Month: September 2019

If we are to believe ESPN’s “NHL Future Power Rankings,” all three of ESPN’s Emily Kaplan, Greg Wyshynski and Chris Peters are not predicting improvement for the Red Wings over the next three seasons under GM Steve Yzerman. The trio give the Wings a very average “C” grade and a 27th overall ranking for the present and near future:

27. Detroit Red Wings
Overall score: 71.6

Why they’re here: When the Red Wings’ dynastic run fizzled out, all that was left was the memories and bloated contracts. OK, it wasn’t that dire. But the rebuild has been slow, as Detroit waits for unfavorable contracts to get off the books. Now that Steve Yzerman is in charge, there’s hope that the path back to winning can be expedited. — Kaplan

Points of concern: The Red Wings deserve credit in rebuilding their prospect pool, only in the sense that they’ve taken it from “none” to “Filip Zadina.” It remains an average group, despite three straight non-playoff seasons. The Wings have regrettable contracts from a bygone era of quasi-contention, like Justin Abdelkader‘s still-baffling deal that offers him full trade protection through 2023. One bit of intrigue: All the restricted free agents that the Red Wings have next summer, a group of young players assembled while GM Steve Yzerman was building the Lightning: What becomes of them? — Wyshynski

Cornerstone prospects: Even though Filip Zadina underwhelmed last season, I think he still has the ability to be a game-breaking player and a long-term top-six winger for the team. Joseph Veleno might be the Swiss army knife who does a little bit of everything, and now we’re going to have to see what recent first-rounder Moritz Seider brings to the table. That trio gives the Red Wings a decent core of young prospects who could eventually fill significant roles. — Peters

Continued (paywall); I’d like to believe that the cupboard isn’t as bare as predicted.

The Red Wings play 9 exhibition games over the course of the next 12 days. MLive’s Ansar Khan notes that coach Jeff Blashill believes that the schedule is “just right” given his team’s battles for positional spots:

Several former first-round picks will be vying for roster spots — forwards Evgeny Svechnikov, who missed all of 2018-19 due to a knee injury, Michael Rasmussen, Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno and defensemen Dennis Cholowski and Moritz Seider.

Undrafted free agents in the mix include wingers Taro Hirose and Ryan Kuffner and defenseman Oliwer Kaski.

“It just gives us a real good chance to watch a whole bunch of guys in action,” Blashill said. “The challenge in the exhibition season is the varying rosters. Sometimes you are seeing guys that are real NHL players and sometimes you’re seeing guys that’ll probably play in the American League. You try to balance that.

“You’d think that when we go to (Pittsburgh) we’ll probably see a really good roster (on Sept. 25), so you try to put a similar roster together. When you go to the New York Islanders (Sept. 23) I’d like to get a hold of (coach) Barry Trotz and have a conversation, just so we know if we can try to match up rosters the best we can. We got a whole bunch of competition for jobs. I think that’s shown in how competitive each practice was. This gives us a chance to see those guys play.”

Continued

Cool stuff from the Red Wings, and it is that time of year, time to unveil new masks and new equipment:

New Season. New Art.

Howard?: @BishopDesigns
Bernier?: @daveartofficial pic.twitter.com/QWKovvTdgI— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 16, 2019

Pickard?: @daveartofficial @FilipLarsson30?: @headstronggrafx pic.twitter.com/N4T5qArYbN— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 16, 2019

Fulcher?: @daveartofficial pic.twitter.com/zwsGvB9mwL— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 16, 2019

Kudos to Ray Bishop (BishopDesigns), David Gunnarsson (DaveArt) and HeadStrong Grafx for their work.

The Detroit Red Wings wrapped up training camp in Traverse City the way they usually do–with one foot out the door, mostly due to the fact that they’ll be playing a preseason game in Detroit tomorrow night.

Hockey players are strange in the way that they can make just about anywhere home, settle in, and as soon as they know it’s time to pull up stakes, the gear’s in the bag and they’re out the door.

As a result, and in no small part because the Red Wings have been ground into hamburger over the course of three grueling days of on and off-ice training, coach Jeff Blashill said that he toned down Monday’s drills, eliminating what the schedule said would be conditioning drills at the end of practice.

The Wings also cut down their roster to two teams, and, as stated in the audio post, Dylan Larkin, Tyler Bertuzzi, Oliwer Kaski, Andreas Athanasiou and Jarid Lukosevicius did not practice with either team.

I also thought it was interesting that Larkin, Justin Abdelkader, Luke Glendening and Frans Nielsen appeared to have a sit-down talk with Steve Yzerman and Pat Verbeek in one of the coaches’ locker rooms at the rink. The players were in the room with the Wings’ GM and assistant GM for about 20 minutes, and we can only guess what was said.

Continue reading Impressions from day four of the Red Wings’ training camp ’19

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji penned a training camp notebook which focuses on Patrik Nemeth’s assets, and she also noted Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill’s take on the state of the team heading back to Detroit from training camp:

Although it’s a bit of a hike from Detroit, Blashill said coming up to Traverse City every year is always a great experience.

“I think I prefer it, our guys prefer it. We like coming up here,” Blashill said. “There’s multiple reasons. One, you get to come up here, you’re kind of away for a little bit. Your guys get to play some golf. It’s beautiful up here. It’s a little getaway. It’s not super long. It’s great. Traverse City’s a beautiful spot in the world.

“Me personally, both my sister and my parents live here. I definitely like coming up here. Just from an aspect of team, it’s really worked well. People up here are great. You also get to hit a whole of Western Michigan and Northern Michigan that you don’t get to hit on an everyday basis in Metro Detroit.”

Being away from home, the players and coaches also get to focus on hockey, which led to a successful camp.

“Unreal work ethic. Unreal competitiveness. I thought yesterday’s Red and White Game was as competitive as any Red and White Game we’ve ever seen,” Blashill said. “Nik Kronwall echoed that. Certainly the most competitive in his memory. It kind of goes to I think what guys have said. They’re sick of what we’ve been and they want to change that. Now you keep making those decisions, it gets way harder as you get into October and then December and January. So we just gotta keep grinding here, keep plugging away. But it’s a good start.”

Continued

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan penned a training camp notebook before leaving Traverse City, and Kulfan believes that the Red Wings’ 9-games-in-12-nights exhibition schedule is actually a good thing:

The Wings play 82 games during a long six-month (plus a week, or two) NHL regular season.

But they’ll play nine preseason games in the next two weeks.

It’s a game more than usual because of the Wings’ participation in the NHL’s Hockeyville event in Calumet, located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Along with keeping the coaching, training and equipment staffs busy, there will be players who get plenty of chances to show what they can do.

Nobody will play all nine games, obviously. But young players on the brink of the NHL likely will get about five or six games to show they deserve an opportunity.

This schedule is perfect for them.

Continued

Fox Sports Detroit’s Brooke Fletcher spoke with Red Wings forward Tyler Bertuzzi for an episode of “The 313”:

DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner examines Dylan Larkin’s 2018-2019 season stats today, and the obvious ones stand out:

32 – After scoring 16 goals during the 2017-18 season, Larkin lit the lamp a career-high 32 times to lead the Red Wings. Athanasiou’s 30 goals was second and Anthony Mantha‘s 25 tallies was third highest on the club.

41 – The 41 assists he doled out was the second highest of his four-year career. Tyler Bertuzzi‘s 26 helpers ranked second on the team, with Frans Nielsen third with 25 assists. Larkin’s career high in assists is 47, which he reached in the 2017-18 campaign.

73 – Larkin led the Wings in total points with 73. Athanasiou was second in points with 54 and Mantha was third with 48 points.

Continued

The Athletic’s Sean “Down Goes Brown” McIndoe discusses the Eastern Conference teams’ off-seasons as ranked by their “bizarre” natures, and he has this to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings

The offseason so far: The Wings didn’t do much to remake the roster, bringing back Valtteri Filppula and saying goodbye to the retiring Niklas Kronwall. None of that really matters all that much, because the big news is that Steve Yzerman is back and ready to use his Jedi skills to rebuild the roster.

But their strangest story was: Taking Moritz Seider a dozen or two spots ahead of where most of the draft boards had him, in what was easily the biggest surprise of the first round. Nice bow tie, though.

Bizarro-meter ranking: 6.1/10. After two decades, it’s going to take some time getting used to talking about the Red Wings without mentioning Ken Holland. But Yzerman’s return just feels right.

Continued (paywall)

Sportsnet’s Emily Sadler suggests that fantasy hockey poolies might want to pick up one of seven rookies who are “ready to contribute” at the NHL level, including one Filip Zadina:

FILIP ZADINA, DETROIT RED WINGS

SN Rank: 224
Position eligibility: LW/RW

The Red Wings are in the midst of a full-on youth movement, and Zadina looks like the next piece of this rebuilding puzzle. Patience will be needed as the rookie finds his stride, but GMs picking him late on draft night could be rewarded. The 19-year-old registered a goal and three points in a late-season NHL stint after a 35-point AHL campaign in Grand Rapids. When surrounded by Detroit’s growing corp of young forward talent like Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou and Anthony Mantha, Zadina’s potential skyrockets.

Continued