Month: March 2018

The Grand Rapids Press’s Peter J. Wallner spoke with Red Wings assistant GM and Grand Rapids Griffins GM Ryan Martin regarding the future of the Grand Rapids Griffins as it applies to a future influx of the Red Wings’ top prospects:

The Red Wings have as many as 11 picks within the first six rounds of the NHL draft this June 22-23. That follows 11 selected last season and comes after 13 picks the previous two drafts combined. But, before the best prospects migrate to Detroit over the course of years they will inevitably first change the dynamic of the Griffins.

“At some point in the next four years you’ll see the makeup of the team become significantly different than what he has been the past couple years,” said Ryan Martin, the Red Wings assistant general manager who oversees the Griffins.

That means the organization will look to provide more younger players a shot in the ECHL with Toledo and – more so, they hope – in the AHL with Grand Rapids. For the Griffins, that would mean fewer veterans and seasoned developmental players.

If, for example, the team has five veteran forwards, the number may decrease to three. Likewise, for defensemen; instead of four veterans there may be two.

“We’re going to have to make room for the young kids and the young kids are going to have to have an opportunity to compete for playing time and compete for jobs,” Martin said. “There will be no entitlement, but at the same time we have to make sure we don’t have impediments to them playing and getting an opportunity to play.”

Continued with some roster projections from Martin…

Here is the Red Wings’ Game Day Preview video ahead of tonight’s game vs. Winnipeg…

And here is the Grand Rapids Griffins’ Game Day Preview video ahead of tonight’s game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton:

The Griffins made a roster move today, assigning Zach Nastasiuk to Toledo:

Continue reading Wings and Griffins Game Day Preview videos

As the Detroit Red Wings prepare to face off against the Winnipeg Jets this evening (8:00 PM EST on FSD Plus/TSN3/97.1 FM), DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji took note of Andreas Athanasiou’s flourishing offense…

Athanasiou, 23, has matched his point total of 29 from last season in 12 fewer games this campaign. The fast forward had 18 goals and 11 assists in 64 games last year and has 13 goals and 16 assists in 52 games this year.

“I think Andreas has improved his game from a year ago in a consistency perspective of winning puck battles and winning puck races and those types of things,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “Any player that wants to go from being a good player to a great player has to show up every single night and compete like crazy. That’s what all the great players in the league do. Certainly that’s where with a guy like Andreas or any of our young players, that’s where our growth will come from. Making sure it’s an every shift, every game thing.”

Blashill had promised Athanasiou a greater role with the team when he finally signed a new contract in late October.

“I think I’m just playing my game and I think a little bit more opportunity to produce a little more,” Athanasiou said. “I think it just comes with that.”

And Wakiji also noted that the Jets present a stiff challenge for the Red Wings:

Continue reading Red Wings-Jets game-day updates: Wings wary of Jets’ challenges as Winnipeg hopes to stay hot

MLive’s Ansar Khan has filed a Friday mailbag article, and among the questions posited to Khan:

Khan continues…

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

1. ESPN’s hockey writers debated which team “deserves” to win the draft lottery, and Greg Wyshynski feels that the Canucks or Red Wings are most “deserving”…

Simply put: They’re both sort of directionless teams, even if the Canucks’ top line shows promise, with some good prospects and GMs who have lost the faith of their respective fan bases. What the Red Wings have that Vancouver doesn’t: a new arena that is in desperate need of an attraction like Dahlin. And, with due respect to Alexander Edler and Mattias Ohlund, the Red Wings also have already built a dynasty on the back of the best Swedish defenseman in hockey history. And Nicklas Lidstrom is already a fan of Dahlin, his young countrymate.

So to restore the glory of the Red Wings, and to fill a few seats at the Pizza Chain Arena, I’d say Detroit deserves Dahlin.

Will the Red Wings win the lottery? Of course not. We all know that the Chicago Blackhawks will, with Dahlin telling the assembled media at the draft how excited he is to join the Blackhawks because he loves playing outdoors. And then Gary Bettman winks at the camera. C’mon, you know it’s true.

2. And The Athletic’s Craig Custance weighed in on the likely 2020 expansion draft as it may affect the Red Wings’ roster:

Continue reading Talking Dahlin and expansion draft options

Updated 4x at 2:01 PM: Okay, so the Red Wings and Winnipeg Jets will battle this evening (8:00 PM ON FSD Plus/TSN3/97.1 FM) with both teams hoping to rebound from difficult losses.

Here are the Red Wings’ morning skate Tweets…

Continue reading Red Wings-Jets morning skate Tweets II: Howard starts, Green, Zetterberg good to go, ‘someone else’ questionable

The Detroit Red Wings will battle the Central Division juggernaut Winnipeg Jets this evening (8:00 PM on FSD Plus/TSN3/97.1 FM).

Both teams are coming off losses, with the 37-17-and-9 Jets having most recently lost a 6-5 decision to the Nashville Predators. Winnipeg has split its past 4 games but won 5 of their past 7 games as well, and the Winnipeg Sun’s Paul Friesen set up tonight’s game as follows:

Continue reading Red Wings-Jets morning skate Tweets and articles: game set-ups galore

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

Continue reading Griffins’ lighting contest reaches its final day of voting

File this one under, “I respect his point of view, but could not disagree more regarding his assessment of the Wings’ prospects.”

The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin was asked whether the Red Wings or Rangers are better-prepared for a “rebuild,” and here’s what Larkin had to say:

The Rangers are much better equipped for a rebuild in my opinion. First of all, while Detroit has started building a young group to get excited about in Dylan Larkin (no relation to me, by the way; Dylan and I and his uncle had a discussion about it at the 2016 All-Star Game and traced our lineage and there is no close family connection), Anthony Mantha, Michael Rasmussen and Dennis Cholowski. But none of those players is a Mittelstadt or an Eeli Tolvanen or an Elias Pettersson. In other words, the Red Wings don’t have any elite-ceiling prospects in my opinion. On top of that, they are saddled with just so many prohibitive contracts: Frans Nielsen, Justin Abdelkader, Darren Helm, Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley and so on.

Continue reading Talking ‘rebuilds’ with THN

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji spoke with Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on Thursday, discussing the Red Wings’ mediocre power play:

Having [Mike] Green back could help the power play, which is 22nd in the league at 18.5 percent.

“I think he just has that element of the big shot,” Blashill said. “He can shoot it in the net. The more weapons you have on the power play the better chance you’re going to score on a more consistent basis.”

The power play only had two opportunities Wednesday night in St. Louis and failed to convert on either. Obviously that could have made the difference in a 2-1 game.

“Our first, we had entries where we actually structurally we were fine, but we didn’t execute,” Blashill said. “We got in, we were OK and then we turned it over. The second power play, we actually did have some chances, some play around the net, and then (Gustav) Nyquist had the real chance where he hit the goalie in the head. If that goes in we’re not talking about it. And then we pulled the goalie late and I actually thought we had an opportunity to have the looks, but we didn’t execute. So we gotta execute better.”

Continue reading Wings hope to revive plodding power play