General Wings Comments 2025-26

[buddha]

11 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

“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.  

he had bertuzzi, mantha, and hronek on that roster.  he traded them all for first round picks.

picks that got us: sebastian cossa, axel sandin-pelikka, and alex debrincat.

one bust, one hit, and one incomplete.

he also accumulated a bunch of second round picks and hit on none of them.

 yeah, the roster sucked, but it wasnt totally bereft of talent.  the problem was the wings didnt hit on kasper, danielson, and every non-top 6 pick they had.  plus they used their cap space to sign average to below average players to fill out the roster.  thus elevating them to just good enough to miss high draft picks, and bad enough to miss the playoffs.

were beyond the point of blaming kenny for steve's mistakes.  yes, kenny's last three drafts put the organization in a MASSIVE hole.  but the majority of the blame for the debacles of the last two years lay at steve yzsrman and his staff's feet.

if chris illitch were anything other than a nepo baby, he would have made a change by now.

[Shinzaki]

Cossa didn't pan out..but he got us a 1st.  Stevie fell out of the tree...but landed on his feet

[gehringer_2]

14 hours ago, buddha said:

were beyond the point of blaming kenny for steve's mistakes.  yes, kenny's last three drafts put the organization in a MASSIVE hole.  but the majority of the blame for the debacles of the last two years lay at steve yzsrman and his staff's feet.

if chris illitch were anything other than a nepo baby, he would have made a change by now.

and so far no sign he's found a way to make lemonade from his Larkin lemons. 

Then again, if you've been as beat up as Larkin has been the last few seasons, a few extra months off to really heal up from everything might rejuvenate your career. 🤕

[Jason_R]

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. 

[slothfacekilla]

 

 

 

[gehringer_2]

3 minutes ago, slothfacekilla said:

 

 

 

well, as long as that is not just a paraphrase for "Don't expect me to score much" 🙄

Edited July 3 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

we dont need him to score goals.

we need him to settle scores and protect the kids.  there is no reason nate danielson should have his back broken and the rest of the team sits there and watches.

[Cruzer1]

On 7/2/2026 at 12:29 PM, buddha said:

not giving cossa a shot before you traded him is terrible asset management.

They got a first round pick for him,  that's good enough. 

[buddha]

4 hours ago, Cruzer1 said:

They got a first round pick for him,  that's good enough. 

like i said, in a vacuum of the deal itself, its good value for a guy who never played nhl minutes and who is now waiver exempt.

but in the overall big picture, its a waste of a draft pick.  cossa was a bust for detroit.  and we'll never know if he could have been good for detroit because they never gave him a chance to play at the nhl level.  its a master class in poor asset management.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, buddha said:

  and we'll never know if he could have been good for detroit 

If he ends up good for another team that will be close enough

[Jason_R]

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

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

If he ends up good for another team that will be ...

Maddening.

[Shinzaki]

Regardless of future outcomes...Cossa getting zero run in the playoffs suggests that the relationship between Cossa and the org was...essentially...broken.

[Cruzer1]

9 hours ago, buddha said:

like i said, in a vacuum of the deal itself, its good value for a guy who never played nhl minutes and who is now waiver exempt.

but in the overall big picture, its a waste of a draft pick.  cossa was a bust for detroit.  and we'll never know if he could have been good for detroit because they never gave him a chance to play at the nhl level.  its a master class in poor asset management.

I don't understand the waste of a draft pick, when he still has excellent trade value. The Wings are in good shape in goal for a while now.

[sagnam]

30 minutes ago, Cruzer1 said:

I don't understand the waste of a draft pick, when he still has excellent trade value. The Wings are in good shape in goal for a while now.

Drafting someone and trading them for a lesser pick years later is a waste. Salvaging a pick is certainly not a success, it’s barely treading water. To put it in perspective, if we traded every first round pick several years later for a first round pick they would actually be worse.

 

If you want to make the case that it’s better than a bust, sure. But it’s probably the second worst outcome.

[Jason_R]

40 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

Regardless of future outcomes...Cossa getting zero run in the playoffs suggests that the relationship between Cossa and the org was...essentially...broken.

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. 

[Jason_R]

44 minutes ago, Cruzer1 said:

I don't understand the waste of a draft pick, when he still has excellent trade value. The Wings are in good shape in goal for a while now.

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. 

[sagnam]

29 minutes ago, Jason_R said:

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. 

If I had to put it in baseball terms it would be Yzerman was up with 2 outs and he failed to make contact on a hit-and-run and the runner was caught stealing. Sure he gets a fresh at-bat next inning but it’s an inning later and there is now no one on base. Hardly a success, but not the worst outcome for him.

[buddha]

if you think the wings got value for cossa, you are the ultimate homer.

if you trade the 15th pick FIVE YEARS LATER for the 23rd pick, you did not get good value for that pick.

[Shinzaki]

If you trade a minor league goalie you're going to lose via waivers if he isn't good enough to make your roster...and you're pretty sure he's not making your roster..for a 1st rd pick, you did about as well as can be expected 

[Jason_R]

Yzerman salvaged value from a pick and player he mismanaged.

Sure, great work getting a 1st for 1st who made two AHL All Star teams. But why did they pick him if they weren't going to let him play? What did he need to accomplish in order to get a start? Just utterly inexcusable talent management.

[Shinzaki]

He either mismanaged the pick or the player ...don't think you can do both

[gehringer_2]

the weirdness with the wings is that the criteria to get on the team via trade or FA seems to be lower than to break into the team from its own system. I'm not sure I get that.  It got to where they couldn't even play Talbot last season but somehow  that was better than giving Cossa a shot? Edvinsson already better than every wing Dman other than Seider when they finally called him up.                                            

Edited July 5 by gehringer_2

[buddha]

38 minutes ago, Shinzaki said:

He either mismanaged the pick or the player ...don't think you can do both

of course you can.

he obviously mismanaged the player.  i dont see anyone disagreeing with that, not even the hardcore stevie-stans.

he mismanaged the pick because he turned the 15th pick in the draft into the 23rd pick in the draft five years later.  if the red wings traded a player today for a first round pick in 2031, you might wonder why.  but that's exactly what they just did with cossa.

[Shinzaki]

In both instances you're actually arguing that he mismanaged the player...