Satrebil

It's early yet. In five years we'll be able to see whether Abdelkader or Latendresse is who the Wings should have drafted.

Just assigned to Hershey (AHL) after 13 games w/ Washington (0G, 2A, 2PTS). http://www.forecaster.ca/hockeynews/hockey...player.cgi?3081

It is not so relevant right now in comparing the two players. Neither of them are having any impact in the NHL right now.

Bring back Wayne Fontes! Maybe he can coax Barry Sanders out of retirement.

Quick and fast are two different entities. Quickness is acceleration and burst speed/agility. Fast is top end speed.

No. It makes YOU wonder. Not me. Detroit doesn't have anywhere near the depth or star quality of any of those teams you compared to them. ya just if that was true. you know since most of the teams he compared them to are just setting the league on fire. (sarcasm) We're talking about prospect systems, right? Yes, prospect systems. Not individual prospects.

We ARE NOT in the top ten. TOP 20, maybe. We don't have any superstar potential guys like Malkin or Ovechkin. We don't have the second tier stars like Ryan or Jack Johnson. Our best guys (Kronwall and Grigorenko) are getting a bit old to be called prospects anymore. Others like Hudler and McGrath aren't can't miss players, despite some tantalizing potential. After Kronwall, our defensive depth in the system is weak. Quincy and Lebda have their strengths, but they have shortcomings as well. Detroit's prospect system is doing pretty well, considering how many 1st rounders we've traded and how low we usually pick. But calling it a top 10 system is plain inaccurate. What the Wings really need is for some of those "project" picks to pan out. Guys like Jonathon Ericsson, Anton Axelsson, Andreas Jamtin and Christofer Lofberg. We can't wait until these guys are 22 any more. As usual, reality-based and well-stated, snapshots.

you speak of things you do not know my friend. Holland would not. I'm pretty sure he would, just because he hasn't in the past doesn't mean he won't ever do it. I guarntee if we were getting run all day every game something would have to happen to prevent that. We're getting outhit on most nights but our scoring and talent have pretty much made any enforcer playing us obsolete at the moment. Enforcers are getting rarer by the day in the new NHL. The need for such is terribly overhyped, particularly on this board.

With the new NHL, and salary cap issues, Grigorenko has no guarantees. No joke.

+/- is not a primary concern. why not? espically for a d-man. That means he's on the ice when a goal is scored. I don't know about you but i prefer my d-men to keep the opposing team from scoring. Kindl's +/- is almost completely irrelevant to his potential as a prospect. There are ten other categories I'd look at before the +/-.

You have to compare our prospects to other team's prospects, only then do you realize Detroit's prospects are not near the top of the league.

Osgood's contract this year is also a stop-gap situation. Expect either Legace or Osgood to be elsewhere next year.

According to HF: 'Kopecky has great size, power and skills. He is the only prospect who could translate into a future scoring power forward as the Wings lack these type of players in their system.' That's why everyone is fed up with him, because he has loads of potential yet he doesn't deliver. I don't know how many more opportunities Kopecky will get with the Red Wings organization at this point.

+/- is not a primary concern.

That sounds right. Bykov was a decent 5/6th d-man. Wouldn't mind him back but not at the price he was suggesting.

I also understand that he's a diabetic, which makes it even tougher. But hey, Bobby Clarke was also a diabetic, and we all know how good he was.

Schneider is an awful skater? He's probably an average skater. But awful? No.

That is a huge assumption to make. Jumping from the RSL to the NHL is not always a direct comparison.

Yzerman will most likely knock Mowers out of the lineup.

As far as lineups go, how about this for 06-07.... Hudler/Lang/Shanahan Williams/Datsyuk/Grigorenko Filppula/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Maltby/Draper/Franzen Bootland Lidstrom/Fischer Schneider/Kronwall Delmore/Lilja Meech Osgood Howard I'm not so sure I'd go with Zetterberg centering the third line. He's second line material at this point in his career already. The lines 1-3 can go in any order. They're all first-line level. They're all first-line level? I disagree. The Zetterberg line is probably the least 'first line' of the three, and that still stacks up well against a lot of 'first' lines around the league. Those three would be contributing around 60 goals and 150 points, which is not far off of the Doan line from Phoenix or even Iginla's line from 03-04 Calgary. Would you consider those lines "first" lines? Filppula and Grigorenko have played in 0 NHL games; as such, one has trouble in projecting their numbers with any sort of certainty. Of those nine players, perhaps three, maybe five of them are top-two line material. Two of them (Filppula and Grigorenko), we simply cannot tell yet. So, I'd say those lines are not all first-line material.

As far as lineups go, how about this for 06-07.... Hudler/Lang/Shanahan Williams/Datsyuk/Grigorenko Filppula/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Maltby/Draper/Franzen Bootland Lidstrom/Fischer Schneider/Kronwall Delmore/Lilja Meech Osgood Howard I'm not so sure I'd go with Zetterberg centering the third line. He's second line material at this point in his career already. The lines 1-3 can go in any order. They're all first-line level. They're all first-line level? I disagree.

As far as lineups go, how about this for 06-07.... Hudler/Lang/Shanahan Williams/Datsyuk/Grigorenko Filppula/Zetterberg/Holmstrom Maltby/Draper/Franzen Bootland Lidstrom/Fischer Schneider/Kronwall Delmore/Lilja Meech Osgood Howard I'm not so sure I'd go with Zetterberg centering the third line. He's second line material at this point in his career already.

I would like to see Filppula play maybe 10-20 games with the big club as a form of motivation, but yeah your arguments are pretty solid. Also this has nothing to do with your post but.... Filppula > Hudler.... something I've long suspected from watching the World Juniors back in the day. Hudler was always more talented, but it was Filppula who steped up in the big games. I'm a huge fan of Filppula. I like Hudler as well, but I just can't see him becoming more important to the Wings than Filppula. Hudler has all the skill in the world, but he is just so small. If he was really quick, similar to Martin St. Louis, then he would probably be OK, but Hudler's other problem is that he isn't really that quick. He's that small that he will cop a heap of physical punishment, and he's not fast enough to get away from it. Filppula is a bit bigger, and he has a lot more speed. He also is a solid two-way player, whereas Hudler is almost a purely offense-only guy. In a couple of years, Filppula is going to be a key part of our nucleus for the future. I was just curious if anyone knows what number Filppula will be wearing with the Griffins/Wings this season? Indeed, Hudler's lack of both speed and acceleration (for a NHL player of his stature) is a huge drawback. If a small NHL player makes it, it is because of his speed and acceleration, second to none.

You have to be kidding. The Wings NEED Robin Big Snake...? No thanks.

That's a rather optimistic viewpoint. Only Zetterberg so far has proven his NHL level of play.