Month: September 2018

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan spoke with Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin regarding the Red Wings’ annual prospect tournament, which begins on Friday in Traverse City, MI:

“For sure it’s an evaluation camp,” said Ryan Martin, Red Wings’ assistant general manager. “It’s an excellent opportunity for players to show what they can do, in front of the front office, coaching staff, the eight teams competing at the tournament, and representatives from all 31 teams who will be there.”

For the Red Wings, and their curious fan base, this tournament will be a chance to see recent first-round draft picks Dennis Cholowski, Michael Rasmussen, Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno all on the same team, and playing against top-tier talent from other NHL organizations.

Rasmussen and Zadina are two forwards who have a path to making the Opening Night NHL roster, while Cholowski has more of a crowded battle with several other defensemen for an available roster spot on the blue line.

“There will be a lot of evaluation, there is training camp and exhibition games and (intra-squad) scrimmages, but this is a first chance to make an impression and show they deserve to be in the NHL,” Martin said.

The 8-team tournament takes place on Friday, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday at Centre ICE Arena, and jobs on the Red Wings’ roster aren’t necessarily in play, but the pecking order for call-ups and nods for later-in-the-year promotions are definitely part of the equation…and the free agents get recruited by teams all over North America.

With something like 200 scouts in attendance, this is a place to get noticed, and as Martin tells Kulfan, the teams involved believe that the tournament offers elite-level play:

“I love this tournament,” said Martin, who believes the community involvement from Traverse City, makes this one of the better such tournaments around the league this weekend. “When you consider the over 200 volunteers, the rink, the setting, the talent in this tournament, the weather, it’s a great week (of hockey).

“It’s great, great hockey, and with games being staggered and going on at both rinks, for a hockey fan it doesn’t get much better.

“You’re going to see the top three, four or five top prospects from each of the eight organizations. For most of these players it’s the best quality of hockey they will have played in during their career (to this point).”

Kulfan continues, and you can access the tournament schedule here on Centre ICE’s website.

Of somewhat offbeat note this evening:

1. The AHL has launched a new streaming service that is way, way more affordable than its previous version, and AHL TV promises…big things. Here’s the press release the Griffins sent me:

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE PARTNERS WITH HOCKEYTECH TO LAUNCH NEW STREAMING PLATFORM

AHLTV to debut this fall on all-new platform designed to optimize the viewing experience

The American Hockey League today announced an enhanced partnership with HockeyTech and the launch of a brand-new streaming platform, AHLTV.

The creation of AHLTV marks the latest expansion of the American Hockey League’s long-standing relationship with HockeyTech, which also provides real-time scoring and statistical services for the AHL and its 31 teams and hosts the AHL’s official website and mobile app.

“We are extremely excited to introduce AHLTV beginning this fall,” said David Andrews, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Hockey League. “AHLTV reflects the high standards that our fans and stakeholders have come to expect from the American Hockey League, and HockeyTech shares our vision of bringing the excitement of AHL hockey as an enhanced digital experience to fans who can’t make it to the rink.”

“HockeyTech is proud to launch AHLTV in a true partnership with the American Hockey League,” said HockeyTech founder and CEO Stu Siegel. “Using the most advanced, cutting-edge digital technologies, AHL fans will have the most innovative multimedia hockey viewing experience available worldwide.”

Available at http://www.theahl.com/AHLTV, AHLTV will feature live streaming of every AHL game in high definition on desktop, laptop, tablet and mobile devices, as well as over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast and Android TV. AHLTV subscriptions, which include live and archived games, will begin at just $79.99 (US) for the entire 2018-19 regular season.

2018-19 Regular Season Subscription Packages
(All prices USD)

All teams, all games — $79.99
One team, all games — $59.99
One team, home or away — $39.99
All games, one month — $19.99
All games, one day — $6.99

2. In the “local hockey” department, the U.S. National Team Development Program is selling single-game tickets for its upcoming season, and the prices are ridiculously affordable:

PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Single-game tickets for USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program 2018-19 home schedule are now on sale as the team enters its fourth season at USA Hockey Arena.

Tickets are $12.00 for center ice seating, with executive reserved seating tickets priced at $10. Students and active/retired military receive a $2 discount with proper I.D. when tickets are purchased in-person at the USA Hockey Arena Box Office.

The 2018-19 Team USA schedule is highlighted by a six-game collegiate schedule that includes Minnesota, Maine, Lake Superior State, Bowling Green, Holy Cross and Adrian College.

Fans can purchase single-game tickets through the USA Hockey Arena Box Office from 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays as well as 11 a.m. through the end of event on game days. Single-game tickets are also available by calling the box office at (734) 453-8400 or by visiting USAHockeyNTDP.com/Tix.

WDIV’s David Bartkowiak Jr. offers an interesting take on the Red Wings’ potential 2018-19 season expectations, suggesting that the Wings’ present lineup is best-served by trying to win despite the team’s personnel issues:

If we’re going to be realistic about this squad right now, they aren’t making the playoffs this season. The Red Wings are a team in some kind of transition — whatever kind it is — whether fans like it or not. The franchise has aging contracts to wait out, and young, unproven prospects to find out about. Growing pains will continue — keyword “growing.”

Ideally, they are a team that is able to stay competitive all season and is not getting blown out 5-1 on a nightly or weekly basis. Hopefully they are able to perform well against some of their divisional rivals — the Leafs, the Sabres, the Canadiens, the Bruins, the Lightning, etc. — but don’t expect them to be beating up on anyone more than once. There are just too many teams with better, more proven talent.

With the salary cap and draft lottery rules, “tanking” for draft picks in the NHL isn’t a real option anymore. Sure, it could help you land a Connor McDavid, but those types of players are few and far between. No, the Red Wings are better off trying to be the best they can be with the lineup they have. They will want to continue growing young players like Larkin, Bertuzzi and Mantha while filtering in new ones. And maybe they’ll surprise some people on some nights. But the fact is there are at least eight or nine other teams in the Eastern Conference who likely will look much better than the Red Wings this season.

Bartkowiak Jr. continues, and I don’t disagree with him, though my rationale is a bit different.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s almost impossible to expect a team of competitive professional athletes to go out and “tank.” While the Red Wings may continue to find themselves on the losing end of close games more often than not this upcoming season, settling for a likely middling finish doesn’t help the Wings’ young players learn to play competitive hockey.

One could argue that, at this point, fostering the Wings’ youth movement should be the team’s goal, and making genuine attempts to win games while giving “the kids” bigger and more integral roles will benefit the team in the long run.

As Bartkowiak Jr. suggests, the Wings are playing in a particularly competitive division, so it may not be realistic to expect them to prevail more often than not, but the Wings simply aren’t going to fold for the sake of earning higher draft picks, and that’s okay.

As I like to say, “Water will find its level,” and the ultimate talent levels of the Wings’ roster will prevail this season (and the Wings will probably struggle more often than not), trying or not trying.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examines defenseman Filip Hronek’s 2017-18 season “numbers” this morning, and her review is anchored by Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin’s assessment of the slightly-built-but-fearless defenseman:

Quotable: “To start the year in Grand Rapids, we had Fil and and Vili Saarijarvi down there as first-year defensemen and we wanted to give them opportunity in terms of the power play but at the same time, we didn’t want to hand them jobs. Todd Nelson had decisions to make, too, coming back from the Calder Cup championship. He had all his defensemen back but I think to Filip’s credit, he was able to lock down a full-time, everyday job probably five or six games in.

He beat one of our veteran defensemen to run the power play and that’s how Fil got his opportunity, when he beat out Robbie Russo and Ryan Sproul, who we ended up trading to New York. When that spot opened up for somebody to be on the power play, that’s a real credit to Fil, he obviously had a really good year down there. In the short term it does look like Fil – our expectation and I think Fil’s expectation, too – is that he’s coming in here to compete for a job in Detroit and certainly his ability to run the power play adds a dimension to his game.” — Ryan Martin, Red Wings assistant general manager and Griffins general manager

Wakiji continues. As she notes, Hronek’s not exactly big at 6′ tall and a whopping 178 pounds, but Hronek isn’t intimidated by bigger, stronger players at all, and he’s got a sneaky mean streak to him. He’s probably the favorite of the Wings’ potential defensemen to land a spot on the regular-season roster.

MLive’s Ansar Khan examines the 2018-19 season outlook for goaltender Jonathan Bernier this morning:

2018-19 outlook: The Red Wings signed Bernier to bolster a back-up goaltending position that went 8-12-4, with a 3.22 goals-against average and .899 save percentage between Petr Mrazek and Jared Coreau in 2017-18. But the eight-year veteran has designs on the starting job and expects to push long-time No. 1 goalie Jimmy Howard for playing time.

Quotable: “I didn’t want to be in a position where I played 15-20 games, I want to come in and have a chance to play as much as possible. Obviously, depending on my play, but I just thought it was a great opportunity that me and Jimmy (Howard) can battle for games.” — Bernier

Key question: Will Bernier make a serious push for the starting job?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Bernier plays in 20-30 games as Jimmy Howard’s has suffered injuries on an every-year basis over the past couple of seasons.

If you’re interested, Ken Daniels will hold a discussion/presentation in coordination with Community Care Services of Taylor, MI. Per the Southgate News-Herald:

Community Care Services is holding its third annual Reality of Recovery, a free community forum to offer insights and perspectives on substance abuse and addiction and provide resources for recovery, treatment and support from 7-9 p.m. On Sept. 24.

This year’s guest speaker will be longtime Detroit Red Wings play-by-play broadcaster Ken Daniels, who lost his son to an opioid overdose in 2016 and has since launched the Jamie Daniels Foundation to support those facing addiction.

Daniels will share his son’s hard-fought battle with addiction in an effort to end the stigma that often prevents people from getting the help they need. Daniels and his family established the Jamie Daniels Foundation in honor of his late son to support individuals and families who are struggling with addiction by providing the education, resources, professional guidance and financial support they need to make recovery possible.

Continued with event details…

FYI: Fox Sports North, the Minnesota Wild’s Fox Sports affiliate, states that the entirety of the Red Wings’ prospect tournament will be streamed on Fox Sports GO.

The application can be accessed via the internet, downloaded for Apple, Amazon, Android and Windows devices, and works for just about everything else, but you have to sign up for a Fox Sports GO account (usually linked to your cable or satellite subscription) to access the streams.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James confirms something strongly suspected by Wings followers: Henrik Zetterberg will consult with Dr. Frank Cammisa, the back specialist who performed the discectomy on Zetterberg in 2014, in order to help determine whether he can continue playing:

Zetterberg is expected to see Dr. Frank Cammisa next week, if not sooner. Cammisa was the doctor who performed back surgery on Zetterberg in the spring of 2014.

“He knows his back as well as anybody,” general manager Ken Holland told the Free Press on Tuesday. “We’ll see what he says, then determine if we need another opinion.”

Also of note from Holland:

With Zetterberg unavailable for camp, the Wings have 10 NHL regulars up front, along with the booming right-handed shot of Martin Frk.

Michael Rasmussen, a center drafted ninth overall in 2017, is expected to be ready to grab a job after a standout performance in the 2018 WHL playoffs (14 goals and 17 assists for 33 points in 14 games).

Holland named the other top forward prospects as Filip Zadina, Evgeny Svechnikov and Dominic Turgeon. Zadina is a scorer drafted sixth overall in June, and Svechnikov is a big winger acquired in the 2015 first round. Turgeon could perhaps serve as fourth-line center, while a guy like Luke Glendening jumps up to center the third line, and Frans Nielsen and Dylan Larkin center the top two lines.

“Jeff Blashill and I have talked all summer about what our lineup would look like with Z in the lineup, and what it would look like without him,” Holland said. “We know he won’t be ready for the start of the season. And we know there’s a chance it’s worse than that.”

St. James continues…

Of Red Wings-related note over the course of the past week, on a source-by-source basis (if you missed the Zetterberg post, I caught you up on the Swedish and English news regarding the Wings’ captain as well):

A. MLive:

1. Ansar Khan examined the 2018-19 season outlooks for Darren Helm, Luke Witkowski, Justin Abdelkader and Thomas Vanek;
2. Hugh Berenreuter also discussed prospects Reilly Webb and Brady Gilmour’s respective growth while playing for the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit.

B. The Athletic:

1. Scott Wheeler penned a lengthy profile of Michael Rasmussen;
2. Dom Luszczyszyn penned a Red Wings season preview;
3. Corey Pronman reported that Finland’s Otto Kivenmaki and Sweden’s Jesper Eliasson performed well at the Under-20 Four Nations Tournament;
4. Craig Custance spoke with outgoing Sweden head coach Rickard Gronborg about Henrik Zetterberg;
5. Max Bultman penned a fine profile of Dennis Cholowski;
6. And the Red Wings did not rank highly in the Athletic’s “tiering” of NHL teams.

C. Detroit Red Wings:

1. The Red Wings posted “By the Numbers” profiles of Luke Glendening, Joe Hicketts and Givani Smith;
2. The Wings also posted a trio of videos, spotlighting the Joe Kocur Foundation’s charity softball game, the Stars and Stripes Showdown, and Luke Witkowski’s flight with the Thunderbirds:

 

The Wings posted a clip of their fantasy campers taking part in a star-studded experience as well:

FYI:

ICYMI: Join us TOMORROW, Sept. 5 at @LCArena_Detroit for your opportunity to secure great seats for the 2018-19 #RedWings season! #LGRW

Sign up –> https://t.co/E4WhX4krWJ pic.twitter.com/7a0rQKPrCp

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 4, 2018

D. NHL.com:

1. NHL.com suggested that Filip Zadina is the 6th-best NHL prospect available for the 2018-19 campaign, and Michael Rasmussen finished 46th out of 50 prospects. Zadina got talked up by Mike G. Morreale on the NHL Network:

 E. The Hockey News:

1. The Hockey News’s Sam McCaig also praised Zadina and Rasmussen as potential Calder Trophy candidates.

F. Toledo Walleye:

1. The Walleye announced that they will play a preseason game against Kalamazoo on October 6th;

2. The Walleye also signed forward Hayden Hodgson and re-signed defenseman Ryan Obuchowski.

G. Grand Rapids Griffins:

1. In the alumni department, Kyle Quincey signed a contract with IFK Helsinki of the Finnish Liiga for the 2018-19 season.

 

 

After a week on the IR, TMR is finally back up and running.

1. I’d like to apologize for my absence first and foremost. Being sick is particularly challenging when you’re the owner/operator of a blog. What I thought was just a sinus infection threw a nasty stomach bug my way, so I had little choice but to sit on the sidelines late last week…which wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

I want to facilitate content and get some of my own stuff out here, and not being able to do so was extremely difficult. Every day I missed was difficult, but I was truly “kaput.”

2. I’ll try to get a catch-up post up today. This is going to be a busy couple of days as I’m leaving for Traverse City on Wednesday, so I’ve got a litany of errands to take care of after missing a week’s worth of preparations, but I’ll grind out something today.

3. Speaking of the trip, I kind of sort of still need to raise another $1,000 to completely cover things. It’s not ideal to be going up while still fundraising, but life happens. So https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport and https://patreon.com/TheMalikReport are up and accepting donations of any amount. Thank you for your support!

4. Now we move forward. I’m sorry for the interruption in service, and I’ll do my best to get as healthy as possible for the prospect tournament and main training camp. It’s almost “go time!”