Drake_Marcus

Niemi is a proven rebound machine.

It's not tough to choose a 1st ballot hall of famer over Huds. Don't worry man, I gave you a +1 to save your internet reputation (serious business!).

You've got to admit it's a bit of a stretch to turn this into a Hudler discussion. Go go image macros!

I've got no problem seeing him play a Dallas Drake role. The gun jokes write themselves.

They didn't beat us in the playoffs so it really doesn't chap my ass any more to have them raise it against us. If we had to watch Pittsburgh raise theirs last year I would've been pissed. (maybe we did and I just blocked it out of my mind)

I didn't count Stafford because he wasn't a true Wings prospect. Good point on the goal scoring, though. Right now his big limitation (aside from confidence) is that he takes too long to wind up his shot. If he could get his 100mph slapshot off quicker he'd be pretty dangerous on the point if only due to the strength of the shot (Chara's a good comparison for that effect).

Do you understand scouting at all? Guys who are huge and have elite talent will always go higher in the draft. Let's break every kid down into three categories: 1. Talent 2. Size/Physical tools 3. Mental tools (hockey sense, attitude, etc) If you're the Detroit Red Wings and you've yet to pick higher than 19th overall in 20 years you have to sacrifice something. So let's look at what you sacrifice: Size: If you sacrifice size you can still get away with it because, well, we all know how big Yzerman, Datsyuk and Zetterberg are. And that's not bigger than 5'11. Kane is a midget and is slight as well. He's weighs as much as a wet cat. He seems to have done ok for himself. Examples: Skinner, Grandlund, Tarasenko, Weal Talent: You can sacrifice talent and draft a kid who's got great physical and mental tools but has a lower ceiling for growth. Will this get you a Cup winning team? I'm not sure, I only know that the last option (sacrificing size) can win you a Cup. I do know that these kids could get bigger and stronger but you can't teach talent so you have to hope the scouts missed something there. Examples: McIlrath, Tinordi Mental Tools: Ok, so what if there's a kid who has the talent and size but might not have the drive or attitude? Or maybe the player has a low hockey IQ (McFarland for example). Well you have to bank on the fact that their attitude problems are a maturity issue and that that will come with time, or that they just need a strong system to help them get on track. These kids are either home-runs or busts. Examples: Kabanov (attitude), McFarland (hockey IQ) What do you do? The Wings aren't picking in the top 15 so realistically you have to sacrifice something. Talent is the one thing you just can't sacrifice in my opinion because you can't teach it or significantly overcome a lack of it with hard work.

I don't get all the early 1st round love for Dylan McIlrath. Pros: He's definitely an intriguing shut-down prospect. He's got some of the best physical tools in the entire draft (aside from skating). He's a great fighter and a strong defender. He's got a hard slapshot from the point. Cons: He doesn't have the offensive tools to dominate the WHL by any stretch of the imagination. If you can't dominate the WHL your odds of doing well in the NHL (offensively) are low. His skating is average. This kid's offensive upside is very limited. Take Brad Stuart for example. He was a top 5 pick and a scoring star in junior. Now he's a shutdown guy who can play on the PP in a pinch. Why would you draft a guy like McIlrath in the top 15? He projects as a big body shutdown defenseman. Ok, cool. The Wings took one of those from LA for a 2nd round and a 4th round pick. Hal Gill has been floating around the league as a FA for a while. Lilja is probably not even going to be re-signed by the Wings. These players are valued by GM's but their full value is often measured by what offense the put up on the side. In my mind, early to mid first round picks are better spent on players with more upside. McIlrath just doesn't seem like a Wings 1st rounder to me. His upside is too limited. The Wings demand strong offensive play from their top defenders. I'd love to see this kid in a Wings uniform but he doesn't feel like a 21st overall pick to me unless scouts are seeing some untapped offensive potential that they aren't mentioning in the scouting reports I'm seeing online.

And as far as being an oppressive, shutdown d-man... well anyone who thought he would be that must have gathered that from his height and weight instead of reading a scouting report or watching him play in Grand Rapids. Ericsson is and always has been an offensive defenseman. He's used to being on the PP and taking some chances out there. He was GR's scoring d-man, not their defense first shutdown guy. Yeah he always did well on the PK in GR, but his first job was always to unload his slapper from the point. Part of the problem last season was that E was asked to play a brand of hockey he wasn't comfortable with-- that lead to his pinching and making offensive plays when he was supposed to play a simple, safe brand of hockey. Did anyone else notice that his defensive game was worst when he wasn't putting points up? Ericsson's confidence out there is directly tied to his production. For the first month of the season he lead the defense in scoring and he looked fine out there. Once he started slumping offensively everything else went to s***. If anything last season just proved something everyone knows about rookies-- consistency is the difference between great hockey players and mediocre ones. Once Ericsson discovers his consistency he'll be a good 2nd pairing defenseman. Give E some PP time and get him working on speeding up the delivery time for his slapper and good things will happen. Ask him to be something he's not (a Lilja clone) and he won't perform like he should.

Good response. But it's worth noting that Stuart had a terrible 2nd half after Kronwall came back. He was a consistent minus in that period and most people (including Babs) thought it had to do with how much energy he expended as a top pairing guy in the first half of the season. In the 2nd half of the year there were games where Brad was our worst d-man. (Of course he was brilliant in the playoffs)

Callahan has to wait until he turns 20 because he was drafted out of the CHL. I hope he's in GR on the same day he turns 20... I can't wait to see what he can do there. He's a really interesting prospect.

Stupid. The guy from nightmare on helm street has it 100% correct-- thigh rises aren't controlled by these rulings, only the length of the pads are, which seems stupid since the actual rise covering the 5-hole is what is undesirable. As he points out-- there are insanely tall guys in the league (Pekka Rinne is 6'5) that will be able to have even more oversized pads now.

Mule started scoring for real at the end of the 07-08 season and had his first big season 2 years ago in the 08-09 season. He's 30 right now. He was a 26 year old rookie.

Frig that picture is huge.... hopefully it resized quickly for you guys and my internet is just slow. Fixed.

I prefer Datsyuk with Franzen and Hudler with Zetterberg. Both Z and Huds are hybrid passer/scorer type guys while Dats and Franzen are pure playmaker/scorer types of guys. Throw Bertuzzi with Hudler and Z to be their net-front guy and put Holmstrom with Dats since those two seem to be inseparable. If you're dead set on Filppula playing on the top six switch him with Hudler, I guess, but I'd much rather have Zetterberg with Hudler to minimize any defensive issues. Filppula would immediately make the 3rd line defensively responsible since he's such a good defensive centre. Filppula played way more even strength mins. What are their even strength points per min values? Also, proving that Filppula was on pace for 52pts last season doesn't really help your case against the guy who last scored 57pts.

Woh-- 62% in the circle? That's pretty useful to have in a 4th line guy.

Horray for novelty accounts. Poor Pavel only has options like Zetterberg, Holmstrom, Hudler and Filppula to play with... you know-- the guys he's happily played with for years (averaging over a point per game). Do you have any idea how the salary cap works? Do you not understand that Kovy would hamstring the Wings' cap situation and has yet to prove himself a legitimate threat in the playoffs? The best he's gone is 5 games in the 1st round.

Not me. He`s stated these desires before and always framed it as being about when his NHL career is over. NHL stars have been able to play in the KHL past their 40th birthday.

Filppula, Kindl and the 21st overall pick is definitely an overpayment for Horton. Horton is 1 year younger than Filppula and has a career high of 62 pts. His ceiling is definitely higher than Val's but he's got an injury history and is not the complete player Val is. You`d have to dangle more than Filppula but not a mid 1st pick and a former 19th overall defenseman.

I'm not going to lie-- I had to google that name.

Yeah I've got to agree, although Arnott still has hockey left in him so it's not a terrible move by NJ. This clearly indicates that they won't retain Kovy.

Hey-- why not! They're going to have $500,000 in cap space to burn. God damn Eklund is retarded. If Holland added another small, soft player these boards would collapse in on themselves.

Just a few points: -- Cleary's NTC makes trading him very difficult (not impossible). -- Cleary makes almost 3 million and is at his lowest trade value in the last 3 years. -- When healthy Cleary is tough to replace (scores, checks, kills penalties, can play net-front on the PP). -- Cleary works in this system. An incoming FA might not. -- Why is it that every day you post a new thread on a topic that's already been discussed at length?