Jason_R

This is awesome. Kocur hadn’t gotten re-signed and was playing in a beer league in Detroit. Chicago came to town and he talked to Probert after. Said next time you come to Detroit, rough them up a bit so they think about needing an enforcer. Probert did. Bowman called Kocur the next day and told him to go to minor league camp and get in shape. He did and they signed him. Next time Chicago was in town he and Probert fought. They were down on the ice and Kocur told him hey thanks a lot.

If I recall correctly, Ted Williams had 20/10 vision. He claimed he could see the seams on the baseball as it left the pitcher's hand. There are certainly many skills that go into being a capable hitter at the MLB level, but one that you cannot train is vision. One study says the average MLB player has 20/13 vision. https://www.aao.org/museum/exhibition-detail/sports-vision. 4% of players have 20/8 vision, and it doesn't seem like you can get vision better than that. https://www.advancedvisiontherapycenter.com/about/Baseballs-Visual-Demands.html Maybe Javy has ordinary eyesight like the rest of us.

OTOH…

Yes, that’s why I said they would be the guts of the trade. I don’t know who else would have to be included. Danielson? The bigger point is that Stevie was rumored to have been exploring EP40 at the trade deadline. Could a trade like this be a springboard out of purgatory? Or would it be an anchor?

Copp led the league… in goals below expected.

So let’s say the new guy is told to get EP40 off the books. Is there any circumstance under which it makes sense for Stevie to make a play for him, as was rumored at the trade deadline? As far as I can tell he has 6 years left at $11.6 million, $69.6 total. Assuming he passes a physical and his knee isn’t shot, would you trade for him if the guts of the deal were Vancouver taking Compher and Rasmussen? If we can unload those contracts, which total almost $17 million still, that brings the net cost of EP40 to $53 million, which is $8.83 million a year. assuming his knee checks out, you end up with a player who, even playing on a bad team in a bad situation, has been much more productive than Copp. Maybe in a less bad situation, playing with a bunch of Swedes, and not having the unforgiving eye of the Canadian hockey media on him he might bounce back to a 65 point player. Not great but would have been enough for third or fourth on this year’s team. Put Larkin with DeBrincat on the first line, then Pettersson and Raymond on the second line, maybe with Genborg eventually for some physical presence. It could be a disaster so you’d have to make sure Hakan and Lidstrom and all the other Swedes are bought in. But this rebuild is stuck in limbo unless Stevie can pull a rabbit out of his hat.

12th best goalie, 12th best record.

From the Bultman article. I agree 100% that this roster doesn’t have nearly enough players who are hard to play against. Todd seems to agree. He doesn’t control the roster, so it will be interesting to see whether he can persuade Yzerman to bring in a few more players to serve as irritants on the ice and in the locker room This year, the only forwards who registered 100 hits for the Red Wings were Kasper and Finnie. The division-rival Ottawa Senators had seven such forwards. The Boston Bruins had five. Those were the teams that earned the Eastern Conference’s wild-card bids. It’s a problem in the bottom six, where there was no consistent identity throughout the year. J.T. Compher entered Wednesday’s game with 22 hits all season while also putting up only 28 points. Michael Rasmussen went from the 120-140-hit range in the past four seasons to just half that this year (64) — while also at the lowest per-game point production rate of his career (0.22). Free-agent signing Mason Appleton had 89 hits, more than he had a season ago with the Winnipeg Jets, but considering he had 3 points in his final 34 games, there wasn’t enough overall to move the needle. This is not to say the Red Wings should fill their bottom six with nothing but fighters or mindless body-bangers next season. But they have too many lineup spots being filled by players who aren’t finding enough ways to contribute, and there is value in adding at least one of that bruising style of player — even just as a deterrent to the liberties opposing teams take with Detroit’s stars.

Worth a read.

Yeah that was ugly. Mac has seen these guys long enough to know who the problems are. And he’s been around long enough to be able to shoot straight with Stevie. It will be a real bad sign if all of CCR are on the roster next year. It will be a good sign if they can figure out how to move on from two of them.

Maybe they need a little depth there. Maybe they turn over some of Anzalone’s role to a big nickel. But I don’t feel like they are courting disaster going into the season with their current room.

Oh I know Seider won’t win it but he deserves a lot more consideration than he is getting.

I agree Soderblom flashed skill before leaving Detroit, but did he flash passion or energy? That’s what so many of Detroit’s forwards have lacked. And it is possible his performance will fall off, but he’s already put together a stretch of effectiveness that I don’t think he ever had as a Red Wing. Mantha is a bit of a different in gone for a while, but still he found another gear playing in Pittsburgh. When did he have 30+ goals and 60+ points before joining the Penguins? Never. When did he get close? Never. Did it take 13 years for him to hit his stride, or is Pittsburgh's coaching or system or environment just better than Detroit’s? Stevie and Todd need to do some soul searching.

All hail Noritz Seider.