Red Wings quietly have the deepest defensive group in the league

[Indrid Cold]

Doh! Fellow Wings fan.... When I read the title, I knew I was going to feel bad for the OP.

Defense will still stink.

 

[redwings25]

In 3 year the wings d should be elite. Right now the top pair is good, second pair is iffy and 3rd pair is good for a 3rd pair. Stevey has been drafting studs on d since he got here. Im sure they will dump vets the next couple deadlines as the kids come in. I hope chiarot can play nhl level d this year and make himself tradable with retention. He was a tire fire last year for sure.

 

[ShelbyZ]

This Holl = Murphy thing has to stop.

About the only things Holl has the ability to do anywhere close to Larry Murphy is skate at an average speed and maybe eat a lot of $1 hot dogs. That's it.

They'll be lucky if they even get 1999 Todd Gill.

If anything Holl will probably be closer to settling the score for when Toronto signed Brett Lebda.

 

[Coffey]

Swedish Wing fans can't cope with a bad team.
You hate to see it.

 

[Kimota]

You mean Deep in Shit?

 

[Ezekial]

This Holl = Murphy thing has to stop.

About the only things Holl has the ability to do anywhere close to Larry Murphy is skate at an average speed and maybe eat a lot of $1 hot dogs. That's it.

They'll be lucky if they even get 1999 Todd Gill.

If anything Holl will probably be closer to settling the score for when Toronto signed Brett Lebda.

Holl would probably make less verbal gaffes on air.

I'll say one thing about Larry Murphy he's never let messing something up affect his flow of dialogue. Dude just f***s up and moves on. (over and over and over)

 

[North Cole]

A top 5 goaltender "in the division", lmao.

 

[Andre Palot]

I am going to use that 'Top 5 goaltender in division' line when referring to Vanecek.

Good stuff.

 

[Leafs87]

Carolina definitely and easily better.

 

[Mr Positive]

I am going to use that 'Top 5 goaltender in division' line when referring to Vanecek.

Good stuff.

Yes I noticed that line too. Top 5 out of 8 lol

 

[Pavels Dog]

I was wondering if we would get a "Vancouver quietly has the best roster" level thread this year.

Thanks for delivering OP.

Please don’t compare that thread to this, especially not very closely.

 

[FMichael]

The defense is the one area that I haven't liked what Yzerman has done to the team. It's big, lacks mobility, skill, and transition ability.

Dear Lord - if only you saw what we had a few years ago…..

In all honesty - we’re very much middle of the road right now.

 

[Hacketts]

Montreal has a legit shot of having one of the best D cores in a few years time.

 

[PettersonHughes]

Imagine if one team could have Canucks offense and Wings defence, they would be unstoppable.

IDK man, don't sleep on our defense either (Hughes - Cole, Soucy - Hronek, solid two-way D in Hirose... and the 6'8" corpse of Tyler Myers' top 4 RD career).

 

[rumrokh]

"Chiarot is one of the worst players in the league."
"Yea, but he's good for 50 penalty minutes."
"Shit, I'm sold."

 

[ManofSteel55]

So quiet that only the OP sees it, right?

 

[HisNoodliness]

We have a maybe average first pair, below average second pair and above average third pair. Yep, best in the league.

 

[biturbo19]

They do have a lot of "depth" to their blueline. But it's clustered more toward the botton-half of the lineup types.

Sieder is a #1D. Petry is still a borderline Top-3D who can probably carry a pairing. But the rest of the group is just...a bundle of various #4-6 types. Which is fine, but when we're talking about the strength of a blueline, you can't really just gloss over those middle rungs 2-3. Not when there are teams that have those spots staffed with multiple #1D caliber guys and Top-3D 1-4.

I see Detroit's Top-pair as...pretty average despite Seider. Walman appears to have good chemistry, but he's he's really more of a complementary #4D filling the role.

I see Petry as a solid 2nd pairing guy, but whether he ends up playing with Chiarot/Maatta/Ghostisbehere...that to me, is a somewhat below average 2nd pairing as a whole.

The overflow should make for an higher end solidly above average 3rd pairing. But that doesn't really make up for the softer middle pairing and average top pairing.


It's also hilarious to just add up the points players scored in a completely different context and expect that to translate when they're suddenly all competing for the same offensive minutes to produce in. That's not really how that works.

 

[PocketNines]

I can't really find any other team aside from Vegas and Boston that has a more well rounded, balanced and potential threat line up than the Wings.

Gostisbehere, Petry, Määttä, that's 90-100 points alone from #4-6 guys. I don't think there's any team with that kind of scoring punch from depth d-men. Not to mention Seider having a down year last season due to Chiarot reasons. He's easily good for 50 points from the blueline.

Then you have another potential 20 points and 50+ PIM from Chiarot, and Walman who could definitely build on last season potting perhaps another 30pts along with great analytics. That's not even mentioning Holl who could be another Larry Murphy type player who thrives when going from Toronto to Detroit. Even Edvinsson could be good for 20-30 points including 5-10 goals.

Husso is a top 5 goaltender in the division, and there's Larkin and Copp (albeit overpaid) are 2 elite two-way forwards who make their wingers much better than they are (Perron, Fabbri, Raymond and Debrincat).

With the amount of team defense this team has with the additions of Compher, Kostin and Fischer, having a bit weaker scoring forwards is manageable. Wings were good at limiting high-danger chances last season even with atrocious depth, in large part thanks to Lalonde and his brains. Special teams was an issue but that should be improved.

I just can't really think of a more well balanced group, especially the defensive group, with an average age of 29 years old.

I'm sorry, a Wings center is making David Perron better than he is? David Perron is a great player. He has aged incredibly well too. And it appears you are calling Andrew Copp an elite two way center who is making Perron better, is that how you have it?

 

[Guttersniped]

Justin Holl = Larry Murphy

Spidermans.jpg

When they made that comparison I knew this was satire.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

This is this seasons "Vancouver has the deepest offense in the league" isn't it?

Or the ‘Is it time to admit we were wrong about the Leafs goalies.’

 

[Nineteen67]

The Leafs’ D may even be better than Detroit’s.

 

[TheDoldrums]

A top 5 goaltender "in the division", lmao.

I am going to use that 'Top 5 goaltender in division' line when referring to Vanecek.

Good stuff.

Yes I noticed that line too. Top 5 out of 8 lol

The cherry on top, Husso was just ranked 7th in the division by folks on this board

HFBoards Top 25 Goalies in the NHL - Results

Here are the results of the polls of the top 25 goaltenders in the NHL currently, as voted by you, the HFBoards community: 1. Igor Shesterkin :rangers (34.9%) 2. Andrei Vasilevskiy :bolts (46.5%) 3. Ilya Sorokin :isles (75.0%) 4. Juuse Saros :nashville (45.5%) 5. Connor Hellebuyck :jets (56.4%)...

forums.hfboards.com

 

[wetcoast]

Ya I think I'll happily take Colorado's group lmao.

Came here to say this.

 

[2014nyr]

det has a solid d core, and they have the potential to become really good...but they're certainly not the deepest in the league.

this is all offseason nonsense that's purely on paper...maybe they shock the world as a group. but just looking at the metro where i'm most familiar, car, nyr, and nj are all better/deeper, and maybe the isles/pens. going off cursory knowledge of the west...col and vegas at least are ahead of them. i'd imagine there's a few other teams that look much stronger at this time.

i expect det to make a leap this year, but i don't think there's any argument that on paper they have any argument as the deepest in the league. upper half and strong likelihood to climb in the years ahead? i'd agree. top or even top 5 today? on paper, no.