nawein

3 bold predictions off the top of my head. 1. Dylan Larkin will lead the Red Wings in points. 2. Justin Faulk will win the Norris trophy. 3. The Penguins, despite being the highest scoring team in the league, will miss the playoffs.

Most high end goal scorers are also pretty good at scoring even strength too, though. Which Nyquist seems to not be good at.

It would be foolish if we lost Pulkkinen so we could keep a waiver eligible kid up who may or may not make us better.

Tatar (31), Datsyuk (24), Nyquist (29) Abdelkader (21), and my sleeper pick is Jurco (21).

Yeah, they're both garbage. Ericsson is garbage that we don't have a better replacement for, though. Ericsson lost us the Tampa series in game 3 or 4, whatever game Johnson scored a couple quick goals. Both goals were his fault. And he's still a bonehead. Just like Smith is still a bonehead. Maybe Smith will pull his head out of his arse but until then there's better options for the top 6 and PP.

Legal prostitution.

May be worth noting that the Griffs just signed Steve Spinell the other day. Right handed d man who had 5 points in 59 games with Hartford last season. Don't know anything about the guy other than that so I have no idea where he'd fit. I'd also like to see a Bertuzzi-Athanasiou-Mantha line. Two guys to push the pace and clear room for Mantha could be exactly what he needs.

I'm not saying they're not good or useful. I'm saying that telling someone that "stats overrule their opinion" may not always be accurate and you should rely on both. As the season wore on, we got worse defensively. I think the stats if broken down by month would probably show that and as an average we may have been a top 10 defensive team. But we weren't a top ten defensive team all year last year. We went from really good to pretty bad, so a season long average doesn't tell the whole story. That's all I'm saying.

The thing with statistics is that they can be easily skewed by several terrible (or very good) performances. The thing with the eyeball test is that it can be easily skewed by several terrible (or very good) performances. To get a fairly accurate depiction of the truth, you should consider both. I'm not positive why that's so hard to understand.

Not a chance Jurco or Pulkkinen are on the PP over Tatar, much less both.

How do you feel about Jurco?

Calder? Seriously? He's a small, not strong, one dimensional player who struggled mightily last year and whose game has a good chance of not translating to the NHL. And you want to talk about the Calder? No chance. Have you heard of Connor McDavid? Just wondering. Not to mention, he's not even eligible for the Calder.

Can we terminate Weiss?

I forgot that fifth round draft picks usually make immediate NHL impacts. Be patient.

Well, I can live with that. Just seems weird that we draft big forwards and the last two dmen we've added have been 5'9" or shorter.

That's a head scratcher.

Ryan Martin, our Assistant GM, was quoted saying they'd like to add a goaltender to the system at the draft. If you'll still be "absolutely shocked" then I'll be absolutely shocked.

http://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2015/06/24/detroit-red-wings-draft-options/29231007/ Sounds like we'll take a goalie at some point. I seem to remember being told that the idea of us needing another goalie in the system was ridiculous.

Nyquist with Datsyuk has been a disaster every time it's been tried.

This, and his skating isn't good enough. Huh. Sounds familiar.

They are really good friends. I actually know a girl that knows and hangs out with both of them. I'll tell her to pull some strings and get him to not sign and come play here. Lol. That would be incredible

Why not? You've said yourself we lack a young elite talent on the blue line. This gives us that in a huge way. The only thing we lose from the roster is Nyquist and Smith. So we lose Nyquist for a massive upgrade on the back end that allows us to slot the rest of our defenseman in a proper slot. We also don't lose any points because Faulk scored almost as many as Nyquist. If you then want to replace Nyquist, trade Pulkkinen and a D prospect to Boston for Reilly Smith. We're a better team and a lot of the log jam is gone. Our core also gets younger and we can focus on drafting another Mantha. I don't know, that's what I'd try to do.

Mantha, Nyquist, Smith to Carolina for Justin Faulk? If Hanifin falls to 5th I could see both sides going for this deal. Obviously there's no basis behind this and its just a pipe dream but I can hope.

I wonder if since Blashill has more of a say now, he made it clear the Mantha wasn't the prospect we thought. He would know him the best of anyone in the organization.

From everything I've read about the draft from scouts it looks like there's pretty clearly defined talent levels in the draft. Top 2, top 5, top 11, top 20 and then who knows. So moving back that many spots could be a big deal. I'm not opposed to it, bit when we got Mantha we moved back what, 2 spots and got the 51st pick? If we're moving back 9 I want more from Tampa. Also, Werenski will be gone by the time Dallas picks. Philly, Colorado, San Jose and Columbus all need D too much.