Month: October 2020

MLive’s Steve Kaminski spoke with Red Wings signing Kyle Criscuolo regarding his decision to rejoin the Grand Rapids Griffins after three seasons spent with other AHL teams:

Criscuolo played all 76 regular-season games for the Griffins in 2016-17, along with 19 playoff games. He finished with 17 goals and 41 points, and he scored in overtime against Milwaukee that closed out the Griffins’ playoff series against Milwaukee.

“Over the years, every time I have been a free agent, I have thought about going back to Grand Rapids and Detroit,” he said. “The organization is a place where I enjoyed my time. The organization was great to me. I’m very excited to get back. I am going to hang tight right now. Whenever Detroit’s camp opens up, I will head up there. Right now, I’m gearing up for that and making sure I’m in the best shape possible.”

Criscuolo was a rookie out of Harvard when he joined the Griffins three seasons ago. The 28-year old native of Southampton, N.J., signed with Buffalo in July of 2017 before joining Philadelphia in July of 2019.

“Kyle came in as a little bit of an unknown,” Griffins coach Ben Simon said. “He came in the year prior and played a handful of games. He played maybe five games, and he got a taste of Grand Rapids and how the program works. He then came in the next season, and he played significant minutes with us. I think he played every game and put up over 40 points as a rookie. He had a really successful first year. He came in and made us play him in key situations. He’s a versatile guy. We used him most of the year at center, but he is able to play the wing as well. He is no dummy, either. He went to Harvard and was a two-time captain at Harvard.”

Continued

DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter posted an article discussing defenseman Danny DeKeyser’s career and 2019-2020 season “By the Numbers,” and, in this instance, the numbers are less important than the context which Bereneter provides regarding DeKeyser’s recovery from significant back surgery:

[Starting] in 2018, the injury bug set its sights on the 6-foot-3, 190-pound defenseman. On December 4, 2018, DeKeyser suffered a hand injury that sidelined him for six weeks, and this past season, on October 22, DeKeyser injured his back which eventually led to season-ending surgery in December, limiting him to just eight games in 2019-20.

Before his back injury, DeKeyser was the No. 1 defenseman for the Red Wings. He was playing on the club’s top defensive pairing with Filip Hronek and was facing the opponents’ top lines.

“When he’s healthy, he’s our top defenseman and I think he’s one of the most underrated defenders in the league,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “He obviously has a huge impact on our team.”

With the time off during rehab added to an extended offseason due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this will be the longest DeKeyser has ever gone in his career without seeing game action. The defenseman said he’s feeling better, though, and is ready to get back with his teammates as soon as possible.

“I’m feeling a lot better, which is good. It took me a little bit to kind of feel better again but I’ve finally gotten over that hump, I think,” DeKeyser said. “Definitely doing a lot better and I’m looking forward to skating, hopefully soon, when we get back on the ice. This year, I’m hoping to stay healthy and have a good year.”

Continued; it will be interesting to see what DeKeyser can bring to the table when he’s fully healthy.

HockeyNews.se’s Sebastian Von Eichwald is reporting that Red Wings prospect Filip Larsson has suffered a hand injury while playing for Almtuna IS of the Swedish Allsvenskan.

Almtuna coach Robert Kimby tells Von Eichwald that Larsson will miss several weeks with “an injury to the hand area,” which is basically coach-speak for a broken hand.

Update: This comes from Almtuna’s social media director:

Update on Filip Larsson’s injury ? https://t.co/LH5gUbtQ5b— Red Wings Prospects (@DRWProspects) October 19, 2020

Both MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Free Press’s Helene St. James discuss Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s managerial moves this morning.

Khan deems the Red Wings to be an offseason “winner” due to their machinations…

General manager Steve Yzerman moved out several players who might not appear in another NHL game and signed five free agents (forwards Vladislav Namestnikov and Bobby Ryan, defensemen Troy Stecher and Jon Merrill and goaltender Thomas Greiss) to reasonable, short-term deals. He utilized his ample cap space to acquire a serviceable defenseman (Marc Staal) and second-round pick. The Red Wings will still be at or near the NHL’s basement, but they improved in all areas. They also are set-up to acquire additional draft picks at the trade deadline by moving some of these players and others.

Khan continues…

And the Free Press’s St. James issues 18 Thoughts regarding the 18 months that Yzerman has been the team’s general manager (in a subscriber-only article):

8. Fab Fabbri: Yzerman’s best trade was flipping Jacob de la Rose, a 2018 waiver-wire pickup, to St. Louis for former first-round pick Robby Fabbri. The ex-Blues forward has offensive skills (31 points in 52 games) and provided a much-needed booster shot. Signed to a two-year contract, he looks like he’ll be a solid contributor to the rebuild. 

9. Depth charge: Only having one effective line on offense was among the many things that hurt the Wings in 2019-20. Injuries to Mantha (28 games), Andreas Athanasiou (17) and Filip Zadina (17) limited coach Jeff Blashill’s options because the Wings had no depth. Yzerman addressed the dearth of effective forwards by signing Vladislav Namestnikov (2 years, $4 million) and Bobby Ryan (1 year, $1 million). Those two, along with Mantha, Bertuzzi, Fabbri, Zadina and Dylan Larkin give the Wings good options for the top six and beyond.

…

14. Nik’s knack: The 13th [player who did not return from the 2019-2020 roster] is Niklas Kronwall, who retired and immediately joined the front office, watching games from the GM’s suite at Little Caesars Arena. Former teammates took to calling him “Corporate Kronwall.”

St. James continues (paywall)…

KDSK’s Hanna Yates spoke with Chase Bradley, the Red Wings’ 7th-round pick in this year’s draft, regarding his family background and draft experiences:

Bradley followed in his father’s footsteps by playing hockey at Oakville High School. After playing for the Omaha Lancers in the USHL, Bradley was traded to Sioux City in March where he will play until he starts his undergraduate career at Northeastern University.  He finished practice in Sioux City and headed home to watch the NHL 2020 draft. 

“I was just sitting in my bed just looking at the draft and then my roommate came in and told me,” Chase Bradley said.

Bradley had been selected by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2020 NHL draft with their last pick. A pick they acquired from Bradley’s hometown team, the St. Louis Blues.

“I was shocked at first,” Bradley said. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting it I should say. It’s something you dream of really. Like, I mean growing up that’s your goal, is to get drafted so I mean all of it coming together, it was an unbelievable experience.”

Continued;

Grand Rapids Griffins commentator Bob Kaser “refereed” a Zoom call in which half-a-dozen members of the Griffins’ 2012-2013 Calder Cup-winning team reunited, chatting for 46 minutes. Brennan Evans, Louis-marc Aubry, Chad Billins, Luke Glendening, Andrej Nestrasil, Brian Lashoff, Jeff Hoggan, Triston Grant, Nathan Paetsch and Gustav Nyquist shot the…um…hockey stuff…while reminiscing about their time playing hockey together:

Of prospect-related note from Sunday:

In the ICE Hockey League, Michael Rasmussen’s Graz99ers didn’t play against Bratislava because of a positive Covid test on one of the teams;

Jesper Eliasson served as the back-up in the Red Bulls Salzburg’s 4-1 loss to the Vienna Capitals;

And in the Swedish Allsvenskan, William Wallinder finished at -1 with 2 shots in 14:22 played as MODO Hockey lost 4-0 to BIK Karlskoga.

Fox Sports Detroit posts an online program called “The Third Half” with Brooke Fletcher, and both Red Wings prospect Lucas Raymond and Detroit Tigers prospect Trei Cruz were interviewed by Fletcher in the latest “The Third Half”:

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an excerpt from her new book, The Big 50: Detroit Red Wings this morning. St. James discusses two times in which the Red Wings’ management considered trading Steve Yzerman, including once in 1995, when Yzerman was almost traded to Ottawa for Alexei Yashin and a 1st round pick. As St. James notes, Yzerman wasn’t thrilled about the concept:

When Yzerman found out his name had come up in trade talks, he fumed to reporters about how much it bothered him.

“I can’t say I’m upset about the possibility of being traded,” he said. “I just expected to be treated like an adult. I would have thought that at some time somebody would have come to me and said, ‘Here’s what we’re thinking. Here’s why we’re doing this.’ I guess they’re not adult enough to do that. I thought I knew people in the organization well enough. I’ve always tried to be upfront and honest and I thought I deserved that in return—the good or the bad. I love this city and I love this hockey team. But life goes on. Hockey goes on. Careers go on. We’ll just wait and see what happens.”

It is unlikely Ilitch would have okayed a deal, but Bowman let it play out until it petered out. “Ken Holland and Scotty were in on the discussions,” [Jimmy] Devellano said. “They would report back to me. There were tons of names involved. At the end of the day, that trade didn’t get done because [Ottawa] couldn’t even afford to pay Yzerman. It was a wasted effort.”

Continued; thank goodness that the Red Wings never ended up trading #19.

The Athletic’s ever-proliferate Down Goes Brown, a.k.a. Sean McIndoe, paid tribute to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ signing of Hockey Hall of Famer-to-be Joe Thornton by examining the “10 other times the Maple Leafs signed a veteran Hall of Famer.” Usually, I’d avoid this Leafs-related story like the plague, but there was one time that the Maple Leafs signed a HOF’er-in-the-making, it worked out horribly for them, and they literally gave away an integral part of two Red Wings Stanley Cups as a result:

Level 2: The whipping boy

The player: Larry Murphy

The transaction: Cliff Fletcher acquired the 34-year-old blueliner from the Penguins in 1995, hoping a player who’d had three top-five Norris finishes in the last four years could spark the Leafs’ fading offense.

The outcome: For reasons nobody is quite clear on to this day, Toronto fans never took to Murphy. He was never a bruiser, and he certainly had his share of shoddy defensive moments. But he also racked up 61 points in his only full season in Toronto, which made it strange to see him all but booed out of town. The Leafs shipped him to Detroit midway through the 1996-97 season for literally nothing at all, then watched him help the Red Wings to two Cups.

Luckily, there’s no way this market would glitch out and turn on somebody as universally beloved as Joe Thornton, right? (Laughs nervously while imagining Toronto Sun headlines saying stuff like “Dumbo Joe.”) No, of course not, let’s move on.

Continued; I will always be grateful for the fact that the Wings grabbed “Murph” for future considerations, that he helped Nicklas Lidstrom become truly elite along the way toward earning those two Stanley Cup titles, that he made his post-hockey home here, and that Fox Sports Detroit employs the affably awkward broadcaster (for the second time). Murph is the gift that keeps on giving.