Month: September 2021

The Associated Press posted a capsule report regarding Dylan Larkin and his Red Wings team’s outlook:

The Detroit Red Wings have been mired in a long, painful rebuild and the end doesn’t seem to be in sight from outside the organization. The last time they made the playoffs five years ago, Dylan Larkin was a rookie. When the captain and center looks at the reshaped roster, he doesn’t have to feign optimism.

“It’s exciting, more so than any of my training camps in the past,” Larkin said. “We’ve had more competition at every part of our lineup.”

General manager Steve Yzerman, entering his third season in charge of the front office, also sees more talented players vying for playing time and yet still sounds as if he’s asking for more patience.

“I think we’re making progress, but it may not necessarily relate into wins and losses,” Yzerman said.

The Red Wings can help their chances if they start the season healthy and stay that way for their first 82-game season in two years. Larkin is recovering from a neck injury that limited him to 44 games last season. Tyler Bertuzzi is coming back from having back surgery in April.

“They’re a pair that I’d like to keep together all season if I can,” said coach Jeff Blashill, who was given a contract extension despite a career record of 177-221-62 in Detroit.

Continued

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan let me know that the following Red Wings exhibition games will air on Detroit radio, per Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Kal:

Wednesday’s Blackhawks game will air on WWJ starting at 8:15 PM EDT;

September 30 vs. Buffalo will air starting at 7:15 PM on WWJ;

October 6 @ Columbus starts at 6:45 PM 97.1 the Ticket;

And October 7th vs. Pittsburgh starts at 7 PM 97.1 the Ticket.

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the media for an extended period of time today, speaking for 19 minutes on a wide range of topics:

FYI: Tomorrow’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks (8:30 PM EDT start) will air on NBC Sports Chicago Plus, and it will be “Joined in Progress” by the NHL Network, which is airing a “double-header” with the New Jersey Devils slated to play the Washington Capitals at 7 PM.

Long story long, the game should probably air on the NHL Network in part, but if you want to watch the first period, you’ll still need to do Ye Olde Bootleg Stream.

[Edit: if you did not already know, Thursday’s home game vs. Buffalo (7:30 PM EDT) will air on the Red Wings’ YouTube channel, with Ken Kal and Paul Woods doing play by play /end edit]

Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser spoke with the Wings’ press corps this morning, speaking for 8-and-a-half minutes:

DetroitRedWings.com’s Ethan Sears posted a training camp notebook which discusses the impression that Kirill Tyutyayev has made upon coach Jeff Blashill:

Kirill Tyutyayev got on everyone’s radar with a strong NHL Prospect Tournament. With preseason on the horizon, he’s still impressing.

“He’s been good,” Blashill said. “He’s got a lot of good instincts. He doesn’t totally look the part, he’s a little undersized, he’s not an elite skater. And those guys aren’t flying around the NHL a whole bunch, but some guys do make it.

“He knows how to create space for himself. He’s really slippery. He’s smart. He’s heavy on the puck for a smaller guy. He works his tail off.”

A seventh-round pick in 2019, Tyutyayev is in his first year in North America after playing in Belarus last season. It’s still unlikely he ends up playing for the Red Wings anytime soon, but he’s given reason to start paying attention.

“No aversion to traffic,” Blashill said. “No aversion to holding onto the puck. No aversion to playing extremely hard. … So we’ll see how it goes in exhibition season if he can continue to impress the way he has so far. But he’s done a good job so far.”

Continued

Per the Toledo Walleye:

? PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENT ?

We’ve signed veteran center John Albert (nine games in the NHL!) for the 2021-22 season.

? https://t.co/Tn18zKOt9X pic.twitter.com/ElvwN4Gk2O— Toledo Walleye (@ToledoWalleye) September 28, 2021

On ToledoWalleye.com

(Toledo, OH) – Cleveland, OH native and center John Albert has agreed to terms with the Toledo Walleye for the 2021-2022 season.

Albert split the 2020-21 season between Wichita and Rapid City with five goals, six assists, and ten penalty minutes over 30 games combined. The former sixth round pick by Atlanta in the 2007 draft made it to the highest level with nine games for the Winnipeg Jets during the 2013-14 campaign, scoring a goal. Albert is a longtime veteran of the AHL, with six total seasons and 339 total games that featured 72 goals and 98 assists.

In the 2019-20 season, Albert skated for Jacksonville with 44 contests with eight goals and 21 assists. He posted career-bests in goals with 28 and points (45) while skating for St. John’s in the 2013-14 season (63 contests). Prior to turning professional, the 32-year-old spent four seasons in Ohio playing for Ohio State. He had over twenty points in all four years for the Buckeyes including surpassing 30 points in each of the last three years. His highest point total came as a sophomore in the 2008-09 season with 39 (11G, 28A) in 42 games played.

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski posted a ranking of the NHL’s 32 goaltending tandems for ESPN+ this morning, and the Red Wings’ tandem sits in 28th place:

28. Detroit Red Wings
Thomas Greiss, Alex Nedeljkovic

The success or failure of this tandem comes down to two basic questions: Can the Red Wings continue their year-over-year improvement as a defensive team, and were the Hurricanes right or wrong about Nedeljkovic? The Canes didn’t think he was worth a contract extension for three months of light-out, Calder Trophy-nominated hockey. The Red Wings were willing to give him two years and $6 million for it.

Greiss is one of the NHL’s best complementary goalies, playing to his fourth above-average campaign in the last five seasons. He had the misfortune of losing eight overtime or shootout games, tied for most in the league last season. This tandem could look better than expected if the defense can help them get their goals-against average under 3.00.

Continued (paywall)

The Athletic’s “Down Goes Brown,” a.k.a. Sean McIndoe, has posted a list of his 22 most interesting NHL players to follow this upcoming season, and Red Wings forward Jakub Vrana, who’s got a shoulder issue that’s keeping him from practicing at present, is one of DGB’s 22:

Jakub Vrana, Red Wings Steve Yzerman has mostly played it slow and steady as he rebuilds the Red Wings, but he made a big deal to add Vrana at last year’s deadline. The 25-year-old isn’t a prospect anymore, but he’s also no longer buried behind bigger name forwards like he was in Washington. That means more minutes but less help, and that can go either way. We’ll see, but Vrana has the talent to be one of this season’s biggest breakouts.

Continued; everything is dependent upon Vrana’s health at this point.

MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted articles discussing free agent forward Bobby Ryan’s attempt to stick with the Red Wings via a professional try-out this fall. This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a subscriber-only article which discusses Ryan’s desire to take on a leadership-and-or-mentorship role with the Red Wings:

Ryan’s season ended in late March when he needed surgery for a torn triceps, but  had a great start  scoring four goals in his first three games. A former second-overall pick in 2006 NHL draft, Ryan was a good mentor alongside fellow veterans Sam Gagner and Marc Staal.

“I think those things will add to a decision that they will have to make,” Ryan said. “My body of work speaks for itself, however limited it may have been last year with 33 games and a couple injuries that kind of derailed the season. I like to think even though it was an injury that ended the year, we ended on a positive note with my conversations. I think they look at what they brought to the room and there is an experience level that not a lot of guys in the room have right now — myself, Stallsie and Gags maybe at the upper echelon of games played. Guys can rely on that, guys can bounce ideas off that.

“We talk about a mentor role, but I still think there is a place in the game for a guy to bridge that gap between coach and player, so all those little things I hope would add in. I think they realized, too, how much I wanted to be here and loved being here last year.”

Continued (paywall), and Ryan seems to feel the same way about War and Peace that I do:

With players essentially confined to their hotels when on the road, Ryan took up reading. He left off with “War and Peace” at the of the season and conceded he didn’t finish it. “I couldn’t,” he said, laughing. I tried it. I got a good amount of it. I just felt like it was homework. It’s still on the shelf and collection dust, but I will get back to it, I promise I will.”