gehringer_2 Posted March 18 Posted March 18 7 hours ago, buddha said: soderblom too. getting anything out of a late round pick is gold. im not totally sold on elmer yet, but its good to see him sticking in the league and not getting hamblasted. If they find the right guys for him to play with it can probably work for him. Just watching guys bounce off him when they try to check him is worth having him on the team. Quote
1984Echoes Posted March 18 Posted March 18 23 minutes ago, buddha said: dobson is a restricted free agent. Crap. I thought he was UFA. Quote
1984Echoes Posted March 18 Posted March 18 5 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said: If they find the right guys for him to play with it can probably work for him. Just watching guys bounce off him when they try to check him is worth having him on the team. And using his looooong stick to take pucks away or protect the puck as the situation demands... He's a skilled stick handler. Could be a dangerous goal scorer and dangerous in front of the nest screening and tipping... He hits a guy... that guy hits the ice. Or they bounce off him trying to apply a check as you mentioned... He's agile and he has some speed... but like a locomotive, you only see that speed after a minute or two once he builds up that head of steam... I hope he keeps it going and continues to improve. He's fun to watch. Quote
buddha Posted March 18 Posted March 18 12 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said: And using his looooong stick to take pucks away or protect the puck as the situation demands... He's a skilled stick handler. Could be a dangerous goal scorer and dangerous in front of the nest screening and tipping... He hits a guy... that guy hits the ice. Or they bounce off him trying to apply a check as you mentioned... He's agile and he has some speed... but like a locomotive, you only see that speed after a minute or two once he builds up that head of steam... I hope he keeps it going and continues to improve. He's fun to watch. but he doesnt DO anything really. the best soderblom we saw was when he was on the checking line with rasmussen and copp (i think it was copp at C), when his whole job was to forecheck. he doesnt do much on the first line. he doesnt drive play. he's very slow. he has great hands and is huge. he is a plus bottom six winger. that's a great find! he's a plus pick! but if he wants to be tomas holmstrom, he has to get physical, nasty, and go to the net. be a pest. he's still too soft for a guy that big. he should be ragdolling people. maybe he takes too many lessons from ras and not enough from watson? Quote
1984Echoes Posted March 18 Posted March 18 Yes. So we have to see if he grows into an NHL playoff-level player over the next coupla years. Or turns into just another Mantha/ Ras... Quote
buddha Posted March 18 Posted March 18 if soderblom becomes mantha or ras he is a great 6th round pick. that would be an amazing result. i cant ever see him becoming what mantha was when mantha wanted to play hard (which, as we know, didnt occur all that much). but if he becomes a solid third line checking forward who offers a little offense now and then, that's a win. that's much more of an indictment on rasmussen than soderblom considering where they were drafted. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted March 18 Posted March 18 22 minutes ago, buddha said: but he doesnt DO anything really. the best soderblom we saw was when he was on the checking line with rasmussen and copp (i think it was copp at C), when his whole job was to forecheck. he doesnt do much on the first line. he doesnt drive play. he's very slow. he has great hands and is huge. he is a plus bottom six winger. that's a great find! he's a plus pick! but if he wants to be tomas holmstrom, he has to get physical, nasty, and go to the net. be a pest. he's still too soft for a guy that big. he should be ragdolling people. maybe he takes too many lessons from ras and not enough from watson? I would think you have to be a little careful if your are Elmer's size that you are going to draw penalties on the same plays other guys won't. It's interesting to watch Edvinsson - he seems to practice what I'd call 'low key physicality'. Several times in the Vegas game he just pushed a puck handler sort of firmly down unto the ice. not very high impact, kind of funny really - but still effective. Quote
1984Echoes Posted March 18 Posted March 18 49 minutes ago, buddha said: ... that's much more of an indictment on rasmussen than soderblom considering where they were drafted. That's the point. Exactly. And yes... Elmer's on NHL ice for the Wings... Win. But... I'm hoping he doesn't turn into Mantha or Ras. Mantha only played when he felt like it (not very often) as you noted, and Ras is unable or unwilling to use his size. "Unable" in that it still seems like he is too easy to knock off his skates, and off the puck, he's not much of a hitter, and he loses pucks more than he steals them. Or at least it seems that way. Ras is a good player, as you say, on a checking line that can also offer some offense. But it still seems too much of a disappointment for him. He's not yet a playoff-level player. Can he get stronger on his skates? Does he have that in him? I'm hoping that Elmer can do more than that. He's already a huge win. But I still want more. And I want more from Ras. I don't know how he can get better on his skates, or if he can. He's already 26 (in one month)... I'm holding out hope that he still has some improvement in him. But we'll see. On both of them. Quote
lordstanley Posted March 19 Author Posted March 19 Wings hanging in against Washington. 1-1 late in the 2nd. Quote
lordstanley Posted March 19 Author Posted March 19 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. Quote
buddha Posted March 19 Posted March 19 tom wilson is such a ****. picking on patrick kane. elmer really needs to get stronger. he spends a lot of time flat on his back. Quote
lordstanley Posted March 19 Author Posted March 19 Once again the Wings are unable to sustain it for 3 periods. 3-1 Caps with 6 minute to go. Quote
lordstanley Posted March 19 Author Posted March 19 (edited) Montreal has playoff fever as the Habs move into 8th place alone. Edited March 19 by lordstanley Quote
Mr.TaterSalad Posted March 19 Posted March 19 Thankfully the Habs were playing the Sens last night so both teams didn't get a win. I'm not that hopeful though for where we're at and the opponents we have remaining. I don't think we'll be a playoff team yet again this year and that's going to open up the Yzerman debate that much more this summer. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted March 19 Posted March 19 12 hours ago, lordstanley said: Once again the Wings are unable to sustain it for 3 periods. 3-1 Caps with 6 minute to go. The Caps are always a tough matchup for the Wings, but stay in it for 40 min then lose it is still disheartening. Quote
lordstanley Posted March 19 Author Posted March 19 14 hours ago, Mr.TaterSalad said: Thankfully the Habs were playing the Sens last night so both teams didn't get a win. I'm not that hopeful though for where we're at and the opponents we have remaining. I don't think we'll be a playoff team yet again this year and that's going to open up the Yzerman debate that much more this summer. 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. Quote
buddha Posted March 20 Posted March 20 ottawa signed linas ullmark and we signed cam talbot. i still think this entire season boils down to letting replacing ghost, walman, and perron with tarasenko, motte, and gustafsson. the BIG PICTURE future of the wings hasnt changed and is still on a positive trajectory. but THIS SEASON was a failure because those signings have been awful and the team quit on lalonde. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted March 20 Posted March 20 (edited) 17 minutes ago, buddha said: ottawa signed linas ullmark and we signed cam talbot. i still think this entire season boils down to letting replacing ghost, walman, and perron with tarasenko, motte, and gustafsson. the BIG PICTURE future of the wings hasnt changed and is still on a positive trajectory. but THIS SEASON was a failure because those signings have been awful and the team quit on lalonde. hard to argue the signing have been the downfall, but even if the players on their way up through the system will improve them, they will still have trouble winning long term if the FO doesn't do a better job in the trade and FA areas. It's a three legged stool, draft/FA/Trades. The better you do at all three the better overall. Edited March 20 by gehringer_2 1 Quote
slothfacekilla Posted March 20 Posted March 20 Ottawa traded for Ullmark, it wasn't a free agency signing I take a short break and people start pining for Andreas Athanasiou 😂 Quote
Sports_Freak Posted March 21 Posted March 21 In 8 years, Yzerman has struggled to build a team that even makes the playoffs. Not trading draft picks hasn't produced a winning team. It just seems like 8 years should be long enough to build a team that should make a deep playoff run. Yes, he was left a bad organization. But between trades, drafts and FA signings, we should have a playoff team. How much longer does Stevie get? I'm a big Yzerman fan but I'm starting to lose patience. Quote
slothfacekilla Posted March 21 Posted March 21 2 hours ago, Shinzaki said: 8 years? To be fair, he wasn't doing anything to help the Red Wings for those ~2 years he wasn't their GM Quote
lordstanley Posted March 21 Author Posted March 21 12 hours ago, Sports_Freak said: In 8 years, Yzerman has struggled to build a team that even makes the playoffs. Not trading draft picks hasn't produced a winning team. It just seems like 8 years should be long enough to build a team that should make a deep playoff run. Yes, he was left a bad organization. But between trades, drafts and FA signings, we should have a playoff team. How much longer does Stevie get? I'm a big Yzerman fan but I'm starting to lose patience. 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 Quote
buddha Posted March 21 Posted March 21 34 minutes ago, lordstanley said: 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 so espn was waaaay low on seider, waaaaay high on zadina, and kasper is nowhere to be seen? perhaps the problem is with espn? Quote
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