Around the League, 2024-25

[Oddbob]

the Wings paying to get rid of Walman looks worse every game

big minutes and universally positive comments from Sharks fans, even in a blowout loss like tonight all the comments on him are singling him out as having done well in the 20+ all situation minutes he played

It has been 5 games. Everything looks better in such a small sample size. The Sharks are in for an even longer season than the Wings are and he isn't suddenly going to be a perennial top flight guy all of a sudden.

 

[HisNoodliness]

1) Sometimes a player just needs a change of scenery. It's possible that Walman clashed with Detroit but plays well for San Jose.

2) Sample size. Vrana looked really good for a hot minute in St Louis when he left too, but he didn't exactly maintain it. So let's see how far into the season Jake keeps it going.

The Wings need a ton of work on defense. But Walman was never part of the long term answer, so I'm not all that concerned about whether he does anything with the Sharks. I'm skeptical that he couldn't have been unloaded for a cheaper price, but not much I can do about that now.

Personally I'm of the opinion that we should just move on. Walman doing well in San Jose is great for him, and doesn't really matter for us.

My biggest problem is that we have 3 or 4 D that are worse than Walman at everything and we seem perfectly content to keep them around. I bet Walman calls Jeff Petry's Mom to wish her a happy mother's day before Jeff can. That's how universal Walman's superiority is. If we can look at our own players and completely misevaluate their relative hockey playing ability, that is a terrible sign for the future. Couple that with 10% of our UFA signings being good. 20% being okay and the rest being total disasters, and it's just another indication of how terrible our pro scouting is, especially on defense.

 

[jkutswings]

Personally I'm of the opinion that we should just move on. Walman doing well in San Jose is great for him, and doesn't really matter for us.

My biggest problem is that we have 3 or 4 D that are worse than Walman at everything and we seem perfectly content to keep them around. I bet Walman calls Jeff Petry's Mom to wish her a happy mother's day before Jeff can. That's how universal Walman's superiority is. If we can look at our own players and completely misevaluate their relative hockey playing ability, that is a terrible sign for the future. Couple that with 10% of our UFA signings being good. 20% being okay and the rest being total disasters, and it's just another indication of how terrible our pro scouting is, especially on defense.

I'm hopeful that it's for another bad (but much more fixable) reason: that until several kids were ready, there was a mandate to not go over $5M AAV or 4 years on any free agents, so they were left with the Kmart blue light special kinda players to use as Band-Aids.

 

[LesCactus]

I was going to post this in the fantasy sub forum, but I figure that red wings fans would give better advice on this:

I’m in a fantasy hockey league and I’m never been the most knowledgeable on the sport outside of being mid at the video game. During the fantasy draft, I neglected goalies until late and now I’m looking to drop Adin Hill for Alex Lyon. Hill has been letting me down and I see Lyon has been looking good. Is he legit though?

 

[Oddbob]

I was going to post this in the fantasy sub forum, but I figure that red wings fans would give better advice on this:

I’m in a fantasy hockey league and I’m never been the most knowledgeable on the sport outside of being mid at the video game. During the fantasy draft, I neglected goalies until late and now I’m looking to drop Adin Hill for Alex Lyon. Hill has been letting me down and I see Lyon has been looking good. Is he legit though?

He is a 32 year old journeyman goalie. Might get hot at times but not likely someone you want long term.

 

[Ed Ned and Leddy]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5847866/2024/10/21/red-wings-jake-walman-trade-sharks/

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5847866/2024/10/21/red-wings-jake-walman-trade-sharks/

Well that still makes it clear as mud. It sure sounds like it's something to do with the injury and relationship between the team and Walman regarding it.

The article mentions the Wings needing cap space but am I right in thinking the Wings didn't need to be cap compliant until the start of the season?

 

[jkutswings]

Well that still makes it clear as mud. It sure sounds like it's something to do with the injury and relationship between the team and Walman regarding it.

The article mentions the Wings needing cap space but am I right in thinking the Wings didn't need to be cap compliant until the start of the season?

Trying to read between the lines here, I think each side has their spin, and the truth is likely in the middle. Walman and the team probably disagreed about the nature and/or severity of the injury (specifically about how it should impact his effort/energy on the ice). Maybe neither side was completely realistic in their expectations, but it became an issue they could not resolve, and the cap situation was probably more convenient circumstance than actual root cause for why he was dealt.

I think it belongs in both camps: it should have been handled better, but has little to no long term impact on the rebuild.

 

[ShanahanMan]

Trying to read between the lines here, I think each side has their spin, and the truth is likely in the middle. Walman and the team probably disagreed about the nature and/or severity of the injury (specifically about how it should impact his effort/energy on the ice). Maybe neither side was completely realistic in their expectations, but it became an issue they could not resolve, and the cap situation was probably more convenient circumstance than actual root cause for why he was dealt.

I think it belongs in both camps: it should have been handled better, but has little to no long term impact on the rebuild.

I still don’t think that leads to trading your second highest producing Defenseman AND a 2nd rounder for nothing. Still makes no sense

 

[SoupNazi]

Trying to read between the lines here, I think each side has their spin, and the truth is likely in the middle. Walman and the team probably disagreed about the nature and/or severity of the injury (specifically about how it should impact his effort/energy on the ice). Maybe neither side was completely realistic in their expectations, but it became an issue they could not resolve, and the cap situation was probably more convenient circumstance than actual root cause for why he was dealt.

I think it belongs in both camps: it should have been handled better, but has little to no long term impact on the rebuild.

I suspect there's much more to the story than we will ever know, particularly since Walman won't tell anything that makes himself look bad and we know Yzerman isn't going to tell us about what went on.

 

[ricky0034]

sometimes I get the impression that Yzerman has a giant ego and doesn't deal with it well when players push back on that

that's just an impression, but this is by no means the first time i've felt that way

 

[Winger98]

I suspect there's much more to the story than we will ever know, particularly since Walman won't tell anything that makes himself look bad and we know Yzerman isn't going to tell us about what went on.

which, honestly, is the best for everyone. Stuff happened and we're not among the privileged to know exactly what it was.

I still don’t think that leads to trading your second highest producing Defenseman AND a 2nd rounder for nothing. Still makes no sense

4th last year. 5th the year before.

 

[Winger98]

sometimes I get the impression that Yzerman has a giant ego and doesn't deal with it well when players push back on that

that's just an impression, but this is by no means the first time i've felt that way

I don't know if it's ego. I mean, I'm sure he's not ego less but you don't want guys around who don't buy in. We've seen it nearly every iteration of the wings when they were actually good. Guys who don't buy in get moved, and guys who will buy in are brought in.

 

[Lazlo Hollyfeld]

I still don’t think that leads to trading your second highest producing Defenseman AND a 2nd rounder for nothing. Still makes no sense

It's the urgency to it that I don't get. Because a disagreement about injury status doesn't seem so egregious you'd ship a guy out ASAP unless something bigger happened.

Even if there was a Trouba-like deal in the works that then fell apart, it's not like GM's haven't handled these multi-team deals before. You don't move a guy until it's done on all ends. And I know Yzerman keeps it close to the vest but if the Rangers botched their end, I'd hope he'd publicly throw them under the bus.

The whole thing is so confusing.

 

[RED WINGS STOMP]

Complained about this one quite a bit in other threads.

Man do I hate how this all turned out. Yzerman should be raked over the coals about this one.

And I am a huge Yzerman supporter, but for the look for the entire org and roster management, this was wrong from what can be seen from an outside view.

 

[DoMakc]

sometimes I get the impression that Yzerman has a giant ego and doesn't deal with it well when players push back on that

that's just an impression, but this is by no means the first time i've felt that way

Well, Vrana case clearly showed that Yzerman's ego was the issue there.

 

[ShanahanMan]

Go to 4:15

 

[Ed Ned and Leddy]

Yeah I guess I still just have mixed minds about the Walman thing.

On one hand let’s suppose he was an absolute menace in the locker room and he absolutely had to go. Obviously that’s tough for Yzerman, because he’s not going to come out and bury the guy in the media.

On the other hand, without any evidence that Walman actually behaved in a way to justify a move, it’s a little bit eyebrow-raising to me how many people just assume he’s an asshole. Again maybe he is, this is the NHL, but we don’t really know one way or other.

If it truly is just a disagreement between player and front office regarding the severity of an injury, etc. (again, we don’t know), I gotta say that would be a little disappointing to me, particularly for an organization that had no trouble bringing Watson on board a couple weeks ago.

On ice, I feel like he quite clearly had a strong season two years ago, and it feels like people are being strangely dismissive of that. Call it a product of Seider, but plenty of blue liners have looked bad next to Seider, we still haven’t found him a legitimately good consistent partner. Last year I think he played poorly. Towards the end of the season I think it’s quite evident that his injury played a factor. Also, the entire team D sucked. Holl hardly played. Petry was a complete liability for large stretches. Maatta was in and out. And even if you think I’m wrong and you think Jake Walman was so glaringly the worst defenseman on the roster, then surely you have to criticize Yzerman for handing out the contract then no?

Idk man. I don’t think the move is the end of the world by any stretch, but I think it’s a pretty big head scratcher anyway you look at it. Disappointing to me that no one in the media has even marginally pressed the issue. Even if Yzerman dodges the questions, which might be fair, it’s wild to me that no one has even meaningfully put forward a line of questioning on some of these points.

I’m a major believer in Yzerman as the GM but this remains a puzzling blue line move on a blue line that has sucked for a decade and looks poised to suck again this year.

 

[Oddbob]

Apparently Ballys is now FanDuel sports now. Same look just different logo. Wish they would get that score clock to the top of the screen.

 

[ricky0034]

Apparently Ballys is now FanDuel sports now. Same look just different logo. Wish they would get that score clock to the top of the screen.

there's something so dystopian about a network broadcasting games literally being named after a gambling company

and I say that as someone that is pretty pro gambling in general(although I don't personally partake in it with sports specifically)

 

[GarlicbreadTB]

Hope everything works out OK for the Perron family <3

 

[jkutswings]

Hope everything works out OK for the Perron family <3

Definitely. I'm very lucky and thankful to have healthy kids. Hope that this surgery (and any additional ones needed in the future) go well.