Run the Jewels
Make Detroit Great Again
One thing that may eventually become a positive is to focus on how many guys on the roster are actually playable, meaning would be a positive contributor on a decent hockey team. Right now this list is going to be pretty brutal, and we can discuss the reasons for that which I'm sure many of us will agree or agree to disagree on.
But as a starting point since we are clearly the worst team in the league this seems like a productive way to track our performance over the coming seasons under our new GM.
So with that said, here are the guys who I think are totally unplayable with a bit of justification for my belief. Please feel free to add more or criticize my adding anyone to this list you disagree with or my rationale for adding them.
Forwards:
Frans Neilsen: pacing for 0 goals and <10 points on the season. Charitably there may be a spot for him further down the roster, but that's a tough pill to swallow at $5.25m per year.
Justin Abdelkader: same offensive production as Neilsen. $4.25m per year and no longer the physical presence he once added as Pavel Datsyuk's piano puller. His one positive is a 0 plus/minus.
Erne, Ehn, Perlini: these are all minor contributors so no big deal with any of these guys. They are all easily replaceable. Combined they make less than $3m and are all RFAs after this season.
Defense:
Jonathan Ericsson: it's pretty clear Big Rig has nothing left. He's in his final year and it'd be a shock if he was signed to a new deal.
Trevor Daley: same as Big Rig. This likely his final year in Detroit if not the NHL.
Dennis Cholowski: this may seem a bit harsh, but he was on pace to go -60 and we were routinely getting blown out with Cholo on the ice. I understand some think all he needs is more time, but the fact he doesn't even belong in the NHL at nearly 22 years old should be a pretty glaring bad sign, particularly when you compare him to Hronek. This could change, but right now he is totally unplayable.
Goalie:
Jimmy Howard has been really bad all season. He'll get another shot and may look better, but throughout his career he has tailed off as the season has gone on. He has two wins and is conceding an average 4 goals per game. He's in his final year and will likely retire after this season.
Overview:
Keeping Perlini out of the mix as an in-season addition, that means 4 of our starting 12 forwards are not NHL quality players, 3 of our starting 6 d-man aren't either, as is the case with our starting goaltender.
Yzerman has his work cut out for him. At the top of his list is likely a scoring line center to replace Neilsen and ease the load on Larkin. Neilsen, Abby and to a lesser extent, Helm are all guys who are being paid well above the role they play and are signed for multiple years. You'd like to see younger, cheaper players take their roles in the bottom 6 where all these guys belong, but you still have to pay their salaries even if they end up in Grand Rapids.
He also needs at least one big minute defenseman and has to hope DeKeyser can play a big role for the remainder of this contract. If that all works out he has a solid top 4 on defense with Hronek, DeKeyser and probably Seider filling three of those top 4 roles. I'd argue that scoring center is the bigger need but top 3 d-man is a close second as far as biggest need is concerned.
Yzerman also needs a starting goaltender, however this should be reasonably easy to fix in the short term, There are almost always quality goalies available and it is rarely necessary to offer them lots of term. Remember Yzerman got Dwayne Roloson early on in Tampa at the tail end of Roloson's career and he carried the Bolts to the Eastern Conference Finals.
We are currently in year one of the Yzerman Plan and it's bad, really bad. I'm curious to see how he handles this offseason, primarily his first real draft with his NA scouting team along with Hakan handling his usual Euro scouting beat. I'm also interested to see what he does with Blahsill. I've been fine with Blashill as I suspected he'd be a good fit for tanking purposes. We've gotten a few top 10 picks and should get a top 4 pick this summer. Does Yzerman keep him around to coach when we are once again competitive with fewer or no unplayable players on the ice? I've been a Gerard Gallant fan but I'm fine with whatever Yzerman decides. As I've said before I will give him 5 years to turn things around before I make any negative comments about how he has handled the rebuild.
Ok this is long enough. Let me know if you agree or disagree with any of this.
But as a starting point since we are clearly the worst team in the league this seems like a productive way to track our performance over the coming seasons under our new GM.
So with that said, here are the guys who I think are totally unplayable with a bit of justification for my belief. Please feel free to add more or criticize my adding anyone to this list you disagree with or my rationale for adding them.
Forwards:
Frans Neilsen: pacing for 0 goals and <10 points on the season. Charitably there may be a spot for him further down the roster, but that's a tough pill to swallow at $5.25m per year.
Justin Abdelkader: same offensive production as Neilsen. $4.25m per year and no longer the physical presence he once added as Pavel Datsyuk's piano puller. His one positive is a 0 plus/minus.
Erne, Ehn, Perlini: these are all minor contributors so no big deal with any of these guys. They are all easily replaceable. Combined they make less than $3m and are all RFAs after this season.
Defense:
Jonathan Ericsson: it's pretty clear Big Rig has nothing left. He's in his final year and it'd be a shock if he was signed to a new deal.
Trevor Daley: same as Big Rig. This likely his final year in Detroit if not the NHL.
Dennis Cholowski: this may seem a bit harsh, but he was on pace to go -60 and we were routinely getting blown out with Cholo on the ice. I understand some think all he needs is more time, but the fact he doesn't even belong in the NHL at nearly 22 years old should be a pretty glaring bad sign, particularly when you compare him to Hronek. This could change, but right now he is totally unplayable.
Goalie:
Jimmy Howard has been really bad all season. He'll get another shot and may look better, but throughout his career he has tailed off as the season has gone on. He has two wins and is conceding an average 4 goals per game. He's in his final year and will likely retire after this season.
Overview:
Keeping Perlini out of the mix as an in-season addition, that means 4 of our starting 12 forwards are not NHL quality players, 3 of our starting 6 d-man aren't either, as is the case with our starting goaltender.
Yzerman has his work cut out for him. At the top of his list is likely a scoring line center to replace Neilsen and ease the load on Larkin. Neilsen, Abby and to a lesser extent, Helm are all guys who are being paid well above the role they play and are signed for multiple years. You'd like to see younger, cheaper players take their roles in the bottom 6 where all these guys belong, but you still have to pay their salaries even if they end up in Grand Rapids.
He also needs at least one big minute defenseman and has to hope DeKeyser can play a big role for the remainder of this contract. If that all works out he has a solid top 4 on defense with Hronek, DeKeyser and probably Seider filling three of those top 4 roles. I'd argue that scoring center is the bigger need but top 3 d-man is a close second as far as biggest need is concerned.
Yzerman also needs a starting goaltender, however this should be reasonably easy to fix in the short term, There are almost always quality goalies available and it is rarely necessary to offer them lots of term. Remember Yzerman got Dwayne Roloson early on in Tampa at the tail end of Roloson's career and he carried the Bolts to the Eastern Conference Finals.
We are currently in year one of the Yzerman Plan and it's bad, really bad. I'm curious to see how he handles this offseason, primarily his first real draft with his NA scouting team along with Hakan handling his usual Euro scouting beat. I'm also interested to see what he does with Blahsill. I've been fine with Blashill as I suspected he'd be a good fit for tanking purposes. We've gotten a few top 10 picks and should get a top 4 pick this summer. Does Yzerman keep him around to coach when we are once again competitive with fewer or no unplayable players on the ice? I've been a Gerard Gallant fan but I'm fine with whatever Yzerman decides. As I've said before I will give him 5 years to turn things around before I make any negative comments about how he has handled the rebuild.
Ok this is long enough. Let me know if you agree or disagree with any of this.
