Month: August 2022

The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi posted an article in which he discusses Red Wings prospects and Team USA forwards Carter Mazur and Red Savage’s strong World Junior Championship performances thus far with both players, who are particularly confident in their abilities:

Heading into Team USA’s elimination round slate, which begins Wednesday, Mazur is in the midst of announcing himself to the hockey world. He’s tied for fifth in points (four goals, two assists) among all players in the tournament. Who would have thought? Mazur would.

“Yeah, I honestly did,” Mazur said when asked if he’d thought following the 2020 draft, when he went undrafted through seven rounds, that he’d ever get the opportunity to play on this stage.  Once (I was drafted) it felt like my confidence sorta jumped through the roof and I started finally coming together and believing in my game and know what I could do. So I felt like once that all came together, that I had a really good shot to make this team in the winter.”

Savage, on the other hand, as been less productive, but only slightly. His hard-nosed game shows up less on the scoresheet than others, but with two goals and an assist, he’s also getting onto the radar of hockey fans.

“It’s a hard team to make, but I’ve always been confident in my abilities,” Savage said. “It was definitely something that I had to really work towards, and it was definitely always a big goal of mine to make this team.”

Continued; Savage also reveals that he used to play for Compuware in Metro Detroit, whereas Mazur played for Kris Draper’s Little Caesars team, and as such, they grew up as rivals.

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau has been posting lists of players who he believes are “on the hot seat” for each NHL team, and he feels that Red Wings trade acquisition Ville Husso is “on the hot seat” in Detroit:

RED WINGS HOT SEAT: VILLE HUSSO, GOALTENDER: WHY: Detroit will begin the 2022-23 season on an optimistic note, after GM Steve Yzerman infused the lineup with free agent veterans, including forwards Andrew Copp and David Perron, and defenseman Ben Chiarot. But their biggest free agent acquisition is goaltender Ville Husso, whose negotiating rights were acquired by St. Louis in early July, and who subsequently signed a three-year, $14.25-million contract to become the Red Wings’ starting goalie.

To be sure, there were stretches last season with the Blues where the 27-year-old Husso looked like a legitimate No. 1 threat in net, and he did finish the regular season with career-highs in games played (40), Goals-Against Average (2.56) and Save Percentage (.919). However, Husso ultimately lost the starter’s job to veteran Jordan Binnington by the end of the season, and his seven playoff appearances in 2022 for St. Louis were not ideal (2-5 record, 3.67 G.A.A., .890 SP). If he were better than Binnington, the Blues wouldn’t have traded Husso.

Nevertheless, Wings GM Steve Yzerman had to improve on his team’s abominable goaltending performance last season, and he clearly saw Husso as the best option available to him this summer. He paid the price of a third-round draft pick to St. Louis to get ahead of his competitors and sign Husso before he hit the free agent market. And then he gave Husso a hell of a raise from the relatively paltry $750,000 he made in 2021-22. A $4-million raise, in fact.

So, now. Husso is “The Man” in Detroit, but that comes with highly-raised expectations. He has only 57 regular-season games of NHL experience, and he’s not going to be playing in front of the most stingy defensive team, even with the addition of new head coach Derek Lalonde. The Red Wings have a different defense corps with Chiarot and veterans Mark Pysyk and Olli Maata joining rising star Morris Seider and Filip Hronek. But that may not be good enough to push the Wings into a playoff berth in the Atlantic Division. They’ll need Husso to step up and steal some games.

Continued; I’m a little more optimistic that Husso and Alex Nedeljkovic can both rebound from last season’s performances, but that’s just me.

The Red Wings’ prospects will wrap up their World Junior Championship round robin play with games this afternoon and evening, and they’re consequential games at that.

After Switzerland plays Austria at 2 PM EDT in Edmonton…

Team Canada vs. Finland takes place @ 6 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network; Canada has to win this evening to win Group A:

Donovan Sebrango and Sebastian Cossa play for Canada; Eemil Viro plays for Finland;

Team Sweden vs. Germany takes place @ 10 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network; the winner of this game will finish second in Group B:

Simon Edvinsson, Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder play for Sweden.

Update: Here’s TSN’s schedule:

#WorldJuniors GAME DAY:

Switzerland 🇨🇭 🆚 Austria 🇦🇹: 2pm et on TSN 3/5

Canada 🇨🇦 🆚 Finland 🇫🇮: 6pm et on TSN 3/5

Germany 🇩🇪 🆚 Sweden 🇸🇪: 10pm et on TSN 3/5

Also LIVE on https://t.co/BQGeAnElqf and the TSN App: https://t.co/3PTSwVFR94#TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/oa23sBA3XY— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) August 15, 2022

Detroit Hockey Now’s Nate Brown concludes his analysis of the “Yzerplan” as it applies to Detroit’s draft picks by writing an exhaustive analysis of Yzerman’s 12 last drafts, and comparing his selections as Tampa Bay’s general manager from 2010-2018 with his selections as the Red Wings’ GM from 2019-2022.

I’m going to disagree ever-so-slightly with his conclusion:

After spending nearly a decade in Tampa where the Lightning would spend the latter half of the decade in the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final, Yzerman flipped the script when he arrived in Detroit in terms of drafting. Instead of going heavy in the junior leagues north of the border, he’s continued to pick from international talent.

Now, there could be a number of reasons for this. When beginning his career as a manager, Yzerman was heavily involved with the Canadian National Team, winning gold medals in both 2010 and 2014. Seeing that talent up close, perhaps it led to a confirmation bias that the best talent to build around was still coming from Canada.

Second, the scope of how he built in Tampa was different than Detroit. With the Red Wings, he was essentially starting over. Of the building blocks he had in Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, Yzerman truly only had that elite player in Dylan Larkin. The other “core” members were contributors, but hardly the foundational pieces like Stamkos or Hedman.

Finally, Yzerman ended up trading or not re-signing many of the very players he drafted from the Canadian junior leagues. Drouin comes to mind first, who he dealt for Mikhail Sergachev. While Sergachev was drafted by Windsor in the CHL Import draft, his career began in the MHL, a league Yzerman has chosen from often with both the Lightning and Red Wings.

Continued; I know that Nate has busted his butt attempting to discern how the Yzerman regime has drafted from rounds 1 and 2 to rounds 3 through 7, and he’s compared Yzerman’s draft tendencies to those of Ken Holland.

That’s a lot of work, and I respect the pants out of it. He really worked his tail off looking at the data, crunching the numbers and classified players from drafts from 2014-22 for the Red Wings and 2014-18 for the Lightning. That’s a shit-ton of work. You’ve got to tip your hat to that sort of thorough analysis.

All of that being said…

Continue reading DHN’s Brown concludes his analysis of the ‘Yzerplan’

Sunday’s nightcap at the World Junior Championship was a doozy.

Carter Mazur, Red Savage and Team USA, who were 3-and-0 coming into their final “round robin” game, faced Simon Edvinsson, Theodor Niederbach, William Wallinder and Team Sweden, who sat just behind Team USA at 2-and-0 in Group B.

Prior to the game, Simon Edvinsson had this to say to NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale:

“It’s going to be a hard game,” Sweden defenseman Simon Edvinsson (Red Wings) said. “I know they are going to be fired up to play us, so it’s going to be fun. They’re a team that’s good in the offensive zone and have good players all over the place. I’m looking forward to the game.”

This was an unusual one. Team USA won 3-2, but the Americans raced out to a 3-0 lead, and didn’t surrender a goal until the final 8:22 of regulation time, absolutely dominating the Swedes for 51 minutes and 38 seconds…

But the Swedes were absolutely dominant for 8:22, and while the Americans have advanced to face the Czechs on Wednesday, Sweden heads back onto the ice tomorrow night vs. Germany, and the Swedes need to win that one to not finish 3rd in the group.

Statistically speaking, here’s how your Red Wings prospects did:

Continue reading Red Wings at the WJC: Team USA wins 3-2 over Sweden, but both teams go away happy(?)

New Red Wings forward David Perron took part in a charity golf tournament in Quebec last Tuesday, and he gave no less than three interviews during the tournament.

He spoke with Le Journal de Quebec’s Frederic Marcoux, he spoke with RDS’s Eric LeBlanc, and he spoke with La Presse’s Simon Olivier Lorange, too. Here’s a rough translation of our third interview from the Gagne-Bergeron Pro-Am:

Continue reading Roughly translated: Here’s a third French-language David Perron interview, from La Presse

The Czechs attempted to salvage their World Junior Championship on Sunday against Latvia.

With a 1-1-and-1 record, Czechia needed a win to help avoid facing Canada in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, and they turned to Red Wings prospect Jan Bednar in goal to help them achieve their “goal” in their final “round robin” game.

The Latvians needed a regulation win to hop over the Slovaks–and tie the Czechs–all in order to avoid a quarterfinal match-up against Canada on Wednesday.

Latvia won 5-2, earning their first quarterfinal berth in World Junior Championship history. Jan Bednar only played 40:00, stopping 10 of 14 shots, but goals 2, 3 and 4 were all unstoppable ones (see below).

In a weird way, it was a happy loss for hockey fans. The Latvians made history today, and the Czechs are now going to face the winner of Group A (probably Canada) on Wednesday, while Latvia and Finland seem destined to meet.

In terms of the game’s narrative…

Continue reading Red Wings at the WJC: Latvia upsets Bednar and the Czechs, but it’s okay

Red Wings forward David Perron seems to be particularly amicable to giving interviews. He spoke with the Journal de Quebec recently regarding his decision to leave the Blues for the Red Wings, after St. Louis did not offer him a contract, and this evening, two more French-language interviews with Perron have emerged.

RDS’s Eric LeBlanc also spoke with Perron from the Gagne-Bergeron Pro-Am, and here’s what he had to say (roughly translated, of course):

Continue reading Roughly translated: David Perron speaks with RDS about becoming a Red Wing

Red Wings prospect Eemil Viro and Team Finland attempted to build upon their 2-and-0 record in Group A as they faced the 1-and-2 Slovaks at the World Junior Championship on Sunday.

Finland played both today and will play tomorrow (against Canada) ahead of Wednesday’s quarterfinals, so the Finns were hoping that the Slovaks wouldn’t extract too great a cost in terms of energy and physicality–two aspects of the game which the Slovaks provide in earnest.

Slovakia was playing in their final “round robin” game, and are more or less destined to battle Canada in Wednesday’s quarterfinal.

Finland routed Slovakia 9-3, going 5-for-7 on the power play (including a major penalty against Slovakia), and Eemil Viro did not earn any power play time, just a bit of PK time on the Slovaks’ ONE power play, so he finished with 2 shots and an even plus-minus rating in 15:55 played.

In terms of the game’s narrative…

In the 1st period, Simon Latkoczy started opposite Juha Jatkola in goal, and puck drop occurred at 2:08 PM EDT.

Continue reading Red Wings at the WJC: Finland routs Slovakia 9-3; Viro plays 15:55

The Hockey News’s Steven Ellis posted a meaty profile of Red Wings prospect and Team Sweden defenseman Simon Edvinsson, and it’s a great article:

“He’s like a walking bulldozer. When he wants to, he can make you disintegrate with just a stride or two. Nobody on the planet wants to go 1-on-1 with him.”

That’s just one scout’s opinion on Simon Edvinsson, the 6-foot-6 hulking blueliner from Sweden. He was drafted sixth overall by Detroit in 2021, and with Calder Trophy Winner Moritz Seider already in the lineup, he’s not far from giving the Red Wings one of the most feared 1-2 defensive duos in the NHL.

It pays to be bad in some cases. And the Red Wings aren’t far away from escaping the bottom.

“Congrats to Detroit,” Swedish coach Tomas Montén said with a smile after Sweden’s victory over Switzerland to open the 2022 World Junior Championship.

Edvinsson signed his NHL entry contract back in April, and all signs point towards the big blueliner playing a key role on the team’s blueline this season. So it was especially interesting that he chose to play for Sweden’s junior team during the unusual summer world junior tournament because while many other NHL-bound players decided to skip out — Shane Wright, Simon Nemec, Juraj Slafkovsky, Owen Power and Cole Perfetti come to mind — Edvinsson saw value in heading back and representing his country. Sweden holds a perfect record through two games and is one of the favorites to win gold.

Continued