Never_Retire_Steve

Draisaitl is very good. He also benefits from playing with Connor McDavid. Just look at last season with half a season with McDavid and then the previous seasons prior to that since 2007. Team was a lottery team every year until they had a full year of the best player in the NHL. I'm not saying guys like Draisaitl don't help, they obviously do but if you take McDavid off that team. I strongly feel as though they don't make the playoffs. Don't forget they also lost Taylor Hall who is a very good player.

Don't understand the mindset of signing Daley at all.

The guys you listed there have had a pretty small effect on how well Edmonton is doing IMO. It's not surprising to me that a guy like Maroon all of a sudden lights it up when playing on a line with McDavid. I think the Oilers will be fine because you look at teams like Pittsburgh and Chicago who have dominated the league this decade and they both have multiple superstars and have filled gaps with role guys.

I get what you're saying and I agree but at the same time look at what a full year with a healthy McDavid did for their team. The Oilers were a complete joke of a franchise for an entire decade and then all of a sudden adding 1 guy to the fold increased their Stanley Cup equity by a sizable amount. At this point, they are a team with very few good players after McDavid so even with him making $13 mil it's not like they can get much worse unless he gets injured or somehow declines very quickly. Guys like McDavid are few and far between, he's already the best player in the NHL at age 20 and is likely to improve over the next ~3-5 years.

Yakupov probably wouldn't want to play in Detroit but that's not really the point. The focus should be getting young guys who are undervalued rather than old past their prime d men like Hainsey and Girardi. As for the Pens comparison I really don't think that's a good comparison at all. Pittsburgh has now won 3 Stanley Cups and is one of the highest valued franchises in the league with one of the strongest fanbases. I would trade for that in a heartbeat regardless of what that does to the cap. McDavid is a generational talent and he's worth every penny he gets IMO

I feel like guys like Yakupov are the exact types of players that the Wings should be going after. Edmonton being able to sign McDavid for anything less than max is a bargain for them.

Been hearing reports that Detroit is interested in guys like Hainsey and Giradi. My ******* god, please no. I hope these reports are all untrue about which D men we're looking at. Just seem all awful decisions to be making and a bunch of guys in the decline that will certainly be overpaid. I really, really hope these rumours aren't true but if they are.... Holland seriously needs to go.

Let's focus on long term assets and prospects. It's so weird that Detroit has never been in this position since I was ultimately a fan of the team but we need a complete 180 from the last few seasons where they sign guys like Ott, Vanek & Nielsen. Focus on building around guys like Larkin & Mantha, even though I love the guys, it's time for Zetterberg and Kronwall to go and if we have to, we really should be looking at trades. There's something special about guys playing their whole careers in Detroit and in one way it would be awesome to see them retire in Detroit but at this point in time that's not what's best for the team.

Not sure wtf the Blackhawks are doing.

I'm interested to hear how/if teams view another team's protected list and use that as negotiations for possible trades. Obviously seeing who is protected and who isn't should tip the hands of GMs and how they value some of their players. Wondering if some GMs out there are smart enough to leverage that.

All things considered, I think this worked out pretty well for Detroit other than the character assault that's been happening with Mrazek. If he's truly a "cancer" in the locker room they totally ruined his trade value and now we still have 10 M + tied up in goaltenders which is never a good thing. But.... having said that I'm glad he's still on our roster.

The more I think about it the more I hate exposing Mrazek. The only scenario that I can envision Vegas not taking Mrazek is if there are side deals in place that force Vegas to take guys like Fleury for cap relief. Other than that, I'm really struggling to see how Mrazek isn't the top or at minimum top 3 options in goal. Also, remember that there's nothing in place for them to take like 7 goalies and then try to flip them for something else with other teams. Not saying they'll do that but it's not far fetched to see them take 4 or 5 goalies.

I heard the rumor from some Detroit writer, can't remember the name sorry. Seems like wild speculation at best when I read it. Anyway, regarding your 3 points Chris: I think you have things a little off in your thoughts. If I were a GM and picking an expansion team, I would definitely not take Fleury. Reasons being, he's expensive and certainly past his prime and Vegas will take a few years to be good so I don't think it's a good long term play. The only way I would take Fleury is if I could flip him and keep Mrazek. Mrazek is coming off a very bad season but he's also shown that he can be one of the game's best over the course of a season. If it weren't for him at the start of last year, there's absolutely no way Detroit makes the playoffs in 15-16. Mrazek is 25 so he's still in his prime or could still improve and has a very high ceiling IMO. Fleury is 32 and on the decline and more expensive. Sure the argument could easily be made that he's the better goalie but that doesn't always make it the best pick.

I still don't think that's really a reasonable explanation for leaving him exposed. I'm hoping that Holland tried to move him because now that it's rumored about his bad attitude, what kind of trade value does he have? It's definitely not ideal to have over 10 million in salaries going to goaltenders.

The funny but really sad thing about looking at this list when the expansion draft became official was that I was convinced that we would have to trade Howard or Mrazek before this year's deadline because I was quite convinced that whoever was left exposed would go to Vegas. Now, I'm just shocked that after the dust all settled that we will potentially lose a 25 year old goalie for NOTHING. At least if you think he has a bad attitude, why wasn't he traded? Just absolutely makes no sense to me. I really hope that Vegas stays away from him but if I'm Vegas there's no way I'm not taking him. I've also heard a rumor that there's a side deal in place to stay away from Kronwall which if true is almost as bad as leaving Mrazek exposed. I hate to be so negative but I truly feel like if they gave an award for worst GM of the season, Holland would finish runner up to Benning.

I'm not really sure what the hell Holland is thinking exposing Mrazek. Probably the dumbest thing he's ever done as a GM IMO

Absolutely love this tool and have spent hours between this site and planmyteam.com although I like this tool a bit better. I would protect: Nielsen/Tatar/Sheahan/Jurco/Mantha/Anthanasiou/Dekeyser/Sproul/Marchenko/Mrazek

My point is exactly what you're saying but I think the approach is wrong. I surely understand the playoff streak and personally I love the fact that we've made the players for a quarter of a century. However, at the same time, that streak has spoiled us as Red Wings fans to have very highly competitive teams for over a decade. I don't feel as though we've actually had any Stanley Cup equity in the past few years because of these types of trades. I will concede that Vanek and Nielsen are better players, however, I think that's the wrong approach to take by sliding into one of the wild card spots and realistically have a ~0% of actually winning the Stanley Cup. What I'd rather see is taking a chance of some of these prospects and trade for picks/prospects rather than give them up. We've also been spoiled to have an insanely good farm system but I'm not sure how long that is going to last and we could end up in a situation that doesn't look very good. The last thing I'd want to see is us end up like the Oilers have been for close to 10 years.

How does the expansion draft work again? Once the season is over, are teams still able to negotiate contracts right up until the expansion draft?

No idea what management has been doing the past few seasons. Losing all these young guys like Pulkkinen, Frk, Ferraro, etc. who have shown some promise and then trading picks for guys like Legwand. Signing guys like Vanek, Ott & Nielsen. Seems very counter-intuitive to what they should be doing. I think 25 years of playoff success has clouded Holland's judgement into always thinking that Detroit is a contender when in reality they haven't been in several years and have been super lucky to have an incredible farm system but now unfortunately it's been ravaged a bit in favor of vets.

Really wish Howard was moved last season. I really hope Holland tried because we're going to find ourselves in a s***ty situation (actually we already are). The market for goaltenders appears to be a buyer's market with so many teams who look like they are looking to move goalies. I highly doubt we'll get much for Howard but I imagine he'll be a very good option for Las Vegas to take in the expansion draft so I really hope he gets traded this season so that we get something for him.

I don't really understand the trade from the Sens perspective? Anyone else?

Holy s***... didn't see that one coming.

I'm in.

Love all the different goalie mask designs.