buddha

but before we (me) get ahead of ourselves, they were headed for the playoffs last year and one dylan larkin injury and the whole thing collapsed. its going to be tough sledding down the stretch. we'll see if they do anything at the deadline. pretty sure they have the best record in hockey since mcclellan took over.

i think a lot of us owe steve yzerman an apology (except for the pro scouting department, they still suck). making the playoffs this year puts them ahead of schedule, imo. seider/raymond shouldnt even be in their primes yet... and lucas raymond might need a new agent.

kane wins the shootout with an amazing move. streak is alive!

sloppy play and bad goaltending. 4-4

elmer! 4-2. nice play by veleno.

there is nothing admirable about jimmy butler. not even bizarely.

i feel like duren had five a few days ago against the bulls.

i love hongbit the michigan defender. 🙂

ball's been pretty injury free so far this year. and if all youre giving up is tec or thj and a second rounder, i'm good with taking that risk. i do think that won't be enough, and at the end of the day someone might pony up a late first for him. he's a solid player when healthy.

he did say danielson could have been #2 on the list. but then goes on to say he doesnt look like a #1 center and the offense isnt there. i give credit to wheeler for putting out as much stuff as he does about hockey prospects. he's got great knowledge of a lot of different people. but having a wide base of knowledge doesnt always correlate to a deep base on each player. which is ok! there are hundreds and hundreds of these guys and i wouldnt expect him to have a deep knowledge of each one of them. i appreciate what he does while also disagreeing with him because ALL i do is follow wings prospects so i have different opinions about them. and im a little biased. 🙂

or mcgary. but jamal crawford was the worst. michael oher becomes a national hero and his guardians did the same thing as what happened to crawford. like you said, the ncaa doesnt care about common sense or the purpose of rules, they only care if something has been violated and then if you cooperate with them. the osu stuff with "tattoo-gate- was the same level of ridiculousness.

amen seems to be progressing much faster than his brother.

additions to this year: mbn, plante, kiiskinen, finnie subtractions: edvinsson, soderblom, gibson, dower-nilson edvinsson and soderblom aged out. the same analysis as usual for detroit: deep with no stars. fwiw, they said the same about raymond too (as in, they said he was good but not a star. i think he's becoming a star). wheeler and others often seem entranced by smaller, quicker skilled forwards who light up the lower levels and then turn into decent nhl players but not stars because theyre so small. like.....buchelnikov or plante. but its interesting then that he thinks so highly of mbn who is the opposite of that: big, strong, physical, with not a lot of razzle and/or dazzle in his game. it looks like the wings are set up nicely in net for the future provided they dont trade one of them. they have a steady line of 3rd pair defensemen from both the right and left side. and they have asp, who profiles as a likely second pair defenseman and power play specialist. what they need is a star. we'll see if this is the year they go out and pay for one.

tiers: 1 2-6 7-15 rank: asp mbn kasper danielson cossa augustine buchelnikov mazur wallinder buium plante lombardi kiiskinen finnie johannson

wings come in at #5. down from #2 last year. "The Red Wings have a pretty unique pool in that the pools that typically rank in this range have a true star forward prospect; they have several very good ones but none that project to play on a first line. Instead, their star prospects are on defense and in net, with one of the top D prospects in the sport and two of the top goalie prospects in the sport supporting strong depth up front. Axel Sandin Pellikka’s emergence as a potential top offensive defenseman moved the Red Wings from more of a top-10 pool to No. 5 for me."

hartman gets ten games for that on stutzle??? jamie benn did so much worse to larkin and got like nothing.

i'd do it. ball has been shooting much better lately and improved a lot under....fred vinson. i doubt the bulls want fontecchio and his contract so it probably wont work.

wheeler's annual top team prospect rankings are almost done. he's up to #6, columbus. and has said the top 5 are in a tier all their own. no wings yet, so were top 5.

just a strange coincidence that they both happened to be corners....or defensive tackles a few years before that. weird. "need" always enters into the formulation. always. there is no black line rule definition of "best player available". the criteria for what that means likely includes "team long term need." you make it seem like they either take "the best player" or "a player in the position for which they have an immediate need." the two are not mutually exclusive. again, teams likely have round grades on players. lots of players likely fit a certain grade. you take that and consider all sorts of things when you make that decision, team fit, need, scheme, etc.

so - in theory - the lions would take a qb in round 1 over a dt, de, or iol? arnold and rakestraw just happened to be the bpa at a pivotal position of need? come on. they have a board with a bunch of guys lumped together with similar traits and scores and they take the "best" one. the definition of "best" can also include "immediate need" or "long term need."

all this means is that marner and ratanan are going to get 14-15 per year.

seider and larkin too. was listening to wwp today with them gushing about hownthe wings were in great position to take advantage of the cap increase. 1) not if they adhere to "no one gets a bigger % than larkin"; and 2) every other team gets the same bump. all this means is salary goes up. the biggest advantage for the wings is that raymond and seider are on majorly team friendly deals right now. as wwp pointed out, raymond might be the most underpaid player in hockey not on an eclt other than makar.

lol. i'm not "refusing" to do anything. merely stating my opinion on the subject and - as usual - a number of different tangents that pop into my head as i type.

if you dont think schools are doing advanced scouting, i dont know what to tell you. everyone steals signs. its legal. they share those with each other. its documented. the rule against "in person scouting" is a useless caveat that is kept in place only because the north dakota states of the world dont want to spend money to send someone in person to "scout" or to have microphones in their helmets. everyone else is doing some form of it. everyone else steals signs IN PERSON and then shares them. its a distinction without a difference. all stallions did was come up with a better way to interpret them. but dont worry, the ncaa will hit michigan for it in some way. they do every time michigan breaks some stupid rule like stretching too long. they enjoy hitting michigan and michigan is too inept or aloof to just play the game like other, better run athletic departments. especially since harbaugh had his attitude toward them and refused to do the very simple thing of just playing their game. harbaugh missed almost half the season during their 15-0 run, that would be more than enough for such a minor violation. he's got a show cause against him. that should be more than enough. but its the ncaa and they need to show they have some relevance and thry hate michigan so next year michigan will get some sort of scholarship reduction and then appeal it and we'll all sit here and wait 3 years for some resolution.