Wings Things

[yave1964]

Wow it is hard to believe it is only a couple of weeks from the start of the regular season, summer is more or less over and the Wings are in camp ready to start the exhibition schedule. Today they returned a handful of recent draft picks to Juniors leaving a still overinflated 64 players in camp with very few if any spots open. A few quick thoughts.....

 

Andreas Athanasiou met with Holland to discuss his plight, the Wings are up against the cap with little wiggle room, AA has little if any leverage other than to threaten to go to Europe for a year so the two of them met to discuss ways to get a deal done and keep him around. He has speed like few others and is a finisher as well, we really need him in the middle six this season. The big rumor right now is Riley Sheahan being dangled and the Penguins who lost Cullen to the Wild are at least moderately interested but supposedly are low balling right now knowing the Wings need to make a move. I would not be surprised if it were sooner rather than later as the Pens and Rutherford are the only team showing interest in Telly Tubby boy.

 

  For a team that most are expecting to finish last there are surprisingly few question marks as to the makeup of the roster, providing that everyone is healthy. Tyler Bertuzzi seems a lock to start as a grinder who can score a bit on the 4th line, Svechnikov seems destined to be sent to GR at least to start the year for more seasoning although he has found another gear according to Holland and Blashill and is raising eyebrows. The defense seems set returning the cast from last year along with Daley from the Pens with Russo/Renouf/Sproul fighting to be the first recall when Ericsson or Kronwall break down and miss time. 

  I guess if there is a question mark it is in net, two goalies making a combined 10 million a year who both feel they deserve to be the starter both are returning, Howard and Mrazek are back for another year of rotating goalies with the guarantee that neither will be happy with the other one being there. My guess is that Mrazek will be moved to a team that loses their goalie to long term injury early and Coreau, fresh off a Calder cup victory with the Griffins will be recalled as Howards backup. That is as long as Mrazek shows enough to encourage a team to go after him.

 

  Blashill has to be on a short leash. No ifs ands or buts.

 

  I got this weeks Hockey News in the mail today and they list the top 25 players by position and the only Wing who even made the list was Zetterberg at number 22 among centers which is sad. What is sadder is there are at least a half a dozen centers who did not make the cut who I would have taken ahead of him. 

 

  If everything and I mean EVERYTHING breaks right, players outperforming the last few years, kids stepping way up, the goalie mess clearing itself up, the defense staying healthy, they might be a 8 seed if they get help from a few other teams underacheiving. I am not counting on it, I have a feeling I will be watching a lot of Griffin games this year......

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

Welcome back from your unofficial hiatus!

 

I am already resigned to the high probability that the Wings will be sharpening up their golf games come April.

 

To comment on your thoughts:

 

Mrazek may THINK he should be in net, but he is wrong...at least until he can show some of his old form for more than a couple games. If Howard continues where he left off, Petr really has no legitimate claim on the net and should only be used to make him marketable. IOW, he's gotta show us, not tell us that he should be in the net. Howard is the one doing more consistent showing.

 

If AA is not on this team this season, KH should be fired. Period. I won't belabor it, because I have said so elsewhere, but if you can't manage to pay a legit promising prospect a reasonable salary--AA is NOT asking for the sky--when he is ready (unless you really have an over abundance of talent...which we don't), you have pretty much eliminated the whole purpose of having a farm system. Any GM who does that needs to be put out to pasture.

 

I am completely in rebuilding mode now. EVERY move that is made should have the LONG-term goodnof the Red Wings franchise in mind. Screw the short-term.

 

If that means we have to dump talent to keep our future, then that's what it means now.

 

I mistakenly thought we only had 2 years of Franzen's cap left to deal with. Nope. 3 years. That's the $ that AA should be getting...if you can look past the overinflated contracts to Helm, and Abby, and Kronner, and E, and....which now all add up to potentially losing our best skater who has some finishing capability (in contrast with Helm).

 

I honestly don't know where we go from here without dumping talent, so if that's what we've gotta do, then let's do it, accept the short-term pain that will result and start building the future for when we actually have $.

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

It is a shame that we are opening a new barn with a lemon of a team, but the club that opened the Joe a million years ago was not exactly a club filled with ready for prime time players. Reed Larson with his blistering point shot, big Willie Huber who had size and a solid shot on the back end too, the original Foligno, McCourt and my personal favorite Ogrodnick were about all we had. Oh and someone named Jim Rutherford in goal. Hopefully it does not take as many mistakes as the previous regime made to get the barn rocking every night with a winner.

 

  It should be interesting this year, the Wings are picked to finish dead last in a very soft division by the Hockey News and by many if not most other publications,  if/when we are out of it, do we sell quickly or wait until the deadline? Yeah I know it is only September and the season is a couple of weeks away but the Wings last year dealt Vanek, Ott and Brendan Smith at or before the deadline, this year we may put the following pieces in play:

 

Mrazek or Howard. One or the other, not both.

 

Nyquist or Tatar.  Again, likely one or the other but not both.

 

Mike Green. Last year on his deal with young talented defense finally on the way. Certainly gone.

 

Sheahan. He probably will be dealt before the start of the year for cap relief.
 

Two others who need mentioning but whose contracts make them likely stuck are Abdelkader and Helm. Same with Ericsson.

 

  So lets assume we deal Mrazek, Nyquist, Green and Sheahan for picks and/or prospects and start moving in the kids and we buy out Ericsson and possibly one of Helm/Abby next offseason, this sows ear of a team will have went through the pruning, the rebuild for lack of a better word that is so desperately needs. Personally I would much rather go through a bad year or two while rebuilding the farm system and bringing in quality kids instead of suffering another year of watching Steve Ott and Drew Miller stumbling up and down the ice.

[SpikeDDS]

On 9/19/2017 at 6:47 AM, yave1964 said:

@SpikeDDS

 

It is a shame that we are opening a new barn with a lemon of a team, but the club that opened the Joe a million years ago was not exactly a club filled with ready for prime time players. Reed Larson with his blistering point shot, big Willie Huber who had size and a solid shot on the back end too, the original Foligno, McCourt and my personal favorite Ogrodnick were about all we had. Oh and someone named Jim Rutherford in goal. Hopefully it does not take as many mistakes as the previous regime made to get the barn rocking every night with a winner.

 

  It should be interesting this year, the Wings are picked to finish dead last in a very soft division by the Hockey News and by many if not most other publications,  if/when we are out of it, do we sell quickly or wait until the deadline? Yeah I know it is only September and the season is a couple of weeks away but the Wings last year dealt Vanek, Ott and Brendan Smith at or before the deadline, this year we may put the following pieces in play:

 

Mrazek or Howard. One or the other, not both.

 

Nyquist or Tatar.  Again, likely one or the other but not both.

 

Mike Green. Last year on his deal with young talented defense finally on the way. Certainly gone.

 

Sheahan. He probably will be dealt before the start of the year for cap relief.
 

Two others who need mentioning but whose contracts make them likely stuck are Abdelkader and Helm. Same with Ericsson.

 

  So lets assume we deal Mrazek, Nyquist, Green and Sheahan for picks and/or prospects and start moving in the kids and we buy out Ericsson and possibly one of Helm/Abby next offseason, this sows ear of a team will have went through the pruning, the rebuild for lack of a better word that is so desperately needs. Personally I would much rather go through a bad year or two while rebuilding the farm system and bringing in quality kids instead of suffering another year of watching Steve Ott and Drew Miller stumbling up and down the ice.

 

 Couldn’t agree more with your last sentence.

 

i watched the Blackhawks game until I just couldn’t watch anymore. Mrazek got thrashed, but let’s face it—he didn’t have much help out there. I think the game said more about our D than it did Mrazek. But I’m still concerned that he play well enough to be able to move him. He continues like that, and we have little hope of dealing him anywhere.

 

Yep, I am in a pessimistic mindset about this season. I think it’s gonna be ugly. I cancelled my NHL.TV subscription. Just can’t bring myself to justify it right now. I’m more optimistic about the future, and am hoping the RW front office buys in to the long-term outlook instead of repeating previous mistakes.