Is Detroit Becoming a Small Market Team?

[nbwingsfan]

5 years is being very generous. Defenders aren't exactly afraid of Datsyuk anymore; he gets knocked off the puck with relative ease nowadays. He's still extremely smart on the ice, but a serious decline is coming sooner rather than later. Zetterberg was one of Detroit's worst players in the Tampa Bay series. He was a complete non factor, and that goes back to the last 20 or so games down the stretch in the regular season too.

Nyquist is a good 2nd liner, and so is Tatar. But they're currently given roles that they aren't going to live up to. Which is pretty much what you said, they're not superstars. That's Detroit in a nutshell right now... Giving players roles they aren't good enough to play.

You have some pretty high standards if you don't think that Nyquist and Tatar are 1st line players.

They may not be elite but very few teams have more than 3 60+point players.

Don't kid yourself. This isn't the Detroit from 25 years ago. The inability to attract free agents is a direct correlation with the depreciation of the city and surrounding areas.

Did you ask the players if this is the reason why they didn't sign? Have the players openly admitted they don't like the city of Detroit? Do you know their preferences in places they would like to raise a family?

From all reports, the surrounding areas of Detroit (where most of the players would live) is a tremendous place for families.

 

[GREASYGRINDERDETROIT]

Don't kid yourself. This isn't the Detroit from 25 years ago. The inability to attract free agents is a direct correlation with the depreciation of the city and surrounding areas.

Detroit is MUCH better now than it was 25 years ago. The city already tanked, only going up from here

 

[flyershockey]

Not really. They're just not blowing their wad like some other teams still do on a nearly dead free agent market.

 

[aparch]

They are the St Louis Cardinals of the NHL. Mid market, well managed, strong reputation, always competitive and in the conversation.

This is an apt description of them as a salary cap team. Even with injuries, both teams somehow surprise you with their grit to get wins.

And I love the Red Wings, yet hate the Cardinals.

Would you want to live in Detroit?

No one want's to. That's what Bloomfield Hills, Farmington Hills and Grosse Pointe is for.

 

[DanZ]

Don't kid yourself. This isn't the Detroit from 25 years ago. The inability to attract free agents is a direct correlation with the depreciation of the city and surrounding areas.

You're talking out of your ass. I didn't say Detroit from 25 years ago, I said Detroit over the past 25 years. The Tigers have had no trouble attracting top free agents and the Lions have done fairly well recently too. The only reason the Wings haven't is because they've been very conservative with their money since the salary cap. You're making **** up and pretending that you know what you're talking about.

 

[Retire91]

I think Detroit's future hinges on the following:

Xavier Ouellet and Alexei Marchenko reaching their celings
Two of Tatar, Nyquist, Mantha, Larkin to take their game to between star / superstar level
Mrazek acheiving elite goalie status

If those things happen there is a good core brewing and Holland can fill in the blanks

The biggest key is Mrazek. Aside from the couple of seasons of aging Hasek Detroit never really had elite goal tending. Late career Holland can definetely put a par to above par team in front of an elite goalie and contend down the road.

Since a lot of things have to go right I think the chances are good that Detroit is in for a mediocre to rotten decline in the future until the wings finally part ways with Holland. He has not had enough success drafting D and has not been able to fix the D through trade or free agency. Daytsuk and Zetterberg are now too past their prime to carry a playoff run yet Holland routinely trades second and third round draft picks and prospects for ineffectual rentals when the chances of advancing past the first round are slim to none.

 

[SlavaKozlov]

I think Detroit's future hinges on the following:

Xavier Ouellet and Alexei Marchenko reaching their celings
Two of Tatar, Nyquist, Mantha, Larkin to take their game to between star / superstar level
Mrazek acheiving elite goalie status

If those things happen there is a good core brewing and Holland can fill in the blanks

The biggest key is Mrazek. Aside from the couple of seasons of aging Hasek Detroit never really had elite goal tending. Late career Holland can definetely put a par to above par team in front of an elite goalie and contend down the road.

Since a lot of things have to go right I think the chances are good that Detroit is in for a mediocre to rotten decline in the future until the wings finally part ways with Holland. He has not had enough success drafting D and has not been able to fix the D through trade or free agency. Daytsuk and Zetterberg are now too past their prime to carry a playoff run yet Holland routinely trades second and third round draft picks and prospects for ineffectual rentals when the chances of advancing past the first round are slim to none.

I think Sproul reaching his ceiling would be more important than Ouellet and Marchenko... If they can get a big bodied puck moving defenseman with a hard right hand shot to run the powerplay, that would be great. He just needs to get more competent defensively... Ouellet and Marchenko are looking like they can be solid NHL players, and they might have some untapped offensive potential, but Sproul is the one I see as a question if he can even make it to the NHL as more than a PP specialist.

I really hope Larkin can be a stud top 2 line center, who can be a shutdown type player and can contribute offensively. If they can get another center that's more dynamic offensive player to complement him on the other top line, that would be awesome. Maybe Athanasiou can be that guy? Maybe they can find one in the next couple drafts?

I think they are solid on the wing. Nyquist and Tatar and good players already, Jurco and Pulkkinen can possibly get there, Matha has a ton of potential, Bertuzzi looks like a solid bottom 6 guy, maybe Athanasiou moves to wing?

I think the biggest questions are: Who is the next #1 center? And who is going to lead the defense? They seem to have a lot of good complementary players in the organization, but they aren't hitting grand slams in the draft to land top end talent, mostly because of their draft position. So they need to find someone that can overachieve or make a move to bring someone in. They might miss the playoffs in one of the next 3 years and hopefully find a great prospect then.

 

[30Yonge]

In a pre-cap league, the Red Wings could bring in Hasek, Robitaille and Hull before the start of the 2001 season. In the cap world, they brought in Rafalski in the summer of 2007.

Coming into the lockout, Detroit had the highest payroll in 2/3 previous seasons and it was 2, 1.5 and 2 standard deviations
above league average. Detroit's own team history mentions how the franchise transitioned from 'free agent spending sprees'
to focusing more on its own players. The transition has been very successful and the big market/small market dichotomy does not apply.

The salary cap has changed things

Yes, indeed