Month: August 2019

Downtown News Magazine’s Kevin Elliott penned a profile of Toledo Walleye goaltender Pat Nagle, who hails from Bloomfield Hills, MI:

Formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League, the ECHL is a mid-level minor league, while the AHL is the top-tier minor league. While both are competitive, some consider the AHL to focus more on development for the major league NHL teams. While it isn’t uncommon for players to go back and forth between leagues, goal tenders are a little different breed.

“That happens often where each organization has different ways to going about things, and you get transferred, but more for goalies,” Nagle said. “It happens with forwards and defensemen, too, but with goalies, one day you’re starting in the AHL, and the next you’re backing up in the EHCL. It’s all part of the process.”

In Toledo, Nagle is a veteran player who is key to the team’s post-season success. The team, which has recently drawn higher crowds than the famed Toledo Mud Hens – the AAA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers – and has earned the best record in the conference for four seasons. He’s also played three seasons for the Fort Wayne Komets, the team’s top rival.

“It’s always tough. I have buddies on both teams,” Nagle said about being traded. “But for me, it was good to be back in the Detroit system. It’s funny how things work.”

Continued

Michigan State University’s pro camp is taking place this week at Munn Ice Arena, and Michigan Hockey’s Michael Caples spoke with Taro Hirose and Justin Abdelkader regarding their preparations for the upcoming season.

“It’s always good coming back,” Abdelkader said following Monday’s opening day. “I always look forward to this week, getting back here to Munn and seeing all the familiar faces and Newts does such a great job, he’s done it for so many years. Obviously the guys out here have changed over the years, now I’m one of the old veteran guys out with some of these younger ones, but it’s great, I always look forward to coming back here, to Munn, to East Lansing, being on campus.”

One of those fresh faces is Abdelkader’s new teammate, Taro Hirose. The reigning Big Ten scoring champion and Red Wings signee at the conclusion of the NCAA season is taking part in his first MSU pro camp, after spending the summer training in Metro Detroit.

“It feels really good to be back with some of the guys I played with when I was a freshman, get to see them again and catch up on old stories,” Hirose said. “It was sort of a windstorm there [in April], a lot going on with signing and leaving and playing in the NHL, it was exciting but I’m definitely going to miss this place.”

Abdelkader delved into his expectations for the Wings’ performance as well…

1. The Toledo Walleye announced the signing of forward Ryan Verbeek to a 1-year contract today:

Toledo, OH – Forward Ryan Verbeek has agreed to terms with the Toledo Walleye for the 2019-2020 season.

Verbeek is following in the footsteps of his uncle Tim Verbeek who played in 182 games over three years for the Toledo Storm from 2000-03. The bloodlines continue for him as he is also a nephew of former NHL forward Pat Verbeek who appeared in 1m424 career NHL games including a pair of seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. The 23 year old spent this past season playing in France for Lyon in which he skated in 31 games, scoring 12 goals with 11 assists and 39 penalty minutes.

“When you look at Ryan, the history of his family certainty stands out,” said Head Coach Dan Watson. “He has produced wherever he has played and we are looking forward to what he brings to Toledo.”

The Kingston, Ontario native played one season of Canadian Collage at Dalhousie University with six points (3G, 3A) in just 12 games before marching over to France. From 2012-2016 the 6’0”, 209 pound forward skated in 202 games at the OHL level between Windsor and Kingston with 73 career points (31G, 42A) and 138 penalty minutes. That included a career best 63 games for Kingston in the 2015-16 season.

2. Also: the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that former Walleye forward A.J. Jenks will play for the Walleye’s arch-rival:

Former @ToledoWalleye forward A..J. Jenks, who ranks among the franchise’s top five all-time leaders in points, goals, assists, games played, and penalty minutes, has signed with the rival @FWKomets.— Mark Monroe (@MonroeBlade) August 20, 2019

Not hockey news, but pretty cool: former Red Wings defenseman Chris Chelios took a dive of a different kind this past weekend, jumping out of a plane in a tandem jump with the Army’s Golden Knights (the parachute team, not the team from Nevada).

Chicago Magazine’s Robert Chiarito described the scene, and DS Shin posted a video of what was truly a unique occurrence:

The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe, a.k.a. Down Goes Brown, attempts to hazard guesses as to whether 10 teams that are predicted to miss the playoffs by The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn could conceivably buck the pundits’ predictions and make a playoff push. DGB is not confident in the Wings’ chances thereof:

But hear me out … : Uh, Yzerman comes back and centers the first line?

OK, coming up with a scenario in which the Wings zoom to the top third of the standings is near impossible. They’re not good on paper, they’re not really focused on getting better in the short-term and unlike most of the other teams on the list, there’s not even a new coach or goaltender or NHL-ready first-round pick who could conceivably show up and change everything. Instead, we’d need to count on a major leap from Dylan Larkin, the team’s only legitimate star. We’ll also need Jimmy Howard or one of the backups to have one of those incomprehensible .930 seasons that veteran goalies occasionally have for no particular reason. And even then, we’d probably also need a few unexpected breakouts from guys in the Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi tier.

If all of those things happen, well, the Wings probably improve all the way up to 90 points and still miss the playoffs. But mix in some momentum from a hot start – which is possible, with seven of their first 11 games against teams who missed the playoffs – and some old-fashioned “nobody believes in us” swagger, and crazier things have happened. Not much crazier, though.

Continued (paywall), and I know that the Wings are highly, highly unlikely to make the playoffs, but it’s hard to read the, “The Wings are going to stink and stink badly” predictions be repeated over and over again.

MLive’s Ansar Khan issues a season outlook for Luke Glendening this morning. Glendening has proven to be very useful when he’s utilized as a third or fourth-line center; former Wings coach Mike Babcock may have been reaching when he penciled Glendening in as the Wings’ shut-down center, however.

Anyway, here’s Khan’s season outlook for Glendening:

2019-20 outlook: A fixture among the Red Wings’ bottom six forwards for six seasons, Glendening will continue his grinder’s role by leading or being among the team leaders in hits and blocked shots. He is the team’s top penalty-killing forward and has improved considerably in the faceoff circle, so much so that he takes many draws in the defensive zone.

Glendening figures to center the fourth line but can play the wing, too. He can match up against the opposition’s top center, as can newly acquired Valtteri Filppula.

Glendening can contribute some offense. He didn’t score a goal in his first 51 NHL games but has scored 44 goals in his past 388 games.

Continued

Alex Wood, a.k.a. awood40 on YouTube, continues his Henrik Zetterberg career highlight reel by showcasing Zetterberg’s best from the 2013-14 through 2015-16 seasons today:

Here are the previous four installments of Alex’s clips:

Continue reading AWood40 posts fifth installment of Henrik Zetterberg career highlights

August news for you:

1. The Macomb Daily reports that Red Wings team physician Anthony Colucci will receive the Macomb Foundation Macomb Hall of Fame award for his contributions to Macomb County on August 22nd, and his resume is pretty damn impressive:

• Dr. Anthony Colucci — is a board certified emergency room physician. He has been involved with the Detroit Red Wings since 1989 as a part of the training and medical staff and an active member of the NHL Team Physician Society (NHLTPS) for which he serves on several committees. As the Emergency Room Medical Director at Henry Ford Hospital Macomb and the Medical Director for the Paramedic Program at Macomb County Community College (MCCC), Colucci is involved in the education and development of ER residents and paramedic students. He is also an ATLS instructor at Michigan State University and participates annually in the certification and re-certification of health care providers.

2. Former Grand Rapids Griffins forward Eric Tangradi signed a deal with Barys Astana of the KHL today, so he’s headed to Kazakhstan for the upcoming season:

?️?«Барыс» официально объявляет о заключении контракта с американским нападающим Эриком Тангрэди. Игрок подписал одностороннее соглашение до 30 апреля 2020 года.

Подробнее о новичке ?https://t.co/E50LNB0KBw pic.twitter.com/KgUp7S5Sw0— ХК Барыс (@AstanaBarys) August 19, 2019

3. And the Red Wings are asking fans to share their favorite photographs on World Photography Day:

HOCKEYTOWN ‼️

It’s #WorldPhotographyDay! ?

Let us see your favorite #RedWings photos! pic.twitter.com/iOOR3mGeXk— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 19, 2019

The Oakland Press’s Pat Caputo penned a column in which he suggests that the Detroit Red Wings’ 2019-2020 season may not produce as much hand-wringing or frustration as many pundits–and the Hockey News’s annual yearbook, specifically–have suggested:

[Dylan] Larkin is the leader of a group of five, solid young players, who should be coming into their own collectively this season, along with forwards Tyler Bertuzzi, Andreas Athanasiou, Anthony Mantha and Filip Hronek. It is not out of the realm of possibility first-round draft picks Filip Zadina and defenseman Dennis Cholowski join this group in ’19-20. Former Michigan State standout Taro Hirose also showed promise, and is advanced.

Year-to-year improvement from Hronek and Cholowski on defense is especially imperative. The Red Wings’ puck possession stats have been a disaster, primarily because of a lack of puck-moving skill during an era of the NHL’s forechecking being particularly fierce.

No one is expecting a Vezina Trophy, but the goaltending with veterans Jimmy Howard and Jonathan Bernier should be respectable.

Yzerman inherited a lot of dead-weight, overvalued contracts from Ken Holland. Anything the Red Wings get from Mike Green, Trevor Daley, Justin Abdelkader, Jonathan Ericsson or Darren Helm would be unexpected at this stage.

But defenseman Danny DeKeyser does have some room to grow, Luke Glendening is good in his specific role and Frans Nielsen probably has more left in the tank than the other overpriced vets Ken Holland strapped onto the franchise.

Continued

The Sporting News’s Steve Kournianos ranked the NHL’s prospect pipelines, suggesting that the Red Wings’ farm system is in 10th place among the NHL’s 31 teams:

10. Detroit Red Wings

Steve Yzerman’s tenure as Detroit’s general manager’s got off to a questionable start when he bypassed conventional draft wisdom and took two-way defenseman Moritz Seider with the sixth overall pick. The move certainly will be monitored for several years, but what shouldn’t be lost in the post-draft hysteria is that Yzerman had already inherited an excellent group of young talent and had the flexibility to roll the dice.

Goal-scoring winger Filip Zadina and center Joe Veleno – the last two first-round picks made by predecessor Ken Holland – are among the elite of the elite. Zadina is the odds-on favorite to beat out his peers for a roster spot and Veleno is the primary target to center Team Canada’s top line at the under-20 world juniors. To no one’s surprise, the majority of the organization’s other notable neophytes are Swedes, with goalie Filip Larsson coming off another stellar campaign in which he posted a .932 save percentage and 1.95 goals-against average as a freshman for Denver. Detroit also owns a pair of confident three-zone puck movers in Gustav Lindstrom and Albert Johansson and won a key free-agent derby by luring former Western Michigan defenseman Oliwer Kaski away from Finland, where he was the top-scoring blueliner in the SM-Liiga. Left winger Robert Mastrosimone, a Boston University recruit who was of the more underrated players from this year’s draft class, has a bit of Gustav Nyquist in him and should be considered having first-round value in a second-round pick.

Continued