Month: July 2022

At 11:13 AM, after a pair of 8:32 AM Tweets linking 28-year-old Ann Arbor native Andrew Copp to the Detroit Red Wings…

Good morning. Happy free agency day everyone. My projection for former #NHLJets F Andrew Copp is that he signs a five-year deal with his hometown @DetroitRedWings for north of $5.35 million and south of $6 million. Similar to the Zach Hyman contract (which was 7 for 5.5 million).— Ken Wiebe (@WiebesWorld) July 13, 2022

So, promptly at 12:33 PM:

5 years $5.625 for Copp in Detroit.— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 13, 2022

UPDATE: The #RedWings today signed center Andrew Copp to a 5-year contract. pic.twitter.com/P6L4w55HlM— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 13, 2022

COPPS COMING HOME! pic.twitter.com/Y5Y9H4oCUe— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 13, 2022

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Welcome home, @Copp94! pic.twitter.com/OuIEjmQBA0— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 13, 2022

Continue reading Red Wings sign Andrew Copp for 5 years at $5.625 million

Per the Red Wings:

UPDATE: The Detroit #RedWings today signed center Marco Kasper to a three-year entry-level contract.

Details: https://t.co/vVJsKO7RgS pic.twitter.com/M5LdldzZSX— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 13, 2022

Kasper. ✍️ pic.twitter.com/BmTZmx78CY— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 13, 2022

Press release:

Continue reading Red Wings sign Marco Kasper to a 3-year entry-level contract

Per the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye:

? PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENT ?

Defenseman Cam Clarke is set to rejoin the Fish next season.

? https://t.co/m1wgExsYxR pic.twitter.com/ShPsnsbpsi— Toledo Walleye (@ToledoWalleye) July 13, 2022

Defenseman Cam Clarke has signed a contract for the 2022-23 Walleye season.

Clarke, a former 5th round pick of the Boston Bruins in 2016, joined the Walleye at the trade deadline this past season and scored a goal with two assists while playing as a plus-four in ten regular season games. The defenseman produced three goals and nine assists in 21 Walleye playoff games.

The native of Tecumseh, Michigan spent most of the past two years in Wichita where he totaled 131 games played with 11 goals, 53 assists, and 42 penalty minutes. He spent the four years prior to turning pro at Ferris State University, appearing in 126 games for the Bulldogs in a career with three goals, 30 assists, and 91 penalty minutes.

Here’s a Grand Rapids Griffins video spotlighting the 2021-22 season of veteran forward Dominik Shine:

Per the Detroit News’s Tony Paul:

They’re some of the legends of their time. But give them a golf club and surround them with hundreds or thousands of fans, even they feel pressure.

“Little embarrassing, little humiliating,” Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo said last year, with a smile, after playing a few holes with Phil Mickelson and Bryson DeChambeau. “But then again, my sport is not golf. I’m not sure either one of those guys could make a free throw.”

Izzo will take his hacks again this year as one of the headliners participating in the Rocket Mortgage Classic’s AREA 313 Celebrity Scramble at Detroit Golf Club.

Izzo will be joined in the celebrity category by Detroit Lions legends Barry Sanders and Calvin Johnson, Red Wings star Dylan Larkin, World Long Drive competitor Maurice Allen and musician Kelley James.

The scramble, which in 2019 was named the PGA Tour’s “Best Special Event,” will tee off at 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 26, and the teams will play the course’s signature stretch — the par-5 14th, par-3 15th and par-4 16th. Fans can see the action for free, as Tuesday and Wednesday are complimentary ticket days at the Rocket Mortgage Classic this year.

Interesting:

Another defenceman to watch today is John Klingberg. Both Seattle and Detroit have various levels of interest but Carolina (as EF has reported) is probably in the best position to offer what he’s looking for. Carolina has been around Klingberg at various times all season.— Jeff Marek (@JeffMarek) July 13, 2022

Andrew Copp coming home to join the Red Wings? @Buccigross tweeting some images: https://t.co/yppHYo5X1q— Brad Galli (@BradGalli) July 13, 2022

#PureMichigan pic.twitter.com/lDJtAjvtmx— Bucci on Draft (@Buccigross) July 13, 2022

Per TSN’s Darren Dreger…

Back to hockey. Unless something shifts, all indications suggest Andrew Copp will sign with the Detroit Red Wings. Good player who will likely command $5 mil + on a 4-6 year term. We’ll soon find out.— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 13, 2022

And Bob McKenzie:

UFA period opens at 12 noon ET, we are on air at 11 am with @TSNHockey #FreeAgentFrenzy. As usual, deals already in place and players already reportedly tied to team(s). Such as Campbell (EDM), Kuemper (WSH), Copp (DET), Giroux (OTT). It will be a busy day.— Bobby Margarita (@TSNBobMcKenzie) July 13, 2022

Also:

If Andrew Copp is Detroit-bound as @DarrenDreger reports, does that take them out of any Kadri flirtation?— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) July 13, 2022

This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James offers the following take on Detroit’s free agency outlook, and she posts a list of potential free agent fits as well:

Steve Yzerman described a list of players that would be a good fit for the Detroit Red Wings as “beautiful,” and that was before it included free agents rendered unrestricted because they did not get a qualifying offer from their prior employers.

Free agency begins Wednesday, or as some call it, “the silly season” because in the frenzy to secure a player, general managers can be a bit carefree when it comes to making offers. That’s more so a temptation of GMs in charge of contenders; for a team trying to take the next step in a rebuild, it’s an opportunity to find complementary players that can fill gaps at reasonable prices.

“We watched some of the positive impact some of our young guys had this year,” Yzerman said. “We’d like to add to that and continue to move forward. If there’s a player that can really make a significant impact, we’re not afraid to do that in free agency.

“Some of the things we weigh on is, how much does that player help us today, tomorrow and two or three years down the road, and what’s the cost of acquiring that player. Does the cost make sense for where we hope to be, or are we just spending a lot of money and not going to much different whether that player is here or helped get us there, and is there a more efficient way to get there.”

Yzerman already addressed the need for a goaltender by acquiring Ville Husso. But the Wings need scorers and defensemen, and Yzerman has roughly $30 million in salary cap space, though some of that will go toward re-signing restricted free agents Filip Zadina and Jake Walman. 

Continued

Sportsnet’s excellent Elliotte Friedman offers this late-night free agency note regarding the Red Wings’ search for a second line center:

I will guess Andrew Copp to Detroit, because I like to try and figure out what Steve Yzerman will do. There is also belief the Dylan Larkin extension is trending in a positive direction.

Continued; I’d suggest that a Larkin contract extension may be the most likely move that the Wings will make this July.

The Detroit News’s John Niyo penned a thoughtful column regarding the Red Wings’ free agency plans this evening, touching upon the usual names attached to the Wings–Vincent Trocheck, Andrew Copp and Ondrej Palat as useful UFA additions–before suggesting that Steve Yzerman may very well go “bargain hunting,” seeking unqualified restricted free agents like Dylan Strome (or Dominik Kubalik?) before ending with this wise summation:

Yzerman has worked methodically to give himself the flexibility he has now. Outside of the entry-level contracts for Seider and Lucas Raymond, there are just a handful of players on the Wings’ current roster with contracts that extend beyond the upcoming season: Jakub Vrana, Fabbri, Michael Rassmussen, Filip Hronek and the newly-acquired Husso.

The expectation is Larkin will join them in the coming months, as the Wings lock up their captain and highest-paid player with another long-term extension. Bertuzzi, coming off a 30-goal season, also is headed into a contract year and says he wants to stay in Detroit, but past negotiations with his camp haven’t gone smoothly, so we’ll see how that plays out.

Some of this cap space will be spent on Detroit’s own free agents as well. Zadina and Jake Walman both received qualifying offers ahead of Tuesday’s deadline, and Yzerman said he’s open to bringing back some of the veteran UFAs in time.

But the Wings’ GM also can use it to help now and later, offering to help other teams offload problematic contracts for a fee in future assets. He did it with Marc Staal in a lesser deal a couple of years ago, acquiring the veteran defenseman from the Rangers along with a second-round pick he later flipped in a 2021 draft-day trade to land goalie Sebastian Cossa. And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him do it again this summer. The Flyers, for example, are a prominent suitor for top free agent Johnny Gaudreau, but may need to move the final year ($7 million) of James van Riemsdyk’s contract to make that happen.

Whatever happens this week, though. rest assured: There’ll be more to come. A lot more.

Continued