Dabura

I've always said Kakko is probably the more NHL-ready player. I've always favored him to win the Calder next season. I've always gushed over Kakko. The only thing you and I disagree about is Hughes versus Kakko. I still think Hughes is better. I still think Kakko is a very, very good winger, while Hughes has the potential to be one of the top centermen in the league. "OK, but analysts compare Hughes to Kane and Gaudreau and they think he might be a winger." Are these the same analysts you were saying we shouldn't trust because it's obviously in their best interests to push Hughes as a generational player? "Dude, Hughes has no points in this tournament." Aren't you the same person who's said people put too much stock in international tournaments? "Look, I'm just saying there's a good chance Hughes' game won't translate to the NHL." Zegras is essentially the same player with the same strengths and the same weaknesses and you love him. (So do I, for the record. And he's who I have the Wings taking at 6.) "I love him at #6, not #1." And who do you love at #1? "Kakko." Cool, so this is a boring "Who should go first overall, Player A or Player B?" discussion. "I'm just saying Corey Pronman said something that echoed what I said before Corey Pronman said it." Cool. Honestly, at this point, I don't care about Hughes or Kakko, because neither one's gonna be a Wing. If we're gonna be arguing about players, let's argue about ones that could be available at 6.

Ah, so sample size matters. Interesting.

William Nylander has way more points than Larkin. William Nylander >>> Dylan Larkin.

Gotta build up the HYPE!

Byram could absolutely fall to us at 6. I'm not saying it's something we should count on, but I do feel like the Byram HYPE! is getting a wee bit excessive on the interwebz. Been meaning to do a mock draft. I'll try to do it tomorrow.

I think Podkolzin could go anywhere. Same with Broberg and so many others. One guy who's starting to get a lot of love is Moritz Seider. Hulking right-shot defenseman. Really good skater for his size, good two-way game, likes to play physically, good puck-mover, great arsenal of shots, could become an absolute terror working the point in the o-zone. He, more than anyone else, is really making me wish we had another 1st-round pick in this draft. Avs are poised to make a killing in this draft. They could be terrifying in a couple of years.

Very possible. If he pans out, he and Hronek could complement each other really, really well as a pairing.

I'm hoping you and @kipwinger are right and we're gonna have a low-key solid D group like Carolina's.

Wings impressed with Hronek in a league that demands patience with young defensemen [MiHockey]

We are lazy and we suck.

Welcome aboard! We're all idiots here! It wasn't always this way! LGW.com's just going through a rebuild. Once the Wings git gud again this place will return to its former glory.

mackelabia

Good talk.

no u

Good talk.

Right, because that's what the Wings are known for. Going out of their way to be kind to their prospects in media scrums. Ignoring any deficiencies in their games and instead speaking only in positives. Typical Red Wings. "Well, Zadina is the highest pick they've had in ages, so it makes sense." No, it doesn't make sense. What makes sense is that people like Blashill are basing their positive comments about Zadina on observable reality. "Well, I seen Zadina when he was a Moosehead and he was garbage." No one cares. I saw Zadina when he was a Moosehead and my impression of him mostly lines up with what people in the Wings organization and people outside the Wings organization have said about him, good and bad. Whoopdeedoo. Bottom line: He put up 35 points in 59 AHL games as a teenaged rookie and that's pretty good. He's at least a year ahead of where our top prospects tend to be at 18/19 and that's all you can really ask of a 6th overall pick or even a 3rd overall pick. Anecdotally, he played pretty well for most of the season. I don't think it's a stretch to say he played better than the stats suggest. I can't tell you how many times I saw him set up easy goals on a platter only to see his linemates squander the setup. That, and there's a whole lot more clutching and grabbing and mobbing in the AHL than there is in the NHL; AHL refs tend to give AHLers longer leashes than NHL refs give to NHLers. The "He slid all the way from 3 to 6" narrative is stupid. The "He's a lazy player who doesn't play defense and he's totally one-dimensional and he's going to be a major disappointment" narrative is stupid. Your trolling is admirable but stupid. *there *there

Well, you know me, I'm an OG Bouchard booster, so I totally understand the Bouchard love. Personally? I'd probably pull the trigger. I really doubt Holland would tho. The Oilers do desperately need a player who fits AA's profile, but I think Holland has a lot of options that don't involve trading Bouchard.

Zegras still intrigues me. In some areas he's jaw-droppingly impressive. In other areas, not so much. I feel like there's a Datsyuk hiding in there, but I dunno.

Ryan Lambert is the quintessential insufferable analytics hipster ******. This is aging really well: https://sports.yahoo.com/learned-dylan-larkin-got-much-140736328.html I guess the question I have here is: “What’s the point?” Larkin is a “franchise player” in Detroit if only because they truly don’t have a better option and more to the point, if you think your “franchise player” is a winger who’s gonna score 50-something points every year, well, that’s not a very good franchise situation overall. Not that anyone needed to be told Detroit was a mess, and not that this contract even pushes them into a worse situation. He’s a perfectly good player with room to grow, but if you’ve worked yourself into a corner where Larkin is a $6.1 million player for you, that says a lot more about the people who are still, inexplicably allowed to run this franchise. Put another way: You don’t have to pay non-franchise players like they’re almost franchise players just because you don’t have anyone better than that. Unless you’re the Red Wings, I guess. I especially like the part where he identifies Larkin as a winger. Not just a guy who's gonna score 50-something points every year, but a *winger* who's gonna score 50-something points every year. Outstanding work, Ryan. The keenest of insights. I wish the Wings had Kyle Dubas at the helm. Dubas is A Smart Hockey Guy who makes Smart Hockey Decisions. That's why his team keeps going on deep playoff runs. That's why his team's cap situation is so good right now. It's just one brilliant move after another in Tronna. The Matthews contract is a work of art. The Nylander contract is a stroke of genius. The Marleau contract is poetry. Thinking Nylander and Marner will settle for hometown discounts "because winning" is *chef kiss*. Giving Tavares All The Moneys For All The Years is downright visionary. Going into the playoffs with a top four of Rielly, Rielly, Rielly, Rielly shows Dubas understands the game on a deep level. The man is living proof that the future is young nerds and the future is now. Hell, I'd settle for John Chayka. He's young and he might've said something positive about stats or something at some point in time, so this is a man who commands respect. Playoffs? Yotes be all up in that. Domi trade? Eh, he needed a change of scenery. Strome? Eh, he needed a change of scenery. Reaching for Barrett Hayton? Good thing Chayka's not an old guy or else I'd have to call it an ill-advised reach born of "Some old guy thinking he's smarter than he really is." Tampa Bay? Cap hell? What cap hell? Steve Yzerman is the best in the business, because Narrative.

Holland. Definitely Holland. Both parties. There are a number of AA-tier wingers that Holland could acquire without giving up his top D prospect, e.g. Panarin, Pirri, the aformentioned Kapanen. On Yzerman's end, AA's trade value is probably at an all-time high right now and Bouchard is totally unproven at the NHL level. Do you trade a guy who just scored 30 goals for a defenseman who's played zero NHL games? Also, there's a decent chance AA becomes a monster on McDavid's or Draisaitl's wing, which means there's a decent chance the narrative becomes "Yzerman gets punk'd by the guy he pushed out of Detroit." So I'm thinking there'd at least have to be some conditions attached to the trade, e.g. "If Athanasio scores 30 goals and the Oilers make the 2020 playoffs, the Wings receive their 2020 1st." Playing around with packages might lead to something. Maybe Holland indentifies Green as a guy who could really help bolster their blue line in anticipation of a deep playoff run.

Hell no. Found the Australian.

Trading back could be the smart play, depending on what the Wings' board looks like and how the first five picks play out. I'm not sure I like Caufield at 6, but if we can get an additional 1st or 2nd out of a trade back, maybe that offsets some of the risk.

They see me Krebsin'. They hatin'. No but srsly. I do love me some Krebs. He's a personal favorite of mine. However, if I'm trying to be really objective about this, I would be down with picking Krebs and I'd be just as down with any one of Dach, Byram, Cozens, Turcotte, Zegras, Podkolzin. Here's what we know for certain: There will be some elite prospects available at 6th overall and each of them will be 1) very promising in some ways and 2) a potential bust in some ways. That includes Current Internet Darling Bowen Byram. I can so easily imagine Cam York ultimately becoming the better defenseman, because that's how it so often goes (especially with defensemen).