Johnz96*
Guest
Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Alfresson, Franzen, Nyquist, Tatar, Helm/Weiss. If Helm is legit (I think he is, in his only other stint as a 2C he scored 11 points in 13 games, 3 years ago when the Wings were decimated with injuries), and/or if Weiss can prove to be a $5m player that's as good as it gets in the league for top 7 forwards and are all much better hockey players than anybody else on the team.
Unfortunately only one of them has size and Babcock insists on having size on his top 2 lines and preferably on all of them. And there is merit to having size on your lines when most of the goals scored are in tight, rebounds, or deflections. Just not as much net for the shooters to shoot at these days. Being bigger gives you an advantage in tight as you are more of an obstacle for the goalie, most likely harder(but necessarily) to move for the d-men and have more reach for rebounds and deflections although smaller guys like Ciccarelli and Verbeek have excelled at it, (even Hudler did a good job at it). I think Tatar would relish the role given the opportunity. He seems to have the mentality.
If you only have 1 player amongst your 7 best who is big and the others are significantly better than anybody on the team that is as well you shouldn't force the issue by playing someone just because of their size. The Wings would be most successful employing their best players. They would be more productive and thus more attractive for a trade to get the right player.
Get rid of the dead weight and if Smith rounds out into a good top 4 (he starting to show signs that he could be), one of the prospects takes over for Quincey(Ouellet, Almquist or Marchenko might even be better now and Sproul would probably improve the PP now) and if Jurco or Mantha can step into the top 6 this team could once again be dominant next year and still have plenty of cap space to make some moves while still having enough big bodies to have at least one on all lines. (Jurco/Mantha, Franzen, Abdelkader, Anderson, Sheahan/Callahan/Glendening(a bit of a stretch but he is listed at 200lbs is physical and battles hard).
We don't need any forwards who aren't big, physical and can score (or have potential to).
Unfortunately only one of them has size and Babcock insists on having size on his top 2 lines and preferably on all of them. And there is merit to having size on your lines when most of the goals scored are in tight, rebounds, or deflections. Just not as much net for the shooters to shoot at these days. Being bigger gives you an advantage in tight as you are more of an obstacle for the goalie, most likely harder(but necessarily) to move for the d-men and have more reach for rebounds and deflections although smaller guys like Ciccarelli and Verbeek have excelled at it, (even Hudler did a good job at it). I think Tatar would relish the role given the opportunity. He seems to have the mentality.
If you only have 1 player amongst your 7 best who is big and the others are significantly better than anybody on the team that is as well you shouldn't force the issue by playing someone just because of their size. The Wings would be most successful employing their best players. They would be more productive and thus more attractive for a trade to get the right player.
Get rid of the dead weight and if Smith rounds out into a good top 4 (he starting to show signs that he could be), one of the prospects takes over for Quincey(Ouellet, Almquist or Marchenko might even be better now and Sproul would probably improve the PP now) and if Jurco or Mantha can step into the top 6 this team could once again be dominant next year and still have plenty of cap space to make some moves while still having enough big bodies to have at least one on all lines. (Jurco/Mantha, Franzen, Abdelkader, Anderson, Sheahan/Callahan/Glendening(a bit of a stretch but he is listed at 200lbs is physical and battles hard).
We don't need any forwards who aren't big, physical and can score (or have potential to).
