I for one think your if I were GM should be short and simple "we offer sheet Connor Bedard." Done.

Yea, there seemed to be a lot of smoke of that very rumor so I'd believe it

True true

Not saying this is wrong, but I didn't think Hughes could sign an extension until July 1

Only reason I could see would be a chance to play alongside Jack Hughes, but yea I don't see him waiving it. I do wonder if it'd be for the better for both organization and Larkin, like it's gotta weigh on him everything that's happened in the last decade.

Although if you're trading say Larkin for Hischier or Thomas, I wouldn't mind that.

The other problem is Seider, Ed, and Ray are so good that unless the other draftees all flop and we have nothing else, trading Larks/Cat probably doesn't make us bad enough to get another top top player unless we get lucky

I see a lot of people say to blow it up, but I'm curious what that actually means? Is it trade Larkin/Cat or is it blow it all the way up trade Ray, Seider, and Ed, cause I'd rather keep those 3

True, but Kasper didn't exactly blow anyone away until the second half of last season. Analytically, MBN looked good and both him and Danny(when healthy) have had good seasons down in GR. I think ASP needs to get stronger and he'll be good. Are any of them going to be stars, probably not though

I hope so, this organization needs a win in the worst way right now

I looked earlier and across his 1st 2 seasons at 5v5 he still scored at a higher rate than Hintz did. Hintz had a massive jump in season 3 fwiw

I say fuck it, throw a massive offer sheet at Carlsson, like 15 million per year and see if Anaheim has the appetite to match.

He kind of did in the first couple years, Fabbri, Walman, Vrana, even Ned and Husso. He just hasn't recently

Yea that's definitely the only hiccup I see. There's also Bedard or Fantilli but I think Chicago is more likely to match and I'm not sure Fantilli is quite worth that yet

Honestly, I think I'd offer sheet Leo Carlsson. Something like 14 mil a year. Anaheim has a lot of cap space but in the past they've had an internal cap, that might be too rich for them. 4 1sts is a lot but based on where we're at I'd be fine with it.

You know what, the Red Wings should offer sheet Bedard and Carlsson this off-season. Go huge, we can survive without 4 1sts

🤣

I don't see why they would. The deal is fair but not smart on their part

Yea that's the really dumb part. It ain't over but damn we need to find something to save our season

That's definitely fair. We gotta hope, it's all we got.

This is true. The good news is both their 5v5 production hasn't been to dissimilar to either Hintz or Eriksson-Ek. So there's still hope there, but next year is really the year Kasper needs to take off

Seider, Ed, Ray + someone like Fantilli or Carlsson for example looks like a very core 4 to build around, especially with everything else we have in the system.

I think they drafting the MBNs, Danielsons, Bears works a lot better if there is a bonafide superstar forward prospect to lead the team at the top.

It's always felt to me like trading Hronek should have meant trading Larkin and basically reset the rebuild. We probably don't sniff the playoffs the last couple years but maybe we're drafting high enough to grab that high end center that for better with Seider/Raymond age group

I think an outside voice like Shanny would be huge. Someone Stevie would respect but also with a different perspective.

We have good forward prospects, and maybe one of them is more impactful than expected, but the top end of the team still has questions that I'm not sure have answers in the system. There could be answers, but it seems like where we're stuck the most.

On the other hand, he hasn't been particularly savvy, especially lately. Gibson was a good trade, and JVR were good pickups, but it feels like we're just stuck in neutral, hoping the prospects take the next step. That's fine, but the concerns about offense remain. Can he fix that going forward?

I agree, I'm scared of any replacement. I don't think Yzerman has necessarily done a bad job, I mean this is the 3rd year in a row we've been right there for a playoff spot entering March. I'm not sure it's fair to blame him for the team collapsing each spring.

It is incredible how quickly everything falls apart for this team this time of month. They've done so much good this season, it's so hard to see them just blow it.

I sometimes wonder if this team is scared of actually making the playoffs