nawein

Only if he's taking Kindl's spot. Otherwise we have enough dman kids on the way.

I still think it's fine.. With Alfie saying he'll decide before camp, it gives me more confidence in the dk signing getting done. I fully expect that if Alfie signs, since we'll have less space, Dk will get a bridge deal. If Alfie doesn't, I think we'll lock Dekeyser up long term.

I'm not okay with Abby there either. He's a 4th liner, 3rd at best. But no, Jurco isn't ready. And yes, Jurco put up a 34 point pace against much lesser competition vs abbys 33 point pace against top line competition. CLEARLY this means Jurco should be there. What was I thinking? Excuse my ignorance. And Kip, did you watch the last few games before the olympic break when Gus and Z played together? The chemistry and puck movement was insane. Z and pav like. So why not have two extremely dunamic duos on the ice at the same time? We wouldn't need to grind it out much because we'd always have the puck. If you want to change the dynamic of the attack, you don't do that by putting one guy thats going to go to the net on each line. You put two on one line. Franzen and Jurco can both play down low. Put them together. Putting Jurco on the top line now could actually kill that line (not to mention the kids confidence) just as much as abby has.

I agree completely. It juat seems like everyone here sees "big" and "hands" and wants him wih pav immediately.

Am I the only one that doesn't think Jurco is ready for a top line role yet? I get that he's a better option than Abby but I think he's still not quite ready for that role. Z-Pav-Gus Jurco-franzen-tats Alfie-sheahan-weiss Abby-helm-miller

No but that seems to be the argument you're trying to make. If you look at the lines I threw out Cleary isn't even on them. You're the one saying he'll get top line minutes.

If they're close in skill level, tie goes to the guy that's proven he can play at that level in the nhl consistently. How is that hard for you to understand? If a young gun is a clearly better hockey player he'll get a bigger role. If you want to watch a tie go to a young player I'd advise watching more oiler games.

Not to mention that they're vets because they've already proven themselves over the course of their careers.

Well I nailed the top 6. That's pretty much it though. That bottom 6 weird. I don't like the bottom line. Oh well.

This. Callahan is the kind of fourth liner you win cups with. Unfortunately we have a lot of third liners so he'll get pushed out of the lineup.

Why does it seem like everyone here thinks McKee is going to make it? Have any of you watched him play? He's brutally bad right now.

Still sounds to me like they're getting a free pick for failing to sign someone. But I guess it's the same type deal as rfa's in a way. I don't know, I still don't like it.

Z-Pav-Gus (Euro Triplets? Z-pav is an amazing duo and Z-gus was also) Franzen-Weiss-Tatar (Remember when Mule and Tats played together last year? It was good. Alfie-Sheahan-Jurco (2 kids and a goat v2.0) Miller-Helm-Abdelkader (because it might be the best shut down line we can make) Kronner-E DK-Q Smith-Marchenko/Backman (Hopefully Backman. I see Marchenko topping out at poor mans Brad Stuart and Backman topping out a little worse than Kronner is now.) The D pairings were hard. Our D sucks.

Yes. We tanked to get good. 30 years ago. 2 generations of players ago we were bad. Nobodys denying that. It's that we're still good without having to tank again that's impressive.

Does anyone know why they get a second? Seems to me like the league is giving them one just to give them one. Did Anaheim get a third I'm unaware of for not signing Schultz? This just seems like a stupid and generally unfair way of rewarding a team for losing. And if it's in the cba, why aren't more people waiting to sign picks? If you don't sign someone you get a free pick a round later than you took them in? Who here wouldn't have taken a third over Emmerton? Or if Frk keeps up his poor play I'd have been thrilled to get a third for him. This whole them getting a second and nobody saying why or complaining seems fishy. I don't like it.

Wait. Chicago gets a second for failing to sign one of it's draft picks, and we get nothing for having half of our front office stolen?

Games played is too high for Z, Dk, Herlmer, Callahan. Unfortunately probably too low for Cleary, Andersson. Points for Helm and Smith too high, probably Weiss as well. Everything else looks good to me though. Nice work

Jiri Hudler.

Looking more and more like he's coming back. http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2014/08/red_wings_gm_ken_holland_says_4.html

Where has anyone said we need 12 2 way forwards? Not that that would be the worst thing on the world. 2 way forwards win playoff hockey games. Defense wins championships. Would it be nice to have a 50 goal scorer? Of course. But let's not compromise hockey for goals. I don't want an Ovechkin. He hurts almost as much as he helps. But all I said is Drew Miller is under appreciated. He's very consistent. Very reliable. Based on the response it got I think my point about him was made. Under appreciated.

Drew Miller currently. The guy is very, very good at what he does.

I like how you went from talking about loving that things are going towards math and science and away from gut feelings, and then wrote an entire paragraph on how this is a steal because of several gut feelings. Not saying that I disagree with you I just thought it was funny. Great deal. But for the record I'd still package him for a good young top2/4 dman.

He has 1 year of RFA after this contract. Which couldn't be better honestly.

I'm expecting around 2, maybe a bit above.

Tatar had a good rookie year. But he's still unproven so I'm not sure why people think he should get his payday now. He'll get a prove it contract and that's what's best for both sides. As far as people comparing Tats and Pavs rookie years, it honestly means nothing. Peter Mueller had a comparable rookie year to Anze Kopitar, who both had had better years than Patrice Bergeron, and they all had worse years than Dany Heatley. Now two of them are scrubs and 2 are elite forwards. I'm glad Tatar had a good rookie year, now he has to prove he can continue to do that and improve.