ChristopherReevesLegs

We talked about this in the discord yesterday, but I think it's a true travesty that Blashill never ran a Helm/Glendog center scheme in the bottom 6. Babcock's last year with the Red Wings: "Maybe I'll try Helm on Datsyuk's wing" Blashill's first year with the Red Wings: "Helm is forever a winger in my mind now" Jeff is a half-assed Babcock wannabe without an original thought in his entire smooth-brain.

I know I and others say this every year, but sure looks like we could afford to lose Nielsen and Abby pretty easily and still ice an "acceptable" lineup. Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha Fabbri - Filppula - Zadina Helm - Glendening - Timashov Smith - Ehn - Erne Svechnikov/Rasmussen/Hirose Missing from the lineup: Abdelkader, Nielsen, Gagner, Perlini, and that's also with no UFA additions. Adding another UFA center and/or a Lafreniere perhaps will make things all the more easy. Sink or swim time is fast approaching for Svechnikov. He'll be 24 to start the season and I think he needs to start seeing tangible NHL ice time by December/January. Hirose, Ras, and Smith all look like they should be callups. Abby and Nielsen prolly should fear for their jobs.

With McIsaac turning pro this coming season, Cholowski looks like he's skating out on to thin ice. Cholo was passed by his draft-mate Hronek (nbd, Hronek is really good) Cholo was held off the roster in favor of Biega, Bowey, and Daley (and arguably at times by Ericsson and Goloubef as well) - no so good Now at the end of the season it looks like he was passed by a younger Gustav Lindstrom Cholo will almost certainly be passed by Seider very soon, and now he also has a very good Jared McIsaac joining in on the competition as well He's starting to look like the odd man out. Now one could say Cholo will be okay because we have Dmen leaving the team (Daley, Ericsson, and Goloubef) but will that really make a difference? Ericsson was nothing more than an injury fill-in. Daley was playing bottom pair minutes and getting scratched, and Goloubef was the warm body replacement for Green so Yzerman wouldn't have to subtract from GR's roster for the playoff run. I'm also going to assume Yzerman will likely sign in FA at least one roster Dman. Dekeyser - Hronek Nemeth - UFA Lindstrom - Bowey Biega Cholowski - Seider McIsaac - Hicketts If Seider gets the green light it may be all she wrote for Cholo besides being an injury fill in. McIsaac is gonna tear through the GR lineup and make himself a contender for the number 1 callup spot pretty quickly, seeing as he can actually play D and remain calm under pressure. Personally I expect more marginal growth from Cholo next year and McIsaac to turn some heads. He's not gonna pass Cholo on the depth chart next year, but I think it will just be a matter of time at that point.

Quarantine these coofers for the whole next season and take away their picks

Old prospects bad New prospects good

To be fair to Turris he had to play behind Forsberg and Duchene, AND Bonino to an extent. Playing as Nashvilles 8th forward. And he was still on a 40 pt pace, much better than any center besides Larkin we currently have. Our 7th forward was Glendog for pete sake. On this team Turris is probably our 2C and our at the very last our 5/6th forward. I would think he jumps back up to a 50+ pt center in that role with competent line mates, unless he's a total bum.

Yes

Rumored that Alexander Kadeykin prepared to join the Red Wings next season We drafted this kid in the 7th round the same year we got Larkin, Ehn, Turgeon, and Axel Holmstrom. He'd be 27 when the season starts. 6'5" 220 lb Russian center. Seems to be a late bloomer. Last two season his offensive numbers notably spiked upwards. Finished with 29 pts in 59 games in the KHL this year. Theoretically that translates roughly to a 30 pt season in the NHL over an 82 game span. Generally he seems to be regarded as a solid two-way forward with a good defensive game. We also have another Russian prospect that Yzerman took this last year in the 7th round. Kirill Tyutyayev. 5'9" 150 lb LW. Will be turning 20 this summer. Rumored that he is poised to make the jump to the KHL this next season, and if he does so he will be playing with Dastyuk (who is not retiring yet from what I've read). Like Kivenmaki there is suspicion that this kid will be a hidden gem.

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE

For McIsaac I'd say... Best case scenario: Kronwall Realistic scenario: Stuart Worst case scenario: Dekeyser Cholo actually did play pretty big minutes when he was up. He's just such Brendan Smith tier. I honestly doubt he'll be a legit puck mover.

Gagner has had a weird career where one season he's in the AHL, then he's dropping 50 pts in the NHL, then he's back in the AHL again. Not sure quite what to think yet, but yeah he seems like a useful utility scorer. If he's not a possible 2C we should pursue someone else.

Right but I don't think - correct me if I'm wrong - Gagner ever played for a team so utterly lacking in the 2C department b4. Choosing between Glendening v 2020 Filppula for our 2C is pretty freakin' abysmal Hopefully it's all a moot point and Yzerman intends to continue the 2C carousel that Holland started and he brings someone in. I don't think Veleno or Ras are ready for that level of duty yet.

You think so? Gagner was pretty much a 2nd/3rd liner for us right away and stayed there. AA got demoted out of Edmonton's top6 pretty quickly. Barring any additions in FA or callups, I see the roster shaking out like this: Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha Fabbri - Filppula/Gagner - Zadina Helm - Filppula/Glendening - Gagner Timashov - Ehn - Erne IDK where Nielsen and Abby fit in anymore, prolly only on the bottom line, and I don't see Gagner playing there with the glut of 4th liners we have. Again, barring any additions or callups, I think it's really dependent on what Filppula is. If Filppula continues to be offensively stunted I could see Gagner stepping into his 2C role.

That'll be $300.00 USD. Check or paypal? This one I call: The Future

Did you watch the season?

Quarantined. Bored. Drew this in MS paint. . Taking requests and commissions

Howie Howie Hippos

lol Take your meds schizos Yes, the lottery is #rigged The difference is this year it's rigged for us Yzerman is calling in all of his and the Illitch's favors to lock in Lafreniere on this one. Darren Pang has already confirmed this.

Sources say the exact opposite is happening. He's getting bigger. Accumulating more mass. Remember when you were a kid and wondered why they didn't just put a huge fat guy in the net that can cover the whole net frame? You're about to see that what-if in action next season.

Friend of mine is the amateur scout for BC and Alberta for the Islanders So you should only listen to me by proxy

The eternal Howard is ready for and wants ANOTHER season The legend isn't over. Howard haters officially BTFO and SEETHING. The future is brighter than I thought LGWers

So like: 1. Seider: 1-2 Dman 2. Veleno: 2/3C 3. Rasmussen: Net front 4. Berggren: 2nd liner 5. McIsaac: 2-3 Dman 6. Tuomisto: 2-3 Dman 7. Mastrosimone: 2nd liner 8. Johansson: 3-4 Dman 9. Smith: 3rd liner 10. Sderblom: Bottom 6er Pretty on point IMO, though more than a couple won't get there. Not really that daring of a take but that's okay I guess. Glad they see eye to eye with me on Seider and McIsaac. The player I hope and think might surprise ppl is Soderblom but idk.

You got psy-turds!

Oh it's not that I think we need lottery picks (we do). It's the timeline and dice rolls. You could of course build a great balanced team and win it all like the Blues this year. But to build a true powerhouse and return to dynastic glory you need multiple truly ELITE players. Yzermans, Lidstroms, Datsyuks, Zetterbergs, Crosbys, McDavids, Ovechkins, Kanes, Mackinnons, etc etc. It's not the 90s anymore. We're not gonna be getting those players in the 3rd or 7th or whatever. We need 1st rounders and we need an abundance of them in a short amount of time. Acquiring multiple of these players in a few short years could happen, but it's highly unlikely, especially only picking once in the 1st round like Yzerguy has us doing this year. Consider this team doesn't currently have any elite players unless you want to count Zadina or Seider (you know which one I do and I don't). I personally can't in good conscious even count Seider yet myself because he's never even played an NHL game yet. Consider that there is only about 1-4 (depending on the year) elite players coming out of every draft. Most coming out of the top5 or top10, but more than a few even coming in the later half. Consider that we have only one dice roll in the 1st this year (albeit a good roll), the chances of that roll being one of the 1-4 ELITE players are good but certainly not guaranteed. Especially worse I think if that roll isn't Lafreniere. Consider that that player might be a Larkin/Mantha and not truly ELITE, and that we are adding only a good player while also Yzerman reshapes and betters the team outside the draft. In that case maybe we're aren't picking top5 the next year. Maybe we bump down to 6,7,8 and those results begin compounding as more impact players are drafted and Yzerman trading and signing. Consider that this multi-year process is not going to result in us selecting an ELITE player each year, and our chances each year will likely decline less and less. We might get a Lafren this year, but we also might need to wait 2 or 3 drafts before that player comes to us. The argument I'm making is that we need to achieve critical mass. That we have to SEIZE these bottom years and maximize the inputs each year. We are getting 1 good dice roll, but it would be much better to have 1 or 2 average dice rolls on top of that. The only way I see us getting those is to begin stripping our core. With these extra picks we not only have a chance of getting our Lafren, but also our Pastranak. Now you could say "But CRL look at Deadmonton. They picked #1 4/5 years!" Not only is it not likely that we will get these same chances, how many ELITE players did they obtain from that?... ONE. That's the game we're playing, a game of chance. Some basement dwellers are gonna get lucky and get Crosby's and Malkin's in quick succession. Other teams will struggle for years to find these players. We are probably somewhere in between. The more rolls we have in the draft the better chance we have at accelerating this s*** hole and achieving max glory. It behooves us to weaponize all our assets in this window to increase our chances at these players and find them as quickly as possible, because the second part of the problem is also temporal. Yzerman has a window here to tank, but that's not forever. Eventually he has to produce results or be fired. That means a better team coming down the road with less percentage chance at adding ELITES. If he can't get a Lafren in the next 3 seasons (a real possibility) we may be stuck with an average bubble team. It could take us 5+ years to add the elite players we need to get the dynasty restored. In that time Larkin/Bertuzzi/Mantha could all be walking out on us anyway. So I don't think it's unwise at all to get picks/prospects you want for them now. TLDR: If you wanna tank, tank hard The point I was trying to drive home was that good likeable draft picks OFTEN fail. For every Larkin or Mantha there is a Sheahan or Svechnikov. For every McDavid or Draisitl there is a Yakupov or Pulijarvi. For every Tatar there is a Jurco. And we will continue to have our fair share of theses. Many players we were hopeful about came nowhere near perceived expectation. So I think it's rather naive to put into a future lineup (X 1st round pick) on the 1st line. That pick might suck, or might only make us good enough to not draft top5 anymore At the end of the day I don't want a good Red Wings team. I want a great one. Maximizing this trough also maximizes our cieling for a future dynasty. If I have to burn Larkin or Mantha for that so be it. The weak must die so the strong can reign in the sun.

Yeah yeah all those great future lineups posted for the last 10 years were foolish, BUT THIS time it's different. Definitely. This team needs another 5 years of drafting and building min. Forgive me for not stroking it to the worst team in the league with very few blue chips.