The MANtha watch.....

[LoveMyRedWings56 73]

Mantha is a beast 19 games played 10 goals 9 assists for 19 points that's a point per game Larkin with 18 points in 19 games on 3 goals and 15 assists get out the checkbook for these two next summer.

[Euro_Twins 4,475]

1 hour ago, LoveMyRedWings56 said:

Mantha is a beast 19 games played 10 goals 9 assists for 19 points that's a point per game Larkin with 18 points in 19 games on 3 goals and 15 assists get out the checkbook for these two next summer.

Should be already trying to lock them in 

[DickieDunn 2,571]

42 minutes ago, Euro_Twins said:

Should be already trying to lock them in 

Should be

[krsmith17 7,191]

54 minutes ago, Euro_Twins said:

Should be already trying to lock them in 

I agree. I'd be trying to lock Larkin and Mantha up long term as soon as possible.

[DickieDunn 2,571]

unfortunately I fear kickazz is right.  Holland is going to screw around and try to force them to sign bargain contracts because of cap constraints, probably after he goes out and signs some vet ont he wrong side of 30 to a multi-year deal.

[marcaractac 3,963]

48 minutes ago, krsmith17 said:

I agree. I'd be trying to lock Larkin and Mantha up long term as soon as possible.

Give them their 8 year deals now. 

[Jacksoni 418]

He did alright this one. I remember his broken leg and the setback it caused. Fels like yesterday. I'm guessing it put a real fire on his ass. He had it all, now he has the passion to boot. Just do not ******* get injured.

*off to look for luxury vacations at Aruba or Canarie islands

[krsmith17 7,191]

Fun fact:

Matthews / Nylander / Marner - combined 44 points in 54 games.

Larkin / Mantha / Athanasiou - combined 43 points in 47 games.

The kids are alright.

[Richdg 267]

One of the topics we all talk about from time to time is who will be the next captain. we are seeing the young man make a very strong claim. Scores, skates, plays D, and fights for his teammates! Mantha with the C! Now get him signed to a 8 year deal Kenny!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS Wait till Rasmussen gets here. 2 big young power F's that can do it all!

[kickazz 5,459]

2 minutes ago, Richdg said:

One of the topics we all talk about from time to time is who will be the next captain. we are seeing the young man make a very strong claim. Scores, skates, plays D, and fights for his teammates! Mantha with the C! Now get him signed to a 8 year deal Kenny!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS Wait till Rasmussen gets here. 2 big young power F's that can do it all!

It's going to be Larkin. 

[LoveMyRedWings56 73]

4 minutes ago, Richdg said:

One of the topics we all talk about from time to time is who will be the next captain. we are seeing the young man make a very strong claim. Scores, skates, plays D, and fights for his teammates! Mantha with the C! Now get him signed to a 8 year deal Kenny!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS Wait till Rasmussen gets here. 2 big young power F's that can do it all!

Larkin will be the eventual team Captain, Probably once Z retires and leaves don't see Mantha as C material.

[krsmith17 7,191]

2 minutes ago, kickazz said:

It's going to be Larkin. 

I agree. Mantha is my favorite young player, but Larkin is and has been being groomed to be the next captain for the past 2 plus seasons. I think he's better suited for that role as well. Mantha will definitely be an alternate though.

[kickazz 5,459]

1 minute ago, krsmith17 said:

I agree. Mantha is my favorite young player, but Larkin is and has been being groomed to be the next captain for the past 2 plus seasons. I think he's better suited for that role as well. Mantha will definitely be an alternate though.

It's that but also because Larkin is from Michigan.

Best thing you can do for your franchise to sell to the people is have a hometown kid be your captain. I remember when Larkin first played for the Wings on the home opener in 2015 the crowd went WILD when he stepped on ice. 

 

[Dabura 12,207]

MANTHA/KIDS HYPE!

• More important than the melee: Anthony Mantha showing signs of greatness [The Athletic]
• Anthony Mantha a budding 'superstar' with fierce edge [The Detroit News]
• Resurgent Dylan Larkin, burgeoning Anthony Mantha give Red Wings reason for hope -- eventually [ESPN]
• Fantasy buzz: Mantha must-own player; Schmaltz thriving on wing [NHL.com]

I like Emily Kaplan's take in that ESPN piece:

This week, I spent time with Chicago Blackhawks owner Rocky Wirtz for a larger project I'm working on. We began talking about the challenges of sustaining success, and Wirtz said this: "I always looked at Detroit, the 25 years straight they were in the playoffs. That is the hardest thing: consistency. Because that's the ebb and flow of sports, you draft low when you win and you draft high when you lose." Consistency, we agreed, can be achieved through stability. It's about resisting knee-jerk reactions when there's a small blip in the plan. It's about trusting the culture you built. I believe in the culture Detroit has built over the last three decades. I believe that system has staying power, even given its current state.

Red Wings GM Ken Holland has been on the job since 1997. He's the second-longest tenured GM in the league (but, it should be noted, Nashville's David Poile beats him by a mere nine days). Mike Babcock (10 seasons as coach) and Pavel Datsyuk (14 seasons) have moved on from Detroit. Last season, it seemed like the Red Wings stumbled without Datsyuk's leadership.

As Wirtz noted, Detroit found itself without elite homegrown talent after picking at the bottom of the first round for so long. In the hard-cap era, teams rely so much on the draft. Even with some late-round gems, the Red Wings just don't have the talent to compete with the NHL upper class -- immediately, that is.

I'm encouraged by the resurgence of Larkin and also very intrigued by the potential of Andreas Athanasiou. If the Red Wings end up stinking again this season, they might be just one or two elite picks away from competing again. They just need to plug in the right guys, because the framework for success has already been built. And I'm hopeful ownership don't impulsively knock it down.

[Dabura 12,207]

30 minutes ago, Jonas Mahonas said:

A prudent trade of Ericsson + Nyquist to a contender looking for depth at the deadline would be helpful.  Helps the tank, helps the rebuild, helps the cap hit.

 

Honestly, could we get a team to trade us for those players, together or separate?

I don't think we see Ericsson moved. No one's going to be interested in him (not without us throwing in a sweetener and/or retaining salary) and the Wings wouldn't want to move him anyway, because they like him a lot.

It's been rumored that Holland is open to moving Nyquist. Not actively shopping him, but taking calls and perhaps initiating some conversations. My sense is Holland actually would like to move him but he doesn't want to sell low and is therefore hoping Nyquist has a strong year that could maybe get us a high pick or a good prospect around trade deadline time. Worth noting: next season will be the last year of Nyquist's current contract.

[krsmith17 7,191]

5 minutes ago, Dabura said:

I don't think we see Ericsson moved. No one's going to be interested in him (not without us throwing in a sweetener and/or retaining salary) and the Wings wouldn't want to move him anyway, because they like him a lot.

I disagree. The only way we can trade Ericsson is if we retain salary and throw in a sweetener...

[Dabura 12,207]

33 minutes ago, krsmith17 said:

The only way we can trade Ericsson is if we retain salary and throw in a sweetener...

Right, that's what I'm saying. We'd have to throw in a sweetener and/or retain salary. No one would take him "clean."

Would it be worth it? Possibly. But I'm pretty sure the Wings have no interest in moving him anyway, so it's probably moot.

[DickieDunn 2,571]

IF Larkin and Mantha develop into elite forwards, they're one elite D away form being Cup contenders.

I like Mantha this year so far, I'd still trade him for that potential elite D.

[Neomaxizoomdweebie 3,083]

20 hours ago, DickieDunn said:

IF Larkin and Mantha develop into elite forwards, they're one elite D away form being Cup contenders.

I like Mantha this year so far, I'd still trade him for that potential elite D.

[Euro_Twins 4,475]

Mantha didn't score any points last night, trade him!

[Dabura 12,207]

On 11/17/2017 at 2:57 AM, DickieDunn said:

IF Larkin and Mantha develop into elite forwards, they're one elite D away form being Cup contenders.

I like Mantha this year so far, I'd still trade him for that potential elite D.

BLASPHEMY! BURN THE HERETIC!

[Dabura 12,207]

Srsly tho. It'd have to be one helluva defenseman. And even then, I dunno. We're not really in a position to be moving our top talent, because we appear to have only two top-tier(ish) players in the entire system atm. Tampa could afford to part with Drouin because they have a fantastic core trio in Stamkos, Kucherov, Hedman. We don't have that kind of flexibility. (At least, not yet.) It'd probably be a lateral move, at best.

It's generally harder to find an elite defenseman than it is to find an elite winger, I'll concede that. But it's pretty damn hard to find a dominant 6'5" scoring winger.

FWIW, Kevin Allen of USA Today did a piece on the Wings' rebuild-on-the-fly and the elusiveness of That Elite Defenseman:

Red Wings: Rebuild on the fly could work with this path

He's right that "a premium defenseman is the hardest piece to find in a rebuild." But I think he's also right that "If any of [Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou] fall short of expectations, the Red Wings' rebuilding efforts will be slowed, even with a premium defenseman."

Edited November 18, 2017 by Dabura

[LoveMyRedWings56 73]

On 11/16/2017 at 6:39 PM, krsmith17 said:

I disagree. The only way we can trade Ericsson is if we retain salary and throw in a sweetener...

Starting in the 2018/2019 season Ericsson has a 19 team no trade list, Even retaining money that's going to be pretty hard trading him when there's only 12 teams that he will even accept a trade to.

On 11/17/2017 at 2:57 AM, DickieDunn said:

IF Larkin and Mantha develop into elite forwards, they're one elite D away form being Cup contenders.

I like Mantha this year so far, I'd still trade him for that potential elite D.

No way're we dealing Mantha for an elite D it would probably take both Larkin and Mantha to acquire an elite D that's just not happening not sure what elite D out there i would be willing to give up Mantha for not too many.

[Dabura 12,207]

Y'know, I think back to our three most recent playoff series -- Chicago in 2013, Tampa in 2014, Tampa in 2015. We had the inferior D group in each series and it's probably fair to say that was the big deciding factor in each series. However, I feel like the real story of each of those series was, basically, "They scored when they absolutely needed to score and we failed to score when we absolutely needed to score." Our forwards struggled to get to the inside in the o-zone and generate a lot of Grade A scoring chances, we didn't bury enough of the you-absolutely-have-to-score-there chances that we did get, and the power play wasn't good enough. Really close games that could go either way -- that's where you really want to have a gamebreaking scorer, or two, or three.

We don't know how Mantha will pan out, but he has all the tools needed to become that kind of gamebreaking scorer who can be counted on to tip the scale in his team's favor in a buttclenchingly close game or playoff series. And that's a really big deal, especially for an organization that's in the situation we're in. If you're Ken Holland, you don't trade Mantha this year or next year or the year after that -- unless, perhaps, you draft an Andrei Svechnikov.

[kliq 3,755]

32 minutes ago, Jonas Mahonas said:

The problem is that you cant get tbe elite D after he is elie, unless you have another one to trade with (Subban for Weber).  OEL is rumored to be available.  He is 26 and probably 1 to 2 years away from having a 5 year stretch where he could be elite.  Holland would be wise to see if he could land him.  Price will be steep though.  Larkin + 1st Rounder.  I dont think we can lose Larkin.

I'd offer AA, a 1st and a roster dump, with this draft being so strong AND us having a chance at a lottery pick, I think Arizona would consider it.