FYI, via Red Wings prospect and University of Denver sophomore Carter Mazur on Twitter:
Senior Kyle Mayhew, junior McKade Webster & sophomore Carter Mazur will join Justin Lee in wearing letters this season.#GoPios
MORE: https://t.co/jUN26k5GnE pic.twitter.com/OaMQdSXnX3— Denver Hockey (@DU_Hockey) September 22, 2022
Enjoy. I said, “Hi” to Brad this morning. All class, wise gent.
The Athletic’s Sean Shapiro weighs in regarding the potential NBA/MLB/NHL buy-out of Sinclair’s Bally Sports divisions:
The NHL’s ever-changing broadcasting landscape is potentially on the verge of another shift in direction.
As first reported by the New York Post and confirmed by The Athletic, the NHL, MLB and the NBA could soon purchase the right to broadcast local games on regional sports networks (RSNs) owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group.
“Everything is on the table now,” a league source said. “It’s a space you have to be proactive in now, before you get left with a worse solution.”
Sinclair, through its Diamond Sports subsidiary, owns the local broadcast rights to 12 U.S.-based NHL teams, with games appearing on Bally Sports-branded networks. Diamond is struggling financially and could be headed for bankruptcy, which in turn could lead to teams losing out on the massive rights fees they’ve negotiated with the company. NHL teams, on average, make around $25 million per season from those agreements, according to one source with knowledge of the situation.
“The model is changing, slowly, but team rights fees are still one of the biggest drivers of revenue for an individual team,” a team executive said. “That’s a financial pillar for the finances of an NHL club and, thus, the league.”
Okay, yesterday’s fundraising post raised about $450, which is awesome, but there’s still about $500 to go before we cover the hotel bill. Things are a wee bit desperate, and if you can lend a hand, this is the “time of need” given that my debit card got charged early for the second half of the hotel bill.
If you’re are willing or able to lend a fundraising assist, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums” (an old nickname).
Per DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce:
Good Morning, everyone!☕️☀️We will be live from day one of @DetroitRedWings training camp starting at 10:30am today! Tune in on the Red Wings website, YouTube, & Facebook. #LGRW— Daniella Bruce (@daniellabruce_) September 22, 2022
The Free Press’s Carlos Monarrez got in the last question during Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s press conference yesterday morning, and Monarrez expounds upon that point this morning:
It finally happened. Steve Yzerman is talking about the Detroit Red Wings making the playoffs.
OK, I sort of had to pester him about it during Wednesday’s news conference on the eve of training camp. But the Wings’ general manager did speak about the possibility — however remote — that his team might make the playoffs for the first time in seven seasons.
The Wings were six points out of a wild-card spot in mid-February, so I asked Yzerman if it would be crazy to think they might be able to at least make a late-season push for a playoff spot this year.
After all, they were somewhat close last season, and that was under Jeff Blashill. Now they have what we could presume is a better coach in Derek Lalonde, plus an upgraded roster via free agents and draft picks and youngsters coming up the ranks.
So, with all that? What about it, Steve? Can we start planning our Stanley Cup playoff parties?
“I’m not prepared to say that,” Yzerman said.
Update: Here’s more from Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:
Yzerman is at least winning to go the Lloyd Christmas route and admit that if a lot of things fall neatly into place, there could be a chance at the playoffs.
“This season, we’ll see how we progress,” Yzerman cautioned. “If we can be more competitive on the road, match up a little bit better against the top teams when we go into their building. If we can win on back to back nights. That would give me some optimism that hey maybe we can push forward.
“But for me to talk about the playoffs now, it’s so far off. As we were talking about our division, today, not knowing what’s going to happen, you’d say probably Toronto, Tampa and Florida, there’s the three teams in our division we expect to make the playoffs. Pick whichever three in the Metro. Then the rest of us are competing for two Wild Card spots. That’s a real challenge. I’m hoping we’re there, but time will tell.
The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s preparations for training camp, which begins at Centre ICE Arena this morning:
Lalonde and assistant coaches Bob Boughner and Alex Westlund are among the many new faces brought in by Steve Yzerman in his fourth year as general manager. Along with Alex Tanguay, the only bench coach left from Jeff Blashill’s tenure, the group has been busy preparing changes when the Wings take the ice Thursday at Centre Ice Arena.
“In today’s day and age, with being able to do so much virtually, I think we got well out in front of this,” Lalonde said. “Even probably a month ago, talking with Steve, I thought we were a little further ahead of where I expected. We did a once-a-week Zoom with staff, and then we got together 10 days prior to camp. We’re in a good spot. Hopefully it translates to a good start of camp. We’ll have emphasis of team defense. a lot of the first couple days you’ll see will be play without the puck and improving in some of those areas that we struggled last year. We were one of the worst teams in any defensive category last year, so that’s a good starting point. A lot of that is team effort, everybody on the ice pulling the same way. Keep the puck out of your net. A lot of camp early on will be our play away from the puck.
“Special teams will be a big part of it. We’ll introduce that Day 3 or 4, leading into our Red and White Game and having those types of repetitions before exhibition.”
Wednesday saw players undergo physicals. The camp roster featured 40 forwards, 21 defensemen and eight goaltenders, who will break into three groups the first three days. Sunday features the Red and White Game, and after Monday’s practice the Wings will return to Detroit for an eight-game exhibition slate. The Wings open their preseason slate on Tuesday against the Penguins in Pittsburgh.
“We kind of projected a Detroit roster, projected a (Grand Rapids) roster,” Lalonde said. “You’ll see some guys jumping around a lot throughout the first couple days. Not a lot of theme to who’s where — it’s more about team structure, more about chemistry with guys playing with each other. We’re going to have a ton of time with eight games. That’s a lot, exhibition-wise, in the NHL.”
MLive’s Ansar Khan filed an early-morning column in which he discusses pertinent storylines as the Red Wings begin training camp today at Centre ICE Arena:
Will Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi be distracted by their contract situations?
Yzerman’s offseason signing spree did not include extensions for two of his top players as Larkin and Bertuzzi head into the season in the final year of their contracts. It’s only a question of when the Red Wings lock up Larkin, who’s headed into his third season as captain and could get an eight-year deal worth more than $8 million per season. Bertuzzi’s ability to play in Canada moving forward could help progress contract talks. It could also make him a more viable trade candidate. Both are coming off 30-goal seasons and could enhance their bargaining power with strong starts.
Will a new coaching staff ignite Filip Zadina?
Jeff Blashill provided Zadina with ample opportunity to establish himself in the NHL – a top-six role and regular spot on the power play. But the sixth overall pick in 2018 has not capitalized (10 goals, 24 points in 74 games last season). Perhaps a new voice and different approach will help get the most out of this potential sniper. The Red Wings are pleased with his work ethic and effort, but for whatever reason, the results haven’t come.
Can Jonatan Berggren crack the roster?
His chances were much better before Dominik Kubalik was signed. Now, it appears Berggren will spend another season in Grand Rapids, at least to start. The Red Wings’ top three lines appear set. The skilled Berggren is not a fit for the fourth line and he certainly won’t stick around as a spare forward. Berggren, selected 33rd overall in 2018, led the Griffins with 64 points in 70 games (21 goals, team-leading 43 assists), setting the franchise rookie scoring record and finishing second among AHL rookies.
According to the Marquette Mining Journal, the Red Wings Alumni’s game against the “Yoopers United” this past weekend made a huge impact for the United Way of Marquette County:
More than $100,000 was raised at the Marquette County Hockey Night held Saturday evening at the Berry Events Center on the campus of Northern Michigan University in Marquette.
The featured attraction was an exhibition hockey game between the Detroit Red Wings Alumni and Yoopers United, the latter a locally based team that included at least one current pro player along with a number of former high school, college and junior hockey players.
While the game ended in a 7-7 tie, the community was the big winner as funds go to the United Way of Marquette County’s Community Investment Fund. Money in the CIF goes directly back to communities in the county, including through UWMC’s annual grant funding, the group said in a Wednesday news release.
Wrapping up today’s coverage of Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s pre-training camp press conference is The Athletic’s Max Bultman, who noted that Yzerman gave rare praise to a player that some have written off already in Filip Zadina:
In many ways, you could say Zadina already earned a stamp of approval from his GM earlier this summer, when the Red Wings inked the winger to a three-year contract.
But Yzerman was clear Wednesday in his belief that Zadina is “on the right path to becoming a real good player in the NHL.”
“He’s learning to do the little things well, even if you’re not scoring,” Yzerman said. “All young players, all scorers in particular, always measure yourself on goals and assists, production. And it’s always — whether you’re playing junior, whether you’re playing in the American league, in the NHL, and in particular for these higher draft picks — everybody wants to see the goals and assists, measure (them) in goals and assists. And you fall into that yourself, thinking, ‘I’ve gotta produce, I’ve gotta produce.’ Ultimately, if you do all the other things well, the pucks will go in the net for you.”
Yzerman delivered that message to Zadina, telling him to keep working at those little things and that if he did, the pucks would find their way into the net.
“And he’s a hard worker,” Yzerman said. “When I talked to our staff, our strength coaches and whatnot — his dedication off the ice. He really wants to be a good player and knows he’s got things to improve upon. But again, I expect him to take another step forward, and I think his attitude is excellent, his work ethic is excellent. He just needs to stick with it.”
Continued (paywall); we’ll find out whether Zadina’s still got some “boom” in that “bust” this season. I’m not willing to write him off, either.
