Not to mention he's human, it has to be hard to get yourself up every night and play with this garbage team.
Kind of game to get a coach fired, although I'm not sure Blashill could do anything at this point to get fired
While this sucks, it’s not the worst news in the world if true. Ideally Raymond will sign his ELC whenever his season is over, and then he will come over to NA.
Adam Henrique was waived. He’s 31 and has three years left on his deal, but his advanced numbers are good. He’s a legit 2C for us right now. Plus, he can help Veleno develop next season. I would be all over this.
.5 PPG player every season since 2012, just unlucky this year. Guy has aged well and that contract isn’t crippling.
I would much rather pay Henrique 5 now for the next three years than pay Nugent-Hopkins 7-8 mil for the next 7 years tbh.
In looking ahead to next season, my guess is the locks for the next years lineup are: Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha Fabbri - ??? - Zadina Ryan - Veleno - Namestnikov Smith - Rasmussen - ??? Merrill - Hronek ??? - Seider Djoos - Stetcher Greiss ??? - Even if we trade Ryan this year, I think he returns next season. - Merrill will probably re-sign after the expansion draft, to ensure we don’t have to protect him. - I still don’t anticipate much movement in FA next season. That LD spot could go to a rookie, like Power if we go that route. Same could be said for the 2C, if we took someone like Beniers. I tend to think next year is more about getting Seider and Veleno established though.
Veleno seems to take a minute to level up each time he moves to snore difficult league. Having a legit 2c would be a good idea to help him with that transition. It would be nice to have and legitimate center other than Larkin. If I have to listen to Mickey talk about glendenings face off percentage for another season im gonna lose it.
Center is clearly our biggest dilemma. Larkin is an elite 2C but he’s basically Toews without a Patrick Kane. That doesn’t mean either are bad players, it just means they can’t drive the bus for the entire team if you want to win a title. Veleno won’t ever be a 1C, and even Beniers, who I like, is in the same boat as Larkin. So, we are stuck right now. My thinking is that Yzerman will punt on next season to see if he can land a top 3 pick in 2022, where there are several potential franchise centers, and if that doesn’t work, he pursues a trade. We have to address the position somehow though.
It’s clear he is waiting to bring some kids up for extended periods until the team is ready. He defeated punted on this season and the pandemic probably didn’t help. You’re probably right and he waits one more season. would be nice if we showed improvement next year and then got lucky in the lottery. But odds are they’ll change the system by then and we’ll get boned.
And we've made it to the dress 7 defenseman and put Darren Helm on the top line part of the season from Blashill
TSN early this week said that teams are already calling us about Ryan, Glendening and Staal (lol). I expect a quiet deadline, but I bet we move those three and Bernier. I wouldn’t move Merrill for anything less than a 2. He’s been great and we can bring him back relatively cheap. I don’t think we get that for him though.
Teams every year ask about Glendening and nothing ever gets done, so I don't expect anything there. But Ryan from the immediate signing was always a flip candidate, I could see him coming back next year though if that happened. Getting anything for Offensive Dynamo Marc Staal would be incredible. Stecher and Merrill were just amazing signings. I hope they re-sign Merrill and extend Stecher.
Listening to Wings for Breakfast and I am with Iyar that we are killing Hronek right now by not lessening his workload. He’s been exposed as a 1D and I think it’s hurting his development. Really, I would think next year he might be our 3rd RD behind Stetcher and Seider.
Ideally he is a second line D with significant PP minutes. He shouldn’t be on the top line unless he’s next to someone like Victor Hedman or Colton Parayko.
He shouldn’t be on the PK either. As Luke Hughes plays more, he’s really growing on me. The offensive upside is huge there. I’ll change my mind a million times between now and whenever the draft is though. Hughes won’t even turn 18 until September though, so I bet he plays two years at UM like Quinn did. Not the worst thing though.
Our kids are producing in GR, which is nice. Cholowski: 6 GP, 2G, 4A Rasmussen: 6 GP, 2G, 3A Hirose: 3 GP, 5A Smith: 3 GP, 1G, 1A
taking this over here. Honestly, outside of Seider, Raymond and our 2022 first, we shouldn’t have any untouchable assets.
Zadina looked so good all around at the start of the season, did not expect him to struggle offensively as much as he has. Still playing overall solidly, he is actually a +2, but expected more on offense. Mantha is struggling again too.
From The Athletic trade board 13. Luke Glendening, Red Wings: He’s just about the perfect depth add for a team hoping to make a long playoff run. For a team high on skill but looking for an edge on their fourth line, Glendening might be the best option. He wins a ton of faceoffs and is miserable to play against. He’s also a pure rental. The more interesting speculation surrounds the younger Detroit forwards up the lineup. There’s also a belief that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman would consider trading one of his younger forwards like Tyler Bertuzzi and Anthony Mantha in the right deal. “I wouldn’t be shocked if (Yzerman) moved one of his top young forwards,” said one exec. “I think he’s listening on a lot of things.”