NHL.com offers a mid-July look at the Red Wings’ “roster reset,” as penned by Nicholas J. Cotsonika. Cotsonika states the obvious after highlighting the Red Wings’ additions…
What they still need: Difference-makers. The biggest reason the Red Wings have fallen off after a quarter-century of success is the erosion of their top-end talent. Defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom retired in 2012. Center Pavel Datsyuk returned to Russia in 2016. Center Henrik Zetterberg is 37 and battling back problems, and although he is expected to return this season, it is not certain. The Red Wings need to draft and develop not just NHL players, but impact players. Can Zadina be one?
And fantasy hockey expert Rob Reese offers this take on the Wings’ fantasy hockey impact:
The Red Wings seem to be moving away from the veterans-first mentality we’ve come to know over the years with Rasmussen, Zadina and Svechnikov all expected to compete for roster spots. Rasmussen could slot in as the No. 2 center behind Larkin, potentially replacing Zetterberg. Zadina also had impressive production at the junior level. In a best-case fantasy scenario, Zadina would slot in on either the first or second line and could be counted on to provide scoring for the first power-play unit. The Red Wings have a bright fantasy future, and potential owners should get ahead of the curve by targeting their young core in late rounds. — Rob Reese
this sort of depressing when he brings up dats and lids as they were both at super star level (even though dats stats might not have been at the top he did non scoring things that made him a superstar) players with extreme elite level hockey minds whom thought the game at such a high level they made anybody they made all 4 guys they were on the ice with WAY better . a prime example was dats bouncing pux in off pylon gator . lids and dats together were both elite level clutch and pp guys that won game after game for wings for many years while wings had an average roster . and both them were here because wings led the way in scouting europeans , without those 2 players (and scotty) holland would have been canned a decade ago . a now weve just watched holland throw away draft after draft for like 15 years of floundering besides some recent picks like larks and mantha . my only hope is the core of the problem was nill and that now wright can right the ship and reinstitute the rite of the drw getting to write their names upon lord stanleys cup 😉 * yes the same old childish sense of humor lol
The unwillingness to prioritize drafting defensemen often enough or high enough – and dismal results when they tried – is still a bit baffling to me.
*Kindl is no longer in NA
*Smith was buried in the minors and seems to have a ton of iffy
depth guys and prospects ahead of him now
*Ouellet is on a one-year, two-way deal with his floundering hometown club
*Sproul no longer appears to be in the Rangers organization
Jensen and even Marchenko were good value picks for where they were selected. Hicketts may make it as third pairing D – or not. The other two guys who were signed, Russo and Renouf were moved out for a total of a conditonal 7th we will likely never see. DeKeyser was a very worthwhile and somewhat fortunate signing – though we seemed to expect far too much from him
I suppose I can even reference the bizarre payment of a mid-late #1 pick for Kyle Quincey among the beyond questionable moves on D.
But the most damning part is seeing how many years we either only drafted one or two D very late – or didn’t draft any at all.
Where did we think we would find them? Taking a chance on Suter? The Quincey acquisition? Unrequited love for Niskanen and Stralman, etc?
I’ll give George props for his insistence that the #16 pick and Pav’s contract, for the picks that became Cholowski and Hronek might end up paying off. I’m one of a few who got pretty worked up about that one, because dropping four spots when you’ve rarely had a sniff at mid-round pick for one year of cap relief that is then immediately squandered seemed the wrong way to rebuild. But no doubt, if one or both of those picks end up better than Chychrun we won that trade and added some young skill to our D in the draft. Credit where due.