Month: July 2019

This morning, The Athletic’s Max Bultman attempts to determine what the Red Wings’ 2019-2020 season roster will look like:

And after a long week of development camp followed by an active Monday, that question does at least look a little bit clearer. While the possibility of another move remains, the numbers game of the roster is beginning to set some parameters, with September’s training camp in Traverse City ultimately the final test. And obviously, what happens there could (and should) swing things quite a bit.

At this time last year, for example, Dennis Cholowski didn’t look like any kind of slam dunk to make Detroit’s roster. But he turned a big summer into a consistent place in the lineup for the first three-plus months of the season.

With most of the roster likely set, though, it is about time to get started figuring out what Detroit’s depth chart projects to look like with just over two months until the start of camp — and Cholowski, it turns out, could be at the center of that debate once again.

Continued (paywall)…

The Grand Rapids Press’s Peter J. Wallner reports that Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon will take part in the World Junior Summer Showcase later this month in Plymouth:

Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon will be a guest coach for Team USA during the 2019 World Junior Summer Showcase later this month in Plymouth.

Simon, entering his second season as coach of the Griffins, will join former NHL forward and college coach Derek Plante at the July 26-Aug. 3 event that features the best Under-20 players from the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden. All are competing for spots to represent their country in the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Continued

Via Kukla’s Korner: The Athletic’s Scott Burnside gave free agency grades to each and every one of the NHL’s 31 teams, an here’s what he had to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings: C

In: Steve Yzerman (GM), Moritz Seider, Patrik Nemeth, Valtteri Filppula, Calvin Pickard

Out: Thomas Vanek, Niklas Kronwall (likely), Luke Witkowski

It’s unlikely Moritz Seider, the sixth pick in the draft, will be in Red Wing red come the fall, but he’s notable because new GM Steve Yzerman passed up on some high-end offensive talent to take the German defender. The pick suggests there aren’t going to be any quick fixes for the Red Wings, who have now missed the playoffs in three straight years. I like the add of Patrik Nemeth on a two-year deal with a $3 million cap hit. Nemeth, 27, brings some size and stability to the back end where there remains a bit of an aging logjam with veteran pieces like Jonathan Ericsson, Trevor Daley and Mike Green still under contract for the coming season. Their future with the team remains fluid especially as we get closer to the trade deadline next season when the Wings are expected once again to be sellers. Repatriating Valtteri Filppula should be a boon to the bevy of emerging young forwards on the Red Wing roster, although at age 35 he certainly won’t make this squad any faster and shouldn’t be counted on much for offensive production.

Continued (paywall)…

The Free Press’s Helene St. James reviews Steve Yzerman’s free agency comments as they pertain to possibly making more moves:

“I would mull over a couple other things,” Yzerman said Monday. “We have a spot potentially on right wing. I don’t want to fill it just to fill it because it gives us some options for some of our younger players, to see if they’re ready, and it leaves opportunity maybe for something to come along now and the start of the regular season. I’m not really in a hurry, but I would consider that, and potentially look at maybe another defenseman.”

Yzerman said every veteran under contract is projected to be ready for September’s training camp, including defenseman Mike Green, who battled a virus last season, and defensemen Trevor Daley and Jonathan Ericsson, both of whom missed significant time injured. Yzerman said at the NHL draft he’d let veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall have the whole summer to decide whether to retire or return. That decision could play into whether Yzerman looks elsewhere to bolster the blue line.

“We’d weigh adding another one versus leaving a spot for one of our younger guys on the roster,” Yzerman said. “If the right player at the right contract comes along, we would consider signing another one.”

Continued

ESPN’s John Buccigross revealed that Red Wings prospect and Union College forward Jack Adams suffered torn ligaments in his knee during the final scrimmage at the Red Wings’ summer development camp, and the Daily Gazette’s Mike MacAdam shares more about Adams’ injury:

Adams, a 6-foot-6, 210-pound forward from Boxford, Mass., suffered a full tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in his right knee, according to a message he posted to his Instagram account Monday.

A sixth-round draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2017, Adams was hurt while participating in the Red Wings’ NHL Prospects Development Camp. He said on Instagram that he’s confident he’ll make a full recovery.

“The last few days have been a whirlwind of emotions for my family and I, as I recently received the news no athlete wants to hear. I’ve completely torn my ACL and MCL in my right knee,” Adams said on Instagram.

“While this news is devastating for myself personally, I am not a victim, nor will I allow myself to go through this recovery process with that self-defeating attitude.”

Adams was coming off a sophomore season in which scored 10 goals and had 12 assists for 22 points in 38 games, good for sixth on the team, and the third most among players who are expected to to return in 2019-20.

Continued, and here are the social media posts of note:

Continue reading A bit more about Jack Adams’ injury

Nicklas Lidstrom recently spoke with the “Sommar & Vinter i P1” program on Swedish Radio, and Lidstrom gave a nearly 90-minute-long interview.

According to the Swedish sports tabloids, Aftonbladet and Expressen, Lidstrom discussed the furor that Swedish fans unleashed upon Tommy Salo when he gave up an infamous goal to Belarus during the 2002 Olympics, he talked about his decision to move home, per Aftonbladet’s Andreas Kack (and what follows is roughly translated)…

Continue reading Roughly Translated: Per Expressen, Nicklas Lidstrom’s Swedish Radio interview discusses #5’s anxiety issues

The Detroit News’s John Niyo suggests that the Red Wings made some relatively wise signings during Steve Yzerman’s first crack at the unrestricted free agent marketplace as the Wings’ GM, “Eschewing sizzle for sensible signings” in Valtteri Filppula, Patrik Nemeth and Calvin Pickard:

Taken together, it’s hardly the kind of hat trick we grew accustomed to when Yzerman was in uniform, or even in a suit, in Detroit. But while all three moves “are designed to help us immediately,” Yzerman noted, “our hands aren’t necessarily tied into long-term contracts.”

Others certainly can’t say the same around the league. Barely a half-hour into the official free-agent signing period, teams had committed some $300 million in salary. That’s chicken scratch compared to the NBA, where teams doled out a whopping $3 billion in guaranteed contracts in six hours Sunday night at the start of free agency.

But in a league where the cap still carries consequences — last month’s P.K. Subban trade is just one of many examples — free-agent spending sprees often don’t make sense in the long run.

Some of these teams are certainly going to regret the moves we saw Monday. The Rangers made Artemi Panarin the league’s second-highest paid player with a seven-year, $81.5 million contract, while the Panthers handed Sergei Bobrovsky, the mercurial two-time Vezina Trophy winner, a seven-year, $70 million deal at age 30. Elsewhere, veteran winger Mats Zuccarello got $30 million over five years from the Wild, and the Penguins ponied up $21 million on a six-year deal — six years for a bottom-six forward? — in Brandon Tanev.

Asked about that, Penguins GM Jim Rutherford shrugged, “It’s the way things work on July 1: You either give the player close to what he wants or you don’t get the player.”

Niyo continues…

Red Wings draft pick Moritz Seider spoke with Adler Mannheim’s website today, discussing the Wings’ decision to pick him 6th overall and his experiences at the Wings’ summer development camp. What follows is roughly translated from German:

Seider: “As a player, you don’t know anything before”

It was perhaps the biggest surprise of this year’s NHL Draft: Adler Mannheim defender Moritz Seider was picked 6th overall by Detroit. The youngster discusses in an interview how he experienced his time before he was drafted, the draft day itself, and the subsequent development camp.

Continue reading Roughly Translated: Moritz Seider speaks with Adler Mannheim’s website

Red Wings prospects Seth Barton and Joe Veleno appear on DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner’s latest “Red and White Authority” podcast:

Detroit prospects, defenseman Seth and center Joe Veleno join us from #RedWings Development on Episode 117 of The Red and White Authority.

?: https://t.co/lhAkEDpTK2 pic.twitter.com/0ayItGOYtf— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 2, 2019

Bad news for Jack Adams:

Union Dutchman/ @DetroitRedWings prospect Jack Adams (@J_Danglefest2) fully tore his ACL and MCL on the last day of development camp after a knee on knee hit. He told me Surgery is in a month. Full recovery expected.. ?? pic.twitter.com/9Qp35E18WQ— Bucci Mane (@Buccigross) July 2, 2019