Dabura

Ah, gotcha. In the here and now, it does seem to be "Klingberg, et al." I agree that no defenseman in their system seems poised to have a monster breakout 2017-18 season and establish himself as a top-pairing NHL defenseman practically overnight. Honka and Lindell do have good potential, though, and the Stars' core is young enough that they can probably afford to be patient. Or not. I dunno. I have to say, it's a little disheartening that Benn, Seguin, and Klingberg would be the Wings' three best players (not named Henrik Zetterberg) and yet the Stars only finished a point ahead of us in the standings. I want to believe we can successfully "reload" over the next two or three years, but very many things will have to go very wonderfully right for us.

Honka's good. But, yeah, goaltending and depth at both forward and defense are their problems. They have three great players in Benn, Seguin, and Klingberg...and not much else.

Hitchcock's Stars beat Ruff's Sabres in the '99 finals. Now Hitchcock replaces Ruff as head coach of the Stars. Illuminati confirmed.

Actually, I'm gonna call bulls**** on myself here. I hadn't really given the expansion draft much thought until today, in terms of possible scenarios. Now that I really think about it...sure, I could maybe see Vegas taking Helm/Abdelkader/DeKeyser over a younger, cheaper option. Though, I'm sure at least two of those three will be protected.

Right, I was just using Ouellet and Ericsson to make the point that if there's a relatively big contract that McPhee would rather not take on, he'll have at least one cheaper alternative. I'm assuming that 9 times out of 10, he goes for the cheaper player. We could, technically, expose only bigger contracts. But we all know there's absolutely no way that's happening, so I'm not sure it's even worth discussing. I mean, if they'd take a 3rd for Abdelkader, that could end up helping us in the long run. We're not in the throes of an apocalyptic cap hell, but, at the same time, you can never have too much cap flexibility. I get where you're coming from, though, and I don't entirely disagree.

I'm not necessarily in favor or giving up assets in order to unload a contract. I'm just sayin'. If McPhee had to choose between Ouellet and Ericsson, he'd take Ouellet. If we want to actively and successfully force a player on him for the purpose of freeing up cap space (again, I don't see this happening), we're going to have to work out a trade.

Honestly, this latest round of quotes has convinced me that Holland himself doesn't believe half the things he says, that he treats his talks with the media as opportunities to run damage control and pay lip service to season ticket holders, corporate entities, et al. and say what he feels needs to be said in order to get as many butts in the seats as possible and keep those butts coming back. I almost want to say there's an institutionalized fear within this organization that 1) Wings fans are predominantly fairweather fans and 2) not making the playoffs -- even just for one season -- could mean losing a catastrophically large number of said fans and their $$$. Similarly, I guess you could make the argument that Devallano only said the things he recently said as a way of paying lip service to the "disgruntled diehard" demographic.

Wouldn't work, unfortunately. We may expose some bad contracts, but in any and every conceivable scenario, we'll also be exposing some reasonable contracts. If we're going to get Vegas to take on one of our albatross contracts, it's going to have to be a trade scenario, i.e. "We'll give you [x] and in exchange you take [y] off our hands." I don't see that happening, though.

Rasmussen is one of the few consensus top talents in this draft class that I haven't seen play, outside of highlight reel packages. I wasn't impressed by said highlights, which, if memory serves, were mostly just easy net-front goals. Based on that, and the running theme of the scouting reports (he's big and he goes to the net. Not much talk about raw talent, skill, high-end ability...the kind of things you'd want from a top-ten pick that you're hoping could become a cornerstone player for your franchise...), I've wondered if this kid isn't being overrated and overhyped. But I've given the scouts the benefit of the doubt and taken it on faith that he'd be a great pick-up for the Wings. Which brings us to this WIIM fanpost: http://www.wingingitinmotown.com/2017/4/11/15259068/dr-dangles-prospect-profiles-michael-rasmussen-c-tri-city-americans-15 I know, I know -- it's WIIM, a fanpost. But it's a good piece that confirms my suspicion, and the author makes a point that can't be overstated: [ . . . ] if the Wings are picking in the top 10 (which they are), they must go for a player with as much skill and potential to become a cornerstone in the team's franchise for years to come. They need to swing for the fences with that 1st pick, and get the best player available. At points in the last couple of FS-D broadcasts, Ken and Mickey said what the Wings need more than anything else is size and physicality. I trust the influencers and decision-makers behind the Wings' scouting machinery have a slightly more nuanced assessment of our needs and priorities.

*puts on devil's advocate hat* Thing is, the Wings need consecutive bottom-ten finishes. We are a bottom feeder that needs to bottom feed for a few years and stock up on high-end young talent. Barring a miracle, that's the only path back to greatness. Our Cup window is closed; there's nothing left to do but reset. So, in Holland's defense, he's overseen a lot of winning and now he needs to oversee some losing, which should be well within his abilities (or lack thereof). The Kings' Cup window is still open; it's Cup or bust for them. In that sense, they severely underperformed this season. That's why Sutter and Lombardi were axed. And, like PavelValerievichDatsyuk pointed out, the success the Kings have enjoyed over the past few years was largely born of failure. Doughty, arguably the best defenseman in hockey, was drafted 2nd overall. Kopitar, a Selke-caliber franchise centerman, was drafted 11th overall.

Yep. If we don't win a top three pick and we don't maneuver via trade, we can select as high as 7th and as low as 10th.

Well, the league's basically run by the team owners -- and they don't call 'em *owners* for nothing!

Like I said, my understanding is that his knee situation is not good. As in, it's a problem that warrants corrective surgery but Kronwall's said no to the surgery and now he's probably doing long-term damage, possibly of the handicapping variety. If the problem becomes a big enough hindrance to his ability to play (and I'm assuming it soon will), the Wings' physician will have to declare Kronwall unfit to play for a minimum of 24 days and 10 games. That gets him on LTIR. If I understand correctly, stretching that indefinitely (LTIRetirement) requires the physician to monitor Kronwall and refuse to declare him fit to play. If the league doesn't like it, they can issue a formal challenge and Kronwall would be checked out by a neutral physician. As I'm operating under the assumption that Kronwall has a genuinely debilitating physical ailment that really should've been addressed through surgery a year or two ago, I assume the neutral physician would say, "Yeah, dude's unfit to play." That's my take on it. But, admittedly, I'm no CBA expert, and I don't know exactly what Kronwall's knee situation really is. So I suppose I'm sort of talking out of my ass here.

Agreed. I'd argue that our struggling offense is largely -- if not mostly -- a playmaking problem.

I'm thinking there's a good possibility they won't have to fudge anything, since, as far as we know, his knee(s) is/are genuinely messed up. I wouldn't be surprised to see him play the first half of next season, get sidelined with knee issues, and slip into LTIRetirement.

True enough. But everyone likes an underdog story. The Penguins winning would be business as usual, ho hum. The Blue Jackets knocking off the Penguins could generate buzz and possibly reel in an audience that otherwise wouldn't even know the NHL playoffs were happening. Bettman's whole thing is "growing the game." The path to that kind of growth = non-marquee teams becoming marquee teams. IMO.

I'm torn. On the one hand, I would love to see a playoff berth slip through the Leafs' fingers in the final days of the regular season, with Boston and Montreal and Ottawa all making it in. On the other hand, I'd love to see the Caps thoroughly obliterate them on a big stage.

I don't think there's any chance he straight-up retires and I don't think there's any chance Vegas takes him. IMO, it's going to be LTIRetirement. The only question is when.

And the Penguins will be without Letang! And, in terms of pure motivation...if there's one team the Jackets would absolutely love to knock out in the first round, it's gotta be the Penguins. Right? I dunno if I'd say there's ever been a really substantial, legitimate rivalry between the two clubs, but, living in Pennsylvania, I do know Blue Jackets Nation has a very healthy dislike for Penguins Nation and Penguins Nation has a very healthy dislike for Blue Jackets Nation. This should be a really good series, same as Rags-Habs. I feel bad for whichever team has to face the Caps in the first round. If it's Toronto...hoo boy. Talk about baptism by fire.

Y'know, the more I think about it, the less convinced I am that this season wasn't a stealth tank right from the get-go. The smoking gun? Ott, Helm, Miller, Sheahan, Glendening, Abdelkader. Six versions of the same player, none of them especially good at anything. That's half your forward group.

My two cents re: Mittelstadt, FWIW... If we're picking in the back half of the top, I'd be more than ok with selecting Mittelstadt. He's not unlike Athanasiou -- i.e. a hugely skilled offensive centerman who plays with excellent speed and quickness and can consistently make big plays out of nothing. Outstanding puck skills, sometimes even Datsyukian. He's only around 6'0, but he's also around 200 lbs, and those dimensions help him protect the puck exceptionally well in the o-zone, which in turn helps him make some of the bring-you-out-of-your-seat plays that he's becoming known for. Great vision and high hockey IQ (though, his game is definitely weighted towards the offensive half of the ice). So, in terms of pure talent, he's solidly in the top eight of this draft class, IMO. There's a bit of a scouting stigma/bias against the USHL, which could hurt his stock. And, like most high-end forwards his age, he needs to grow his game, i.e. become a better two-way player and show that he can continue to be a force at higher levels. But I can really only say good things about him at this point in time. I feel an argument can absolutely be made for him being the fourth-best centerman in this draft class, behind Patrick, Hischier, Vilardi.

The hell were those two Manitoba players doing? lol. "Huh, guy wide open in the slot. Maybe we should think about coveri--oh. Dang." And this is why the AHL is not the NHL.

I wanna see Kreider barrel into Price. The Universe as we know it would implode. It'd be amazing.

Signed Franzen when we should've signed Chychrun. Holland will never live this down. Sad!

Go Rangers.