Month: October 2020

The Red Wings’ biweekly “The Word on Woodward” show is airing now, and they’ll be interviewing Marc Staal and Ken Daniels:

From DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce:

The #WordOnWoodward is live today from 12-2!! We’ll here from new Red Wings’ dman Marc Staal along w/ interviews from Jon Ogrodnick, @cotsonika, @CodyStavenhagen and Ken Daniels. Tune in on @DetroitRedWings and @tigers social media & websites! #LGRW #DetroitRoots— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) October 13, 2020

The Athletic’s Down Goes Brown penned a subscriber-only article in which he examines the best and worst of the NHL’s post-2005-lockout free agency deals, discussing one-year through eight-year-plus contracts. According to Mr. Sean McIndoe, the Red Wings earn the best one-year contract of the post-2005-lockout free agency era for signing Marian Hossa to a 1-year deal…

Best deal: Marian Hossa, one year at $7.45 million with the Red Wings, 2008

Hossa didn’t come cheap – at over 13 percent of the cap, his AAV would translate to north of $10 million today. But his willingness to sign a one-year deal in the prime of his career was the key to finding a fit with the defending champs in Detroit. He reportedly turned down a five-year offer to stay in Pittsburgh because he thought he had a better chance of winning a Cup with the Wings.

OK, that part didn’t work out great, as those same Penguins beat Hossa’s Red Wings that spring. Still, you have to give him credit for taking his swing, and he did his part with a 40-goal season before heading back to the market in 2009.

On the flip side, there aren’t a ton of candidates for truly awful one-year deals because… well, they’re one year. Most veterans on expiring deals can be flipped at the deadline for at least a pick, and the absolute worst-case scenario is that the guy is a complete bust and you free up some cap space at the end of the year.

Continued; you and I both know that the re-signing Hossa part didn’t go great, either as Ken Holland was willing to match the salary that the Blackhawks were offering Hossa, but not the $9 million on the back end of the deal as “retirement money.”

Holland did get permission after re-signing Johan Franzen in “first come, first served” fashion to go after Hossa by the Red Wings’ ownership, but he was reluctant to sign Hossa to a free agent deal that looked like it was circumventing the spirit of the salary cap (and the Hawks did get dinged for the Hossa deal by the league)…

And the Wings missed out on Hossa’s 3-Cup run with the Blackhawks as a result. I don’t believe that the Wings were in a position to win 3 Stanley Cups going into the 2010 season, but his presence would have altered the trajectory of the team for years to come, and the Wings swung and missed when they tried to retain him at the last minute before free agency.

Instead, the Wings allowed the LA Kings to negotiate with Hossa from the draft up to free agency, and Hossa and his agent, Rich Winter, were swayed by that $9 million in back-end money (as well as the Hawks’ signing of Tomas Kopecky as a “sweetener”).

The Score’s John Matisz offers six “Free Agency Thoughts” this morning, and one of his points of emphasis involves the Detroit Red Wings:

Suddenly Sunny in Detroit

While being unveiled as the Detroit Red Wings’ GM last April, Steve Yzerman repeatedly said, “There’s a lot of work to be done.” The 2019-20 season hammered that point home; the Wings lost 54 of 71 games and finished with a stunning minus-122 goal differential.

Conversely, the past couple of weeks have been awfully encouraging for the franchise. First, the Yzerman-built Lightning won the Stanley Cup, which is a confidence booster. A few days later, Detroit received glowing reviews after taking Swedes Lucas Raymond and William Wallinder fourth and 32nd overall, respectively, in a 12-pick showing at the NHL draft.

Yzerman then made some shrewd moves over the weekend, signing middle-six forwards Vladislav Namestnikov (two years, $2 million per season) and Bobby Ryan (one year, $1 million) to beef up the Wings’ attack. The blue line has been reinforced, too, with UFAs Troy Stecher (two years, $1.7 million per season) and Jon Merrill (one year, $925,000) brought into the fold alongside veteran Marc Staal, who Detroit acquired via trade last month.

Toss in new starting goalie Greiss (two years, $3.6 million per season) and re-signed forward Sam Gagner (one year, $850,000), and you have a ton of short-term, low-cost, low-profile pickups. That’s exactly what the Wings need in abundance right now as the franchise evolves from a miserable tanking team to a semi-competitive rebuilding club.

Former GM Ken Holland left Yzerman a mess to clean up – bloated contracts, a lackluster prospect pipeline, no hope – but the ex-captain is starting to leave his mark.

Continued

Red Wings free agent signing Matias Brome spoke with Expressen’s Adam Johansson this morning, discussing his concerns regarding Sweden’s response to the coronavirus. Brome believes that Sweden’s extreme limiting of spectators at hockey games is unfair given that the Swedish government is allowing people to congregate at malls, bars and clubs.

Here’s a rough translation of his comments:

Continue reading Roughly Translated: Matias Brome is concerned about Sweden’s coronavirus limits on sports audiences

The Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels regarding the Jamie Daniels Foundation’s Celebrity Roast of Scotty Bowman, which airs tomorrow at 8 PM EDT on Fox Sports Detroit.

There’s an online auction which looks to raise funds for the foundation as well; while the roast is meant to evoke laughter and even tears, Daniels tells St. James that its message regarding addiction is deadly serious:

The event was supposed to take place in August, but Daniels realized in mid-April it had to be virtual. He also knew it had to happen. 

“For those struggling with substance abuse disorder, COVID exacerbates the issue because of isolation,” Daniels said. “Overdose rates are way up in the state since COVID hit.”

University of Michigan experts say the pandemic has affected those with substance abuse issues in several ways and overdoses were up nearly 20% January-April 2020 compared to January-April 2019. 

“If 4 million young adults get their wisdom teeth pulled across the U.S., 50,000 of those will have a substance abuse disorder attached to it. Because it’s too easy for doctors to say, here’s some oxycodone, here’s whatever you need, here’s some Vicodin when Tylenol 3 and Ibuprofen will work just as well,” Daniels said.

“That is what we are trying to do, to educate people. … People have to know that just because your doctor prescribes you an opioid doesn’t mean you have to take it.”

Continued

ESPN’s resident prospect expert, Chris Peters, penned a subscriber-only article for ESPN+ this morning, discussing pertinent aspects of the 2020 NHL Draft as they apply to “New #1 prospects,” “Value Picks” for each of the draft’s seven rounds, as well as best “Team Fits” for some of the top players picked.

Peters believes that the Red Wings fit into the picture in terms of having drafted a player who may be their new #1 prospect:

Detroit Red Wings: Lucas Raymond, LW

Drafted: No. 4

The Wings have a potential foundational defenseman in their system with Moritz Seider, who really popped last season. But in much the same way [Tim] Stuetzle brings the skill level way up in Ottawa, Raymond does so for Detroit. He may actually be the most dynamic player in the Red Wings’ entire organization, including players on the NHL roster. While he won’t match the tenacity or speed of a Dylan Larkin, Raymond is probably going to make Larkin better with his ability to make plays and play with pace. If Larkin is the centerpiece of the organization, Raymond is going to be right on his heels within the next few years.

Continued (paywall)

My pal Michigan Mike tipped me off to this report from The Fourth Period, and I genuinely don’t know what to do with it as 3 AM approaches. According to TFP, the New York Islanders are trying to move 36-year-old defenseman Johnny Boychuk and his $6 million cap hit for the 20-21 and 21-22 seasons, and, somehow, the Red Wings are involved.

According to David Pagnotta and the TFP staff, the Islanders are going to use at least one of the 2nd-round picks they got from the Avs in exchange for Devon Toews on Monday, with the Isles looking to clear more cap room, and this is where things get weird:

Boychuk, 36, has two-years left on his contract and owns an eight-team trade clause. While his cap hit is $6 million, there is $5.25 million in salary that remains to be paid out, $1.25 million this season and $4 million next season – a $2.75 million bonus was paid out to Boychuk in July.

It is unclear what, if anything, the Islanders will receive back in exchange for Boychuk, or which team will be acquiring him. The Islanders are not expected to retain any part of Boychuk’s contract.

The Detroit Red Wings are among the teams the Islanders have spoken with in regards to Boychuk, though it’s not yet known if a deal has been struck between these two clubs or if the Islanders are working on a trade with another team.

Now CapFriendly estimates that the Red Wings have $18.738 million in cap space left, with Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi left to re-sign, but the Red Wings have seven signed NHL defensemen (Filip Hronek and Marc Staal included), so I don’t see where this move makes any roster sense whatsoever.

Are the Red Wings being mentioned simply because they have so much cap space? Or does Steve Yzerman have something planned that we don’t know about?

Whether this rumor has teeth will be determined soon. All I can do is encourage you to approach it with caution.

The Detroit News’s John Niyo penned a superb subscriber-only column, discussing Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s discussion of his free agency moves (as Yzerman remarked upon during today’s press conferences) in light of the fact that the Red Wings have been in a “rebuild” for a very long time now.

As Niyo suggests, Yzerman is attempting to correct some of the “wrong moves” made in the later portions of Ken Holland’s time with the Red Wings, and Yzerman’s attempting to do so without inflicting long-term damage with any mistakes of his own:

You remember the Red Wings’ ill-fated summer of 2016, right? After a second straight first-round playoff exit to Yzerman’s Lightning, Holland lost out again in free agency that summer when star winger Steven Stamkos stayed put in Tampa, forcing Detroit to shift to Plan B. The Wings had already cleared cap space by trading Pavel Datsyuk’s contract to Arizona, and Holland opted to spend a big chunk of it on a 32-year-old center, Frans Nielsen, who now is a buyout candidate himself after putting up nine points in 60 games last season.

Yzerman has opted not to write that one off the books for now. Instead, though, he’s bringing in a player on the other side of a buyout in 33-year-old Bobby Ryan, a right-winger who still had two years left at a $7.25 million cap hit when Ottawa put him on waivers last month. In Detroit, Ryan sees an opportunity to reboot his career. In Ryan, the Red Wings see a right-handed shot who can help their power play and the right kind of low-risk gamble at a $1 million price tag.

But the same is true for the other free-agent signings. Namestnikov probably slots in as the second-line center, though Yzerman says he’s capable of playing all three forward spots here. Merrill’s a left-shot defenseman who’ll bolster the blue line and provide insurance — along with newly acquired veteran Marc Staal — since Danny DeKeyser is coming off back surgery last winter. Stecher adds another solid two-way defender on the right side, which is notable since top prospect Moritz Seider is on loan playing in Sweden this season, at least until March or April. In goal, Greiss gives the Red Wings a more viable tandem with Jonathan Bernier than what they had last season, given Jimmy Howard’s struggles in net.

“We’re trying to surround the younger players with high-quality veterans,” Yzerman said. “With guys that can help our team get better, help our young guys improve, make us more competitive, and try and improve our team but buy time to let our young guys develop.”

Continued (paywall)

Former Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader has always been a charitable sort, and WOOD TV8’s “Maranda Where You Live” reports that Abdelkader is still working hard to help his hometown of Mona Shores.

Abdelkader’s continuing his partnership with Milk Means More to purchase coolers for the Mona Shores school district so that they can keep their pupils fed during the spring, summer and now fall: