Long Term Player Outlooks for Nielsen, Abdelkader and Helm

[Heaton]

I actually really like Helm and Abdelkader as players. Just sucks about their contracts.

The Dekeyser contract is just as bad too IMO. What a brutal player he's become. 0 offensive ability. Gets killed in the corners every time. It makes me wonder if he was being carried by Kyle Quincey.

I'm with you, I like Helm and Abdelkader (Abby more than Helm), but when they sign these deals that they can't live up to, it hurts their reputation.

Same thing happened to Ericsson and it'll happen to every player who doesn't end up being a star on this team. Look back at the type of guys who have been bashed over the years, it didn't start until they signed their long term deals.

 

[Bench]

And that's totally fair to criticize players after their paycheck in a salary cap environment. That player, by proxy of their agent, argued that they were worth that dollar and term. By accepting, you take responsibility for the successes and failures.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Agree with literally every single thing you said here.

 

[Frk It]

Haha, I'm all for incorporating more Parks and Rec memes

Wings fans on missing the playoffs for the first time in 26 years:

Holland on having to deal with being a seller at the deadline for the first time:

Me when we traded back and didn't draft Chychrun or Fabbro:

 

[vladdy16]

I was super excited to see Abby as a one dimensional top 6 minute muncher this year. Instead he's been buried on a 4th line that has done nothing to gain the o-zone all year.

His vision and IQ stink, but he's a good athlete and durable, and this year he hasn't been put in a position to use any of his positive attributes.

You had to keep Helm at whatever price cuz our situation at center is so close to the brink. Same with Nielson. They can both skate well enough, and have enough experience that you know they'll be at least useful for the next 5 years. I'm sure we'll be glad to have these 3 the next time we're in the playoffs with a young team.

I don't have any problem with overpaying established players instead of keeping space for raffle tickets every off season. Cap space hasn't been the Wings issue the last 10 years, the issue is a consistent disconnect between the vision in the front office and what the coaches perceive to be the realities of day to day lineup construction in the modern NHL.

Helm and Abdelkader are the perfect example of this disconnect, because even though I'm defending the move to keep them, the fact is the real value was in keeping all of Hudler, Filppula, Helm and Abdelkader up front, instead we lost the most talented half of our bridge between 13 and 40 and 39,71, and 72.

So I guess I'm saying the Wings did a good job not cutting off their nose to spite their face with these 3 guys, but really they're the end result of shooting the moon on a strategy that they reversed course on when they let long term complimentary pieces get away in favor of journeymen system players.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Haha, I'm all for incorporating more Parks and Rec memes

Wings fans on missing the playoffs for the first time in 26 years:

Holland on having to deal with being a seller at the deadline for the first time:

Me when we traded back and didn't draft Chychrun or Fabbro:

Frk It how could you go Ron Swanson and not put this for how you feel about Holland's treatment of us on the trade market during his tenure.

 

[Frk It]

Frk It how could you go Ron Swanson and not put this for how you feel about Holland's treatment of us on the trade market during his tenure.

Haha, this is gold.

Don't forget my opinion of re-building on the fly:

 

[WingedWheel1987]

Will DD finish the season with more points than Ericsson?

E currently has 9 and that # isn't going to increase.

DD is sitting on 8 points with 22 games left to go.

I am having a tough time seeing him get to 10. 9 seems possible.

Holy **** he is horrible.

And we wonder why our offense is so abysmal. Dude is averaging over 22 minutes per game. I just looked up the credits for Interstellar, and DD was credited as the black hole.

Save us Kent Huskins.

 

[MBauer]

Will DD finish the season with more points than Ericsson?

E currently has 9 and that # isn't going to increase.

DD is sitting on 8 points with 22 games left to go.

I am having a tough time seeing him get to 10. 9 seems possible.

Holy **** he is horrible.

And we wonder why our offense is so abysmal. Dude is averaging over 22 minutes per game. I just looked up the credits for Interstellar, and DD was credited as the black hole.

Save us Kent Huskins.

Also that Kronwall continues to be fed minutes and lots of pp time on the 1st unit, both his even strength and pp stats are pure garbage.

 

[RedWingsfan55]

I thought nielson for 6 was 2 too long.

He still is ok remember he has very little talent around him. He isn't the problem.

Helm was a terrible idea, too much money, too long for someone we should've let walk.

 

[SirloinUB]

Will DD finish the season with more points than Ericsson?

E currently has 9 and that # isn't going to increase.

DD is sitting on 8 points with 22 games left to go.

I am having a tough time seeing him get to 10. 9 seems possible.

Holy **** he is horrible.

And we wonder why our offense is so abysmal. Dude is averaging over 22 minutes per game. I just looked up the credits for Interstellar, and DD was credited as the black hole.

Save us Kent Huskins.

Nearly 60% of his zone starts are in the defensive end against the opponents best players. Not exactly easy to pile up points in such a role.

Dekeyser is over his head and really struggles to transition out of the Dzone though and it is painfully evident to anyone who watches a game.

 

[Frk It]

Nearly 60% of his zone starts are in the defensive end against the opponents best players. Not exactly easy to pile up points in such a role.

Dekeyser is over his head and really struggles to transition out of the Dzone though and it is painfully evident to anyone who watches a game.

Green is playing under the exact same circumstances and picking up points no problem. Even with a busted ass PP.

 

[Wood Stick]

Green is playing under the exact same circumstances and picking up points no problem. Even with a busted ass PP.

DeKeyser would be better suited to where he's been playing. He played as a defensive match-up on the second pair with Quincey. He's really only played well with Quincey actually. Green is obviously much more talented. You can argue he returned to some sort of a number one defenseman this year. Ideally we get a legit number one and bounce everyone down a peg or two.

 

[Lil Sebastian Cossa]

Green is playing under the exact same circumstances and picking up points no problem. Even with a busted ass PP.

Green was an elite offensive D. He was PPG in Washington for a couple years. It would be embarrassing if he wasn't picking up points no problem, no matter the situation.

 

[Frk It]

Green was an elite offensive D. He was PPG in Washington for a couple years. It would be embarrassing if he wasn't picking up points no problem, no matter the situation.

Green is getting paid 6 million, Dekeyser is getting paid 5 million.

The fact that the two are providing drastically different results is embarrassing for Dekeyser and Dekeyser only.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

I don't think you realize how pitiful DD's offensive output is.

There aren't enough excuses in the world that make his current production acceptable.

He is a large part of the Wings problem at generating offense, and keeping the puck out of the back of their net.

Third pairing stay at home defenseman generate more offense than DD.

I wonder if Tampa would take DD? Retain a million in cap space, and then he could play on their second pairing.

Shattenkirk turned down the trade to Tampa because he didn't like the extension contract they offered.

Although it looks like they want another PMD for their 2nd unit PP.

**** Just trade Green for a 1st and retain two million.

 

[Retire91]

I miss the Darren Helm from the back-to-back final appearances. His only job was to forecheck and hit everything that moved, and he was great at it. At some point they tried to evolve his game and while he improved in some areas, he lost that tenaciousness.

I can remember seeing him keep the puck in the opposing zone for almost an entire power play. He used to be amazing before but injuries caught up and seeing him in the top 6 was a complete head scratcher. Helm's stick is where offense dies.

His new contract can't be looked at as anything more than a loyalty contract that should have never been offered within an organization that needs to rebuild. He should have been traded his contract year.

 

[Lgw]

I think Helms contract isn't that bad. His points per game played isn't that bad and he has a positive impact on the forcheck and is a strong backchecker as well. If he had great hands he would be worth 7 million. Abby on the other hand has been a huge disappointment. It's become painfully obvious that datsyuk and a good power play were the only reason he got any points at all. He looks slow and uninspired.

 

[Shaman464]

I think Helms contract isn't that bad. His points per game played isn't that bad and he has a positive impact on the forcheck and is a strong backchecker as well. If he had great hands he would be worth 7 million. Abby on the other hand has been a huge disappointment. It's become painfully obvious that datsyuk and a good power play were the only reason he got any points at all. He looks slow and uninspired.

At 0.33 pt/g he's not worth his contract. His 'forcheck' isn't creating offense. He's a bottom 6 player being paid as a top line player. That is unacceptable.

 

[Pavels Dog]

As with all of these threads, it is time to start listing DeKeyser whenever we have one of these. Guy is getting outproduced by Nick Jensen. I know I have always been a Jensen proponent, but that shouldn't be happening. DeKeyser has no puck skills and is still getting worked in front of his own net and in the corners. He has easily been the worst defensively on a pair with Mike Green never known for his defensive prowess though I think Green is underrated by people there. Still he has one of the worst contracts on the team, certainly right there with Helm and Abdelkader. It is a big problem moving forward. I hope the good ole Michigan boys are busting their backsides in the middle of May because what they have brought has been totally unacceptable.

Benefit of not playing over his head for Jensen. Also his offensive output this early may be a bit of an anomaly given that he is actually producing more than he did in the AHL. Meanwhile Dekeyser's having his worst season offensively.
Thing about a terrible team is you're always going to have a minimum of a handful of players looking way overpaid. If Dekeyser was handling the top-pairing role fine his contract would be a steal and everyone would be applauding the Wings as they cruise into the playoffs. He's not a top-pairing guy, and certainly not when he's playing together with another guy who in all honesty should be more of a 2nd-pairing PP specialist rather than leaned on as a #1.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

Benefit of not playing over his head for Jensen. Also his offensive output this early may be a bit of an anomaly given that he is actually producing more than he did in the AHL. Meanwhile Dekeyser's having his worst season offensively.
Thing about a terrible team is you're always going to have a minimum of a handful of players looking way overpaid. If Dekeyser was handling the top-pairing role fine his contract would be a steal and everyone would be applauding the Wings as they cruise into the playoffs. He's not a top-pairing guy, and certainly not when he's playing together with another guy who in all honesty should be more of a 2nd-pairing PP specialist rather than leaned on as a #1.

I am not saying it to point out Jensen is great offensively or doing something. It is that DK is getting beat by a 26 year old rookie offensively while playing massive minutes with our only good offensively inclined d-man beside him. DK doesn't have deep down offensive potential, scary he doesn't even seem to fall into points while playing a ton of minutes because he is so bad offensively.

However, the bigger issue I have with DK at this point is he has been bad in his own zone. Green is outplaying him defensively by a lot. He is having an abysmal year and he is still getting a pass with many.

He has the same problems he had in his game a while ago. He isn't strong enough in the corners or in front of the net. He is garbage once he crosses the offensive blue-line and his outlet passing might actually have gotten worse this year. We can talk about him being miscast, but maybe the book is out on DK in terms of how to win continuously on him when matched up. It certainly seems teams are attacking some of his tendencies. We talk about people figuring out Tatar and Nyquist. Well DK looks like he has been figured out. Force him to his backhand, force him into strength battles low in the zone. Teams are doing it relentlessly it seems to him and I don't think that is a mistake. It isn't just happening to him when the top line is out there, it is a tendency we see home and away, depth lines and big scoring lines.

He is nowhere near a five million dollar player. He is a stay at home D-man and he has been worse than the other guy we gripe about having a contract that is too big for that in Ericsson. DK shouldn't make what he makes and he is going to struggle to justify it at any point. Defensive D-man that play to much like Girardi still put up better points than DeKeyser and play decent defense at least in their primes. I don't know what else to say but I want massive improvement out of DK. I am tired of his trouble spots being the same exact areas this far into his career. He gets paid a lot of money now and he is going to hear about when he plays as badly as he has been this year. Miscast or not he is not playing well in any zone right now.