Compete Level

He did but captain has two PPPs tonight

Kasper, two minutes for being near Chris Tanev when he fell down

Leaves immediately take a penalty

I’d say the refs saw a replay but that was a legit trip

Raymond back

Phillipe Myers steps around two Wings fourth liners and makes it 3-2

What a weird game

Tanev ties it with 1.8 left

Edvinsson had a chance at an empty netter earlier but tried to get Kane the puck

Awesome that the Wings could lose this game and still draft after the Rangers

Of course Scott Laughton scored it

I don't know if there could have been a more fitting end to the Red Wings season:

They had a chance at an EN and got cute. Gave up the tying goal in regulation. Losing no longer mattered once they got to OT in terms of the draft pick. Even with DAKOTA MERMIS out there, the Leaves still scored.

Time to grade some MFers:

Goalies:

Sebastian Cossa (1 game, 1 W, 2.67 / .857): B. He won his first NHL game after coming in for the hurt starter. Hopefully he gets to start a bunch next year.
Petr Mrazek (5 games, 2 W, 2.49 / .902): B. I still don't think they needed to trade for him, but he got a shutout in one of his games and then left with an injury. That's the Petr Mrazek experience, all right. I guess we'll get more of it next year.
Ville Husso (9 games, 1 W, 3.69 / .866): D-. Unplayable in Detroit the last two seasons, somehow he managed a .925 in four games with Anaheim. I don't get it.
Alex Lyon (30 games, 14 W, 2.81 / .896): C. Never got on a hot run like he did last year. Had some good games but also seemed to leave with injuries a few times. As a person, he's my favorite Wings goalie in ages, but he was disappointing this year.
Cam Talbot (47 games, 21 W, 2.88 / .903 [before tonight]: B-. He had some good stretches but also fell apart in March with six straight losses, four of which had at least four goals allowed. He's fine, would be a good 1B, but can't rely on him as a 1A. I've heard rumors that he might retire. Who knows.

Defensemen:

Olli Maatta (7 games, 0 points): C. He wasn't great before they traded him, but he turned back into the reliable defensive defenseman that he'd been in Detroit once he got to Utah. God if they'd kept him and managed to move Holl.
William Lagesson (7 games, 1 point): D. I don't know what I should expect from an NHL/AHL tweener, but he made me pine for Jeff Petry.
Jeff Petry (44 games, 8 points): D+. Was hurt a big chunk of the year. Sometimes they'd put him on the PP and my eyes would bleed. Does he retire? Do they bring him back so he can reach 1000 games? Who knows. He's washed.
Justin Holl (73 games, 8 points): F. He was waived at the beginning of the year but nothing came of it. He's a defensive defenseman who is bad at defense. 25% of his points came in the meaningless last game of the year. Please buy him out.
Albert Johansson (61 games, 9 points): B+. He didn't get regular deployment until McLelland took over, but he turned out to be an excellent partner for Edvinsson. Has better offensive instincts than I expected (or that nine points would suggest), does get bodied off the puck sometimes. Needs to add muscle, but the brains are there. The most pleasant surprise on the team, to be honest.
Ben Chiarot (81 games, 13 points): C. His advance stats are still very bad, but the team did well once he went back with Seider. Ideally he's a third-pair guy next year. Benefitted most from having two regular defensemen who drove me absolutely insane.
Erik Gustafsson (60 games, 18 points): C-. I do not understand how his Corsi is 56%. He seems very much like an offensive defenseman who does not provide much offense, and fuck, when he played with Holl it was abysmal. He has another year, I guess give him another shot if they're buying out Holl (please buy out Holl).
Simon Edvinsson (78 games, 31 points): A-. Essentially his rookie year and he's clearly their second-best defenseman. Provided more offense than expected with no PP points. Had a few injury scares but didn't miss many games. Wasn't perfect defensively, but he's a rookie and he'll learn from the mistakes.
Moritz Seider (82 games, 46 points): A-. Played every game, averaging 25 minutes a night, played the toughest minutes, played the top PP. He's a beast. Looks great with Edvinsson but that made the other pairs too shitty. Physically punishing but doesn't get in stupid fights and doesn't go out of his way for hits. Got burned out down the stretch.

Forwards:

Carter Mazur (1 game, 0 points): INC. I cannot give a grade to a guy who got hurt in the second shift of his NHL debut. I hadn't even turned the TV on yet! He seems injury prone, hopefully he's healthy next year and makes the Wings' fourth line.
Dominik Shine (9 games, 1 point): C. Great story, glad he got into some games. Threw his body around, fought whoever would take him on, and mostly played within himself (short, short shifts). But he's an AHL guy.
Craig Smith (19 games, 2 points): C-. Not as frustrating from an eye-test perspective as Christian Fischer in that he made plays, but he had zero goals as a Wing. If getting moved from Chicago with Mrazek was a test of whether he could come back next year as a depth veteran, I can't say he passed.
Auston Watson (13 games, 3 points): C+. Have never liked the guy, but in terms of traditional "throw the body around and make things happen" fourth liners, he might've been the best fit. Score three goals, one of which was a beauty and one of which was an impossible fluke. He certainly threw hits and talked shit.
Christian Fischer (43 games, 7 points): D. Seems like a nice guy but if you're a defensive forward and the PK is brutally, brutally bad, what are you bringing to the table?
Tyler Motte (55 games, 9 points): C-. Marginally better than Fischer, but they're essentially the same player. Somehow got time with Larkin's line! He does not need to come back.
Joe Veleno (56 points, 10 games): C-. He always showed flashes of what he could do, but so many games he just didn't do anything. Liked rooting for him, seemed like a good guy off the ice, will not miss watching him.
Elmer Soderblom (26 games, 11 points): B+. Looked way better this time than his previous stint. Great hands and uses his body / reach to both get and protect the puck. Did well with Larkin and Raymond but I see him as a third-liner moving forward. Happy that he got another chance and made the most of it.
Michael Rasmussen (77 games, 21 points): C-. Seemed like he was turning a corner last year but he didn't contribute as much this season. Needs to be consistently physical to have an impact, and that comes and goes too much for him.

i was there, it was certainly a game

ask me how i came home with dennis hildeby's shoes

linseman wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 12:23 am i was there, it was certainly a game

ask me how i came home with dennis hildeby's shoes

???

Andrew Copp (56 games, 23 points): B. Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder, as lots of Wings fans who cursed Copp realized that him playing the toughest minutes was pretty key to the team's success. They did best when Kasper was up with Larkin and Raymond and Copp was centering Kane and DeBrincat. The points still aren't there, but he did a lot of work.
Jonatan Berggren (75 games, 24 points): C. His deployment was inconsistent: sometimes he'd be on PP2, sometimes he wouldn't, he played on all four lines with almost all possible linemates. He played with Marco Kasper for much of the first half of the season, but they just could not score. Here's the deal: if you're a smaller scoring winger, you have to score. Berggren needs to be a 40 point guy to justify his spot in the lineup. I don't know if he comes back, but if he does, it shouldn't be on the fourth line with guys like Ras and Motte. Obviously he's not going to score with Christian Fischer feeding him the puck.
JT Compher (76 games, 32 points): C-. Brutally snakebitten for long stretches, Compher played 2C or 3C for much of the year but just couldn't generate much offense. He does the defensive work, but not as well as Copp. The dropoff from 48 points was tough but he had a few seasons in Colorado with roughly this stat line so maybe that's what should be expected.
Vladimir Tarasenko (80 games, 33 points): D-. Did someone say brutally snakebitten? He fell off hard, both in goal-scoring (which is what he was signed to do) and possession numbers. Sometimes he'd still be working, but he made some of the worst, game-killing turnovers with blind passes. Got deployment up and down the top three lines and never found a spot. Needs to be moved or bought out.
Marco Kasper (76 games, 37 points): A-. Played 3C for most of the first half of the season and did the right things defensively but couldn't score much (7 points in 30 games through the end of December). After McLelland took over, he played either first-line wing or 2C and got 30 points in 47 games. The question on him was offensive ceiling and he's essentially already shown that he can be a 50 point guy. Great motor, super smart, more creative than expected.
Patrick Kane (72 games, 59 points): B+. You're signing this version of Patrick Kane to run your PP, and he had 29 points on an incredibly effective top unit. That's most of his job. He'd definitely stopped skating during the last two months of Lalonde's tenure (10 points in 22 games during October and November) and suddenly became vintage Kane after McLelland took over. They need him back.
Dylan Larkin (82 games, 70 points): B. Was a huge part of dragging the team back into a playoff spot, but never looked the same after Four Nations. I don't know if he was hurt or gassed, but he's the 1C and the captain and they needed more from him in late February and March when the team was falling apart, and he just couldn't do it. I don't agree with "They need to move him" arguments but it wasn't his best year.
Alex DeBrincat (80 games, 70 points): A. Almost 40 goals, despite his tendency to whiff on back-door tap-ins. This is precisely what they got him for and he delivered. Had a few down stretches, but that's par for the goal-scoring course.
Lucas Raymond (82 games, 80 points): A-. Was the Wings' best forward for long stretches, but that didn't include the post-Four Nations drop-off, when he looked gassed like Larkin. Still hit 80 points, the first Wing since Zetterberg to do so. But the question is whether he could've hit 90 and if they'd have made the playoffs if he did.

In terms of next year, as is, this is how lines would look if nothing really happens:

Raymond / Larkin / Berggren (RFA)
Kane (UFA) / Kasper / DeBrincat
Compher / Copp / Soderblom
Tarasenko / Rasmussen / Watson

Rookies: Mazur, Danielson, Lombardi, MBN
UFAs: Smith, Motte

Seider / Chiarot
Edvinsson / Johansson (RFA)
Gustafsson / Holl

Rookies: ASP, Buium, Wallinder
UFAs: Petry, Lagesson

Talbot / Mrazek

Rookie: Cossa
UFA: Lyon

Ideally (not entertaining the possibility of Marner):

Buy-outs: Holl, Tarasenko

Raymond / Larkin / Ehlers
Kane / Kasper / DeBrincat
Compher / Copp / Soderblom
Mazur / Rasmussen / Berggren?

Watson, rookies

Seider / Gavrikov
Edvinsson / Johansson
Chiarot / Sandin-Pellikka
Gustafsson

Talbot / Mrazek / Cossa

I don't know who'd fit, but they could use a legit physical / defensive forward for the fourth line.

Whether ASP is ready for full-time NHL duty is yet to be seen, but after Seider and Edvinsson there's a big need for offense from the D.

Ideally Cossa starts 30 games.

The best case scenario is that Yzerman catches a couple of big fish and rookies like ASP, Cossa, Mazur, Danielson, MBN, Wallinder, and Buium win spots, because I think the ceilings for those guys are higher than the depth veterans they have now or the consolation prizes on the market. Look at how Kasper, Soderblom, and Johansson did this year. Trust the young guys but give them insulation.

I ran Tankathon's sim lottery enough times for the Wings to move up (to second where they picked Michael Misa). I think it was the 25th time.

They'd moved down to 13th multiple times before that.

Grand Moff Larkin wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 8:37 am Andrew Copp (56 games, 23 points): B. Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder, as lots of Wings fans who cursed Copp realized that him playing the toughest minutes was pretty key to the team's success. They did best when Kasper was up with Larkin and Raymond and Copp was centering Kane and DeBrincat. The points still aren't there, but he did a lot of work.

desperately need copp to stay a wing and get a cup so that the only pic of an ann arbor kid with a cup on the wall at the cube isnt ian cole in a pens jersey

kit fox wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 8:36 pm

Grand Moff Larkin wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 8:37 am Andrew Copp (56 games, 23 points): B. Absence truly makes the heart grow fonder, as lots of Wings fans who cursed Copp realized that him playing the toughest minutes was pretty key to the team's success. They did best when Kasper was up with Larkin and Raymond and Copp was centering Kane and DeBrincat. The points still aren't there, but he did a lot of work.

desperately need copp to stay a wing and get a cup so that the only pic of an ann arbor kid with a cup on the wall at the cube isnt ian cole in a pens jersey

I don't think he's going anywhere but he only has two years left and the Wings would have to do some major work to turn that corner

Barf about Ian Cole, though