solarion

Good AAV and term, though I wish the term were longer, glad Larkin's contract is a done deal. I suspect this contract will be a bargain going forward.

Not sure that never giving up on a play is an intangible. I mean Yzerman soundly out scored Fedorov...that's not intangible. It showed up on the scoreboard night after night. Sure Fedorov was a better skater, but did he really have that much better a shot? If he did then how come it didn't relate to a higher goals per game avg? Yzerman 692g 1514gp = .457 goals/game Feds 483g 1248gp = .387 goals/game Perhaps because Fedorov was a great skater and was plainly disinterested at times it's assumed he was more skilled than he was in some regards. Surely he was solid defensively, but Yzerman was no slouch defensively either...as to their shots, I don't know that Sergei's was any better than Stevie's. Frankly, the statistics indicate the opposite may well be the case. Collectively these guys played 2,762 regular season games and after that remarkably large sample size, it's Yzerman and not Fedorov that has the > s% @ 15 vs Fedorov's, still very respectable 12.1. Now that's after > 8500 regular season shots fired...Yzerman scored with more of those shots than Feds. Perhaps because Yzerman did work so hard, his skill is underestimated. Very few players accomplished what he did, and that includes Sergei Fedorov.

Not getting all these "different era" comments at all. The gentlemen in question were teammates...their careers overlapped for 15 seasons. Certainly while the word "better" is somewhat subjective, it's difficult to make a case for Fedorov having a greater impact on his team(s) or on hockey in general than Steve Yzerman had and is still having.

There are many avenues by which cheap(ish) tickets may be obtained once the season starts. Season ticket holders in particular tend to sell cheap(ish) as game day approaches and they realize they cannot make the game. If/when they fail to sell the tickets, they ultimately give them to a friend...a friend that paid nothing for them and may or may not go to the game. When not a season ticket holder myself, I've gone to many a game for < $100 and that includes my companion's ticket. Tickets pop up on eBay and faceplant all the time at great prices, you just have to enjoy bargain hunting. Being buds with lots of season ticket holders doesn't hurt either. lol @ Leftwinger. How do you put a price tag on memories that will be with you till you die? I was front and center the day Pavel Datsyuk got a Gordie Howe hat trick. Let me tell you, I'd have paid 10x as much to see that! The next day both my gf and myself had sore throats from shouting at Pasha to KICK COREY PERRY'S ASS!

That's a fair point about Ras, and hopefully he improves there. He's kind of the anti-Veleno in this regard...where Joey V racks up the primary assists.

Yeah, but at least you'll get a look at Smith, Holmstrom, Zadina, McIsaac, Veleno, and Regula. Those are the guys on the roster that I'd be most interested in watching. In the development game I went to Regula made some things happen and McIsaac was having a good game, but got wiped out along the boards and didn't return. Givani Smith is always fun to watch. lol

Not sure that's even opinion. Seems like a fact by nearly any metric. I suppose you could argue about which player was better defensively, I mean both players were great two way guys, but Sergei could absolutely fly when he turned the jets on. Also like a lot of Russian players he had a way of getting lost in coverage and generating offense in sneaky fashion...kind of like Brett Hull used to do...though in Hull's case I think he was just so dang slow that the defenders got bored covering him. lol Better/best player to me means simply ...who would you draft 1st. I loved watching Sergei Fedorov play hockey, but in a re-draft I take Yzerman ahead of Fedorov without a second thought. His character and attitude alone ensure that he's the guy you want on your team...even if he wasn't an amazingly skilled hockey player. Now ask yourself who do you take first...Fedorov, Yzerman, ...or the perfect human? Now that's a tough one. There I may actually take Lidstrom ahead of #19, but I'd have to think long and hard on that one. Likely my two all-time favorite hockey players.

Agree. Dmen generally develop slower than forwards so it's more difficult to tell where they'll plateau when they're babies. So far though Rasmus looks like the real deal. Great job by the Buffalo tank commanders on landing a potential generational dman. Let's see if they can put him out there with Eichel and the team can still stink up the ice game in and game out. They're getting almost as tough to watch as Edmonton with their perpetual under performance.

Ah right...good info there thanks. Kivenmaki and Adams had a great development game I went to, great effort from those guys and highly visible. Also of note Berggren and Rasmussen played great in that game. The guy I most want to see is Filip Hronek though and he's never in any of these things...dangit. Driving all the way to GR to catch a Griffins game isn't very appealing anymore, I'm much closer to LCS than Van Andel these days. Oh well hopefully Hronek gets a look with the Wings soon.

No Svech, Berggren, Hronek, Larsson, Lindstrom, Hicketts, Turgeon, Sulak, Kotkansalo, Petruzelli...I'm sure I'm missing more. Sure is. The upside to the Wings sinking of late is that they're finally getting decent draft position for the first time in decades and the prospect pool reflects this. Plus the Wings cleaned up in the 1st and 2nd rounds of this last draft(Zadina, Veleno, McIsaac, Berggren). Still think the prospect pool for Dmen and goalies is a bit thin, but hopefully next year these are addressed.

Sure would like to see more room for the kids to play, but Helm is still the best option to center the 3rd line if Zetterberg retires this year. IF Hank plays one more year AND the draft pick is a late one, AND Gus and Helm waive their NTCs then yeah this trade looks alright. That's a lot of Ifs and ands. Kinda smacks of desperation on MBs part. If this trade is anything more than an unsubstantiated rumor(unlikely)...I mean all these players going back and forth between division rivals.

Ummm...not really bad exactly, but extremely unlikely to happen for any number of reasons. "draft pick" is entirely too generic to assess the value going to Montreal. Is that a 1st or a 7th? ...kinda important. lol Both Gus and Helm have NTCs. Goose and Patches would both be rentals, so this would be more of a "dump Helm's salary kinda thing, and the timing sucks. Helm will be needed to center a line if Hank doesn't play this season. I like Max, but I'd pass on this deal, the Wings can probably land a 1st for Goose at the TDL which makes a lot more sense than getting a 29yo winger rental for a year while the Wings are rebuilding.

I don't think that's really much of a factor, I mean they were drafted only 6 years apart. Yzerman's best season, production wise, was '88/'89 with 65g 90a 155 pts 80 games and Fed's best production was '93/'94 with 56g 64a 120pts with 82 games played. Five years, 9 goals and a whopping 36 assists separate their best seasons...and Yzerman played 2 fewer games to get there. We really don't have to speculate about how different defenses were because obviously, these guys were teammates. Yzerman played only 58 games in '93/'94 and racked up 24g 58a 82pts. Fedorov averaged 1.46ppg in his best season and Yzerman averaged 1.41ppg the same year. While clearly Fedorov didn't play to his potential much of the time, and could have achieved more, Yzerman is the guy you choose first in a re-draft...he simply worked harder, which more than made up for any skill difference between these two awesome hockey players. Edit: one other thing to note. Yzerman's 2nd best regular season production was during the '92/'93 season...when he racked up 58g 79a 137pts in 84 games 1.63ppg. Sergei played only 73 games that year and produced 34g 53a 87pts = 1.19ppg.

Good for Justin and Julie. Congrats to the Abdelgatorz!

While Fedorov has the edge in pure skill, Yzerman was the better all around hockey player due to the fact that he worked harder than Feds. Stevie never took a shift off, never gave up on a play...dude was tenacious as hell. I remember watching plays where 19 would get knocked down 2 - 3 times and STILL find the back of the net...you couldn't stop the guy. Yzerman wound up with over 1.15 ppg over his long career, while Sergei "only" got .94. Though to be fair Yzerman saw more ice time and Feds was used as a defender for a portion of his career.

I don't think they've set a date yet for the upcoming season, at least not that I've heard. Probably they'll make that information available soon. I've been as early as late November and as late as the last week of January. I'll post here if I catch wind of the date for this year's open house.

The defense by committee concept probably only works, or at least works properly, if you're able to ice at least a couple lines of defensively sound forwards that can chip in with some solid back checks or cover up for some gaffs from your blueliners. We've all seen how exposed the Wings have been defensively without a guy like Lidstrom back there to make the occasional goal saving play look like just another day at the office. The blueline has been so bad in Detroit that even solid 2 way forwards can't cover all the holes and defensive breakdowns. It's only gotten worse without Datsyuk picking pockets and with Z getting older...and slower.

Yes please...at least for pre-season. ...and if #40 doesn't answer the bell, I'd like to get a look at Veleno. I suspect Joey V isn't that far away from NHL ready...at least if he's allowed to play wing to acclimate to the reduced time and space.

+1. Mantha is a sharpshooter with a career s% to go with it. He's got great eye hand, but ideally he'd be freed up to channel Brendan Shanahan like power forward/sniper behavior and less demolition man like behavior. Rasmussen should take over the net front office space and use his big body to blot out the opposing goalies view of the world.

One does get that feeling given how quiet management is of late and the way they handled Stone and Ceci's contract negotiations before finally giving them each one year deals. I bet they'd love to move Ryan's boat anchor of a contract...with it's modified NTC...for what it's worth. Likely Ryan waves that thing to go anywhere at all given the mess the Sens are in. They're only at even now...behind on picks if you take quality into consideration. Their own 2019 1st and 3rd belong to Colorado due to the misguided Duchene trade and they've picked up Pitt's 3rd and Calgary's 7th. Probably safe to say Dorion will be a very busy GM between now and the trade deadline.

That works both ways though. If he keeps improving...which is probable, then he'll seem like a bargain going forward, particularly as the cap rises. Yeah, he had a tough sophomore campaign, but it wasn't for lack of effort, he just had to figure out how to create a little more time and space for himself. Larkin has the same work ethic as guys like Zetterberg, Yzerman, and Lidstrom. He's not going to be content giving less than 100%, he'll give you everything he's got every night. I'm not generally a fan of long contracts, but it makes a lot of sense with guys that are self motivating. Kid is clearly being groomed to be the face of the franchise going forward. Giving him a contract with term illustrates management's confidence in him and removes any potential contract distractions for the foreseeable.

Would be nice, but Larkin > W. Karlsson, Dylan should get more. Karlsson had a great year, but there's a near zero chance he hits that kind of production again...that shot% wowzers. Edit: Maybe that's a bit harsh re: Karlsson, but the guy was pretty unspectacular for the first few years of his career...just over .25ppg I believe. Goes to Vegas and strikes it rich with almost 4x the production on a ppg basis mostly due to an unsustainable s%. Good on him for getting paid, and maybe that was his break-out campaign, but it screams fluke to me. McPhee must be on the same page, which of course is why Karlsson got only a 1yr "show me" deal. With Larkin I'd give that kid max term if he'll sign on the line, his #'s are what they are because he works his ass off every shift.

Not counting on it, but still somewhat hopeful he has one more year in him. If he doesn't, then I see it as a greater chance we'll see a prospect get more ice time.

Agree re: Sulak, he's pretty far down the depth chart, but stranger things have happened. Hronek and Cholo are pretty equal overall in my book, with an offensive edge to Hronek...plus he's got that right handed shot, so he likely has the edge over Cholo in the battle for a roster spot. It'll be interesting to see who sticks long term out of Jensen, Hicketts, Cholo, Hronek, and McIsaac. Brendan...yeah, dude with every tool in the box, but rarely seems to choose the right tool at the right time. Bummer. Doubtful, but I still hope he figures it out same day...even though he's NY's problem now. Turning him into Gallant and Berggren was the right play.

^^^ Sounds spot on. Of all the prospects, those are the two I'm most anxious to see get a stint with the big club(Zadina & Hronek), so this should be fun to watch. If Hank doesn't start the season then Helm is probably centering the 3rd line...which isn't ideal, but at least it would increase the likelihood of seeing more Zadina and/or Svechnikov.