In Red Wings Land

Detroit Red Wings opening lineup projections: Who’s in and who’s out | Freep

I actually don’t think Helene is too far off here with her Red Wings opening night lineup projection:

FORWARDS

Tyler Bertuzzi — Dylan Larkin — Anthony Mantha

Andreas Athanasiou — Frans Nielsen — Taro Hirose

Darren Helm — Valtteri Filppula — Luke Glendening

Christoffer Ehn — Jacob de la Rose — Justin Abdelkader

DEFENSE

Danny DeKeyser — Mike Green

Patrik Nemeth — Filip Hronek

Jonathan Ericsson/Trevor Daley — Dennis Cholowski

RESERVES

Ryan Kuffner & Madison Bowey

Would I make any changes? Yes, but not that many. I think it’s important for Filip Zadina to play at the NHL level and continue his development with more skilled players around him. I’d slot him on the third line with Helm and Filppula. You then move Glendening down to the fourth line to play with any combination of Ehn, Abdelkader or de la Rose.

I don’t think Kuffner makes the roster. It would surprise me if he did. I’d guess he starts in Grand Rapids. The wild cards are Michael Rasmussen and Evgeny Svechnikov. It wouldn’t shock me if either made the roster and it wouldn’t shock me if one or both ended up with the Griffins. Rasmussen could probably use some time in the AHL. If either player is good enough to make the Wings roster out of camp, then you just send Ehn down or waive someone.

Around the League

31 Takes: When should Leafs walk away from a Marner offer sheet? | Yahoo!

Is $12 million AAV too much for the Maple Leafs to keep Mitch Marner? $13 million? $14 million? Either way, fingers crossed someone decides to do something crazy. More chaos, more fun.