Zetts

I'm really hoping we make the playoffs...and I think we will. But IF we don't, here's something to consider: Every team that doesn't make the playoffs this year has a shot at the #1 pick through the draft lottery. Crazier things have happened, right? Edit: The team who finishes with the most points amongst the teams outside of the playoffs has a 0.5% chance. Yay.

Outside of Franzen, nobody floats. Brunner is somewhat weak defensively, but that's certainly not the same thing as floating. We lack some of the talent from years past, but we have a team that busts their tails. Don't confuse mistakes with being lazy. We have a young team now, which I thought was what people have wanted for the past several years. This is what happens when you have a young team.

No, they really were not. The special teams were horrendous. Completely agree on the last point. Exhibit A: the start of this year when Z and Brunner were tearing it up. Then Brunner fell off the face of the earth.

And he's still on our team. You're not really refuting anything of substance - my point was that we're just as set for "shoot-first forwards" as in '08. But yes, my apologies, he is that type of player as well. Side note: I don't think the reason that Zetterberg's scoring has dipped is primarily because of age, but because of the lack of supporting talent around him (both on his own line and on other lines to draw attention away from him). He's much easier to key in on. Thus the "other factors" to which I alluded are what I think is more of an issue.

I generally agree, although I think people overstate the importance of this "shoot-first" forward. When we won the cup in '08, we didn't have a shoot first forward. Maybe Franzen, but he's still here, if he decides to actually wake up. We also have Brunner who may or may not be impactful. Either way, he wasn't around in '08. Point being, in my opinion we're not much worse off in that category than 2008. I'm definitely not saying I think we'll win the cup, I just don't think that specific factor is what's holding us back.

He's a rookie.

Does anyone have reliable information about what the condition on the pick is? The only things I've seen have been the conflicting speculation here (that he needs to play 5 games - not sure if there's a real source) and the tweet mentioned from TPLHockey (Huskins would need to re-sign with Philly - no idea if this source is reliable).

Sooooo, can we get a first for Ian White?

I'd love Ryan O'Reilly...I think there are still hard feelings in Colorado from the start of this season. Especially given that next year we'll be playing Colorado a lot less, they should be a little more willing to deal with us. Not that I think it will happen, but that would be amazing and it's somewhat realistic.

And three strong prospects.

That is one of the worst ideas I've seen here in a while, and I've seen some pretty terrible ones. Franzen AND Filppula for a player who has only one year left after this on his contract (a grossly overpaid contract at that), who is made of glass AND who is underproducing on a point-per-game basis compared to one of the players you want to trade to acquire him? Right. Ignoring all of that, then you still have the depth issue. I mean, when Gaborik is injured, that would leave us with what exactly?

The problem with this idea is that it's actually NOT a deep draft...2013 NHL draft lacks depth of talent We're not getting a top 10 draft pick, that's pretty much guaranteed. We don't need to sell and blow up a decent team to take a gamble on a pick who is very likely not to work out. Given that the success rate of where we'd be drafting, there's a < 50% of our first round pick working out (see The Value of a (First-Half) First Round Draft Pick). And it's extremely unlikely that the player we picked would ever be better than the player we traded to get the pick, even if said pick does manage to make it to the NHL at all. So, really I'd rather just watch the Wings in the playoffs.

More negative than LGW??

Not sure if it's been mentioned: this is another reason plus/minus blows. Datsyuk gets an assist on the goal but had left the ice so doesn't get the +1.

This is just so untrue. He's actually been pretty physical. Example #1: Feruary highlights, 0:04 of video.

I question people who are praising our defence and criticizing our forwards. Yes, it is great to have a more physical back end. But it's come at the expense of skill in moving the puck up to the forwards. That's why it looks like the forwards are struggling. Having said that, I'm quite pleased with how our D is developing - they're improving in leaps and bounds. They're still the root of a lot of our problems though.

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This is definitely a legitimate complaint. I forgot about that. Personally I don't care how much he's actually being paid. It's just about the cap hit to a fan isn't it? I mean, it's Ilitch paying the money. The only thing affecting the competitiveness of the team is the cap hit. It's nice to have an owner that's rich enough that we can say that. For a lot of teams, it WOULD be an issue, because the owner is financially constrained (although I'm starting to wonder if Ilitch might be heading that way too...)

Why bother even taking the risk? We have nearly 18 million in cap space next year. A bit of a raise for Filppula won't change anything much. And if those players can ever match his output, it'll still be a few years away.

This is definitely true. But if he was on his game every night, do you think we'd be paying him the same amount? I totally get the frustration here, but I think some people think that it would be perfectly natural to have a 40-50 goal-scorer (as he almost certainly would be if he tried) for under 4 million/yr. Realistically, this is why long term bargain contracts are bad. He IS earning the money that he's making, whether people like to admit it or not. There's just an infuriating amount of potential that he refuses to tap into.

I wouldn't mind giving him up, but not just for the sake of dumping him and preferably not during the season. We desperately need defense right now, which includes people to fill the #6/7 slot. On the topic of Lashoff, that's fantastic news! I'm curious to see the numbers. I really hope they lock up Brunner too...his price tag is only going to keep rising the longer they wait.

This has to be a joke post. Have you even watched Franzen play? Sure, he's lazy at times and he floats at times, but you don't put up numbers like he has playing against the best pairings of other teams without having a LOT of talent. Yes, his disinterest can be frustrating, but lets not get carried away trashing the whipping boy of the day on LGW. The reason we won't trade with Boston has nothing to do with Franzen or his bargain of a contract. It has to do with the aforementioned cap crunch of the Bruins. I would be willing to trade him for a good defenseman (for which Franzen would bring back a good bit of value to Detroit in a trade), but I'm not sure if Boston would be willing to give up a D of a high enough calibre.

I'd rather the Wings re-sign Cleary to a 5 year contract than see them wear those. Yes, they're that bad.

With the brutal calls this year, I thought this could be a good thread to keep track of it. The idea came after what was, in my opinion, one of the worst calls in a while this afternoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDXf_2Ct54o

I thought this was a pretty amusing analysis of one of Suter's recent breakdowns. When you're in man-on-man coverage you should probably man your man It also points out a problem that the Wings have been having.