Drake_Marcus

It's got to be either Tatar or Nyquist. Both have set bench marks in their early careers that no Wing prospect has reached in recent memory (Tatar--entry to the AHL in draft year and Nyquist--Hobey Baker favourite). So if you're going to bet on future stars you might as well pick the kids that are doing something none of the other kids in the org have yet.

Check it out. Gustav Nyquist, a Wings pick from 2008, is considered the favourite for the Hobey Baker trophy this season and he's just been named the player of the month by Hockey's Future: http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/11929/hockeys_future_prospect_of_the_month_february2010/ Edit: Just some quick stats on him-- Height-5'11 Weight-176lbs Shoots-L Position-Centre Birth date- 09/01/1989 Drafted- 4th Round (121st overall) by Detroit Team- Maine Blackbears (NCAA Division 1)

In that case-- hell yeah.

I think he has the potential to be a 1st line player. I wouldn't peg him as a mid-level prospect just yet. Give him a chance to play some pro hockey before deciding he won't be a star player.

Opps... I guess we have a smaller quota for + votes each day... I just used mine up trying to give each poster in this tread a positive vote. Heh. Yeah. I just hate that some people are abusing the system to give people negative reps. From reading the thread about the new boards I've come to the conclusion that a lot of people are getting inexplicable down votes.

Is anyone else getting stupid down-votes on their profile due to people spamming the + - buttons for replies? Fight back by adding a + on good posts you read. I'm doing it but obviously I can't + my own posts.

Assuming Ozzy wants to continue playing I'm not sure why you'd go with someone else for the back-up position. Chris is used to being a back-up and can teach Howie a lot about being a goalie for the Wings as well as being a great teammate.

Friday: Pittsburgh @ New Jersey Tampa Bay @ Washington x2 Minnesota @ Buffalo NY Rangers @ Atlanta Los Angeles @ Dallas Nashville @ Anaheim Saturday: Chicago @ Philadelphia Florida @ San Jose Edmonton @ Toronto Boston @ Montreal New Jersey @ NY Islanders Phoenix @ Carolina (this is a tough one but Phoenix is too good at home for me to bet against them right now) Buffalo @ Detroit St Louis @ Columbus Ottawa @ Vancouver Sunday: Washington @ Chicago Philadelphia @ NY Rangers Colorado @ Dallas Nashville @ Los Angeles Toronto @ NY Islanders Phoenix @ Atlanta Pittsburgh @ Tampa Bay St Louis @ Minnesota San Jose @ Anaheim Calgary @ Vancouver

Probably. Smith looks like he'll be another Kindl: -->He's big but doesn't play a particularly rough game. -->He's offensively talented (more so than Kindl) but has had trouble putting his defensive game together. I'm just hoping that unlike Kindl he's able to make the next leap to playing competent defense at the pro level while still honing his offensive game.

Tatar definitely hit the wall when he returned from the WJC. He was creeping up towards a ppg pace before the WJC and since then he's been a different player. This was to be expected, though, since it happens with virtually every European player in their first year playing long NA seasons. He'll bounce back. As it stands he's had a great season for a kid his age. I think the WJC experience made hitting the wall a bit worse because he wasn't able to perform up to his own standards. But it's no biggy... he just turned 19 anyway so he's still well ahead of the curve. Look at Mursak-- his OHL stats were supurb: 06-07 Saginaw (OHL) 62gp 27g 53a 80pts (North American rookie season) 07-08 Sag./Bel.(OHL)57gp 17g 47a 64pts 08-09 G Rapids (AHL)51gp 2g 7a 9pts (Pro hockey rookie season) 09-10 G Rapids (AHL)64gp 20g 14a 34pts (season ongoing) Mursak didn't struggle much in OHL hockey when he played against boys but once he moved to playing men in the AHL and having to play the AHL's crazy schedule (3 games in 3 days?!? no wonder these guys get worn down) he struggled. Now that he's played through his rookie struggles he's the team's best scoring prospect. I have no doubt Tatar will experience the same thing.

Because that system is incredibly broken. I'm glad they can't do that in Hockey. As a Wings fan I know we'd get an advantage there but as a hockey fan I know it'd hurt the league's competitiveness and in turn would be bad for the sport.

I have to agree. If they can find another Tatar quality kid I'll be pumped. It's been a long time since they drafted a kid who was able to start his pro career in his draft year.

Wow. To be honest, from watching the games it felt like he was passing instead of shooting on most occasions. I'm shocked he's 8th in shooting. In that case your analysis is more accurate.

I'm not too concerned about what forward position we get this draft as long as they're a top 6 player. Odds are no one we draft will be playing in Detroit for 3+ years anyway.

To be honest I think it's all a matter of him going harder to the net and shooting more often. When Z's off his game his shot total always dips... when he scores in the 40 goal range his shot total is near the top of the league. I know it sounds almost too simple but in the end taking 6+ shots a game is going to get you goals.

Here's the ISS's top 30 picks as of January: http://www.hockeysfuture.com/articles/11784/iss_top302010_prospects_january/ And here's a nice list of articles relating to this coming draft: http://www.hockeysfuture.com/nhl_entry_draft/

That's the way it should be. Their GM made stupid decisions and the team should have to live with it. There has to be some incentive not to hand out short-sighted contracts like that.

While I do agree with you there, I also like that trolls get their posts beaten down. I guess having the "report" option there makes up for that.

Why not have it set-up so only posters with a certain number of posts can up/down vote people? This would reduce the ability for people to use sock-puppet accounts to spam ratings. You could also track when someone down votes the same person multiple times in a row and flag them for further observation. Maybe allow for only one down vote on a specific poster with each account. That'd force ******-bags to have one account for each vote the spam the system with. Edit: I'm not sure how much flexibility is built into the code for this software, though, so most of those suggestions might be moot.

Now can you let us see who up and down votes us? I'd love to see who's spamming the ratings system.

The funny thing is if they buy the Campbell and Huet contracts out they'll just look bad in the eyes of future free agents and people who want to re-sign in the future. Both of those guys were brought in on high-profile 'key piece' contracts... buying them out now sends a pretty clear message about how they treat their players.

Hmmm... it's a bold prediction but we do expect those from you.

If I were the Hawks GM I'd be signing an overrated vet to an obscenely large, ill-timed contract.

Remember when Z could create on his own? You're talking about him like he's a 2nd line caliber player...

Sockpuppets. I wouldn't be surprised if all 114 of those votes came from the same IP.