find higher end players the Wings have taken after the second round. Nyquist is probably going to be a top 6 player, he may or may not be more than a complimentary 60 point player. Franzen is Franzen. Filppula is inconsistent from year to year. Zetterberg in 99, Datsyuk in 98. So 2 elite players, 3 good guys who aren't elite and in 2 cases aren't even that good for stretches, and some role players. Sure it's better than some teams, but there are people who act like the Wings get some star player late in the draft every couple years, and they knew for a fact that Zetterberg and Datsyuk were going to be stars. Neither is true. The reason I'm not looking at the older drafts is that the rules have changed completely. Russians weren't drafted int he 80's because they had to be snuck out of the country. Not every player was willing to do that, and it took a lot of resources to get the ones who did want to come. They had to have contacts in Russia, ind the right people to bribe and spend the money to do it, and find a way to get the player, and his family in some cases, out of the country. The Wings were one of the few teams that had an owner who was able and willing to commit to that.

2 in the last decade +.

If you get a world class talent late you get lucky, period. Probably half of the top players in any given year are taken in the top 7% of the draft, if not more. I'm not really counting the bribery they were willing to do in the 90s to get the Russians. In the last 20 years they drafted 2 proven elite players late.

They got lucky with Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

Both of them should be in the Hall. Fedorov started his career earlier and had better seasons, so it's hard to argue Datsyuk is the better player right now. Fedorov really fell off after leaving Detroit though, so if Datsyuk keeps up a better pace through the end of his career an argument might be made then. Bowman did that to f with him not because he wasn't playing defense.

Yzerman, Nil, and Sakic took over bad or mediocre teams. They needed to do more and had more room to do so. The Wings are in a different type of transition. They have a fairly strong team that should make the playoffs fairly easily unless they have another season where they have multiple top players out at any given time, even if Weiss doesn't return to form. They also have a pretty deep prospect pool. The only thing they really lack is a top 10 pick that's a "guaranteed" star like Sequin, Toews, Doughty, etc. Even if management decided to go for a top 10 pick, I can't see a way of making sure they get bad enough to do that unless they trade Datsyuk and Zetterberg, and probably Kronwall as well.

Especially considering there is no guarantee that tanking gets you anywhere. Imagine if the Wings had drafted Lawton instead of Yzerman and the Russians had stayed home.

Nyquist certainly coasts less than Ryan.

Wasn't the rumor Nyquist, a d prospect comparable to Nossen and a first? I remember that the guys the Wings would send being older than the Sens package.

Losing Matthias has had zero impact. He's not good.

Spezza and Kesler either shot down a trade here or their teams thought that they had a better offer from someone else. If Mantha or Jurco were requirements for either, I'm nor sure either would be worth that. But let's say the Hawks want to move Keith or Seabrook. Would toy move Nyquist, Mantha, Hackman, and a second for him?

There has been one elite level d hit the market recently. He went to the team willing to give his bff a ridiculous contract. Nobody else was close to a #1 d. Most of the 2-4 guys got overpaid by a lot. The Caps gave the Pens' second pair over $10 mil per between them. Unless you think trading several of Jurco, Mantha, Nyquist, Tatar, Mrazek, Sproul, Ouellet and first round picks is a good idea, plus guys like Pull, Sheahan, Marchenko, etc. there is no way to get elite players anymore, unless you have the exact situation that a free agent is looking for. I don't understand why people can't understand that top players are few and far between on the market now.

Short of trading Datsyuk Zetterberg Franzen Kronwall and Ericsson the Wings wouldn't be close to bad enough for a legit chance at the first overall pick

Players and coaches won't intentionally lose but management can and does dump players to make it more likely they will get a high puck. It's dangerous though. You never know when that cant miss player ends up like Stuart Cleary or Staal, good players but but worth their draft positions.

Herlmer

Defense is more or less set. Unless they can trade Kindl or will demote Lashoff, the guys they have signed will be the 7 on the roster, including Dekeyser who will be signed.

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Jurco Franzen-Weiss-Nyquist Tatar-Sheahan-Alfredsson Miller-Helm-Abdelkader Those would be the 4 regular lines if I was the coach, at least to start the season and assuming everyone is good to go health wise. Callahan would get one reserve spot, the other would be a toss up between Glendening and Joakim "Swedish Emmerton" Andersson, depending on if I wanted a tenacious but unskilled bull dog or a guy with some skill but zero grit as a spare center. I'd probably go with Glendening. If I felt really pressured, I'd play Cleary 5 minutes a night the first 10 games to get his bonus then demote him and recall Callahan.

The things Jurco needs to work on can be done in the NHL. He's ready. Even more importantly, he brings a much needed blend of skill and physical play. They can easily keep both Jurco and Alfredsson, Helm or Sheahan centers the third line and the other one between Miller and Abdelkader. Andersson, Cleary, Glendening, Ferraro, and Callahan can fight for the two reserve spots. Any of those 5 would be no great loss in the event they were claimed.

I'm not talking fans. Fans go overboard. I'm talking scouts.

He was never projected to be elite. Zetterberg type game, Filppula level performance.

The KHL is there for all but the stars, who can generally make more here. Why use a draft pick on a guy who is projected as a second line winger when he could make as much or more being a top line player in the KHL

If he was bad enough to get waived I doubt he'd get claimed.