Some great points there, my friend

Not a Wings fan but I agree with you on the topic

As a wings fan, you make excellent points! We don’t want to be bad, but we don’t want to be stuck in the middle. We didn’t want an injury prone Bert, but are interested in trading for a ready now player? I do think there is no wrong way to go, but getting a Connor or Debrincat definitely puts you more upper middle. However, you cannot deny the fact that we might have a chance at one of those players in a draft pick we select with. Personally, I’d rather select all my picks than trade them. I think it’s a mistake if we rush in this off-season, and should take advantage of teams in cap hell even if it’s for more than a year on the contract.

Completely agree. All the trades for Cat or Bratt etc. do make some sense but are not the route I want Yzerman to go

Kyle Connor is the only one I'd trade for out of all the guys who are mentioned for us constantly. You don't just find a perennial 30+ goal scorer every single year who can wire it. He improves us 5 on 5 and on the PP, legit top 3 forward and we need it. He's not old that he's out of our time window and he's signed for multiple years going forward. If he's made available I'd give up futures for him.

It's either try to be good or play the kids and be bad, Yzerman punted on this draft by trying to be good and it was a disaster. Then he sold guys at the deadline who we can't replace while signing all the ld longer who we can replace. I have no idea what we're doing it going to do.

I wouldn't say he was trying to be good but just trying not to be a pushover siht team that they were last year. I don't think it ever send the right message to try to be bad. That said I agree with your IP pinon on the Bert and Hronek trades, we can't replace those guys really like we could Maatta or Walman, not that I would want to trade him. Although trading Walman might have got a nice little return as well. I think this team is meant to be built through the draft with only a few pre-Yzerman players still on the team.

I'm all for building through the draft as probably seen by most of my AGMs. I don't mind trading for or signing stop gap players to fill holes. I also like the idea of letting the kids marinate in Grand Rapids but just not too long like they used to do.

”Play the kids and be bad” what does that even mean? And who are you reffering to? There is a much bigger chance that the kids will take a step forward than backward. It would be worrying if they didn’t do.

I think Yzerman wanted to send the right message to free agents, like Larkin and Bertuzzi. That this team was on track and is going to be competitive. If he stunk it up, not only might they not want to resign, but he might not be able to trade them for much of the team as a whole was having a really down year (I.e. less production)

Ultimately he built the team up enough so there could be growth, competition, and a better culture. But, realized the window is a couple years down the road and traded away with guys who would cloud things when that window comes. What happened with Vrana is unfortunate but let’s put that in the past and trust that it was necessary. Bertuzzi was a favourite of mine and of his teammates, and one I always always pegged as a GUY when playoffs would come. He went on to prove it. But the fact is, he barely played for us in the regular season (not saying he’s injury prone, but also has had very few good full seasons), is going to get more expensive and tighten our cap situation, be a bit older and more replaceable yet still expensive when our time comes. Hronek, who I know many are upset about, I think was actually such a great move. Sometimes he looks great but at end of the day he just doesn’t defend well enough. With Maata looked good mostly but you can’t throw a security blanket over a guy and say it’s good. Yzerman wants better and knows a similar story to what I described with Bertuzzi in terms of cap was forthcoming. We draft a good rhd, he’s ready in 2 years, on an elc and also with Yzerman’s pedigree, will be better than Hronek at any point

Also, everyone saying Yzerman went for it to try and be good, tell me where? Perron, Kubalik, Copp, Chiarot, Maata… depth. Veterans. Professionalism. Some competitiveness and leadership to provide for the young guns rather than throwing them to the wolves. Sure it’s making the team better than it was. But by maybe 2 or 3 spots in the standings at the end of the day. Not like we were going to be a bottom 5 team without these adds so no way we would have won the lottery, especially not with our luck. The difference between picking 7th and 9th is one that Yzerman will make up for with his ability to draft.

What Rd are you drafting that's going to be better than Hronek, Sandin-pillikka or reinbacker or Wallinder, you have to use 9 if you want any of them so now your spending higher assets than what you got on Hronek to replace him and it's a crap shoot if those guys are better.

I understand one is an established asset vs not, but easily any of them could be, or should be better than Hronek . And I trust Yzerman is able to identify that. Irrelevant if it’s a better asset or using the same asset. Better player on a better timeline and the fact there was an additional 2nd included which could turn into something valuable. Maybe we differ on our rating of Hronek the dman

We need to use the Draft picks to get a better RD. I have hard time believing that's the reason why Hronek was traded. Hronek puts up points, but struggles a lot when the game gets more physical - In the Playoffs you need to reliable.

Seider will probably soon make 8+million, can we pay a 2nd pair RD 6.5+million? Tampa, Rangers and Canucks are the only teams in the league who have two d-mans on the same side making A LOT of money. And they all have problems to get good players for the other side. We just need to find a reliable 2nd pair RD somehow.

You definitely don’t need to draft one of those examples at 9. I think you can get a top tier forward at 9 and take willander at 17 if need be but not at 9.

24 year old Rd isn't exactly not our time line

I agree with that using 9 on a dman in this draft is crazy, hell using 17 isnt a good idea

I don't think salary is why teams don't have two Rd making decent money, it's because they're extremely hard to get productive Rd. It's why you get them and keep them. Especially our team who is going to have guys on the left on entry level deals or we would have if we didn't also sign a bunch of veteran ld at the same time.

I think it depends if you think willander can be there at 41 but if not trade up and get him and take stenberg at 17 I love his game but can see an argument for any pick at 9 and 17 really.

True. But he’s 27 and making 6 or 7 mil when our window opens vs the guy we draft is 21 on an elc and better at defending

This timeline thing is such garbage, do you think Walman, Chairot, Copp, Maatta, larkin fit this mythical time line but we signed all of them and more. Stop buying into this nonsense that if you aren't 22 we won't look at someone or sign them long term.

Taking it slow only makes sense if we aren't in the playoffs and continue to get lottery picks. With Walman, Chairot, Copp and Maatta do you really see them on a contender? Maybe one or 2 of them but as long as we have all 4 we aren't contending for anything other than a lottery pick. I disagree there is definitely a time line for Larkin continuing to rebuild and not going to the playoffs I'd say we have 2 to 3 years before he gets really frustrated and we end up with a repeat Eichel and Buffalo.

Yeah I can see all 4 players on good teams but it all depends on context and structure of the teams. I don't buy the timeline being this mythical force that governs who we sign is all. Someone arguing Hronek didn't fit the timeline needs to have their head examined because that's crazy.

I agree but I was talking about all 4 on the same team. Saying Hronek was traded because of a timeline is just silly. Wouldn't that mean everyone 25 or older doesn't fit Detroit's time line?

Yup

Hronek was traded because we want a better player than what he was. And we can aim for one in the draft because they will fit the timeline better. (This nonsense that we dont want to waste a high draft pick on a RD because why bother trading Hronek then, has got to stop. You just don’t actually watch his games if you don’t think we can easily improve from that). If you think Hronek is the answer then start placing your bets on Vancouver, will be keen to see how that goes