Month: October 2020

The Red Wings plucked defenseman Alex Cotton from the Lethbridge Hurricanes as a 19-year-old “overager” who blossomed after being passed over in last year’s draft. Cotton spoke with the Lethbridge Herald’s Dale Woodard about his draft experience:

Following a season in which the six-foot-two, 180-pound blue-liner from Langley, B.C. led all WHL defencemen with 20 goals and 67 points in 63 games, Cotton landed squarely on the Red Wings’ radar.

He learned the good news as he monitored the NHL draft online.

“I was just sitting on the couch with my family,” said Cotton. “I was the first one to notice. I was so relieved. All of my emotions came out at one time, it was just a surreal feeling.”

Though he was the first to notice his selection, Cotton quickly brought his family into the loop.

“They all freaked out just as much as I did,” he said. “Mom burst into tears like a mom should.”

Continued

ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski took on the enormous task of dissecting the free agency needs of each and every one of the NHL’s 31 teams (ahead of the start of unrestricted free agency tomorrow at 12 PM EDT). Here’s what they have to say about the Wings’ needs:

Detroit Red Wings

Key players hitting UFA: F Kyle Brodziak, D Trevor Daley, D Jonathan Ericsson, G Jimmy Howard

Key players hitting RFA: F Tyler Bertuzzi, F Anthony Mantha, F Brendan Perlini (did not receive qualifying offer), D Madison Bowey (did not receive qualifying offer)

Cap space: $28,211,111

Continue reading ESPN’s Kaplan, Wyshynski talk Wings and free agency

Late last night, the DEL’s Adler Mannheim confirmed that Moritz Seider’s time with the team was coming to an end, and this morning, Rogle BK of the SHL has announced that Seider will spend the season with them. I’ll work on a translation of the press release ASAP.

It’s not official that Moritz Seider is headed to Rogle BK of the Swedish Hockey League yet, but Seider’s German team, the DEL’s Adler Mannheim (who won’t start playing until mid-November at the earliest), confirmed that Seider’s done skating with them–in the middle of the night, U.S. time:

Das war ein sehr kurzes Gastspiel: Die @DetroitRedWings haben die Leihe von Moritz #Seider vorzeitig beendet. https://t.co/EuxMhejNIg #fürMannheim #einervonuns pic.twitter.com/5KKYti2Ro4— Adler Mannheim (@adlermannheim) October 8, 2020

Auf Englisch, from Adler Mannheim’s website:

Continue reading Detroit beendet Leihe von Moritz Seider (Adler Mannheim confirms that Moritz Seider’s loan is over)

The Red Wings brought a total of twelve players into the organizational fold over the course of two 2020 NHL Draft days–one startlingly fast, and the other achingly slow–and Wednesday’s eleven-player haul gave both GM Steve Yzerman, director of amateur scouting Kris Draper and all the Wings’ scouts and executives a real workout.

The Wings’ beat writers were put through their paces, too, and when all was said and done:

• The Free Press and Detroit News posted profiles of each and every one of the Wings’ 12 picks;

• And Helene St. James, Ted Kulfan and MLive’s Ansar Khan all reviewed the final remarks made by Yzerman, Draper, and some of the prospects who are now members of the Red Wings family, too.

The GM told the Detroit News’s Kulfan that, on the whole, he was happy with his managerial team’s hard work:

Continue reading Wrapping up the draft with the beat writers’ takes, and Zoom calls galore

I’m not one for incessantly posting the “This Date in History” posts, but I find it pretty darn remarkable that Gordie Howe is seventy-six years removed from the start of his tenure with the Red Wings, as noted by NHL.com’s John Kreiser:

THIS DATE IN HISTORY: Oct. 8

1946: Gordie Howe begins his NHL journey when he signs a contract with the Detroit Red Wings.

Howe, an 18-year-old from Floral, Saskatchewan, makes his NHL debut eight days later. He finishes his first season with 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 58 games. By 1949-50, he’s a 35-goal scorer and begins a run of 20 seasons when he finishes in the top five in the NHL scoring race. He wins the Art Ross Trophy six times and plays on four Stanley Cup-winning teams with Detroit.

Howe is 52 when he retires June 4, 1980, holding the NHL record for games played (1,767), goals (801) and points (1,850).

Speaking of “days in history,” Los Angeles Kings writer Mike Commito noted that Steve Yzerman worked through something of an anniversary of his own on Wednesday:

On this day in 1986, Steve Yzerman was named captain of the @DetroitRedWings. At just the age of 21, he became the youngest captain in club history #Hockey365 #LGRW pic.twitter.com/236HRC2k1c— Mike Commito (@mikecommito) October 7, 2020

24 years ago.

The Red Wings selected Sam Stange with the 97th overall pick on Tuesday, and he was informed of his status as a Red Wing in a unique way by University of Wisconsin Coach Tony Granato, who stopped practice to afford him a phone call with Kris Draper:

We interrupt today’s practice for @sam_stange3 to get drafted by the @DetroitRedWings pic.twitter.com/ipDP0DGgzE— Wisconsin Hockey (@BadgerMHockey) October 7, 2020

Stange spoke to his hometown paper, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram (and reporter Jack Goods), about his circuitous path through baseball and minor hockey to his draft day:

Last year, fresh off hitting the home run that helped Eau Claire North win a Division 1 state baseball title, he sat through seven rounds of the NHL draft without hearing his name called. Despite leading Husky hockey to its first state tournament appearance since 2006, he’d have to prove himself at the next level with a season of junior hockey.

He did just that, notching 26 goals and 19 assists in 48 games in the United States Hockey League. That was plenty to all but lock him into a draft position as an overage player, but he was forced to wait again when the coronavirus pandemic pushed the draft back from its usual summer slot to the fall.

“Luckily I guess I’m not too antsy of a person,” Stange said.

Wednesday, he finally got the call.

Stange, now with the University of Wisconsin, was selected in the fourth round, 97th overall, by the Detroit Red Wings in the 2020 NHL draft.

“Toward the end of practice we were in the huddle and (Wisconsin coach Tony Granato) had found out about it earlier,” Stange said on a Zoom call Wednesday with Madison and Eau Claire reporters. “As we gathered around he handed me the phone and it was the Red Wings.”

Stange wasn’t drafted last year, so he tells Goods that having been through a draft experience helped his nerves…

And he also spoke with the University of Wisconsin’s website, just prior to the draft, about his status as a two-sport star:

Continue reading Sam Stange discusses drafting by Red Wings, status as a two-sport star

The Detroit News’s Bob Wojnowski penned a subscriber-only article discussing Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s work over the past couple of weeks’ worth of roster and draft machinations. Wojnowski notes that Yzerman’s moves, big and small, are starting to bear some fruit (if only very slowly):

In the past week, we’ve seen all sorts of crafty, smallish deals, the ones that eventually lead to biggish deals. When the Wings wrapped up the two-day NHL draft Wednesday, they’d completed four trades to add three picks and selected 12 players, including high-upside scoring winger Lucas Raymond at No. 4. They stocked up at every position while mining their preferred hockey port, Sweden. If draft picks are lottery tickets, Yzerman went to the corner store and bought a bunch of scratch-offs with possible high payoffs.

Barely a week after the team he led for eight seasons, the Tampa Bay Lightning, won the Stanley Cup, Yzerman showed what he plans to do, without really saying it. Ask him if there are specific traits he seeks in young players, his answer: “Yes.” Ask if he can expound on those traits, his answer, with a smile: “No.”

But look at the uber-talented Lightning, who drafted smart, high-end players and then chose wisely in the middle rounds to fill out the roster. There are plenty of traits to consider when drafting a hockey player, and that’s why Yzerman is reluctant to pinpoint one or two. The old saying in sports is that speed kills, but in Yzerman’s mind, it might be slightly different. Skill kills. And thrills. Also, Swedes lead. (See: Nicklas Lidstrom, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall.)

When the seven-round draft finally ended after about seven more hours Wednesday, Yzerman was pleased with the volume and balance of his haul.

“We have skills or characteristics that we value, and I’m guessing pretty much every team has the same characteristics,” Yzerman said. “You talk about five-tool players in baseball, our sport isn’t that much different. We’re looking for good players, and they come in all different forms. But the reality of the NHL is, it’s becoming faster, and like every sport, you gotta keep up.”

Continued (paywall)

I’m amazed at the amount of work that ESPN’s Chris Peters and The Athletic’s Corey Pronman put in over the last two days. Both gentlemen have been going all-out on 2020 NHL Draft analysis, and tonight, both grade the Wings’ draft class.

I felt that the Wings missed a couple of lay-ups in terms of good players “on the board,” going in their predictably unknowable directions to pick players that could only fit in Detroit, but I would give the Wings a solid “B,” and that seems to jibe well with the experts’ takes.

Here’s what Peters has to say in an ESPN+ article…

Detroit Red Wings: B

Favorite pick: Lucas Raymond, No. 4 overall

With 12 picks in the draft, the Red Wings were going to make big gains in their prospect pool on the depth side of things. They got one of the best offensive talents in the draft with Lucas Raymond at No. 4, then nabbed a high-upside but raw defenseman in Williiam Wallinder early in the second round. Raymond is really strong one-on-one.

Theodor Niederbach has really come on over the last season or so, growing on me quite a bit. He creates chances but needs to work on his shot. Eemil Viro is intriguing, and Cross Hanas is creative with the puck. In total, the Red Wings drafted seven players off my top 100 and also got one of my intriguing late-rounders to watch in Alex Cotton, an all-offense defenseman who had 20 goals in the WHL last season. Detroit has a lot more work to do, but this was a pretty good haul for them.

Read more analysis on the Red Wings’ first-rounder, Lucas Raymond.

And this is the tip of an iceberg of an article from Pronman, per The Athletic:

Continue reading ESPN’s Peters, The Athletic’s Pronman grade the Wings’ draft

The Red Wings posted a press release summarizing the attributes of the 11 players they picked during the second day of the 2020 NHL Draft:

Red Wings select 11 players on second day of 2020 NHL Entry Draft

Five forwards, five defensemen and one goaltender added to organization

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today drafted 11 players during the second day of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. With three selections in the second round, the Red Wings chose defenseman William Wallinder (32nd overall), center Theodor Niederbach (51st overall) and left wing Cross Hanas (55th overall) and then selected defensemen Donovan Sebrango (63rd overall) and Eemil Viro (70th overall) with a pair of third-round picks. Detroit also had two selections in the fourth round and took right wing Sam Stange (97th overall) and goaltender Jan Bednar (107th overall), before adding defenseman Alex Cotton (132nd overall) in the fifth round. To cap off their 12-player draft class, the Red Wings selected defenseman Kyle Aucoin (156th overall) in the sixth round and right wing Kienan Draper (187th overall) and center Chase Bradley (203rd overall) in the seventh round.

Continue reading Here’s the Wings’ press release regarding Day 2 of the 2020 NHL Draft