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Goodbye Gus


yave1964

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Gus Nyquist was traded late last night from the Wings to the Sharks for a pair of picks, a second rounder in 2019 (previously acquired by the Sharks from Florida so it is a lower middle round pick) and a condtional pick in 2020 no worse than a third, no better than a second.

 

 It was coming, still kind of a sad morning here, Nyquist has always been a favorite of mine a guy who can score and play top six minutes who always has a cocky grin on his face. I have a lot of fond memories of Gus with the Wings first winning a Calder Cup with the Griffins, helping the Wings to the conference finals against Chicago, some great goals including an overtime winner against Ottawa where he held onto the puck for 26 seconds weaving in and out of traffic before finally burying it. Good luck Gus, rooting for you.

 

 OK so he is gone, now what? My opinion is we should spend the next 8 games before sending Zadina back to the AHL with Zadina/Rasmussen on the wing of Larkin playing both 20 minutes a night to see what they are.

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@yave1964 

 

We (just about) knew this was coming.

 

And you are correct, his best moment was the 26-second overtime goal that you posted.

 

Like you, and even more than for Jensen, I wish Nyke the best. I have nothing against him personally.

 

OTOH, it DID sometimes seem like he was underachieving. He and Tats were like that. Especially in the playoffs. They would both just seem to disappear. You could count on him for around 20 goals-ish, but not more, even though you WANTED more. You'd see the skill of him dominating the puck for 26 seconds in overtime, and ask, "Why shouldn't we see something close to this on a semi-regular basis?" You wanted the two of them to be resilient like Z and Pav who were elite players regardless of opponent or circumstance. I wouldn't say he is elite like them, but he is a solid NHL forward. Next tier down. Still, good player for whatever team he plays for. We'll miss him. But it was the right time for the franchise, and maybe for him too. A chance to compete for the Cup legitimately he has never really known. Good for him to get a shot.

 

As to the future for the DRWs, there is no (legitimate) reason not to put the kids together as much as possible with the possible exception of Larkin (and others) getting too frustrated or discouraged. But those guys have got to be pros! We are going to lose a lot of games now. We need to accept that bitter pill and swallow it whole. That means that fans need to come to games to see the kids, even though they aren't as likely to win as we were before--and that still was less likely than losing was. If we move Howard--looking less likely--we look more like an AHL team playing in the NHL talent-wise. (Apologies to our veteran core.) We need our vets to have the mindset of veteran AHL players--your main job now is to help these kids become pros and adapt to the NHL level. We need to see what we have, and what we don't YET have. Zadina is undoubtedly going to have to work on some things. Ras too. They won't be able to if they are playing 12 minutes a night. This HAS to be about the future now. The future means next season. The front office and coaching staff must look beyond this year's ticket sales. That's tough to do, but ya gotta do it if you are going to do what's best for the future of the franchise. Winning two more games before the end of the season because we sit the kids gets us nowhere! We need to commit. We are rebuilding. We need to act like it.

 

The one thing in our favor is that we KNOW that Zadina's time here is limited. He cannot earn a spot in this year's lineup after his 9 games. That mindset should be the same for the team. The rest of this year should be about preparing for next year and beyond. And make no mistake, I understand how hard it is for a pro to be asked to make winning NOW NOT the highest priority. It doesn't mean you stop playing when you are on the ice. But it might mean that your ice time is a couple of minutes less than it normally is. It's got nothing to do with how you play. It has to do with them needing the ice time and your leadership BOTH right now.

 

And yes, Lughes for Hughes is a real thing. But our pros can't dive. They have to show how to play with intensity even in the face of the fact that if we all play to our potential, against many teams we still aren't gonna win right now. We can "legitimately" lose for Hughes, and that's what we should be striving for now. (Yeah, trading away our talent, some may argue, is not "legitimate." I will say this: We didn't take the dive front-office wise until we were darn sure the playoffs were a pipe dream. At some point, you've gotta "commit" to the future at the expense of the present, and it's "legitimate." For the Wings, the time is now.)

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