5 Key Stories: 12/19/16 – 12/24/16
The holiday roster freeze ensured that trades would not dominate the week’s headlines. Instead, injuries to key players would again be the theme. Here are five key stories from the week ending on Christmas Eve.
Ben Bishop Out For 3 – 4 Weeks
The Tampa Bay Lightning will have to manage without starting goaltender Ben Bishop for the next 3 – 4 weeks. Bishop injured his right leg in Tampa’s 4 – 1 win over Detroit and is set to miss the next nine games as a result. The 30-year-old netminder is slated to become a free agent next summer and is in the midst of a mediocre platform campaign with a GAA of 2.79 and a Save % of 0.907.
Detroit Will Be Without Jimmy Howard For 4 – 6 Weeks
Bishop’s counterpart Tuesday night, Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard, was also injured and is expected to miss anywhere from 4 – 6 weeks with a MCL sprain. Howard has adapted quite well to a reserve role with the Wings and has posted a GAA of 1.96 and a Save % of 0.934 through 17 appearances this season. His absence leaves the Red Wings with the inexperienced Jared Coreau as Petr Mrazek‘s backup between the pipes.
Tyler Pitlick To Miss Rest Of Season
Six years after being selected in the second-round by the Edmonton Oilers, Tyler Pitlick appeared to finally find his footing as NHL regular. The 6-foot, 202-pound forward had chipped in eight goals and 11 points in 31 games while playing mostly fourth-line minutes for the Oilers. Unfortunately, what was shaping up as a breakout season for Pitlick is now over, with the 25-year-old winger set to miss the rest of the season after tearing his ACL last Monday.
Longtime NHL Center David Legwand Retires From NHL
David Legwand will forever be remembered as the answer to a trivia question: Who was the first ever draft pick of the Nashville Predators franchise? Legwand was the second overall selection in the 1998 draft and after spending the first 14+ seasons with the Predators, the pivot was traded to Detroit at the 2014 trade deadline. He would wrap up his 17-year career spending a season each with Ottawa and Buffalo. He retires after nearly 1,200 regular season and postseason games.
Doan Reaches 400-Goal, 1,500 Game Plateau
Shane Doan became just the 17th NHL player to reach the 1,500 game mark when he suited up Friday night in the Arizona Coyotes 4 – 1 loss to Toronto Friday night. Doan, who has spent his entire 21-year career as a member of the Coyotes franchise, also tallied his 400th NHL goal in the contest.
Coyotes Notes: Chychrun, Strome, Doan
Making the jump from junior to the NHL as an 18 year old is generally a tough task for pretty much anyone. Doing so as a defenseman is that much harder which is why it doesn’t happen all that often, especially for players picked outside the top five in the draft. Arizona’s Jakob Chychrun, the 16th overall pick back in June, is one who has bucked this trend and is the youngest blueliner in the league this season, something that doesn’t seem to faze him, writes Jonas Siegel of the Canadian Press. Part of the reason for that is that Chychrun doesn’t think of himself as a raw rookie:
“It’s cool and all, but I think I don’t really look at myself as a young kid. I kind of approach the game just as a pro would and I feel I’m mature beyond my years.”
The Coyotes have eased the 18 year old, who is the third youngest player overall in the league (only forwards Jesse Puljujarvi and Patrik Laine are younger), into the league, primarily using him in a third pairing role. Through 26 games this season, he has a goal and six assists while averaging 16:36 per night in ice time which is pretty good for an 18 year old rookie. He told Siegel that he is pleased with his progress so far:
“I feel I’ve done well to this point and I want to continue to get better. It’s crazy to be thrown in at 18 years old, but it’s something you have to take in stride, enjoy it.”
Arizona has been happy enough with his progress so far that they did not loan him to Team Canada for the upcoming World Juniors. (Although Chychrun was born in Boca Raton in Florida, he’s a dual citizen and has chosen to represent Canada internationally.)
More from the Coyotes:
- One Arizona youngster who will be at the World Juniors is center Dylan Strome. The third overall pick in 2015 made the team out of training camp but played sparingly and eventually was sent back to junior. He’ll captain the Canadian entry in the tournament and is looking forward to trying to make amends for last year, he told Kevin McGran of the Toronto Star. “Being on the losing end of a tournament is not very fun. You feel like you’ve let your country down. You want to forget about it at as fast as possible, but it doesn’t go away very quickly. I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to make amends for what happened last year.”
- Friday’s game against Toronto not only was a big night for Arizona native Auston Matthews, it was also a big one for one of the players he grew up idolizing in Coyotes captain Shane Doan. The 40 year old played in his 1,500th career NHL game, the 17th player in league history to do that. Of those players, he’s only the sixth to do so with the same organization; Doan was originally drafted by Winnipeg in 1995 with them moving to Phoenix in 1996. He also picked up his 400th career goal in the game, a 4-1 loss to the Leafs. Speaking with Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic, Doan is very appreciative of the fact he’s been able to play his whole career with the franchise: “Yeah, that’s something that I appreciate. Like I said, there’s a lot of guys that given the opportunity would be able to. But having been given the opportunity that I’ve been given, I’m very grateful the organization has been willing to keep letting me get a jersey and giving me a jersey every year.”
Atlantic Division Notes: Danault, Kennedy, Stamkos
Injuries to Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais have forced the Montreal Canadiens to shuffle their forward lines around as they try to survive without two of their top offensive players. The loss of Galchenyuk was particularly difficult as the fifth-year pivot was averaging nearly a point-per game (23 points in 25 games) as the team’s top center but the play of Phillip Danault has helped offset Galchenyuk’s absence of late, writes Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette.
With a scoring line of 6 – 6 – 14 through 34 contests, Danault has already bested last season’s totals (4 – 6 – 10) in 17 fewer games. In his last eight games, the 23-year-old center has tallied one goal and five points. As Cowan notes, Danault posted solid offensive numbers during his junior career, potting 18 goals and 71 points in 62 contests in his final junior season with Victoriaville, suggesting his recent rate of production for Montreal is sustainable.
Danault was originally drafted in the first-round of the 2011 draft by Chicago when current Habs GM Marc Bergevin was a member of the Blackhawks front office. Bergevin was able to acquire Danault at last season’s trade deadline as part of the deal that sent rental players Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann to the Hawks. Known as a strong two-way player in juniors, Danault is taking advantage of increased ice time of late to show the Canadiens what he can do at the NHL level.
Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:
- Tim Kennedy hasn’t appeared in an NHL game in three years and despite a recent return to the organization with whom he made his NHL debut, it’s not likely that the veteran winger will make much of an impact for the Buffalo Sabres this year either. As John Vogl of The Buffalo News writes, Kennedy was signed by the club to add some offense and to serve as a mentor for the team’s prospects playing for the Rochester Americans in the AHL. Since suiting up for 37 games with the Coyotes during the 2013-14 campaign, Kennedy has made appearances for four different franchises in four different countries, including stops in the KHL, Swedish League and a 75-game stint with Hershey of the AHL in 2013-14. The piece provides an interesting insight into the life of a career minor-league player and his travels around the world in professional hockey.
- With the Tampa Bay Lightning struggling on the ice and in the standings, a return of franchise center Steven Stamkos could be just the spark the team needs to make a playoff push. Unfortunately, while Stamkos is progressing just fine after surgery to repair a torn meniscus, he is still looking at a mid-March return, as Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Stamkos is still on crutches and is a month or two away from even putting on skates. The 26-year-old pivot was off to a strong start, with nine goals and 20 points in 17 contests before the injury but if Tampa Bay is going to make a postseason run, it looks like it’s going to have to come without the assistance of Stamkos.
Pacific Notes: Fowler, Oilers/Coyotes, Kassian, Gaborik
After being the subject of trade rumors for a big portion of the offseason, Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler used the motivation of those talks into honing his game even further and as a result, is easily off to the best start to a season of his career, writes Eric Stephens of the Orange County Register. His 22 points leads all Ducks blueliners while sitting seventh among all NHL defendes.
During the summer, Fowler worked with former Washington winger Pat Peake who is now a skills coach. Among the areas that they worked on was his shot and there have been immediate dividends as not only is his nine goals just one shy of his career high from his rookie season, it also ranks second overall among NHL defensemen only behind San Jose’s Brent Burns. Fowler also gives a lot of credit for his success this year to head coach Randy Carlyle, who coached Fowler during his first stint behind the bench:
“It’s his approach to me. The way he handles me as a player. He knows that if I make a mistake, there’s nobody that understands it better than me. He knows maybe if it’s needed to kind of light a fire underneath me. Or he knows that I made a mistake (but) this game’s all about mistakes so I trust him. I’m going to use him in all situations.”
Although Fowler’s play has quieted the trade speculation for now, it’s almost certain to come back up in the offseason where he will be entering the final year of his contract before being eligible for unrestricted free agency. As things stand, he’s playing himself into quite the handsome raise come the summer of 2018.
Other notes from the Pacific:
- While a mid-December game between the Oilers and Coyotes wouldn’t be the most noteworthy on the surface, Edmonton’s 3-2 victory last night was their first regulation win against Phoenix/Arizona in 26 tries. As Sarah McLellan of the Arizona Republic notes, not only did this streak last nearly six calendar years, it was the sixth longest streak like that in NHL history and the longest in over 30 years (the Flyers had a 33 game streak against the Kings from 1974-1983). Also from that game, Oilers right winger Zack Kassian will not face any disciplinary action from the league after being issued a match penalty in the final minute of the third period, a league spokesman confirmed to NBC Sports’ Mike Halford.
- Kings left winger Marian Gaborik has long had the reputation of being a pure goal scorer after three seasons of more than 40 goals. The last of those came back in 2011-12 and at the age of 34, it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll reach that mark again. As a result, head coach Darryl Sutter is looking for Gaborik to bring a more defined role to the table than just being a natural goal scorer, he told Jon Rosen of LA Kings Insider. The Slovak winger has just one goal through 10 games this year after returning to the lineup from a broken foot sustained in the World Cup and was a healthy scratch last weekend for the first since joining Los Angeles back in 2014.
Friedman On The Post-Freeze Trade Market
With the NHL’s Holiday Roster Freeze underway, there won’t be any big deals to announce in the coming days. No team is getting Kevin Shattenkirk for Christmas or Jason Zucker for Hanukkah. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Frieman is filling the down time with some ideas as to what may happen once the trade market re-opens in his “30 Thoughts”.
There have been deals made immediately following the Holiday Freeze in each of the past three seasons and the end of the freeze always kicks off an active two months of transactions leading up to the NHL Trade Deadline. Friedman warns though that the 2016-17 is a year like no other before. Friedman says “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a trade market as paralyzed as this one (due to) so little cap room, so many teams chasing the playoffs and the expansion draft looming.” The reason only minor deals have gone down over the first few months of the season is because no identifiable market has yet formed. With so few teams outside a reasonable shot at the postseason and front offices proceeding with caution in regards to the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft, the market is barren right now. Friedman, and all hockey fans, hope that some excitement is on the way, but he has his doubts that major moves are in the near future this season.
If one big piece does move, Friedman speculates it could be Toronto Maple Leafs winger James van Riemsdyk. Friedman explains that last year the power forward was completely off the table, but this year interested teams are being told that he could be available for the right price. It will definitely be a high price in the current seller’s market. The 27-year-old van Riemsdyk, who has one year remaining on his current contract, is a bona fide scorer and one of the best in the league at net front presence. He’s hit 30 goals once before, in 2013-14, and is on pace to do so again this season. If the rebuilding Leafs decide that they want more young talent or perhaps a top defenseman, van Riemsdyk could net them that return. Eric Staal was traded by the Carolina Hurricanes to the New York Rangers last season for two second-round picks and a top prospect, and he was in the final year of his contract. The Leafs will likely get more than that if they decide to move long-time leader van Riemsdyk.
One team that could be interested is the Pittsburgh Penguins. Although they are pressed for cap space, GM Jim Rutherford seemingly always finds a way to bring in the players he wants and remain salary cap compliant. As Friedman points out, it’s been unusually quiet for Rutherford and the Penguins so far, but with a chance to repeat as Stanley Cup champs, he believes they’ll make a move sooner rather than later. However, Friedman believes the target for Pittsburgh will be a defenseman. With Kris Letang currently injured and always an injury risk regardless, the Penguins may want some added depth. It will have to be a rental though, as Pittsburgh is already in a tough situation in regards to the looming expansion draft and four blue liners – Letang, Brian Dumoulin, Olli Maatta, and Derrick Pouliot – they would like to keep protected and an eye on re-signing Justin Schultz as well.
The Penguins’ biggest trade chip is goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Despite his struggles in 2016-17, Fleury remains a valuable asset and Pittsburgh needs to move him before expansion to protect Matt Murray. Friedman believes the perfect partner would be the Dallas Stars, who continue to get uninspiring performances from the duo of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi. Any trade would almost definitely require a one-for-one swap of goalis, and while both Stars keepers are signed to significant contracts through next season, the Penguins will take any deal they can get to ensure Murray’s protection and potentially open up some cap space.
Joining van Riemsdyk and Fleury as big names that have been floated around this season is Arizona Coyotes pending free agent Martin Hanzal. At this point, an extension seems unlikely and Hanzal is almost sure to be moved. Additionally, Friedman believes there could be a market for career Coyote Shane Doan and bounce-back goalie Mike Smith. At age 40, Doan is finally showing some wear and tear, as his numbers are way off the usual pace. If this is his final season, Doan has never been close to a Stanley Cup and deserves a shot. Teams would love to add the toughness and heart of the veteran forward. Meanwhile, Smith has been playing great of late and may be of interest to contenders as well. There is a strong chance that Arizona is leaning towards protecting young backup Louis Domingue over their starter in the expansion draft and may like to jettison Smith while his value is high. Don’t be surprised if Radim Vrbata becomes another name mentioned as heading out of Arizona.
Read up on all of Friedman’s thoughts on the trade market here and enjoy the Holiday Roster Freeze before your team inevitably makes a move or two in the new year.
Matthew Lombardi Retires
It’s a name that hasn’t been heard in the NHL in a few years, and now never will again. Former two-way specialist and long-time Calgary Flames center Matthew Lombardi announced his retirement from pro hockey this weekend at the age of 34. The defensive forward has played the past three seasons with Geneve-Servette HC in the Swiss National League A.
Lombardi was once a rising star in the NHL. A third-round pick by the Flames in 2002, fresh off of a 130-point season for the QMJHL’s Victoriaville Tigres, Lombardi quickly became a highly regarded NHL prospect. He made his league debut in 2003-04, garnering Calder consideration as he scored 29 points and quickly established himself as a complete, defensively responsible player. In 2006-07, Lombardi put together his first 20-goal season as part of a 46-point effort. Altogether, Lombardi had 167 points in 347 games with the Flames and led the team in shorthanded time on ice and shorthanded goals during that span. However, by the NHL Trade Deadline in 2009, Lombardi had not progressed the way that Calgary had hoped. In need of more talent down the middle, the Flames traded Lombardi along with Brandon Prust and a first-round pick that would become Brandon Gormley to the Phoenix Coyotes for Olli Jokinen. Ironically, in the 2008-09 season split between Calgary and Phoenix, Lombardi matched his career high of 46 points and then topped it in his 2009-10 season in the desert with 53 points. Meanwhile, Jokinen performed worse on a point-per-game basis in the latter half of 2008-09 than Lombardi and had just 50 points in 2009-10 and was traded out of Calgary. Unfortunately, Lombardi was unable to keep besting his career bests. After signing a three-year, $10.5MM deal with the Nashville Predators in 2010, Lombardi suffered a concussion in just the second game of the season and missed the entire 2010-11 campaign. He would never suit up for the Predators again, as they traded he and Cody Franson to the Toronto Maple Leafs the following summer. Lombardi struggled to return to his pre-concussion performance level in Toronto, scoring just 18 points to the tune of -19 in 2011-12. Even when traded back to Arizona, where he had enjoyed the best year of his career, Lombardi struggled, scoring just eight points in 21 games as a part-time player for the Coyotes before being traded yet again, this time to the Anaheim Ducks.
Looking for a jump start to a career that had grown cold, Lombardi headed overseas to Switzerland in 2013 to play with the NLA’s Geneve-Servette. In his first year, Lombardi became a fan-favorite with a team-best 50 points in 46 games. However, injuries have slowed him down the past two years as he’s played in just 53 games. Yet, Lombardi continued to play with a scoring touch and a dominant defensive edge when active and was a leader for the team. Unsure about his future, Lombardi took the summer to decide on his commitment to hockey before calling it a career this weekend. Although he may not be as recognizable a name as some, Lombardi played a strong all-around game and had the potential to be ever better. Although that ceiling was never reached, Lombardi should be remembered for the success he did have and admired for always striving to be better.
An Update On Craig Cunningham’s Condition
A month after collapsing on the ice prior to a home game in Tuscon, there has finally been a status update on the health of Roadrunners captain Craig Cunningham and a re-telling of the procedure that saved his life.
Cunningham, 26, suffered a heart attack on the night of November 19th, just minutes before puck drop for the Arizona Coyotes’ AHL affiliate. Cunningham collapsed onto the ice during warm-ups and began suffering convulsions. On-ice medics began chest compressions immediately before rushing Cunningham to the hospital. In this new press release, the details of that ordeal have been revealed. Cunningham was first brought to Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital, where chest compression CPR continued. Realizing that more desperate measures were needed, the staff at St. Mary’s decided that Cunningham needed to be transported to Banner – University Medical Center Tuscon, the only facility in the area that could perform the advanced ECMO treatment needed to save Cunningham’s life. ECMO, short for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation, is a specialized process that circulates blood and adds oxygen, essentially working as an artificial lung needed to provide the heart with the vital oxygen it needs to heal. In the even that the heart cannot be re-started using traditional means, ECMO is a last-ditch life-saving effort. As the press release states, “(m)ost patients who need ECMO are almost certain to die” without it. Luckily for Cunningham, Banner dispatched a mobile team to St. Mary’s to begin the process as they transported him to their facility for further care.
Thanks to the life-saving efforts of the on-ice medics, St. Mary’s staff, and specially trained staff at Banner, Cunningham has returned from the brink of death and made a miraculous recovery. Cunningham was in critical condition for days following the incident, but a few weeks ago it was reported that he was awake and aware, spending time with family and friends. Now, against all odds, Cunningham is ready to leave the hospital. The timing could not be more perfect, as Cunningham expects to be back home for Christmas. It has been an amazing job by all involved, including Cunningham, who’s passion and hard-working attitude on the ice continued in the hospital room as he fought back and is now on his way to a remarkable recovery.
We here at Pro Hockey Rumors continue to send our support to Cunningham and his family and are happy to hear that a player who many describe as one of the true good guys of the game is on his way back to health.
Garrioch’s Latest: Vegas Coaching Candidates, Leafs, Kings, Hanzal
The NHL’s roster freeze kicks in tonight and as Bruce Garrioch of the Ottawa Sun writes, it’s likely that there won’t be any sort of significant movement between now and then. Multiple league executives told Garrioch that the sense is that teams are content to get through the holidays before really starting to entertain any potential trades.
Part of the problem right now is that cap space is at a premium for a lot of teams (16 teams either have someone on LTIR or are less than $1MM under the cap which doesn’t allow for much wiggle room) while only a handful of teams could be classified as sellers as things currently sit in the standings. Add those two elements together and it’s not difficult to figure out why the trade market is quiet at this stage.
Garrioch also provides some other notes from around the league:
- The Vegas Golden Knights are looking at former Philadelphia head coach Craig Berube (currently the head coach with AHL Chicago) and current Montreal associate coach Kirk Muller as potential options to be their inaugural bench boss. Garrioch expects that GM George McPhee will be looking for a good communicator to work with their roster and both of those coaches fit that bill. He also suggests Rick Bowness, the associate coach in Tampa Bay, as a potential option and notes that his experience with an expansion team (Ottawa) would be an asset.
- Add the Toronto Maple Leafs to the list of teams looking for an impact defenseman. The problem for the Leafs (and any other team) is that as many as half the teams around the league are looking for blueline help. Given where Toronto is in the standings as well as where they are in their rebuilding process, it’s more than likely that they’d be looking for a longer-term fit than a rental player.
- The Kings are looking to add another goaltender with Jonathan Quick still out for several months but haven’t discussed Ondrej Pavelec with the Jets since the GM meetings. Ottawa’s Andrew Hammond was also on their radar a while back but doesn’t appear to be now. GM Dean Lombardi told reporters last week that he won’t overpay to bring in another netminder. They have about $1.5MM in cap space at the moment per CapFriendly.
- Arizona has been looking to move center Martin Hanzal but teams remain unsure about what the Coyotes are looking to get in a return. Hanzal, a pending unrestricted free agent, has 10 points in 26 games this season and would slide in as a third option on a lot of teams. Garrioch notes that the sense is that the price will involve a quality prospect and at least a second round pick if a deal gets done. With a cap hit of $3.1MM, Hanzal is likely to be one of the cheaper impact rental players on the block which should help draw interest from several teams.
Snapshots: Three Stars, World Junior Captains, Iginla
The NHL has named Artemi Panarin, Henrik Lundqvist, and Eric Staal as its Three Stars of the Week.
Panarin had three goals and seven assists for 10 points in four games. He bookended two thee-point performances with a pair of two-point nights as the Blackhawks continued their five-game winning streak. Panarin now has 34 points in 34 games this season
This week marks the second consecutive week with a New York Rangers goaltender as the second star. Last week, Antti Raanta was the second star as he temporarily took over the starting role from Lundqvist, but now the man they call The King has taken back over. Lundqvist went 3-0-0 and allowed just three goals to go with his 0.967 SV%. He and Raanta combined for a shutout when Lundqvist was forced to leave a game after being run over by Cody Eakin (for which he was suspended).
Staal had four goals and five points in three games as part of a 3-0-0 week. The Wild have now won seven straight and Staal is leading the team in goals, assists, and points; he has 24 points in 30 games in his first year in Minnesota.
- Hockey Canada has named its leadership core for the upcoming World Junior Championships. Arizona Coyotes prospect Dylan Strome will wear the C for Canada, while Mathew Barzal and Thomas Chabot will serve as alternate captains. All three players played for Canada at last year’s tournament and appeared in the NHL at the start of the season. While they combined for just 10 games and one assist in the NHL, all three are 2015 first-round picks and dominant CHL players. Strome has 295 points in 191 games with the Erie Otters; Islanders sixteenth-overall pick Barzal has 281 points in 174 games with the Seattle Thunderbirds; Chabot, a defenseman picked eighteenth overall by Ottawa, has 128 points in 182 games with the Saint John Sea Dogs.
- The Vancouver Canucks most recent first-round pick, Olli Juolevi has been named captain of Team Finland. Juolevi had nine assists in seven games in last year’s tournament, as Finland won gold. So far, Juolevi has 21 points in 26 games with the London Knights.
- Today marks 21 years since the Calgary Flames acquired Jarome Iginla from the Dallas Stars for Joe Nieuwendyk. The trade worked out pretty well for both teams: the Stars won the Stanley Cup four years later with Nieuwendyk playing a key role, and Iginla became the face of the Flames franchise. Nieuwendyk was in the prime of his career, while Iginla was an eleventh-overall pick playing for the Kamloops Blazers. Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com tweeted that Iginla initially thought he had been traded to the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. After turning pro, Iginla scored 1095 points in 16 years with the Flames, leading them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2004. He’s bounced around between Pittsburgh, Boston, and Colorado in the four years since he was traded. Iginla could be on the move again this year, as the Avalanche are one of the worst teams in the NHL and he could want to go to a contender for the end of his career.
Should The Red Wings Embrace a Full Rebuild?
Hockeytown is hurting.
The Detroit Red Wings have been moribund at home. They are listless offensively. The Arizona Coyotes came into the Joe Louis Arena and pummeled them 4-1. Playoff hopes are precarious. And their power play is more of an advantage to their opponent.
The mainstream media has taken note, as Sportsnet’s Dimtri Filipovic has a lengthy write up on how the Red Wings’ inevitable downfall in a parity based league was coming. 25 straight years of making the playoffs, including 11 of those seasons being in a salary cap era is unbelievably impressive. But over the last five seasons, the Red Wings have only made it out of the first round once, losing by an eyelash to the eventual champion Chicago Blackhawks in seven games–after blowing a 3-1 series lead.
Already through the midway point of December, the Red Wings hardly appear to be a playoff bound team. Should their current streak of poor play continue, it has to be a message to general Ken Holland and company that a true rebuild must be embraced. The “rebuild on the fly” strategy Holland has embraced no longer looks feasible.
Reading the tea leaves, however, the Wings don’t act like a team looking to change strategies. The fear in Detroit by many is that the Wings could hang around and make another puzzling trade for a washed up veteran to try and get them over the hump. Deals for David Legwand and Erik Cole were damaging since they lost prospects and neither had any impact on the playoff push. Damien Cox wrote at length about this as well, wondering why the brass is so hesitant to build a stronger future when right now, the team is a few matches short of a tire fire.
