Can John Leonard provide the Red Wings with depth scoring?

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen describes defenseman Shai Buium, center Ondrej Becher and left wing John Leonard as “on the clock” to make the Red Wings’ NHL roster.

Buium, 23, needs to get back into the conversation about the Red Wings’ depth defenders with NHL potential, and Becher, 22, could very well impress as a center in an organization with not-so-much depth at the position…Leonard is the oldest of the three, but the stakes may be highest for the 28-year-old:

Left Wing John Leonard, signed as free agent

At 28, Leonard isn’t truly a prospect. He’s a journeyman who has played 81 NHL games. But the former UMass-Amherst player is also a late bloomer.

Counting playoff games, Leonard has netted 78 goals and registered 134 points in his last 145 AHL games.

This could be both his best and last time to show an NHL team he can score at the NHL level. The Red Wings are among the NHL’s weakest scoring teams and there will be a new director of hockey operations in charge. This will be a man looking for solutions. If he watches Leonard light up the AHL, he may give Leonard the real shot that GM Steve Yzerman did not.

Leonard did not look out of place in the first nine-game call-up he had to Detroit last season. He had two goals and two assists. Leonard can get open around the net.

Allen continues, and I’m very curious what happens to the 5’11,” 190-pound winger. He possesses a scoring punch that the Red Wings lack from their “bottom six,” and while he doesn’t have James van Riemsdyk’s size or Patrick Kane’s hands, he could be utilized as a stop-gap solution for the Wings’ third and fourth lines.

Roughly translated via DHN’s Duff: Moritz Seider addresses Yzerman’s departure, Larkin’s situation

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff adds interesting quotes from Moritz Seider to the mix this morning, as made by the Red Wings defenseman during the NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour, per Eishockeynews.de’s Michael Bauer:

As to the departure of GM Steve Yzerman and the ongoing search for his successor as training camp nears, Seider figures that element is out of his control.

“I’m stumped on that one,” Seider said. “I’m glad our owner (Chris Ilitch) can handle that.”

He readily admits to being completely caught off guard by Larkin’s early summer request for a trade.

“That wasn’t exactly something you saw coming,” Seider said. He may be in the minority, but Seider won’t criticize Larkin’s choice to leave. “Everyone certainly has their reasons for making certain decisions. Whether I or we approve of it is not for us to answer. But it’s clear that we’re a better team when Dylan Larkin is on the roster and playing than when he isn’t.”

Unable to solve either crisis, Seider instead focuses on what’s within his control.

“My summer training, my diet, my sleep, and how I prepare for the season,” Seider set as his offseason focus.

Seider readily admits to Bauer that the Red Wings’ annual March slide has doomed their playoff chances over the last couple of seasons, but #53 also suggests that the Wings must come out strong in order to battle against a difficult second-half-of-the-season performance:

“This season, it’s more important that we can block out the surrounding noise,” Seider said. “Therefore, the start of the season is much more important than in March or around the trade deadline.”

Duff and Bauer continue…

More from Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider: discreetly discussing the elephants in the room

So Moritz Seider spoke with the media today during the NHL/NHLPA European Player Media tour, as noted by the Hockey News’s Erik Cruikshank (via David Alter) and NHL.com’s Shawn P. Roarke.

Seider also spoke with The Athletic’s Chris Johnston about Steve Yzerman’s departure from the GM’s chair, in his own way…

“I can only say how thankful I am for his opportunity back in ’19, where he saw something in me a lot of people didn’t see at the time,” Seider said of Yzerman. “He took a big risk putting my name on this board that early, and I think that’s something that obviously makes my connection a little bit more special with him, and that’s something I’ll always really be thankful for.”

Seider deked around the Dylan Larkin situation, too, deferring to management…

“Those are definitely things no player should be asked or should talk about,” he said. “I’m very good in the background. I do my job, I’m very excited about next year and wearing the winged wheel again, but those are things for our owner. I think he probably has a plan in place, and I’ll be very pleased to meet the new leader of our franchise once he is selected. He will obviously have a lot of work to do. We’re still looking to fix some things.”

And instead, Seider tried to emphasize that he’s focused on becoming an even better player and defenseman…

Continue reading More from Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider: discreetly discussing the elephants in the room

A Twitter/X harbinger of a doomed relationship, or another overblown reaction to the Dylan Larkin situation?

More than a few Red Wings partisans and pundits alike are reacting very strongly to the fact that Dylan Larkin was not included in this Tweet announcing Detroit’s top player rankings in EA Sports’ NHL 27 game:

Sports Illustrated’s Nathan Smith certainly bit on the narrative…

Continue reading A Twitter/X harbinger of a doomed relationship, or another overblown reaction to the Dylan Larkin situation?

Talking about Carter Mazur

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a profile of 24-year-old Red Wings forward Carter Mazur today, discussing the pluses and minuses of Allen’s 9th-ranked Red Wings prospect:

Three Reasons Why Mazur Will Play in the NHL

  1. You would bet that Mazur is going to figure out how to create scoring chances at the NHL level. He has a scoring touch, but it’s tied into his penchant to be a physical player. It all works together.
  2. While Mazur can score, he has the soul of a super pest. He’s feisty, prickly, always ready to throw a check or push back. He could be a 150-hit forward in the NHL.
  3. He’s no longer the skinny athlete that he was when he showed up in Grand Rapids. He beefed up, adding 20 pounds of muscle to his frame.

What May Hold Him Back

It’s his hard-nosed play that gives him his best chance of making in the NHL, but it’s the promise of scoring that keeps coaches curious about him. Can he hit enough, score enough and stay healthy long enough to earn a permanent place.

Coaches will appreciate what he can offer, but this is a profession where you have to reach your production goals. All we know for sure is the former Denver college standout will give all that he has to stay on the roster.

Continued; Mazur simply has to avoid injuries and play his best while skating with the Wings’ “bottom six” (presumably) to start.

More from Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider: on ‘taking the next step’ and roster uncertainty

Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider spoke with the Hockey News from the NHL/NHLPA European Media Tour on Friday, and he also spoke with NHL.com’s Shawn P. Roarke regarding the uncertainty surrounding Detroit at present:

Seider says he is ready to take another step in his on-ice progression toward being among the game’s best defensemen. To him, that is the best way to help.

“I mean, you should always treat it like the sky is the limit; if you don’t aim for the stars, it’s tough to reach them,” he said. “If you don’t want to compare yourself to the best, you’re probably never going to be in a conversation with them.  It’s been really good what I achieved so far, but there’s plenty of room to work on. There’s plenty of opportunity to get better, and that’s something I have to shift my focus to because you want to get better, you want to be in conversation with the best defensemen in the League. I’m not there yet, but obviously that’s where I see my opportunity to shine is to just get better and better every single year.”

Last season was his best since he joined the Red Wings for the start of the 2021-22 season. Seider had a career-high 60 points (10 goals, 50 assists) and led his team with a plus-15 rating. It was the first time in his five seasons that he has been a plus player for a season. Seider also ranked third in the NHL in ice time per game at 25:40.

Continue reading More from Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider: on ‘taking the next step’ and roster uncertainty

Meet two of the (probable?) candidates for Detroit’s GM/president of hockey operations position

A day after the Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with an anonymous member of the Red Wings’ front office about the team’s general manager/president of hockey operations search…

Pro Hockey Rumors’ Gabriel Foley offers profiles of two of the candidate names bandied about on hockey Twitter by the Winged Wheel Podcast’s Ryan Hana and The Athletic’s Max Bultman:

The Detroit Red Wings’ search for their next general manager is fully underway. Another round of interviews was held on Thursday, per Ryan Hana of the Winged Wheel Podcast, to help Detroit narrow down what is believed to be a long list of assistant general managers from across the hockey world. Specifically, Florida Panthers AGM Brett Peterson and recently-hired San Jose Sharks AGM Jeff Kealty are both believed to be in talks per Max Bultman of The Athletic. Bultman also mentioned Carolina Hurricanes AGMs Darren Yorke and Tyler Dellow as potential candidates.

…

Peterson has formed a deep reputation across the hockey world. As a player, he was represented by current Panthers GM Bill Zito. That connection eventually rolled into a role with Wasserman Media Group, then in Florida’s front office, following Peterson’s retirement from his playing career. He has been a strong voice in Florida’s roster and cap management ever since, helping the cap-strapped club orchestrate acquisitions of Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand, and Seth Jones. Peterson also served as GM of Team USA at the 2026 World Championships. He seems due for a step up after years of success in Florida and wields the roster-building knowledge needed to effectively retool a lineup.

Kealty is also a strong option after 25 years in the Nashville Predators organization. He climbed the ranks of Nashville’s Hockey Operations – beginning as an amateur scout in 2001, moving to Director of Amateur Scouting in 2007, and taking on the AGM title in 2018. Kealty’s presence underscored Nashville’s focus on drafting out of the United States and Europe. Those sights helped the Predators land transformative talents like Pekka Rinne, Roman Josi, Mattias Ekholm, and Viktor Arvidsson outside of the first round. Kealty was intended to succeed a quarter-century in Nashville with a move to the up-and-coming Sharks, though Detroit’s GM title may be too prestigious to pass up.

Continued; it’s always good to know who these folks after they’ve been mentioned as potential GM candidates.

Moritz Seider speaks with the Hockey News regarding the Red Wings’ annual March slide, managerial flux and his outlook for the 2026-2027 season

The Hockey News’s Erik Cruikshank reports that David Alter spoke with Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider during the NHL/NHLPA European Player Media Tour, and Seider weighed in on the NHL’s partnership with Bayern Munich, his durability, and the state of the Red Wings as a franchise.

Seider weighed in on the team’s inconsistency and annual March slides down the standings…

“It’s our common theme for the last past seasons,” Seider said. “We head into March in a really good position and we kind of just toss the season away. Don’t really have an answer for it, to be honest. If we knew what to fix, we would have done it, more than once now.”

While the 25-year-old may not have all the answers for the Red Wings’ late-season collapses, he believes the group needs to find more consistency in order to get to the next level.

“I don’t think we’re far off,” Seider added. “We can beat any team in the league, but we’ve got to do it over an 84-game schedule now, so there’s plenty of opportunity to hopefully be in a great position right from up front, but then just gain that momentum all the way to the end and hopefully be in a good position.”

He said this about the Wings’ managerial flux…

Continue reading Moritz Seider speaks with the Hockey News regarding the Red Wings’ annual March slide, managerial flux and his outlook for the 2026-2027 season

Tweet of note: Revealing four Red Wings players’ ‘NHL 27’ ratings

I suppose that this is free advertising for both the Red Wings, the NHL and EA Sports, but here you go anyway:

There are many folks who are pissed off about Seider’s low ranking as compared to other elite defensemen, but it’s just par for the course in terms of the under-estimation of the team and its players.

We may not all be optimists here–I’m just sharing my opinion, not trying to tell you what to think–but I think that we can all agree that Seider’s tremendous season during 2025-2026 merits a slightly higher ranking.

THW’s Wolak discusses the NHL ‘ETA’s’ of his top 10 Red Wings prospects

The Hockey Writers’ Tony Wolak follows up a top 25 Red Wings prospects list that was posted in mid-July with estimates of the NHL “ETA’s” (estimated times of arrival) of Wolak’s top 10 Red Wings prospects.

Here are three prospects which Wolak believes will make the Red Wings’ roster this season:

RW Michael Brandsegg-Nygard

NHL ETA: 2026-27

A breakout candidate, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard is expected to make the Red Wings out of camp. He finished the 2025-26 season on a high note and provides on-ice qualities—notably goal-scoring and tenacity—that the team lacks. The only question, though, is whether Brandsegg-Nygard will be given a top-nine scoring role or more of a depth, energy role in Detroit.

C Nate Danielson

NHL ETA: 2026-27

While Nate Danielson might start the season in Grand Rapids, I’m expecting him to be a full-time Red Wing by season’s end. Then again, an impressive training camp could propel Danielson into Detroit’s lineup sooner rather than later. The Red Wings need more from their centers and Danielson has the toolkit—playmaking instincts, defensive awareness, vision—to seize the opportunity.

LW Carter Mazur

NHL ETA: 2026-27

Carter Mazur’s ETA is easy – he’s unable to be assigned to Grand Rapids without waivers and is expected to join the Red Wings full-time in the fall. There’s no point in Detroit risking a waiver claim here. Mazur will likely start in the bottom six and be given the opportunity to earn more responsibility. His compete and hockey sense around the crease could help him do just that.

Continued; this is a fun twist upon the numerous “list articles” which find their way on the internet at this time of year. It reminds us that the gloom-and-doom predictions from the Pronmans and Luszczyszyns of the world aren’t set in stone.