OffThePost.org

What a strange collapse. Neither goalie is stopping anything, and the team as a whole just went from scrappy to punching bag.

Dylan Larkin undergoes core muscle surgery and will miss the remainder of the season. Recovery, according to Max Bultman, is projected to be 8-10 weeks, well within time to be ready for October 2022.

Despite the late season collapse, the Wings are still projected to get the 9th overall pick in this year's draft (pre-lottery of course). One point behind the Sabres (with two games in hand on them), and with six games remaining they are five points ahead of Ottawa with 68 points, and seven ahead of Chicago. Even if they lost every single one down the stretch, they're likely not going to drop that much further down the standings.

Wonder what Yzerman does with the goaltending. Greiss is obviously gone, Nedeljkovic will be back for at least one more season. Not an ideal year for him but even if he ends up being a backup, his cap hit is fairly modest.

The last of the really bad contracts come off the books with DeKeyser's set to expire, Nielsen's buyout cap hit lowering to $500,000 (though Abdelkader will be on there for a good long while yet). Staal is also set to go UFA, and at this point might be done.

Zadina is the only notable RFA in need of a new contract. Plenty of cap room to play with.

To me, they're a dark horse in free agency. Nothing stopping them from dropping coin on Johnny and/or Forsberg. Klingberg seems a natural fit too.

Fabbri extension might go down as a premature one.

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The Fabbri deal seems to me to be one where Yzerman said "He can be a legit star if he stays healthy, if he can't, that's what LTIR is for."

I think they'll bring back Staal, the difference now being that Yzerman might give him one or two years instead of Holland's usual 5+NTC.

They would be selling low on Zadina so I don't think they move him.

Klingberg's age kind of scares me with the long ass deal he's going to get.

Yzerman kind of has a decision to make. Does he think the reinforcements coming are sure enough bets that he'll be aggressive on the market? Or does he wait another year?

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

There are so many good forwards available and the cap is still kinda depressed, so I'd jump now.

Ondrej Palat seems like an obvious pickup based on the Stevie Y connection. Tampa probably can't afford him.

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I got the impression that Yzerman made the conclusion last season that the light at the end of the tunnel was a little farther away than they originally anticipated. And that's fine, don't ever try to set a hard timeline for your rebuild. Don Waddell did that in Atlanta and the Thrashers paid dearly for it.

That said, I don't know if Yzerman will flat out "go for it" this offseason, maybe pick up a couple key pieces here and there, but I also think they may have reached the end of the early part of the rebuild where they sell off veterans for futures.

The core looks like Zadina/Raymond/Larkin/Seider for sure, that leaves a lot of flexibility going forward. Stevie needs to find a way to add center depth, unless there's a prospect I'm not aware of. I don't see him going for any really old vets like Giroux, that would be a Holland move.

That's the best-looking gear I've ever seen. Unreal.

Seider gets hit directly in the head, no call. Generic slash gets 5 and a game for Sundqvist. Officiating, so consistent.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

Blashill fired. Time to take the next step.

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The Detroit Free Press has current Barry Trotz assistant coach and former Steve Yzerman roommate, Lane Lambert, as a possible replacement for Blashill. Other big-name possibilities include John Tortorella, Paul Maurice, Dave Tippett and Joel Quenneville.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/nhl/red-wings/2022/04/30/detroit-red-wings-head-coach-candidates-jeff-blashill-fired/9600233002/

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Bíonn macalla ag an bheatha sa tsíoraíocht. Liverpool FC: 2019 and 6-time Champions of Europe. 2020 and 19 time English Premier League Champions YNWA. JFT 97

I hope Quenneville gets a much longer exile than that. I know he'll eventually get another shot but less than one season is simply not enough.

I'm hoping like hell the Wings go big and bring Sergei Fedorov back to be the head coach. That would be amazing on so many levels. I've no idea if it would even work, maybe it'd be like Patrick Roy back in Colorado and only kinda/sorta work one season, but like the Roy experiment, it'd be fun as hell...for one year at least.

Zero of these names interest me. Maurice and Tippett for performance reasons, Q for the obvious, and Torts won't be a long-term fit, although his Columbus tenure lasted 6 years.

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Thanks Chuck, E.L. and Harmy!

I heard Jeff Halpern. Assistant in Tampa and tight with Stevie Y. That one makes more sense to me.

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