Detroit Redwings Downfall

[FriendlyGhost92]

5 vs 6 years, hardly a difference. Yzerman. Excellent player, one of many not so effective in management.

Yeah bud, Tampa was nothing until JBB came over and completely transformed them.

 

[FriendlyGhost92]

Leafs when they first started their current playoff streak.

I'm sure everybody wants to emulate the Leafs...

 

[Bank Shot]

That’s cool, happy for you.

Try and find rankings that don’t have them as having one of the top prospect pools in the MHL right now.

I’ll wait.

And it counts for what?

I remember when Matha, and Frk, and Veleno, and Smith, and on and on were all the next big thing. Nyquist was the next Zetterberg. The system is always stacked in Detroit.

It never seems to pan out as advertised though.

The Wings have a lot of prospects, but I dont see any that look like franchise altering players.

 

[Dotter]

I believe your rebuild hasn’t started until you get an elite center or elite dman. Centers are almost exclusively found in the top 3, usually top 1-2. Elite dmen can be found elsewhere, as they did with Seider. Larkin-Danielson-Kulich could be an excellent center by committee, but Larkin isn’t that game breaking talent, and by the time the kids are ready, Larkin may be falling off.

The only way they could have gotten the elite C is to tank hard or get lottery luck. Maybe if they'd not gone for Debrincat and then tanked hard in 2023 and gotten one of the big 3, or Smith, but they’d have needed to be much, much worse give. How poor Chicago, SJ, Anaheim, CBJ, and MTL were that year.

Look at this list of top 20 centers in the NHL published in August and tell me if you agree.

NHL Top Players: Top 20 Centers | NHL.com

NHL Network reveals best of current crop

www.nhl.com

If you do at least somewhat agree with that list, then look over where a majority of those centers were drafted.

For example:

• Aho (2nd round)
• Hintz (2nd round)
• Suzuki (13th overall)
• Thomas (20th overall)
• Zibanejad (6th overall)
• Larkin (15th overall)
• JT Miller (15th)
• Elias Pettersson (3rd round)
• Point (3rd round)

That's a pretty good list from mid 1st to 3rd round. Less than half of the top 20 were top 3.

 

[Oneiro]

I think it's more that their young players are growing in fits and spurts, at different paces all over the lineup and the only consistent guys around them are Larkin and DeBrincat.

It's not pretty but they really remind me of Chicago's base before Kane and Toews. I think accumulating a lot of these quality depth guys and easing Larkin and Cat to lesser roles over time will pay off when they get 2 lights out stars up front to add to Raymond. And maybe MBN or someone like that will surprise.

I don't think it's nearly as dire as people make it out to be. I just think their veteran depth is identity-less, soft and not all too complementary inside of a growth process. And they need those truly elite, top 25 player in the game forwards.

As a hypothetical, if McDavid hit UFA and signed there, I think a cup would be inevitable with what's coming from the pipeline.

 

[Stive Morgan]

Don’t see much wrong that he has done unless you blame Yzerman for lottery luck.

Yes, the Walman trade was bad- I can’t imagine Grier would have passed Walman on waivers given the state of the defense- we’ve since added Ceci and Liljigren as well. Maybe going for Debrincat was the wrong timing, but they didn’t give up too much and got a young first line winger who grew up rooting for them. He’s hit on most of his early picks- Seider, Raymond, Edvinsson, ASP, Danielson, Cossa, and MBN have proven good, or look like very good picks. Kasper looks solid too.

I believe your rebuild hasn’t started until you get an elite center or elite dman. Centers are almost exclusively found in the top 3, usually top 1-2. Elite dmen can be found elsewhere, as they did with Seider. Larkin-Danielson-Kulich could be an excellent center by committee, but Larkin isn’t that game breaking talent, and by the time the kids are ready, Larkin may be falling off.

The only way they could have gotten the elite C is to tank hard or get lottery luck. Maybe if they'd not gone for Debrincat and then tanked hard in 2023 and gotten one of the big 3, or Smith, but they’d have needed to be much, much worse give. How poor Chicago, SJ, Anaheim, CBJ, and MTL were that year.

That's how I've felt, too. Yzerman has made the right moves in my eyes. All I really see is bad luck. I think a weak 2018 Draft really screwed up a lot of teams' rebuilds (namely Detroit and Montreal)