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Brendan Smith

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I dont know if anybody else caught any of the Michigan-Wisconsin game the other day but wings draftee Brendan Smith looks like the real deal. The kid has good defensive position, can handle himself physically from playing in the rough and tumble Big Ten, and his offensive potential is very high for defenseman. He has 31 points in 25 games and is I believe a +14. I feel really good about the wings defense moving forward with kronwall, stuart and ericcson hopefully all still around to mentor both Kindl and Smith. Interested to hear what anyone else thinks about Smith as well as the future of the wings defense.

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I dont know if anybody else caught any of the Michigan-Wisconsin game the other day but wings draftee Brendan Smith looks like the real deal. The kid has good defensive position, can handle himself physically from playing in the rough and tumble Big Ten, and his offensive potential is very high for defenseman. He has 31 points in 25 games and is I believe a +14. I feel really good about the wings defense moving forward with kronwall, stuart and ericcson hopefully all still around to mentor both Kindl and Smith. Interested to hear what anyone else thinks about Smith as well as the future of the wings defense.

this good was projected to be the real deal from the get go. Im hoping hes ganna be a top 2 not just a top 4. With top two defensive pairs getting up there in age (lids and rafs) im hoping that Kindl and Smith will be the future of this blue line. Stuart and Kronner are great, but Kronner has been injury prone his whole career, so you cant really rely on him at this point. Stuart is great but you dont really know how deep his ties are to Detroit after his contract is up. I love him dont get me wrong, im just being realistic. I hope that Smith can live up to all the hype and Kindl can do the same. if they can i feel very confident about out D in the future.

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this good was projected to be the real deal from the get go. Im hoping hes ganna be a top 2 not just a top 4. With top two defensive pairs getting up there in age (lids and rafs) im hoping that Kindl and Smith will be the future of this blue line. Stuart and Kronner are great, but Kronner has been injury prone his whole career, so you cant really rely on him at this point. Stuart is great but you dont really know how deep his ties are to Detroit after his contract is up. I love him dont get me wrong, im just being realistic. I hope that Smith can live up to all the hype and Kindl can do the same. if they can i feel very confident about out D in the future.

Stuart has moved around too much in his career. I don't see him wanting out unless this team completely collapses. He always said he was looking for stability.

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33 pts in 26 games now... by far the NCAA's highest scoring defenseman. He and Nyquist are really having good years in the NCAAs, Nyquist is 2nd in scoring w/ 40 pts in 26 games.

Nice seeing some size in a lot of the defenseman prospects -- Kindl (6'4), Smith (6'2), Nicastro (6'3), Lashoff (6'3) and Kolosov (6'4). At least 2 guys that have a shot at being Top 4 defenseman in the NHL and I'm hoping Kolosov could be a bigger Lilja.

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33 pts in 26 games now... by far the NCAA's highest scoring defenseman. He and Nyquist are really having good years in the NCAAs, Nyquist is 2nd in scoring w/ 40 pts in 26 games.

Nice seeing some size in a lot of the defenseman prospects -- Kindl (6'4), Smith (6'2), Nicastro (6'3), Lashoff (6'3) and Kolosov (6'4). At least 2 guys that have a shot at being Top 4 defenseman in the NHL and I'm hoping Kolosov could be a bigger Lilja.

Technically, Nicastro and Lashoff have shown Top-4 potential, but more specifically, #4 defenseman and no higher.

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Kindl still scares the crap out of me.

In a good way as in "This kid will be scary good!" or in a bad way such as "Oh crap, Kindl has the puck behind the net and he's got two guys coming at him"? He just seems to fumble a lot defensively more often than not and I've never seen him with any confidence with the puck in his own zone. That doesn't mean he isn't ever confident. He just always seems to look like he's rather panicky.

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In a good way as in "This kid will be scary good!" or in a bad way such as "Oh crap, Kindl has the puck behind the net and he's got two guys coming at him"? He just seems to fumble a lot defensively more often than not and I've never seen him with any confidence with the puck in his own zone. That doesn't mean he isn't ever confident. He just always seems to look like he's rather panicky.

Definitely the bad way, unfortunately. Granted I don't have the whole story because I've only seen him play in GR once, but his stats paint a brutal picture.

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Lashoff, Smith, and Kindl are our future. I have never seen much in Kindl, but is projected to be very good. I have heard nothing but good things about Lashoff and Smith.

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I dont know if anybody else caught any of the Michigan-Wisconsin game the other day but wings draftee Brendan Smith looks like the real deal. The kid has good defensive position, can handle himself physically from playing in the rough and tumble Big Ten, and his offensive potential is very high for defenseman. He has 31 points in 25 games and is I believe a +14. I feel really good about the wings defense moving forward with kronwall, stuart and ericcson hopefully all still around to mentor both Kindl and Smith. Interested to hear what anyone else thinks about Smith as well as the future of the wings defense.

You're apparently a college hockey novice (there isn't a Big Ten conference in college hockey, Wisconsin is in the WCHA and Michigan is in the CCHA), and i doubt you've watched much more college hockey this season other than that outdoor game, because Brendan Smith is known around college hockey as much for his defensive lapses and sometimes head-scratching decision making as he is for his offensive prowess. The only reason his plus minus is +14 is because he is on such a good team (They've been in the top 5 all year long) and when you get right down to it, considering he has put up over a point a game his plus minus should much higher since his team only gives up about 2.3 points a game...I figured somebody would watch him net 2 and get all googly-eyed but these are the facts folks...

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Yeah that is my bad. I always forget that college hockey isnt sanctioned the same as basketball and football in college. And I wouldnt call myself a novice, just not overly involved with the sport. And I was not aware that he is known for defensive lapses and i will have to check that out. I was honestly looking for insight on the subject, so I appreciate the info. Even saying that I still see a lot of potential and i mean he is still at least 3-5 years away from playing in Detroit in my opinion. But I feel more enthusiastic about smith then I do about kindl.

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All I've heard is how high Smith's offensive potential is-- on writer said it was higher than any d-man drafted by the Wings in the last 20 years.

His skating is also extremely good as is his "size". I use quotation marks there because I'm referring to his height-- he still needs to add muscle to be a pro.

I'm reserving my judgment for when we see him play pro hockey. Hopefully he gets to play the tail end of the AHL season when his college season is over.

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Yeah that is my bad. I always forget that college hockey isnt sanctioned the same as basketball and football in college. And I wouldnt call myself a novice, just not overly involved with the sport. And I was not aware that he is known for defensive lapses and i will have to check that out. I was honestly looking for insight on the subject, so I appreciate the info. Even saying that I still see a lot of potential and i mean he is still at least 3-5 years away from playing in Detroit in my opinion. But I feel more enthusiastic about smith then I do about kindl.

Sorry about that, looking back on it i came off as a total jacka** in that response lol but yea I'm by no means saying that we shouldn't be excited...just that he has alot of game to improve on from a defensive perspective, and I'm willing to bet that Kenny Holland (who probably has more hockey knowledge in his left pinky than i ever will) identified these lapses and figures they can be corrected or else he wouldn't have drafted him where he did....but yes there is certainly no mistaking his offensive talent!

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I'm not worried about his skill, so much as I am about his work ethic. He's had several incidents because of attitude problems and I hope he's put them behind him. We will certainly need the skill on the back end in the future.

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Brendan Smith is a good player but definately not in the same class as Chelios. I hope the Wings encourage him to play another year at Wisconsin. The Badgers need him more than the Wings, he will be a much better player with one more year of college hockey under his belt. He is not good enough to make an immediate impact in Detroit. Joe S

Edited by Joe S

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