buddha

if the lions published 1/10th of their draft board, it would dwarf the size of the best work of carlos monarrez and rob parker combined.

in defense of stevie, the wings have had horrible horrible bad luck.  

that said, montreal, ottawa, and now buffalo have passed them.  heck, pittsburgh is trying to lose and has passed them.  philly is getting nothing from its superstar young forward, is in front office disarray, and is close to passing them.

how long do injuries and dropping in the lottery and "no one wants to sign here" do we accept before it becomes obvious that this front office just doesnt have it?  are folks clamoring to sign in ottawa?  demanding to go to buffalo?  telling their agents they must look into all the good things about the ISLANDERS?

i doubt it.  but those teams ascend and we drop every time larkin gets a hangnail.  enough may finally be enough.

10 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

Fans may want to believe Copp and Compher were signed to help take the next step, and if that next step was from the basement of the NHL (17 wins, .275 points percentage in 2019-20) to the mushy middle, maybe those fans are right. But they were most certainly not signed to be the straws that stir the drink.

They are still on the roster because their contracts are not expired. I have said before, the market is the market, and the market means you pay too much in dollars and in term, especially if you are a basement dweller. It sucks to suck. 

They are also still on the roster because nobody has stolen their jobs. I’m sure there have been times where Stevie would have liked nothing more than to trade away Compher and even retain salary but he couldn’t because nobody was ready for his minutes. And they are still on the roster because Stevie was more realistic than fans about how bad the roster was and how long it would take for the kids to be ready.

They have done their job, which is to eat minutes and years for a rebuilding franchise.  There is no glamor in it, no glory, but the pay is good. 

the alternative was to not sign middling veterans early and continue to bottom out.  to continue to accumulate draft capital.  yzerman didnt do that.  he said he didnt want a losing culture and instead signed a bunch of veterans to overpriced contracts: chairot, copp, and compher being the biggest three.

the mantha trade has not borne any fruit (despite the posts here, cossa has not done anything of note other than have the lowest gaa on this juggernaut team.  he may work out, he has given them nothing yet.)  bertuzzi got you the pick that got you debrincat.  kane is a nice novelty player.  

the core is seider/raymond/edvinsson/kasper/danielson/asp.  do compher and copp and chairot compliment that core?  maybe.  but not enough to make the playoffs 7 years in.

the pro-yzerman argument is that the wings were so bad under kenny that they were the worst team in modern nhl history with the worst farm system in the league.  this is true, but how long to dig out of that?  8 years?  do you give him another year?  two?  do you give him ten years?

again, the fear in refusing to bottom out for multiple years is that you end up in the mushy middle: never bad enough to get a star, never good enough to make the playoffs. i think those fears have been realized.

3 hours ago, Deleterious said:

UNC expected to pursue Donovan and Stevens for their open head coach job 

 

lol brad stevens.  unc is about to be in for a rude awakening.

1 hour ago, lordstanley said:

And I would say so far from his 7 drafts the only impact players he has brought in via the draft are his three top-6 picks of Seider, Raymond and Edvinsson. Obviously still time and hope for Cossa, Augustine, Kasper, ASP, MBN, Danielson, Finnie, Bear but question marks until proven otherwise at the NHL level. 

three picks hitting in six years is not a great ratio.  and they were all top 6, you BETTER hit in the top 6.

kasper falling off the planet has been a huge disappointment.  to me he belongs on the first line as a winger, but rven when he's been up there he hasnt been great.

yeah yeah, he does other things.  well, we need him to score.  a little more cole caufield and a little less kotaneimi.

we dont know what they offered other free agents.  in his defense, the big free agents didnt want to come here.

and honestly, if they had traded for quinn hughes - a dynamic offensive player but a small one - would it have made a difference this year?  i have my doubts...but 5x5 scoring has been so difficult for them and hughes definitely would have helped with that.

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

Since Yzerman has been GM, I would say the only impact players has brought in outside the draft (i.e. trades and FA) have been DeBrincat and Gibson, and maybe now Faulk. Not going to give him much credit for Kane because it didn't look like there was much competition to land him at the time. In 7/8 years that's not much. Maybe count Chairot if you want to be generous.

and debrincat fell into his lap because he told ottawa he would only go to detroit or he would leave as a free agent.  hard to count that as a savvy deal.

btw, raymond has been mostly awol when they needed him most.

again.

copp has been good, compher was a big miss.  not replacing rasmussen was a miss.  not getting bigger up front was a miss.

dusty may mentioned for the unc job.  unsurprising.  he'll be mentioned for every big job now.

another year and another collapse.  and we dont even get a middling pick out of it this year.

this was the year they fixed the goalie.  this was the year they made a move at the deadline.  this was the year they traded the future for the present.

and it looks like theyre going to fail again.  if they do, they should make changes.  the careful plodding approach, taking low ceiling high floor guys, not overspending on high impact players, hasnt worked out.

time for a change.

good night, gracie.

1 hour ago, Hongbit said:

The money cannon at UM isn’t any different in basketball than Kentucky, Kansas, and UNC.  

The difference is in the coach.  That’s the real special sauce. They’ve hit a home run with May.  

The other blue bloods I mentioned just figured the program was strong to enough to prosper with lesser guys because of the brand.  Turns out that doesn’t matter anymore now that other people have the cash.  Having a stiff like Mark Pope or Hubert Williams just because they’re an alum doesn’t work anymore.  

i agree, but they can compete now for players they had no chance at before.

kasper has been a massive disappointment.  danielson too, to a lesser degree.

those guys are both top ten picks and they havent come close to the impact of seider/raymond/edvinsson.

6 hours ago, RedTeamGo! said:

of course they are, but not as much 

getting rid of the money rules is the best thing to happen to michigan.  now they dont have to keep up this facade about not paying players.  now that its out in the open, michigan can unleash the money cannon of one of the richest, most sports obsessed fan bases in the country.

and they have.

8 hours ago, RedTeamGo! said:

I think this is true for some of the teams in the B1G (Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, kinda MSU - but most of sparty players are homegrown) 

MSU and Purdue are pretty much homegrown players and Iowa's transfers all followed their coach from Drake (and some from his division 2 school). Michigan is basically the polar opposite, even to the point they tampered with a player from another big money big ten program - Illinois. Michigan is the poster child for big money NIL basketball team. 

As for the big ten "dominating" college basketball - lets see them actually win a natty for the first time in 26 years before saying so haha. 

you dont think those "homegrown" players are getting paid?

10 hours ago, GalagaGuy said:

Big 10 with 6 teams in the Sweet 16 and a chance for 7.  Hell of a showing!  

$$$$$

big ten is dominating basketball and football.

league does favor for the lakers?  no way!!!!!

9 hours ago, Deleterious said:

This kid has been moving up the draft boards lately.  Undersized guard who plays bad defense.  Some GM is going to lose his job over the pick.

I did learn he is from Detroit and played at Cass Tech for two years before transferring to IMG.  

I also learned Vanderbilt has a player named Chandler Bing.  

 

the nba does not care about defense.

1 hour ago, Deleterious said:

 

i'm shocked to see the wizards give a **** enough to fight.

sadness.

and there it is.

that goal is 100% seider.

copp so good.

seider just ****ed them.  oh boy.

1 hour ago, lordstanley said:

Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Columbus and Philadelphia all have won already today. I don’t care about Buffalo as so far ahead now and there still is a cushion over Philadelphia, but the Pens and Jackets victories keep the pressure on the Wings. 

the east does not lose.

21 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

Less than half the amount of sacks and QB pressure too.

yup.

because he doesnt do what most teams loom for in a defensive end: consistent pressure.

the lions look for different abilities.  crush the pocket, set the edge.

one might say the lions are playing moneyball.

i woukd argue - and i think you would agree - that they need a pure pass rusher for third down and long.