Dabura

What I want (semi-realistically): Mantha Larkin Zadina Rasmussen Zetterberg Nyquist Athanasiou Nielsen Vanek Bertuzzi Helm Abdelkader Glendening, Frk/Witkowski DeKeyser Green Ericsson Daley Kronwall Hronek Jensen What I'm expecting: Abdelkader Larkin Mantha Rasmussen Zetterberg Nyquist Athanasiou Nielsen Vanek Bertuzzi Glendening Helm Frk, Witkowski DeKeyser Green Ericsson Daley Kronwall Jensen Hicketts

Zadina, definitely. Veleno, 50/50. Berggren, unlikely but possible. (Eeli Tolvanen slid to 30th.) McIsaac, nah.

Prolly. It's a tough balancing act. On the one hand, you'd ideally like to be so deep that a number of your players are overqualified for their roles. On the other hand, it's really tough to maintain that kind of depth. I think Carolina should be looking to move a defenseman, but if they're not getting offered anything that would outweigh the benefits of having a super-deep blue line this season then I think they should be patient and wait to take advantage of a desperate team. I don't think they should be in a rush to trade a defenseman just because they have "too many" top-four defensemen.

Hence the need for a gritty reboot, starring Luke "Gritty Santa Claus" Witkowski.

yeh. 2013 Mantha clearly wasn't ready to make the jump right away; his game had obvious shortcomings and he needed some time to address them. (Even now, the inconsistency continues to be a thing.) I know it's sort of expected that Wings fans are gonna say 2018 Zadina is different...but it's true. In addition to the scoring and playmaking, he plays a solid two-way game and he never takes a shift off. I guess his draft combine results were underwhelming, but I don't think his conditioning or physical maturity are in question. If he has a good camp and isn't on the opening night roster, I'ma be disappointed.

Zadina, Veleno, Berggren, McIsaac... It's not a big stretch to say we basically picked four times in the first round. That's what an unusually deep draft class can do for you, I guess. And the 2019 class is looking just as deep. HYPE!

Jeremy Wade is the real deal. He is an elite, elite fishing guy. MORON. Real talk tho: that was such a great show and I was really sad to see it end. It's the one series I can think of where a guy sets out to find some rare/mythical thing every episode and actually finds it by the end of the episode. They only stopped because they'd basically run out of creatures to look for.

This is why hockey will never catch on in Canada.

They did lakes and oceans in the later seasons. IDIOT.

River Monsters gritty reboot.

For what it's worth, it's not clear that Carolina is actively shopping Faulk. https://mynhltraderumors.com/nhl-rumors-carolina-hurricanes-skinner-out-and-faulk-remains/2018/08/03/ “Faulk is different,” Waddell said. “We never said we wanted to trade Justin Faulk. People assumed when we picked up Dougie Hamilton that was the direction we were going to go, but we don’t feel that same way. We feel if we do stay status quo, we’re going to have one of the best defensive corps in the league. Saying that, if some team steps up to the plate for him or another of our players we’re going to continue to look at that.” That could just be posturing, though. Not that I'm aware of. Unless "It's high" counts, lol.

Oh, for sure. Even if Carolina didn't want to move him, I'd expect Holland to at least express an interest, kick the tires. I believe it was Elliotte Friedman who recently reported that the Wings have been interested in Faulk for a while now. So we know the Wings are interested. I just doubt the interest is strong enough to get a deal done. But I could be totally wrong.

I go back and forth on Faulk. Would he immediately become our best defenseman? Probably. Would he get crushed in that 1D slot on our paper-thin blue line? Probably. Would he help our power play? Probably. Would he help our power play just enough to see us finish just outside the playoffs (AKA the last plast we want to be)? Possibly. Do we need to add a Justin Faulk this season? No. Do we need to improve our craptastic blue line? Yes. Do we have anyone in the system who projects as a Faulk-caliber defenseman? Depends on how you feel about Hronek. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I agree with you that the best offer for Faulk won't be coming from Holland. Even though ours is one of the weakest defense groups in the league, I don't think there's a real sense of urgency in the organization to go out and pay assets for a guy like Faulk. IMO, he makes more sense for Toronto or Edmonton or even Buffalo. Teams that really have something to prove this season and need to make some noise.

If Denise Richards and Grace Kelly had a baby.

A lot of people compare Berggren to Viktor Arvidsson, for what it's worth.

Interesting... On the one hand, I feel like it's an underwhelming return from Carolina's perspective. On the other hand, it's roughly comparable to what we got for Tatar. The Tatar return is slightly better (IMO), but Tatar wasn't on an expiring contract. Not sure if this gives us any additional insight re: what we could reasonably expect Faulk to go for. Huh. William Karlsson during his arbitration hearing:

Started researching this Holland/Netherlands controversy on the YouTubes and I have come to a surprising conclusion: Dutch accent = sexiest accent. That being said, this is now a Doutzen Kroes thread.

Wings should be a wee bit higher, IMO, but I'll take it. Pretty fair assessments. I feel he's pretty solidly our #2. Certainly he's in the top three. I've said it before: I don't see much difference between 2018 Veleno and 2014 Larkin. I'm still not convinced he wasn't the best centerman available in this draft class. Time will tell, of course.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland Holland is a region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. The name Holland is also frequently used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. This usage is commonly accepted in other countries,[2] and sometimes employed by the Dutch themselves.[2] However, some in the Netherlands, particularly in other regions of the country, may find it undesirable[2] or misrepresentative. FIGHT ME.

I'm happy the Griffins seem to be getting younger. I'm not sure if they're actually getting younger (too lazy to do the math), but my impression is they are.

Red Wings' 3rd jersey confirmed.

HYPE!

Of course he would say that. He's not gonna disrespect the don.

Smith and Cholowski?