Month: August 2021

THN’s Larkin handicaps his fantasy hockey Top 250, including 7 Wings

The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin took on an Herculean task in the name of fantasy hockey players, publishing a ranking of his top 250 fantasy hockey performers with one or more sentences’ worth of analysis included for each and every one of the players who made his cut.

That’s damn, damn impressive work, and here are his seven Red Wings selections, notes included:

Continue reading THN’s Larkin handicaps his fantasy hockey Top 250, including 7 Wings

Putting the ‘fun’ in fundraising, part 2

Fundraising is going well. We’ve raised about $300 of the $600 needed for the server (with four more fundraising days to go before the bill comes due on the 31st) and that means everything’s going healthily.

I’m incredibly grateful for your support of the NPR of blogs, and I hope that we can continue commercial-free, at least for the time being (save the fundraising posts!).

If you’re willing to lend a hand, here are the usual channels:

If you’re willing to help me raise the $600 for my server bill, and/or what’s getting closer and closer to $3,000 for the Traverse City trip, you can use Paypal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com, and yes, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check.

Thank you for your readership and your time.

Former Wing Frans Nielsen wants to play more regularly with his next team

Two items of Frans Nielsen-related note hit the wires this morning:

  1. Nielsen spoke with SN.dk this morning, telling Af Riatzu that he’s looking to play more if he leaves the NHL. Here’s a rough translation of the pertinent part of the article, which discusses his desire to play more regularly:

“If we managed to win it in Olympic qualification, I’d like to go to a place where I play a lot, so I can be in the right shape. In Europe, you’re more confident of your playing time.”

“If we miss the Olympics, I can better afford to have an icy stomach and wait for the right thing to appear,” says Frans Nielsen.

Although he’s turned 37 and has almost 1,000 NHL games on his resume, he’s not let go of his boyhood dream of winning the sport’s biggest tropy.

“I still dream of winning the Stanley Cup, even if I have to play a little less. If there are still any teams in the NHL who feel they need depth on their team, then it can be difficult to say, ‘No, thank you,'” says Frans Nielsen.

He got news that he was done with the Detroit Red Wings last week. It sent the experienced center on the hunt for a team on a far from optimal time, with many teams having their rosters in place for next season. Nielsen himself, however, is confident.

“Of course, it changes some things when you have family, but it’s not something that I’m losing sleep over. I know there are opportunities on the market.”

“Had it happened in June, it would have course been much easier. But I think it’s under control, and there are good opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic,” says Frans Nielsen.

2. According to Hockeynews.se’s Uffe Bodin, the SHL’s Malmo Redhawks’ GM, Patrik Sylvegard, says that he’s having “great discussions” with Nielsen, who apparently lives in the Malmo area with his Swedish wife (Nielsen broke into the SHL with the Redhawks).

Sylvegard feels that Nielsen might want to play more regularly if the Danes manage to qualify for the Olympics (this seems to be something of a theme here).

Khan talks opening-night lines

This morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan makes an estimate as to what lines the Red Wings will hit the ice with in October. We’ll take a look at his estimated second and third forward lines:

2: Jakub Vrana-Pius Suter-Robby Fabbri

The Red Wings are eager to see what Vrana can do over a full season after collecting eight goals and 11 points in 11 games following a trade with Washington. They hope Suter can solidify the second-line center spot after picking up 14 goals as a 25-year-old rookie with Chicago. Fabbri was limited to 30 games due to COVID at the start and a concussion in the end but was productive (10 goals, 18 points).

3: Vladislav Namestnikov-Michael Rasmussen-Sam Gagner

Rasmussen was one of their most-improved players, though it didn’t reflect in his production (three goals, 12 points in 40 games). The Red Wings see him as a shut-down type center and a net-front presence on the power play. Gagner might be the only right-handed shooter on the top three lines and the lone righty forward on the power play. Namestnikov struggled last season, producing only eight goals (five empty-netters) and 17 points.

Continued

A bit of Champions Hockey League action: Frolunda, Rogle win games

The Champions’ Hockey League is a strange kettle of fish. It’s a league in which 32 of Europe’s best professional teams play tournament games against each other, over the course of approximately 6 weeks, starting in August. The games are technically “friendly” matches, but there’s a tournament trophy at stake, and bragging rights.

So the Champions Hockey League began play today, with Red Wings prospects taking part.

Simon Edvinsson, Elmer Soderblom and Theodor Niederbach took part in the Frolunda Indians’ 4-1 win over Mlada Boleslav today, and Niederbach ended up with an assist on the following goal, as illustrated by IceHockeyGifs on Twitter:

Here are a few more .gifs of interest…

William Wallinder also played in Rogle BK’s 5-3 win over EV Zug, but there are no stats from that game indicating that he registered a point over the course of the game…

And tomorrow, Eemil Viro and TPS Turku will battle Pinguins Bremerhaven. I’m sure IceHockeyGifs will have clips.

Focus remains on Nedeljkovic in latest ‘Red Wings Reset’ article

DetroitRedWings.com’s Matthew Falkenbury evaluates the Red Wings’ goaltending in an article that “resets” the roster for the 2021-2022 season today:

On July 22, the day before the 2021 NHL Entry Draft, Detroit Red Wings executive vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman got the offseason goalie carousel started with a trade that surprised the hockey world.

The Red Wings acquired 25-year-old goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a 2021 third-round pick and the free-agent rights to goaltender Jonathan Bernier. Detroit then followed up minutes later by announcing that it had signed Nedeljkovic to a two-year contract.

“Obviously, we have high hopes for Alex based on his performance this year in Carolina” Yzerman said after the trade on July 22. “We’re pretty excited about it. He did very well this year. Everyone in our organization is familiar with him from his local ties, playing junior, so we know his character, his work ethic, his competitiveness, and watching him play this year, we felt it was a good opportunity to get somewhat of a younger goaltender with still some upside and can help us win more games.”

The young goalie burst onto the scene last season as he compiled a 15-5-3 record, 1.90 goals-against average and a .932 save percentage in 23 games for the Central Division-champion Hurricanes.

He helped lead Carolina past the Nashville Predators in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and finished third in Calder Trophy voting as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year.

Continued

Roughly translated: Pius Suter talks with NHL.de about his opportunity to stick with the Wings

New Red Wings forward Pius Suter spoke with NHL.de’s Oliver Jensen regarding his signing with the Red Wings and his expectations for the upcoming season (as part of NHL.de’s analysis of the Red Wings as they stand today). What follows is roughly translated from German:

In the future, he wants to use his effective play in the service of the Detroit Red Wings. 25-year-old Pius Suter signed a 2-year contract [with the Red Wings] and should do his part to ensure that the once-glorious franchise becomes a successful team again after five years without a playoff appearance.

“I was a bit surprised,” says Suter of the Blackhawks’ decision to not retain him. The playmaking forward thus became an unrestricted free agent after last season, so the Chicago team could have kept him with a qualifying offer. They let the opportunity slip by.

Suter didn’t expect it. Nonetheless, it was clear to him that such personnel decisions aren’t uncommon in the NHL. “I knew this could happen. I didn’t think too much about it. It all happened very quickly. I didn’t get a qualifying offer and became a free agent.”

Continue reading Roughly translated: Pius Suter talks with NHL.de about his opportunity to stick with the Wings