June 30, 2025 • 24 mins
On this episode of the Detroit Koolaid Cast we talk all things Detroit Red Wings!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Drink it in, man. kool-aid drinkers, we're back with
another edition of a Detroit kool-aid Cast kool-aid packet
coming to you on a Monday. And folks, I'm excited because
we're going to switch it up a little bit here.
Your boy at Derek Oakery will beback on the flagship show this
(00:26):
week with some dollars. That makes sense, but this is my
favorite time of year for the NHL.
That's right, folks. We're going to serve you up a
red glass of that delicious kool-aid and talk all things Red
Wings. A recap of the draft.
We'll talk a little free agency.I can't wait to get to, to give
(00:50):
you this content here again. You know, I'm #choppy hockey on
the Twitterverse. Not only do I love our lines,
I'm a huge fan of the Red Wings.I loved hockey before.
I love football, you know, spoiler alert.
But hey, we got enough love in this on this podcast for the
Detroit sports, except for the sport we shall not speak of.
(01:12):
So as we like to say, we don't have time to mess around.
Let's dive right into it. Again.
Like I said, my favorite time ofthe year, free agency starts on
Tuesday, July 1st. I expect the Red Wings to be
making some moves. But before we dive into that, I
want to talk about some draft. We had the day one first round
of the draft of the NHL Draft onFriday rolled into day 2 rounds
(01:36):
2 through 7 on Saturday. First off, folks, if you, if you
watch this draft, you know it dragged on and on and on.
I know the NHL is getting beat up on this new format.
They tried. It's like they tried to do it
like football. They didn't quite do it like
football. They wanted to have remote GM's,
but then they had camera issues and freezing issues and all this
(01:57):
other. It was a bunch of Boo la, Boo la
if you ask me. They got some tweaks to do, but
hey, let's get let's get past that.
So before I start diving into the picks that the Red Wings
had, I want to talk about the NFL.
Excuse me, the NHL draft in comparison to the NFL Draft.
Like you all know the NFL draft,there's one platform to pull
(02:19):
from and that's college. Here in the United States.
Occasionally you'll see a guy from the CFL or maybe you'll see
a dude from overseas, you know, picked here.
But that's a very rare, rare thing in the NHL.
These GM's and teams are tasked with pulling players from over a
(02:40):
dozen leagues. And that's in the US, that's in
Canada, it's Sweden, it's Russian, it's all over the map.
Heck, there's even high schoolers that get drafted out
of some of these big named schools in the different states.
So it's just a totally differentanimal.
You know, you're, you're, you'repicking kids that are like 17 to
(03:01):
sometimes 19 years old. So, you know, again, there's a
lot that can happen before theseguys even really start to mature
as as players. You, you draft on a lot of
potential. You love to look at their stats,
but a lot of it does end up being a little bit of luck here
and there too. And the, the crazy thing is with
the NHL draft this year, there'sa really high chance that no one
(03:26):
selected in this draft will start opening night on their NHL
team. So that's how much different it
is. I mean, when you're drafting at
the NFL level, you know, you're drafting A stud and you're
expecting them to be a starter on day one.
Going into camp with these Red Wings in this NHL draft, it's,
it's a wait and see kind of game.
You hope they play loud. You got to have a ton of
(03:48):
scouting. You got to have a little bit of
luck and you got to have a lot of patience too.
So all that being said, let's dive into some of these picks
that the Red Wings selected. I'm not going to go through the
whole gamut because there was a big list of them, but I'm going
to touch on a few of the playersspecifically and give you some
of my insight insight on what I think on these guys.
The first pick, the 13th pick overall for our Red Wings.
(04:12):
Again, center left winger CarterBear.
I'm sure you guys have heard andread up on up on this guy.
You've heard a lot of rumors, you've heard a lot of things.
Again, because it's the first round pick, that's where people
focus on. They expect this guy to make
him, You know, some some people would come in saying, well,
Choppy, how come this guy can't play on the Red Wings next year?
(04:33):
Well, he's 18 years old and he'spretty young.
So I love this kid. I think this is a great pick.
When we were on the clock, I wasmeet leaning more towards the
Swedish kid Euchland, but I willsay that I trust the Red Wings
when it comes to drafting players out of Sweden.
So I like this pick again, supertenacious, smart, skilled.
(04:53):
He generated a lot of offense last year.
I think 40 goals, 82 points and 56 games.
He's physical, he does not shy away from contact.
I really expect this guy to be atop six forward, probably on the
wing for the Red Wings. I'm hoping by 2027 he can be
(05:14):
knocking on the door. He's going to go back to his
minor league club next year. I'm thinking maybe a year in the
AHL in Grand Rapids next year and it'd be really great to see
this dude ready to go to start the 2027 season for our Red
Wings again. I really like him a lot.
I think he fits the bill well playing on a line with Casper,
who is currently in the NHL and then MBN, which we know is our
(05:38):
our fun right winger who's in Grand Rapids this year.
But that three line, all tenacious, all have scoring
touch. I think that would be a really
sweet second line eventually with these Red Wings when it
comes time to the future. But a a a really good pick there
in Carter Bear on to our second pick in the SEC.
(06:02):
Let's see here second round, 44th overall.
Eddie, Oh my gosh. And I'm going to slaughter this
kids name. So you know, I'm going to
apologize right off the bat, butit's Eddie Genborg, right winger
again, playing in the Swedish Elite League as a 17 year old,
which is really tough to do. You know, the sweet of the
(06:22):
Swedish leagues, there's severaltiers of them and this guy
played in the highest one in this as a 17 year old, which is
very impressive. Didn't put up a ton of stats,
but he played really well there.Again, another physical two way
forward does a lot of great things.
He loves to forecheck and the kid just can create a lot of
havoc in front of the net. Again, I expect this guy to be
(06:45):
more of like a third line grinder type role who's going to
pop in a goal, a timely goal when you need it.
He's not going to put up a ton of points in the NHL, which is
again, kind of tough to save fora second rounder.
And that's just how much different these drafts really
are. But I think this guy has a a
good path to the Red Wings. Probably 20/27/2020.
(07:06):
Eight more in a support role, Top 9 instead of the top six
role. But again, another great pick by
the Red Wings. I love this kids mentality and
his tenacity moving under the third round.
Another guy I want to talk aboutMichael Proddle and again this
is a pick 75 in the third round.Big Slovak goalie.
(07:28):
And folks, when I say big, I mean big 65, a 195 lbs.
It's crazy to me to think that these guys, these goalies are so
big now that they can be that tall, yet so athletic, so
flexible. This dude is very smooth for his
size, tracks the puck really, really well.
(07:50):
And again, I love the fact that the Red Wings continue to add to
their goalie depth. Of course, we know that we've
got Cosa in the works. We've got Trey Augustine, pride
of South Lyon, playing at MSU, so we won't hold the green thing
against him. But he's a local kid here that
we love. My kids actually have a a lot of
love for Trey Augustine. Can't wait for him to be in the
(08:12):
Red Wings. But again, just adding to that
goaltender pool with Michael Prattle coming out of Slovakia.
Last guy that I want to talk about is let's see here, let's
talk about Michael Sverichuk, 4th round, 119th picked.
He's a left winger and folks, this is an absolute steal for me
(08:34):
in the fourth round at pick 119.Michael was projected at times
earlier earlier in the year to be a potential first round pick.
I think elite prospects has had him a consensus of like like
pick 65 prospect. So to get him at 119 is a huge
value. He's a smaller guy, lot of
(08:55):
upside, definitely is high motor, high pace.
Again, he's got that scoring touch.
He's going to be a smaller dude,but he's pesty like he's going
to be he's going to piss people off.
He applies a ton of pressure. He's in your face and he he
likes to finish checks, but he also scores quite a bit too.
So to get this guy at that value, pick 119 I think is just
(09:17):
awesome for our Red Wings. So to kind of give a put a
little bow on the draft a good we in total we drafted 1 goalie,
2 defenders, 5 forwards a littlebit, you know, a little pretty
standard. You know a goalie there a few
less defenders than Stevie Y hasbeen known to do.
But again, I've got he got some late round Will Murphy pick 172
(09:42):
and then Nikita Turin at pick 140.
So our last two picks were focused on defense, but again,
but I think both those guys are more stay at home too.
So a lot of defense in the pipeline with ASP Johannesburg,
of course, we know we got MO Saida and then Simon Edmondson
as well. So the the Wings D prospect pool
(10:03):
is pretty, pretty good. So overall, I like this draft by
Eiserman. I know it's hard to grade these
drafts again because you just don't know what these kids are
going to end up being, but I think we addressed some needs.
We he continued to take players specifically forwards that fit
that mold that he likes. Tenacious all over, in your
face, ready to go. But the biggest news coming out
(10:28):
of the draft was not actually the players that we picked.
Oh no, Stevie Y had a nice little trick up his sleeve on
the to kick off day two. He traded for the best available
goalie on the market right now in John Gibson.
I am very excited to have this guy.
(10:49):
Stevie was able to pack a package up Peter Mrazik along
with a 2027 second round pick and a 2025 fourth round pick,
which he was actually able to recoup back that fourth round
pick with a trade later in this draft.
So really, you know, it was a nice little net net positive
getting John Gibson pretty much for Peter Mrazik in a second
(11:09):
round pick when it was all said and done.
The nice thing about this pick is that we add a legit guy who
can be a number one goalie. He's going to be a pair really
well with Cam Talbot. We won't ask him to do too much
because you know to load the shoulder of 60 plus games.
It'll be a nice split with him, a nice one A1B and he only cost
(11:32):
us another $2.1 million on the cap.
We were able to ship out Marazzix 4.2, bring in John
Gibson 6.3. We've got him for another two
years and this just really is a nice player that is going to
fill in. He's going to bridge that gap to
Winchosa and Augustine are readyto go.
I have very high expectations for John Gibson to really lock
(11:55):
down. I expect him to be the starter.
I expect Cam Talbot to definitely play a lot of games.
I'm thinking probably like a 5030 split somewhere in there.
But this is a really, really nice move to grab the best
goalie. Stevie is always looking for
goalies. He has been year after year.
Alex Lyon is a free agent shipping off Peter Mrazik's
(12:17):
contract. So again, just a big net
positive for a little bit of capspace.
This is a really great move. Speaking of cap space, let's
talk about the Red Wings currentcap space after the Gibson deal.
Currently, the Red Wings are sitting at about $18 million in
money to spend this year on freeagency.
(12:39):
It's a nice chunk of change. You know, of course, we know
there's going to be some big fish in this pond come July 1st.
I don't know if Stevie's going to necessarily be looking to
reel in one of those big ones, but I know there's a few things
that he's got to tidy up on his own and first before he's able
to go fishing. And the first one is Patrick
Kane. I fully expect Patrick Kane.
(13:00):
It's both sides have interest. Patrick Kane wants to be here.
We want him here. I expect to use about $4 million
of that $18,000,000 to get him resigned.
He fits really nicely with Casper and De Brinkit on the
second line. Just of course, that power play
specialist, you know, great hands, great vision.
I know he's getting up in age, but man, this guy is just so
(13:22):
silky smooth. Still has not lost a step.
He's not a burner. He's not going to, you know,
while you on the defensive end of the puck.
But man, if he can keep lightingthe light and just netting in
goals along with the Brinkett and Casper, I think that's a
really solid second line for ourRed Wings, especially knowing
that we address the goalie situation and, you know, a
little bit of other housekeeping.
(13:42):
We need to resign. Johnny Burgers, he's an RFAL,
Elmer Soderblom, another RFA, and then Albert Johansson on the
back end, 3 Ufas that Stevie's got to sign and Ordeal, which,
you know, we'll talk a little bit about some potential deals
here coming up, but I'm expecting about 3 1/2 to
$4,000,000 to be enough to lock in those three guys.
(14:04):
And that's going to say so rightthere.
After Kane, you're probably looking at about $10 million
available to sign free agencies.All that being said, it's no
secret that Stevie is shopping Terasenko.
He's got a $4.75 million cap it he just did not produce the way
we thought he would. Another defender that's kind of
(14:26):
a deaf guy could never really crack the lineup.
Justin Hall at 3.4 million, I don't know if he's really
movable unless you eat a bunch of his contract.
But if they were able to somehowfree up another $6 million with
those two guys in a trade, it would be really great to have
that extra 6 to add to the 10. Give you 16 to $17 million to be
(14:49):
able to to go after a couple of free agents.
Before we dive into the the UFASI, want to talk about 1
restricted free agent that I would love to absolutely find a
way to get in and that is Keandre Miller.
He's plays for the New York Rangers.
He's a 25 year old restricted free agent.
The Rangers are in a bit of a cap crunch.
(15:12):
Some of you thought maybe the Red Wings would be on Noah
Dobson. I thought the price was way too
high for Noah. Two first round picks and a very
highly touted prospect, way morethan Stevie was willing to pay.
But Keandre Miller might be a guy that man, if you could get
him for, like if you could somehow get the Rangers to take
Tarasenko and that contract. Or maybe even, you know, the
(15:35):
restrictive free agent that we talked about, Jonathan Berggren,
and pair him up with a second ormaybe 2 seconds to get Keandre
Miller. I think this dude that I would
absolutely pull the trigger on that.
He's going to need a contract extension, probably around $6
million. So you got to be aware of that.
If you're sitting at 16 and you're able to somehow get him
at six, still leaves you 10 million to make some moves in
(15:57):
the offseason once the Ufas hit.But I would love to see Stevie
try to make a deal for this player.
He mentioned after the draft that, you know, the free agent
market is tough. There's going to be a lot of
money. Lots of teams have money.
Trades have been a little bit tricky too because you got more
teams that think they can compete.
But I think if the Rangers are really going to be in a cap
crunch, they need to save some money.
(16:18):
They need, they've got their ownRF as other RF as to sign.
They need some scoring depth, which Keandre Miller does not
add to that. He's much more of a stay at home
offensemen, but he can log a tonof minutes and he's really that
shut down defender that the Red Wings could really, really use.
Whether you pair him up with themost sighter, probably, but I
(16:39):
would love to see a deal for Keandre Miller to come where the
winged wheel and if we could somehow get them to take some
money from take some money on a contract from us, that would be
great. But that's so that's an RFA that
I'm kind of on the lookout for couple of Ufas that I'm looking
at. And again, I think all the talk
out there is that we're really looking for D.
(16:59):
We need a top 4 defenseman rightnow.
We're sitting at Simon Edmondsonand we know that we're of course
looking at MO Saida. And then you've got Ben Sherrod
in the mix, you know, and then acouple of guys that really
should be slotted down on that lower end with Eric Gustafson
and William Lagson. Of course, Albert Johansson is
(17:20):
another guy that could slot up into that top 4 as well.
Played really, really well on the left side when the Renwigs
needed him. And then Justin Hall, you just
don't know what you're going to do with their, but kind of
hoping that that guy's not on that team on the team.
But if we could sign a nice right-handed defenseman to
either pair up with Ben Sherratt, Albert Johansson or
Simon Evanson, it would be really nice to lock in that top
(17:43):
four, pair with that and see, these are some of the names that
I'm looking at. Aaron Ekblad, he announced that
he's going to test the free agent market.
I know the Florida Panthers werehoping to re sign him.
He's 29 years old, but he would fit so nicely.
He's a right-handed shot. So he would probably pair up
with one of our current lefties,either Sherrod or Edmondson in
(18:03):
on pair 2. But lock in that top four.
He's a proven winner. He can put up the stats, but
he's got a solid D game. He's going to cost you money
probably. I think right now projected to
make about $8 million a year, which again, is it's a tough
pill to swallow, but man, we really need to lock up that top
four pair. We address the goaltending
(18:24):
situation, the red. We's got to do stuff, something
to keep the pucks out of their own net.
We generated plenty of offense, deadly power play.
But man, we got to lock it up defensively.
And I think Aaron Ekblad would be a really nice fit.
It's no secret. He mentioned he wants to really
kind of get closer to home. He's a Windsor, ON native, which
really if he's eyeing up Torontoand Detroit, that could be our
(18:47):
end because Toronto is not goingto have the cap space to sign
this guy. It would be really nice to get
all, you know, I don't want to say a hometown discount because
I don't expect him to take less money, but it would be nice to
get a hometown deal, much like we did with the Brinkett, where
he wanted to come to Detroit, wanted to be back in Michigan.
If we could get Aaron Ekblad on step in lock with the Red Wings,
(19:10):
I think he's a player that really pushes us into that
playoff mode, which it's been a long time, people.
It's been way too long. Nine years of no playoffs in
Hockey Town is a travesty. It would be fantastic to hit
that playoff mark in our Centennial year, 100 years of
the Red Wings, man, I really hope they can get that done.
Another D that'll be highly coveted in the FA market, UFA
(19:33):
market is Vlad Gavrok Gavrokov. He's a stay at home D very, very
solid. He's currently, you know, played
for the LA kings this last year.He logs a ton of minutes.
He's a left-handed shot. So again, you'd probably pair
him up with Moe Saita and he's he's the kind of guy that just
does all the tough things. He's solid in front of the met.
(19:56):
He's physical, he's not going togenerate much offense, but he
does all he's got a great for first pass and he's really going
to allow the the his partner to be more offensive.
So I think he could really open up most Siders game offensively
if we were able to somehow lock that guy in.
He's projected to make anywhere,you know, probably around 7.5
(20:16):
million AVV. It'd be really nice to see
Stevie work his magic and be able to get Vlad into the winged
wheel. He will be highly coveted,
though. I know there's a lot of teams
that are already talking to his agent that, you know, the
tampering period or quote UN quote has already started, even
though free agency is still a few days away.
But man, Vlad would be a great add to the Red Wings.
(20:40):
All right, let's shift over to the forward side.
Not as big of a need for me. Obviously I'm not going to turn,
you know, turn my nose up to adding some good scoring or some
hard, hard nosed players. But of course, you know, I, I
feel like I can't get away without mentioning Mitch Marner.
There's no way the Red Wings aregetting into a bidding war for
Mitch Marner. He's going to command $14
million a year. There's already talks of Toronto
(21:02):
doing a sign and trade because they just can't afford him.
You know, the rumblings are Vegas, of course.
Gosh, that'd be awful because they just seem to get so many
high end players. I don't even know how that team
is even kept compliant. But Mitch Marner is going to be
he's the top fish. The Red Wings are not going to
be, in my opinion, looking into that.
I would love him. I I think people, you know, some
(21:23):
people had the audacity to dog some of his, you know, some of
his play. The guy puts up 100 points a
year and he's done it multiple times.
Like, there's nothing to frown on with Mitch Marner, you know,
people complaining, oh, he disappears in the playoffs, but
like, doesn't everybody in Toronto disappear in the
playoffs? So I don't hold that against
Mitch Marner. But you know, Mitch is going to
be a really great ad for for some team and he's going to make
(21:45):
Buco books. Another big cat on the free
agency that I could see the Wings actually making a nice
little play for is Nikolai Ellers out of Vancouver.
He would slot in so nicely on that top line as a left winger
with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond.
He's 29 years old. Dude is deadly on the power
(22:06):
play. He's been in the league for 10
years. I think he's averaging about .8
points per game over his career.He's probably going to cost you
$8 million. So again, a pretty penny to
bring this guy in. But man, he's going to be in
demand. But this is a guy, this is a big
fish I would not mind taking a swing at.
I would love to see this guy on the winged wheel.
(22:28):
Yes, he's going to be expensive.He's going to cost you around
what Lucas Raymond does. But man, he would he would fit
on that top line. And that would really allow you
to still run with, you know, Larkin Raymond Ellers on the
line, one line 2 with Casper Kane and debrink it.
And then you're looking at your third line of like Andrew Kopp,
(22:49):
which again is he's a nice thirdline guy.
You can look at Elder Sodeblom, Michael Rasmussen, maybe another
depth winger you get in there. Or you could even shift JT
confer up onto that third line too and go Comper confer with
comp, which I like too. Both of those guys, you know,
they make a bit of money, conferand cop, but they're just solid
two way dudes. You know, again, there's a lot
(23:11):
of hate out there for these two guys.
They do this a lot of the same thing.
But yes, I understand they make $5,000,000 a year, but they do a
lot of things. They're the types of guys that
win you games in the playoffs because you got to have that
scoring depth and guys that are willing to play a 200 foot game.
So couple other names out there that you know, I wouldn't be
surprised these are more of yourbargain bin guys, but I would
(23:33):
not be surprised if they're the types of players that Steve
Eiserman is looking at more. I'm looking at like Anthony
Bevellier, a left winger coming out of the Islanders.
Brandon Sod. I think Vegas as a left winger.
Ryan Lingerum is a left D who I think he's got some sneaky
potential that he would he wouldslot well with the Red Wings as
(23:54):
well. He wouldn't be that like, you
know, stud that just jumps rightinto your top 4.
But I like him. He's got a lot of upside.
And then Victor Olson is anotherleft winger too, that I think
the Red Wings could look at the all those guys are more in the
range of like, you know, 2 to $4million a year, but would be
solid contributors for this Red Wings team.
(24:16):
All right, folks, I hope you've enjoyed this red Kool-aid packet
talking all things Red Wings. I know this is a Lions podcast,
but we do love our Detroit sports.
And not to worry, our host of the show, Derek Okri, will be
talking dollars that makes senseon the flagship show this
Wednesday. But for now, I hope you drink it
(24:38):
in, enjoy the Red Kool-aid, and we'll catch you next time on the
Detroit Kool-aid cast. #Choppy hockey.
Drink it in, man. kool-aid drinkers, we're back with
another edition of a Detroit kool-aid Cast kool-aid packet
coming to you on a Monday. And folks, I'm excited because
we're going to switch it up a little bit here.
Your boy at Derek Oakery will beback on the flagship show this
(00:26):
week with some dollars. That makes sense, but this is my
favorite time of year for the NHL.
That's right, folks. We're going to serve you up a
red glass of that delicious kool-aid and talk all things Red
Wings. A recap of the draft.
We'll talk a little free agency.I can't wait to get to, to give
(00:50):
you this content here again. You know, I'm #choppy hockey on
the Twitterverse. Not only do I love our lines,
I'm a huge fan of the Red Wings.I loved hockey before.
I love football, you know, spoiler alert.
But hey, we got enough love in this on this podcast for the
Detroit sports, except for the sport we shall not speak of.
(01:12):
So as we like to say, we don't have time to mess around.
Let's dive right into it. Again.
Like I said, my favorite time ofthe year, free agency starts on
Tuesday, July 1st. I expect the Red Wings to be
making some moves. But before we dive into that, I
want to talk about some draft. We had the day one first round
of the draft of the NHL Draft onFriday rolled into day 2 rounds
(01:36):
2 through 7 on Saturday. First off, folks, if you, if you
watch this draft, you know it dragged on and on and on.
I know the NHL is getting beat up on this new format.
They tried. It's like they tried to do it
like football. They didn't quite do it like
football. They wanted to have remote GM's,
but then they had camera issues and freezing issues and all this
(01:57):
other. It was a bunch of Boo la, Boo la
if you ask me. They got some tweaks to do, but
hey, let's get let's get past that.
So before I start diving into the picks that the Red Wings
had, I want to talk about the NFL.
Excuse me, the NHL draft in comparison to the NFL Draft.
Like you all know the NFL draft,there's one platform to pull
(02:19):
from and that's college. Here in the United States.
Occasionally you'll see a guy from the CFL or maybe you'll see
a dude from overseas, you know, picked here.
But that's a very rare, rare thing in the NHL.
These GM's and teams are tasked with pulling players from over a
(02:40):
dozen leagues. And that's in the US, that's in
Canada, it's Sweden, it's Russian, it's all over the map.
Heck, there's even high schoolers that get drafted out
of some of these big named schools in the different states.
So it's just a totally differentanimal.
You know, you're, you're, you'repicking kids that are like 17 to
(03:01):
sometimes 19 years old. So, you know, again, there's a
lot that can happen before theseguys even really start to mature
as as players. You, you draft on a lot of
potential. You love to look at their stats,
but a lot of it does end up being a little bit of luck here
and there too. And the, the crazy thing is with
the NHL draft this year, there'sa really high chance that no one
(03:26):
selected in this draft will start opening night on their NHL
team. So that's how much different it
is. I mean, when you're drafting at
the NFL level, you know, you're drafting A stud and you're
expecting them to be a starter on day one.
Going into camp with these Red Wings in this NHL draft, it's,
it's a wait and see kind of game.
You hope they play loud. You got to have a ton of
(03:48):
scouting. You got to have a little bit of
luck and you got to have a lot of patience too.
So all that being said, let's dive into some of these picks
that the Red Wings selected. I'm not going to go through the
whole gamut because there was a big list of them, but I'm going
to touch on a few of the playersspecifically and give you some
of my insight insight on what I think on these guys.
The first pick, the 13th pick overall for our Red Wings.
(04:12):
Again, center left winger CarterBear.
I'm sure you guys have heard andread up on up on this guy.
You've heard a lot of rumors, you've heard a lot of things.
Again, because it's the first round pick, that's where people
focus on. They expect this guy to make
him, You know, some some people would come in saying, well,
Choppy, how come this guy can't play on the Red Wings next year?
(04:33):
Well, he's 18 years old and he'spretty young.
So I love this kid. I think this is a great pick.
When we were on the clock, I wasmeet leaning more towards the
Swedish kid Euchland, but I willsay that I trust the Red Wings
when it comes to drafting players out of Sweden.
So I like this pick again, supertenacious, smart, skilled.
(04:53):
He generated a lot of offense last year.
I think 40 goals, 82 points and 56 games.
He's physical, he does not shy away from contact.
I really expect this guy to be atop six forward, probably on the
wing for the Red Wings. I'm hoping by 2027 he can be
(05:14):
knocking on the door. He's going to go back to his
minor league club next year. I'm thinking maybe a year in the
AHL in Grand Rapids next year and it'd be really great to see
this dude ready to go to start the 2027 season for our Red
Wings again. I really like him a lot.
I think he fits the bill well playing on a line with Casper,
who is currently in the NHL and then MBN, which we know is our
(05:38):
our fun right winger who's in Grand Rapids this year.
But that three line, all tenacious, all have scoring
touch. I think that would be a really
sweet second line eventually with these Red Wings when it
comes time to the future. But a a a really good pick there
in Carter Bear on to our second pick in the SEC.
(06:02):
Let's see here second round, 44th overall.
Eddie, Oh my gosh. And I'm going to slaughter this
kids name. So you know, I'm going to
apologize right off the bat, butit's Eddie Genborg, right winger
again, playing in the Swedish Elite League as a 17 year old,
which is really tough to do. You know, the sweet of the
(06:22):
Swedish leagues, there's severaltiers of them and this guy
played in the highest one in this as a 17 year old, which is
very impressive. Didn't put up a ton of stats,
but he played really well there.Again, another physical two way
forward does a lot of great things.
He loves to forecheck and the kid just can create a lot of
havoc in front of the net. Again, I expect this guy to be
(06:45):
more of like a third line grinder type role who's going to
pop in a goal, a timely goal when you need it.
He's not going to put up a ton of points in the NHL, which is
again, kind of tough to save fora second rounder.
And that's just how much different these drafts really
are. But I think this guy has a a
good path to the Red Wings. Probably 20/27/2020.
(07:06):
Eight more in a support role, Top 9 instead of the top six
role. But again, another great pick by
the Red Wings. I love this kids mentality and
his tenacity moving under the third round.
Another guy I want to talk aboutMichael Proddle and again this
is a pick 75 in the third round.Big Slovak goalie.
(07:28):
And folks, when I say big, I mean big 65, a 195 lbs.
It's crazy to me to think that these guys, these goalies are so
big now that they can be that tall, yet so athletic, so
flexible. This dude is very smooth for his
size, tracks the puck really, really well.
(07:50):
And again, I love the fact that the Red Wings continue to add to
their goalie depth. Of course, we know that we've
got Cosa in the works. We've got Trey Augustine, pride
of South Lyon, playing at MSU, so we won't hold the green thing
against him. But he's a local kid here that
we love. My kids actually have a a lot of
love for Trey Augustine. Can't wait for him to be in the
(08:12):
Red Wings. But again, just adding to that
goaltender pool with Michael Prattle coming out of Slovakia.
Last guy that I want to talk about is let's see here, let's
talk about Michael Sverichuk, 4th round, 119th picked.
He's a left winger and folks, this is an absolute steal for me
(08:34):
in the fourth round at pick 119.Michael was projected at times
earlier earlier in the year to be a potential first round pick.
I think elite prospects has had him a consensus of like like
pick 65 prospect. So to get him at 119 is a huge
value. He's a smaller guy, lot of
(08:55):
upside, definitely is high motor, high pace.
Again, he's got that scoring touch.
He's going to be a smaller dude,but he's pesty like he's going
to be he's going to piss people off.
He applies a ton of pressure. He's in your face and he he
likes to finish checks, but he also scores quite a bit too.
So to get this guy at that value, pick 119 I think is just
(09:17):
awesome for our Red Wings. So to kind of give a put a
little bow on the draft a good we in total we drafted 1 goalie,
2 defenders, 5 forwards a littlebit, you know, a little pretty
standard. You know a goalie there a few
less defenders than Stevie Y hasbeen known to do.
But again, I've got he got some late round Will Murphy pick 172
(09:42):
and then Nikita Turin at pick 140.
So our last two picks were focused on defense, but again,
but I think both those guys are more stay at home too.
So a lot of defense in the pipeline with ASP Johannesburg,
of course, we know we got MO Saida and then Simon Edmondson
as well. So the the Wings D prospect pool
(10:03):
is pretty, pretty good. So overall, I like this draft by
Eiserman. I know it's hard to grade these
drafts again because you just don't know what these kids are
going to end up being, but I think we addressed some needs.
We he continued to take players specifically forwards that fit
that mold that he likes. Tenacious all over, in your
face, ready to go. But the biggest news coming out
(10:28):
of the draft was not actually the players that we picked.
Oh no, Stevie Y had a nice little trick up his sleeve on
the to kick off day two. He traded for the best available
goalie on the market right now in John Gibson.
I am very excited to have this guy.
(10:49):
Stevie was able to pack a package up Peter Mrazik along
with a 2027 second round pick and a 2025 fourth round pick,
which he was actually able to recoup back that fourth round
pick with a trade later in this draft.
So really, you know, it was a nice little net net positive
getting John Gibson pretty much for Peter Mrazik in a second
(11:09):
round pick when it was all said and done.
The nice thing about this pick is that we add a legit guy who
can be a number one goalie. He's going to be a pair really
well with Cam Talbot. We won't ask him to do too much
because you know to load the shoulder of 60 plus games.
It'll be a nice split with him, a nice one A1B and he only cost
(11:32):
us another $2.1 million on the cap.
We were able to ship out Marazzix 4.2, bring in John
Gibson 6.3. We've got him for another two
years and this just really is a nice player that is going to
fill in. He's going to bridge that gap to
Winchosa and Augustine are readyto go.
I have very high expectations for John Gibson to really lock
(11:55):
down. I expect him to be the starter.
I expect Cam Talbot to definitely play a lot of games.
I'm thinking probably like a 5030 split somewhere in there.
But this is a really, really nice move to grab the best
goalie. Stevie is always looking for
goalies. He has been year after year.
Alex Lyon is a free agent shipping off Peter Mrazik's
(12:17):
contract. So again, just a big net
positive for a little bit of capspace.
This is a really great move. Speaking of cap space, let's
talk about the Red Wings currentcap space after the Gibson deal.
Currently, the Red Wings are sitting at about $18 million in
money to spend this year on freeagency.
(12:39):
It's a nice chunk of change. You know, of course, we know
there's going to be some big fish in this pond come July 1st.
I don't know if Stevie's going to necessarily be looking to
reel in one of those big ones, but I know there's a few things
that he's got to tidy up on his own and first before he's able
to go fishing. And the first one is Patrick
Kane. I fully expect Patrick Kane.
(13:00):
It's both sides have interest. Patrick Kane wants to be here.
We want him here. I expect to use about $4 million
of that $18,000,000 to get him resigned.
He fits really nicely with Casper and De Brinkit on the
second line. Just of course, that power play
specialist, you know, great hands, great vision.
I know he's getting up in age, but man, this guy is just so
(13:22):
silky smooth. Still has not lost a step.
He's not a burner. He's not going to, you know,
while you on the defensive end of the puck.
But man, if he can keep lightingthe light and just netting in
goals along with the Brinkett and Casper, I think that's a
really solid second line for ourRed Wings, especially knowing
that we address the goalie situation and, you know, a
little bit of other housekeeping.
(13:42):
We need to resign. Johnny Burgers, he's an RFAL,
Elmer Soderblom, another RFA, and then Albert Johansson on the
back end, 3 Ufas that Stevie's got to sign and Ordeal, which,
you know, we'll talk a little bit about some potential deals
here coming up, but I'm expecting about 3 1/2 to
$4,000,000 to be enough to lock in those three guys.
(14:04):
And that's going to say so rightthere.
After Kane, you're probably looking at about $10 million
available to sign free agencies.All that being said, it's no
secret that Stevie is shopping Terasenko.
He's got a $4.75 million cap it he just did not produce the way
we thought he would. Another defender that's kind of
(14:26):
a deaf guy could never really crack the lineup.
Justin Hall at 3.4 million, I don't know if he's really
movable unless you eat a bunch of his contract.
But if they were able to somehowfree up another $6 million with
those two guys in a trade, it would be really great to have
that extra 6 to add to the 10. Give you 16 to $17 million to be
(14:49):
able to to go after a couple of free agents.
Before we dive into the the UFASI, want to talk about 1
restricted free agent that I would love to absolutely find a
way to get in and that is Keandre Miller.
He's plays for the New York Rangers.
He's a 25 year old restricted free agent.
The Rangers are in a bit of a cap crunch.
(15:12):
Some of you thought maybe the Red Wings would be on Noah
Dobson. I thought the price was way too
high for Noah. Two first round picks and a very
highly touted prospect, way morethan Stevie was willing to pay.
But Keandre Miller might be a guy that man, if you could get
him for, like if you could somehow get the Rangers to take
Tarasenko and that contract. Or maybe even, you know, the
(15:35):
restrictive free agent that we talked about, Jonathan Berggren,
and pair him up with a second ormaybe 2 seconds to get Keandre
Miller. I think this dude that I would
absolutely pull the trigger on that.
He's going to need a contract extension, probably around $6
million. So you got to be aware of that.
If you're sitting at 16 and you're able to somehow get him
at six, still leaves you 10 million to make some moves in
(15:57):
the offseason once the Ufas hit.But I would love to see Stevie
try to make a deal for this player.
He mentioned after the draft that, you know, the free agent
market is tough. There's going to be a lot of
money. Lots of teams have money.
Trades have been a little bit tricky too because you got more
teams that think they can compete.
But I think if the Rangers are really going to be in a cap
crunch, they need to save some money.
(16:18):
They need, they've got their ownRF as other RF as to sign.
They need some scoring depth, which Keandre Miller does not
add to that. He's much more of a stay at home
offensemen, but he can log a tonof minutes and he's really that
shut down defender that the Red Wings could really, really use.
Whether you pair him up with themost sighter, probably, but I
(16:39):
would love to see a deal for Keandre Miller to come where the
winged wheel and if we could somehow get them to take some
money from take some money on a contract from us, that would be
great. But that's so that's an RFA that
I'm kind of on the lookout for couple of Ufas that I'm looking
at. And again, I think all the talk
out there is that we're really looking for D.
(16:59):
We need a top 4 defenseman rightnow.
We're sitting at Simon Edmondsonand we know that we're of course
looking at MO Saida. And then you've got Ben Sherrod
in the mix, you know, and then acouple of guys that really
should be slotted down on that lower end with Eric Gustafson
and William Lagson. Of course, Albert Johansson is
(17:20):
another guy that could slot up into that top 4 as well.
Played really, really well on the left side when the Renwigs
needed him. And then Justin Hall, you just
don't know what you're going to do with their, but kind of
hoping that that guy's not on that team on the team.
But if we could sign a nice right-handed defenseman to
either pair up with Ben Sherratt, Albert Johansson or
Simon Evanson, it would be really nice to lock in that top
(17:43):
four, pair with that and see, these are some of the names that
I'm looking at. Aaron Ekblad, he announced that
he's going to test the free agent market.
I know the Florida Panthers werehoping to re sign him.
He's 29 years old, but he would fit so nicely.
He's a right-handed shot. So he would probably pair up
with one of our current lefties,either Sherrod or Edmondson in
(18:03):
on pair 2. But lock in that top four.
He's a proven winner. He can put up the stats, but
he's got a solid D game. He's going to cost you money
probably. I think right now projected to
make about $8 million a year, which again, is it's a tough
pill to swallow, but man, we really need to lock up that top
four pair. We address the goaltending
(18:24):
situation, the red. We's got to do stuff, something
to keep the pucks out of their own net.
We generated plenty of offense, deadly power play.
But man, we got to lock it up defensively.
And I think Aaron Ekblad would be a really nice fit.
It's no secret. He mentioned he wants to really
kind of get closer to home. He's a Windsor, ON native, which
really if he's eyeing up Torontoand Detroit, that could be our
(18:47):
end because Toronto is not goingto have the cap space to sign
this guy. It would be really nice to get
all, you know, I don't want to say a hometown discount because
I don't expect him to take less money, but it would be nice to
get a hometown deal, much like we did with the Brinkett, where
he wanted to come to Detroit, wanted to be back in Michigan.
If we could get Aaron Ekblad on step in lock with the Red Wings,
(19:10):
I think he's a player that really pushes us into that
playoff mode, which it's been a long time, people.
It's been way too long. Nine years of no playoffs in
Hockey Town is a travesty. It would be fantastic to hit
that playoff mark in our Centennial year, 100 years of
the Red Wings, man, I really hope they can get that done.
Another D that'll be highly coveted in the FA market, UFA
(19:33):
market is Vlad Gavrok Gavrokov. He's a stay at home D very, very
solid. He's currently, you know, played
for the LA kings this last year.He logs a ton of minutes.
He's a left-handed shot. So again, you'd probably pair
him up with Moe Saita and he's he's the kind of guy that just
does all the tough things. He's solid in front of the met.
(19:56):
He's physical, he's not going togenerate much offense, but he
does all he's got a great for first pass and he's really going
to allow the the his partner to be more offensive.
So I think he could really open up most Siders game offensively
if we were able to somehow lock that guy in.
He's projected to make anywhere,you know, probably around 7.5
(20:16):
million AVV. It'd be really nice to see
Stevie work his magic and be able to get Vlad into the winged
wheel. He will be highly coveted,
though. I know there's a lot of teams
that are already talking to his agent that, you know, the
tampering period or quote UN quote has already started, even
though free agency is still a few days away.
But man, Vlad would be a great add to the Red Wings.
(20:40):
All right, let's shift over to the forward side.
Not as big of a need for me. Obviously I'm not going to turn,
you know, turn my nose up to adding some good scoring or some
hard, hard nosed players. But of course, you know, I, I
feel like I can't get away without mentioning Mitch Marner.
There's no way the Red Wings aregetting into a bidding war for
Mitch Marner. He's going to command $14
million a year. There's already talks of Toronto
(21:02):
doing a sign and trade because they just can't afford him.
You know, the rumblings are Vegas, of course.
Gosh, that'd be awful because they just seem to get so many
high end players. I don't even know how that team
is even kept compliant. But Mitch Marner is going to be
he's the top fish. The Red Wings are not going to
be, in my opinion, looking into that.
I would love him. I I think people, you know, some
(21:23):
people had the audacity to dog some of his, you know, some of
his play. The guy puts up 100 points a
year and he's done it multiple times.
Like, there's nothing to frown on with Mitch Marner, you know,
people complaining, oh, he disappears in the playoffs, but
like, doesn't everybody in Toronto disappear in the
playoffs? So I don't hold that against
Mitch Marner. But you know, Mitch is going to
be a really great ad for for some team and he's going to make
(21:45):
Buco books. Another big cat on the free
agency that I could see the Wings actually making a nice
little play for is Nikolai Ellers out of Vancouver.
He would slot in so nicely on that top line as a left winger
with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond.
He's 29 years old. Dude is deadly on the power
(22:06):
play. He's been in the league for 10
years. I think he's averaging about .8
points per game over his career.He's probably going to cost you
$8 million. So again, a pretty penny to
bring this guy in. But man, he's going to be in
demand. But this is a guy, this is a big
fish I would not mind taking a swing at.
I would love to see this guy on the winged wheel.
(22:28):
Yes, he's going to be expensive.He's going to cost you around
what Lucas Raymond does. But man, he would he would fit
on that top line. And that would really allow you
to still run with, you know, Larkin Raymond Ellers on the
line, one line 2 with Casper Kane and debrink it.
And then you're looking at your third line of like Andrew Kopp,
(22:49):
which again is he's a nice thirdline guy.
You can look at Elder Sodeblom, Michael Rasmussen, maybe another
depth winger you get in there. Or you could even shift JT
confer up onto that third line too and go Comper confer with
comp, which I like too. Both of those guys, you know,
they make a bit of money, conferand cop, but they're just solid
two way dudes. You know, again, there's a lot
(23:11):
of hate out there for these two guys.
They do this a lot of the same thing.
But yes, I understand they make $5,000,000 a year, but they do a
lot of things. They're the types of guys that
win you games in the playoffs because you got to have that
scoring depth and guys that are willing to play a 200 foot game.
So couple other names out there that you know, I wouldn't be
surprised these are more of yourbargain bin guys, but I would
(23:33):
not be surprised if they're the types of players that Steve
Eiserman is looking at more. I'm looking at like Anthony
Bevellier, a left winger coming out of the Islanders.
Brandon Sod. I think Vegas as a left winger.
Ryan Lingerum is a left D who I think he's got some sneaky
potential that he would he wouldslot well with the Red Wings as
(23:54):
well. He wouldn't be that like, you
know, stud that just jumps rightinto your top 4.
But I like him. He's got a lot of upside.
And then Victor Olson is anotherleft winger too, that I think
the Red Wings could look at the all those guys are more in the
range of like, you know, 2 to $4million a year, but would be
solid contributors for this Red Wings team.
(24:16):
All right, folks, I hope you've enjoyed this red Kool-aid packet
talking all things Red Wings. I know this is a Lions podcast,
but we do love our Detroit sports.
And not to worry, our host of the show, Derek Okri, will be
talking dollars that makes senseon the flagship show this
Wednesday. But for now, I hope you drink it
(24:38):
in, enjoy the Red Kool-aid, and we'll catch you next time on the
Detroit Kool-aid cast. #Choppy hockey.
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