LeftWinger

We have THREE 2nd round picks. Plus the first AND third picks in the 3rd round. Pretty much like having five 2nds! I think this is where Yzerman is gonna hit some grand slams! #32, #54, #58, #63, #65.

yep, we will see...

I guess I can see what you are saying, but at one point we have to get a UFA or 2 and jump start a build. If we get a compliance buyout, we will be losing one of Abby or Nielsen, also you say Smith is pushing for a spot, but he had a few auditions last season and didn't show that he is 100% ready for the NHL. Plus, is he just a 4th liner? It seems that there are some players that Yzerman likes in Detroit more. I think that adding a couple of players the caliber of the two I mentioned would help us out, now and later. They are 26 and 27 respectively and if they signed a 2-3 year deal, with no NTC they could be dealt at anytime. But if they worked out, especially a third line with Timashov like I showed, it could be a real good thing! Especially if they are only gonna get $4M like you are saying. For three years, that's a real good deal. I'd like to see it. I like Smith, but he didn't impress me enough to guarantee him a spot. I'd much rather upgrade the offense since we do have a lot of cap space. We have enough to give Bert and Mantha nice big raises, re-sign some other RFA's and even off Gagner another contract. We could even throw some money at a top rated D. We have enough cap to overpay for the talent. I am probably off on their worth, but again, I was just giving them enough to outbid other teams. Plus I wasn't looking to sign any grand slam players like Hall, who will get top dollar from someone. The two Russian's are a nice middle of the road signing that upgrades our team. Anyhow, I can see Yzerman doing what you said and just staying the course, but I would love to see him make some signings. Besides, look at last summer, he did make a couple of middle of the road signings to solidify the team, even though they didn't make us much better.

Which one? I'd gladly give either one $4M a year to come here. I just figured it may cost more because we'd have to convince them to come here...and we do have the cap to overpay someone to choose us, so hopefully since Yzerman got screwed at the lottery, he has some UFA tricks up his sleeve with so much cap room. Not sure what those two would get as UFA, but adding them makes us a better scoring team, IMO. It'd be nice to acquire players via UFA and get this team back near 100 points and jam it in the noses of the NHL! A couple of scoring forwards, and good D or 2 addition (Seider being one of them) along with a very good G tandem and we're there. Screw Uncle Gary and his "lottery!" I'll develop who we have, draft a high scoring forward at #4, knock the 2nd round out of the park and find me 2-3 higher end UFA's and put this franchise right back in the thick of it all!

Ok! Let's get the trade going! Svech for Suzuki! reunite the Svech Bros. and we get a nice center who has no doubt played on a unit with Perfetti.

Doesn't Dino Ciccarelli have some kind of ownership in the Saginaw Spirit? Or is it another team? I thought he and Shawn Burr had some sort of ownership with a Saginaw team... Nevermind, looked them up....BUT both Chris Osgood and Jimmy D are partners with ownership of the team! So that may mean that Yzerman has had a better look at Perfetti than others. Also a side note, Albin Grew will be a Spirit starting this season. Who owns the rights to Ryan Suzuki? I would like to see him in our organization. He also plays for the Spirit.

I was just going by what they made last contract and giving them a raise, plus offering them more to come here, because we will for sure have to throw more money out there to get someone to come here. Pus we have even more cap available, so giving up some big bucks isn't going to hurt us.

gbettman@nhl.com I am sure he'll enjoy some of our thoughts! I already sent him one! But it was very professional, no cursing or name calling...I did say the word "screwed" but I don't think it was that bad.

this is all nice, but is anybody else gonna say how awesome it is to have a Blueadams line thread again!

Right now, I wouldn't mind seeing Yzerman offer contracts to BOTH Namestnikov and Galcheyuk. Guessing they'll cost about $5.5M to $6.5M each.... Along with Gagner if he wants to come back... Here is what I have ATM. I used the buyout on Nielsen (if I get two I'll use it on Abby too) but I just stuck with one. Bertuzzi MAY cost more than $3.5M but with Z's LTIR I still have $17.5M available. I do need 2 more players to either sign or call up, including a G. I am at 21 players WITH my two UFA (3 with Gagner) signings. Lindstrom may be to guy before McIsaac, but I was basically looking at salaries, and Gus only makes $500 more, so it would be a wash. Plus we know DD will get injured again, so he'll be up. With $17.5M, we could even make a nice UFA D signing and a G really. Maybe Krug wants to play at home for a big long deal? The following RFA's I let would qualify, but they'd be headed to GR or picked up from another team off wiavers. I also let Goloubef walk as a UFA. Also, I traded Cholowski at the draft for a pick, hopefully he'd get us a 2nd, but I'd be ok with a 3rd.

I am done caring about this latest screw job. He is gonna go to a "playoff" team with very little cap room, spend 3 years on an ELC then get a $17M per year contract that I really don't feel like handing out. Depending on where he goes, he'll probably also get a "C" to wear. Larkin is our Captain, I like having Cap space, I like building a team with players who aren't the superstar. I don't care about next years #1 or the next or the next, because through development and UFA signings and trades, Yzerman WILL build a playoff team and then we'll get back to being contenders every year. Montreal can have Laffy, when he doesn't take them to the Cup in the first year, they'll turn on him. Toronto already cannot afford to ice a team, so they would be waiving or trading good players in a few years just to fit him under the cap. Give me Stutzle, Perfetti, Rossi, Sanderson or Drysdale at #4, Yzerman will knock the 2nd round out of the park with our three picks, #32, #54 and #58. We'll get a top 10 pick (most likely next season as well.) I am ready to watch Yzerman, the fans and the City of Detroit to rub their noses in the stink pile of "fix" they have created! Suck it uncle gary! Time to move to the 2020 off season thread because with Z's LTIR, we have $42M to spend, then add the compliance buyout (or two) we'll be nearing $48M or more in cap! Bring in a 27 year old big name difference maker, it won't be long!

There is a better way to do this...re-do it and do it the most fair way. Take the bottom 7 and do the draft lottery over. Make it so teams can only drop no more than two spots. There is ZERO doubt this is the result that Bettman wanted, he wants Lafreniere in a big NHL market with tons of media coverage. Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, New York, Chicago. Each play-in team has a 12.5% change of getting #1, just how is that fair to teams that finished lower than them, like LA or Anaheim, who only had a 9.5% and 8.5% chance respectively? Not that I wanted NJ or Buffalo to have it, but they had even lower odds. So now, whether the play-in happens or not, teams 8-15 get better odds at #1 than teams 4-7 did to begin with! I agree with Burke, Detroit or Ottawa is where he should be going, I'd even make an exception for LA or Anaheim, but this stinks of a fix and it's not just sour Detroit fans calling them out. I don't doubt that Montreal will probably be the place he goes. Price is already talking crap about not sure what he is going to do because he isn't comfortable with how things are going safety-wise. He'll sit out the play-in and Montreal will lose. https://www.hockeyinsiders.net/articles/carey-price-not-sure-hes-ready-to-play-brings-up-s/. To me this just stinks of conspiracy and fix. I mean, at least Montreal the 8th worst team and they had a 6% chance (in a normal(?) lottery) but now the're chances have more than doubled at 12.5%, whether they play another game or not, if I were the mentioned teams above that had WORSE odd's than 12.5%, I'd be filing complaints and petitioning a re-do. The NHL can do it, and they should, not just because we, as Detroit fans are sour, but because the whole process was unfair to teams that had less than a 12.5% chance at #1. If they re-did the entire thing, with only the 7 non-playing teams, and we still dropped to 4th, at least then I could feel comfortable that ONLY one of the most deserving teams (teams not playing for a chance at the playoffs) got the #1. This needs to be fixed NOW, and re-done. Not change it for next draft, or the next, etc... It's been how many drafts now that teams have been getting screwed? This needs to be scraped and re-done with the 7 non-playing teams.

.0 Interesting that a few of these rankings don't have Askarov even in the 1st round. VERY interesting that NHL Central Scouting (last list) doesn't even have him in the top 31 European players. Maybe he'll be there at #32...

well, so here's to hoping the #1-#3 players drafted are all busts and the #4 becomes the gem! as much as we all KNOW we got screwed, can't change it now. I dare Bettman to step foot in Michigan though! There is no reason a #12 team should ever sniff the #1 overall! Meanwhile the bottom 7 team fans get screwed with no hockey AND no Lafreniere.

right! Their fans get to enjoy at least 3 more games, PLUS the change at #1, we get to sit around until maybe what Christmas before we get to see any games. I feel like someone kick me in the gut. It just seems so fixed it's nauseating. I truly might be done with the NHL after this.