Who will be your starting forwards 2020-2021 season.

[saska sault]

I'd just think that while they don't "need" the cap space, they probably just let those contracts run out unless the players become a complete dumpster fire (probably Nielsen getting any worse lol). That way they can have the cleanest slate possible when they need to really start paying guys like Zadina, Hronek, Cholowski, etc.

Looking at how Nielsen's deal is structured, I wouldn't be surprised if he retires outright or through LTIR before the last season of it starts. After 7/1/21, he's only getting another $1.5M in salary. And due to that how that season is structured, his buyout would give the Wings less cap space than if he was buried.

As Abdelkader's contract wears on, he probably continues in a role he's been in most of the season playing 4th line wing and killing penalties and maybe even at some point a #12/13 guy, which isn't exactly the best spot for young guys that could be getting top line roles in GR. Interestingly, Abdelkader is sitting at #10 in forward ice time, so his NTC will be voided starting next season, when his salary starts to go below his cap hit, even if the Wings miraculously make the playoffs. That likely makes the contract moveable. Helm is in the same boat.

Hard to say what the Yzerplan is.. But I would hope it's aggressive. Those two players would struggle to become less productive than they are at this moment, any chance of them trending the other direction isnt likely.

 

[Henkka]

If we end up with Lafreniere, I would acquire a 2C so he doesn't have to develop in the NHL with Fil or Nielsen as his center. Other than that, I wouldn't change too much for next year, I don't think the forward group is too bad.

I think Lafreniere could go straight to first line and we put Bertuzzi down to 2nd.

Lafreniere - Larkin - Mantha
Fabbri/AA - Filppula - Bertuzzi
Fabbri/AA - Rasmussen - Zadina

or

Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha
Fabbri - Byfield - Athanasiou
Rasmussen - Filppula - Zadina

or

Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha
Fabbri/AA - Filppula - Raymond
Fabbri/AA - Rasmussen - Zadina

4th line?

- Helm traded
- Svechnikov promoted

Svechnikov - Glendening - Abby/Nielsen
(Ehn)

Trading both Glendening and Helm would open spots. Also Turgeon could be promoted.

Tough decision. Another option is keeping Glendy/Helm on the roster, and just burying Abby/Nielsen.

 

[ShelbyZ]

Hard to say what the Yzerplan is.. But I would hope it's aggressive. Those two players would struggle to become less productive than they are at this moment, any chance of them trending the other direction isnt likely.

IMO, the bolded is what will, at least for a little while, make threads like these kind of a wild guess.

With Holland you kinda knew that:

A. Any sort of buyout was highly unlikely
B. Any trading of a regular player was highly unlikely
C. The signing of at least one veteran UFA forward was highly likely
D. You might get one or two spots left open for a young guy that could still go to GR and/or a guy who's entering his first year of being eligible for waivers

Some of that is completely out the window now...

Biggest issue for the Wings at forward next season is that they'll need to make room on the roster for a couple of young guys to step in. Is that by trading away an AA/Helm/Glendening, being open to demoting or even outright not qualifying an Erne/Perlini/Ehn, or with a buyout or two?

I also think Svechnikov is probably a lock to at least get the #13 forward spot, unless he end's up part of a trade before the season starts or bombs the rest of the year in GR. I'd imagine with a decent year in GR, he could be an attractive waiver pickup next September and I don't see Yzerman risking that.

 

[Henkka]

Not enough PKers, you got Bert/Larkin and Helm/Flip. You need 2 more so that Bert/Larkin don't spend too much time on PK. Replace Perlini with LGD and maybe pair him with Raz? Does he PK in GR?
.

I'm not sure has Rasmussen PK'd in Grand Rapids, but he definitely has the potential to be one of our penalty-killers in the future. Imo, he should take one forward spot of six penalty-killers usually used.

Based on this season:

Glendening, 2:35
Nielsen 2:00
Abdelkader 1:41
Ehn 1:38
Filppula 1:25
Larkin 0:51
Helm 0:50
Bertuzzi 0:25

That's PK ice-time averages.

Kind of shows, how Helm isn't anyhow needed to PK. So trade him.

Glendening is pretty important there. He's the primary penalty-killer. Also could be that at next season.

Nielsen/Abdelkader/Ehn, only 2 should play at same time on the 4th line, so there's 2 next guys.

then there's Filppula + Larkin + Bertuzzi. That enables 3 pairs, they usually use.

Rasmussen should take the role from Filppula, at some point.

 

[Dead Thing]

We choose Byfield with 2nd. pick.

Bert/Larkin/Zadina
Ras/Byfield/Mantha
AA/Veleno/Fabbri
Helm/Filp/Abby
Svetch

Glenny moved at 2020 TDL.
Nielsen moved in off season with 50% retention.

Know the 1st line will score well and have very high hopes that the Byfield line will terrorize the league for a decade.

Realize that this is more likely in 2021/2022 than next yr. but it will happen.

 

[TheOctopusKid]

I guess I'm curious to know what Yzerman's likelihood to roll out an all-kid lineup. Even when TB was bottoming out in the 2012 season and he had a more open opportunity in the 2013-14 season, he never really truly transitioned to pure prospect core (Killhorn, Johnson, Kuch, Panik, etc.). They were still augmented with St. Louis, Purcell, Malone, Callahan, Carle, Filp, etc. Not sure if that was just a consequence of his cap situation and roster construction but he did seem to give some of his younger guys 50 games plus as they grew into the roles.

Now this is never an All-Or-Naught situation and market and context will dictate a lot of this however it feels unlikely that he wouldn't try to add some veterans to his young core to build a more competitive team.

I think it's safe to say that he will keep the usual suspects in the lineup: Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi are surefire locks. Add in the vets that are unlikely to be moved and be slowly phased to lesser roles: Abdelkadar, Helm, Neilsen, Filp; that accounts for 7 of the 13 spots right there. Tack in Glenny at a cost controlled $1.8M for one more season in a checking line role - that brings us to 8; 5 spots unaccounted for.

Fabs, Svech, AA, Hirose, and Kuffner will all need to have a contract in place and if we resign, they will get a spot on the regular roster. Out of that group - Fabs and Svech fell the most likely leaving the other three to move on in free agency looking for more money or opportunity than they will find here.

So lets assume Fabs and Svech resign: that brings us to 10 players: Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Abdelkadar, Helm, Neilsen, Filppula, Glendening, Fabbri, Svechnikov.

Ras and Zadina will push hard for 2 out of the last 3 spots - lets assume they grab them given their talent, where they are in their contracts, and opportunities already afforded them with the big club. That puts us at 12/13. That leaves out journeymen vets that could be added, free agents, and what should be a Top 3 Draft Prospect out of our starting lineup.

I think our forwards next year are pretty much spoken for at this point unless Yzerman makes some moves to move off of some of the contracts we are committed to - or flat out walks from an unsigned prospect. All that being said, I'm still very much convinced that he will end up moving on from AA for draft capital, and potentially find a way to move either Helm or Glenny to make space. And I expect him to add a Top 6 free agent forward to the team to give our scoring a boost and some stability (a player like Granlund).

 

[Henkka]

I think our forwards next year are pretty much spoken for at this point unless Yzerman makes some moves to move off of some of the contracts we are committed to - or flat out walks from an unsigned prospect. All that being said, I'm still very much convinced that he will end up moving on from AA for draft capital, and potentially find a way to move either Helm or Glenny to make space. And I expect him to add a Top 6 free agent forward to the team to give our scoring a boost and some stability (a player like Granlund).

Our offence could be pretty much ready after we get one elite player from the draft. The propect core is there. It could just need some positional and handness -finetuning via trades. But there is enough talent, after that Elite arrives and slots others on lesser roles.

Biggest thing is to rebuild the defence and goaltending. Those things can be done through trade market and UFA market. Bring three veteran defencemen in around Seider, Hronek, McIsaac, Cholowski. That's about it.

Then bring in new goalies. If there's no prospects, go after veterans, like Yzerman did with Roloson and Tampa. Then traded for Bishop etc. Used the vets until some prospect (Vasilevskiy) truly was ready.

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

I guess I'm curious to know what Yzerman's likelihood to roll out an all-kid lineup. Even when TB was bottoming out in the 2012 season and he had a more open opportunity in the 2013-14 season, he never really truly transitioned to pure prospect core (Killhorn, Johnson, Kuch, Panik, etc.). They were still augmented with St. Louis, Purcell, Malone, Callahan, Carle, Filp, etc. Not sure if that was just a consequence of his cap situation and roster construction but he did seem to give some of his younger guys 50 games plus as they grew into the roles.

Now this is never an All-Or-Naught situation and market and context will dictate a lot of this however it feels unlikely that he wouldn't try to add some veterans to his young core to build a more competitive team.

I think it's safe to say that he will keep the usual suspects in the lineup: Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi are surefire locks. Add in the vets that are unlikely to be moved and be slowly phased to lesser roles: Abdelkadar, Helm, Neilsen, Filp; that accounts for 7 of the 13 spots right there. Tack in Glenny at a cost controlled $1.8M for one more season in a checking line role - that brings us to 8; 5 spots unaccounted for.

Fabs, Svech, AA, Hirose, and Kuffner will all need to have a contract in place and if we resign, they will get a spot on the regular roster. Out of that group - Fabs and Svech fell the most likely leaving the other three to move on in free agency looking for more money or opportunity than they will find here.

So lets assume Fabs and Svech resign: that brings us to 10 players: Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Abdelkadar, Helm, Neilsen, Filppula, Glendening, Fabbri, Svechnikov.

Ras and Zadina will push hard for 2 out of the last 3 spots - lets assume they grab them given their talent, where they are in their contracts, and opportunities already afforded them with the big club. That puts us at 12/13. That leaves out journeymen vets that could be added, free agents, and what should be a Top 3 Draft Prospect out of our starting lineup.

I think our forwards next year are pretty much spoken for at this point unless Yzerman makes some moves to move off of some of the contracts we are committed to - or flat out walks from an unsigned prospect. All that being said, I'm still very much convinced that he will end up moving on from AA for draft capital, and potentially find a way to move either Helm or Glenny to make space. And I expect him to add a Top 6 free agent forward to the team to give our scoring a boost and some stability (a player like Granlund).

I wouldn't mind Granlund under $4.9 & 3-4 yrs max, but neither of those are likely. Besides Veleno may be ready for a 3W role with some time @3C, then in 21-22, he could be 2C ready...or maybe he's 2C ready by sometime in 2020. There's already a logjam, so I doubt UFA F's is on SY's task list. I'd rather spend the cap on D & G 1st, then add a F if needed.