Month: August 2021

From the Toledo Walleye:

? PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENT ?

Defenseman Butrus Ghafari returns to the Fish for the 2021-22 season.

? https://t.co/ovrjpKpFC4 pic.twitter.com/WOaP6cPPgx— Toledo Walleye (@ToledoWalleye) August 17, 2021

Here’s the Walleye’s press release:

(Toledo, OH) – Defenseman Butrus Ghafari (boo-truhs, ga-far-ee) has agreed to terms with the Toledo Walleye for the 2021-2022 season.

Ghafari, the West Bloomfield, MI native, started his pro career with the Walleye by appearing in one game prior to the end of the 2019-2020 season. He did play for Rapid City a season ago, appearing in 58 games with 10 points (1G, 9A) and 72 penalty minutes in his first full pro season.

Prior to turning professional, the 25-year-old spent four years at Michigan State University with 114 total games played. Ghafari appeared in at least 20 games in each of his four years as a Spartan and posted four goals with five assists in his college career. The defenseman also had 200 games played in the USHL before heading to Michigan State, where he was a plus 21 from 2012-2016.

Update: Here’s more from the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

Continue reading Toledo Walleye re-sign Butrus Ghafari

It’s behind a paywall, but Sportico is reporting that NHL jerseys will include a 3″x3.5″ advertiser’s logo on their jerseys for the 2022-2023 season:

EXCLUSIVE: The @NHL is adding advertisements to its jerseys for the 2022-23 season https://t.co/5HibbGIlYJ pic.twitter.com/HHkkV5ElyT— Sportico (@Sportico) August 17, 2021

Update: Here’s a peek behind the paywall:

The National Hockey League is adding advertisements to its jerseys for the 2022-23 season, the latest major U.S. sports league to sell marketing space on player uniforms during games.

The NHL board of governors unanimously voted to approve the ad policy, according to a memo emailed this week to all 32 teams. Clubs are now free to start negotiating with potential partners, according to the memo, which was reviewed by Sportico.

The ads must fit a rectangle 3 inches by 3.5 inches, making them slightly bigger than the patches that the NBA added to its jerseys for the 2017-18 season. Representatives from the NHL didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Update: More confirmation:

Continue reading Sportico reports that NHL jerseys will have a 3″x3.5″ advertiser’s logo on their jerseys for the 2022-2023 season

The Athletic’s Max Bultman wrote a fine article regarding a professional hockey camp held by former Red Wings consultant (and current University of Michigan assistant coach) Brandon Narauto, who still works with Red Wings players through his Total Package Hockey company.

This story isn’t necessarily Wings-related any more, but it’s a very good read:

It’s just before 11:45 a.m. and skates have hit the ice at USA Hockey Arena, steel carving into the glossy, resurfaced sheet.

Outside, the August air smacks of vacation. The start of NHL training camps is still more than a month away, and the offseason carnival has largely passed, leaving hockey to temporarily fade from the public eye. The arena’s blue seats are all but empty. But on the ice, the work for next season has already begun.

The players gathered at the rink today are at widely different stages of their pro careers. Blue Jackets defenseman Zach Werenski is among them, a star just entering his prime and fresh off signing a contract extension worth an average of more than $9.5 million a year. Rangers defenseman Zac Jones is also here — only a few months removed from an NCAA championship at UMass, with 10 late-season NHL games to his name and soon the chance to break through full time. Cooper Marody and Riley Barber, the AHL’s top two goal scorers last season with Bakersfield and Grand Rapids, respectively, are also here. So is newly minted Seattle Kraken Dennis Cholowski, Vancouver Canucks prospect  Will Lockwood, Detroit prospect Carter Gylander and more.

Even the Red Wings’ practice goalie and emergency backup, Josh Block, is out here — because EBUGs need summer reps, too.

It might be the dog days of the offseason, but this is when players — through work few will ever see — can create the proverbial step forward. The next hour and a half will be a window into how those summer leaps are actually made.

Continued (paywall); the Power Edge Pro camp was at the Red Wings’ practice facility two weeks ago, and there are various professional hockey camps that travel the U.S. and Canada throughout the summer, so this is a very good explainer as to how the “pro camps” work.

I watched a clip from TSN last night in which TSN 1050 Overdrive’s Bryan Hayes and Gord Miller discussed which Atlantic Division teams were “winners and losers.”

Their assertions regarding the Red Wings’ status playing in a stacked Atlantic Division were simple: Hayes said that “Detroit is going to be bad,” Miller suggested that the Senators would be better than the Wings and Sabres, and that was that.

Red Wings fans and their partisans are hoping that Steve Yzerman’s aggressive offseason moves, both via trades and free agency, will pay off in the form of tangible improvement over the Red Wings’ 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 regular season records.

Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson, a.k.a. Spector of Spector’s Hockey, suggests that the Red Wings are one of five teams that have “dramatically improved,” though the on-ice results are still unclear:

Continue reading Richardson discusses the Red Wings’ offseason improvements

If you’re interested…

Are you looking to create a fun atmosphere and unforgettable experiences at #RedWings games?!

If so, the @Huntington_Bank Red Patrol is for you!

Send you submission package to redpatrol@hockeytown.com‼️ pic.twitter.com/7Ejd9pEX8D— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 17, 2021

Per CapFriendly, via Kukla’s Korner:

#RedWings roster turnover…

IN:
Pius Suter
Mitchell Stephens

Nick Leddy
Jordan Oesterle

Alex Nedeljkovic

OUT:
Valtteri Filppula
Richard Panik
Darren Helm
Luke Glendening
Bobby Ryan
Mathias Brome
Evgeny Svechnikov

Dennis Cholowski
Alex Biega
Christian Djoos

Jonathan Bernier

— CapFriendly Depth Charts (@CF_DepthCharts) August 17, 2021

This is what a rebuilding team looks like; there’s a lot of roster turnover as the GM and company attempt to revise and edit the roster until they get the right “fits.”

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski lists 10 players ready to “break out” for the 2021-2022 season, and one of them is Red Wings forward Jakub Vrana:

Jakub Vrana, LW, Detroit Red Wings: Vrana, 25, has crested over 20 goals twice and ended up with 19 in 50 games last season with the Washington Capitals and Red Wings. He had 11 points in 11 games after being traded to Detroit in a deal that saw Anthony Mantha sent to Washington. That was enough of an audition to earn him a three-year, $15.75 million extension as a restricted free agent.

The Red Wings are going to let Vrana cook. His time on ice jumped by nearly three minutes (17:16) when he arrived in Detroit. Best of all, he averaged 10 shots per game at 5-on-5 in that short sample, which is hopefully a harbinger of things to come: Vrana was at his best offensively in Washington when he was spraying shots on goal like a backyard sprinkler at even strength.

On a rebuilding team desperately seeking a goal-scoring boost — Detroit’s 2.23 goals per game was second fewest in the NHL last season — Vrana is going to get a chance to shine. “My role has changed a little bit. I’m looking forward to prove what I can do and show my potential,” he told reporters recently.

Continued (paywall);

Yesterday, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler included four Red Wings prospects among his top 50 non-goaltender NHL prospects’ list, and, this morning, Wheeler adds a fifth Detroit prospect to the mix in Sebastian Cossa:

4. Sebastian Cossa, G, 18 (Detroit Red Wings — 15th overall, 2021)

I really like Cossa as a goalie prospect and understand the allure the Red Wings felt in taking him instead of [Minnesota Wild draft pick Jesper] Wallstedt. They weren’t alone in that belief. He’s a massive, superbly athletic and confident goalie who fills the net, has great hands up high, corrals a ton of pucks in his chest and then has rare side-to-side ability for a goalie as big as he is. But there’s just a question mark or two more present in Cossa’s game than in Wallstedt. There’s obviously the contextual piece of the puzzle where you can’t help but wonder if some of his results are influenced by playing behind a dominant Oil Kings team the last two years. But it’s hard to knock him for that. The real concern, if there is one, is stylistically in the way he can pull himself out of position and lose himself in the net a little on scramble plays. Because he’s so strong and athletic, his pushes can lack control. And after noticing that he was getting beat a lot five-hole at Team Canada’s summer showcase in Calgary, I reviewed some tape this week to check on that and I do think it’s a bit of a concern (hard to close the five-hole when you’re 6-foot-6!). None of this is meant to downplay how good Cossa is, though. He’s got starter upside and rare explosiveness for his size.

Continued (paywall); in case you didn’t catch his drift, Wheeler has Wallstedt ranked one spot higher than Cossa.

Red Wings prospect Kienan Draper left the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs to play in the USHL with the Omaha Lancers after the BCHL had to shut down due to coronavirus protocols. Draper had a rough time in Omaha, posting only 7 points in 37 games.

Both the BCHL’s website and the Chilliwack Progress’s Eric Welsh report that Draper will delay his time at Miami of Ohio for one more season to return to Chilliwack for his 20-year-old season:

A 2002-born forward from Michigan, Draper was with the Chiefs for extended training camp last fall, and produced four goals and five points in 10 games. He left soon after to join the USHL’s Omaha Lancers, but the 2020 Detroit Red Wings draft pick is back.

“Last year, he was in a situation where, with the uncertainty of the season, he wanted to make sure he was able to play some games,” [Chilliwack GM Brian] Maloney said. “I couldn’t look at him with a straight face and tell him we were 100 per cent having a season, so he took an opportunity to go down south. We’re pretty excited to have him back. He really started to figure our league out with our structure and everything before he left. He’s a big body that can play a heavy game. He skates well, but what we really like about him is how he can shoot a puck, especially on the fly. We have to get creative in finding ways we can put him in position to get that shot off next year.”

Continued; here’s hoping that this is the best move for Draper’s development.

This tidbit comes from the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:

Tickets for all preseason and regular-season home games at Little Caesars Arena will go on sale 10 a.m. Friday. Fans can sign up for the single-game ticket presale list to have an opportunity to purchase tickets before the general public by visiting DetroitRedWings.com/Presale.

The Wings open the regular season Oct. 14 at LCA against the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning at 7:30 p.m.