Month: September 2021

From the Red Wings:

UPDATE: Jared McIsaac lost consciousness after a hit into the boards during the 1st period of tonight’s game against CBJ but is now awake and alert and has feeling in all his extremities. As a precautionary measure, he was transported to a local hospital for further observation.

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 19, 2021

Update: Sportsnet provided a description…

McIsaac was hit from behind by Blue Jackets prospect James Malatesta late in the first period and had to be stretchered off the ice after laying motionless. Malatesta was assessed a game misconduct.

The Red Wings said McIsaac has feeling in all of his extremities and was transported to a local hospital for further observation as a precaution.

The 21-year-old blueliner was selected 36th overall by the Red Wings in the 2018 NHL Draft and played for Canada’s world junior team in both 2019 and 2020.

He played 10 games with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins last season and registered two points.

As did The Athletic’s Max Bultman:

McIsaac lost consciousness taking a hit from behind into the boards by Blue Jackets forward James Malatesta, who was given a game misconduct. As McIsaac was being stretchered off, his eyes were open and he was talking, according to The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler.

In their final game of the 2021 prospect tournament, the Detroit Red Wings dropped a difficult 7-3 decision to the Columbus Blue Jackets, wrapping up their prospect tournament record at 1-and-2.

The Wings’ prospects will recuperate over the next couple of days before training camp begins…

And they need some thoughts and prayers for Jared McIsaac, who was injured and stretchered off the ice in the 1st period.

Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin took part in the NHL’s player media tour in Chicago this past week, and the first interview with Larkin from said slate of player-and-media interviews comes from NHL.com/sv, which is NHL.com’s Swedish site. NHL.com/sv’s Sebastian Noren spoke with Larkin regarding a couple of topics, and here’s a rough translation of their conversation, which focuses on (not so surprisingly) his relationship with Henrik Zetterberg:

“I remember the first time I met Zetterberg during my first day with the Red Wings, and I was very nervous then. He’s a cool guy and we’ve built a good relationship. But I will never forget how he treated me with respect on the first day, and that he knew my name. It was very special.”

The Red Wings have underwent a rebuild in recent years after players such as Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk retired. Detroit finished 7th in the Discover Central Division with 48 points in 56 games last season. Larkin’s season, however, came to an early end after he suffered a neck injury in a game against the Dallas Stars on April 20th. After rehabilitating during the summer, the team captain is fully healthy and ready when Detroit’s camp begins.

“Yes, it’s great (to be healthy). It’s been a tough summer. It was different to be injured at the beginning of the summer. It was a lot of rehab, but I’m looking forward to having it behind me and focusing on the season, with training camp and then starting to play games,” says Larkin.

“There’s a lot of motivation. Both me and the other guys on the team have a lot to prove this season. You enter each new season with optimism, and hope for 82 [good] games. So that’s a factor, but there’s an extra dimension with the changes we’ve made on the team and the guys who are back from injuries.”

“I think the changes on the playing roster are the big thing, as we enter the camp with better competition for jobs than we have in the last four or five years. There are guys fighting for every spot on the team and that’s exciting. That’s what you want when you step into a season. We’re much younger and we have more skill at every position,” says Larkin.

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a prospect tournament notebook in which he discusses the play of prospect Lucas Raymond, the Red Wings’ struggles against the “chippy” St. Louis Blues and the up-and-down performance of one Sebastian Cossa on Saturday night:

Raymond leads the Detroit Red Wings with three goals, displaying some of the skills and hockey sense that made him the fourth overall selection in 2020.

But it’s the 19-year-old right wing’s competitiveness and play without the puck that has impressed Grand Rapids Griffins coach Ben Simon, who is coaching the prospects team.

“He’s competing, he’s working hard,” Simon said following Saturday’s 5-2 loss to St. Louis at Centre I.C.E. Arena in Traverse City. “I think (his scoring) is the result of his play away from the puck and his willingness to get to the hard-to-score areas. He’s been good on the power play with his patience and composure. We’ve used him on the PK.

“When things got a little bit rough and chippy, he got frustrated initially in the first period, but he kept his work boots on and really continued to fight through. I thought he showed a little bit of resilience in that regard and was extremely happy with the way he competed.”

Continued; Raymond will not be playing in tonight’s game vs. Columbus, probably for precautionary reasons.

Here are the rosters for tonight’s game between the Detroit Red Wings’ prospects and the Columbus Blue Jackets (6 PM EDT on Red Wings YouTube):

If you can’t see the picture above, the roster consists of:

Forwards:

#79 Kirill Tyutyayev**–#90 Joe Veleno–#74 Cross Hanas

#56 Pasquale Zito–#46 Chase Pearson–#58 Cameron Butler*

#64 Luke Toporowski*–#51 Hayden Verbeek**–#61 T-Bone Codd*

#62 Cooper Walker*

Defensemen:

#44 Donovan Sebrango–#84 Alex Cotton

#3 Jared McIsaac–#47 Wyatt Newpower

#86 Adam Brubacher*–#77 Oscar Plandowski

#83 Mason Ward*

Goaltenders:

#60 Jan Bednar (starting)

#33 Sebastian Cossa (back-up)

*=Free agent invite, **=Grand Rapids Griffins contract

So Lucas Raymond, Jonatan Berggren and Patrick Curry are out with injuries of some sort, and Victor Brattstrom is the odd goaltender out tonight.

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects will wrap up their 2021 prospect tournament slate with a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets this evening (6 PM EDT), and the game will air starting at 5:40 PM on the Wings’ YouTube channel. This embed code might not work, so if it’s funky, head over to the YouTube link here.

In the only game involving a Red Wings prospect in Europe this Sunday, William Wallinder finished even in Rogle BK’s J20 team’s 4-2 loss to the Vaxjo Lakers.

Yesterday afternoon, in the SHL, Elmer Soderblom scored the game-winning goal for Frolunda HC in a 2-1 victory over Lulea, assisted by fellow Wings prospects Simon Edvinsson and Theodor Niederbach. IceHockeyGifs posted the goal…

Niederbach, Söderblom and Edvinsson combine for a Frölunda 2-1 goal! Goal Elmer, assist Edvinsson. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/0KPbjKmq3q

— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) September 18, 2021

This morning, GT.se’s Leotrim Jusufi spoke with Soderblom regarding his size and strength. Here’s a rough translation of the pertinent portion of the article:

Continue reading Roughly translated: Big Elmer Soderblom discusses his goal scored during Saturday’s Frolunda win

The Free Press’s Helene St. James wrote a subscriber-only article this morning, discussing five “top questions” which the Red Wings face heading into training camp. Among them:

Seider time: The other SHL alumnus is defenseman Moritz Seider, the sixth pick in 2019. Seider had a terrific 2020-21 season — he was loaned to Rögle, and played so well he was named defenseman of the year. Seider, 20, recorded seven goals and 21 assists in 41 games, followed by five points in 13 playoff games. He contributed five assists in 10 games for his native Germany at the World Championships. He’s a lock to make the Wings — the question is how many minutes he can handle, and whether he plays both special teams. At the very least he should be running one of the power play units.

The letter A: The Wings lost their alternate captains when Luke Glendening signed with the Dallas Stars in free agency and Frans Nielsen was bought out. Veteran defenseman Marc Staal wore an A at times last season, and served as an alternate with the New York Rangers for a decade. Veteran forward Sam Gagner is also an option; like Staal, he’s great in the locker room and an excellent role model for the young players. Veteran defenseman Danny DeKeyser could also be a fit. The Wings could opt to have three alternates and rotate one of the ‘A’s’, like Nielsen and Larkin did in 2019-20.

Continued (paywall)

Among Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen’s “5 Takeaways” from the Red Wings’ 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues at the prospect tournament:

Defenseman Donovan Sebrango, a third round pick in 2020, just keeps forcing the Red Wings to view him as being part of their rebuild. Last season, the Red Wings gave him a tryout contract in Grand Rapids because the Ontario Hockey League wasn’t playing because of Covid-19. He rose to the level of American League competition and became a valuable player on the Griffins.

At the NHL Prospects Tournament, he’s been solid and dependable in his first two games. And when the Blues were pushing the Red Wing around, it was Sebrango who stood up for his teammates by fighting Brayden Guy.

“He’s a hard-nosed defenseman,” Veleno said. “…He impressed me with the fight.”

Continued; Sebrango is far too young to know what “Wango Tango” means, but I think that’s a fine nickname for him.