EHM The Blue Line

Gm Thatoneguy: Thanks for everyone showing up today. Now, you're probably thinking why I did not call a press conference when I took over the Detroit Red Wings in the middle of the season. I did not call a press conference then because I was so occupied with getting this team rolling and we hit so many injuries and bumps in the road that there was no time to take the time to do an I depth press conference. But, now after the season we have time. I will now take questions.

Reporter #1: Mr. Guy, what happened? You started so well, 11-0-0 to start your tenure in Detroit and you were in 1st place in the western conference. You ended up below .500 in your last 10 games of the regular season and in 6th place. You lost to the St. Louis Bl---

GM: Yes yes I know, I was there I don't need you to tell me what happened. But yes. We had a great start, but we hit injuries, and lots of them. We had 6 guys on the Injured Reserve at one time in Feburary. So we didn't have the depth or firepower that we had at the beginning of the year. And I do believe that this messed up the teams chemistry. That's why we didn't put up much of a fight against the Blues in round 1. Next question.

Reporter #2: GM Guy. There has been much talk of your decision to rebuild the organization. And none of it is in your favor. So I ask, why? You had arguably the best team in the league and you just threw them away.

GM: Yeah well I'd like to hear what they say when I'm winning cup after cup when this team is rebuilt. You see, this was my problem with the team: There were too many players who had injury issues. You can't win a cup if your players can't play. So, sell them out and get new guys that will be there when you need them. Next question.

Reporter #3: GM Guy, question about the draft. How do you feel you did there? You had a couple high picks. What are your thoughts on the prospects you picked?

GM: Right the draft which took earlier today. Well at the 3rd overall pick we picked Guy Leblanc. We had Guy ranked 2nd on our list, and we could not have been more happier that we were able to pick him up. He is the complete package at defense. He is big, strong, aggressive, creative, skilled, and hard working. Is there anything else you can ask for? The only concern we have with him is his positioning seems to be a little weak. We are planning on bringing him in next season to the NHL to see how he does up here as a 18 year old. I'm not sure what more he can accomplish at the Junior level, as he had more than a point a game last season. As a defenseman. That is pretty impressive to us. Guy is a great player to build our defense around and we are very excited to work with him.
At the 10th overall pick, we chose Robin Spencer. Now, we were ecstatic that Robin was available at the 10th pick. We did not think that he would be available then. In fact we were so shocked that we almost did not get our pick in in time. But to Robin, we love Robin. With his speed combined with his skillset, he will be a great forward to build our offense around. Well, him and Jerad Hanson who is next. Jerad Hanson we took at #11 overall. We were torn between him and a defenseman who was still available, but we just could not pass on Jerad Hanson. Although he is not very strong in the mental aspect of the game, his skills are very good. And he is physical and can hit well. He will develop into a very solid 1st line power forward winger to go with Robin Spencer up there. And ah, to round out our first round picks, we have Jeff Russell, another forward. I'm not too sure how we ended up with 1 defenseman and 3 forwards in the first round, as our plan was to pick at least 3 defensemen in the first round, as we believe that it takes a little bit longer than forwards to develop them. Anyways, back to Russell. Now Jeff, Jeff is more complicated than the others. Jeff has a very good skillset for where he was chosen, 27th overall. But his problem is his speed. This will make him a project player. We want to raise his speed a couple notches before we call him a good pick. If we can raise it to about 12 or 13, then we will consider it a huge victory and we will be very happy. So, there you go, our first round prospects in the first draft of the Detroit Red Wings rebuild. Next question?

Reporter #2 again: GM guy, me again, what are your plans for the offseason? Any pickups you're planning?

GM: Good question. Yes, we are planning on trying to making a couple of pickups during free agency. And yes we have our targets---

Reporter #2: Who are your targets for free agency?

GM: Well I am certainly not going to reveal that right now, haha. These guys can still be resigned before they hit free agency, and we do not want to jinx ourselves. But I will say, we will be looking for veterans to help out the three 18 year olds that we are planning on bringing in next season. To help show them the way.

Reporter #4: GM Guy, what are your plans for next season, and also the future of the Red Wings?

GM: My plans next year, well, it will be all about developing our young guys. Are we going to try to win games? Of course we will. But we will not play veterans over the kids in situations. The kids are the future of the organization, so we feel like getting them experience in situations is more important than getting wins. If we can get wins while getting them experience and having them learn from the veterans, then that is even better. And the same goes for the future; it's all about the kids and getting them experience at the NHL level.
Now, that is all the time I have today folks. Thanks for coming out today.

Before the 2046-2047 season started we believed that, come June, we would be waiting for the draft lottery results to be revealed to see if we were the lucky team to win the first overall pick in the draft. Instead we finished at 11th in the conference, and with the 8th overall pick.
It was the tale of two halves to the season this year in Hockeytown. The first half went pretty well, as we were somewhat pushing the playoff competition for a good portion of the first half. But, when we decided to send down Guy LeBlanc and Jerad Hanson, the season kind of went down the toilet from there. The bright spot would have to have been the far unexpected play of goaltender Adam Flammino, posting some very nice numbers for the type of goaltender he is. Overall, we exceeded our expectations from this season.
The draft:
First round, #8 overall pick: Lubomir Kusy RW. Lubomir Kusy is a strictly offensive forward. Speedy with a good shot and soft hands, we expect Lubomir to become a top 6 goal scorer and be a great support to the top line in terms of scoring. Don't expect him to do much in the defensive zone. We will for sure not be bringing him to the NHL this year. It is currently undecided if we will bring him to Grand Rapids or if we will leave him in the Czech Republic to play there as he did get pretty good ice times there. It is expected that he stay in the Czech Republic though.
Next season:
Outlook is very nice for us next year already. We will be bringing in Guy LeBlanc, Jerad Hanson, and Robin Spencer for their first full seasons in the nhl this year. As all three of them are only 19, we are not expecting a whole lot out of them. They will not have much support other than each other. These are my goals for these three prospects:
Guy LeBlanc: 80 gp 5 goals 30 assists 35 pts 100 pims
Robin Spencer: 80 gp 20 goals 30 assists 50 points 7.50 avg
Jerad Hanson: 80 gp 15 goals 15 assists 30 points 50 hits
The team goal is to hit 75 points this year and get the #7-10 pick in the next draft.
Thanks for reading!

2047-48 Season

A very relaxed, cruising rebuild season went great for the Detroit Red Wings in the 2047-2048 season. Albeit very stressful in the last 10 games, the goal was achieved for the season, as we ended up with the 4th overall pick in the draft.

As said, the first about 65 games went according to plan as the Wings bounced around from 11th to 14th in the conference all year. At the trade deadline we traded away our up, over, down and back up another hill goaltender, František Saffer. After the deadline, the season got quite interesting. The team hit a wall, going 0-17-2 down the stretch and allowing the Phoenix Coyotes to make an incredible comeback all the way from a 22 point deficit to just a 4 point deficit with just 3 games remaining. After an extensive tactical examination session, the Wings were able to pull 5 points in their last 3 games, 3 of which came from the highly St. Louis Blues, and avoid relegation by 3 points but also maintaining a position in the draft lottery, the 4th position.

Prospect stats (projection from last season):
Guy LeBlanc: 54 gp (80) 8 goals (5) 20 assists (30) 35 pts (28) 132 pims (100)
Robin Spencer: 61 gp (80) 24 goals (20) 31 assists (30) 55 pts (50) 7.41 avg (7.50)

The Draft:
First Round, 4th overall pick: Rico Paterson LD
Rico Paterson is a top notch skating defenseman, with already top level technical defending and great offensive instincts. He will need some more development in his distribution and stick handling play, but those are really his two "weaknesses". All around great defenseman at age 18 we see a bright future for Rico in Detroit. Projection: Top pair/top penalty killing defenseman.
First Round, 8th overall pick: Simo Södö C/RW (acquired in a trade)
Simo Södö plays a very well balanced game. Good skating, albeit well below average agility, he is technically very balanced. Will go to the front of the net for deflections but also has a very good wristshot. He did not see much ice in Finland, possibly slowing his development. We shall see once he starts playing in Grand Rapids this season. Projection: 2nd line center.

This season:
We are expecting this season to go much like the last as we are still looking to fill a few holes through the draft. Somewhere around the 4th-6th overall pick is where we are projecting to be. Jerad Hanson will be playing in Detroit this year, as last year he was hindered by injury, and we kept him in Grand Rapids for most of the season. Projected record: 25-51-6

Goals for prospects:
[table][td]Kamil Augusta[/td][td]G[/td][td]2048 Round 2, #32 overall[/td][td]Mississauga IceDogs OHL[/td][td](Mississauga IceDogs OHL)[/td][td]50 gp 30-15-5 2.30 gaa 0.910 sv%[/td][/table]
Andre Jillson G (2047 Round 3, #66 overall) (Toledo Storm, ECHL): 60 gp 45-18-2 2.45 gaa 0.900 sv%
Guy LeBlanc LD (2046 Round 1, #3 overall) (Detroit Red Wings, NHL): 80 gp 15 goals 35 assists 50 pts
Filip Polak LD (2045 Round 3, #61 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 60 gp 10 goals 20 assists 30 pts
Ted Walsh LD/RD (2044 Round 3, #90 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 75 gp 13 goals 30 assists 43 pts
Jakub Sykora RD (2045 Round 2, #53 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 60 gp 10 goals 25 assists 35 pts
Rico Paterson LD (2048 Round 1, #4 overall) (Kootenay Ice, WHL): 70 gp 20 goals 50 assists 70 pts
Konsta Kikpelainen LD (2048 Round 3, #64 overall) (Tampere T, Fin): 55 gp 13 goals 30 assists 43 pts
Jordan Raycroft RD/LD (2046 Round 3, #68 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 70 gp 10 goals 20 assists 30 pts
Bart Brown LW/RW (2046 Round 3, #81 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 70 gp 5 goals 10 assists 15 pts
Jan Suchanek LW (2047 Round 3, #68 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 70 gp 10 goals 15 assists 25 pts
Peter Kokavec LW (2047 Round 3, #73 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 70 gp 15 goals 20 assists 35 pts
Simo Södö C/RW (2048 Round 1, #8 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 70 gp 25 goals 30 assists 55 pts
Jerad Hanson RW (Round 1, #11 overall) (Detroit Red Wings, NHL): 80 gp 20 goals 25 assists 55 pts
Jeff Russell RW (2046 Round 1, #27 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 70 gp 5 goals 10 assists 15 pts
Robin Spencer RW/C (Round 1, #10 overall) (Detroit Red Wings, NHL): 80 gp 30 goals 40 assists 70 pts
Lubomir Kusy RW (2047 Round 1, #8 overall) (Spokane Chiefs, WHL): 70 gp 50 goals 40 assists 90 pts
Martin Anderle RW/C (2048 Round 2, #55 overall) (Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL): 70 gp 10 goals 10 assists 20 pts
Terry Bruno RW/LW (2048 Round 2, #39 overall) (Kitchener Rangers, OHL): 65 gp 15 goals 25 assists 40 pts
Anvar Vorobiev RW (2048 Round 2, #50 overall) (Omsk, Rus): 50 gp 10 goals 8 assists 18 pts
Ross Gagne RW (2048 Round 2, #40 overall) (Brandon Wheat Kings, WHL): 72 gp 60 goals 55 assists 105 pts


The Future:
We are expecting two more long seasons in Hockeytown before we are actually expecting to be good again. After this 3rd draft in the rebuild, we are starting to get excited about the future and the we are liking the prospects that we are collecting so far. Goal is our first playoff berth in the 2052 playoffs. Until then, hang in there Wings fans, we are doing our best!