Dabura

The Avs are better than us. Nothing much to learn here. Same with the Panthers. Sucks hardcore, but I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. (He says at 12:18 AM.)

Blasphemy; Zegras is a flashier Zadina. Gudas is real good tho.

I sure am glad we instituted the salary cap. Otherwise we'd have just a few teams hogging all the top-end talent.

My gut says we're getting Buchnevich. My gut is a dirty liar.

Announce Wennberg to Detroit, cowards.

Horrible. No one deserves that. Not even an Av.

Folks, look. Here's the deal, Fat.

Hearing Elias Lindholm is headed to the Canucks, again.

Look at Vancouver trying to be Vegas.

I'm more bored than riled up tbh.

When did everyone become such pencil-pushing ninnies about winning? It's insane. "We're multiple pieces away from being a serious playoff team!" Alright, cool, so let's sit on our hands and refuse to make any bold moves until Marco Kasper is our 3C. Yes, that makes perfect sense. Only when Marco Kasper is our 3C will we truly be ready to take the next step. You see, the thing you have to understand about Marco Kasper being our 3C is, look, what you have to understand is, we're still several key pieces away, so, you know, we talk about depth, and so, the thing I really like about Marco Kasper as our future 3C is, look, the thing about Larkin is, Larkin's gonna be great well into his 50s, like Gordie Howe, and so, you know, then we're gonna have Danielson, who's definitely going to be even better than Larkin, and it'll take five years, but it's definitely going to happen, and the thing I like about Marco Kasper as our 3C is, look, you know, we talk about depth, and STOP BEING STUPID! STOP IT! SPRAY BOTTLE! BAD! NO! BAD! NO! NO! BAD FAN! WE DO NOT DO STUPID ON THE RUG! WE DO STUPID OUTSIDE ON THE GRASS! BAD FAN! BAD! Look, I get that Yzermanager has to be careful. Of course he does. It goes without saying. But you know what? Our drafting has not impressed me to the point where I want to treat every pick and prospect like it's quite possibly the next Pavel Datsyuk. "But you have to weigh the value of a 2nd-round pick against the thing!" We've whiffed on our 2nds. There's no Brayden Point coming down the pike. Yzerman lets Kris Draper throw darts at a board and that's how we choose guys outside the 1st round. Here's where I'm at with our vaunted farm system: Goal - Cossa's doing well. Cool. Can't wait to see him in 20 years. - Augustine's doing well. Cool. Can't wait to see him in 30 years. Defense - I think Edvinsson is a really good prospect. I think he could be an impact player next season. That's very good. - I think ASP has star potential, but I think he's got a long way to go. I'm talking two more years before he even gets a cup of coffee. - Realistically, I don't expect Johansson or Wallinder to amount to much. Forward - Larkin was a beast at the college level and in his brief stint with the Griffins. And he had a great NHL rookie season. And then he struggled and people hated on him and it took him several years to become the player he now is. Are we willing to wait that long with our current center prospects? Do we understand that there's zero guarantee that any of them's gonna be any better than Compher is right now? - I want Danielson to be a 60-point NHL 2C two seasons from now - but I'm not counting on it. - I want Kasper to be a 45-point NHL 3C two seasons from now - but I'm not counting on it. - I want Mazur to be Frank Vatrano next season - but no. - Having Berggren on our third line does not meaningfully address any of the shortcomings that people are citing when they say we're not a serious playoff team. "Kasper and Danielson don't have to be stars! We just need them to be solid contributors!" WHY? WHY?? WHY??? WHY DO WE HAVE TO WAIT THREE YEARS FOR KIDS TO BECOME MIDDLE-SIXERS? WHAT IS THE SCIENCE BEHIND THIS? IS THERE A PEER-REVIEWED ACADEMIC PAPER I CAN READ?

Teams should only add key pieces at the trade deadline when they are overburdened with huge contracts and they have lots of young players. Only when Marco Kasper is 33 will we truly be ready for a deep playoff run. I told you guys adding DeBrincat was stupid. I told you adding Kane was stupid. And now look where we are. Dead last in the league. We have destroyed the rebuild. Any hope we had at a Cup window is lost forever. This is why you do not aggressively add key pieces until Marco Kasper is 76.

That chirp was the worst chirp in the history of chirps. Still can't believe he did it.

boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Word around the campfire is YzerMAN traveled down to Grand Rapids just to fart on Berggren. Walked into the locker room, told Kasper he's not playing tonight, and crop dusted the Swede on the way out. Incredible.

Watch Wennberg go to Colorado and watch him score four goals against us.

DeBrincat Reimer Kane Rasmussen Husso Raymond Franzen

Well, in two weeks we should have a better sense of where we stand. Then four months after that we should have a better sense of where we stand. That brings us close to October 1, the trade deadline, when we should have a better sense of where we stand. Personally, as a hockey journalist, I feel the best move the Wings could make is no move, as the Wings are bad and this isn't their year. Best to suck and wait until we're in cap hell. That's when you go all in and make the big moves. When Larkin is 45.

Assuming Zegras was playing hurt and that the rumors of him being shopped are mostly/entirely unfounded, I doubt you're getting him at a discount. So, we're probably talking a 1st and a young high-skill NHLer. Berggren might work, but I reckon Verbeek could find something better. And Zegras isn't the type of player Yzerman covets anyway. Vatrano's a legit top-six scorer, so that's another package with a 1st in it. Verbeek could justifiably demand a 1st for Gudas - and he could probably get it. Holl's got negative value at this point; we'd have to give up a 1st just to get someone to take him. I doubt Veleno has much value. Sorry to be a buzzkill lol. Who knows, I could be way off.

I loved Hughes in his draft season, as you probably remember. I said he plays chess and Kakko plays checkers, or something cringey like that. In terms of sheer talent, I feel he's mostly lived up to the hype. As recently as last season, I was still pretty sure I'd take him over Seider. But right now? I dunno man. I know you've been banging the "He's going to get checked into the ground and he's not going to have an answer for it" drum, and it's looking like you may be right. And I look at the kind of player Yzerman's been targeting - the "high floor, low ceiling" type that the nerds don't think you should draft in the first round - and, honestly, there's a part of me that's so glad we never won the lottery. If Kasper, Danielson, and Edvinsson pan out, there's an argument to be made that that'd be every bit as valuable as a Jack Hughes. I think a matchup unit of Kasper-Danielson-Rasmussen_Edvinsson-Seider is the kind of unit that stifles players like Hughes in the playoffs and wins you Cups (assuming the players all pan out).

I'll be a bit surprised if we extend Perron. He's helped this team get back to winning ways; his job is done. He's probably staying put for the rest of this season, because you don't mess with what we've got going and he's part of it - but beyond that? Again, I'll be a bit surprised. One more season on a cheap deal wouldn't be terrible, but I'd like to think we've turned a big corner and that Yzerman now knows he can trust the young core to be a winning core without graybeard training wheels. (Granted, the Raymond and Seider deals were always gonna force the issue anyway.)

Hockey's a chaotic, free-flowing game of millimeters, so little things - including unquantifiables - can make all the difference. When we acquired Shanahan, that was a gamechanger. He wasn't prime years Gretzky, but he was exactly what we needed. People laughed when I said the Panthers acquiring Matthew Tkachuk was similar. Those people aren't laughing now. Swagger, self-belief - these things are golden.