I'm hearing a lot of jive out there about the demise of Ken Holland (and Babs) as top management in the NHL.  How they haven't made great personnel decisions or struck gold in the draft since Pav and Hank were brought in. That the hype around them keeping the organization fresh is too great, and Detroit is on it's way out of the playoffs picture. (Granted, a lot of this talk comes from the negativity on MLives comment section...which does not share the ever present optimism of the WIIM community)

Bologna.  Look...striking gold is tough.  It doesn't happen every year even if you have a TOP pick, and from the looks of Detroits preseason, Kenny and the scouting crew have done just fine, and the Wings will have some great new youth influxing into the system in the next 1-3 years. 

People are also giving them the business regarding sending Nyquist down to the AHL.  No question, in limited preseason action, he looked like a legit NHL top 6 forward, and I'm sure he'll be one in the next 5 years.  Everyone is so down on Emmerton and Hudler and Brunstrom (even Filpula)  saying we need to just cut ties and bring Nyquist in.  That is ludicrous. That Nyquist looks as good as he does puts the Wings in a great situation, and cutting ties with any of those players would be a huge mistake.  

I think of it playing out in one of a few scenarios. Best Case: Gustav stays down and gets a full 82 game year against quality competition in the AHL.  Meanwhile Hudler becomes reacquainted with the NHL, and becomes the 50-60pt scorer and top 6 forward Babs thinks he can be.  I think Emmerton has looked great in his role (he's not going to be a top 6 guy, but you need quality bottom 6 people too).  Ideally, he becomes a speedy/gritty 4th line center, freeing Helmer and Abby up for a more offensive roll on lines 2 or 3.  As I see it, Nyquist & Emmerton are 2 totally different types of players, and one doesn't replace the other.  Anything out of Brunnstrom is icing on the cake...he's slotted as the extra forward anyway, meaning I imagine he'll be in a steady rotation with Emmerton, Miller and (hopefully not) Hudler.  We wouldn't want Nyquist is that situation anyway (playing one out of three games).  

If that doesn't work out, and the Wings start the season with an inability to score goals...Hudler bombs, whatever...then you bring in Nyquist.  It doesn't hurt anything to give Hudler a chance to redeem himself. But I just don't see goal scoring being our teams' issue.  If anything, it's team defense that could be our detriment, and as much as I loved Nyquist's offensive potential, I don't remember him being a standout defensive forward.  He could probably use the time to learn that part of the Red Wings system in GR before we start touting him as a future Zetterberg. Also, keep in mind we have about 5 million left under the cap to add a player via trade at any point in the season.  And assuming it's Hudler or Fil that gets traded (those are the names I usually hear) we really have about 8 million once either is offloaded... Any offensive or defensive gaps can be made up in this way as well.  (Side Note: I love hearing the 'trade Hudler' rants. If he plays as badly as last year, why does anyone think we can get anything of value for him?).

As excited as I am to see what Nyquist can do out there, there's only a couple reasons I think he should be brought up, barring the obvious injury, or just to give him a handful of games of NHL experience this year.  a) our offense is struggling..and we're losing games 2-1. b) we go through a horrible losing streak, and it becomes a lost season (ala Devils last year or Flyers 2007) in which case we bring in the kids to get them all the experience we can.  That's it.  

Sorry if that was kind of Rambley.