Stanley Cup Playoffs 2010

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by GusFrerotte

They need defensmen though. It is good they got a Swede coming in. Load up on Russian defensemen. The Wings got their first Stanley with vet Russian defensemen. Of course they always had a Russians their leading scorer to in Sergei and now Pavel.

They have defensemen. The "problem" is the oldest one among the core players is Mike Green (24). With him you have Schultz (23) who's +50 rating might be a little bit overstated but theres no doubt that he improved a lot this year. Carlson (20) who is going to be a star in this league, and Karl Alzner (21)who while I don't know exactly how to project has all the makings of a quality defensman.

I can't really remember if there was a defenseman out there that people wanted that either

A. didn't have an expensive contract with a few years left (part of the reason they didn't trade for Pronger last year).

or

B. A rental player that wouldn't have cost us one of our young players that will allow us to stay on top for a long time.

Still when it's all said and done we have four young defensemen that are still at least a year or two from being fully developed. I mean is there a team out there that has 3 pairs of all stars? The last two spots can be filled with a few other promising prospects coming up through our system including Dmitri Orlov, an 18 year old Russian that was a 2008 2nd round pick (lol theres your Russian Defenseman) or even a guy like Josh Godfrey a 22 year old 2nd round pick from 2007.

Not to mention we have Varly, Neuvy, and Hotlby in net and say what you want about our defense but Varly never gave up more then 3 goals against Montreal. Varly's problem is staying healthy which is a good reason to keep Nuevy around. In the end this team is so stocked with young talent it isn't even funny, mosts teams would kill to have the players we have even if you take out Ovechkin. The thing that they really need is to get use to playing playoff hockey. Once they do that the skies the limit.