Jason_R

They traded up. They did not pick the consensus best goaltender in the draft. They did not end up with the best goaltender in the draft. Wyatt Johnston was taken eight slots later, who would have solved their problems at center. It's like Stevie hit a ball to the warning track, stood there and admired it, but it hit the top of the wall and all he had to sprint to first base to salvage a single. Hey he got a hit! Well, that was the most minimally good outcome in the circumstances.

Just like the relationship between Larkin and the org. Maybe Soderblom too. And Berggren. Maybe not all of them were good enough, and maybe all of them were not good enough. But it seems like there is an issue here.

The guy comes up. Plays well in relief. Wins a shootout. The proper response is, “Good job, kid. You’re starting tomorrow.”

We are not past the point of blaming Kenny, and I believe fans were wrong in assuming it would be a five year rebuild rather than ten. But we can say this and still agree that Yzerman got to the edge of contention and was caught with his pants down. If Dylan was your guy then make the trade for Hughes even without the extension and tell him you are trusting him to get Hughes to extend. If Dylan was not your guy, tell him he doesn’t fit the timeline and ask him if he will waive for a contender. Stevie has been too passive. Fortune favors tie bold. He has not been bold.

“simple” was tongue in cheek. I still think we don’t appreciate how bad the roster was when Stevie took over, and how badly Kenny’s draft failures still impact the team. It was inevitable that the team would require ten drafts to rebuild. Stevie knew this better than anyone, and I’m sure this has been part of his conversation with Chris. But he had a lot if unspent cap space. He had the opportunity to promote Cossa. He should have known how bad his relationship was with Larkin, and if he didn’t want Larkin as C he should have had that conversation and shopped him earlier. Instead he found himself waiting and got caught with his pants down.

Stevie has basically allowed himself to be backed into a second rebuild. With Kane departing he might as well trade ADB for promising prospects/picks. Let the kids play, bottom out, hope to win the lottery, and try again in 2027. In the meantime, overhaul your analytics and front office. Simple.

Position is already weak.Copp Is signed just one more year. You can’t bank on Kasper or Danielson locking down a center role. Bourque is young and projects to continue improving. Would like to have had him for what was paid.

I understand that they want to make rookies earn jobs but there is literally nothing else Cossa could have done to earn even a start. It is not out of the question that if Cossa had been given a shot and maybe been able to start and play well in a dozen games, they wouldn’t have ground Gibson down by riding him so hard at the end of the season, and maybe they would have ended up with a few more points to preserve their playoff spot. Hypothetical, of course, but not out of the question. in any case, Postava has earned a start in the NHL, but I’ll believe they intend to work him when I see it.

At least Zadina promised to fill the net with pucks. Yzerman is filling the net with free agent goalies who are blocking the goalie prospect development pipeline.

It’s looking like the music will stop before Stevie finds a trade partner. Minnesota doesn’t have the chips. Vegas doesn’t have the chips. Florida went another direction. Utah went another direction. Dallas might work but getting Robertson still leaves Detroit with a hole at center, and Dallas traded Bourque (for a price Stevie should have been willing to pay). I always thought Stevie was too proud to tank, and I assumed he would weigh his trade options and take the best one at the draft. But I guess in this situation his pride is telling him to stick it to Larkin.

Or would they need a tearful hug?

This basically establishes that Larkin is playing at about 2/3 of fair market value. And he has five years left. Beside his value as a player there is massive value in the contract.

Not exactly sure the methodology here, and it seems a bit harsh on young players, but… at least we hit on two!

Chatter on X is NJD.

I looked this up a few months ago, but basically what happened in their amazing 2024 season was that the offense was so efficient they ended up with well over 100 more carries that season than they had in 2025. Gibbs’s workload basically stayed the same but most of the lost carries went against Montgomery. Maybe they will try to give Gibbs a few more carries, but I suspect they will use him about the same as a RB but mix him more into the passing game. Pacheco will take the leftovers.

The team’s coverage got markedly worse without him. But some comments Shep made recently about him seemed to indicate that they were ready for TA to grow up. Not clear what was happening behind the scenes but even at the time it seemed they saw a bit of immaturity that was wearing on them.

With their starting defensive secondary, and the injury luck they have had with the defense during the season in the past few years, they might have to score over 500 points again just to make the playoffs.

I know nothing about the legal side of this and I assume the front office knows more than I do. From a football standpoint this is bad bad news. I know there were lots of frustrations with TA’s rep for being handy, but the fact of the matter is that when he left the lineup last season due to injury, the defense went downhill. Especially with question marks at both safety positions, this is not good.

The article talks about the complicated buyout rules. Basically he has one more year on his KHL contract. But he would have to buy out the contract himself. Red Wings could not do it for him.

Yegor Vinogradov is listed at 6’3” 203. Probably still needs to fill out a bit but maybe he has enough juice to make the NHL roster.

Yes… you named two! 😂 One of them was just traded for a king’s ransom. The other will sign a very large FA deal. I know there are more than two… but are there more than ten guys who are 6’2” 225 and can score 20+ goals? Yzerman can be blamed for a lot of things but guys like this are very hard to find. Hope that MBN and Genborg fill out and have good enough hands.

Except the person whose post I replied to.

The Soderblom thing is perplexing. Another guy who goes somewhere else and suddenly looks better. Maybe this Russian Vinogradov has what we are looking for. They say he would likely be a winger in the NHL