Month: September 2021

The Grand Rapids Griffins are retiring the jersey of Griffins great Michel Picard on February 19th, 2022, and Griffins announcer/VP Bob Kaser spoke with Picard regarding his time spent in Grand Rapids:

The Detroit Red Wings begin training camp on Thursday at Centre ICE Arena. This afternoon, MLive’s Ansar Khan has asked five pertinent questions regarding training camp, and now the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan is offering an article discussing 10 storylines to look toward starting on Thursday (it’s a subscriber-only story):

► 5. Playing time on defense 

There are plenty of NHL-caliber players and only six positions in the lineup, so the competition beginning in training camp will be intense. Seider, Nick Leddy, Filip Hronek and Marc Staal figure to man the top-four spots.

But, they will be pushed by Troy Stecher, Danny DeKeyser, Jordan Oesterle, Gustav Lindstrom and minor-league free agent Wyatt Newpower, who all at least figure to battle for the two spots on the third-pairing.

It’s a good situation to be in for Blashill, who might have some tough decisions to make on playing time. The Wings have more quality options on defense than they’ve had in recent seasons.

► 6. Welcome to the Wings

There will be plenty of new faces to welcome into the locker room and lineup this weekend in Traverse City.

Leddy, Suter, Oesterle, Stephens, goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic, and forward Carter Rowney are all players brought in during the offseason, as the roster again saw changes.

These next several weeks will be important for Nedeljkovic, as goaltenders, in general, have plenty to work on this time of year.

For Nedeljkovic, coming over to a new team, getting comfortable and familiar with the players in front of him, and getting acclimated again to tracking pucks will be vital during the exhibition season.

► 7. Who will wear the ‘A’?

The Wings will need to find replacements for alternate captains Luke Glendening (signed with Dallas) and Frans Nielsen (bought out).

There are plenty of options.

Veterans such as Staal (who wore the A on occasion last season), DeKeyser and forward Sam Gagner are all viable options. Each was, or has been, a respected veteran in the locker room in recent seasons and would be obvious choices moving forward.

Continued (paywall)

Per the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

The @ToledoWalleye will play two preseason games. They will play at Kalamazoo on Friday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. and then they will host the K-Wings at the Huntington Center on Saturday, Oct. 16 at 7:15 p.m. https://t.co/oN8NfUuiHi— Mark Monroe (@MonroeBlade) September 21, 2021

MLive’s Ansar Khan has posted a set of questions facing the Red Wings going into training camp on Thursday here at Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City. Among them:

What do Lucas Raymond and/or Jonatan Berggren need to show to earn an NHL roster spot out of camp?

The Red Wings lack skill and scoring ability, elements the two wingers bring from Sweden as they transition to the North American game. They need to produce in camp scrimmages and preseason games while showing they won’t be defensive liabilities.

The team’s top six projects to consist of Larkin, Bertuzzi, Filip Zadina, Jakub Vrana, Pius Suter and Robby Fabbri. For Raymond, the No. 4 pick in 2020, and/or Berggren, the 33rd selection in 2018, their best opportunity is to beat out a veteran like Vladislav Namestnikov or Sam Gagner on the third line. Bobby Ryan, who’ll be in camp on a tryout, could also figure in the mix. Raymond and Berggren will not play on the fourth line. Young, waiver-exempt players need to be playing decent minutes to remain on the Red Wings roster; otherwise, they will be sent to the Grand Rapids Griffins for further development.

Does Moritz Seider have a roster spot locked up?

More than likely, as further evidenced by his exclusion from the Prospects Tournament, but the organization will want to see him earn it in camp. Seider, 20, flourished last season with Rogle BK, being named the top defenseman in the Swedish Hockey League, and also earned top D-man honors at the World Championship, helping Germany reach the final four.

The big, righthanded shooter (6-3, 207) will be paired with a veteran left-shooter, likely Nick Leddy or Marc Staal. He likely will be used on the penalty kill but probably not on the power play right away.

Continued

Of prospect-related note:

In the Finnish Liiga, Otto Kivenmaki finished even with 1 shot in 14:09 played as his Lahti Pelicans won 4-3 in overtime over Ilves Tampere. Albin Grewe finished even with 3 shots in 9:02 played for Ilves.

#Liiga
Ilves-Pelicans 3-4:
– Kivenmäki 0+0, +/- 0, 1 SOG, 14:09 ice time
– Grewe 0+0, +/- 0, 3 SOG, 9:02 ice time#LGRW— Red Wings Prospects (@DRWProspects) September 21, 2021

From the Red Wings on Twitter:

UPDATE: The #RedWings have signed forward Bobby Ryan to a professional tryout. pic.twitter.com/qjMY3ODFy7

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 21, 2021

Here’s a bit of background from WDIV’s David Bartkowiak Jr…

Ryan, 34, played 33 games with Detroit this past season under a one-year contract. He notched 7 goals and 7 assists in that time. He scored four of those goals in his first three games with the Red Wings, which is a franchise record. But the the right wing’s season ended prematurely due to injury.

He became a restricted free agent at the end of the 2020-21 season and remains without a new contract.

The Red Wings have more than enough cap space left sign another free agent. Perhaps Ryan will sign another one-year deal.

As well as the Free Press’s Helene St. James:

Continue reading Red Wings sign Bobby Ryan to a professional try-out

According to Hockeysverige.se’s Mans Karlsson and HockeyNews.se’s Alexander Nilsson, Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson has signed a two-year “A-League contract” with the SHL’s Frolunda HC, ensuring that he’ll play on the men’s team for the next two seasons (presuming that he remains in Sweden).

Here’s a rough translation of the Frolunda press release:

From Junior to Rookie

Against Lulea Hockey in the Scandinavium [Frolunda’s home rink], Simon Edvinsson reached a milestone–he played 100 minutes in the SHL.

He’s played for Frolunda HC’s A-team since the start of the season last spring, and he played on a rookie contract (and played 100 SHL minutes) through the game agaist Lulea last Saturday.

“It’s wonderful. It’s always been a goal. It’s really cool to get that reward, to just be part of the A-team is a dream,” says Simon Edvinsson.

The 18-year-old Edvinsson–who has signed for two seasons, until the spring of 2023–has played on a defensive pair with Christian Folin so far, and has impressed Frolunda’s GM, Fredrik Sjostrom:

“He’s started the season at an incredibly high level. That he played on a rookie contract, it’s extremely well-deserved, and he will take further steps in the future.”

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler took in the entirety of the Red Wings’ prospect tournament, and The Athletic’s Corey Pronman jetted from tournament to tournament over the past week, so both gentlemen shared their observations regarding their respective tournaments of focus this morning.

Among Wheeler’s observations are the following…

C Joe Veleno (No. 30, 2018): I think the Red Wings would have liked to see Veleno produce a little more than he did, which kept him out of the standouts here, but he was really quite noticeable in other ways. He played on the interior, pushed tempo, drove through coverage, finished his checks and galloped around the ice with that skating stride of his, trying to cut through every lane he could (though he often didn’t make his way all the way through in possession). He had the puck a lot.

I also spoke to his offseason strength and conditioning coach, Justin Griffin, this week. Here’s what Griffin had to say: “Veleno has changed his body in the last two summers so that at the Detroit testing, they were kind of joking around like ‘wow, you worked out this summer.’ He didn’t really put that much time in the gym when he was younger and once he got to the NHL level and they were like, ‘hey, you’ve got to get stronger.’ He hasn’t missed one workout six times a week with us the last two summers.”

Continued (paywall); one Wings prospect made Pronman’s cut:

Kirill Tyutyayev, LW, Detroit

I was at the first Detroit game where Tyutyayev had two goals and an overall strong performance. He was a later draft pick a few years ago and when I’ve circled around to him, I’ve thought he was a dime a dozen small, skill guy who doesn’t skate well. The size/skating still concerns me but what impressed me at the game other than his hands and playmaking was his work ethic. Tyutyayev competed hard off pucks to create pressure, force turnovers and one of his scoring plays was off a hard drive to the net versus a much bigger defender that he got to the far post on. At the minimum, he put himself on the radar to monitor in the AHL this season.

Our second episode of “Dylan Larkin at the NHL Media Tour” comes not from the NHL’s Swedish-language website, but instead, from the NHL’s German-language one, where Oliver Jensen asked Larkin about the impact that the Red Wings’ summertime changes would have on the team, including the addition of one Moritz Seider to the mix. What follows is roughly translated from German:

“I think with the roster changes that we made this year, there’s already more competition at training camp than in the past four or five years,” Larkin told NHL.com at the 2021 NHL/NHLPA Media Tour. “There are tough battles for every spot on our team. It’s great. That’s exactly how you want it when you start a new season. We’re much younger and have more potential at every position.”

Seider is one of the players who gives Larkin hope for the future. “Mo hasn’t been with us much so far. He was in Grand Rapids [in the AHL]. And last season in Sweden. I’m going to try to help him here as much as I can because he’s going to be an important part of our team. He’s going to play an important role, so the sooner that we get him acquainted with the other guys, the better his game will be,” said Larkin.

The captain is already certain of the individual skills that Seider brings with him: “He’s a great hockey player but he remains humble. He has outstanding skills and a special attitude. We just have to integrate him onto our team. Then he will help us move forward.”

Continue reading Roughly Translated: Dylan Larkin speaks with NHL.com/de regarding Moritz Seider and the upcoming season

Both MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted profiles of Red Wings prospect Chase Pearson this afternoon.

Pearson, who’s an “older prospect” at 24 years of age, looks like someone who’s continuing to evolve into a stalwart defensive center at the NHL level, and that is exactly what Pearson’s goal for this season happens to be, as he told Khan:

“The goal is making the Red Wings roster on opening night,” Pearson said. “Just give them a reason for me to stay. I’m going to try to do that every day and have a positive attitude around the rink. That’s about all I can do, and things will face into play, or they won’t. We’ll see.”

Pearson is a good-sized center (6-3, 205) who fits the checking-line mold. He’s strong defensively, has shown some offensive ability in the AHL and can play the wing.

The Red Wings are looking to replace fourth-line center Luke Glendening, who signed with Dallas. They also parted ways with Darren Helm, Evgeny Svechnikov, Frans Nielsen, Richard Panik and Mathias Brome, creating opportunities.

Mitchell Stephens, acquired from Tampa Bay and drafted the same year as Pearson, might have the inside track on the fourth-line center spot based on his NHL experience (45 games). Veteran Carter Rowney and young Joe Veleno and Givani Smith also are in the mix for bottom-six spots.

Kulfan picks up the story from there:

Last season, during the pandemic shortened AHL season, Pearson had eight goals and 14 assists for 22 points. Those 22 points were identical to how many Pearson earned the season before. The difference: Pearson amassed the total last season in 28 games, unlike the 59 games the season before.

Pearson had a plus-3 rating last season, compared to being minus-9 the season before.

“Last year was huge for me,” Pearson said. “I got a bigger role in Grand Rapids, and I earned the coaches’ trust a little bit more, which enabled me to play in all situations and really take a step forward.

“I got better defensively and also on the offensive side. I was able to come into my own a little bit, which helped through playing more and gaining confidence. When you play with confidence, the game comes easier for you.”

Kulfan also continues…I don’t say this about many prospects, but I have full faith that Chase Pearson is going to be a defensive center at the NHL level within a year or two, regardless of whether it’s with Detroit or some other NHL team, and his employer will be better off for having him in the lineup.