Jason_R

If only Vrana wasn’t a coke fiend. Allegedly.

Stevie’s best chance is to get lucky finding a team that is hungry for a goalie. It is the one area where the system might have some assets with relative trade value.

The Mantha trade has not worked out. If there is a culture problem in Detroit, the explanation for it runs through the question of why both Mantha and apparently Soderblom are flourishing in Pittsburgh when we couldn’t get rid of them fast enough.

There is clearly something off in the locker room. I don’t know what it is. Maybe there is something stifling about the culture of the old Red Wings dynasty in the front office. Maybe it is just that they have a lot of small players, and big players who play small. I tend to think the latter explains a lot. They are still relying a lot on hired guns. The interesting thing to me about this season is what’s going on in Grand Rapids. The Griffins are having a great season, despite injuries to Danielson and Mazur. I get that a lot of those players are past prospect status and a lot of the prospects will never make it. But the kids are now playing meaningful hockey in a system where they have to earn their ice time. This is a big offseason for Yzerman. He can’t do nothing. I believe he took a swing at Thomas and at Petterson at the trade deadline and couldn’t make either work. I expect him to bring in a top-six forward with some size. Fingers crossed.

Other than Celebrini, 9 of the top 10 current NHL points leaders were drafted in 2015 or earlier. Four were drafted ten seasons ago (2015), one eleven seasons ago, one twelve seasons ago, one thirteen seasons ago (David Pastrnak, drafted after Larkin), and two fourteen seasons ago. It is tough to hear but we are still paying the price for Holland’s poor drafting today and will still be paying the price for it for another five seasons easily. A long rebuild was inevitable and the only one with a leash long enough for it is Steve Yzerman.

The management change needed was to trade out Ken Holland for Jim Nill.

Seider is the only untouchable IMO but it is hard to imagine a Larkin trade that makes the team better. Not saying there isn’t one but you’d need to get one of about 25 top centers back just to tread water. I’m not sure Larkin is the problem though. I still see too many players that are just here for the paycheck with not enough competition to force them to earn it. I’ve said it before but the rebuild isn’t over until Copp, Compher, and Rasmussen are off the books and replaced by some combination of Danielson, MBN, Lombardi, Genborg, Bear, and maybe a free agent. And in the meantime, re-sign DeBrincat.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Kenny had drafted one of the fifteen players in 2017 who were picked behind Rasmussen but have better career numbers? But why draft Robert Thomas or Jason Robertson when you can dream about putting together a trade package for them eight years later.

He dropped the gloves last night.

If this was not allowed by the language of the contract, the player and the agent would say this is not allowed by the language of the contract. Evidently it is allowed by the language of the contract, and I have no problem with parties to a contract abiding by the terms of the contract.

Hear me out… 😂

https://x.com/chrisbrown0914/status/2038704858778206427?s=46 All your fastball are belong to me.

Hope everything is OK.

“We love to play base because we can dictate. But we have options.” He talks about nickel, end, big end and LB. We could go 4-3, we would go 5-2, we could go nickel. Depends on the draft.

Decker burned the bridge.