Dabura

I'm hoping Suzuki is available at 9th, and I think there's a pretty decent chance he is. I'd be totally fine with him being our guy.

Man, poor Coyotes. God has absolutely no love in his heart for that franchise.

Lessons were learned today. Don't finish in the bottom three. Do be Philadelphia and own Comcast. I hope you're taking notes, Kenny. This will be on the exam.

meh

I'd completely forgotten that Shawn Horcoff is our Director of Player Development.

#Hype

Four goals for Pageau, including the 2OT winner. Unreal. I'm pulling for the Rangers in this series, I guess, but it's hard to root against this Sens team.

This game is nuts!

Brett Lebda

Or at least give us Karlsson.

To me, it's more about Athanasiou. His appeal lies mostly in perceived potential; he's a middle-six winger right now, but maybe he becomes a beastly top-line forward. Problem there, of course, is there isn't much to suggest he's going to reach those heights. Not yet, anyway. Trouba's impressed as a young defenseman in a league where it's brutally hard to excel as a young defenseman. This season he averaged roughly 25 minutes of ice time, playing in all situations and against top talent. He flourished in this role, showing well in both the basic stats and the possession metrics. Doesn't necessarily mean he's a bona fide 1D that you can build a championship team around, but, point is, he's shown he is, at the very least, a really good 3D (at age 23). His floor is probably a solid 2D. AA has put up points in limited minutes, but he hasn't shown he can be a dominant force against top talent. Granted, that's not entirely his fault, as this was his first full season and Blashill believes he needs to grow his game before he can be fully trusted with big minutes against big guns. But, regardless, Trouba is much more of a "known" right now. And he's a defenseman. The market value of young, two-way top-four defensemen is high. Also: the Jets already have lots of really good young forwards, several of them easily outclassing AA at this point in time. Trouba is the crown jewel of the Jets' D corps. If you're Cheveldayoff and your plan is to do whatever it takes to keep Trouba in Winnipeg, does AA + Howard + 2nd excite you? I don't dislike Howard, but I'm guessing most GMs see acquiring him as a measure of last resort, something to save for a rainy day. It might be possible to get what Howard could give you at a fraction of his cap hit, and I'm sure teams that desperately need to improve their goaltending are going to try to do just that, whether via trade or free agency. (And, again, I'm not sure Holland has any real interest in moving Howard in the first place.) The hope, I guess, would be that Cheveldayoff decides he needs to move Trouba, maybe at the trade deadline, and that he's willing to accept a bit less than market value in return, because he needs to move Trouba. In that case, I could maybe see AA + Howard + 2nd getting it done. But then, I assume Cheveldayoff would have a number of GMs showing very serious interest (dat cap hit. Holy crap, dat cap hit), so I doubt we'd have much leverage. All of this is just one more reason why we should be rooting for our prospects (Svechnikov, Hronek, et al.) to outperform expectations. It would give us good young talent, which would give us more trade options. At present, we're low on good young talent and trade options. That's more or less how I remember it, yeah. Is he a starting goalie, though? Is he one that [x team] believes could be a significant upgrade over [other option(s)]? I mean, it's possible. The cap hit itself isn't bad...assuming Howard can hold down the #1 spot or at least hold up his end of a platoon arrangement. Otherwise, you're carrying an overpriced backup.

Yeah. At this time, Trouba is probably a pipe dream. I don't think AA + Howard + 2nd gets you anywhere close; Howard is high-risk (possibly "negative trade value") and, right now, Trouba >>> AA. Ultimately, the Jets have every reason to keep Trouba and pretty much zero reason to move him. I will say this, though: I didn't like the optics of his early-season holdout. He put himself above the team, and if it's true that he wanted more ice time and an increased role...then, honestly, he can f*** off. Because 1) again, that's putting yourself above the team; 2) earn it, kid; and 3) if he excels in an expanded role and makes a convincing case that he's The Real Deal (so far, so good), that's more money that he can demand when it comes time to negotiate his next contract -- which would be quite convenient for him. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the cynic in me suspects he and/or his agent is/are focused on What's Best for Jacob Trouba, What's Going to Get Jacob Trouba All the Moneys. I mean, I can't fault an agent for that. It's basically his job description. But the holdout and the way it was handled on Trouba's end was not a great look for Team Trouba. I bring this up because if Trouba is simply angling for all the moneys, Cheveldayoff knows it. And if Cheveldayoff knows it, then you'd expect him to be planning ahead re: possibly having to trade Trouba. In which case, Trouba's $3M cap hit would give him options, flexibility. Point being, maybe Trouba isn't a pipe dream. Maybe he gets shopped around the trade deadline and fortune smiles on the Wings. Of course, if Trouba's all about the moneys, I'm not sure I'd want him. He could be a curse in disguise. [/dreger] Interesting. I'll have to look into that.

I doubt there's much interest in Howard. 33 years old Only 37 games played last season, due in large part to injury Only 26 games played this season, due in large part to injury $5.291M cap hit for the next two years Conventional wisdom advises against paying big money for non-elite goaltending. So...yeah. A team would have to be really desperate. And we don't even know if Holland is interested in moving Howard. For what it's worth, George McPhee has said he might try to corner the goalie market by taking a number of goalies in the expansion draft.

I kinda-sorta remember Suter/Parise selling Parise/Suter on Minnesota and Suter's then-girlfriend (now wife?) being a big factor. I don't recall McKenzie saying Suter straight-up chose Detroit and was overruled by his girlfriend, but I'll take your word for it.

Yeah, I was just about to post something to this effect. His assertion -- assuming it was translated properly -- doesn't seem to match reality.

Are we sure he even met with the Wings?

I mean, it's all moot anyway, as Suter absolutely will not request a trade this summer or next season. http://www.twincities.com/2015/09/04/wild-star-ryan-suter-working-hard-to-keep-his-fathers-legacy-alive/ http://www.startribune.com/ryan-suter-enjoying-life-in-minnesota-on-off-the-ice/412066493/#1 CliffsNotes: Suter wants to be in Minnesota. He signed with the Wild for family reasons and he and his family are the picture of domestic contentment. On the hockey side of things: the Wild are coming off their most impressive regular season in franchise history and appear to have finally pryed open a Cup window -- and Suter is a big part of that. So, even if Suter were to request a trade this summer or next season, Chuck Fletcher would talk him out of it. After 15 years of mostly mediocre hockey, the Wild are looking like legitimate contenders (despite their first-round exit this season). They want to win now. Future cap woes = the cost of Cup contention.

Sure. I guess I'm just saying we don't currently have many (any?) forwards who are firmly LW or firmly RW. Tatar can play either side. Mantha can play either side. Nyquist can play either side, and he's a former centerman. Abdelkader can play either side, and, if memory serves, he's a former centerman. Zetterberg can play any forward position. Larkin can play any forward position. Athanasiou can play any forward position. Helm can play any forward position. Sheahan can play any forward position. Glendening can play any forward position. Svechnikov can play any forward position.

Eh, I wouldn't really say we're deeper on one wing. Pretty much all of our forwards can play either wing. I would like more right-handed shots in our forward group, though.

Hell, I'm not sure I'd even classify him as an elite defenseman at this point in his career. Also, we're talking about a trade scenario. So, we'd be adding an albatross contract and we'd be parting with at least a couple significant assets. Which...just...no. So much no.

Can confirm. http://www.spotrac.com/nhl/minnesota-wild/ryan-suter-1858/ $7.5M cap hit for the next eight years, for a 32-year-old defenseman who's got a lot of miles on the odometer. Hard pass.

That's what she said!

Ryan Getzlaf, Corey Perry, Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa, Milan Lucic, Zack Kassian, Leon "Homicidal Madman" Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse...oh, and Connor McDavid, who Kesler is absolutely going to try to shank with a hunting knife.

Being "hard to play against" (which I guess we're defining as "North American," because every NHLer knows that Erik Karlsson = easy to play against) is something we can gnash our teeth over when we've found ourselves some top-tier talent and we feel we're within striking range of a Cup and we're looking for any and every competitive advantage we can give ourselves. The focus, right now, has to be on getting that top-tier talent. I don't care about nationality. At this point, I barely even care about players' "playing style." I just want a core of two or three elite players. I do absolutely want us to forecheck more aggressively and do a better job of clearing people out of our kitchen and whatnot. That stuff's fundamentally important. But if you don't have top-tier talent, you're not winning the Cup. Compare the best players on our 2008 team to the best players on our 2017 team. We don't have that kind of talent at the top of our depth chart right now, and that's far and away the biggest reason why the Detroit Red Wings can't have nice things these days.