Jason_R

I didn't realize he was the captain of the Wings for 12 years. His peers must have thought an awful lot of him for him to have been named captain of a team that included Gordie Howe. RIP.

What do we know about Buium and Wallinder?

I was thinking the same thing. Does he know that not every FA is going to the Hall of Fame?

There was enough smoke about Miller that I suspect something was going on that didn't work out. I saw a story last night that said Emily Kaplan reported that NYR didn't like the offer made by Detroit. (Can't find the original tweet.) Either way, it's time to see what the kids can do. With ASP developing they have the makings of their first two pairs. Can they trust the prospects with the back end of the lineup?

Cheap vet. One year deal. Let the kids play the next season or two. Make your big FA splash when you know what you have and what you need.

“Unprecedentedly bad” is a bit over the top. But I agree that Lalonde was an uninspired hire and Stevie let him and Blashill stay past their expiration dates.

it is easy to forget how bad this franchise was when Holland left. Yzerman still has a guy on his payroll who hasn’t played in five years. Yes, it would have been fun to see the Wings make it to the playoff and get bounced in the first round. And if the players hadn’t failed down the stretch they might have done so the past two seasons. He has rebuilt the system so that in the near future at least he won’t be operating from a position of desperation. Not every decision has worked out but the franchise is much stronger now.

What were the magic moves that Yzerman could have made to compete with the dynamic McDavid/Draisatl duo, or with the depth of Florida? Like it or not, the roster and minor league system were barren when he arrived. He has replenished the minors and some of his early draft picks are now cornerstone pieces. But the franchise is at least two years away from anything like a window opening. In the interim he had to sign a bunch of average players just to fill out a roster. The fans are bitching that these FA signings didn’t miraculously vault the team into the playoffs, and that the players were signed for too long and too much, but the fans are now also bitching that he should go back and do it again. The roster will soon be in a place where they could attract one or two key FA acquisitions to make a difference. I’d rather them let the kids play this year, then trade Larkin for a haul at the trade deadline.

But until the team becomes more competitive they will have to overpay for talent. And they won’t really be competitive until 27-28. It seems unlikely they can sign a big time forward without a serious overpay but if they could use the McLellan connection to lock down Gavrikov long term I would be fine with it. Otherwise, let the kids play and if they need to be a lottery team another year, so be it.

But now… a blockbuster!

Agree. Yzerman’s timeline is not the fans’ timeline.

As I read it, the only defensemen under NHL contract for the Wings in 2026-27 is Seider. (Not counting Lagesson on two-way contract.) Certainly Edvinsson will get a new contract and probably Johansson. Will ASP be ready by then? That would make four. Who is going to round out the new-look defense? This situation repeats itself for the forwards in 2027-28, when only Larkin, Raymond, Compher, Rasmussen will be under contract (with Compher/Rasmussen in their last years). Kasper will get re-signed, and they'll probably work something out with ADB, but that's still nine forward spots to fill between now and 2027-28. Carter Mazur, Nate Danielson, MBN, maybe Carter Bear, Buchelnikov... and who else? Sorry to break it to you, but up to this point the Wings have just been clearing out dead wood. The rebuild starts in 2026-27.

This source says the injury was a partial laceration rather than a tear. I don't know the difference in recovery/long term prognosis, but the source says he is back on the ice and skating. https://rg.org/news/hockey/carter-bear-on-recovery-mindset-and-his-nhl-draft-dream Seems like a good kid, and seems like he has the kind of mental resilience and mindset that maybe the current Wings roster lacks. But, like Buddha says, he's 18 and won't be with the big club until he is at least 20, maybe 21. He needs a lot of time in the weight room.

We need your Swedes.

Yeah, I do not like this as a pure salary dump. Copp is a solid player, even if we don’t like the contract. But the rebuild could use a little more juice. Copp for a 1 and retention of salary would be a no brainer.

Probably right but he needs to, because Buddha is right that Larkin has peaked. The Wings will need a 1C, Kasper will probably slot out at 2C annd Danielson at 3C, and I don’t know where they will get 1C picking in the teens.

Talent outside the top-ten is mediocre and it is an above average draft for goalies. Great news for the Wings.

Yes, division winners should get an automatic playoff berth. But if a division winner does not have a winning record, I like the idea of re-seeding for the purpose of assigning home playoff games.

The easiest solution would be to penalize the QB 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct for a fake slide. This would be reasonable in my view, since the flip side of that play is to bait defenders into a 15-yard personal foul. It might be a step too far towards touch football for the refs to whistle the play dead when a running QB is touched by a defender, but that would certainly protect QBs.

Or a phone call he can use to call the head replay official in the home office to declare a slide. 🙃

He has dominated the finals.

Walman just ripped one for the go-ahead goal.

Holl was a disaster. Everyone else they paid market price. The real problem is that in the rebuild they traded away players, got a dozen second-round picks in three drafts, and got one NHL player out of it. Where is the development?