Michigan Hockey brought out a pint-sized prodigy named Alex for the Eastside Elite All-Star Classic in Mount Clemens, and the “junior reporter” spent 5 minutes interviewing the majority of the participants in the game:
Month: August 2018
Khan examines Trevor Daley’s 2018-19 possibilities
MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article about Red Wings defenseman Trevor Daley this morning, discussing Daley’s 2018-19 “outlook”:
2018-19 outlook: Daley is an important part of a defense that often struggles to get the puck out of its zone and commits too many turnovers. He is a terrific skater who moves the puck well, getting it quickly to the forwards.
The left shooter is more comfortable playing on the right side and his ability to transport the puck takes pressure off his defense partner. Daley was slated to be paired with Danny DeKeyser last season, before DeKeyser missed five weeks with an early season ankle injury. Daley spent much of the season paired with Jonathan Ericsson.
The Red Wings signed Daley last summer at a reasonable cap hit, valuing his mobility and experience over younger players such as Joe Hicketts, Robbie Russo and Dylan McIlrath of the Grand Rapids Griffins.
If the Red Wings are out of the playoff picture in late February, they might opt to move Daley, whose no-trade clause expires 10 days before the deadline. He wouldn’t be a rental, having one more year remaining on his deal, so a playoff-caliber club would have him for two postseasons, increasing his value.
Quotable: “Last summer we went out and signed Trevor Daley, thought that if we could get our back end a little bit deeper that we could be more competitive and be in the hunt for a playoff spot. I think Trevor played really well for us. I think he did everything we could have hoped.” – general manager Ken Holland.
Roughly translated: Niklas Kronwall ready for All-Star game to benefit Jarfalla HC on August 10th
Niklas Kronwall spoke with Hockeybladet.nu’s Piotr Arvidsson regarding his imminent All-Star Game to be held to benefit Jarfalla HC on Friday, August 10th:
NIKLAS KRONWALL: “I’m forever grateful to my mother team.”
Friday is a special day for Detroit star Niklas Kronwall. In Jarfalla it’s become a bit of a tradition. When Niklas, along with a bunch of NHL pros, will invite the Kronwall Stars to play a game against his mother team, Jarfalla HC.
The 10th of August is time for this year’s edition of the Kronwall Stars game, where Detroit star Niklas Kronwall, along with a bunch of NHL pros, will play a game against his old mother team, Jarfalla HC. Together with the protagonist, you’ll find stars like Marcus Kruger, Gabriel Landeskog, Alexander Wennberg, Rickard Rakell, Carl Dahlstrom, Fredrik Claesson, Erik Gustafsson, Joakim Nordstrom, Patrik Hornqvist and the Kempe brothers. The arrangement that has free entry to the game means a lot to Kronwall.
“It’s always a special day. I think that it’s one of a few places where we’ve managed to accomplish such a thing. The young people aroun Stockholm can come and see and meet their idols on the spot and see them on the ice. It’s not often that young people have the opportunity to see this.”
The Athletic’s Custance examines Wings, Atlantic Division teams’ stack-up statuses
The Athletic’s Craig Custance examined the Atlantic Division’s teams to determine how they “stack up” against the blueprint of the Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals, and here’s what Custance has to say about the Red Wings when compared to the league’s best team:
DETROIT RED WINGS
1. Great centers – Henrik Zetterberg’s back issue is serious, so it’s hard to project exactly what the Red Wings will get from him this season, if anything. Dylan Larkin is good with an inner drive to become great. Michael Rasmussen, Detroit’s first-round pick in 2017, is going to make the team out of camp barring a surprising development, but it’s most likely on the wing. It’s a time of transition down the middle in Detroit and they could ideally use another high-end center.
2. A game breaker – The Red Wings lost a ton of one-goal games last season in large part because they didn’t have that elite player to pull them ahead in crucial moments. They hope they’ve got one in Filip Zadina, but we don’t even know if he’s going to make the team out of camp. It’s a little early to give him game-breaker status here.
3. Offensive defensemen – Detroit brought back Mike Green in large part because he was one of the few Detroit defensemen to provide offense last season from the blueline. Filip Hronek may get there one day and will get a look in camp, but he’s not there yet. Trevor Daley can skate and transport the puck but doesn’t provide a ton of offense. This is a real area of need at the NHL level for Detroit.
4. A core hardened by the playoffs – The core moving forward is going to be built around guys like Larkin, Zadina, Anthony Mantha and others, but there’s still a ton of playoff experience on this roster, for whatever that’s worth. We’ll give them the check mark here, out of respect to guys like Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall.
5. Size – The Red Wings’ NHL team has size and the amateur group has made a point to keep drafting it even as the league trends smaller and faster. They have to be encouraged that a team like Washington still was able to use size to its advantage during a time in which speed typically gave teams an edge.
Total – 2 out of 5. To get to Stanley Cup contender status, the Red Wings rebuild could use another star center, a top pair offensive defenseman and for Zadina to be a star. So yeah, there’s still work to do.
Continued (paywall)
Roughly translated: Niklas Kronwall chats with Hockeynews.se
Niklas Kronwall spoke with Hockeynews.se’s Mattias Ek on Monday, and as Kronwall prepares for what might be his final NHL season, Kronwall reflected upon his own play and the Red Wings’ potential as a team:
Kronwall sees the end: “Not yet”
Huddinge. Niklas Kronwall can’t check as he used to and he admits that it’s made him frustrated. His seven-year contract with Detroit expires in 2019. The 37-year-old defenseman begins to see the end of his extremely successful hockey career, which may end this season.
“It’s definitely a possibility. Especially when you’re over 30 and no longer have a contract, it’s tougher to get a new contract these days,” says Kronwall to Hockeynews.se.
Continue reading Roughly translated: Niklas Kronwall chats with Hockeynews.se
Catch-up post: On Howard and Nyquist’s futures, Malte Setkov, Lane Zablocki, the numbers game, fantasy hockey and foreign-language news
Of Red Wings-related note over the past 48 hours:
A. Detroit Free Press:
1. Helene St. James’ mailbag includes a question about Jimmy Howard’s future:
HSJ: Howard, 34, is entering the last year of a five-year contract with a $5.3 million salary cap hit. If he has a good season, he’s likely to get an extension in the two-year range, for less money. The Wings committed three years at $3 million annual cap hit to Bernier, 30, but they don’t have anybody in the system on the near horizon to step into a role as his backup.
If a decent offer materializes for Howard near the deadline, the Wings could move him and then look at bringing him back. The Wings know what they have in Howard, they like him, and he’s played well for them the past two years.
B. MLive:
- MLive’s Ansar Khan examined Gustav Nyquist’s outlook for the 2018-19 season…
2018-19 outlook: Perhaps no other Red Wing has suffered as much from the team’s poor power play the past three seasons. Nyquist tallied 14 power-play goals and 24 power-play points in 2014-15, when Detroit’s man-advantage ranked second in the NHL. In three seasons since, he has collected just 12 power-play goals and 29 power-play points.
He hasn’t become the 30-goal scorer many projected after he tallied 28 and 27 goals, respectively, in his first two seasons.
Nyquist has spent a lot of time on Henrik Zetterberg’s line. Whether or not Zetterberg returns, coach Jeff Blashill might opt to reunite Nyquist with Thomas Vanek and Darren Helm to start the season, a combination that clicked at the beginning of 2016-17.
The Red Wings are expected to use the first half of the season to determine Nyquist’s future with the organization. With several skilled forwards in the pipeline and the high cost of signing Nyquist, they might opt to move him before the trade deadline. He has a no-trade clause, but he would probably agree to waive it to join a playoff-contending team.
2. And Khan wrote a profile of Wings prospect Malte Setkov:
Congrats to former Wings assistant Spiros Anatsas, named ECHL’s Charlotte Stingrays coach
Of Red Wings alumni-related note:
Anastas named Stingrays head coach
August 7, 2018NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South Carolina Stingrays, ECHL ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals and American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears, announced that Spiros Anastas has been named to the position of Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations.
Little Caesars Arena to hold blood drive w/ Michigan Red Cross, Meijer on Thursday
Here’s a timely reminder regarding an opportunity to give the “gift of life”:
REMINDER: The @MIRedCross, The @DistrictDetroit and @Meijer will hold one of the largest blood drives in Michigan at Little Caesars Arena this Thursday!
Register NOW at https://t.co/NGelyKDgQU and use sponsor code LCA313. Learn more here –> https://t.co/PwNgrzgnXQ pic.twitter.com/L7wX0r9zP1
— Little Caesars Arena (@LCArena_Detroit) August 7, 2018
Darren McCarty’s stand-up storytelling brings life lessons to the stage
Darren McCarty is attempting to launch something of a stand-up comedy career, and the Huron Daily Tribune’s Mike Gallagher took in McCarty’s show in Ubly, MI:
McCarty opened the show by telling old hockey stories, including a story about a fight between Bob Probert and Jeremy Roenick in 1993, a fight between Shawn Burr and Kelly Chase, and of course the story of the 1997 brawl between the Red Wings and the Colorado Avalanche.
“They had our number,” McCarty explained. “Something needed to be done to (Claude) Lemeiux for crushing (Kris) Draper’s face in the last year the game before. I always tell everybody, if you give that script and you give all the ingredients of that fight to the best screenwriter, they couldn’t write a better script than the one God wrote. My God loves Ubly and he hates ugly. The joke of all of it is, yeah, I was one that exacted the revenge on Lemeiux, with the help of the teammates, but I also scored the overtime winner.”
McCarty added: “Honestly, I was trying to break his cheekbone.”
McCarty’s set also included stories from his life.
He talked about his three key ingredients to success, which were self-belief, talent, and believing carpe diem (seize the day).
“With everything I’ve been through, it’s just part of the ups and downs,” McCarty said. “I’m a living example that you too can get through it, this too shall pass. It’s something that, especially in Michigan, and especially places like this, you get the personal connection. So, for me it means a lot, especially with where I am in my life, to be able to show that appreciation back to the fans.”
Rasmussen talks about the WJSS, making the Wings’ roster
Red Wings prospect Michael Rasmussen spoke with the Surrey Leader’s Tom Zillich while Rasmussen participated in the World Junior Summer Showcase for Canada. Rasmussen is from Surrey, British Columbia, so Zillich duly notes that the WJSS’s was played “close to home” in nearby Kamloops:
“I grew up with a lot of these guys, playing with them in the (Hockey Canada) program, and it’s fun to get going here,” said Rasmussen, the left-shooting resident of the Morgan Creek area.
“It was exciting to get that call (to participate in the Showcase),” he added. “It’s always cool to be part of these camps and see all the guys, and have a chance to wear the logo again, it’s good.”
In Kamloops, Rasmussen was among 24 forwards on the two Team Canada rosters, adding to a personal resumé that includes his participation in the 2015 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge and, with Team B.C., the 2015 Canada Winter Games.
Rasmussen recently played a big role in Tri-City Americans’ playoff run in the WHL. For his efforts in early April, he was named the league’s On the Run Player of the Week.
The Semiamoo Minor Hockey alum, who went to school at Southridge and, briefly, Earl Marriott Secondary, was selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the first round, ninth overall, of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft.
This fall, he’d love to play his first NHL game with the fabled Motor City team.
“I went to development camp last month there, so I’ll go to (training) camp again and do my best, and I’m going to try to make the team, that’s pretty much it,” Rasmussen said confidently. “There’s lots of opportunity there, and I have a good shot to make the team, I just have to do well and play my game. It’s all on me.”
Update: Rasmussen spoke with the Vancouver Province’s Steve Ewen about his outlook as well:
Continue reading Rasmussen talks about the WJSS, making the Wings’ roster