It’s a new season of Red Wings hockey and a new season of WIIM Radio for your listening pleasure. To get this season preview rolling, I was hosted by the always excellent Peter as we tag-teamed the topics nearest and dearest to our hearts. Here’s what we got up to: Thoughts from Preseason: Biggest positive (and negative) surprises from the full slate of preseason games for the Wings, to include the status of the defense, Cholowski’s big step forward, the big concern about Frans Nielsen and overall team health, and the struggle with wanting the team to be good and wanting to keep on the right rebuild track. The Roster Construction: We don’t outright say it, but Grand Rapids might be more fun to watch early on than Detroit. We’ve seem Yzerman construct AHL teams like this before in Syracuse and it very much looks like the kids are going to get the kind of experience to help develop their game rather than the tired old “learn how to be an AHL champ” company line we’ve been given. Season Expectations: While neither of us expects the Wings to be contenders, there’s a lot of variance in how this season could go. They should be fun to watch for much longer than they have been in years past at least. We also delve into what we’re looking for out of the power play and what kind of leash we expect Jeff Blashill to have now that his clone Dan Bylsma is slowly morphing into him. Reader Questions: Your favorite part and mine, as always the reader questions bring all the best stuff including a very sad FMK and a discussion on most-handsome that I feel very strongly about. Finally ICYMI - check out the WIIM Charity challenge You can listen via the embedded player and subscribe using your favorite podcast app. Thanks for listening and LGRW! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices