Month: July 2019

Both MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Free Press’s Helene St. James discuss the latest set of Las Vegas NHL odds this morning, noting that the Red Wings sit second-to-last in expected regular season points.

Khan suggests that the Wings may have to burn off a year…

The Red Wings’ over/under point total projection for 2019-20 is 75½. They finished with 74 points last season, when they missed the playoffs for the third year in a row, and 73 in 2017-18.

Only Los Angeles and Ottawa have lower over/under projections.

The Red Wings plugged a couple of holes in free agency with the signings of center Valtteri Filppula and Patrik Nemeth, but neither is a difference-maker. If they’re going to take a significant step from 2018-19, the improvement must come from within.

Expectations will be higher in 2020-21, after several contracts come off the books, giving Yzerman more flexibility to make moves, and recent draft picks get another seasons of development.

While St. James lists four reasons why the Red Wings might buck the odds from an entertainment perspective…

The kids are all right

If there’s reason to think the Wings will improve on last season (32-40-10 record, 74 points, 28th place) it’s in the hands of Dylan Larkin and his fellow 20-somethings. Larkin became the team’s first 30-goal scorer in a decade when he hit that milestone March 28 and Andreas Athanasiou joined him there the next night. Larkin led the Wings in goals (32), assists (41) and points (73).  Athanasiou was second with 54 points in 76 games, Anthony Mantha third with 48 points in 67 games, and Tyler Bertuzzi fourth with 47 points in 73 games. Filip Hronek ranked third among team defensemen with 23 points in 46 games. Hronek and Mantha are coming off outstanding performances at the 2019 IIHF World Championship, and the confidence earned there should carry into next season (as it did for Dylan Larkin after the 2017 Worlds).

Those players have established themselves as principal rebuilding blocks. This season will help determine where first-round picks Evgeny Svechnikov (2015), Dennis Cholowski (2016) and Michael Rasmussen (2017) fit in. The 2018 draft class, headlined by Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno, may show signs, too, but it’s early.

St. James continues, coming to the following conclusion:

So will the 2019-20 team be worth watching? Yes. Las Vegas oddsmakers may turn out to be right about how much the Wings will struggle, but the young guys are entertaining and their takeover of the team is exciting. At the very least, the Wings look like they are headed in the right direction. 

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examines Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser’s 2018-2019 season “By the Numbers” this morning, and Wakiji notes that DeKeyser actually played pretty well this past season, putting some of his inconsistencies behind him despite an injury-plagued season:

21:58 — DeKeyser led the Wings in average ice time at 21:58. Dylan Larkin was second on the team, averaging 21:50 per game. Green was third at 21:40.

30 — DeKeyser missed 30 games due to injury, eight games with a right hand injury from Oct. 15-Nov. 1, 19 games with a left hand injury from Dec. 6-Jan. 12, and the final three games of the season with a lower-body injury from April 2-6. However, he was only third on the team in that category. Green led with 39 man-games lost and Trevor Daley was second with 38 man-games lost.

2 — On a team that struggled to score, DeKeyser impressively finished tied for second in plus-minus at plus-2. Luke Glendening and Dylan McIlrath also finished plus-2, in 78 games and seven games, respectively.

94 — DeKeyser was third on the team in blocked shots with 94. Glendening led with 102 and Niklas Kronwall was second with 96. But DeKeyser played in just 52 games.

Continued

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji filed a notebook article from the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, MI, where Red Wings prospect Otto Kivenmaki continues to adjust to playing a new position:

Although Detroit Red Wings prospect Otto Kivenmaki has played center most of his life, he did not last season while playing for Assat.

Some things are apparently not like riding a bike.

“I suck at face-offs!” Kivenmaki exclaimed after Team Finland’s 7-1 loss to Team USA Blue Sunday afternoon at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Mich. “That’s the thing that I gotta work on. Last year I wasn’t playing center so I wasn’t doing any face-offs. That’s a thing that I gotta work on.”

Kivenmaki, 19, struggled in the face-off circle against Team USA’s 6-foot-2 center Shane Pinto, 6-foot centers Jon Gruden and Owen Lindmark, and 5-foot-11 center Alex Turcotte.

At 5-foot-8 and 154 pounds, Kivenmaki is still working to gain strength one year after being drafted by the Wings in the seventh round, 191st overall.

“Of course he could be better at that but he’s still not the strongest guy on the ice, but he’s talented,” Team Finland head coach Raimo Helminen said. “Talented kid and we really like him. I hope he gets stronger and stronger every month and week. He will playing against men, men’s games in Finland, and he will be stronger and stronger.”

Continued

Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff reports that Swedish Red Wings prospect Jonatan Berggren, who had back surgery this past season, still being treated cautiously by the Swedish coaching staff at the World Junior Summer Showcase:

Berggren sat out Sunday’s game against USA White. The right-winger tweaked his knee late in Saturday’s 4-2 loss to USA Blue but that wasn’t why he was a scratch on Sunday.

Berggren’s Swedish club team Skelleftea asked the national squad to initially go easy with Berggren, out of action since suffering a back injury last November.

“I talked to Skelleftea about his (back) injury and being away and I promised them that he’s not going to play back to back in the start (of the tournament),” Swedish coach Tomas Monten explained. “I know we play back to back Friday-Saturday, so we’ll see. We’ll evaluate then. But we didn’t want to play him two games straight up.

“We’re going to give him two days off and them we’ll see. Hopefully, he can come back.”

Duff continues

Very briefly: NHL.com’s Jonathan Baron penned a list of 2018-2019 “fantasy hockey steals” who may continue to provide value for the 2019-2020 season, and he lists Dylan Larkin as an ascendant player:

Dylan Larkin, C, DET
2018-19 ADP: 148.7; final rank: 53
NHL.com rank for 2019-20: 89

After a disappointing second season in 2016-17 (32 points in 80 games), Larkin rejoined the fantasy landscape in 2017-18 (63 points) and then was nearly a point-per-game player last season (73 in 76 games). Larkin is expected to play with wings Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi on the Detroit Red Wings’ first line, a trio that combined for 39 points over the final eight games last season. With line stability over a full season, that line has enormous upside, giving Larkin a strong chance of exceeding 80 points.

Continued

Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels gave a superb interview to the Oakland Press’s Paula Pasche, discussing his work with the Jamie Daniels Foundation as Ken continues to fight the battle against opioid addiction:

“I think I’ve spoken publicly now at least 75 times since September of ’17, whether it be radio, podcasts, public speaking engagements, whatever. The more we talk about his story, it gives me purpose, it gives me hope that we can save lives,’’ Daniels said. “It gives me a mission. Jamie always said to me, ‘Dad you really need a summer job.’ I wasn’t getting much better at golf. Unfortunately, he gave me one.

“But I’ve had a lot of people — and I mean a lot — come up to me and say I know you’ve saved lives. I know from people we know personally. That’s the thing people don’t talk about it. If it’s not happening in your home the numbers show that it’s probably happening three doors down from you,’’ Daniels said.

Rather than shy away from the difficult talk about drug addiction, Daniels has become somewhat of an expert on it.

He’s created the Jamie Daniels Foundation (jamiedanielsfoundation.org) to raise money and awareness of the widespread problem.

The first big fundraiser will be a roast of Mickey Redmond on Sept. 7 at Soundboard at the Motor City Casino. Tickets for $150 are still available.

“In April (2018) I was working for NBC in the playoffs. I was sitting with Darren Pang, former NHL goalie and commentator with the St. Louis Blues. We were working the NBC series Columbus-Washington. Panger had just been roasted in St. Louis, came back and he was talking about it,’’ Daniels said. “I said, ‘I have to do something.’ He said everybody does golf tournaments, so why don’t you do a roast? My first thought was to call Doc Emrick, the voice of NBC, and so I called Doc a year ago and said I was thinking of doing a roast.

“He immediately said, ‘Would your first roastee be a former 50-goal right winger?’ He knew. I talked to him about it, I had just spoken to Mickey about it. Mickey said, ‘I’ve got big shoulders I can handle it.’ So God bless him. He was willing to take it on and have fun with it.’’

Continued

Red Wings goaltending prospect Jesper Eliasson is taking part in the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, MI this week, and the Detroit News’s Mike Falkner posted a profile of Eliasson:

A third-round pick by the Wings in the 2018 NHL Draft, Eliasson wants to help the national team improve on last year’s disappointing performance at the world championship in Vancouver.

The team failed to medal and lost in the quarterfinals, 2-0, to Switzerland. This year’s tournament is in the Czech Republic from Dec. 26-Jan. 5.

“I’ve always dreamed of playing in the world junior championship,” said Eliasson, who posted a 2.43 goals against average and .919 save percentage with the Vaxjo Lakers in Sweden’s SuperElit League last year.

Sweden’s U20 national coach Tomas Monten said Eliasson has made big strides from last year and will keep an eye on his development.

“He had a really good year last year and he was in the mix to make our team,” Monten said. “He’s a big kid and should do well playing at the second-pro level this year.”

Continued

DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner speaks with Red Wings assistant GM Ryan Martin on the latest “Red and White Authority” podcast, discussing the World Junior Summer Showcase (where Martin is working for Team USA) and the Red Wings prospects taking part in Joe Veleno (Canada), Jesper Eliasson, Jonatan Berggren (Sweden) and Otto Kivenmaki (Finland):

Detroit’s assistant general manager Ryan Martin joins us to preview the 2019 Summer Showcase, his role with USA Hockey as well as offering an assessment of several of Detroit’s prospects.

Listen/download: https://t.co/HESqMu37Oh pic.twitter.com/eW5EEisEG4— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 27, 2019

Today I’m making the 400-mile trek to Grand Marais, Michigan to take part in my family’s annual summer vacation. TMR will go into “relaxed mode” as I try to recharge and rest after an extremely difficult year. I’ll be gone from today until August 3rd, and I’ll get back to normal on Monday, August 5th.

As four Red Wings prospects are taking part in the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth this week, I will be missing some Red Wings news, but otherwise it should be quiet barring any international news of note.

If you are interested in donating to the server fund (about $50 of $700 raised) or training camp fund (about $200 raised), https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport is the place to go.

In the interim, I wish you a pleasantly quiet week, and I promise to check in from time to time as blogging is something of a compulsive habit for me.

See you later, alligators!

Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff notes that the Red Wings have bolstered their blueline in Finnish triplicate over the last three seasons, investing in a peninsula from which the Wings haven’t drawn many draft picks or free agent signings:

Lately, the Wings have invested heavily in Finnish futures. They drafted Assat Pori defenseman Antti Tuomisto with the 35th pick of the 2019 NHL entry draft. Undersized center Otto Kivenmaki, also from Assat Pori, was selected 191st overall in 2018. Defenseman Kasper Kotkansalo, chosen 71st overall in 2017, will enter his junior year of NCAA hockey with the Boston Terriers this fall.

As well, defenseman Oliwer Kaski, who led all SM-liiga rearguards with 19 goals and 51 points for Pelicans Lahti last season, signed with Detroit in the summer as a free agent.

“I knew he had an unbelievable season,” Kotkansalo said of Kaski. “All I’ve heard, only good things, even comparisons to (Erik) Karlsson (of the San Jose Sharks). I guess the Wings got a pretty good defenseman there.”

While Kaski is known for his offense, Kotkansalo is more of a stay-at-home type of defender. Tuomisto’s strength is gaining control of the puck in his own zone and making outlet passes to the forwards.

“Maybe an offensive guy, offensive defenseman and great playing with puck and passing the puck up to the forwards,” was how Tuomisto described his game, comparing himself to Esa Lindell of the Dallas Stars.

Duff continues…