ely s

I hope you take the quality of opposition into account

Mantha did, because AA against the opponents best line? never going to work

I really don´t get that Zadina bashing. He just turned 20 and is doing more things right than wrong in the moment. He is showing signs of why he is a highly touted prospect. He looks more confident and no one can deny that he has got a real good shot, which he is learning to use on the NHL level. When most prospects played their first year after the draft in juniors, he played in the AHL, got a taste of NHL hockey and looked a lot better in the second half of last season. After a bit of a rough start in GR this year, he picked up the pace and is keeping it since being recalled. Some here might be disappointed that he didn´t have a 60 point rookie NHL season as a projected top 3 pick, but he will still be a very good player. So relax

do you think CHL competition is comparable to the level of the DEL? to score at a .92 ppg rate at the age of 17 in a man´s league is not an easy thing to do and he already lives the life of a professional.

Yesterday Mannheim played at league leading Munich (3-2 OT win) and he looked more like a Datsyuk type of a player. Sneaky, stealing/retrieving pucks all the time. Unfortunately we don´t have takeaway stats but it must have been at least five yesterday. He is extremly successfull along the boards in the neutral zone through his stickhandling and speed given his age and weight in a man´s league. That´s why he seems more of a passer, he is stealing pucks and creating brakeaway, 2on1 sitiuations that way. He is able to do everything at real high speed, very good anticipation offensively and defensively, playing the right way. Third most shots on the team, is playing pk and pp. #8 in scoring(25 GP, 5-18-23, 2nd on team) in at least 1:38 less ice time than the players ahead of him. The league leading scorer has got 30 points in as many games but with 4:38 more ice time per game. you can only guess how good he will be, to me he looks like a well rounded player who plays like a vet out there, the right way, responsible, combined with excellent speed( first steps an topspeed) and skill. Whoever picks him will get a real good player.

Correct, but name me three good/better d-men available for $3-4M.

I don´t know, if you look at their cap next year, $64,4M for 10 forwards, one defenseman and a goalie. Even with a $83M upper limit next year they will only have ~$18.5M for 4 forwards, 6 defensemen and a goalie. I don´t really see a way to have a real good back end with that sort of money. This year they somehow managed to talk Sakic into paying half of Barrie´s salary and have good deals with Ceci and Muzzin, but next year will be real interesting to see what Dubas is going to do

I´m not at all convinced of Cholos defensive capabilities, he´s real good at getting the puck up the ice. But his defensive game needs let´s say adjustments...

if you want that, you shouldn´t play Cholowski... the thing with Daley is, if you want something for him you have to play him and hopefully good. The better he plays the more we get.

they never/rarely played that many preseason games, I think Yzerman wanted to see as much as possible of what we have in our system.

He is playing 2nd line LW in the moment, just like Larkin in his first 1 1/2 years. I don´t know what would be the better position for him, his skating opens a lot of options. I need to see more of him, just two full and 2 condensed games so far this season, but what i´ve seen makes me very hopeful for our national team, Seider, Stützle, Kahun, Draisaitl, Greiss, Grubauer, Bokk, Bergmann... We are getting there in the podcast with Ben Simon you get a nice first hand evaluation of the DEL. He played there for a few years. Just to put the league in perspective NA juniors/AHL

We will see if he is as bad as you try to make us believe. None of the picks from Zadina on are NHL ready, we still have to wait and see whats with Quintin Hughes. Zadina wasn´t bad, the expectations are probably a little to high. All you hear about him is "he´s hard on himself and working hard". The rest will come, he´s got a pretty good toolset and will play with some really good players in GR. If he doesn´t play a real good season in GR this year I might start wondering if it was a mistake to pick him, but not before that.

sorry to hear that, keep your head up and my best wishes to you and your family

he is at a point/game rate in the DEL, 4 games and 4 points and the same in the CHL. Last years DEL topscorer had 57 points in 52 games. As you can see with Seider, playing against men at the age of 17 is only going to help you. He is not going to have the same situation as a NA player where it´s NHL or juniors. He is having experience against men and the option if he doesn´t make the team in his draft year he could play AHL right away

he was at around 4 shots per game at the end of the season and has 16 shots in three preseason games. If he keeps going at 4 shots/pg he will have 320 shots a season at 12% shooting percentage is good for 38 goals There is nothing in a trade like that what would make me think of it. 5" taller and 30 pounds more, a real good shot, good skater, an absolute beast trading for a guy who then will be playing for his third team in 5 years? No way I would trade a 30 goal scorer with his physics for a guy like Drouin.

Zadina,Vanek...

and it would have been a shorty as well...

yipp, 7 RH d-men, that means trading chips

I haven´t seen the game and there is no replay available but I found this...

and then he will be 24 and negotiating a contract for all his prime years. his salary in the third year of the current contract will be $9M. That looks like the next $100M deal to me, if he keeps going on. as long as we can keep them for $7M or less, depending on performence, I´m fine with it. Mantha is a beast and it looks like he has figured it out finally. Strong end to the season, real good WC and in preseason he looks as good as before. He is using his real good shot more often and seems to be even stronger than last year. AA is a different type but still a beast in his way. He tears apart defenses in his own way. I love both and would love to see them signing 8 year deals.

WTF?

hopfully Cholowski gets his positioning fixed and works on his overall defensive game. He looks sometimes lost in our d-zone.

time will tell...

last season we were hit hard with the injury bug and couldn´t replace our already not so good d-men, which has cost us, apart of a few points, some flow to play a decent season. This year we have players in the system to cope with stuff like that. Further I think we have players who are fed up of losing, who have to play for spots and contracts. Than there is Yzerman, who, instead of coming in and shaking up big time, is calmly putting pressure on everyone on the team, vets and prospects, they all know they have to proof they belong to the Wings future. As much as I would love another high pick, I believe we end up at around 85-90 points and pick between #10-15, unless we are finally lucky in the lottery

ultimate suckage is only guaranteeing a losing habit and I really have a problem with that sort of mentality. I don´t care where you end up at seasons end as long as you give all you have and you try to win every game. If SY is going a different route and going to loose on purpose, that would stop me being a DRW fan, because everything we were told in the last years was "we want to keep a competitive approach and a winning mentality" and I would feel betrayed in a way. We have the assets to start that turnaround during this season and are able to have a team to start next year as a playoff contender. edit:next year is 2020/21...