Monday Mailbag: Post-draft edition

Things are weird in Red Wings land. After an expansion draft situation where it looked like the Red Wings might lose Petr Mrazek for nothing, they lost Tomas Nosek who is probably more of a net-equal than anything. Then there was the NHL Entry Draft, where the Wings had a bunch of cool guys on the board to pick and went to a guy that just about everyone in my timeline was saying they didn’t want their team to take him (not just Red Wings fans).

We asked for questions about everything in Detroit and y’all gave us questions. Now we’re giving you some answers. Let’s do our best to figure out this really silly organization.

Yes! In many places, the sales have already begun! The cheapest prices I’ve seen are at Coolhockey.com, but it’s not the only legitimate place you can go. Expect sales everywhere, if they haven’t happened already.

In his draft-1 year, Svechnikov scored 58 points in 48 games in the USHL. McDavid scored 99 in 56 in the OHL. Matthews scored 48 in 24 games with the USNTDP. So not very close.

Dahlen is a defenceman and is rumoured to be one of the best in years, but we heard the same things about Timothy Liljegren who then had a rough draft year. Defencemen are much harder to project, and I don’t think either talent measures up to #34& 97. They’re both quality pieces that are probably better than anything the Red Wings have right now, but we’ve still got a year to go from the draft and we’ll have to see 365 more days more footage.

That being said, #TankForSvechBros or whatever the hashtag the kids are doing is definitely the way to go for the Wings this year. #AllInForDahlen?

Brendan Smith was probably the best defenceman on the Wings of the past two seasons and yet he never got played as anything other than a third pairing guy. The Leafs, and any other #ActuallyGood team, should sign him, as he likely won’t be very expensive and maybe you’ll even be able to trade for his brother Reilly.

The Red Wings could re-sign him, of course, but

One team has an experienced GM, a collection of random forwards who can’t score, a confusing mix of a lot of defenders with experience but who are probably overvalued, and some decent goaltending but the old guy will probably play more than the younger options.

The other is the Red Wings.

Vegas 80 points, Detroit 79. Book it.

3. In 50 games.

Thanks to prospect-stats.com!

Note, sometimes primary stats are incorrectly recorded. But he also only had 7 5v5 assists all year, which isn’t very good.

See point above.

We didn’t give it an official grade, but it was probably a C at best. Rasmussen was probably almost certainly not the best pick available, and Vilardi was just one of many better options. Vilardi, for example, had 15 primary assists at 5v5.

Gustav Lindstrom, as well, was an off the board pick. He didn’t crack the Nation Network top 100, or many other people’s for that matter.

Jason Robertson, a OHL pick from the Kingston Frontenacs (who was taken #39 by the Dallas Stars) scored 42 goals and 81 points, which was a better points per game rate than… Michael Rasmussen.

Take that as you will.

😀

I don’t think it means a whole lot, other than that the team’s looking to fill in a few different body types in their role. Nothing wrong with going big, it just might be the wrong mindset if it’s the most important thing to do. I wouldn’t have drafted that way, but I’m just me and Ken Holland is Ken Holland.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯