J. T. Compher

Does not like gingers.

Watch out, JT Compher.

[laughs]

[laughs] No, I thought that was great.

[laughs]

But I like your thinking, Brad.

Why stop there? Why not JT Compher? Regardless, and then to follow up on this, because I was like, it really just does feel like this story has way too much staying power for how much of a non-starter it feels like from both sides.

I asked a few other folks, and I'll tell you, even though my money would still go on Hage is a non-starter, it wasn't a universal answer.

"And we keep on beating it.

Can we just move on?" I-- Especially when you have Marco Kasper still out, JT Compher still out.

You touched on Emmet Väyrynen, how well he's been playing.

I-- [chuckles] Emmet Väyrynen's making me eat my own words because I said to Carlo in a text message, you know, "I'm still a little weary on Emmet Väyrynen being the two C." He's looking like he could e- easily become a one C at some point in his career, Carlo, and this is a kid who still hasn't fully grown into his body.

Which is where he should be

... kind of piggybacking off of what you said, and I'll let you continue.

They still have JT Compher on IR or whatever it is that they're-- Is that IR? Is he IR still?

Yeah.

Rasmussen's still terrible.

JT Compher's still terrible.

Mason Appleton, I know is sick, is still terrible.

I think they're gonna be forced into a rebuild.

You can work with that.

And then for the players coming back from injury, whether it's, you know, Compher seems close, Kasper, Appleton, p- you know, combine that with Kulcsar, Masar, Drysdale, whoever is still there or is available, that's the fourth line.

Or it's just two of those players, and you keep running with seven defensemen.

But I think after, you know, some mixing and matching and not, you know, knowing what combination of forwards are gonna work, I think you have a good top nine at least, and that, uh, sets the tone for the next few games for the Red Wings.

Um, and you theoretically don't want him to just be a spare part on the fourth line.

Uh, Appleton had been looking pretty good coming out of, uh, training camp, uh, looked better than last season at least.

Um, a- and I think that theoretically you wanna at least give him a, a chance to get back to that level again and then, and then Compher, uh, [laughs] Compher's Compher.

I think at, at bare minimum, he, he gives you value down the middle, right? Um, the- these, these are guys that you would expect to play if they are healthy, basically.

Uh, just looking at the injuries, uh, York, Rista- Ristolainen, Ristolainen, or Ristolainen, Ristolainen, sorry, Konecny, and Grabenen are out for Philadelphia.

On our side, Compher, Appy, and Kasper are still out.

So really, if you look at it- Vladar will be in net for Philly, so I mean, that's their number one pretty much.

I'm pretty sure he's their number one.

Yes

... like Michael Rasmussen goes, JT Compher goes-

Yes

...

So they're both easily manageable, potentially movable.

I don't know what's gonna happen there.

I'd ver- I would take JT Compher over Michael Rasmussen all day, every day, but that's another point altogether, and it's a low bar.

But I think to your point there, over the next two seasons, most of those guys that we just talked about are gone, the exception being Ben Chiarot, who is apparently inevitable.

But Mark, I'll let you take it away, too, with him, you know, being on the power play and just the reaction from fans and, and stuff we've seen.

But what do you also think, I'll throw this to you, too, um, of these lines because we got an update this morning, too, that, uh, Compher is out.

He is ruled out and will not play tonight, and there's no real update beyond that.

And with a very thin center depth core, whatever you wanna call it, on this team already, with things, you know, kinda swinging outta control already in this early season, this is yet another bad sign