I had a really shitty setback today, illness-wise, so I wasn’t able to come back for tonight’s game vs. the Senators, as initially planned.
Nonetheless, as I continue to recover from this viral illness/flu bug, I have some thoughts regarding what’s going on with the Red Wings.
- As I said on Twitter, I understand that Simon Edvinsson is pissed off at the Red Wings right now. He came over to training camp on his own dime and his own insurance premium, and the Wings were unable or unwilling to offer him a contract worth sticking around for…But Edvinsson is going to be the best player in any deal involving him, so the Red Wings have a) neither the obligation to trade him, b) nor the inclination to accommodate his request. If I’m Detroit, I get someone over to Gothenburg, Sweden right fricking now with a Brinks truck full of money–I don’t care whether he costs $10+ million to sign to a long-term contract–and I get the deal done.
- I also said on Twitter that, if Mike Ilitch where still alive, he would have flown to Gothenburg on the corporate jet himself to sort out the situation. I really do believe that…
- And as such, I felt that Chris Ilitch’s LinkedIn post was, at the same time, both well-intended and incredibly tone-deaf. It read like a press release, and it read like someone else could have written it for him. I wanted to read something that was actually written by a human being, and instead, it was corporate double-speak, not acknowledging the issues which have the fans frustrated. Did it make things worse? No, but it sure as hell didn’t make things better.
- As far as Dylan Larkin’s play is concerned, to me, he’s a warm body that can post a point per game or nearly so for the Red Wings for as long as he’s employed by the Red Wings. He’s eventually going to be traded out of Detroit, regardless of the timeline thereof, but for now, our unpleasant feelings toward Larkin for asking for a trade are somewhat irrelevant once his skates hit the ice in Red Wings colors. To some extent, we have to disassociate the man from the player, and cheer for the assets he can provide for the team we’re rooting for for as long as he’s here. He’s an employee of the Detroit Red Wings, and whatever positives he can bring on the ice, that’s all that matters right now.
- As I write this, the Red Wings are in the 2nd intermission of a hard-fought game against the Ottawa Senators, and Detroit has a tough set of back-to-backs against Seattle and then in Montreal this weekend, all down Marco Kasper, Mason Appleton and J.T. Compher, which yields handicapped, thin set of forwards. As such, coach McLellan going 11 forwards and 7 defensemen makes sense, and it’s been great to see Albert Johansson step up as Moritz Seider’s D partner, and it’s been really enthusing to see the team slowly but surely build that McLellan identity as harder to play against and a little harsher upon their opponents. I know that the first two games were disappointing, but it’s early yet, and there’s still time for the team to evolve into a harder, faster and better collection of individuals who are coming together to play for both each other and the fans who they represent.
- In other words, there’s hope yet. The Wings just have to embody it.
- Finally, I was very happy to read that the Wings are revamping their scouting department to some extent, with Kris Draper becoming the head of the pro scouting department, Jesse Wallin taking over amateur scouting, and Mark Leach returning from Toronto (and Dallas before that) as a head scout.
- All of that is good for the organization, and it was equally encouraging to hear Nicklas Lidstrom tell Expressen’s Gunnar Nordstrom last week that he would remain the VP of hockey operations. I know that some of this reads like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic, but the Wings’ listing ship can still be turned back in a prosperous direction if managed well by Shawn Horcoff and the management team.
Good read. Like to see your thoughts.
I have given up on Chris Ilitch as an owner. That’s the common thread between the failures of the Tigers and the Red Wings. And it boils down to money. The Tigers never made a serious effort to extend Skubal — the best pitcher of his generation. This alone maybe wasn’t a horrible decision, although as the lone sport without a salary cap, there was nothing to stop them other than being too cheap. But what made it so much worse was then waiting to trade him until they could only get pennies on the dollar. With a little shrewd investment, the Tigers could still be playing in the postseason right now, as their underlying metrics (aside from the bullpen) were that of a playoff team.
Now we discover that Detroit’s trying to low-ball Edvinsson, based on the wrong-headed principle that they can’t pay him more than their highest-paid player (which was the same reason the Seider and Raymond offers came in so low, though for some reason they were willing to accept them). But the NHL is a business. All of the baseline salaries have been re-set, especially this last offseason. I don’t know that Edvinsson will ever attain the level that would justify Hughes-Makar money, but he’s certainly in the echelon of $9-11 million defensemen, and there’s no reason he should settle for a dime less than that. Especially when the organization seems lost at sea in terms of building a contender.