bIueadams

Next season: Forwards: Larkin $8 Bertuzzi $8 Copp $5.625 Vrana $5.25 Perron $4.75 Fabbri $4 Kubalik $2.5 Zadina $1.825 Rasmussen $1.46 Raymond $0.925 Berggren $0.925 Veleno $0.894167 Abdelkader $1.055556 *buyout Total: (x12 forwards) $39.959723 million Defense: Chiarot $4.75 Hronek $4.4 Lindstrom $1.5 Edvinsson $0.925 Seider $0.863333 Total: (x5 dmen) $12.438333 Goalie: Husso $4.75 Nedeljkovic $4.5 Total: (x2 goalies) $9.25 > guessing on Larkin, Bertuzzi, Lindstrom, and Ned. Total spending: $61.648056 Barely above the salary floor. SY has AGAIN put us in a position to spend roughly $20 million dollars on upgrades. I suspect he will want to actually spend about $10 to $15 million. We won't need as much depth pieces with guys like Johansson, Cossa, Soderblom, and friends on the call up list. But we will need at least one solid LHD, and then with enough money left over we can probably nab a big impact piece at the forward position. With cap room to spare.

Svech signed AGAIN - this time by the Sharks. This kid continues to find work, and yet we were more interested in playing Givani Smith, Sam Gagner, Carter Rowney, and Adam Erne. Trashill actually ruined this kid, and Yzerman's perspective on him by never playing him. He was better than our entire 4th line last year, and he's probably still better than most of our 4th line this year. Beside maybe Sunnyquist. Would have liked to see what Lalonde could do with him. But oh well I guess. SY decided to f*** around with blash for way too long...

Maybe you should go buy another watch

Kasper = Zetterberg Buch = Datsyuk Seider = Lidstrom Soderblom = Holmstrom Husso = Howard Zadina = Samuelsson Its all coming together exactly as we have forseen

Frans Nielsen will be joining Seattles front office in player development. Kraken had a rough - but as expected - first season. They look poised to take the next step now though. Burakovsky - Wright - Eberle Schwartz - Beniers - Bjorkstrand Gourde - Wennberg - Donskoi Tanev - McCann - Geekie Oleksiak - Dunn Larsson - Schultz Soucy - Borgen Grubauer Dreidger This team could do some serious damage this year. Especially in the west.

Tier 1: Franchise pillar talent. Award winning level. Possible # retirement. Tier 2: Elite or very low chance of failure. Likely core players. Tier 3: Boom or bust territory. Tier 4: Dark horse players. Could be great, but most won't make any impact.

Tier 1: Seider Tier 2: Raymond, Edvinsson, Kasper, Cossa, Berggren Tier 3: Soderblom, Zadina, Veleno, Mazur, Johansson, Buium, James, Buchnelikov Tier 4: Wallinder, Viro, Niederbach, McIsaac, Sebrango, Hanas

Right

Because Zadina is top6 scoring role or bust. Again, he doesnt bring anything else to the table. If he cant score hes essentially useless to us. I dont disagree with, and would have played Zadina exactly how Blash played him the last few years. Majority Ozone starts. Offensive linemates. And PP time. Youve got to get this kid to find his scoring touch or hes a bust. Unfortunately he continues not to score despite these generous oppurtunities. And shows little to no growth in a scoring role. Ras on the other hand brings value to the bottom 6 even if he never finds a scoring touch. Im fine playing him further down the lineup in that role. And hes been MUCH better than Zadina has at maximizing his scoring oppurtunities.

I cant say what anyone is. Sebrango and Viro have entered mens leagues and played very well abormally early relative to typical routes. Barton hasnt had a chance to play much at all. If Newpower goes down to toledo so be it. But ill be a bit dissapointed if SY brought Viro over to the states just for Horcoff to bench or send him to Toledo in favor of a career AHLer in the twighlight of his career. We have plenty of vets and rookies under contract. Lashoff has become a redundancy.

GR development coach B Lash. Dan Cleary lite.

If youre gonna use scoring/60 if you have to use 5v5 play. Otherwise youre inflating Zadinas stats with PP time. Ras: D+2: 1.06 + worse linesmates D+4: 1.05 + worse linemates D+5: 1.33 + PK + worse linemates Zadina: D+1: 0.0 + better linemates D+2: 1.25 + better linemates D+3: 1.16 + better linemates D+4: 0.95 + better linemates

Not saying Lashoff isnt a solid AHL Dman. Im saying he doesnt have a contract with the wings, and we have more than enough prospects who do. AHL is a development league and he shouldnt be taking spots from guys like Viro and Barton who need the icetime.

Eddog sucks now

Last season Ras scored 1.33 pts per 60 minutes. Zadina scored 0.95 pts per 60 minutes. Ras did that while being deployed in the D zone disproportinately more often than Zadina. And most often with worse linemates. Ras was easily the better offensive player last year. Im not even trying to build Ras up. Hes been a dissapointment too. Zadina has just been THAT BAD. While also bringing nothing else to the table. Does Zadina kill penalties? Does he take a large amount of defensive zone starts? Does he take draws? No... he takes sheltered offensive minutes with great linemates and does less with it then Ras does from a bottom 6 defensive role.

Zadina, Ras, and Veleno have all been relative busts so far. But Ras brings the size element that will keep him in an NHL job for years. All he has to do is keep skating decently, keep playing defense decently, and gaining weight, and He'll remain an NHLer for a good while. If he picks up his scoring along the way thats an added bonus. Zadina and Veleno dont have that luxury. They have to score or they might be out of a job completely. Maybe Veleno can turn himself into a Helm type, but i dont see that happening for Zadina. Much too timid. Much too incapable in the D zone. Points per ice time

Seider, Chiarot, Maata, Hronek, Hagg, Lindstrom, Oesterle, Kampfer, Pysyk (IR), Walman (IR). Thats 8 in Detroit. Edvinsson, Lashoff, McIsaac, Sebrango, Johansson, Viro, Barton, Newpower. That's 8 in GR. All due respect to the good soldier that is Brian Lashoff, but I'm not all that interested in icing a 32 year old career AHL Dman - who doesnt even have a contract with the Red Wings - while x2 actual prospects in need of ice time ride the bench. This is like benching Andreasson so that Dominik Shine can play. SY seems to have moved past the Lashoff era, and so have I. I suspect he was only even re-signed to an AHL contract bc he is settled with his family in GR and doesnt want to play anywhere else. So why not keep him on the team as insurance for AHL peanuts. Least we can do for a guy who so loyal for so long anyway... Kampfer, Hagg, and Pysyk may all be joining GR at different points this season as well. Lash just isn't needed much anymore. This year is likely his victory lap while they find him a spot in coaching or development.

Rasmussen and Veleno have both played an unremarkable game so far. But thats almost good in a way. Theyre at least plugging along and playing the systems without me notcicing egregious errors. Thats the baseline of what i want from young bottom 6 forwards. Zadina is a trainwreck on skates. He's way too timid and lackluster defensively to be put in a bottom 6 defensive role. But also nowhere near competent enough to handle a higher scoring role. He falls right into that weird limbo where he wont cut it in the NHL, but will probably go score 80 pts in the swiss league. Im still pro starting him with suter and kubalik on the 3rd line this season. But im also about 2 wristers - that were going high and left anyway - going directly into a dman in a clogged shooting lane away from benching him permanately.

Not sure where Lashoff fits in anymore now that we have so many Dmen, especially when Pysyk and Walman return and Lash is on an AHL contract. Gotta think Pysyk at least gets played as a forward mostly. DET: Seider, Chiarot, Hronek, Maata, Oesterle, Lindstrom, Walman (7) GR: Hagg, Kampfer, Edvinsson, Mcisaac, Sebrango, Johansson, Viro (7) Toledo: Lashoff, Newpower, Barton (3)

Hate to say it, but Zadina's evaluation as a player comes down to the infamous and infallible ol eye test for me. First time i seriously watched him was when he first took the ice for GR. I went from over the moon about this prospect to massive resentment about the pick almost overnight. He clearly has the hand eye and some other tools to use but his brain is just stupid. Poor decision making in all 3 zones. Is not processing the game fast enough to ever be a top9 nhl forward. And I stand by that evaluation i made of him back in his GR days because NOTHING has changed since then. His game has not developed in any meaningful way these past few years. And that should be the kicker for most. Its one thing to be a dissapointing young prospect, its another to show zero forward progress in your development after multiple seasons being afforded great linemates and ice time. This is Brendan Smith 2.0. A talented player with a dumb noggan. I used to say we could make a hudler out of him if we paired him with out two top guys. I doubt even that at this point.

Edvinsson needs a 5 months to a year in GR. Lil NA ice seasoning b4 callup.

Are we watching the same team???? Lidstrom was stoic and quiet lead by example. Seider is literally overflowing with charisma and outgoing in ur face personality. These two are not at all similar.

One of your better evaluations. The root of the problem is Zadina does not have a mind for hockey. Datsyuk used to back check into the defensive zone and prey on unsuspecting puck carriers. And his ability to stick handle allowed him to literally strip these ppl of the puck. Zadina has that same ability. You see flashes of it. When he finds himself in the right position he wrecks havoc. The difference is, datsyuk found himself in those situations often because he could think the game better than most. Zadina rarely does cause hes a total R-slur. Hes not computing the game at a high level. Hes routinely making poor decisions and misreading plays. This isnt a high level player.

Joking aside... Hronek and Bertuzzi are two of the only men of culture on this team. Men with pushback. Replacing them on the stat sheet is maybe doable. Replacing them in the lockerroom isnt as easyily done. Id like to see more Hroneks and Bertuzzis on this team. Not less. This isnt your fine wine 2008 Lidstrom gentemanly red wings anymore. This is Seider era. We dont play fancy finesse anymore. We jam square pegs into round holes and tell u to deal with it. This team is going to brute force its way back into the league with big talented fearless players like Seider, Kasper, Edvinsson, Bertuzzi, Soderblom, Mazur, and Cossa. And we will not care how much our oppents cry about it.

Id say this is why Mackel and I have been calling for selling him since he landed in GR. There's so much wrong with him that theres no realistic way it can all be fixed in the frame needed. Hes a car that showed up to the shop with a seized engine, extensive body damage, and a burned out interior. And the customer wants it road ready by next weekend. My advice: scrap it for parts and buy a new car. This project isnt worth yours or my time. Theres just too much to fix with him for this ever to work out. SY should have sold him to the highest bidder the day he was hired.