Red Wings Rumblings
Kulfan takes a stab at his own NHL power rankings here. The longtime Red Wings beat-writer has Detroit right in the middle of the NHL at no. 16:
“Detroit: Right smack in the middle. The Wings could snag one of those final Eastern Conference playoff spots or just miss like last season. Key questions are whether right wing Vladimir Tarasenko can add needed offense, whether right wing Lucas Raymond can build on a terrific late season run, and whether goalie Cam Talbot can solidify the net.“
This is probably a fair ranking, though some may argue it could be better or worse. This is pretty much where they were when the season ended, except Washington is ranked no. 18, after they were swept out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
This isn’t real, but figured I would mention it for fun-sies. A PuckPedia user used the sites PuckGM tool to craft up this trade with Winnipeg:
Red Wings get: Nikolaj Ehlers
Jets get: Jonatan Berggren, Dmitri Buchelnikov, 2025 1st rd pick, 2026 2nd rd pick
I like Ehlers but that’s a hefty price to pay. Perhaps taking out the 1st round pick would let me warm up to it, but my gut doesn’t exactly agree. This trade possibility is purely fiction, so let’s not waste too much energy on it. 🙂
The Xfinity-Bally dispute is over, but the future of Bally Sports Detroit is still very much in question. The Wings, and many other teams, are going to need to create a plan for when the ship officially goes under. There’s also this whole thing with Xfinity moving Bally Sports up into another TV package tier. The package I currently have included Bally Sports before the dispute, but now I need to upgrade my package in order to get Bally Sports on my TV. Pretty nasty work that leaves people like you and I paying the price. I’ll likely be looking for other options as we get closer to the regular season.
