Jason_R

It is true that Stevie hasn’t brought in a power forward like Brendan Shanahan, but which future hall of fame, 35-goal-averaging winger would you have recommended he signed? And how do you know he didn’t try? Or which one should he have traded for? And with what assets? Fact is, every team wants a player like that. But there are not enough to go around.

At the draft they did a presser where Stevie acknowledged the trade request and said he had told the agent there was no guarantee it could or would be met. He also said he wasn’t going to answer questions about it that day but maybe around free agency.

Yes, it would be high degree of difficulty and a high degree of hilarity, but would make them a playoff team immediately.

Stevie has the opportunity to do a very funny thing... Edvinsson, Faulk, a forward prospect, and next year's first for Werenski? "Dylan, I refuse your trade request, but I hope you're happy. Now buy a billboard, apologize to the city of Detroit, and put this 'A' on your sweater."

Yzerman failed Cossa. He deserved a start after playing in relief and winning a shootout. There was nothing else Cossa could have accomplished in Grand Rapids and it wouldn't surprise me if his confidence was shot by the thought that being a 2x AHL All Star was still not enough to get him an NHL start. This fear of making a mistake runs throughout the organization. This was the first thing Todd emphasized when he took over as head coach. I think it goes way beyond anything that Lalonde instilled, and ultimately runs up to Stevie. Kasper ended the season on crutches. Hopefully this is not a Kerby Joseph situation, and assuming it is not, I expect him to bounce back. Danielson is close to having the "injury prone" label stuck on him which is a tough break for the kid because his first injury was a vicious cross check to the back. It is unclear whether his subsequent injury was related. If he is healthy for next season, he'll get a chance to show what he can do, and I recall him making some high-skill plays in the few NHL games he played. Maybe they are busts but I think that is premature to say. It is too easy to say "Stevie good" or "Stevie bad." He has brought in some foundational pieces to rebuild an utterly barren roster. He has some players in the pipeline who have potential, including a Norris Trophy candidate. The alarming thing is that he has not built a culture where prospects are being developed in a way that maximizes their potential. Worse, he appears to have built a culture where the potential of some prospects is being squandered. He needs to fix that ASAP and if he can't or won't, Chris Ilitch needs to deal with it.

Touché, but again he and Datsyuk were Hakan Andersson picks when very little scouting was being done in Europe. Andersson says he thinks he was the only scout who saw Datsyuk play. Back to my earlier point, Holland benefited from that (un)competitive environment in which the Wings had massive edges in European scouting and free agent dollars. Since those advantages disappeared, Holland and the Wings as a franchise have not figured out how to compete. It is true that prospects may not pan out but the ones I listed are likely to be at least replacement level NHL players. Iyer thinks so too. “…they have a plethora of players that project to play in the middle-six such as JP Hurlbert, Marco Kasper, Carter Bear, Max Plante, Eddie Genborg in addition to the aforementioned Danielson, Mazur, Brandsegg-Nygård. They have an elite goaltending prospect in Trey Augustine. The best part is all of these guys project to play NHL minutes in the next three years. The Wings have a legitimate core - they’re just missing the head of the dragon.” I’m not defending Yzerman BTW (who has me concerned after not trading Larkin at the draft and after the press conference). I’m pointing out that it was inevitable that it would take a long, long time to rebuild a prospect base after Holland bottomed out the franchise.

From a first round pick to a first round pick. A few slots later than he was picked but not bad. Sorry he didn’t get more than a relief effort in Detroit.

I wouldn't say his 1998-2014 drafting was astoundingly good. He got nobody from 99, 01, 06, 07, 11, so a third of those drafts. He drafted a few standouts and a few respectable players. It is true that in many of these years he did not have first round picks, but we see what happened when he did. Yzerman's first five drafts have produced seven NHL regulars, including a defenseman who got Norris Trophy votes, another first-pair defenseman, and a first-line forward. This does not include players like ASP, Mazur, Anton Johansson, Sebastian Cossa, Trey Augustine, and MBN who will inevitably become NHL regulars, and other players like Nate Danielson, Carter Bear, Max Plante, and Eddie Genborg who are likely to. Yzerman has not been perfect, but it is not out of the question that Yzerman might produce as much NHL talent out of his first seven drafts as Holland produced in his whole tenure.

I think this may have been his only good pick, though he missed on Pastrnak who went later. Here are his draft highlights, keeping in mind that in early years Detroit routinely traded away top picks. He drafted a few good players, a few decent players, a lot of mediocre players, but there were some years where he drafted players that were never heard from again. The franchise is still suffering from his abysmal drafting. 98 jiri Fischer 00 kronwall 02 hudler filppula 03 jimmy howard, Kyle Quincey 04 Franzen 05 Kindl abdelkader 08 Nyquist 09 Tatar 10 sheahan, Jarnkrok, Pullkinnen 12 Athanasiou (could have had Slavin ten picks later) 13 Mantha Bertuzzi 14 Larkin (could have had Tuch or Pastrnak) 15 Svechnikov (literally ten of the next fifteen players had better careers) 16 Cholowski and Hronek 17 Rasmussen and Lindstrom (right before Jason Robertson) 18 Zadina, Veleno, Berggren

He had Hakan Andersson scouting Europe before anyone else was and he had Mike Ilitch’s checkbook before there was a salary cap. Talk about riding coattails.

Maybe 8x$15 was not enough for him, but I suspect he just did not find Seattle appealing. Does seem likely that Dallas is in on Larkin, but not in a direct Robertson for Larkin swap. Maybe that’s Robertson’s choice, but Dallas is really deep at center. Maybe Borque or Hintz is the centerpiece that Stevie is looking for.

Just a reminder that Kenny Holland picked not one but two players instead of Jason Robertson: Michael Rasmussen and, with the pick immediately before Robertson, Gustav Lindstrom. Go back to his draft picks and it is just miss after miss after miss. The franchise is still paying for Kenny’s ineptitude.

🤷🏻‍♂️

From a 4th round pick to a 4th round pick. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I have been assuming it would happen just before the draft. I still do. I suspect there are multiple offers on the table. I also suspect Stevie is letting Billy G and Pat Brisson work together to try to get Larkin to one of his preferred destinations, knowing they have to put together an acceptable package. I have not been assuming there would be so much other trade activity, but maybe the fact that so many GMs are making moves prompts other GMs to be more aggressive than they otherwise would have been. Anyway, I still feel optimistic that a deal gets done that fans will like.

Russo: “Did I mention they are talking daily?”

The public trade demand might hurt his trade value, it might not. We won’t know until the trade is done. But it wouldn’t surprise me if teams become more reluctant to give out NMCs as a result of situations like this. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Stevie got Guerin and Brisson on the phone and said “You guys both want to move Larkin to the Wild. This is what the Red Wings need for that to happen. See what you can pull together. In the meantime, I will also look for trades, but I’m not going to limit myself to three teams, I’m not going to take less than market value, and I’m not going to promise a trade will happen.” Brisson represents a lot of players. He also doesn’t want to burn a bridge with a GM and franchise he will undoubtedly work with again. He has an interest in making this work.

We don’t necessarily know that Larkin will only go to Minnesota. All I take from that report from Minnesota’s beat guy is that Billy G is working hard to get something done. This seems believable to me. If he wants Larkin bad enough, the onus is on him. Maybe a third team would take picks in 27 and 28 for assets that help Detroit now.

Daily communication. Onus is on Billy G.

The first few times I saw reports about this trade I read it as 4th round. 4th overall!?!

Stevie: “Hey Dylan… you see all these trades going down?” Dylan, heart pounding: “Yeah!?!” Stevie: “Bet you wish one was for you! See you at camp, bitch. 😈”

Related… Am I the only one who thinks it is hilarious to see Canadians harass members of Team USA, then to see them melt down when said members of Team USA decide not to play for Canadian teams anymore?

Stan Bowman drops back and heaves up a Hail Mary…

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