Month: November 2020

The more I’ve learned about all the responsibilities that are informally associated with being a team captain–from serving as the face of the team to the media to welcoming new players, mentoring young players and prospects, and serving as the buffer between the players and the coaching staff–the more I’ve understood why the Red Wings chose to wait to name a captain this past season.

We know that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman has stated that he’s going to name a captain this season, however, and The Score’s Brandon Maron believes that the Wings will make the obvious choice:

Detroit Red Wings

It’s clear both Dylan Larkin and Anthony Mantha are set to spearhead a new era in Detroit. After a complete overhaul that’s resulted in a ton of young talent, the Red Wings will need either Larkin or Mantha to guide the way.

However, all signs point to Larkin assuming that role. The Michigan native sported an “A” this past season, and he’s Detroit’s offensive focal point. The 24-year-old will be needed in the locker room to get his young teammates going.

Continued; it’s just time for Larkin to be named captain, and it should happen before the start of the 2020-2021 season.

The Hockey News left Vladimir Konstantinov off their “Top 100 Defensemen of All Time” list, but they weren’t happy about doing so:

In the final season of his NHL career, Vladimir Konstantinov finished second in Norris Trophy voting. It was a distant second to Brian Leetch, but it was second nonetheless. The season before that, he finished fourth in Norris voting. We tell you that only because you might have forgotten how outstanding a player Vladimir Konstantinov was.

To recap, he was a top-five defenseman in the best league in the world for consecutive seasons before a limousine accident during the Detroit Red Wings’ 1997 Stanley Cup celebration robbed him of an NHL career and a normal existence.

Konstantinov had just recently turned 30 and had played six years in the NHL to that point. He was just reaching his career crescendo and probably had at least as many, if not more, NHL seasons ahead of him. That would have given him plenty of time to win more Stanley Cups, perhaps a Norris or two and make a compelling case for Hall of Fame status. To be sure, it would have moved him up significantly on our list of the Top 100 NHL Defensemen of All- Time, where he landed at No. 101. “It took a couple of years, but with our run to the final in 1995 and winning the Cup in 1997, he was starting to get the recognition from people over here that he was one of the top defensemen in the world,” said former Red Wings GM Ken Holland. “I think he had a chance to be regarded as one of the best defensemen in the NHL for a long time. His status in the NHL at that time was beyond Nick Lidstrom’s.”

Continued

You’re not going to get a lot out of this because it’s in Swedish, but Red Wings prospect and Frolunda Indians Under-20 league star Theodor Niederbach spoke with Hockeysverige.se’s Uffe Bodin regarding being “starstruck” after finding that Steve Yzerman and Niklas Kronwall’s Red Wings drafted him:

Update:

George, here’s a quick translation of that second half of @UffeBodin’s interview with Niederbach. pic.twitter.com/A1L79rqhNx— Michael Edlund (@ArcticLeo) November 6, 2020

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn penned a column which discusses the contractual values of each and every one of the NHL’s 30 teams, post-free agency, and while I can’t post his entire set of comments regarding the Red Wings, Dom suggests that the Red Wings have made significant gains in the “less bad” department:

16. Detroit Red Wings

Last year: 31st

No team had a bigger year-over-year glow up than the Red Wings, who ranked dead last the previous season, but come in at 16th this time around. It’s a monumental leap. The big difference is how much the team is paying per win, going from one of the league’s worst to one of the best at third overall. That’s thanks mostly to most of the roster being on very short term deals, but also trimming a lot of negative value off the roster. The biggest subtraction is Justin Abdelkader, owner of one of the league’s worst contracts who was mercifully bought out this offseason. With Jonathan Ericsson’s deal expiring and Darren Helm only having one year left, only Frans Nielsen has a contract in the “D” range compared to the four the Red Wings had last season. One of the ugliest salary cap pictures is finally clearing up.

This is still a bad team filled with players unlikely to live up to their deals, but the short commitments make things much more palatable. That’s especially true for new additions Bobby Ryan, Jon Merrill and Troy Stecher, who all bring positive value.

The biggest pluses are the two newest deals for Anthony Mantha and Tyler Bertuzzi. RFA deals usually come in below market price and the team got a great deal for both, especially Mantha, whose deal instantly becomes one of the league’s best. Those contracts were enough to push Detroit up a few spots in these rankings.

Continued

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler and Max Bultman discuss Red Wings prospects’ “timelines” this morning, making predictions as to when ten of the Wings’ best prospects will graduate to the NHL level:

Moritz Seider, RHD, Roglë (SHL)

The timeline: 2021 (once SHL season ends)

Wheeler: I don’t want to say this should be an easy decision, because putting a 19-year-old kid in an NHL lineup is never an easy decision. It’s easier to give those minutes to one of the several guys you’ve just signed in free agency. It’s easier to play the long game than the short one with a prospect, especially when you’re in a rebuild. And Yzerman isn’t the impatient type. But by the time Seider’s season finishes in Sweden, he’s going to already have three seasons, in three different pro leagues, in three different countries, under his belt before his 20th birthday. The SHL is probably the third-best pro league in the world and the best of the trio of leagues he’s played in, too. So if he keeps playing like he has, producing and averaging more than 19 minutes a night with Roglë, he’ll have earned his NHL opportunity.

Bultman: Yeah, this one feels like just a matter of time. Seider looked ready for an NHL appearance at the end of last season, and you have to think he’ll get that opportunity once he returns from Sweden this spring. I don’t think I can go as far as saying he’s facing better competition in Sweden than he was in the AHL, but I certainly don’t think it’s too steep a drop-off, and Seider should return from this stint with plenty of experience and confidence. My biggest question between now and then: How much does his offensive output keep up? Right now, he’s producing at a point-per-game clip, which is more than double the rate he scored at in the AHL last season. Fair to presume he won’t score at this rate all season, but how much can he chip in from the back end?

Continued (paywall)

I called this one: per Aftonbladet’s Mattias Karlsson, former Red Wings forward Christoffer Ehn has signed with the Frolunda Indians of the SHL, for the remainder of the SHL season.

Ehn played in the Frolunda system for his entire junior and “minor pro” career.

From today’s “The Word on Woodward” come a pair of interviews, first, Daniella Bruce and Art Renger’s 10-minute interview with Troy Stetcher…

And second, Regner’s interview with Mike Vernon:

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a profile of Red Wings 2020 draft pick Kyle Aucoin, discussing the young defenseman’s pluses and minuses as the son of long-time NHL defenseman Adrian Aucoin:

Like his dad, Kyle is also a defenseman. But there aren’t a ton of similarities. For one, Adrian’s 6-foot-2, 215-pound frame towers over Kyle’s 5-foot-11, 163-pound body. Both father and son are outstanding skaters, with that skill one of Kyle’s particular strengths, and each has been known for his puck handling abilities.

But there is one difference, at least for now: Adrian had one of the hardest shots in the NHL in the late-1990s and early 2000s.

“He had a real hard shot,” said Kyle, who was able to work out with his dad and brothers at home in Illinois during the quarantine this year. “I’m working to get there. I’d say I’m a two-way defenseman and my biggest strength is my skating. I think the game pretty well and I’m smart on the ice.”

If Kyle Aucoin has half the career his father had, the Wings would be thrilled with that, and Kyle would as well.  And given Kyle’s attributes and development, don’t be surprised if the younger Aucoin does land in professional hockey eventually.

Kris Draper, the Wings’ director of amateur scouting, saw plenty of Aucoin while watching and coaching his own son Kienan in the Little Caesars program, against Aucoin’s Chicago Mission.

“I’ve watched Kyle over the years and he’s a smart, competitive kid,” Kris Draper said. “It’s funny when you hear that his dad had a growth spurt when he was 18, 19, so we hope Kyle gets that as well. He’s just a terrific skater, a real competitive kid.”

Continued

A family friend of the Blashills is battling cancer as the NHL places its considerable fundraising weight behind Hockey Fights Cancer this month, and DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter spotlights Christa Kasapis’ fight against the disease today:

While the NHL’s Hockey Fights Cancer initiative will look a little different this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fight against cancer and need for early detection awareness is as important as ever.

That message rings especially true for Northville resident Christa Kasapis, who is in remission because of early detection, and she urges everyone during Hockey Fights Cancer Month in November-and throughout the whole year-to get screened and check themselves for abnormalities.

“Your health is No. 1. If you have any concerns at all or any abnormalities or anything that feels off, don’t hesitate,” Kasapis said. “That’s what our medical professionals are there for. Definitely always follow up, make it a priority.”

Kasapis, who is a close family friend of Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill and his wife, Erica, is one of the many cancer patients, survivors and caretakers the Red Wings are honoring as part of Hockey Fights Cancer Month throughout November, in partnership with the American Cancer Society and Comerica Bank.

Continued; the Red Wings have a Hockey Fights Cancer page that’s accessible here.

MLive’s Ansar Khan wonders aloud when the NHL season will start this season, and as such, when the Red Wings will be able to start practicing and preparing for an extended training camp as one of the seven teams that did not participate in “bubble hockey” this past summer:

The NHL said last month that the season will not begin before Jan. 1. Many, including Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley, believe the season is not likely to start before February, and that it will consist of 48 or 56 games.

“It looks like we’ll be able to come up with some type of plan,” Yzerman said. “I don’t know specifically what that is, and then kind of keep my fingers crossed that things don’t go sideways again and we’re not able to play.”

Yzerman noted that travel restrictions between the U.S. and Canada could have an effect. Some have speculated the league forming an all-Canadian division and multiple regional divisions in the U.S.

Yzerman is not concerned about players not being prepared following the long layoff.

“Players are skating, it’s not game-like situations but they’ll get it back relatively quickly,” he said. “I don’t know what training camp is going to look like, don’t know how many preseason games we play, if any, but from watching the playoffs, guys being out from March to late July, the first few games were sloppy, but after three, four, five games you saw the guys looking pretty good. I’m hopeful that our guys are all conscientious and motivated and self-disciplined and I believe they are.”

Continued