Jacksoni

I'd say Nyquist and Mantha. Or Nyquist and a second. Something along those lines. Werenski is a prospect only, but believed to be top 2 (real) soon. Top 4 would be a bust for him, if you get the point.

Alrighty.. This thread is about AA but since we are talking about Zetterberg, I watched him skate yesterday in Stockholm, just for a few minutes. It was at the end of his workout. He looked spry and was going full stride, looking good doing it. I have no info or idea of his back issues but he has clearly been taking care of himself in the off-season. Conditioning is there, no doubt.

NHL.com writes about the wings fantasy status: https://www.nhl.com/news/detroit-red-wings-fantasy-outlook-30-in-30/c-281334062?tid=281244176

Massive power-play ice time and centering the third line would be ideal for Zetterberg in my opinion. He can still contribute, just not the hard minutes.

I will watch all NA team games, on the screen unfortunately. As said above, every player in the NA is 23 or under. They are gonna play guns blazing, using their one advantage - speed/young legs, from the defensive end all the way up to the goalies. Should be a great watch.

If we aren't getting a young D stud (which I much prefer) I'm all for putting Smith on the top 4. Then feel him out, if he is all business increase the minutes over time/games. It's not like we have much choice in the matter if that scenario plays out I think. I recently heard in an interview that Kronwall's knee wasn't great still - that issue we atleast can observe first hand in the World cup of hockey that is coming up as he's playing for Sweden.

Say "Sakic was a bum" to Lidström. He'd give you the same look if you were to have said that Yzerman is a bum. Ludicrous.

That is not accurate. Check out Reddit. Their feeds are tv quality.

I would say wing, where he can forecheck aggressively and use his speed to cause problems. Preferably on the third line and on the penalty kill in my opinion.

Some good thinking here in spots, so I'll chime in on those, marked in bold: No defender acquired and not given proper insight in our system will be great the coming season. And it's already to late for that. With that said I'm thinking more long term, I would not bash a young stud defender for not producing on the fly. However in 2 or 3 years that fledling youngling would be leading this team from the back end. Defense takes time. Just need the supreme talent. I can see the Smith-Marchenko line working well and would like to see it tried out with decent minutes, perhaps as a second pairing as you proposed. They make good hockey sense being paired.

Without any more information it is a circular argument, I agree. So let's just wait and find out more unless someone has an inside scoop on this search for a defender debacle. If you were to ask me, KH will press for a defender trade even if it is not optimal, but he's savvy so he'll wait. I don't know if that's a good thing though. Right now I'm mostly preferring to get Trouba or Lindholm. They will match Larkin, Mrazek and AA in roughly the same age slot and are already showing mastery at their trade.

I don't want no Cleary on this list. Old boy Danny should get a pass for his efforts.

Ice is being laid at the Joe today. Preseason begins.

Karlsson will improve on the defensive end, making him scary good. He has been working hard on it for the last couple of summers. It'll be interesting to see how far he'll get.

I have no idea what it would take for Trouba. But I'm prepared for pain, as in it might involve Mantha or AA, on top of Nyquist or Tatar. Add some fries with that in the form of a second rounder. I would rather give Mantha than AA. That speed of Athanasiou is just nasty, he'll shape up fine in the coming seasons.

I agree with this. Whether the article is right or not doesn't even really matter. What was the alternative, letting him go? He would easily have gotten that 5 million per year in the open market. Leaving us with one less good defender.

Good signing. I prefer that it didn't got to arbitration, don't want to cause bitterness or bad feelings with the #1 goalie, that process might possibly have done that. And the fact that he can earn more later if he shows up should put a little fire on his effort.

I would want a young, say 23-25 year old super prospect as our top defenseman. Trouba or Lindholm fits the bill. I would overpay. Painfully so.

He would have gotten more than 5 per year at shorter term, making this deal decently good at the very least. Let's buckle up here. We are short on quality defenders. DeKeyser was a late bloomer who signed with us at 23, he was not drafted. Lidström recently (I think may 2016) in an interview said that Danny has the goods to be a great defenseman. Good enough for me. For a few years at least.

I just read up more on this deal. It's actually better than expected since it contains bonus clauses, without them Danny is at 27 million. Here's the breakdown. 16-17 3M /1M bonus 17-18 5m /500k bonus 18-19 5m /500k bonus 19-20 5m /500k bonus 20-21 4.5m 21-22 4.5m /500k bonus

Hah Ridiculous, as many of us know. Barring injuries I can guarantee he will rightfully defend his salary and belong in the top 4 of this team. I am fine with 5m x 6y.

Just as expected. The deal isn't over payment, nor is it a steal. He is getting paid what a top 4 defenseman will get this and following years except that he took a longer term which is great for us. I was just about to write a few hours earlier that I predict 5 x 5 and I think I have written those numbers in the past here. The "extra" 6th year at 5 million is a nice bonus.

Not sure what Nikita Kucherov would cost. Probably a lot. I'm not posting for bartering purposes. Rather, what I saw from Kucherov this postseason was elite excellence. He was the most effective scorer I've seen in quite a while. His ability to score almost instantly when he receives the puck puts him in a very small group of snipers. And he does it in full speed. That puts up "potential HoF" flags for me. He's a player I will be following closely next season.

This would be a very bad trade. Jurco can still boom, he's young and has the tools. On top of that he doesn't have the best trade value. I hope it's just another nonsensical internet rumor.

We should open some sort of retirement home for all these oldtimers and long term injury players we have. A club house of sorts where fans could come visit to say hello. Taking a few brewskies with Franzen, Cleary and Alfie while they're lamenting of aches and dissatisfactions over falling apart.