Red Wings roster 20-21

[yave1964]

   The turnaround will take time but I like the way that the Yzer-plan is working. Our roster for next season could/should look something like this

 

Mantha-Larkin-Zadina Very good top line

 

Bertuzzi-Veleno-Lafreniere Veleno after a horrible start is starting to take over in Grand Rapids, this is assuming getting Lafreniere with the first pick

 

Rasmussen-Nielsen-Fabbri okay veteran line

 

Givani Smith-Helm-Glendening experience and smarts mixed with nasty play frm Smith

 

 This will b the last chance for Svchnikov to prove he isn't a bust, Abdelkaer is still under contract. If we assume normal health forward will be okay. Filppula as a fill I  as well

 

DEFENSE

 

Hronek  Nemeth

 

Seider  Cholowski

 

Lindstrom and ??????

 

 We could retain Bowey and or Biega who were a mixed bag, recall McIsaac who truthfully needs more seasoning or sign a veteran puckmover.

 

GOALIE

Bernier should be the backup.

 

 starter is a bit tricky but there will be some decent ones out there who could be had for 60 cents on the dollar, Lundqvist is aging but is sure as hell better than Howard, Lehner, Matt Murray, Aaron Dell,  all are available and would be a huge upgrade. The big prize would be Holtby but he is going to be expensive. Any of the above are much better than what we have been tossing out every night.

 

 So a couple of veteran smart defenseman and a goalie upgrade and luck with the draft and getting the first pick, the Wings could notice a significant upgrade next season.

Edited February 27, 2020 by yave1964

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

If anyone had any doubts that the rebuild timeline was any shorter than 3-5 years (or longer), they only need to see the trade of Andreas Athanasiou and watch Yzerman's PC. Here's the PC:

 

https://www.freep.com/videos/sports/nhl/red-wings/2020/02/25/detroit-red-wings-gm-steve-yzerman-rebuild-record/4863783002/

 

Note the truth about what he is saying--he is talking about 10 years. TEN YEARS! Not 2. Not 5. Ten.

 

Other than this PC being almost a GM 101--Intro to Being a GM class, this really should put into perspective what is probably coming. This was about as honest a PC as one could expect from a GM. I really like what he said here...other than the timeline.

 

I like how he said that not all first round picks work out. He's right! He is looking at this wisely. And I hope that the higher-ups and the fans who eventually will become more and more impatient will let him try to work his plan out.

 

Also, IIRC, one of the reasons they kept Raz down was to get him to play center. I have a feeling that when they call him up, that they will have him centering his line, not playing him on the wing. That seemed to be their intent with him anyway. I'm not saying that it is smarter to do it that way. I like your putting him on Franzen's wing better. Less responsibility right when he gets back up to the show. They can always put him at center if one of them goes down with injury.

 

Question for ya @yave1964:  Short of getting Lafreniere, which if they get the first pick they would be stupid not to take with that pick--I assume we agree on that--if they get pick 2 or 3 or end up at 4, do you draft any other forward rather than getting the top-rated blue-liner? Maybe trade down the pick a few picks (not too far though). A young blue-liner might, like Seider and most other D-man draft selections, require a year of refining and development in the AHL before playing with the big boys. With this draft, how many forwards other than Lafreniere would be worth deferring a blue-liner pick? Any at all?

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

I just noticed--you forgot DDK. That would round up your top 6. Pair Seider with him. Let Dekesyer play responsible defense while Seider explores how much risk he can take making that first pass, eh?

[yave1964]

4 minutes ago, SpikeDDS said:

@yave1964

 

I just noticed--you forgot DDK. That would round up your top 6. Pair Seider with him. Let Dekesyer play responsible defense while Seider explores how much risk he can take making that first pass, eh?

I am not certain what to think with DDK, I would love for him to be a top pair stay at home guy with Hronek but I am not certain if or when he is coming back and what kind of player he will be. 

[SpikeDDS]

Just now, yave1964 said:

I am not certain what to think with DDK, I would love for him to be a top pair stay at home guy with Hronek but I am not certain if or when he is coming back and what kind of player he will be. 

 

Oh, geez! I hadn't heard that his prognosis was as negative as you are implying with your response. Have you heard something I haven't? I was under the impression that he would be ready at the start of next season.

 

Don't let the current disaster negatively bias your look at next season. Chin up!

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

If we do not get Frenchy.....quite frankly I haven't studied the draft that well as of yet, but I go defense all the way. We HAVE forwards, a shored up back end and goaltending makes the team a ton better.

 

 To me the big things going into the offseason are:

 

1) pick a coach, any coach. I have heard Lane Lambert, another former Wing who has been a long time protégé of Trotz is on the short list, he or Gallant would be ideal.

 

2) Find a goalie. Holtby, Dell Lundqvist, among a long list of others is available, my drothers would be Lehner as he is a hell of a goalie, used to a ton of shots, and would be cheaper than Holtby probably can be had for a 3 year deal.

 

3) FIX OUR BLUE LINE Seider/Hronek/Lindstrom/Cholowski are fine prospects of varying degrees of talent but a couple of vets are required. DDK and Nemeth miht be adequate but I would rather spend the money to bring in a vet. Pietrangelo or Krug would be great but as UFA's they wil command insane money and I dont see spending that as part of a rebuild. I think to me, two of: Vatanen, Ceci, Tanev or Montour, nice safe veteran blueliners who know how to play the game would be ideal. None will break the bank but are all solid players who would edge us closer to respectability.

 

  So Gallant, either Lafreniere or the top defenseman if we miss on him, Lehner, and two solid unspectacular defenseman make this team respectable by next year with hope for the future.Ideally, lets say DDk, Nemeth, Ceci and Vatanen are our veteran four, throw in Hronek and one of the kids with the others pushing from below and the back end has the makings of something.

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

So, I take it, depending on how strong the other non-Dman prospects are below Frenchy, you would consider possibly trading down a 2nd or 3rd pick if it didn't look as though the top D-man prospect would go top-4 or -5, yah? As long as we were "safely" above where the top D prospect will probs go? Might get a prospect or extra pick for it for the right team that might want to move up.

[yave1964]

1 hour ago, SpikeDDS said:

@yave1964

 

So, I take it, depending on how strong the other non-Dman prospects are below Frenchy, you would consider possibly trading down a 2nd or 3rd pick if it didn't look as though the top D-man prospect would go top-4 or -5, yah? As long as we were "safely" above where the top D prospect will probs go? Might get a prospect or extra pick for it for the right team that might want to move up.

They say this is the deepest draft of the last decade so yeah if we trade down from 3 to 6 and still nab the top dman as well as an extra 2nd or a ser icable roster player we need to do it

[SpikeDDS]

@yave1964

 

We—as we do often are—are in agreement.

 

Dunno if you watched that Yzerman P.C. that I shared, but this is exactly his thinking also. We need just about as many 1st and 2nd picks as possible because truthfully, not all 1st round picks work out. We WANT and EXPECT them to, but sometimes what can look right doesn’t end up BEING right. And of course injury plays into that some.

 

But in answering the question why still trade AA for less than a 1st, Stevie answered it directly: For is to pull out of this within 5 years, some of our 2nd and 3rd round picks are gonna have to rise above expectations. In other words, we are gonna need some luck on our side. More picks give more of a chance of that happening.

 

But he wasn’t bashful about saying that somewhere between 5 and 10 years is how long it takes to do this right, u less you get EXTREMELY lucky and land a generational player.

 

I am glad to see Veleno starting to play more like we expected. It was really early, but the start of this season had me wondering if he might be more of a dud. I don’t think so now. I think he just needs time. The good news is that Stevie seems to understand that.

 

The bad news is that WE have to understand that too, and it’s tough when watching curling is better than watching Red Wing hockey. We are just gonna have to be patient and pray that our almost-1-in-5 chance of landing the top pick actually happens. Unfortunately, there is more of a 4-in-5 chance that we WON’T. Truly, I think that the odds of the worst team getting the best pick should be better than 18.X%, regardless of whether our team is that worst team or not. It shouldn’t be a coin flip, but it should be more than 1-in-5. 

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

Ben Simon, the talented coach of the Griffins told the press early n the season that yes, Veleno looked awful, yes, he couldn't win a faceoff to save his career, no, he didn't understand getting back on defense at thios level and then a HARD NO on if he was going to adjust his ice time down. He more or less said the kid is extraordinarily talented and he was going to keep throwing him out there for 16-18 minutes a night in all situations and let him either sink or swim, he made him his personal project and Veleno over the last month, as one of the youngest players in the AHL (Seider is the youngest) has stated dominating older competition. I hope he gets a half a dozen games at the end of the year and that Zadina comes back, they are a huge part of our future. Seider, too, give him six to eight games at the top level to show how much he learned as a baby in the AHL.

[SpikeDDS]

On 2/27/2020 at 6:18 PM, yave1964 said:

They say this is the deepest draft of the last decade so yeah if we trade down from 3 to 6 and still nab the top dman as well as an extra 2nd or a ser icable roster player we need to do it

That might actually be bad for this idea. Usually, it is when the top 3-4 players are highly valued that teams want to move up. If it's more Frenchy than anyone else, and then everyone else is about the same, no one's gonna want to move up any, especially if they have their eyes on forwards. They KNOW we will be taking a Dman. So it would have to come from a team a few picks down that wants A certain player amongst the deep group at the top.