Month: August 2018

The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin posted a list of five players who have much to prove during the 2018-19 season, and here’s what Larkin had to say about Red Wings prospect Filip Zadina:

FILIP ZADINA, DETROIT RED WINGS

Most rookies need to manage their expectations if they jump to the NHL as teenagers. Not Zadina. If he makes the Red Wings, he has every intention of lighting up the scoresheet. Openly angry that he fell to the sixth overall pick in June’s draft after most prognosticators had him going third or fourth, Zadina spoke out against the teams that passed on him, vowing to “fill their nets with pucks.” It just happens two of those teams, the Habs and Ottawa Senators, share a division with Detroit, so he’ll have many chances. If he makes the team, he gets his first crack at revenge Oct. 15 when Detroit visits the Bell Centre in Montreal. That’ll be appointment viewing.

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski posted a lengthy article in which he discusses the “Mount Puckmore” lineups for the Atlantic Division’s NHL teams:

Detroit Red Wings

Gordie Howe, RW (1946-1971)
Nicklas Lidstrom, D (1991-2012)
Ted Lindsay, LW (1944-57)
Steve Yzerman, C (1983-2006)

Potential replacements: Pavel Datsyuk, C (2001-16); Alex Delvecchio, C (1950-74); Sergei Fedorov, C (1990-2003); Chris Osgood, G (1993-2001, 2005-11); Terry Sawchuk, G (1949-64); Henrik Zetterberg, C (2002-18)

Puckmore coach: Scotty Bowman (1993-2002)

Puckmore GM: Jack Adams (1927-62)

When you have 800 goals to your name, your face is going to be up on a dang mountain. Joining Howe is his linemate “Terrible” Ted, a player so tough that the NHL developed the elbowing penalty to limit his particular talents. Yzerman and Lidstrom were the faces for two decades of Detroit dominance, both having played over 1,500 games with the Red Wings. It’s hard to make a case for anyone else over these immortals.

Wyshynski continues, and there are voting options for the various teams’ “Mount Puckmore” lineups.

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses Danny DeKeyser’s 2018-19 season this morning:

2018-19 outlook: DeKeyser’s offseason goal as always is to gain strength to help him win more puck battles. He said he’s comfortable with his weight.

DeKeyser’s strength is skating, so it took him a while to feel comfortable after missing five weeks with a fractured ankle. He was a minus-10 in his first 10 games after returning from the injury and then posted a plus-13 rating over the final 52 games. He was more consistent the second half of the season.

The Red Wings need DeKeyser to be a shutdown defender who can get the puck out of the zone quickly, like he was earlier in his career before taking a big step back in 2016-17.

The team planned on pairing DeKeyser with Trevor Daley heading into last season, but the injury changed things. Daley spent most of season playing alongside Jonathan Ericsson while DeKeyser was with Nick Jensen much of the time.

Continued

If you’re interested in spending an hour with the Red Wings’ assistant GM, Ryan Martin, and DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner..

#RedWings assistant general manager Ryan Martin, joins us on Episode 77 of The Red and White Authority Podcast to discuss all things Red Wings.

Listen/rate/subscribe —> https://t.co/eOVJVPfiit pic.twitter.com/631kRFQSOm

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 14, 2018

Red Wings assistant coach Dan Bylsma spoke with the Grand Haven Tribune’s Len Painter regarding his circuitous route to his home-state team:

“I grew up a Red Wings fan,” he told me in a telephone interview last week. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been a fan.”

His allegiance to the red and white jersey switched when he became a professional hockey player and coach for other National Hockey League teams.

The connection to the Red Wings came after Bylsma worked as an assistant coach alongside Red Wings head coach Blashill during the 2018 International Ice Hockey Federation (IHF) World Championships in Copenhagen and Henning, Denmark. Blashill’s U.S. team won the bronze medal, defeating Canada, 4-1. Bylsma was in charged of the team’s power play.

“I’ve known Jeff over the years from clinics and at the world championships,” Bylsma said.

After the U.S. team’s success in Denmark, Blashill liked the idea of Bylsma joining the staff. Bylsma agreed to a three-year contact with the Red Wings.

He’ll be working with the Red Wings’ power play and forwards, somewhat of a change for Bylsma, who earned a reputation as a strong defensive player during his playing days.

He laughed when I reminded him of his reputation as a defensive-orientated player. “I coached the power play when I was an assistant coach with the New York Islanders,” he reminded me.

Continued

The Red Wings may believe that Michael Rasmussen will make the team this upcoming season, but Rasmussen’s WHL rights-holder, the Tri-City Americans, is betting that their captain will return for one more season in the “Dub”:

Kennewick, Wash. – Tri-City Americans General Manager Bob Tory announced today the team’s leadership group for the 2018-19 season.

“We have been blessed with tremendous leaders over the years that have helped elevate our culture,” stated Tory.

Each season we have been able to have a carryover of our leadership group by having younger players added to the core group.

This season the team will be led by Captain Michael Rasmussen and Nolan Yaremko.

Nolan will wear the captain “C” while Michael is away with the Detroit Red Wings. Nolan is a four-year veteran of the hockey club.

Assisting Nolan this year and wearing an “A” will be Parker AuCoin, Kyle Olson, Sasha Mutala, and Roman Kalinichenko.

AuCoin and Olson are also four-year veterans, and Sasha and Roman are entering their second seasons with the club.

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

1. The Hockey News’s Jared Clinton examines the Red Wings’ “youth movement” as the team prepares for a season in which Henrik Zetterberg may or may not play:

While a Zetterberg-less Red Wings would mean the end of an era, the changing of the tides may be what’s best for the organization in the long haul. It’s no secret Detroit, after a long spell of success, are mired in a two-season drought and entrenched in a transitional period as the old guard passes the torch to a new wave. And in that sense, it was somewhat fitting that Holland copped to the continued uncertainty about Zetterberg and the potential for life without one of the franchise’s modern fixtures on the same day the team announced and celebrated the signing of Dylan Larkin to a five-year, $30.5-million pact.

Larkin took a major step towards becoming the future of the Red Wings’ offense last season when he took over the top-line role that formerly belonged to the likes of Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, commanding not only first-line playing time, averaging nearly 20 minutes per outing, but driving the offense with a team-leading 63 points. Even prior to his career-best point production, though, Larkin was heralded as the future in Detroit, with some even attaching the future captain tag to his name.

And while Larkin’s role would potentially stand to increase the most on a Zetterberg-less Red Wings, with added on- and off-ice responsibility as arguably the new face of the franchise, he would be far from the only one who could benefit from the roster refresh that could truly be spurred on by Zetterberg’s injury-related departure. Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou, both of whom were handed two-year contracts this summer, would almost certainly be among those to see increased playing time if Detroit were to hand the reins over to their younger talent. Both have seemingly untapped offensive upside, and on a goal-starved team, having one or both breakout with greater ice time would give promise for a brighter future for the Red Wings.

Likewise, other up-and-comers fighting for playing time, the Tyler Bertuzzis, Martin Frks and Evgeny Svechnikovs of the roster, could see greater opportunities come their way were Zetterberg’s absence to lead to a change in mindset in Detroit. While veterans such as Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm have become fixtures of the middle-six for the Red Wings, Detroit could use this as an opportunity to rejuvenate the bottom half of their roster with young legs. That’s to say nothing of the aforementioned Zadina, either, who could be an instant top-six winger in Detroit.

2. DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner examines Anthony Mantha’s 2017-18 season on both statistical and narrative bases:

Continue reading Three Things: The Hockey News on the Wings’ youth movement; Mantha’s numbers and ESPN’s Top 250 fantasy rankings

NBC Sports just released its broadcast schedule for the 2018-19 season, and here are the Wings’ 6 scheduled appearances on NBCSN:

Wed., November 28  St. Louis vs. Detroit   7 p.m.

Tues., Dec. 11 Detroit vs. Washington 7:30 p.m.

Tues., Jan. 22 Detroit vs. Edmonton 9 p.m.

Sun., Feb. 17 Philadelphia vs. Detroit 6 p.m.

Wed., February 20 Chicago vs. Detroit 7:30 p.m.

Sun., March 31 Boston vs. Detroit 7:30 p.m.

MLive’s Ansar Khan offers a 2018-19 outlook for Tyler Bertuzzi this morning:

2018-19 outlook: Bertuzzi made an impact as a rookie, improving steadily and gaining confidence after joining the team full-time in late December. He brings a much-needed element of grit with his physicality and eagerness to go to the net and battle in the corners. He was a good complement on a line with skilled players Henrik Zetterberg and Gustav Nyquist for part of the season.

After dealing with injuries the previous two off-seasons, Bertuzzi was looking forward to a healthy summer of training. The Red Wings opted not to send him back to Grand Rapids for the AHL playoffs. The club’s message to Bertuzzi was to get bigger, stronger and quicker. He planned on working with a skating coach.

If skilled forwards Filip Zadina and Michael Rasmussen make the team, like the Red Wings hope and expect, this club will have many options for top-nine forwards. It remains to be seen where Bertuzzi would be slotted, but they’ll find a place for him, valuing his combination of skill and grit.

Quotable: “He’s like a rink rat-type hockey player. He’s smart. He gets pucks. His game is better than maybe his physical attributes right now. Every night he goes against guys that are probably a little bit stronger and a little bit faster. And he finds a way with his mind and his will to make that up and become a positive impact in the game. … He’ll be more than a complementary player, he’ll be a go-to type player.” – coach Jeff Blashill.

Continued

The Free Press’s Ryan Ford examines six possibilities for the Red Wings’ captaincy if Henrik Zetterberg is unable to play this upcoming season, including the team choosing to go without a captain or rotate the captaincy. As far as I’m concerned, however, there’s one option should Zetterberg not be able to continue his career:

Dylan Larkin: With just three seasons in the NHL, Larkin is probably still a touch too young to wear the Wings’ ‘C’. Still, at just over 22 years old, he wouldn’t be the youngest captain in Wings history – that would be Yzerman, who got the ‘C’ at 21 years, 151 days — or the youngest in NHL history – that would be Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, who was named captain of the Oilers at 19 years, 266 days. If the plan is to eventually make him captain, why wait, Red Wings?

Continued, and I know that Larkin would experience some growing pains as a young captain, but I believe that he’d receive the support necessary to withstand the weight of a “C” on his jersey.

Who would you choose as captain if Zetterberg cannot play?