Detroit Red Wings Draft Preview

Ahhh, the NHL Draft. Is there a more exciting time in sports for a team that didn’t win the championship? Well maybe there is, but the draft is high on my list. Over the course of the next few days we get to see young players across the world start their NHL journey. Sure, many won’t ever end up playing in the NHL, but at the same time we see which teams draft tomorrow’s superstars. We also get to see a glimpse of what the future of the Red Wings might look like.

This year, the Red Wings will be drafting 18^th overall in the 1^st round. This is the highest draft position they have had since 1991 when they drafted Martin Lapointe 10^th overall. It’s probably worth mentioning that they did have the 19^th pick in 2005 which they used to draft Jakub Kindl too. Regardless, it’s easy to say this draft could be very exciting. To add to the excitement, it has been said by many scouts that this draft is very deep with talent. In other words, players who may have been top 10 picks in other years can be picked up throughout the top 20-25 picks this year because there are that many good players. The Red Wings have a chance to land a heck of a talent this year. There has to be something good that comes from losing to the Blackhawks right? Had we won that game 7, we would be drafting no earlier than 27^th overall. By losing, we gained at least 9 spots in the draft. I’m not saying I’m glad we lost, but I do like to find positives in in negatives, and the higher draft position is definitely a good thing.

I’m not going to lie, I’m the person who loves looking at mock drafts. I’ve been looking at them since before the season started. The problem is, they change so much, and they are so inconsistent that there is no way to believe any of them are accurate beyond the first few picks (even those are shaky). However, there are some general consistencies, and it’s from those that I present to you some options of who I would like to see the Red Wings draft.

1^st round options:

Valentin Zykov 6’ 210 lbs – Goal scoring left winger with some good size. He uses his size well too and plays a power forward style game. He Is very good down low, and is a good passer.

Alexander Wennberg 6’ 1.5” 186 lbs – Above average skater with excellent vision who plays well in all three zones. Already polished with a developing finishing ability. He can play all three forward spots with equal ability. Outstanding hockey sense, and a hard worker who likes to control the puck.

Max Domi 5’ 9” 175 lbs – Small, but tenacious center who is a pure offensive weapon. Son of former NHLer Tie Domi, Max has a lot more speed and skill, yet he still plays a physical style. A leader with an edge, if Max falls to us, he will be a good pick despite his size.

Andre Burakowsky 6’ 1” 177 lbs – Speedy left winger who needs to add weight, but can score goals. Will go to the dirty areas to get the puck, but needs to work on trusting others and passing a bit more. He also has outstanding stickhandling abilities, and can beat defenders 1 on 1.

Hunter Shinkaruk 5’ 10” 178 lbs – Hunter is a bit of a longshot to fall this far, but if he does it would be very hard not to take him. He’s got it all except size. He has a 6^th sense in the offensive zone and knows where to go to score goals and who to pass to in order to set up goals. He is quick, and he plays the role of an agitator despite not being overly physical. If not for his small size, would be a top 5 pick.

There are more options in the first round that would be good (remember I said this was a deep draft?), but I listed my favorites.

Post 1^st round:

Pavel Buchnevich 6’ 1” 170 lbs – Probably first round talent, but this winger could drop to the second round due to the Russian Factor. For those of you who don’t know what the Russian Factor is, it’s the possibility that the player never plays in the NHL because they decide to stay in Russia and play in their league, the KHL. They can often get more money there, and it is almost as competitive as the NHL. Buchnevich is a goal scorer who is quick, creative with the puck, and has an excellent release on his shot.

Artturi Lehkonen 5’ 10” 163 lbs – Another smaller winger who can score, and put up points. Great skater, passer and finisher.

Hunter Fasching 6’ 3” 204 lbs – A less polished right wing prospect who has a lot of tools including size, a good shot, and excellent hockey IQ.

Anton Slepyshev 6’ 160 lbs – A second year eligible left winger who went undrafted last year again due to the Russian Factor. He is too good to ignore though, and it’s worth a shot if he is there in the 3^rd round or later. He doesn’t excel at any one part of the game, but instead is good at everything including the powerplay and penalty kill.

Bogdan Yakimov 6’ 4” 200 lbs – Big center who has a great shot. He can also play in front of the net in the offensive zone. Another longer term prospect, he has the tools to be a good player down the road, but needs to improve his puck handling while skating.

Markus Söberg 6’ 165 lbs – Fast, fast, fast. He can flat out skate. He is starting to put up some better offensive numbers, and he could be a bit of a sleeper pick.

Teemu Kivihalme 6’ 165 lbs – I thought I would put a pair of defensemen on this list, and I’ll start with Teemu. He is a long term prospect which is ideal for the Red Wings because they have a lot of defenseman who are 1-2 years away from being ready for NHL duty. He is very mobile in all four directions with a good shot, and has a tendency to play with aggression. Physical despite his size, if he fills out a bit more, he could become quite a player down the road.

Conner Clifton 6’ 167 lbs – A proven winner, this defenseman is a small yet very physical presence on the ice. Loves to throw big hits, and he can skate very well. Still needs to bulk up a bit, but if he does, he could become the type of defenseman the NHL teams love.

Marcus Högberg 6’ 4” 196 lbs – I decided to put a later round goalie on this list too. He’s big, and does well under pressure. He takes away the lower half of the net well, and his size helps him take away the top of the net while he is covering the lower half.

Remember, there is no way the Red Wings will be able to draft all these players, because many of them are expected to be picked at similar times in the draft. As you can see by my picks, I want this team to focus on offense during this draft. I wouldn’t mind defenseman or a goalie, but I wouldn’t look in that direction until the 3^rd round. The only exception is if a defenseman that is rated way higher somehow falls to them. It’s possible, but I don’t see that happening.

Ken Holland has always stated in the past that the draft is like a crapshoot. You get roughly seven chances each year to find players that will contribute to your team in the future. If two of those players end up playing in the NHL, it was a successful draft. The best player available strategy is certainly one the Red Wings have embraced, and it has worked. That is perhaps the biggest difference between the NHL draft and the more highly publicized NFL and NBA drafts. Most of the players taken in the NHL draft are not expected to step in and contribute right away.

I look at things in a similar way to taking the absolute best player available, but my view is slightly different. Also, based on what Ken Holland has done in the draft over the past few years, he sees things similarly to me. I look at the system of prospects as a whole, and see what we need to fill there. Then I look at the Red Wings, and see what prospects will need to be graduating within the next year. Then, I would draft where we have and are going to have holes in our prospect pool. I would never try and draft for need based on what is currently happening in the NHL. Obviously by looking at the Red Wings right now you can say we have Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, while there are guys like Gustav Nyqust and Tomas Tatar just getting their start on the team, so why do we need offense in the draft? Well looking at our pool of prospects, although we have a lot of good forward prospects not yet in the NHL, I’m not convinced that any of them will step up to be perennial all-stars like Datsyuk and Zetterberg. On the other hand, we do have a lot of defense prospects. In fact, I believe that we have too many NHL caliber defensemen based on the number of prospects we have, and how many spots there are on our roster. As far as goalies go, we have Howard locked down in the NHL, a solid prospect playing in the junior leagues, and a potential stud playing in the AHL. I suppose we could add one more goalie to the pool, but it’s not top priority in my opinion.

I don’t want to overanalyze who the Red Wings are going to pick the draft. Holland really is correct when he says it’s like a crapshoot. What teams are going to do is completely unexpected, and there could be a player available that we never dreamed of getting. It happens in every draft in every league. Luckily for the Red Wings, because they have done such a good job drafting over the past few years, they can afford to gamble on this pick a little bit. They can take a player with boom or bust potential, and not be set back too much if it is a bust. The guy I mentioned earlier that is probably the biggest boom or bust type player is Andre Burakowsky.

Another possibility I could see playing out is the Red Wings trading their 1^st round pick this year to trade down in the draft. If the Red Wings see about 5 players their scouts have rated equally when it’s their turn to pick, they might just trade down and get an extra draft pick from another team in the process. With this being a deep draft, there could be some very quality talent later in the 1^st round or even the early second round. Personally, I think with this draft the Red Wings should go for quality over quantity since they have traded away so many of their first round picks the past few years.

One thing I heard rumblings about, but do not see happening is the Red Wings making a trade to move up in the draft. That completely goes against Holland’s philosophy, and it will likely be expensive. As excited as I would be about a move like that, it would have to be a perfect scenario. I won’t completely rule it out though because we do have some pieces we can trade including some young promising defenseman in Brendan Smith and Jakub Kindl, a more veteran defenseman in Carlo Colaiacovo, some forward prospects in Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar, a gritty veteran forward in Jordan Tootoo, and the rights to Valtteri Filppula. It really would come down to how high they would be trading up, and who is available at the pick they would be trading to. Like I said, although it’s a possibility, I still don’t see it happening. Realistically, I predict the Red Wings will keep their pick and draft at number 18 overall because it is a high pick for them. It just so happens that my prediction falls in line with what I want them to do.

All seven rounds of the draft are taking place this Sunday. Next week I plan to recap the Red Wings draft picks, and let you know what I think of them. One thing I’m sure of now is that I’m excited to see what happens.

What would you like to see the Red Wings do with this draft pick? Is there a certain player or position they should target? Should they trade the pick? Should they stay at 18^th overall? Why?

Buyouts/Free Agency

Before I get into what I planned to talk about this week, I just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate the Grand Rapids Griffins on winning the 2013 Calder Cup! That is a huge accomplishment, and it is a testament to how well this Red Wings organization has developed prospects over the past few years. Also, congratulations to Tomas Tatar on being the MVP of the AHL playoffs. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can contribute to the Red Wings next year.

Anyway, back to what I was planning on discussing for this week’s post. During this summer, teams will have the ability to buy out players using the NHL’s amnesty clause. There seems to be a lot of people who are confused about what the amnesty clause is and how it works, so here’s an explanation of it in my own words to try and make it as simple as possible for you.

First, here is some background information on why the amnesty clause exists. The lockout this season was due to the players association and owners debating how money will be divided between them. With that, there were a lot of changes made to the league so it functions better overall. This includes a new set of parameters for player contracts and a new lower salary cap. Lowering the salary cap would be unfair to teams who made expensive deals with players in the past expecting that the salary cap would be close to what is was this past season ($70,200,000). The new salary cap will be $64,300,000, so it will decrease by nearly $6,000,000. Because of this, the league has allowed each team to have two amnesty buyouts. These buyouts will not count against the salary cap, and they can take place either this summer or next summer. After that, there are no more amnesty buyouts. If a player is bought out, they cannot resign with the team that bought them out for a year.

Simply put, you can get rid of two players over the next two summers for free as far as the salary cap is concerned. The question now is, who do we get rid of? In my opinion, we should use no more than one buyout this summer. I’ve heard a lot of talk about buying out Johan Franzen, and I understand why people would be in favor of this. He is wildly inconsistent, he is the 3^rd highest paid forward on the team at a cap hit of $3,954,545, and he is signed until the year 2020. Some people say that his decline has begun, and that contract will be terrible in the future. I can agree with every one of those points, but I also think it would be stupid to buy him out… this summer.

Franzen is still playing well, and was on pace for 28 goals in this past shortened season. There’s no reason to go into next season without him. We need to watch him next season, and reevaluate him at that point. That is the time to buy him out if he is still underperforming. If he plays well though, I think we should keep him beyond that. However, that’s why I think it would be smart to only buy out one player this summer, so we have options next summer.

So, who do we buy out if we are only going to use one? My pick is Mikael Samuelsson. Sure, he is only signed through next year, but he is making $3,000,000. That’s too much for what he can bring to the table, and I think that money can be used elsewhere.

Todd Bertuzzi might retire, so there would be no need to buy him out. Plus, if he doesn’t, I think he brings more to the table than Samuelsson because of his leadership, grit, and shootout ability. His cap hit is also lower than Samuelsson at $2,075,000 through next year.

Carlo Colaiacovo is a strong buyout candidate. The only reason I choose Samuelsson over Colaiacovo is because Colaiacovo has a lower cap hit, $2,500,000 through next year. Maybe he can be included in some sort of trade instead.

Jordin Tootoo gives the team some sandpaper which is something we don’t have a lot of. His cap hit is lower too at $1,900,000 for the next two years.

All the other players who are not free agents I think are the best options this team has, and are worth the money. This includes Kyle Quincey and Jonathan Ericsson.

This leaves the free agent market, and trades. We have a lot of defenseman, and a fairly deep prospect pool at the forward position, so I could definitely see some pieces traded away for a proven goal scorer this summer. Time will tell with trades, because they can be very unpredictable. With the amnesty clause this summer even more so.

The Red Wings also have a number of players that will be free agents this summer. Some notables include Valtteri Filppula, Dan Cleary, Gustav Nyquist, Jakub Kindl, Brendan Smith, Damien Brunner, and Joakim Andersson.

Filppula will likely be asking for too much, so we can let him walk. Not to mention he had a poor year this past year, and we have younger players ready to step up and play his role.

I will miss Cleary, but it’s not worth it to sign him. There are too many up and coming good players that his leadership and grit isn’t worth the money and roster spot. However, I would not be surprised to see Ken Holland bring him back for a short term deal that is inexpensive. I suppose if they can keep him for under $1.5 M then it would be okay, but it’s not my first choice.

Everyone else I want to keep. Nyquist and Kindl played very well this past season, and I believe they will be very good for us for years. Brunner was among the top goal scorers on the team this year, and we need goal scoring. Smith has potential to be a very good defenseman in the future, but he still has some growing to do. Andersson is a good bottom line center who has size and very good defensive awareness.

Some free agents outside of the Red Wings organization I have heard people talking about targeting are Bryan Bickell, Nathan Horton, Mark Streit (he has since signed with Philadelphia), and Viktor Stalberg among others. I’ll just say right now that I don’t want us to target a defenseman. We have too many as is, so I am not sad that we didn’t get Streit. The only way I will change my opinion and think that we need a defenseman is if a trade is made that leaves a hole. Then all bets are off.

Although I would be okay with Bickell, Horton, and Stalberg, they are not ideal, and definitely not my top free agent targets. I think of them more as last resort type signings. Horton would be the closest to ideal of the bunch, and of the three I would have the least problem with us signing him. The problem with him is that he has had concussion issues. He has missed a lot of time with injuries, and I don’t know if it’s the best idea to sign a player like that. Stalberg is basically another Filppula as far as point production, and I have heard that he isn’t a great locker room guy. He has disputed his playing time with coaches in the past, and that sounds selfish to me. Bickell is a bit of a hothead in my opinion. Plus, Bickell is not a goal scorer and he will probably command too much money for what he is. I think it would be redundant to have Bickell and Abdelkader on the same team.

I believe there will be a lot of players available this summer due to teams buying out their bad contracts. There is no telling exactly who will be bought out, but one possibility is Dany Heatley.

Heatley is a sniper with size, and he is a former 50 goal scorer in this league. However, his point production tapered off the past few years while playing in San Jose and Minnesota. He has a cap hit of $7,500,000 through next year. He is underperforming based on his contract, and he is only 32 years old. If he is bought out, I would love to see the Wings make a run at him. Playing with the likes of Datsyuk and Zetterberg could really help him out. Also, Heatley will come at a bit of a discount because he will already expect to make less than he has been making, and since he is 32, his contract can be front loaded so the cap hit will be even less.

For those of you who are not familiar with how cap hits work, here’s a quick explanation. The cap hit is the average amount of money per year that a player makes over the duration of his contract. For instance, in the case of Dany Heatley, he could make $7 M for the first 3 years of a contract, and then since he will be getting older and it’s expected that his production will drop off, he can be paid $5 M for a year, then $3 M for a year, then $1 M during the last year of his contract. This an example of front loading a contract since he is making more money in the first few years of it. Keep in mind, these numbers are fictional, and I don’t know what he would really sign for. Next, you add up the total money and divide it by the total years. In this instance, this is a $30 M contact that spans 6 years which equates to a $5 M cap hit. The cap hit is the number that counts against the salary cap.

Obviously it’s hard to predict who will be available, but the lineup I’m posting below would be a potential scenario. My opinions will be changed once I see who actually is available and what trades are made, but at this point I would be okay with this:

Forwards:

Justin Abdelkader ($1.8 M)           Pavel Datsyuk ($6.7 M)                  Dany Heatley ($5.1 M)

Johan Franzen ($3.95 M)              Henrik Zetterberg ($6.08 M)            Gustav Nyquist ($2 M)

Tomas Tatar ($0.84 M)                 Darren Helm ($2.125 M)                 Damien Brunner ($2.5 M)

Drew Miller ($1.35 M)                   Joakim Andersson ($1 M)               Todd Bertuzzi ($2.075 M

Jordin Tootoo ($1.9 M)                  Cory Emmerton ($0.53 M)              Patrick Eaves ($1.2 M)     

Defensemen:

Niklas Kronwall ($4.75 M)             Jonathan Ericsson ($3.25 M)

Jakub Kindl ($1.6 M)                    Danny DeKeyser ($1.35 M)

Kyle Quincey ($3.775 M)              Brendan Smith ($1.3 M)

Carlo Colaiacovo ($2.5 M)             Brian Lashoff ($0.725 M)

Goalies:

Jimmy Howard ($5.29 M)

Jonas Gustavsson ($1.5 M)

Payroll:                               $64,192,879

Salary Cap:                         $64,300,000

Remaining Cap Space:         $117,121

As you can see, we have an entire forward line and a defense pairing left over. Those can either be trade pieces, extra depth for injuries, or fillers if anyone on the depth chart above them is traded. Honestly, I would like to see them make a trade. There are some serviceable players left on those extra lines that eat up a decent chunk of salary. If they can swing some of those players as pieces in a trade for either high draft picks, or a top player/prospect, I would be excited. I understand that the players on the extra lines alone probably could not bring in anything with too much value, but they can still be used to sweeten a deal that involves some of our roster players or prospects. The fact of the matter is, we have too many players under contract, and we have a number of young players pushing for NHL duty. There is too much of a logjam at the bottom of our roster for there not to be a trade in my opinion.

Ken Holland has taken a conservative approach in the past, so I’m not expecting a huge splash this summer, but I do expect more than last summer. No matter what happens, we should have the space for at least one relatively big name free agent, and I think with the cap coming down this year we can get them for a good price. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens.

Who do you think should be our free agent target? Is there anyone you think will be bought out that we should target?

Season Overview

With the Detroit Red Wings exiting this year’s playoffs in the 2^nd round to the Chicago Blackhawks, and so many questions and opinions as to what needs to happen with this team during the offseason and into the future, I've decided to talk about the past season, and the state of the team as a whole.

First of all, I would like to just point out that I believe the Red Wings had a very good season. There was a lot of growing that took place, and I believe there are many reasons you should be hopeful about this team’s future. However, there are more reasons than meets the eye.

This season was one of change. With Nick Lidstrom and Tomas Holmstrom retiring, and the loss of Brad Stuart and Jiri Hudler to free agency, this team lost a combined 53 goals, a +38 rating, and years of leadership that include 10 Stanley Cups and our captain who just happened to arguably be the best defenseman of all time. Okay, Brad Stuart was technically a trade, but he would've been gone had we not traded him anyway. How then was it possible not only for this team to make the playoffs, but then push the President’s Trophy winning Chicago Blackhawks to overtime in a game 7 in the second round of the playoffs? Well, there are a number of answers to that question, and no one of those answers is the lone correct answer. There are many factors that are in play here.

Whether you credit this team’s work ethic, superior coaching, or our goaltending, you will be correct in crediting a factor that made us successful. However, I believe the biggest reason we were able to be successful in the playoffs is due to the fact that this team has done a phenomenal job in the draft, especially since the 2004-2005 lockout. We are just now seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of these picks. Look at players on the team this year that were either drafted or picked up as an undrafted free agent:

Goaltenders:

Jimmy Howard: 2^nd round 2003

Petr Mrazek: 5^th round 2010 (He only played in two games, but he played well and has shown a lot of promise)

Defenseman:

Niklas Kronwall: 1^st round 2000

Danny Dekeyser: Undrafted free agent

Kyle Quincy: 4^th round 2003

Brian Lashoff: Undrafted free agent

Brendan Smith: 1^st round 2007

Jonathan Ericsson: 9^th round 2002

Jakub Kindl: 1^st round 2005

Forwards:

Pavel Datsyuk: 6^th round 1998

Henrik Zetterberg: 7^th round 1999

Johan Franzen: 3^rd round 2004

Damien Brunner: Undrafted free agent

Valtteri Filppula: 3^rd round 2002

Justin Abdelkader: 2^nd round 2005

Cory Emmerton: 2^nd round 2006

Joakim Andersson: 3^rd round 2007

Tomas Tatar: 2^nd round 2009

Gustav Nyquist: 4^th round 2008

If you throw in Darren Helm 5^th round 2005 who only played in one game this season due to injuries, Jan Mursak 6^th round 2006 who only played in two games this year for the Wings, and spent the rest of his time in Grand Rapids, and Riley Sheahan 1^st round 2010 who like Mursak only played one game for the Wings this year before spending the rest of his time in Grand Rapids, it’s easy to see how much homegrown talent this team has. It is going to keep coming too. The minor leagues are stacked for this team. In fact, our AHL affiliate team where we keep a lot of our prospects is currently up 2 games to 0 in the Calder Cup Finals. The Calder Cup is the equivalent to the Stanley Cup for that league, so it's a pretty big deal.

Keeping homegrown talent like this is what Ken Holland has come up with in order to stay consistently competitive in this league. Young talent usually provides teams with the most bang for their buck, because they are unproven and playing on cheap entry level contracts. However it can be risky since they are unproven. That’s why the Wings have started to stockpile some draft picks. With more “spins at the wheel” during the draft, the better chance we have to find serviceable youngsters that can grow into big time players down the line.

As I said earlier, we are just starting to see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the successful drafts this team has had over the past 8-10 years.

For instance, a complaint I heard a lot this year was that the team needed to be better defensively. Frankly, I can’t stand it when people say that. I mean sure, who wouldn’t like to get better defensively? I would think every team would like to give up fewer goals. However, in the Wings case, they were the 5^th best defensive team in the regular season when it comes to goals against/game with 2.29 goals against/game. Contrast that with the fact the team was 20^th in the league with 2.54 goals for/game, I think it’s easy to see where our bigger area of need is. We need goal scorers.

I understand that when we lose a Hall of Fame caliber defenseman like Lidstrom, people will immediately jump to the conclusion that the defense can’t possibly be as good anymore, and they might be right. However we had some players step up big time this year. Jonathan Ericsson, Brendan Smith, Danny Dekeyser, and especially in my opinion Jakub Kindl are just a few examples.

I just want everyone to know that the defense is fine. Should they add one during free agency this summer? Maybe, but it would only be for experience and leadership purposes. It would be hard to do without a trade though. Here’s why I’m so confident about our defense: We have a lot of young talented defenseman both in the NHL and in our prospect pool. For instance, last year Danny Dekeyser was the CCHA Defenseman of the Year, Nick Jensen (one of our prospects) was the WCHA Defenseman of the Year, and Ryan Sproul (another one of our prospects) was the OHL and CHL Defenseman of the Year. Those are some impressive awards we have for defenseman in our system. I’m especially impressed with Ryan Sproul. He has a cannon for a shot, and he put up monster point totals from the blue line this year. A few players who have recently won the CHL Defenseman of the Year include Dougie Hamilton, Ryan Ellis, Keith Yandle, Dan Hamhuis, and even Brad Stuart. Toss into the mix that players like Marc Staal, Jake Muzzin, and Drew Doughty won the OHL Defenseman of the Year recently, and it’s easy to see that Sproul has a bright future in front of him. He will be playing in Grand Rapids full time next year.

That’s not the end of the line when it comes to our defense prospects, however I’ll touch on the prospects more in a future post. For now, I’ll leave with the statement that the Wings had a great season, and there is a lot of hope for the future especially on our blue line.

QUESTION: With the new collective bargaining agreement and to combat the decrease in salary cap, each team is allowed to buyout two players over the course of the next two summers (2013 and 2014) so their contracts will not count against the salary cap. However, if we buy out a player, they cannot resign with us for an entire year, and they will likely be picked up by another team by that time. Is there anyone on this team you would like to see bought out? And why?

Welcome to My Blog

Hello everyone,

My name is Alex Mager, and I am going to be writing a blog for you regarding the Detroit Red Wings. I currently attend Michigan Technological University, and I am a goalie on their club hockey team. I also played travel hockey for years before attending college.

Now, I realize just stating the fact that I play hockey isn't enough credibility to make my opinions better or more logical than anyone else, but I do like to think that I have an understanding of the game, and an understanding of how the NHL works a little bit. I’m one of those people who can’t go a day without checking the latest hockey news, especially as it pertains to the Red Wings.

The reason I am writing this blog is because I feel that I need to share my opinions both on how the team has performed, and what I think the team needs to do next. Whether it’s listening to people talking about hockey on the radio, listening to friends and colleagues talk hockey, or reading on message boards, I can’t help but disagree with a lot of the things people are saying about this team. It has really reached a new level now that Lidstrom has retired and people aren't as sure about the future as they once were. I’ll make sure to talk about prospects, current players, how the team has played recently, as well as more technical things like contract situations and explain what I think is in store for this team.

I hope to write this blog in a way that it can be followed by most everyone who has even a slight interest in hockey. However, if I am ever unclear about something, you have a question for me, or you disagree with my point on something, feel free to comment on my posts. I will try to comment myself to address them, or I might even spin your comment into the topic of my next post. I will also be posting poll questions, so feel free to leave me feedback through those as well.

I plan to post weekly, so make sure to stop by regularly. However, in the dog days of summer there might be a few weeks taken off because there’s honestly not much to talk about. I do have a lot of things I want to talk about right off the bat though with this season recently ending, the draft approaching, and then free agency after that.

I hope you enjoy my posts, and I look forward to interacting with all of you about the coolest game on earth, and the best team that plays it.