ChristopherReevesLegs

Larry Brooks - Rags & Trouba close to 7 year extension at $7.5 to $8 AAV

Yes my definition of a goal scorer is a player who scores a lot of goals. What's confusing about that to you? And yes if they get a lot of assists they can be a playmaker too... what bizzaro world did I just enter where you can only be one or the other? Stamkos had more assists than goals this year, is he in your eyes suddenly not a goal scorer anymore?? By your definition Jon Ericsson is a goal scorer based on this past season. I am confused. Is Larkin a goal scorer or not? Because in one instance you say he's not and the next he's one of our main 3... or did you mean Bertuzzi?

Scoring 32 goals doesn't make you a goal scorer? Rasmussen is literally known for most of his points being goals. Veleno scored nearly as many goals as Zadina did in juniors this year. Bertuzzi in his first breakout year had nearly as many goals as Mantha. Please enlighten me on what your arbitrary criteria for a goal scorer is. I was under the impression it's guys who score goals, but what'd I know eh.

Ok, we got Mantha, Larkin, AA, and Betuzzi who are all proficient at scoring goals. With Zadina, Rasmussen, and Veleno on the way. How many more goal scorers do we need to add?

If Yzerman doesn't pull off Mantha for Risto it will be the biggest Wings gaf since Franzen over Hossa

If the Sabres are in an Oilers with Hall or Preds with Subban type situation with Risto, I think we should definitely take advantage. NJD has pulled off two robberies this way already. I disagree that we don't need a player like Risto. Defense is our biggest need by far IMO. If you don't think we need a young borderline stud level Dman then what do we need? I think that's the point F Michael was trying to make with Trouba... You desperately wanted to add Trouba, but now that a similar Dman is available, suddenly we don't have a need for D anymore...

Perfect. His trade value is at an all time high! Why did Subban get traded? Taylor Hall? Etc. They have other needs and other Dmen ready to step up. He's just the odd man out and can fetch a nice return. They've been trying with the guy for years, Botterhill might just want a fresh start.

IDK man, Botterhill still seems to be rebuilding and is taking the shotgun approach to his defense. If he thinks his future top4 is: Dahlin - Jokiharju Miller - Montour +Anyone else who emerges Then they can afford to trade him, pocket the cash (which they need), and get some decent players/picks to help out in other areas. Anyway, I think Botterhill is just fishing for a knock your socks off deal. I think Risto will still be Buffalo come October, but that's just a feeling.

With Risto it's hard to say. He's still young and only ever been surrounded by awful teammates and D partners. So I give him some benefit of the doubt. Like I don't think he's an A grade guy defensively, but I also don't think -40 is reflective of his skill either. I think the risk is: He might not be a legit top pairing Dman. But with that said, he'd probably be at least the best 2nd pair Dman in the league.

They have a logjam at D Dahlin - Ristolainen Scandella - Montour McCabe - Miller Hunwick - Bogosian Pilut - Jokiharju Nelson - Hickey Risto is probably the only one that's movable that will bring back a good return that they didn't just acquire

It certainly could happen. He seems willing to ax players he doesn't like, and he put a big emphasis on players who work hard at the draft. I get the impression he thinks he inherited a lazy team. I wonder if he changes coaches before changing players though.

AA and Mantha both Zadina is quickly becoming #1 contender though

This is make or break season for Mantha this year IMO. I need a 30 x 30, 60+ pt season out of him or I hate him.

Mantha lol

From what I remember of Ristolainen from living in Buffalo was that he was like a bigger less-talented Erik Karlsson. Big mobile Dman who can eat top minutes and move the puck around the ice... but prone to frustrating defensive lapses and gaffs, and obviously doesn't possess the flashy level talent of Karlsson. I'd roll the dice on it for the right price

I'd pass on Bogosian, Hamonic, and Schultz. Bogo and Hamonic have been overrated for years and I don't think they''d move the needle for us significantly at all. It'd be like adding another Dekeyser. I'd rather just save the money. Schultz is decent if you shelter him. I don't think we are in any position to be sheltering Dmen. For that reason, I'm out. I would add Barrie, Brodie, and Gudas to your list. I actually think Gudas is underrated defensively and it gets overlooked because of all his big hits and thugishness.

I'm not overly concerned about our attractiveness in 2020. We'll have a solid young forward group Money to spend on improving the D And an aging goalie group All it would take really is giving one or two good Dmen the payday they want and Howard at least holding up or Larsson emerging for us to suddenly be a decent looking team again. I think a smart Dman would look at our team and think: "I could be on an original 6 team and immediately be one of their most important players who could entirely reverse their fortunes" I think Mike Green probably thought this to some extent when originally joining us. Not to mention players knows that the team is in the hands of Yzerman now.

I assume next year Yzerman will be in rebuild the D mode. We have almost no UFA forwards, and my guess is Howard will be back again on a cheaper contract depending on the year. Defense will have: Hronek, Cholowski, Dekeyser, Nemeth, Bowey Possibly also: Green, Kaski, another emerging prospect like Seider or Lindstrom If Green is gone then we basically only have Hronek, Cholo, and DK as top 4 capable Dmen . And DK barely makes that list and Cholo is still super unproven. I see real need to add one or two steady Dmen. The two obvious big names that would be cool to add would be Trouba and Krug. Other than that I have no idea who will actually become available; it's too early. Krug - Trouba Cholowski - Hronek Dekeyser - Bowey/Nemeth/Kaski/Seider/Lindstrom

Fans are often wrong. I put very little merit in "fans disagreed with X" What's the point, IS my point. Saying Red Wings ruined player X is dumb because you can't prove a smidget of that assumption. Interesting that you chose to say it in response to me. Then why consistently bring this conspiracy theory up? As Buppy pointed out this should be put to rest. It's been nothing but fan theory since day one. You and I could've been NHLers under different circumstances too. I don't blame my peewee coach or the team I was on for that though.

Because not being able to prove something doesn't exist isn't evidence that it does exist. That's the definition. Appeal to ignorance. A lot of fans felt Moritz Seider at #6 was never gonna happen too... Go ahead, lay out which prospects were mismanaged and evidence of it. I'm happy to hear it. Now you're exaggerating my POV. A straw-man fallacy. I certainly do not blindly trust coaches and managers or think they are incapable of mistakes, as demonstrated in my initial response I've highlighted here. I do however trust their opinions much more than yours or mine. Here's the thing. Jurco and Sproul also could have been drafted by a different team and developed worse in those systems than they did in ours. We'll never know for sure though, so whatever. Both players have tried with multiple organizations now and failed. If you wanna blame the Red Wings and Babcock or whomever for their failings in NY, CHI, or any other organization, more power to ya, I think its silly though. We tried our best with them and it didn't work out. They didn't become Dylan Stromes elsewhere though so I'd lean on the fact that they're just not anything special.

Projected ceiling and floor? Projected by whom? Corey Pronman? Other fans on the internet? The overwhelming majority of prospects never make the NHL. Most will never live up to their "projection". I don't blame any team for that. Each team is trying to give its prospects every chance to succeed. That's the goal of development. Players don't suddenly forget how to score and wash out because a coach has a certain defensive system. I think that's ludicrous. Look at Babcock with Kadri. Turned him into a defensively dominant player, and yet he's still a 45 to 65 pt center. Look at Tyler Ennis under Boudreau and Babcock. Ennis faired better offensively in Babcocks system. There's absolutely nothing to substantiate that the Red Wings or Babcock "ruined" anyone. Everyone claimed for years Babs was holding Jurco back. Whoopdeedoo, the Blackhawks failed to turn him into a Dylan Strome story after us and now he's still a career minor league with a 3rd organization. Did we really ruin him, or did he just not live up to the youtube hype? At the end of the day these players have to grow and adapt into NHL players and earn a role. The team affords them tools and opportunities to do this. Failing to make the team or even get signed after the draft is mostly on the player.

But this is an appeal to ignorance fallacy, or proving non-existence fallacy. If I said unicorns are real because you can't prove they're not, you'd call me an idiot, and you'd be right. Or more on topic, If I said I think Kronwall is better suited for forward... just because you can't categorically prove he's not is not evidence that supports my claim. Basically, it's unsubstantiated rumor. So if your opinion is: Babs ruined player X, and your evidence of that is: You can't prove he didn't, It's pretty clear that's a very weak opinion to stand on. Of course no player is ever handled 100% perfectly by a team, but I think it's pretty weak to say a team ruined a player just because he didn't live up to your personal perceived cieling of said player. Meh, basically what you're saying is different coaches have different styles and strategies. That's true and different players should in theory play differently in a different system. But I think that impact is very minimal. You can play NHL hockey or you can't. I don't think a different system would have suddenly made these players into NHL caliber players.

1. Marry 2. f*** 3. Kill

Scarf lady bad

Who are the lazy guys on the team? Mantha? Athanasiou? Vanek? I bet Nemeth is gonna be a Glendening level try hard.