Wings in 2017-18

[yave1964]

Watching the Wings and Lightning play tonight I look at the Bolts who are likely to miss the postseason due to the long term injury to Stamkos among a myriad of others and the Wings are doomed to a bottom two or three spot in the conference. If we actually limp thru the last two weeks and the Devils play okay we may finish dead last in the East. Tampa has an excuse, they lost Stamkos and also were nicked up a fair amount. Bishop lost his quickness and Vasilevskiy was shaky so it is clear what the Bolts have to fix and build around their brilliant nucleus.

 

  The Wings have no such nucleus, Larkin was wretchedly bad this year but is still a must keep who bigger things are expected from next season. Mantha showed flashes of brilliance as did Athanasiou. The three of them are the core of the forwards.

 

  Other keepers among the forwards include Zetterberg who quite frankly had a brilliant year and Nielsen who was a solid utility guy playing on the three top lines wherever needed. and some combo of Abdelkader/Helm/Nyke/Tatar. I believe that one of the bunch at the least is gone, likely Nyquist to the Knights would be my guess.

 

  We have Sheahan unfortunately, Miller too, same thing. Glendening was pretty awful most of the season. Our 4th line energy guys seriously let us down. They were simply dreadful. I believe Glendening may be back the others hopefully not. Callahan played for a few games but is not a real prospect, lacking in too many areas.

 

  Bertuzzi would be ideal on the bottom line, he is feisty and even scores a bit. I cannot think of any way that he does not make the team next year. He is an NHLer right now with potential to even move into a middle six role.

 

 So that is, lets see, Z, Mantha, Nielsen, Larkin and AA as mortal locks that is 5. I count Bertuzzi as a lock as well. 6.

 

Helm, tats, Nyke, Abby, three coming back, one gone. That makes 9.

 

Glendening is probably back. 10.

 

So that leaves 2 plus the 13th forward, a bottom six winger and a middle six player, either a winger or a center depending how they view Larkin.

 

Personally I am quite fond of Evgeny Svechnikov, the first rounder from a couple of years ago, to say he started slow is the understatement of understatements, he had like 5 points in his first 20 games and looked lost and then suddenly it clicked for the teen, he has been a point a game player since then. He has power forward written all over him and would make a nice fit with AA, Larkin and Mantha in our youth movement. He may need another year at the A but he is the real deal.

 

 So a solid scoring top six player and a middle six energy guy are musts.Lots of folks seem to think we should make a run for Vanek, I am not sure, he was very good when healthy but we still lost.

 

  On defense we are finishing the season with kids everywhere, Russo, Oullet and Jensen are more or less regulars, a few others are getting spotted in when Kronwall's knee wont let him go. Green has been good, not great but good and nobody else has really stood out.

 

IMHO we need a top tier number one defenseman but hey, join the crowd. Shattenkirk would be the first choice but he is going to the Rangers five minutes after the season is over according to pretty much everything written. Somehow tho we need to get an elite defender.

 

Goaltending was okay this year, not great but okay and both Howie and Mrazek will likely be back.

 

Blashill needs to go the team has fallen apart over the past two years, Someone to push the kids would be ideal.

 

Larkin needs to be the player he was in the first half of last year, he has been a zero since then. We need him to be an All Star caliber forward preferably at center. Mantha showed flashes and needs to develop NOW into a 35 goal a year guy-period and I believe he has the skill to do so. AA is what he is and what he is is a lot of fun to watch. The veteran support crew, namely Helm and Abby have to get it together or move out.

 

 On the back end Kronwall is done, I love him but if a buyout can be worked out it is time. Same with Ericsson. DK will be better, he has to he cannot be worse. The kids are all solid bottom six defenders but haven't embarrassed themselves.

 

 We have some pieces that can and should be better next season but the truth is unless somehow we make a huge splash in the offseason what we have is not nearly enough.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

Regarding Vanek, I think we should go after him, but only after exploring our defense options. He was good, but not what we need. I'd rather save the resources to obtain what we need. But if a decent D man is not available, and Vanek is, you get him so our first year in Pizzarena isn't a total joke.

 

I agree that Nyke is probably gone to the Knights. Tats is the keeper between those two, anyway. They aren't going to get rid of Abby or Helm.

 

The issue with Kronner is if we buy him out, who do you put in there? Who can you obtain?

 

<crickets>

 

It's really a sad state of affairs, but he may actually end up being our best option! That's how ugly this is getting! Because, as you said, who else is available? Shattenkirk is a pipe dream at this point. And truthfully, all he does is make us competitive again for the last spot in the playoffs, not a legit Cup contender.

 

No, I say it's time to grow it slow. It's gonna take time. Waiting sucks. But we don't have much store to sell, and anything else kinda sells it. The FA market is just so thin right now. We have missed the FA window even as much as we missed the generational player window. Missed opportunities come back to bite you. I really don't see an escape from that.

[notfondajane]

On 3/31/2017 at 10:15 PM, SpikeDDS said:

@yave1964

 

Regarding Vanek, I think we should go after him, but only after exploring our defense options. He was good, but not what we need. I'd rather save the resources to obtain what we need. But if a decent D man is not available, and Vanek is, you get him so our first year in Pizzarena isn't a total joke.

 

I agree that Nyke is probably gone to the Knights. Tats is the keeper between those two, anyway. They aren't going to get rid of Abby or Helm.

 

The issue with Kronner is if we buy him out, who do you put in there? Who can you obtain?

 

<crickets>

 

It's really a sad state of affairs, but he may actually end up being our best option! That's how ugly this is getting! Because, as you said, who else is available? Shattenkirk is a pipe dream at this point. And truthfully, all he does is make us competitive again for the last spot in the playoffs, not a legit Cup contender.

 

No, I say it's time to grow it slow. It's gonna take time. Waiting sucks. But we don't have much store to sell, and anything else kinda sells it. The FA market is just so thin right now. We have missed the FA window even as much as we missed the generational player window. Missed opportunities come back to bite you. I really don't see an escape from that.

How strong is the minor league system?

[SpikeDDS]

3 hours ago, notfondajane said:

How strong is the minor league system?

 

We've got Svechnikov, who will be solid in a couple years. And we have a few more middle-level players that we are developing, but other than Svechnikov, we have already tapped the minors for our significant talent. Larkin, Mantha, and Athanasiou are already in. They will get better, but beyond Svechnikov, it's more role players. Bertuzzi will be a decent role player, but I don't see him as a star.

 

More importantly, we really don't have any real talent in the defense department. We are eventually going to have to either obtain D from the FA market, or else draft well, develop, and wait for it. The deal will be being able to wait until the opportune time to jump on the right FA Dman, and biding that time while developing players and still not becoming bottom feeders in the process. The trade market won't help us that much, because you no longer see teams giving up big talent for a bunch of middle talent anymore, apart from dealing rental deals. The big talent has become just too dang valuable in today's league.

 

People try to say, "Oh, bottom feeding can't happen to Detroit. They are such a good franchise." To that, all one needs to do is look back at the Dead Things of the 70's to remember that, not only CAN it happen, but it HAS happened. And my sig line proves itself time and time again to be true. It CAN happen, and what I'm looking at is that exact possibility for at least a couple/few years until we are able to obtain and develop more talent.

 

Gonna be a tough go here for a few years, I fear. We've waited FAR too long to address these issues, not unloading our talent when it was more advantageous in order to juuuuust be above the line. Doing it once is one thing. Doing it repeatedly for several years, like we have done, is quite another.

[notfondajane]

16 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

 

We've got Svechnikov, who will be solid in a couple years. And we have a few more middle-level players that we are developing, but other than Svechnikov, we have already tapped the minors for our significant talent. Larkin, Mantha, and Athanasiou are already in. They will get better, but beyond Svechnikov, it's more role players. Bertuzzi will be a decent role player, but I don't see him as a star.

 

More importantly, we really don't have any real talent in the defense department. We are eventually going to have to either obtain D from the FA market, or else draft well, develop, and wait for it. The deal will be being able to wait until the opportune time to jump on the right FA Dman, and biding that time while developing players and still not becoming bottom feeders in the process. The trade market won't help us that much, because you no longer see teams giving up big talent for a bunch of middle talent anymore, apart from dealing rental deals. The big talent has become just too dang valuable in today's league.

 

People try to say, "Oh, bottom feeding can't happen to Detroit. They are such a good franchise." To that, all one needs to do is look back at the Dead Things of the 70's to remember that, not only CAN it happen, but it HAS happened. And my sig line proves itself time and time again to be true. It CAN happen, and what I'm looking at is that exact possibility for at least a couple/few years until we are able to obtain and develop more talent.

 

Gonna be a tough go here for a few years, I fear. We've waited FAR too long to address these issues, not unloading our talent when it was more advantageous in order to juuuuust be above the line. Doing it once is one thing. Doing it repeatedly for several years, like we have done, is quite another.

I remember the Red Wings of the '70s. I had a Wings jacket that I wore to high school. Man was I made fun of! I wish I still had that jacket!

I think the Wings will be back in a few years! I hope they won't use the tank method of getting there act together! The Flyers are doing okay without tanking! 

I'm hoping to be division rivals again once the league gets to 32.

[WingNut722]

There is no real silver bullet to the defense.  Not a real fancy crop of free agents this summer, and the best blue liners are all in very high demand, so the price will be astronomical.  We may have to develop the D from within, and since a fair amount of kids logged a considerable amount of NHL ice time this season, it seems this may be the way to go.  So if the defense is still unreliable, that means we need to boost the forwards and/or goaltending.  Mrazek is okay and worth keeping at his salary, and it looks like we'll probably be stuck with Howard, who has been better, but still not as good as he was in years past.  That leaves us with the forwards.  If we're not going to have an airtight defense, then we just have to score more goals than the other team.  Vanek was very good at doing that.  He also enjoyed playing with Detroit, and absolutely understood the reasons why he was traded.  I think he wants to be back, and I think he will be back, honestly.  He was arguable our best piece of the puzzle while he was here.  I'll bet he was promised a nice raise to come back on July 1, and probably a multi-year deal.  

 

Having Nyquist out would be ideal for offsetting that piece.  Otherwise I think we should be looking at capable, two-way forwards.  If there are holes on defense, we need smart forwards who can get back and help out.

[WingNut722]

And I gotta say - Last night was one of the MOST exciting overtime periods I have ever seen!