Dabura

He was also the Big Ten scoring champion.

That would be my guess. While I have no way of knowing how he feels about the Wings, he knows Larkin is going to be a Red Wing in a couple years, and he knows he played his stellar senior season on Larkin's wing. From our perspective...he's a pretty big body, right-winger (who can play center), shoots right, led a solid Wolverines teams in scoring. And Hockey's Future is correct: he "plays a disciplined, hard hitting game in his own zone" and "has become a quality possession player who takes a lot of defensive zone starts and converts them into up-ice pressure." He's exactly the kind of winger we're looking for (better than Kyle Baun, who we pursued but lost to Chicago), and we may be able to get him for free. Datsyuk and Zetterberg...Nyquist and Tatar...Mantha and Athanasiou...Larkin and Hyman...

They finally get a generational centerman and then they go and trade one of their two best wingers for Tatar and Ouellet? Not happening. And that's fine, because we don't need a winger. The Oiler we should be looking at is Draisaitl.

Well, now we know what the man in the street is saying at the end of that Radiohead video. "Edmonton gets McDavid."

Exactly. Zidlicky brings an element to our team that we're sorely - if not completely - lacking. Excellent puck-mover, passer, power play quarterback, shooter, scorer, point-producer. It's fitting that we got him from the Devils and that he'll be wearing #28, as he really is the first Rafalski type we've had since Rafalski called it quits. With Zidlicky in our lineup, we'll be spending more time on the attack and we'll be scoring more goals.

So...who's the odd man out when all our defensemen are healthy - Smith or Marchenko? Kronwall Smith/Marchenko DeKeyser Quincey Ericsson Zidlicky I guess it'd have to be Marchenko, but he's been so steady. This is what Babcock loves - competition, players having to "grab their cheese." EDIT: Forgot about Ouellet. Though, I have to think Marchenko has surpassed him on the depth chart, if only by a little bit.

I dunno, Pulkkinen's matched Jurco's goal total (2) in far fewer games, and he's just getting warmed up. Cole is, at this time, basically a better Jurco (big, physical goal-scorer with good wheels). Pulkkinen gives us a dimension that no one else does.

This is a great add.

Played a perfect road game for about 40 minutes. Our breakouts and transition game were fantastic. We have to learn how to play with a lead, put a game on lockdown. Can't expect the opposition to play nice and on your terms. When they press, we need to raise our game in kind.

Sorry, I was a bit harsh. Jeff Petry is criminally underappreciated, and he might be a good fit. My problem is that I feel he'd be "more of the same." We need a great passer, he's not a great passer. We need point production, he's not a point producer. We need, ideally, someone who's going to add another dimension to our D corps. So, if it were between Petry and, say, Zidlicky, I'd probably choose the latter. Why? Because Zidlicky is an excellent passer, an excellent shooter, an excellent quarterback, and a point producer. He's not Rafalski, but he's the same kind of thing.

All I'm saying is we've had a number of cracks at the Lightning and Canadiens and we haven't done much winning in those games. And if we look to recent playoff runs...couldn't score against Nashville, couldn't score against Chicago (when Chicago woke up), couldn't score against Boston, and now we're pretty harmless at even strength this season. I love Nyquist and Tatar, and the Euro Twins are the Euro Twins, but our scoring depth - like our blue line depth - isn't where it needs to be if we want to make a serious push in the playoffs. Even if we were able to get past the Lightning or Price in the first round, we'd have three more rounds to go. We haven't done very well against the top Eastern teams (Metro included), so this is all pretty concerning.

Being the best defenseman on the Oilers doesn't mean much. I've actually argued that he might be the third best defenseman on this team, but it'd be incredibly close. Bottom line: he's a second-pairing defenseman on a good team and probably a third-pairing defenseman on this team, given how picky Babcock is about pairings (Kronwall-Ericsson is basically set in stone, which is a problem, and DeKeyser-Quincey has been our steadiest pairing). He doesn't put up points. I'm not convinced he's going to truly improve our breakouts, transition game, all-around puck movement. He doesn't do anything especially well. We already have defensemen who fit that bill. We need a real impact player. We need a shot in the arm. Replacing Marchenko with Petry (c'mon, tell me you don't see Petry being paired with Smith) would, I think, be a lateral move. It's thinking too small, too safe.

We have good special teams, but the Bolts are the better team, without question. And the Habs have Carey Price, who's my pick for the Hart and Vezina. The Habs are thoroughly mediocre, but Price could carry them to the finals. He's that good right now.

Petry is a depth defenseman and the price for Hall would be astronomical.

Yeah, this is an issue that no one really seems to be talking about. We flat-out don't score at even strength. Like, in all seriousness - if you look into the numbers, there are maybe four teams in the league that are more toothless at even strength. This is a major problem.

We will not beat the Lightning or Price in a best of seven series without one or two additional pieces. Unfortunately, it's going to be the Lightning or Price in the first round. So, logic suggests making a trade or two is the way to go. But "There's no hockey store," so I dunno.

Everyone knows the Wings are not one of the better teams in the league. Consider: They're too old. They're too young. They rely on Datsyuk and Zetterberg for all of their production and goaltending. They don't have David Backes. They don't have that Forsberg kid. They're not the Islanders. They won't make the playoffs. For those reasons, especially that last one, the Wings will miss the playoffs this season and Mike Babcock will sign with the Maple Leafs, Canadiens, Penguins, Flyers, Coyotes, Blue Jackets, Oilers, Devils, Ducks, and Sharks. But seriously now. The Wings are right there near the very top of the standings (e.g. three points behind the Lightning with a game in hand). This team is pretty good, and I think it's only going to get better as the season goes on. And it looks like maybe some people outside of Wings Land might feel the same way. Doug MacLean, for example, called the Wings a contender a couple days ago. (Granted, he's Doug MacLean. But you've gotta take what you can get.) Corey Masisak of NHL.com says: "If this team adds a high-level defenseman, Detroit could win the East." (Granted, it's NHL.com.) So I'm wondering: Are the Wings a contender? As I've said a number of times before, I don't think this is a Cup-or-bust season for the Wings, I think this season is mainly about development. IMHO, we're setting up for a proper push in 2015-16 and 2016-17. But maybe we're genuinely ahead of schedule. Maybe this team is good enough to be counted among the real contenders. Personally, I wouldn't go that far just yet. I'd say we're looking like a dark horse, a ninja team you don't really give much thought to, until you're dead. (The dead can think. Don't question me, it's science.) What say you?

As much as I want new faces, I don't think Franson and Jagr would've made a difference tonight.

So that was pretty bad. I'm going to need years of therapy. It was that kind of night.

Ironically, Crosby and Malkin have had to carry a long list of bottom-six players. But yeah, an actual, complete top six would be nice.

We like our team.

Could've had Perron for a pick. But we had no need for a goal-scorer.

The Pens have been off since Saturday, same as us. I am not ok with this team standing pat at the trade deadline.

I'm not saying you're saying those things. I'm saying I don't get why we're fighting about this guy. You're puffing your chest and telling people to eat crow because you spent five minutes looking at some numbers which you may or may not fully understand. If I didn't know better, I'd think we were talking about Brett Lebda. Read the page I linked. It's from last season, but it makes a pretty good case. Smith makes boneheaded mistakes and he doesn't put up points (though, he doesn't see time on the PP). But if given the choice between Kronwall-Ericsson and Kronwall-Smith as our first pairing, I'd pick the latter. Smith moves the puck well. He's shown he can be a solid possession player. He has virtually all the tools you could want in a quality NHL defenseman. He just hasn't quite put it all together.

Speaking of Jagr... How do we feel about our forward corps? Don't get me wrong - I like it. Hell, I love it. But does it match up well against, say, the Bolts' group? (Stamkos, Callahan, Filppula, Johnson, Kucherov, Palat, Killorn, Drouin, Boyle, lately Paquette..) Should we be "a little more than a little" concerned that scoring - or, more specifically, a lack thereof - has been our undoing for three straight postseasons? Price, Lundqvist, Rask, Holtby, Fleury, Bishop - there are some great goalies in the East. Do we have a crew that can crack them when goals are especially hard to come by and the checking gets super-tight? The hope, of course, is that a scoring defenseman like Franson could be The Difference. But would it really be enough? We have four lethal scorers up front, but two of them are on the wrong side of 30 and the other two were invisible in the playoffs last year. If there's one thing I've learned in my 20+ years as a Wings fan, it's that the formula for success is, generally, "Your team (which you think is "good enough") + at least one huge additional piece." Fortune favors the over-prepared, the overly deep teams. What I'm saying is, ideally, I'd like for us to add a Cody Franson and a good winger. Franzen's status complicates things, but if it's looking like he's done for the rest of the regular season, that might be added motivation to go out and get a big-bodied winger. I like Jagr. I like Alex Chiasson. (Would the Sens like Smith and a pick/prospect?) I like Tom Wilson, for what he is. (Would the Sens like Weiss? They need a top-nine centerman.) I actually kinda like Zack Kassian, who grew up a Wings fan and who I think is just not a good fit in Vancouver. Wayne Simmonds, like Kassian, grew up a Wings fan and is one of the premier power forwards in the league. He's one of the Flyers' better and more popular players, but they really need help on the back end, and we happen to have a logjam on our back end. Chris Stewart (I know, I know) might only cost a third-round pick.