Dabura

I guess I was a bit misleading. Wahlstrom is probably a full-time winger at higher levels, and that's why I'm not crazy about him. But I have the same basic concern about Tkachuk. So, if Tkachuk is the consensus top C, I think you also have to consider Wahlstrom for that title. I do feel Veleno is more of a "centerman's centerman"; you could absolutely make a case for him being the top C.

I tend to be wary of centermen "who also play wing." I want a centerman's centerman, a bona fide pivot who we are 99% certain will be a pivot in his pro career.

I'm pretty sure the Wings will be looking to take a defenseman with the first pick, but it's entirely possible that they decide an available forward is better than the available defensemen. Taking Svechnikov over anyone not named Dahlin is, to me, a no-brainer, but you could also make a case for Zadina or Tkachuk being every bit as appealing as any of Hughes, Boqvist, Bouchard, Dobson. I might be a little disappointed if we take Wahlstrom in the 6-8 range, but on the other hand, we're talking about arguably the top centerman in this draft class. Taking Veleno 8th overall? Could be a reach, but I'm not sure he's any less promising than Larkin was in his draft year. I'm so pumped for this draft. Lottery's only 12 days away! http://www.tankathon.com/nhl/mock_draft

The fundamental problem here is that the Wings' system is extremely low on players with really substantial trade value. (Another way of saying we don't have enough high-end talent.) This means that in addition to our trade options being incredibly limited, any big trades that we could pull off probably wouldn't do much for us -- and, indeed, could easily hurt us. Trade Larkin for a stud defenseman and now we're in need of a stud centerman, with only one other high-end centerman in the system (Rasmussen) and with no guarantee that the stud defenseman we're getting is going to work out for us the way we're hoping he will. Trade Mantha for a stud defenseman and now we're in need of a stud scoring winger, with essentially zero comparable wingers in the system and, again, with no guarantee that the stud defenseman is going to be a stud for us. Trade Svechnikov and you're not even getting a 1st-round pick in return. Nyquist might get us a 1st at next season's trade deadline. Trade Hronek or Cholowski and you're giving up one of our top two D prospects. This is why I'm so excited about the next couple of drafts. The Wings have learned to scrape by in drought conditions, but now they're finally in for some heavy rain. 21(+) picks across two very deep drafts means a hell of a lot more to the Wings than it would to most other organizations. The 2018 draft alone could totally reshape our talent pool. We could double the number of Rasmussen/Cholowski/Hronek-tier prospects in our system practically overnight.

Right. There's the rub again. AA + late 1st for a quality defenseman sounds reasonable enough...but when you start combing through organizations' depth charts and you consider the way GMs are fetishizing young defensemen, there are exceedingly few realistic matches that would clearly justify moving AA and the late 1st, i.e. we're probably not getting a solid top-four defenseman or a defense prospect who's more promising than Hronek or Cholowski are right now. At best, we're probably looking at a lateral move, a wash. It's kinda depressing, but it's safe to say it's the reality. Middle-six winger with an ego who can't win board battles and is bad defensively and will probably end up in the KHL + late 1st just doesn't get you much these days. Then again, Marc Bergevin and Peter Chiarelli are GMs. Don't stop believing.

That's the rub. Can Holland find a return that'd justify moving AA in the first place? (Assuming AA doesn't say he wants out, forcing Holland to settle for whatever he can get.) If we're looking for a young defenseman in return for AA, Carolina's probably the best fit, unless the Wings and Hurricanes are still refusing to do business with each other. But even then, we're talking, like, Haydn Fleury, who I like but don't necessarily believe is going to be a really good top-pairing defenseman in this league. Maybe Jake Bean. I don't think AA or any package built around AA gets us Jusin Faulk. The Flyers would probably trip over themselves to make a Robert Hagg-AA swap happen, and I fear that Holland might actually find that kind of trade palatable. Point being, AA doesn't get us a true stud defenseman. Unless we take a chance on a decent prospect who exceeds all expectations and blossoms into a stud. I think the realistic return for AA is a Boone Jenner or a 2nd-round pick in next year's draft. I firmly believe his trade value is low. We like him because he shows flashes of brilliance and he can be really exciting and we're sorely lacking stuff like that, but at the moment he's really nothing more than a middle-six winger. Every team has a middle-six winger that can give them 16 goals and 35 points. Maybe he does really well alongside some elite talent, but that possibility isn't enough to get a team to cough up a young high-end NHL defenseman.

Oh, I know. Just sayin'.

https://thehockeywriters.com/jack-hughes-nhl-prospect-2019/

Y'know what'd be funny? Us not getting Andrei Svechnikov and being sad because no bro teamup but ultimately ending up with an even better bro teamup in Quinn and Jack Hughes. I know I'm looking too far ahead, but imagine having Jack Hughes and Dylan Larkin as your 1-2 punch at center. So much HYPE! Soooooo much HYPE!

Ain't no way we're gettting Trouba. The Oilers gave up Taylor Hall to get Adam Larsson. The Jackets gave up Ryan Johansen to get Seth Jones. The Bolts gave up Jonathan Drouin to get Mikhail Sergachev. The Avs gave up Matt Duchene to get Samuel Girard. To get Trouba, the Wings would have to give up Larkin. The way I see it (and, granted, I could be wrong), if Holland tries to trade AA and he wants a young defenseman in return, he'll have to aim significantly lower than a guy like Trouba/Hanifin/Montour.

Someone tell him to sweet talk John Carlson while he's there!

It's gonna be really interesting seeing how the second half of the 1st round and the first half of the 2nd round play out. Does a guy like Serron Noel go in the middle of the 1st? Near the end of the 1st? Does he slide into the 2nd? I honestly don't know. There's so much to like in the top two or three tiers of this draft class that it seems wide open once you get past the top 12 or so.

Nice mock draft: https://www.diebytheblade.com/2018/4/8/17213402/end-of-season-1st-round-mock The author brings up an interesting fact (assuming it's true): the Senators haven't drafted a Russian in over a decade and the Hurricanes haven't drafted a Russian since 2001. If that's true, and if it's because they have a rule about not drafting Russians, maybe neither of them would take Svechnikov at #2 or #3. Also, Peter Chiarelli is a moron.

Yeesh. I'd give the Flyers fans the benefit of the doubt and assume their team got a raw deal somewhere in there, but they're Flyers fans, so I'm not going to.

Didn't watch the game, but I skimmed the recap on NHL.com. Seems the Pens scored two power play goals five seconds apart and then they scored again right after that. So maybe the Flyers were just fed up with the refs in general? P.S. Elliott is not the guy, Flyers. You know what must be done.

I have negative zero interest in a multi-year deal. Next summer Holland will have the opportunity to walk away from Kronwall, Howard, Nyquist and maybe put that cap space towards signing one of the many high-end UFAs that could be available. No preemptive handcuffing plz. I think the best argument for bringing Green back on a one-year deal is that we could flip him at the deadline. But I imagine that's a big reason why he probably won't sign a one-year deal, certainly not one without trade protection. He'd have to be pretty desperate. Maybe the neck thing scares teams away, but I've gotta think someone's gonna offer him a pretty tasty deal. I just hope it's not Ken Holland.

My concern with Green is that he seemed to regress this season as compared to last season. He still put up points, which is a big deal (especially for our blue line), but the underlying numbers weren't flattering. I liked him more last season, when he held his own in a more demanding role and looked like someone who was propping up our defense group and keeping it from collapsing in on itself. Daley kind of assumed that role this season, forming a decent(ish) shutdown pairing with Ericsson that played tough minutes and provided some insulation for the other defensemen. Would I really mind having Green back on a one-year hometown discount deal? I wouldn't kick and scream about it, no. But, at this point, I think I'd rather give two of Hicketts, Hronek, Cholowski, Sulak, and maybe a 2018 draftee an actual shot at making the team out of camp. The $4-6M we'd save could also come in handy. Real talk. I'm beyond tired of the defense logjam. I'm beyond tired of the mediocrity and stagnation. I'm beyond tired of stopgaps. Holland can trade all of Ouellet, Jensen, Hicketts, and Sulak for all I care. Even if you get rid of all of those players, there's still Lashoff, Russo, Renouf, Saarijarvi, McIlrath. We are hoarding mediocre defensemen.

Prob'ly.

Griffins played their final regular season game last night. Hronek put up four points, including a pretty goal. He finishes the regular season with 11 goals, 28 assists, and a +24 rating through 67 games.

I go back and forth on John Carlson. I'm not sold on him being a guy you can build a Cupworthy blue line around, but on the other hand, he'd be a huge upgrade on what we have and defensemen like him don't exactly grow on trees. But it feels like Erik Karlsson will be leaving Ottawa soon enough and I imagine Holland would rather wait a year and go after him or Ekman-Larsson. And by that time we should have a couple of veteran contracts coming off the books. (All of this assumes we get Dahlin and Dahlin instantly makes the Wings really appealing to top UFAs.)

nah

In other news, the Bruins are crushing the Kadri-less Leafs. They lead 4-0 and the 1st period isn't even over yet. Maybe Babcock isn't so magical after all.

https://www.nhl.com/news/cotsonika-vegas-golden-knights-are-talk-of-town/c-297994892?tid=297171006 Heck it. I want the Knights to win the Cup, draft pick be damned. I've always believed NHL hockey could work in Vegas and it makes me genuinely happy to see everything come together so perfectly for them. This team winning it all in their inaugural season would be one of the great stories in NHL history.

For the record, this was a mostly serious response, though I guess it reads pretty well as snark. (Such is my effortless genius!) If we get Dahlin, there's a decent chance that a number of doors suddenly open up for us. In theory, one of those could be a top UFA like John Carlson being drawn to us by the Dahlin factor, just as Lucic was drawn to the Oilers because of McDavid. Or maybe the Wings hold out for Karlsson/Ekman-Larsson. In any case, Dahlin would make the roster out of camp and would likely play a prominent role on our back end right from the get-go.

But Holland's saying the new kids would fall in the 19-22 age range (I think?), so 23-year-old Bertuzzi wouldn't be included, right? I could watch his presser for myself and probably answer all of my questions...but I don't want to.