Drake_Marcus

Are they going to introduce each player to ever play on the Canadians one by one?

That would imply that I'll be back.

TWO HOURS?

No problem. Nothing would make me happier than to have Tatar become a mega star for this team

Make sense. But it's still utter BS that Richards didn't get a suspension for destroying Booth's skull. (no, I'll never let that go until I see more star players get this consistent treatment)

Well in that case he's still got a ways to go. Regardless, this should be about Tatar. Sorry to pull you off topic even more

Ericsson was definitely ready to be an NHL defenseman last season. His play the previous year in GR and during his call-up the previous year were ample evidence of that. As far as his rookie mistakes go-- he does them no more often than any other rookie d-man. Do you remember how horrifyingly bad Kronwall was defensively for 3 years?

Yzerman is 6th all-time in scoring. The only players to have a higher scoring season than him were Mario and Gretzky. At this point it's retarded to think Crosby's going to end up higher up than Yzerman. Fedorov started his career as hot as Crosby and was just as dominant as Crosby's been so far. Were does Fedorov sit on the all-time list? You've got to be the best for a long, long time to get up there. We'll see where Crosby ends up. Lastly, to guess that Crosby would end up higher than Gordie Howe is insane. You think Crosby will score more than 800 goals? Howe was arguably the greatest player in the history of the game. He was the Babe Ruth of hockey. It's sacrilege to say he'll be surpassed by a 22 year old kid who's yet to prove his long-term greatness. Plus, if Crosby pushes himself that high that means Ovechkin and possibly Malkin will be even higher up on the all time list. Look at his performance relative to Ovi and Malkin in each of the years he's been in the league-- it's absurd to imply he'll be higher than either of them all-time when he's only outperformed Ovechkin one of his 4 years in the league and he only outperformed Malkin in Evgeni's rookie season.

Ericsson should've been in Detroit for 82 games last season, you're right there. He was a victim of the salary cap and the team's log-jam on defense. Holland said at the start of last season that he wouldn't bring Ericsson up unless there was a spot for him on one of the top three pairs. While he didn't mind leaving Meech to rot as the 7th man he was clear that he didn't want to do that with Ericsson because it would stall his development. Once a spot opened up full time they kept Ericsson in Detroit for the final 23 games last season. As far as Kopecky is concerned I'm sure he deserved to be left in the minors for as long as he was. After all, he proved to be utterly useless as an NHL player.

Then you should probably make that clear in the original post. Just imagine if Yzerman read that post.

Yes they have. Counting only guys since the 80's: Yzerman, Fedorov and Lidstrom. Those players either walked into the NHL right away or they walked in as soon as they could escape the USSR.

You haven't seen any GR games with McCollum in net, have you? He's definitely not NHL ready yet. Larsson's way closer to the NHL than McCollum. The Wings will undoubtedly let McCollum wait and develop in GR for at least another year. Edit: spelling

I originally was going to only list the Planet USA kids but then I saw the two Canadians in the list of available players when I was filling my ballot out. I forgot to edit the post to reflect that. It's fixed. All 5 of those kids are definitely Wings prospects.

Yeah, that totally makes sense. Holland's going to pick a kid 1st overall and send him to GR for 3 years even though he's ready to dominate in the NHL.

Helm on the second line while Kariya and Jokinen are on the 3rd.

That depends on a few things: 1. How he finishes his year in GR. Does he get better over time, stay consistent or does he hit the wall? 2. How he plays in any call-ups this year (if he gets them) 3. How he plays in training camp next year 4. How he plays in the pre-season next year If he looks like an NHL player in the situations above there will probably be a spot for him in Detroit next season. They do like their prospects over-ripe, so it's not a sure thing, but he'll get a chance to play his game during camp and the pre-season so he can make it impossible for Kenny to send him back down.

He's not a staple on the PK because of how many defensively strong forwards the Griffins have, but he's definitely capable of playing on it. His defensive play is excellent for a kid of his age and experience level. He's 3rd on the team in +/-, so he can't be that bad

That's a steal for a player of his caliber.

I wonder if we could sign that Brett Lebda kid. He's a 2010 FA with the Wings. I heard he can skate like the wind!

As far as his size goes I think a big part of it is that he doesn't quite have the bulk of an NHL player. He's still got a slight build. Strength and size will come with time, though. If he's slower than Fil it's not by much. Even when he was drafted the Wings managment said he was comparable to Hudler but with strong skating ability. At this stage he's already ahead of the skating curve. At his age you just know he'll be able to improve his skating each year, though, so it's not hard to imagine him being one of the Wings' fastest wingers when he finally reaches the NHL. All I know is that he's got strong enough skating that it won't be a knock on him when he gets to the NHL. He's definitely above average.

I'll answer this with a timeline: --> Ferraro and Tatar are drafted this summer. --> Both have good prospect camps. --> Tatar dominates at the annual prospect tourniment where he's the Wings' top scorer and ends up among the tournaments' top 5 scorers. --> Tatar doesn't dominate during the NHL preseason but doesn't look bad either-- a good sign for an 18 year old. --> Having committed to his WHL club, Ferraro returns to Canada to play --> Tatar ends up really impressing the Wings in the prospects camp, tournament and main camp. Holland decides to give him a shot in the AHL. Tatar is officially the youngest player in the AHL and the youngest Wings prospect to start the season there in recent memory. --> Ferraro suffers a knee injury and is out for the beginning of the WHL season. --> Tatar gets a point in his first AHL game but over the course of his first 5 games in the AHL he's 'treading water'-- doesn't look out of place on the 3rd line but isn't playing like a 1st line player either. His game, however, is suited to the AHL and he shows tons of promise. He definitely shows 'flashes' out on the ice. --> Tatar becomes adjusted to the AHL game and starts playing his game out there. --> Ferraro returns from his knee injury but still needs to get back on track. He struggles a to put up points at the beginning. --> Tatar explodes in the AHL. Suddenly he's one of the team's top forwards (arguably the best forward out there, but definitely among the top 2). --> Tatar ends up stringing together a 4 game scoring streak (still ongoing) over which he has 7pts. He's currently tied for first among the Wings' prospects in AHL scoring and is 1st among them in points per game with 5g 7a 12pts in only 15 AHL games. --> Ferraro puts points up but is well behind his scoring pace from last year. He still hasn't found his game after the knee injury. However, no one is counting him out! He's still a highly regarded prospect. This situation is not a knock on Ferraro-- it's a huge compliment to Tatar. Don't forget that the Wings scouts had Tatar marked down as a first rounder. When he fell out of the first they knew they had to grab him. The only reason why Tatar even fell that low is because his body of work as an impact player was small-- before the last WJC he wasn't on many radars. After the WJC he was on all of the scouts' radars. He managed to continue his strong play after the WJC when he went home to his team and had a great end to the season and playoffs. Tatar's just exploded. Think about it-- for the first time in a long, long time the Wings drafted a kid and he's excelling as a pro hockey player in the same year. This kid turned 19 today! He's the youngest player in the entire AHL and he's leading all Wings prospects in scoring right now. That's amazing.

Tatar's the same size as Datsyuk and Zetterberg (in terms of height at least... strength will come in time). And he's a great skater. I'd say his skating is comparable to someone like Filppula.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Tatar. Today he turns 19.

Spoken like Babs himself. I agree.

Where did you hear that about Andersson? Are you sure you aren't thinking of the redwingscentral article talking about how Joakim Andersson got bumped down the charts on his SEL team?