LeftWinger

now that the frenzy has died, and the big money has pretty much been spent, if you could get Gardiner for $3M-ish, would you take him for 2-3 years?

I agree, but most won't. It's all opinion really. I happen to feel that in no world is Bertuzzi better than AA in the scoring role. Two different players. But I like them all and hope they don't trade any of them.

and Fedorov was better than Yzerman.

Is this the real life?

If we're following along with what made us a dynasty before, I'll summarize: Draft well: Fedorov, Lidstrom, McCarty, Kozlov, Osgood, LaPointe, Zetterberg, Datsyuk, etc... Trade Well : Shanahan, Chelios, Hasek, Larionov... UFA's follow : Hull, Robitaille, Hatcher (yes, he was the best available at the time) CuJo, Hossa, Rafalski, etc... Yzerman is drafting well (we hope, we'll see) and soon enough, once his core are stars, he'll make "that trade" that puts us in to serious contention (like the Shanahan trade) and then when we start consistently winning and making the playoffs, UFA's will come. I have to remind myself, a lot, this exact thing.

Yes, but remember, Ilitch and Karmanos pretty much hated each other for a long, LONG time prior to that. Which I think is the 100% reason Karmanos tried to poach Ilitch's prize center, and why Ilitch matched the offer as soon as Sergei signed it. That feud ran much deeper than Fedorov. Detroit has what it takes to trade for him... I wonder what it would take?

Yep, that is why I said "if she works in NY OR move to wherever she gets a job. He'll spend 3-4 years in NY while she finishes school, then he will move to wherever she gets a job....anywhere, but I bet it will not be in Michigan.

3-4 years sounds consistent with what his girl probably has left to go to school. Play in NY until she grads, re-sign in NY if she works there or then move to wherever she gets a job. She is running the show for sure.

and again, unless we are getting a slam dunk #1 D back, I am not trading either of them, especially for a #3/4 guy. Maybe its just me...

since we seem to already know how many goals everyone is going to score this season, (boy I sure remember when Nyquist scored 28 and 27 and he was "going to score 30-35" but followed it up with 17 then 12.) but if we already know, I am going to say AA will score more goals than Mantha. Mantha will score 35, AA will score 36.

Jim Devellano tells us so! Doesn't matter what I think, Larkn, AA and Mantha are our core up front. That could even be a top 5 #1 line in the NHL if they all played together. I am not trading AA or Mantha, especially for a player who is NOT a slam dunk #1 D. Trading either of these two for Ristoleinen would be a step back into the hole. But, IMO, and this is just my opinion, if a #1 D was available and they wanted either Mantha or AA, my first choice would be Mantha. But then again, we will see which one becomes a pissy holdout (if either (AA has already been a small issue)) and then my opinion may change. If AA pulls garbage, then he goes. I don't have any patience for RFA's that do that.

AA? No....... at most, Mantha is our 3rd best scorer behind Larkin and AA. The guy had a great WC, But can he translate that into the NHL. We'll see.

Wondering how you guys feel about tendering an offer sheet to Werenski? I am sure Columbus would match anything we could afford to offer, but wouls you like to see one? Going by the chart below, it'd at least cost us a 1st, 2nd and 3rd in compensation. But I think Columbus would match anything under the $8.454 threshold. But if they did not, would you be ok with losing our 2020 picks? Considering we may be a lottery team again? Columbus may let Werenski go for that reason alone. They could possibly score a 1st overall out of it.

Here are the D from the link provided above: (apologies to cell phone viewers) Players that would make this team better (disregarding salary) Pietrangelo Shultz Krug Bogosian Vatanen Faulk Muzzin Hamonic Note that Trouba is not in the linked list because he is an RFA today and his UFA status rests on the length of his next contract. But obviously if he became UFA he would be an upgrade. I was thinking that if we don't get a shot at Krug or Trouba, someone like Hamonic, Faulk or Vatanen could be a very viable option to lead our D for a few years. They would probably settle for a 2-4 year contract instead of 7, and probably nowhere near top dollars.

No Ericsson, Daley, Green is going to be a good thing anyway you look at it. There aren't a lot of "quality" UFA out there. Could this be another year to where we are going to rely heavily on our development and progress of the yoots over high end UFA signings? The obvious is a top D of of course. Lets say neither re-sign in New York or Boston, who do you focus on, Trouba or Krug? I am not saying that Yzerman is even going to go after them, he may be very satisfied with Hronek, Cholowski, Seider as his top guys moving forward. At forward, the top guys are going to cost a ton, RNH, Galchenyuk, etc... G is very dull, Lehner is the "big" name, but that means he will probably get too much money. I don't like Howard, but just give him another 1 year deal and focus on our farm. Also, we would have to make some big strides forward in order to become attractive to top UFA's, and that would mean missing out on a possible top 10 pick (maybe #1.)

in the sense of a "steal" I 'd say that there was two steals, diamonds in the rough, lucky(?) picks in that draft: 3rd Round : Kucherov 7th Round : Palat both drafted by ours truly, Steve Yzerman and his staff. They are here now, I trust him, despite having a confused look on my face for most of the day during the draft. In the case of Holland? He and his staff blew this draft in hindsight, but so did a lot of teams. Hindsight, is a *****!

Maybe he did not want to come to Detroit. Especially if he thought he would be traded in less than a year. This may sound surprising, but NHL players, along with wanting to win a Cup, usually want a bit of stability in their lives, so he went for the 2 years and probably won't get traded in February. There are a lot of these UFA's that I would loved to have had here, especially since we have plenty of cap to give them a fat check, but they just don't want to come here (yet) and especially for a year and get traded to who knows where in a lessor time frame. That is the beauty of be unrestricted, you can go wherever you want for whatever amount of money and length you want. Even Flip got a Full NTC through January 2021, then can submit an 8 team no-trade list, but seriously, who is going to want a 37 year old Filppula when it's all said and done? Not any contender I can think of. He is just what he was described as, a stop gap center, basically to allow Veleno to develop for two season's.

https://www.nhl.com/redwings/team/tyler-wright https://www.nhl.com/redwings/team/hockey-operations but not here

we ARE NOT parting with AA If Yzerman wanted to deal AA, we'd have a #1 D right now. Not unless he had ZERO interest in Trouba, because AA and a pick (our 2nd) would've more than had Winnipeg drooling.

nope, if Kronwall plays, it'll be to get to 1000 games, so he will play at least 47 games. He has said that 1000 games is important to him, IF he can play, so expect him for more than half the games if he does re-sign. Which is a far better option than playing Ericsson for 50 games.

I honestly believe Cholowski should start the year in GR as well.

I'm gonna go with: Zadina-Zegres-Cozens Hughes-Bouchard Now THAT'S a starting lineup!

i like Zadina, but I feel we are going to regret each day we didn't draft Hughes. With Yzerman so in love with Seider, it could/should have possibly been Hughes/Seider. Imagine that! Let's hope Zadina starts filling the nets, to the tune if 40 goals, because Holland passed on a few NHL defensemen with that pick.