Month: April 2018

Krupa, Niyo weigh in on the “state of the rebuild”

The Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa and John Niyo have weighed in on the comments made during locker room clean-out day, and Krupa focused on the “state of the rebuild,” which Krupa suggests is plain old stuck–at least in fans’ eyes…

Not all fans are convinced. They might well have tolerated 50 losses in regulation this season better than the Red Wings’ 39 losses, if they could have perceived a clearer path forward.

If the Wings had played younger players more, Joe Hicketts, Dominic Turgeon and Evgeny Svechnikov, and introduced Filip Hronek to the lineup later in the season, when they finally brought up Hicketts and quickly won three games, the rebuild would be farther along.

And if more losses had resulted, the Wings would have improved their odds of drafting Rasmus Dahlin, the most desired player in the draft, touted as a supremely talented puck-moving defenseman likely to have an immediate impact in the NHL.

Instead, in a season in which few, other than the Red Wings, thought they could possibly qualify for the playoffs, they both missed the post-season and failed to hasten rebuilding.

It is the way many rebuilds are accomplished in the NHL.

The Red Wings two great rivals from their recent Stanley Cup years, the Avalanche and the Devils, both made the playoffs this season. Although they started rebuilding sooner because they stopped winning Stanley Cups earlier, some critical moments of judgment allowed them to seize the opportunity to get worse so they could get better.

The Wings are late to those decisions. Holland sounds like he is ready, now.

Krupa continues at length, and Niyo offers a wrinkle in the theory by suggesting that ownership could lend Mr. Holland a hand:

And if ownership is as serious about this rebuild as it claims to be about the family’s other pro sports franchise, there’s no time like the present to show it. The Tigers have made a big to-do about upgrading their scouting and player development operations, investing millions in an analytics department and so on. But with the Wings, even at this critical juncture, it still feels like it’s less action and more talk.

“We’re discussing every day how we can be better,” Holland said.

That discussion includes Ilitch, who took part in the team’s midseason scouting summit in Las Vegas back in January and also spent time with Holland and his staff watching some of this year’s top draft prospects at the Five Nations Tournament in Plymouth in February. But where all that talk leads remains to be seen.

The team added Bryan Campbell as its director of statistical analysis and hockey administration a few years ago, but the Wings still lag behind others on the analytics front. Holland did say Tuesday he has tasked assistant video coach Jeff Weintraub with an analytics project involving the top 10 players in this year’s draft. (“We haven’t done that before,” he said.)

They’ve embraced new ideas in other areas, too, with Shawn Horcoff, the team’s director of player development, incorporating the Power Edge Pro system used by the Nashville Predators, among others, into the preseason training regimen at the AHL and NHL level.

“So we’re trying to do things a little bit differently,” Holland said.

Frankly, they have no choice if they want to make this work. The days of unearthing European gems others don’t see are long gone, and the big-market payroll advantage is no more.

“Forget anything that happened before 2005,” Holland said. “That was a different world.”

Niyo also continues, and

Duff weighs in on the Wings’ decision to retain both Holland and Blashill

Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff wonders whether the blame for the Red Wings’ two substandard seasons is best dissipated instead of shouldered by Ken Holland or Jeff Blashill:

It’s Blashill himself who likes to point out that he works in a results-based profession. In the NHL, you don’t get paid for trying hard. You get rewarded for winning, the thing the Wings haven’t done enough of the past two seasons.

According to ownership, this isn’t the fault of the guy in charge of picking the players. According to the GM, it isn’t the fault of the guy who’s teaching the players, which leads to a perplexing concern.

If that’s the case, then who’s to blame for the mess that this organization has become?

Blashill did allow that the work of the team’s staff was under scrutiny.

“We’re evaluating everything in terms of how can we be better?” Blashill said. “When we talked to the team today, we’ve all got to be a little bit better. I’ll certainly evaluate our staff and see if there’s anything that makes sense for us.”

Duff continues…

Larkin, Mantha, Athanasiou offer three different takes on impending contract negotiations

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article which discusses several disparate topics, including this headliner:

[Anthony] Mantha, Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou are three restricted free agents that Holland will have to deal with this summer. [Ken] Holland said each deal is unique, and he’ll look for an agreement that benefits both the individual player and the team.

Each player was optimistic a deal can be worked out before training camp

“One year, or eight years, I’m happy to be a Red Wing and I appreciate everything the Ilitches do for us,” Larkin said. “We haven’t really talked numbers, and there’s no rush. It has to make sense for the team as well. I don’t want to be a burden on the cap.”

Mantha said he’d likely be more agreeable to a shortert-term contract, believing there’s more to his game, and the potential for even a more profitable contract down the line.

Athanasiou, who held out until into late October because of no contract, was hopeful negotiations aren’t going to be as rocky this time around.

“It’s part of the game, so however it long it takes, it’ll run its course,” Athanasiou said.

Kulfan continues…

The future’s so blah, I wanna throw shade

Red Wings GM Ken Holland wrapped up his Tuesday workday with about seven minutes’ worth of conversation with WJR’s Mitch Albom, and…Had WJR posted this clip, you and I wouldn’t have needed to listen to today’s quips and quotes.

Cliches flowed while he declined to buy into Albom’s suggestion that the Red Wings need to follow the young-players-and-only-young-players model:

Meanwhile…

I don’t have a good answer as to how the Wings will be able to navigate between Holland’s worldview and Larkin’s…I wish I did. I’d tell the damn team.

When I start getting frustrated with the GM’s rhetoric (he’s not my favorite person, nor is his managerial style my favorite method, but I respect the dude), it’s been a long day…

And if I have a locker room clean-out day message, it’s pretty simple: the rhetoric has to meet the road over the next couple of months.

Continue reading The future’s so blah, I wanna throw shade

HSJ on Mantha and the Wings’ great expectations for #39

As the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes, the Red Wings are planning on asking Anthony Mantha to work with a boxing coach this summer to push his competitive limits.  St. James notes that the Red Wings’ expectations for Mantha match the player’s desire to meet them:

Mantha had a team-leading 24 goals. There are those in the organization, including Chris Chelios, who see Mantha developing into a 40-goal scorer. Mantha himself wants to be a go-to guy, and this season has seen his relationship with Blashill develop. One key date was Jan. 22 in New Jersey, when the two had a heart-to-heart that led to a show-and-tell video.

 “We took the 10 best shifts of my season and the 10 worst and we compared those,” Mantha said. “There is a big difference when I am actually competing or when I am not. That’s a learning thing I did this year.
“We talked about it again this morning. He knows I could be an impact player on this team and that’s his goal — he wants me to be like the best player, a superstar. He really wants me to focus on a couple details and sometimes the way he thinks he needs to reach out is by calling me out.”
Blashill coached Mantha his first year of pro hockey, in 2014-15, in Grand Rapids.
“My job is to get the very most out of each individual player that I can,” Blashill said. “Part of that job is to figure out the right buttons to push. And sometimes those buttons change. I’ve had Anthony a long time. It’s not like this is just a new growth process. Those buttons can change as people mature.
“One of the biggest thing in getting the best out of people is finding ways to connect with them. If the player gets to a realization where they understand what you are trying to do it get the very best out of them, that you’re not picking on them, when they understand that, there can be real growth.”
St. James continues, and in the FYI department:

Khan: Mike Green, veteran back-up likely to complement Wings’ youth movement

MLive’s Ansar Khan penned a locker room clean-out day article which focuses on the comments made by Ken Holland, Jeff Blashill and Henrik Zetterberg regarding the Wings’ official rebuild…

But Khan also lets some hints drop regarding the Wings’ offseason player personnel plans:

The Red Wings aren’t likely to be too active in a free-agent market that’s becoming increasingly thin. They would like to re-sign defenseman Mike Green, preferably for two years. He’s coming off neck surgery and will be ready for the start of training camp. They need to sign a goaltender to either back-up Jimmy Howard or compete for the starting job. Carter Hutton of St. Louis is on their radar.

No player on the current roster was acquired through trade, but Holland said he’d “love to do a value for value deal.”

Also, regarding the youth movement:

Holland said 6-foot-6 center Michael Rasmussen, their 2017 top pick who is dominating in the WHL playoffs for Tri-City (nine goals, 19 points in six games), has a chance to make the team next season. Evgeny Svechnikov, their 2015 top pick, also will be competing for a spot.

They are not as deep on defense, on their roster and in the system. They hope one of Joe Hicketts or Filip Hronek makes the jump from AHL Grand Rapids to the NHL at the start of the season.

“I’m hoping and expecting that minimum of two, maybe four or five kids between the ages of 19 and 22 are on the roster next year that weren’t on the team to start this year,” Holland said. “I want to get those young people onto this roster when I think that they can help us be competitive.”

Khan continues at length…

Griffins’ ‘Between the Benches’ video series returns

The Grand Rapids Griffins’ “Between the Benches” video series returns as the 2017-18 campaign winds down, with the first episode discussing the Griffins’ playoff push over the course of 8 behind-the-scenes minutes:

 

Kulfan: Kronwall expects to return

There weren’t many surprises (if any) from the Red Wings’ locker room clean-out day, but the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted a mild surprise in that Niklas Kronwall joined Henrik Zetterberg in suggesting that he’s highly likely to return:

“I don’t think it’ll be any different than it was last year, (which is) trying to train as hard as I can and be ready to go come training camp,” said Kronwall, who has chronic knee pain. “From my own standpoint and body-wise, as of right now, yes (he is returning).”

Heading into this summer, Kronwall feels better than he has the last two years.

“At this point of time, definitely,” Kronwall said. “The last two years I wasn’t really sure what’s going to come out of the training. I do feel if I just stick with the program (this summer) and do what gave me the chance to play this year, I’ll be just fine. Hopefully tweaking the program regimen a little bit make it even better.”

Last summer, Kronwall limited his weightlifting to one day per week, and it proved to be “less pounding on the joints,” he said. Kronwall has switched to more alternative workouts, such as swimming, “and stuff like that gave me the opportunity to play this year, and I’m hoping will do the same thing next year”.

Kronwall also is embracing the chance to be a veteran presence for the expected transfusion of young defensemen onto the roster next season.

Kulfan continues…

Michigan Radio posts interview with director and producer of Russian Five film

Michigan Radio’s Stateside program posted a 15-minute interview with the director and producer of the Russian Five film:

The Russian Five is the first feature-length documentary from Port Huron’s Joshua Riehl. It’s getting its world premiere this Wednesday night at a sold-out event in Detroit.

Director Joshua Riehl and producer Jenny Feterovich joined Stateside to discuss the stories and stylistic decisions behind the film, the risk the Russian players took in immigrating to the United States, and the effect the newcomers had on the Red Wings, the NHL, and the city of Detroit.

You can listen to the interview here…