Red Wings offseason primer

[yave1964]

 

 

 

 

FINAL RECORD 2017-18 30-39-13 73 points 24 points out of a playoff spot.

 

  The Wings missed the playoffs the year before and more or less returned the entire team with few new pieces. The hope was that the kids (Larkin, Mantha Athanasiou) would step up and the vets who all had off years the previous season would improve.

  It did not work. Larkin was solid establishing himself as a nice first or second line center with a bit of a nasty streak, Zetterberg had a nice bounce back year aging like fine wine, Mantha had 24 goals including nine on the power play but everyone else was pretty much average or slightly below. Bertuzzi entered the lineup around the halfway point of the year and showed promise.

  On defense- well don't ask. The best (Green) was average, pretty well everyone else was subpar for an NHL team. Kronwall is on one knee, Ericsson is a pylon, Dekeyser regressed offensively but to be fair his defense improved. Daley really wasn't bad as a jack of all trades bouncing up and down the pairings. Nobody stood out.

  I  net Howard was probably the Wings MVP reclaiming the net and doing a fine job.

  By years end long time Wings Tatar (for a first, second and third) and Mrazek (for a third) were traded off. Mike Green was supposed to be traded but injured in a game against the Bolts before the deadline and remained a Wing.

 

TOP PROSPECTS

Michael Rassmussen is a monster of a center/wing who must make the team right out of juniors or be returned, he was the Wings best net front presense last preseason and a solid preseason may force the Wings to give him a shot.

 Dennis Cholowski is an offensive defenseman who may make the team this year and begin cutting his teeth at the nhl level this year.

Evgeney Svechnikov looked horrible with the Griffins and bad with the Wings but as a former first round pick with offensive upside will be given every chance to stick.

Filip Hronek is a thin but really fast blueliner who excelled with the Griffins, reminding me a bit of Barrie in Colorado who will likely make the big club this year.

  The Wings also have the sixth pick in the draft and are rumored to be zeroing in on Michigan product Quinn Hughes who many are comparing to Zach Werenski. Between Hughes if he is indeed the pick, Cholowski and Hronek within a year or so the defense will be completely different.

 

  FREE AGENTS

mike Green is an UFA who the Wings are saying all the right things about desiring to resign but he is likely gone. Good player still but aging.

That is it. Well Coreau is an UFA but if he doesn't resign it might be addition by subtraction. Same with David booth.

 

OFFSEASON QUESTIONS:

 

HOW MUCH FAITH DO YOU HAVE IN THE KID FORWARDS? IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

 larkin had a good year last year but is looking like a 2C with 55-60 point potential. Mantha looks like 25 goals is his limit. Athanasiou for all his speed has a good game one in three and is reminding me more every day of a young Val Filpulla, a nice usable player but nothing to build around. Bertuzzi is a third liner if we are honest. Rassmussen needs NHL time to see what he is, worst case he is Mantha, best case a 35 goal scoring JVR type. So maybe the Wings instead of reaching for Hughes should go best available forward?

 

HOW ABOUT THE VETERAN FORWARDS? 

 Zetterberg was great most of the year but is aging and cannot keep going forever. The rest are pretty average or slightly below so, Nyquist 21 goals, 40 points for his pay is sad. Abdelkader, Helm Nielsen are just bodies at this point. Too many guys collecting paychecks for not much production.

 

CAN THEY MAKE A RUN AT ONE OF THE BIG BOYS? Holland has stated that he is not afraid to deal the Wings pick (number 6) so it is possible he does so as partial payment for one of the top tier players out there. Holland has to be feeling the pressure to make a signature move to put a stamp on the team again He has whiffed in recent years on Suter, chose Nielsen over Eric Staal, signed Weiss, brought in the ghosts of Modano and Alfredsson, in other words been a complete failure when reaching outside of the organization in most cases (I consider Green and possibly Daley the exception but he has been awful in free agency). The Wings need a star player to be the face of the franchise, I like Larkin but don't see him as that guy. 

 

  The Wings are loaded with picks, 2 firsts, 2 seconds and 3 thirds so the rebuild needs to begin in earnest right now. They have a ton of RFA kids who will need paid, Larkin, Athanasiou, Bertuzzi, Mantha and Frk all will expect raises so doing much to rebuild this year may be difficult.

 

 

 

[yave1964]

• And now I read that Holland has no intention of trying anything significant this offseason as he has a herd of RFAs who need resigned. Sigh. So another sows ear disguised as a silks purse will  be trotted out again next year.

[SpikeDDS]

On 6/6/2018 at 7:35 AM, yave1964 said:

• And now I read that Holland has no intention of trying anything significant this offseason as he has a herd of RFAs who need resigned. Sigh. So another sows ear disguised as a silks purse will  be trotted out again next year.

 

Again, this is the result of too few resources resulting from too many second- & third-tier players being overpaid for extended terms. Only a couple years left before we get Franzen’s cap hit to work with, but that is a couple more years. Then it will be Z’s deal eventually still hanging out there. At least that will have been justified by his contributions.

 

That in addition to trading away some of our young talent just to bring in veteran help so we could put off the word “rebuild” longer. Just poor vision at the helm of the team. Sacrificing long-term for the immediate. That is acceptable if it allows you to legitimately compete at the Conference level. If not, you don’t give away the store. The lesson that all teams and fans should learn from the Red Wings of the last 7 years is that you don’t sell the store just so you can try to claim/obtain mediocrity. Young talent is just too darn valuable to sacrifice for so little in return. 

 

That the front office has chosen “status quo” as they’re moving forward with regard to leadership tells you everything you need to know about their reasonable chance for any significant contention in the next 5 years. If it is there at all, it will be WAY closer to or beyond the 5 year mark than it is to now. Even in the best possible scenario.

[yave1964]

1 hour ago, SpikeDDS said:

 

Again, this is the result of too few resources resulting from too many second- & third-tier players being overpaid for extended terms. Only a couple years left before we get Franzen’s cap hit to work with, but that is a couple more years. Then it will be Z’s deal eventually still hanging out there. At least that will have been justified by his contributions.

 

That in addition to trading away some of our young talent just to bring in veteran help so we could put off the word “rebuild” longer. Just poor vision at the helm of the team. Sacrificing long-term for the immediate. That is acceptable if it allows you to legitimately compete at the Conference level. If not, you don’t give away the store. The lesson that all teams and fans should learn from the Red Wings of the last 7 years is that you don’t sell the store just so you can try to claim/obtain mediocrity. Young talent is just too darn valuable to sacrifice for so little in return. 

 

That the front office has chosen “status quo” as they’re moving forward with regard to leadership tells you everything you need to know about their reasonable chance for any significant contention in the next 5 years. If it is there at all, it will be WAY closer to or beyond the 5 year mark than it is to now. Even in the best possible scenario.

At least we had a quarter century of excellence so we have our memories. I guess that is what Holland seems to think.

  I could live with preaching patience if a new regime were in place. Holland seems to be flailing along livingon past glories. The Illich kids grew up on his knee apparently, it must be like asking someone to fire a favorite Uncle. Holland needs to simply retire and let someone with a fresh approach take a stab.

[SpikeDDS]

7 hours ago, yave1964 said:

At least we had a quarter century of excellence so we have our memories. I guess that is what Holland seems to think.

  I could live with preaching patience if a new regime were in place. Holland seems to be flailing along livingon past glories. The Illich kids grew up on his knee apparently, it must be like asking someone to fire a favorite Uncle. Holland needs to simply retire and let someone with a fresh approach take a stab.

 

Uh, yeah. They don’t seem to remember how to fire people. With few exceptions, their repeated mistake has been over-rewarding loyalty and hoping that doing the same that they have been doing will once again lead to legitimate competition, all the while redefining what “legitimate competition” means until it means just making the playoffs, when more than half of the NHL does that.

 

And now, they extend Holland and Blashill. “Everything is fine!” “Fine” now = we’ll be out of the bottom 10 in a few years once Larkin turns into Zetterberg and Mantha scores like Federov.

 

Sometimes I wonder if they just don’t know how to run a team without having Nick Lidstrom on the blue line. He covered up and minimized the damage of a whole lot of mistakes. Once he left, consequences for bad decisions normalized again.

[yave1964]

13 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

 

Uh, yeah. They don’t seem to remember how to fire people. With few exceptions, their repeated mistake has been over-rewarding loyalty and hoping that doing the same that they have been doing will once again lead to legitimate competition, all the while redefining what “legitimate competition” means until it means just making the playoffs, when more than half of the NHL does that.

 

And now, they extend Holland and Blashill. “Everything is fine!” “Fine” now = we’ll be out of the bottom 10 in a few years once Larkin turns into Zetterberg and Mantha scores like Federov.

 

Sometimes I wonder if they just don’t know how to run a team without having Nick Lidstrom on the blue line. He covered up and minimized the damage of a whole lot of mistakes. Once he left, consequences for bad decisions normalized again.

My biggest problem with the Wings in a nut shell is we were absolutely loaded with front office people who now run other teams or leagues. Shanny runs the Leafs along with Babs, Nill aggressively runs the Stars, Yzerman may be the best GM in the game, Peters coaches Calgary and is highly thought of. Larionov is a highly thought of agent in the KHL where Fetisov is president of fabled CSKA Moscow team and is so revered in Russia that a Russian astronomer named a discovered asteroid after him. Gerard Gallant and his long time ties to the Wings could have been brought in last year instead he led upstart Vegas to the cup finals. We literally still have a dead guy listed as owner for tax reasons while his son Christopher Illich is rumored to be looking to sell. 

  There are probably a few that I missed but you get the point.

  Holland is past his prime, Blashill is not the answer. 

  Our assistants and front office personnel are second rate as well. John torchetti seems to be there just in case Blash is let go midseason so we have someone in the organization to step in on an interm level. Instead of Nill or Yzerman or Shanny as the assistant GM or as the replacement to Holland we have Ryan Martin as the organizaitons number two guy. Know who he is? Yeah me either. 

 

  We are trusting second rate talent to make decisions on our second rate talent all the while throughout the league and indeed throughout the World former Wings players and brain trust are in positions of power and authority with other teams and doing well.