Month: September 2019

Updated at 5:05 PM: The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a mid-day article noting GM Steve Yzerman and coach Jeff Blashill’s takes on the recently-acquired Adam Erne:

“I think Adam has a chance to be a top-nine forward in the NHL.,” Yzerman said. “I think he’s got good puck skills, I think he’s got a good shot and he’s worked extremely hard – his skating is good, he’s a very powerful, strong guy. Difficult to play against because he’s thick and he’s a hard. He’s got pretty good hockey sense. He fits in with our group of players and the young guys coming up.”

Yzerman signed Erne, 24, for one year at $1.05 million. It’s a no-risk contract – if Erne does not make the team, his salary is covered by the exemption if he’s sent to the minors. But Erne has a good shot: he’s sound defensively, kills penalties and uses his 6-foot-1, 214-pound body to punish opponents. 

“I think he can bring a pretty good combination of physicality and skill,” coach Jeff Blashill said. “That’s a rare combination in the league – not very many guys in the league are super physical and still have skill to play in the top nine. I think he’s got that ability. He just has to make sure he separates himself from other players.”

Continued

Update: Here’s more from MLive’s Ansar Khan:

The Red Wings acquired Erne in August for a fourth-round pick in 2020. He is coming off his first full NHL season, picking up seven goals and 20 points in 65 games.

Erne described himself as a two-way forward who likes playing at a high pace, can make plays and score goals and can be used up and down the lineup.

“I like to have the puck on my stick, I like to play a north-south game, pick the pace up, be able to make plays and shoot the puck,” Erne said. “I just try to be versatile and wherever they need me, that’s where I play.”

Opportunity for advancement was lacking with the Lightning, the best regular season team in the NHL.

“In Tampa, with all the skill we had, sometimes I was just relied on as a bigger body,” Erne said. “I’m just looking to get back to creating offense and be good on that side of the puck for sure.

“It’s an opportunity that I see available here now. It’s exciting. There’s a lot of talent and so far, a really great group of guys. From old to young there’s no cliques. A really good mesh.”

From the Detroit Red Wings comes a little free advertising:

Continue reading FYI: The Wings are offering ‘fee free’ tickets until September 20th

The Red Wings scaled back their anticipated practices to deal with some dings and bruises suffered by the Wings’ players over the course of training camp, so the Wings skated two groups instead of three today, and they skipped the “on-ice conditioning” part of their practice in order to head back to Detroit a little early (ahead of tomorrow’s exhibition game vs. Chicago).

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media regarding the competitive nature of training camp and the Red vs. White Game, he didn’t offer updates on injuries (Tyler Bertuzzi, Andreas Athanasiou, Dylan Larkin, Oliwer Kaski and Jarid Lukosevicius did not skate today) and he wasn’t committing to tomorrow’s roster as of yet. He was complementary toward the first camp under Steve Yzerman’s regime, he talked about the advantages of coming to Traverse City, and he praised the volunteers who make training camp such a pleasant experience:

FYI: At one point this morning, Dylan Larkin, Luke Glendening, Justin Abdelkader and Frans Nielsen headed into one of the locker rooms, and Steve Yzerman and Pat Verbeek joined them. They spoke with each other for a good 15-20 minutes, and I’m not sure what was said, but you and I can guess!

Update: Here’s video of Blashill from Fox Sports Detroit:

“We’ve got a whole bunch of competition for jobs and I think that showed in how competitive each practice was. This gives us a chance to see those guys play.” – Jeff Blashill as he looks forward to preseason play, which starts tomorrow on FOX Sports Plus. pic.twitter.com/iN9xVhSs6z— FOX Sports Detroit (@FOXSportsDet) September 16, 2019

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill sat down with WXYZ’s Brad Galli for a quick two-minute interview at training camp, discussing Steve Yzerman’s influence, the Red Wings’ desire to turn their record around, and the “A” issue.

Jeff Blashill enters his fifth season as the Red Wings head coach.

We talked in Traverse City about working with Steve Yzerman, his young team’s hunger, and the decision to hold off naming a captain. pic.twitter.com/BdYoEtvxgu— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) September 16, 2019

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler published a list of 20 Calder Trophy candidates this morning, viewed from a fantasy hockey perspective, and he lists Filip Zadina among them:

10. Filip Zadina, LW/RW, 19 (Detroit Red Wings — 6th overall, 2018)

Zadina didn’t wow me in Traverse City and there’s no denying his rookie season in the AHL was a little disappointing but there’s so much opportunity in Detroit for young players that a kid with his talent level is going to get an extended chance to stick around this season — and to do so while playing on the power play and in a scoring role offensively. If your league counts goals heavily, he’s also a better finisher than players like Batherson and Texier.

Continued (paywall)

As MLive’s Ansar Khan notes, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill made it clear on Sunday that Wings forward Michael Rasmussen will have to beat out several players to make the Wings’ NHL roster because the Wings believe that Rasmussen is best-suited to play center:

Rasmussen, 20, now can be assigned to Grand Rapids. That appears where he will be headed unless he excels in preseason and the Red Wings have a couple of injuries at center or decide to move him back to wing.

“If you looked at Ras’ long-term outlook, he’s a (6-6) center — those guys can be really, really hard to play against because they’re so good defensively, so if he’s a guy who can really shut down other teams’ best players, that’s a real positive,” Blashill said. “I think his ability to score net-front is a real positive. He’s got to score, but ultimately, he’s going to have to beat out (Dylan) Larkin, Fil (Valtteri Filppula), (Frans) Nielsen, Glenny (Luke Glendening), Ehner (Christoffer Ehn), (Jacob) de la Rose.

“Just got to beat guys out. That’s the NHL. You got to grab spots. I’d like to see him — Steve (general manager Yzerman) would like to see him — long-term at center, so those are the spots. You got to win one of those spots.”

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The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses what Filip Zadina needs to focus on to crack the Red Wings’ lineup:

The Wings’ nine-game exhibition slate begins Tuesday. Zadina is one of several prospects vying for a job. Asked how confident he feels, Zadina smiled.

“I can’t tell you,” he said. “I’ll show you on the ice.”

Confidence matters for every player, but it’s also precarious for a high draft pick like Zadina. He wants to be a sniper like Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov. He wants to live up to what he said on draft night, when he spoke of filling the nets of the teams that passed on him. 

The Wings want him to get there.

“The secret is learning how to earn your own confidence through the work you put in, and being mentally tough enough when your place slips a little bit that you know it’s going to come back,” Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “But that comes back to putting the work in and having that true self confidence where you know you have the skill set to succeed and you know you’ve put the work in to succeed.”

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The Traverse City Record-Eagle’s James Cook wrote a perfect recap of today’s Red vs. White Game at Centre ICE Arena, and he also added to the story regarding one Adam Erne, something of a mystery to Red Wings fans as a summertime addition from the Tampa Bay Lightning. Erne, a 24-year-old winger, felt a little stagnant with the Bolts:

“There’s there’s not much room to move up there,” Erne said. “They have such a deep top six that no matter how well you do, there’s only so high you can move yourself up. So it’s an opportunity that I see available here and it’s exciting.”

So when Yzerman left the Lightning to return to Detroit, he traded a fourth-round pick for the 24-year-old left wing.

“I was with him in Tampa so he knows what I can bring to the table,” Erne said. “I’m just trying to play my game and work my way in the lineup.”

The 6-foot-1, 214-pound Erne is a two-way forward who can play physically and also help with scoring. He had seven goals and 20 points in 65 games with Tampa last season.

“I think he can bring a pretty good combination of physicality and skill,” Blashill said. “That’s a rare combination in the league. Not very many guys in the league are super physical and then still have the skills to play in the top nine. And I think he’s got that ability.”

Continued

DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner spoke with Red Wings assistant to the general manager Niklas Kronwall, speaking with Kronwall for a full hour on the latest episode of “The Red and White Authority”:

Former Red Wing defenseman Niklas Kronwall appears on Episode 129 of The Red and White Authority to discuss his career and his life after hockey.

Listen/Rate/Subscribe: https://t.co/8jWdMpBbqI
Spotify: https://t.co/gHVbxiVKZM
SoundCloud: https://t.co/r7z0kdfKtT pic.twitter.com/KLW65up01u— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 16, 2019

The Red Wings’ annual “Red vs. White Game” on Sunday afternoon was actually the end of what was a busy day for the Red Wings’ training camp participants, and the 2-period, 50-minute-long game was entertaining, if not uneventful:

The White Team beat the Red Team 2-1 in a shootout, with Frans Nielsen and Anthony Mantha’s shootout goals accompanying a regulation goal from Oliwer Kaski; Andreas Athanasiou scored for the Red Team, but left with an unspecified minor injury halfway through the game.

The day actually started with an hour-long practice for the non-Red/White players, who engaged in complicated situational drills under coach Jeff Blashill; even the Red and White players skated for 40 minutes under the guidance of the Red Wings’ coaching staff before preparing for the Red vs. White Game itself, and as that was taking place, the Red Wings’ front office interviewed 9 players who were sent back to their major junior and professional teams.

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