lordstanley

Not sure whether anyone posted this a few days ago. The Athletic's compilation of top 100 position players. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6204865/2025/03/20/mlb-position-player-tiers-2025/ Tigers have no one in Tier 1 (6 players), no one in Tier 2 (13 players), Riley Green in Tier 3 (18 players, "All-Stars"), no one in Tier 4 (23 players), no one in Tier 5 (16 players), and Carpenter and Torres in Tier 6 (24 players). The difference between Tier 5 and Tier 6 seems just to be age (30-somethings vs. 20-somethings). KC's Bobby Witt Jr. is Tier 1 ("Best of the Best") joining Betts, Henderson, Judge, Ohtani and Soto. Guardians' Jose Ramirez is Tier 2 ("MVP Contenders"). Minnesota's Carlos Correa is Tier 4, Guardians' Steven Kwan is Tier 4.

GMing is hard. You’re competing against 31 other reasonably smart minds and trying to beat the market. Just like picking stocks, it’s not easy to do, and having done it for years successfully in one organization doesn’t mean you’ll be able to replicate it in a different time and place. Quite possible for example that over the past 6 years Yzerman has done better than 20 of the other 31 GMs would have done in his shoes. But in order for the Wings to be solidly in the playoffs and in line to be true Cup contenders within a couple of years he would have had to have been a top 5 GM since being hired by the Wings. Maybe he is only #12, let’s say. Skill has something to do with it of course, but so does luck. I think Yzerman has had bad goalie luck, as I liked what he tried in bringing in Ned then Husso then Lyon. Just needed one of those to pan out as being above average, and I expected one of those three would have.

With the caveat that "these are professionals and are supposed to play hard and energized 100% of the time no matter what", have to start wondering what type of impact on the dressing room there has been by Yzerman deciding at three straight trade deadlines to not bring in material reinforcements. Management can stress patience and some potential long-term payoff, but players on the ice are supposed to play with urgency? Well yes, they are supposed to, but still ...

Wings now in line for a top 10 draft pick.

At the beginning of the month, biggest competition for the final two playoff spots looked to between Detroit, Ottawa, Columbus, NYR and Boston. The Sens have gone on a hot streak, fine, and have sewn up a spot. But in their past 10 Detroit has gone 2-8, Boston has gone 2-7-1, Columbus 2-7-1, and NYR has gone 3-5-2. That's pathetic.

Empty netter makes it 6-3. Wings have gone 2-9-0 in past 11 for 4 out of 22 points. Have given up 4 or more goals in 7 of those 9 losses. If they had simply gone 4-5-2 in those 11, which still would have been poor at less than a point per game pace, they’d be alone in 8th place.

Meanwhile Montreal scored 3 goals in 5 minutes in the 3rd period to tie the Avs and are headed to OT. I’m watching the game and am very jealous of the Bell Centre fans.

Another powerplay goal. Wings back to within 3-2.

After that reprieve, the Wings give up a goal with 3 seconds to goal in period. Backbreaker.

Vegas throws things at net and they keep going in. 3-1 Knights. Wings might not even stay close in the playoff spot. Update: 3rd goal is beimg challenged for offside.

Penalty kill is still weak. Vegas ties it on first opportunity.

The Wings have got in close a couple more times, but still 1-0.

Powerplay is still strong. Raymond scores on what looked to be attempted pass.

Wings game in Vegas is on ABC for some reason. Odd matchup to showcase.

I’m starting to figure out the new scheme Campbell and Sheppard are cooking up. 3 on the line, 2 linebackers, 6 in the secondary. Brilliant and revolutionary.

Problem is that the players in the Wings’ wave of top 6 draft picks in Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson are already established NHLers and the Wings are still out of a playoff position. The next wave is mostly mid 1st round picks or below, for whom the jury is still out, with many bubble teams having a similar handful of potential players. Look, I think the drafting of Yzerman has been “fine” and the prospects pool now is “promising”. But that’s the strength of Yzerman’s tenure and so far hasn’t been enough to make up for the underwhelming results from trades and FA signings, as Freak references.

6 not 8 but I get your point. Going into this season, Yzerman defenders hung their hat on two things: a) the Wings improved in points four straight seasons after bottoming out in 2019-20; and b) prospect pool. Point a) almost certainly will come to an end, unless the Wings pick up 22 of the 28 available points in the final 14 games. For b), prospect pool is probably better than it was 5 years ago, but by how much will that be at the NHL level? At the beginning of the 2019-20 season, ESPN listed 3 Wings in their top prospects: Zadina at #10, Veleno at #35, Seider at #43 (also had McIsaac at #92j. At the beginning of the 2024-25 season, Wings again had 3 in ESPN’s top 50 with ASP at #23, Brandsegg-Nygard at #36, and Danielson at #39. Hardly a sure thing any of those three become stars. So if they just become solid, contributing NHLers, will that be enough to elevate the Wings from 85-90 points to the 100-105 points range? https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/story/_/id/27632023/ranking-top-100-nhl-prospects-2019-20 https://www.espn.com/nhl/insider/story/_/id/41961178/nhl-2024-25-prospects-rankings-top-players-scouting-analytics

What's the point of divisions then if winning it gets you nothing, not even a road playoff game? The unbalanced schedule makes the entire NFL playoff system "unfair" really.

The Wings finished 13 points ahead of Ottawa (now 7 points up on the Wings) last year and 15 points of Montreal (now 3 points up on the Wings) last year. The Blue Jackets (now tied with the Wings) finished 25 points behind the Wings last year. The Devils finished 10 points behind the Wings (now 10 points up on the Wings). The Capitals finished tied in points ahead of the Wings by the tiebreaker only last year (now 28 points up on the Wings). Within the Eastern Conference, the Rangers and Bruins have fallen back but almost every other team has gained on the Wings. And hard to point to Ottawa (Stutzle, Sanderson, Greig, Yakemchuk) or Montreal (Hutson, Slafkovsky, Demidov with Caulfield having just turned 24) as having much fewer or worse under 24s/prospects than the Wings. For the record, I'd prefer the Wings' under 24s/prospects to those of Ottawa and Montreal, but it's not as massive of a gap as I'd have hoped.

Montreal has playoff fever as the Habs move into 8th place alone.

Once again the Wings are unable to sustain it for 3 periods. 3-1 Caps with 6 minute to go.

Mrazek is making his 4th straight start.

Whole game played at 5 in 5 so far, no penalties. Wings likely need to go 3-1 on this 4-game road trip to stay in thick of things.