News Article: Tie goes to the prospect?

[Zetterberg4Captain]

I don't think those teams tanked solely do to incompetence, in fact, that factored in as much as luck did

no they finished last because they had a bad roster and in the cases where they drafted Crosby, Kane and Mathews, they did so on PURPOSE and then lady luck gave them the extra hand

 

[lilidk]

So we tank last year 5 worst team and we got #6, Caralina wasn't tank and they got #2. If you like to tank for another year please keep kids away from main team ,trade Mantha, AA , Nyquist for kids and bring from GR players to replace them .main thing I don't want our best prospects play like they don't care

 

[Winger98]

The Wings didn't tank last year. They didn't tank the year before. They are not tanking this year. Or next. The Wings are what they are: a poorly constructed team with some glaring deficiencies who will likely finish in the bottom10 of the league. The Wings would be this with or with Vanek. Or Green.

If this organization was going to tank, they would have done it three years ago when they could have moved Helm and Gator for some high picks, not signed Nielsen, etc. To actually tank now would require dealing guys whose loss would be counter productive to whatever rebuild the wings are going through.

Arguing over signing Vanek or whoever is just arguing over the best way to go about the rebuild, to construct rosters/depth charts for promotion/etc. I doubt his presence will have any drastic effect on the quality of this team.

 

[Ezekial]

Chicago signed the dominating Stanley Cup winning goalie (.933 and 1.71 gaa in the playoffs) to a 4 year deal in 2005 for $6.75 million a year. Not what I'd call a tank move.

 

[Flowah]

It’s hard to tank if you’re not incompetent though. Reason Toronto could do it was they had a long run of incompetence resulting in a barren prospect pool and bad character and a mentally weak team with very little depth.
Chicago/Pit tanked through incompetence as well.

If we want to tank we might need to put Ras in juniors and Zadina/Hronek in AHL. That could be bad hockey decisions AND bad development decisions.
Strongest tank move would also be trading Larkin for a 1st round pick.
Many of these things simply go against every instinct in the brain and body of smart hockey people. We’ll never tank as ”good” as truly incompetent teams.

If we actually lost Zetterberg for the whole year I don't think Ras/Zadina/Hronek is going to make any difference. We were already near the bottom of the league last season. Losing a guy like Z, who ate a ton of minutes and hard ones at that, is a giant hole. Ras/Zadina/Hronek are all rookies. And they are all far from the kind of elite talent you get at #1. They're no McDavid/Matthews/Dahlin. They'd have to be lights out to replace Zetterberg and more.

I don't think that happens. If we really lose Zetterberg for the whole season we are going to be a lock for bottom 5 again and probably lower.

 

[Richard Moistmaker]

I'm hoping for a dynamite offensive season but an even worse defensive season. I Want to lose games 5 to 4 and 7 to 5 a la the Islanders last year. This way we keep our chances at a high draft pick in tact and continue to develop our young guys without crushing their confidence too much.

 

[lilidk]

I'm hoping for a dynamite offensive season but an even worse defensive season. I Want to lose games 5 to 4 and 7 to 5 a la the Islanders last year. This way we keep our chances at a high draft pick in tact and continue to develop our young guys without crushing their confidence too much.

I think opposite, I hope forwards will help defence,we have speedy players to use them in counterattack. With talent we have we need to play Nj stile off hockey

 

[golffuul]

Many of the interviews seem to contradict each other. I think it's still likely that Rasmussen is the only guy likely to make the team in October regardless of how camp and preseason goes. The rest will get time later on. I'm fine with that, but after this season this team should be past this stage and ready to try and be more competitive.

Totally agree...especially with the NHL ruling that Zadina is AHL eligible.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

If we actually lost Zetterberg for the whole year I don't think Ras/Zadina/Hronek is going to make any difference. We were already near the bottom of the league last season. Losing a guy like Z, who ate a ton of minutes and hard ones at that, is a giant hole. Ras/Zadina/Hronek are all rookies. And they are all far from the kind of elite talent you get at #1. They're no McDavid/Matthews/Dahlin. They'd have to be lights out to replace Zetterberg and more.

I don't think that happens. If we really lose Zetterberg for the whole season we are going to be a lock for bottom 5 again and probably lower.

It is really hard for me to imagine a worse team in the league than the Wings if Zetterberg rides off into the sunset.

I think Rasmussen is going to be here barring an injury or horrific training camp and pre-season. I am encouraged by how often I hear Hronek from people around the team.

So much of this is determined by who gets through camp healthy. We don't know that yet. The thing that makes Rasmussen the most solid is they don't want him in the WHL next year. They can put Zadina and Hronek in GR, heck they can option Frk down to mentor them as well and help our two young Czechs. But something has to go really wrong for Rasmussen not to be on the team. I think he is the most ready like Blashill said. But I do think all three guys we talk about a lot are going to play. Cholowski who I have a ton of faith in hopefully forces his way up. After the trade deadline it would be nice if our top 5 prospects (sorry I guess my top 5 prospects still includes Svechnikov at #5) are all in Detroit. It is a real possibility as long as they can stay healthy and have productive years in GR. It also allows them to make GR post-season eligible and have a serious Calder run outside of Rasmussen for the post-season as well. Time will tell. Any injury to the D in pre-season and Hronek breaks camp and he isn't coming back down in my opinion. I actually think Cholowski is there as well already but he is going to have to really blow training camp and his pre-season games out of the water to give serious thought to keeping him over Hronek at this point.

 

[Winger98]

It is really hard for me to imagine a worse team in the league than the Wings if Zetterberg rides off into the sunset.

I think Rasmussen is going to be here barring an injury or horrific training camp and pre-season. I am encouraged by how often I hear Hronek from people around the team.

So much of this is determined by who gets through camp healthy. We don't know that yet. The thing that makes Rasmussen the most solid is they don't want him in the WHL next year. They can put Zadina and Hronek in GR, heck they can option Frk down to mentor them as well and help our two young Czechs. But something has to go really wrong for Rasmussen not to be on the team. I think he is the most ready like Blashill said. But I do think all three guys we talk about a lot are going to play. Cholowski who I have a ton of faith in hopefully forces his way up. After the trade deadline it would be nice if our top 5 prospects (sorry I guess my top 5 prospects still includes Svechnikov at #5) are all in Detroit. It is a real possibility as long as they can stay healthy and have productive years in GR. It also allows them to make GR post-season eligible and have a serious Calder run outside of Rasmussen for the post-season as well. Time will tell. Any injury to the D in pre-season and Hronek breaks camp and he isn't coming back down in my opinion. I actually think Cholowski is there as well already but he is going to have to really blow training camp and his pre-season games out of the water to give serious thought to keeping him over Hronek at this point.

Depending on how the Wings sit with their cap space, having a guy get dinged might not be enough to get a kid up from GR - it might have to be an injury serious enough to push a guy onto LTIR to allow the cap wiggle room for a guy to be brought up. For everyone who wonders why a team should leave some cap space rather than just maxing out whatever they have, that's part of it. Guys get dinged up all of the time, but not always to the point where they need to miss 10 games or whatever number of weeks it is to qualify for LTIR.

Agree about Rasmussen up and why, and hoping most of the top guys in the system are in the lineup after the TDL. I think the Wings will want some of them to also be eligible for the AHL playoffs, though, so it'll be interesting to see what dance they do there. I'm going to have a hard time finding a reason to make time to watch a lot of games the first half of the season until the TDL and the roster shifts a bit.

 

[Pavels Dog]

It is really hard for me to imagine a worse team in the league than the Wings if Zetterberg rides off into the sunset.

I think Rasmussen is going to be here barring an injury or horrific training camp and pre-season. I am encouraged by how often I hear Hronek from people around the team.

So much of this is determined by who gets through camp healthy. We don't know that yet. The thing that makes Rasmussen the most solid is they don't want him in the WHL next year. They can put Zadina and Hronek in GR, heck they can option Frk down to mentor them as well and help our two young Czechs. But something has to go really wrong for Rasmussen not to be on the team. I think he is the most ready like Blashill said. But I do think all three guys we talk about a lot are going to play. Cholowski who I have a ton of faith in hopefully forces his way up. After the trade deadline it would be nice if our top 5 prospects (sorry I guess my top 5 prospects still includes Svechnikov at #5) are all in Detroit. It is a real possibility as long as they can stay healthy and have productive years in GR. It also allows them to make GR post-season eligible and have a serious Calder run outside of Rasmussen for the post-season as well. Time will tell. Any injury to the D in pre-season and Hronek breaks camp and he isn't coming back down in my opinion. I actually think Cholowski is there as well already but he is going to have to really blow training camp and his pre-season games out of the water to give serious thought to keeping him over Hronek at this point.

It’s easy to imagine Ottawa being an absolute tire-fire next season. It’s also no stretch of the imagination to see Mantha with 60 points, Larkin 70, Zadina 40, Ras 30 and Hronek 20+, that type of stuff would make up for losing Z on paper at least.

 

[lilidk]

It’s easy to imagine Ottawa being an absolute tire-fire next season. It’s also no stretch of the imagination to see Mantha with 60 points, Larkin 70, Zadina 40, Ras 30 and Hronek 20+, that type of stuff would make up for losing Z on paper at least.

There was no one who predicated Vegas run, it supposed to be in the very bottom of the league

 

[jkutswings]

If Hank retires/LTIRetires, I think the worst record in the league is between Ottawa, Montreal, and Detroit, especially once Karlsson is dealt. Dahlin won't set the world on fire as a rookie, but should help rejuvenate the Sabres enough to win another few games. And Arizona seemed to play much better in the second half, and I think they definitely won the Galchenyuk/Domi trade, while also adding Grabner for more scoring depth. Definitely not a playoff team, but at least a few games better. Not sure how Vancouver will respond without the emotional high of the Sedins retiring, but the OTT/MON/DET trio (if sans Zetterberg) is my early pick...

...which should make Avalanche fans very happy.

 

[Hammettf2b]

If Hank retires/LTIRetires, I think the worst record in the league is between Ottawa, Montreal, and Detroit, especially once Karlsson is dealt. Dahlin won't set the world on fire as a rookie, but should help rejuvenate the Sabres enough to win another few games. And Arizona seemed to play much better in the second half, and I think they definitely won the Galchenyuk/Domi trade, while also adding Grabner for more scoring depth. Definitely not a playoff team, but at least a few games better. Not sure how Vancouver will respond without the emotional high of the Sedins retiring, but the OTT/MON/DET trio (if sans Zetterberg) is my early pick...

...which should make Avalanche fans very happy.

I doubt we will be as bad as Ott even with Karlsson with or without Z.

 

[raymond23]

Remember this guys?

FEBRUARY 12TH, 2019
Rasmussen plays 8 minutes.
Cholowski scratched.
Hronek in the minors.
Ehn plays 10 minutes.

We win a useless game against the Predators. The four leading defenseman in ice time? Ericsson, DeKeyser, Kronwall and Daley. Justin Abdelkader continues to get a free pass.

Is Holland on board with what Blashill is doing here?

 

[FrolundaRedWings]

Remember this guys?

FEBRUARY 12TH, 2019
Rasmussen plays 8 minutes.
Cholowski scratched.
Hronek in the minors.
Ehn plays 10 minutes.

We win a useless game against the Predators. The four leading defenseman in ice time? Ericsson, DeKeyser, Kronwall and Daley. Justin Abdelkader continues to get a free pass.

Is Holland on board with what Blashill is doing here?

It's baffling that we don't see any changes. Abdelkader on the first line, Rasmussen on the fourth line, and Cholowski scratched. If we are going to suck, at least let our young guys play significant minutes and develop. Frustrating.

 

[Shaman464]

Remember this guys?

FEBRUARY 12TH, 2019
Rasmussen plays 8 minutes.
Cholowski scratched.
Hronek in the minors.
Ehn plays 10 minutes.

We win a useless game against the Predators. The four leading defenseman in ice time? Ericsson, DeKeyser, Kronwall and Daley. Justin Abdelkader continues to get a free pass.

Is Holland on board with what Blashill is doing here?

Ras has been hot garbage most of the season

Cholo also has been horrible.

Hronek is getting top minutes in the AHL, which is helping him learn to be a better player.

Ehn is a 4th line center. He gets 4th line center minutes.

 

[Henkka]

Vets are getting some hot time NOW because those are trade baits for the deadline.

Kids are not.

After february I could see different ice-times again...

 

[jkutswings]

Vets are getting some hot time NOW because those are trade baits for the deadline.

Kids are not.

After february I could see different ice-times again...

This reasoning explains almost all the moves being made lately...

... except for Abby. The guy needs to sit at least one game here and there.

 

[izlez]

Remember this guys?

FEBRUARY 12TH, 2019
Rasmussen plays 8 minutes.
Cholowski scratched.
Hronek in the minors.
Ehn plays 10 minutes.

We win a useless game against the Predators. The four leading defenseman in ice time? Ericsson, DeKeyser, Kronwall and Daley. Justin Abdelkader continues to get a free pass.

Is Holland on board with what Blashill is doing here?

We won.

 

[raymond23]

Vets are getting some hot time NOW because those are trade baits for the deadline.

Kids are not.

After february I could see different ice-times again...

I hope you're right.

 

[waltdetroit]

Vets are getting some hot time NOW because those are trade baits for the deadline.

Kids are not.

After february I could see different ice-times again...

Just 2 more weeks

 

[Steve Yzerlland]

We won.

Won what?

 

[Run the Jewels]

This reasoning explains almost all the moves being made lately...

... except for Abby. The guy needs to sit at least one game here and there.

No way, teams are lining up to make their claim for 4 more years of pure awesomeness at $4.25 million per year.

 

[Tatar Shots]

There is nothing wrong with Cholowski sitting a game. Overplaying prospects when they are overwhelmed is also poor development. He has been struggling lately. He is a team worst -20 where Ericsson is the next worst Dman at -4.