DickieDunn

Larkin should be a top line center. Mantha could be about as good as Franzen, meaning he'll score 25 goals a year and people will still hate him because he doesn't play like Shanahan. I like AA for his speed and ability to disrupt games, but he needs to get a coach who doesn't bench him for a bad period. I think he's always going to be kind of a risk/reward type. I think most of the rest of the guys who have been pro before this season are most likely bottom half of the roster guys at best, many of them will never be regular NHL players. Svechnikov might be a top 6 guy. Cholowski who knows. Frk isn't an NHL player.

Years '02 through '11. Ten years worth of picks, Detroit's first pick compared to all the other players taken at that spot during that time frame. I only went up to 2011 because anyone taken in that draft has more or less shown what he's going to be by now. Drafts after that, you can make an argument that they're still young enough to improve. The first player is the Wings' pick that year, other players are picks at that spot in other years. 19th Kindl, Koreis, Getzlaf, Korpikoski, Mitera, McMillan, Sbisa, Kreider, Bjugstad, Klefbom, 21st Sheahan, Babchuk, Mark Stuart, Wolski, Rask, Sanguenetti, Smith, Gustaffson, Moore, Noesen 27th Smith, Morris, Tambellini, J. Schultz, Finley, I. Vishnevsky, Ross, Carlsson, Paradis, Visentin, Namestnikov 30th McCollum, Slater, Shawn Belle, Rogers, Mihalik, Corrente, Ellington, Despres, Nelson, Rackell 32nd Ferraro, Vas, Ryan Stone, Bolland, T. Plante, Sneep, MacLean, Voynov, Knight, Rattie 35th Jurco, Nemec, Glazachev, Stephenson, Vlasic, F. Bouchard, Ross, Deschamps, Clifford, Rensfeldt 41st Emmerton, Lindstrom, Smaby, Bickell, Pavelec, Marshall, Sauve, Budish, Nemeth, Jeskin 58th Hudler, Colliton, Lyamin, Hagemo, Vasyunov, Spaling, Kugryshev, Blacker, Simpson, Kucherov 64th Howard, Jason Ryznar, Karsums, Barnes, Junland, Korostin, Paquette, Barrie, Renhart, Trochek 97th Franzen, Monych, Donelly, Vandeveldt, Osala, Omark, Arniel, Szwarz, Cunningham, Didier So on average, at those spots you get one good player a year outside the top 20. 58 and 64 actually turned out better than 41. Wings got the best player 2 of the ten years when they took Franzen and Howard. Hudler and Kucherov are close. They didn't do much with any picks before 58 unless you still have hopes that Sheahan will stop playing like he's made of glass and Smith can grow a brain, but a lot of the players taken in those spots, other than 19, didn't do a whole lot either. In other words, the wings are pretty average at drafting.

http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2016/12/red_wings_wont_compromise_defe.html#incart_river_index What we're doing isn't working. We're going to keep doing it though because maybe it will start working. Excuse me, I need to go lick the windows in my car now, they taste like cherry. -Jeff Trashill.

The payroll is where it's at because they needed to deal with the LTIR guys. If a team isn't at the cap on day 1 of the season, they don't get max relief. I think they also wanted to push The Streak along as long as they could keep it on life support so they could use it as marketing purposes.

That's 10 years of picks at those spots. That's a pretty good way to figure out a "league average." Recent drafts weren't left out arbitrarily, it's too early to determine what those players are or will be, including Larkin and Mantha. Sheahan and Smith wouldn't be in the NHL if they played for a good team.

It's hard to be that much worse than everyone else now with the parity. Between the cap and the extra point for losing in OT, you have to REALLY suck to be very far out of the playoff race before the all star game.

Wings get Grigorenko, Kronwall, Tolsa, and Fischer. Other teams likely get similar caliber players.

The 20+ years they were contenders was great. That's the past though. It's irrelevant to what's happening now. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

A little of both Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

One team is not the league Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Players are worse under Blashill than Babcock, almost every one of them. If that doesn't tell you something about Blashill, I don't know what to tell you. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Nyquist and Tatar have both shown the ability to score 25+ goals. Dekeyaser is worse than he was 2 years ago. Green hasn't scored as much as he had. Larkin stepped back after a half season of Blashill. AA keeps getting screwed with. And so on. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Holland made the inevitable losing worse with his mismanagement and insistence in signing vets for the sake of The Streak Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

A while back i looked at what type of player you get at different points of the draft. First 5 had the best chance of an elite player, obviously, but plenty of busts. 6-10 had a lot of goos players with some busts. 15-25 getting a 3rd line forward or 4-6 d was pretty common. After that you were leas likely to get a high end player. Rounds 3 and later were actually pretty similar as to your odds of getting an NHL player. At 18 there are just too many variables to accurately predict pro potential. They all have holes in their games that could prevent them from even making an AHL team, and most have at least one trait that could land them in the NHL. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Just stating facts. Down periods and rebuilds are inevitable. Holland has bungled the job though, and Blashill is making it worse. What Holland needs to do is trade anyone over the age of 26 that he can and tell Blashill "your job is to turn kids into NHL players, don't worry about the record right now. Stop benching them for a couple bad periods and stop trying to be Mike Babcock."

Nope, not a bad team. They're only a few points out of the playoffs after all. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

There's plenty of blame. Holland built a mediocre team and Blashill has 3/4 of them playing below their capabilities Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Sheahan and Smith are moldy turd sandwiches Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Vanek was coming off a terrible year and Green had been demoted to the Caps 3rd pair. They came here to get ice time. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Unload Green and Vanek and whoever else you can. Next year start any kid who is close to ready in the NHL and fill your roster with guys similar to Vanek and Green on one year deals with the intent of trading them at the deadline. Sent from my LGLS676 using Tapatalk

Obviously you need more than one or two elite players, but a team with several B and C level players and filled out with guys who probably shouldn't be in the NHL is a bad team, especially with a bad coach. The way the Wings are playing bears that out.

Average teams have a couple guys who are legit top line forwards or top pair D. The Wings have neither. They might be better with a new coach, assuming said coach can get Tatar and Nyquist to play like they did two years ago, but they're still short legit top line players.

IF they make it, it will be because other teams fall apart, not because they're good enough. They don't have a zero chance, but it ain't good either. Slightly better than the chances of Kate Upton leaving Verlander for me.

except a guy who can't do anything else can't police the ice.