Jimmybigrigs69

Straight outta Detroit. 7+ years with the Griffs. Absolutely rocking it. Showing what "giving a s***" looks like. I dont know why we dont round out roster with guys like this. Absolute DOG. Shinedog.

Anton Johansson signed to ELC. Kinda a dark horse for us. Big shutdown guy. Doesnt get the point scoring attention. Believe I had him ranked as our #3 D prospect a few years ago (before ASP and the crowd)

And now Stuard... colts fans saying similar things to Lopez. Criminally underrated balls to the wall LB. Nice.

Grets should lose the record cause he's maga Ovi shouldnt win the record cause he's Putin Truly dark times for the 51st state

So... looking at the offseason. Kane, Petry, and Lyon are probably gone. The dream is dead for Kane. He barely re-signed last year, he likely will want to pursue with a better team next year. Petry sucks. Prolly retires. With Mrazek acquired and Cossa on the doorstep, I dont see the wing paying Lyon. Good luck in UFA bro. Craig Smith prolly also retiring. Motte can come back if he's cheap again. At D, ASP will prolly take Petry's place. I think Wallinder and Buium should seriously be considered for spots as well. At F, Mazur and Soderblom will prolly get permamanent spots. At G, Cossa will likely be waiting in the wings if either talbot or mrazek falter. If Yzerman signs more tarasenkos i swear to god i will lose my sheet.

Interesting tidbit Rasmus Kagstrom of Skelleftea tweets that the plan for ASP is to finish the season in NA as soon as swede playoffs are over. He would be a huge shot in the arm for this team.

Tires, kicked Team, liked Enforcer, power play Juk, fugging pot Yup It's dead wings time

Pretty darn happy with the lions offseason so far. Lalonde joked about bringing in Campbell to inspire the boys. But now I'm thinking Illitch should bring in Brad Holmes to show SY how to GM... Biggest offseason issue = CB1 Brad handled this masterfully. Carlton Davis's contract was up and he went all aggro saying he would no longer take team friendly deals. So Davis signed with the Pats and we signed former Jet DJ Reed (yes we now have DJ Reader and DJ Reed on the team). In doing so we saved 12 million dollars, gained a compensation 3rd round pick, AND got the better back. DJ Reed is hungry to win, and he took the team friendly deal that Davis wouldnt. Absolute A+ move by the Lions. Signing NT Roy Lopez from the Texans Sneaky good move. Tex fans are saying this guy is criminally underrated. I watched a video they (texans) put out about his personal life earlier this year. This guy literally does nothing but train and chill with his family. Like he literally says my mom and my sisters are my best friends and I hang out with them everyday... after I train with my cousins of course. He fits the Lions culture perfectly. Hardworking family man. He probably wont start on the DL, but as a depth piece hes going to be pivotal if our future is anything like last year. McNeil and Reader probs start, with Wingo and Lopez subbing in. I suspect Broderic Martin will get cut. Shocker: Z Smith cut Didnt see this coming. Smith played well and definately seemed well liked. However his departure saves 11 million over 2 years. Unfortunately we are at the stage where our big players contracts are forcing us to be frugal in other places. Because of this we need another edge rusher all of the sudden, like bad. I highly suspect this need will be addressed at the draft, and we will select a first round DE to pair wity Hutch. Despite the disspointing end to an amazing run last year, we have only gotten better. And the injury bug couldnt possibly hit that hard again. Plan the parade.

Hockey guys breakdown of the wings struggles is pretty brutal. One thing he flat out admits = Larkin is not a 1C. Something a lot of fans have been trying to get across for years... We've essentially built this teams foundation on a pillar thats not strong enough. Trotting out a 2C and pretending he's a 1C has not worked for an entire DECADE now. That's how long it's been. Time to wake TFU. >just get a 1C then Pretty much impossible unless you draft one high. And unfortunately we are now setup for perpetual mediocrity drafting outside the top 10. And even worse, the oppurtunity to correct this error has come and gone. Larkin should have been sold in 2023 for multiple chests of gold, instead of being re-signed to a massive contract with an NTC that takes him till 2031. The picks gained from that would have accelerated the build massively, hurt us in the short term, but it would have reset our foundation (away from holland era, and towards SY era). Seider is turning 24 and Raymond is turning 23 within the month. Theyre in their prime, and we are no closer to the playoffs and trending worse. And strategically, this team is worse off than a basement team drafting high. >but yzerman didnt win a cup until he was 384 years old! LARKIN. AINT. YZERMAN. I said it years ago, this team will not win a cup with Larkin on the roster. At this point we are stalling so Pizzaman could keep his top jersey seller on the team. Until this fundamental problem is adressed we are wasting our time. Unfortunately I dont think SY can do anything meaningful to address it anymore. Thank gosh the lions are good.

Tampa was like fun money for him. Now that he's back with "sacred" Detroit he's fully adopted the Holland method.

Steve Dangle. STEVE ******* DANGLE. Said today on his podcast that he hopes Yzerman remains the Wings GM for a long time... bc of what a s*** job he's done. This front office has become exhausting. Any Wings GM not named Yzerman would have been fired by now. Seriously digest that.

>pay to rid of Fabbri >pay to get rid of Walman >sell Maata >take on gourdes cap to help a divisional rival >"we're going to try our best to make the playoffs, trades to improve were just too expensive" Yzerman is a scam liar. Actions speak louder than words. What actuallly pisses me off is his fence sitting. STOP ACTING LIKE UR TRYING TO HELP THE TEAM FOR PR AND ACTUALLY DO A REAL SELL OFF. Real fans would understand a sell off. A direction. Instead he does half ass BS and then blows smoke up our ass.

Directionless team loses How could this happen?

FIFY

Worst part is... SY's excuse for moving Walman and Fabbri was because he needed the cap space. Cap space for what? To sell again? To acquire the fumbling disaster that is Gustafsson? Regardless, we could have remained under the cap WITH walman still in the lineup. Call me when the scam is fired. Besides a few good trades - that he ended up squandering in the end - this has been holland lvl bull s***.

Like the agents said in the agent poll... there is no plan in detroit and its a very unstable franchise. Ive lost a lot of faith in the captain.

If I was going to add, the team to look at for me is Seattle. To DET: Gourde + Oleksiak To SEA: Veleno + Berggren +2nd + 3rd Seattle gains two RFA forwards and picks to help build the future of their club. Detroit gains a big nasty Dman for the playoffs who's still under contract for next season, and a rental replacement for Copp. Not to mention, SY also drafted Gourde and he has cup winning experience with TBL. Kasper - Larkin - Raymond Dcat - Gourde - Kane Ras - JTC - Tarasenko Soderblom - Motte - Fischer IR: Copp Oleksiak - Seider Edvinsson - Chiarot AJo - Holl Gustafsson IR: Petry

To answer the title question... A: Do something Sell or buy. Either is an apropriate direction to take this team based on where we sit. What is not acceptable would be another year of indecision and fence sitting. And based on HSJ's most recent article in the free press... I'm a bit nervous SY is going to do exactly that and sit out the TDL again. In it McTodd says that SY believes in this group, but the players should not expect the calvary to be coming. I get the feeling SY will do nothing of any significance again, and the team will continue to lack a true direction. Barely missing the playoffs is literally the worst position any team can be in. See the old thread: Becoming Minnesota. Imagine if we had traded Fabbri and Walman at the TDL last year, instead of giving them away later on. We would have had better draft position and more picks. Imagine acquiring one or two more depth players last year... we would have likely won, at the very least, 1 more game down the stretch and made the playoffs. We do not want to be a directionless team stuck in perpetual mediocrity. If SY continues this "we like our team" bit again this week I'm going to lose a lot of faith in the existence of any sort of "plan".

Scott Jonas "The Axe" Mahones

Just wanted to talk about one of the newest articles from the athletic: The agent poll Voting: Q: Best front office to deal with? 1. TBL & Minny (6 votes each) 2. Dallas (4) 3. Florida (3) 4. NYI, Philly, VAN, Avs, & DET (2 each) No comments in the article about Detroit in regars to this Q, but agents heaped a lot of praise on Jim Nill... "the classiest and most honest guy in the league" said one agent about Nill. Q: Most unstable and poorly run franchise? 1. Buffalo (6) 2. Ducks (5) 3. Chicago & SJS (4 each) 4. Carolina (3) 5. NYI & DET (2) Hawks and Wings recieved votes here because their respective rebuilds have been big "let downs" according to agents. One agent said about the Wings "theyre really unstable. There's no plan, though they may say there is one..." Disheartening to hear this... i wonder if these two agents represent Walman or Fabbri... or if their answer may be different without the early season lalonde struggles and firing... The agents also dragged Pat Verbeek pretty hard... basically saying he's very old school, grumpy, and a "ridiculous" arsehole. Draws lines in the sand and irrationaly sticks to them, and its hard to even get simple ELC contracts done with Anaheim. IMO I bet Verbeek reads these comments and wears them like a badge of honor... Q: Best ownership in the league? 1. TBL (7) 2. Leafs, Cats, and VGK (3 each) TBL bc Jeff Vinik hires good ppl and lets them cook. Doesnt micro-manage. Leafs because MLSE has more money than god, so they treat their players like gods. Only comments from this section... Q: Worst ownership? 1. Carolina (10 votes) 2. Buffalo (5) 3. Ducks & Nucks (2 each) Basically Dundon in Carolina micromanages everything and is basically the real GM. But with the recent sucess theyve had he probably wont stop this stiffling meddling behavior, as he sees the recent success as his own doing. Conversely, Ducks and Sabres owners are out to lunch, and dont have a hand the wheel. When sometimes they should... My personal takeaways: 1. Interesting to see the variety of personalities that the Holland & Yzerman brain trusts have produced. Normally I'd expect underlings to adapt and conform to their bosses style/approach and the front office's culture.... but you have Nill and Brisebois being gushed on about how nice and classy they are... and then you have Verbeek over in Anaheim being a total azzhole lol. Yzerman has some questioning his vision, but he at least got 2 votes for best office to deal with. I would be curious to see this poll done during the Yzerman/Verbeek years in Tampa. Their good cop bad cop skills together were probably intense. The little ball being used as the attack dog, but SY always there to reign him in when needed. Now it sounds like Verbeek is missing that steadying SY presence, as his AGM is Solomon, who is described as just as big an A-hole as Pat... which leaves me wondering... is Verbeek's presence something SY is missing...? He chose to take Verbeek with him to Detroit over Brisebois (the nice guy) even if Pat wasnt here for long. So does anyone think Horcoff Draper or Lidstrom has filled those shoes? We know Drapes and Lids pretty well... and I dont see it in them. I havent gotten that impression from Horcoff either, who's more involved with GR. 2. We fans probably took it a little far when we memed "yzerplan" into existence, but comments about "no plan" isnt good. And I have been worried about this. After some good trades and drafting early on SY has done some suspect stuff as of late. The bizarre departues of Kostin, Walman, and Fabbri. Picking no direction to go at TDLs. Failing to do backgrounds on Campbell and Vrana. A goalie carousel that continues to spin like mad and destroys the tenders on the ride (are we gonna ruin Cossa too?). Hiring his guy in Lalonde only to back pedal on that choice quick. Suspect contracts and trades for guys like Holl, Gustafsson, and Petry. Again, maybe SY needs a bully lapdog like Verbeek at his side. Someone who tells agents to eat a richard when they say "my client Holl wants $3+ mil a year". Whatever it is, IMO, SY has approached a lot scenarios with seemingly no plan lately. Unable to decide which way to go at last years TDL tells me theres no grand plan behind what were doing. Giving Walman and Fabbri new contracts, only to completely change your mind on that a short time later and pay to be rid of them, shows lack of planning and foresight. Constantly failing to notice troubled players in Vrana and Campbell (and possibly Fabbri and Walman) shows lack of due dilligence. Picking up bad coaches = more lack of due dilligence. I worry SY has taken his foot off the pedal a bit... He is basically immune to firing due to his status as a Wings legend, so he doesnt need to grind harder than others. He's returned home and built a room filled with all his buddies from his playing days. The best minds you could gather just happen to be Draper, Lids, Kronwall, your brother, Wallin, and Cleary? Hmmmm thats quite a coincidence that the best happen to all be your friends... My point being, even if his foot is still on the pedal, does he really have the best minds around him? We watched how the brain drain slowly destroyed Hollands teams... and mistakes are starting to pile up. "I only hire guys Ive worked with and trust" How's your trust in Lalonde these days Stevie? He wrecked that lil philosophy of yours pretty quick... Do we want to build an elite hockey club, or do we wanna build a kinda good one where all your buddies can have jobs and parade back through Detroit to reminice about the good ol days? We cannot just draft a Hakan guy early every year and then sit back and wait... Sorry for the negative post guys. I just think this front office might need a shakeup much like the bench did. Not Yzerman. His underlings. In the article agents talked about up and coming they think could become a future GM. Not one of SY's AGMs was mentioned. The instability of these last two seasons needs to get buttoned up.

Cool dumb take. Very possible Danielson is the better prospect in the long haul... but RIGHT NOW, on THIS GRIFFINS TEAM, Lombardi is far and away the the best player/prospect, and you'd be a moron to suggest otherwise...

So MBN made history as the first ever Norwegian to go in the 1st. And not low either at 15... But then, only 8 picks later, ANOTHER Norwegian in Solberg goes to Anaheim. And Verbeek traded up to snag him... MBN played in the Swedish league which is usually typical for Norwegian players, but not Solberg. Solberg actually achieved this playing in Norway... With Sweden struggling to produce good players recently, could there be a floodgate of Norwegian players coming? I've been reading about the Norwegian hockey programs recently because of MBN, and theyve built a ton of new rinks in the last 10-15 years. They are pushing kids towards hockey and getting good fast. Norway is also pretty dominant at the winter olympics, and they have really good training programs. They just haven't focused their energy on hockey... till now. I also find it suspicious that Yzerman and Verbeek took the two Norweegers. What do they know? Scandanavia is the Red Wings stomping ground, but we typically seem to shy away from Finns, so I was surprised to see SY AND Verbeek going all in on Norway. This could be one of the next untapped markets. If it is, I'm glad to see us involved. Hakan is going to have to brush up on his Norwegian.

Rock Me Amadeus Lombardi is by far our best Griffin prospect and makes Nate Danielson look like a pathetic joke. Carry on.

Not saying he's fake... saying he's the goalie in Xbox that everyone always drafts. Like when everyone was hot on Ty Rattie, cause when you drafted him on xbox he always became the next taylor hall. D'Aigle might be a decent goalie prospect. But I have some doubts bc of the Rattie-esque overhype. We also dont need another high end goalie proespect. Cossa has been good, and Augustine looks even better. f*** D'Aigle.

Who's been the DOG this year? I got three names I'd put forward: Chidog, Johdog, and Joedog. Chia - You wanna pizz like a puppy you stay on the bench. BIG DOGS go out on the ice and eat. Big Ben has done just that, eating big minutes with Mo. They were a disaster pair their first time together under Lalonde. But both of their games have evolved and Chia has been a dog of a partner for Mo since. AJo - Nothing fancy to his game but kid looks like he has longtime bottom 4 NHLer Dman stamped on him. Got the legs to keep up, and the defensive brain to stay employed. EZ dog IMO. Italian Guy - Don't let his greasy heritage fool you. Veleno is even worse... French-Italian. But boy is he a solid bottom 6er. Reminds me more and more of Emdogg each day. Who you got? One of these? Someone else?