‘Take meme out’

This is a “beef post,” because I have some issues with these kinds of popular Tweets/X posts:

Honestly, I don’t get it. You’ve got four of the best young defensemen in the NHL and four of the best young forwards in the NHL, and you want me to bag on “the other guys.”

On the blueline, Jake Sanderson’s a speedy puck-handler who runs Ottawa’s power play, Owen Power is, for lack of a better term, developing into a very powerful all-round defenseman, Noah Dobson is becoming an incredibly versatile contributor for the Islanders’ blueline, and Moritz Seider’s the charismatic all-round defender that Red Wings fans love because he can blow up players with big hits, block shots, rifle shots through goaltenders and make seeing-eye passes, all while displaying remarkable durability and poise.

In the case of the forwards, you’ve got a true “power center” in Quinton Byfield, a late-developer who’s become a gritty sniper in Lafreniere, perhaps one of the best play-makers in the world in Tim Stuetzle, and I’m biased about Lucas Raymond’s tremendous multi-tool arsenal of shooting, passing, skating and even forechecking skills. Raymond’s not as big as Byfield, as net-front-driving as Lafreniere, or as intuitive a playmaker as Stuetzle, but I’d rather have Raymond over all of ’em.

But that’s just my opinion, man, and I’m not about to bag on some of the best young players in the world because they’re not on “my team.”

The “start-bench-cut” memes and “one has to go” posts get a lot of engagement on Twitter/X because people love to argue with each other, but I believe that it’s a bad strategy to diminish what the NHL and its partners like Sportsnet should be selling 100% of to their fan bases and casual fans alike.

These are great young players. Don’t meme ’em to death.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!