LeftWinger

He'll be the first one promoted once Blashill gets fired.

ran the tankaton 20 times, once we jumped to #2, twice we stayed at #6, 17 times we dropped to #7.

....shoot. Well, at least Special Teams Bylsma is out. Silver lining. Now, let's bring in an asst. that will push Blashill to do even better and make the special teams our enforcer again! Igor Larionov, Come on Down!

Yep, I'll take 4th this year and 1st next year...or the next, Bedard is one bad-ass 15 year old!

Could you imagine the hype if this incident happened and Rags had a Bobby Probert or Tie Domi type player? The ratings for this game would be through the roof! Plus Wilson would be picking his teeth up off the ice. Man I miss real hockey.

I'm tired of Hronek not shooting. Despite his points this year it just seems like he makes wrong decisions on the pp. Should dangle him out there at the draft.

Ok, who is this Shane Wright kid and where does he fall in the draft rankings? He's having himself a very impressive tournament so far!

I'd be ok with re-signing Glenny, Gagner, Staal and Bernier. Draft BPA with our pick and (if that's not Wallstedt) draft Cossa with Washington pick. Sign all the RFA's. I do believe I read that Djoos is going overseas and I think one of Svech, Lindstrom or Cholowski will be Seattle's pick. Most definitely buyout Nielsen, I'd also buyout DD, especially if Yzerman may be looking at a UFA defenseman. Staal is a better option IMO.

Albert Johansson and Owen Power. (if we get a top 4 pick) re-sign Staal Cholowski to SEA Staal - Hronek Power - Seider Johansson - Stecher DD (Lindstrom)

I (admittedly) have historically been on the side of having the "big" and "heavy" type North American players, well mostly in the past at least. I can remember a ton of arguments with former members (or ones with new names) about "Euro-players" etc... Thankfully (and unfortunately due to life events) over the last few years I have turned my attention to more things than Red Wings hockey and really have not gotten into that stuff anymore. That being said, I was and am a big Mantha fan, BUT I do believe that Vrana fits the style and player type that Yzerman is looking for to make this team a Cup contender again. I am not saying players like Mantha are not needed, I am sure having one or two on a complete team would be great, but it was obvious that he wasn't liking it here or was just lazy at times and in the Yzerplan, if you do that, you are gone. I am so glad this trade has worked out thus far, Mantha was a big fan favorite. Obviously Vrana isn't going to score 4 goals a game, he'll probably never do it again, but like Kip said, each one of his goals were of different styles and that shows there that he can be (or is) a better more dimensional scorer than Mantha. All in all, Yzerman "won" this trade moving forward. Obviously Washington "won" the trade for the NOW because they are in their window to win. The only question now is "Who's next?" I guess if the right "hockey trade" knocks on the door, it could be anyone! (except Seider and Raymond of course.)

4 goals

I honestly think that Griess will be the protected G.

I just realized that Yzerman has OVER $50M in capspace next year....holy moly! You have to figure that Bertuzzi, Hronek, Erne and Vrana are all getting hefty raises, but not $50M worth! The rest of the RFA's are minimal raises at best. The ONLY UFA's I would like to see return are Glenny and Ryan. I guess Bernier if he survives the expansion draft since we don't really have a pipeline of G talent, but again not too much of a raise coming to any one of them. Not saying that Yzerman will make a splash in the market, but it gives him a ton of flexibility for competition! IF both Cholowski and Lindstrom survive the expansion draft, and Seider gets a spot, that'll leave DD as the 7th D without re-signing anyone. That is IF Djoos gets qualified. Maybe Yzerman re-signs Staal or pays up for another younger UFA. Maybe he buys out DD's last year of his contract? It'd be a $2M then a $1.5M hit for the next two seasons. But I think, with no cap issues, he'll just keep him signed for the one more season and waive him to GR if he needs the roster spot.

I hope Zadina turns out, but I still think we should've gone D no matter what. Whether it was Hughes or Bouchard. #ThanksHolland I mean, FWIW, he is 6th in scoring on this team, only 6 points behind Larkin and Hronek. If Raymond and Vrana are going to be our snipers, then I really don't mind Zadina become better defensively and a setup man. Whatever he has to do to make his pick at 6th worth it. Maybe he gets dealt too? Yzerman has pretty much said, in not so many words, if you were here before me, then you could be gone if you don't earn and keep your roster spot.

Stecher and Hronek are two of my choices to protect. Question is do you protect Cholowski or Lindstrom? Is Adam Erne earning himself a protection? In whose place? Namestikov? As always do you protect Smith or Svech? I have an odd feeling that Yzerman will choose to protect Smith, he mentioned him more on that TDL press conference and even referred to him as Smitty. Maybe I am just reading too much into that, but ya never know! As of today, here is are my choices: Larkin, Bertuzzi, Vrana, Fabbri, Rasmussen, Smith and Erne. Hronek, Stecher, Cholowski Griess ...I think if you expose Cholowski and or Svech, Namestikov is safe. Then again, maybe Seattle wants a little more experienced player. I do believe that if Erne keeps up his point pace,and he is left exposed, Seattle will take him over Svech, Smith or Namestikov. Just my opinion. Even though Cholowski hasn't shown much, I am not sure Lindstrom has overtaken him (yet.) I guess we will see with the last remaining games who takes the spot!

Vrana Hatty tonight!

Zadina for Caufield....get it done!

...so! Tomorrow it will no longer be the off-season. It's FINALLY here! Let's Go Red Wings! I do beleive our roster is pretty much set, with only one spot up for grabs up front. We have 13 forwards and 7 D on the current roster. Who comes in a takes those spots? I am think Svech has to be in the lead to take the forward spot. I haven't heard anything more about expanded rosters, except for the Taxi Squad, which I will assume will consist of players with waiver eligibility, since players have to clear waivers to be assigned to the taxi squad. I am hoping for a opening night lineup to look similar to this: Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha Fabbri - Namestikov - Ryan Svechnikov - Gagner - Zadina Helm - Filppula - Glendening (Erne, Nielsen) ...although I know Neilsen will probably be there in place of someone... Dekeyser - Hronek Nemeth - Stecher Staal - Merrill (Biega) Greiss (Bernier) ...who goes on the Taxi Squad? the rule is minimum 4, maximum 6, with one being a goalie. I know Yzerman said he may go with 2 goalies, but who do you think makes the sqaud? Brome, Rasmussen, Cholowski, Lindstrom, Smith are all good candidates, then do you go with one or two G's? That would eliminate someone from the skaters list, who?

nb

from what I've read about the similarities of the two when it comes to being in the "Doghouse" ends with playing time. Mantha was getting top minutes, and yet was still in the doghouse. Vrana was buried and wanted more playing time. He should get that here, so I would think he would be the one to show a huge difference in his play, considering he will get the icetime to prove that he is as good as he is touted. Mantha will benefit as well by playing with better players. But in terms of becoming a better player than they were on their prior team, I think Vrana will end up improving more over Mantha...although, how much of Mantha's issues were because of Blashill? Let's hope Blashill doesn't "Blashill" Vrana...

Wow! I didn't even know anything about Cossa. I would say Yzerman takes BPA first then, if that's not Wallstedt, take Cossa for sure in the 20's. We have a real bad Goalie pipeline so one of these guys should be the route to go!

so TWO 1st's now! Who are we liking? I am wondering if Yzerman will go D again with his first pick? Power or Hughes? depending on Washington's playoff performance, we could be anywhere from 15 to 32. Hard to make a prediction there, but here are current rankings via eliteprospects.com from 15 to 32:

Hey TWO TDL threads! LOL! MODS feel free to delete this one since it got buried and lost when the site was down.

Ok here is the first list by TSN on March 1, 2021. The deadline is April 12. As expected Staal, Ryan and Glendening are one the list. I know we are straight up sellers, but, like in the Hockey Trade thread, if there is a deal to be made, I would not mind picking up a player that would figure in our future. A couple on this list include: Dunn, Bennett and DeAngelo. Some players that aren't listed that may intrigue are Eichel (wonder what the price tag would be) and (as mentioned in the off season thread) Zach Hyman. Mostly I expect Yzerman to be selling and acquiring draft picks, but with the little rumor out there that he may be interested in dealing a young forward for the right price, you just never know what will happen! There would be a lot of people interested in Mantha for sure! If Montreal called, I'd ask for Caufield and a pick, or maybe him and someone like Mysak.

Well it now looks like they were BOTH too lazy for Yzerman's liking!