Month: September 2022

Much ado about Larkin and Bertuzzi’s contracts

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen, writing a column for Hockeybuzz.com, focuses on seven contract negotiations which bear watching this upcoming season, and two of which have earned so much digital ink over the past couple of days in the Red Wings blogosphere that you’d think that one of the players has already been traded:

Detroit Red Wings/Dylan Larkin: This is a hometown hero. He grew up rooting for the Red Wings. He is the team’s captain. Larkin is popular with teammates. This was supposed to be an easy signing, even though he can be an unrestricted free agent next summer. But it’s September and there’s no deal.

Detroit Red Wings/Tyler Bertuzzi: The expectation was these negotiations were going to be bumpy. The Red Wings appreciate Bertuzzi as a player, but haven’t appreciated negotiating contracts with him. GM Steve Yzerman doesn’t discuss negotiations in public. But you could sense some tension going into this one. If they can’t get Bertuzzi signed, would they consider trading him? That seems like a possibility.

Continued; put bluntly, we don’t know what is going to happen with a Larkin and/or Bertuzzi extension until we see what happens.

Maybe I’m overreacting, but I’ve almost written a couple of, “Get a life” responses to several scribes who’ve all but spelled out the ways in which Tyler Bertuzzi is apparently going to leave town, and it’s just silly.

A lack of information from GM Steve Yzerman is of course going to lead to speculation as to whether Larkin or Bertuzzi will remain Red Wings, but that lack of information does not mean something good or something bad is going to happen. It means that we don’t know!

Historically, Bertuzzi did take the Wings to salary arbitration, and Larkin did not, and historically, Bertuzzi’s raised at least some mild dissatisfaction from the team regarding his vaccination status, but the past does not necessarily tell the future.

My best guess right now is that Larkin and Bertuzzi’s “ceilings” in terms of their “asks” have been spelled out in much more detail thanks to the J.T. Miller contract being signed recently (at an $8 million AAV), and I think that everybody needs to take a deep breath here, honestly.

If Larkin and Bertuzzi aren’t signed to contract extensions in December or January, yeah, it’s time to start worrying that one or both might not end the season as Red Wings. But it’s incredibly hard to believe that the Red Wings would trade their captain, and it’s also hard to imagine another team taking on Bertuzzi given his…complications…without knocking the value of the deal down a bit.

But for now, it’s time to take a deep breath or two, wonder whether the Wings will sign Larkin between now and the start of the regular season, and cross your fingers regarding Bertuzzi.

Right now, we just don’t know, and sometimes, even if you’re trying to read the tea leaves, the acceptance of not knowing is just part of the game.

DHN’s Duff notes that Simon Edvinsson sported his now-familiar #3 at the NHLPA Rookie Showcase

Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson took part in the NHLPA Rookie Showcase at the Capitals’ practice facility in Arlington, VA today…

Simon Edvinsson and Fabian Lysell. #redwings #bruins #nhlpa #upperdeck pic.twitter.com/Is4tUhHesO— sportsology (@sportsology) September 6, 2022

And Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Edvinsson’s wearing the #3 he’s been assigned for the prospect tournament, and wore during the summer development camp:

The Detroit Red Wings haven’t officially committed a roster spot to defenseman Simon Edvinsson.  But that doesn’t stop sponsors, odds makers and the media from acting as if they have.

More than 30 NHL prospects were invited to the 12th annual NHLPA Rookie Showcase. It was held at the MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va. Edvinsson was the only Red Wing.

The event provides Upper Deck — the league’s trading card partner — an opportunity to photograph rookies who have a chance to make NHL rosters this season. They wear their NHL uniforms.

This was the first time Edvinsson wore an official Red Wings uniform with the No. 3 he will wear in Detroit. Edvinsson wore No. 3 at the Red Wings development camp, but players wore practice jerseys. The Red Wings expect Edvinsson to be on the 2022-23 roster. However,  GM Steve Yzerman’s rule is that players have to earn a spot. He doesn’t hand out spots just on the basis of talent.

He has said that more than once since becoming Detroit’s general manager.

Continued; wearing a “low number” definitely doesn’t guarantee anything, but it’s good to see that he’s not being shuffled around.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Mills speaks with William Wallinder

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills looks back at the Red Wings’ summer development camp today, taking note of the comments made by Rogle BK defenseman and Wings prospect William Wallinder:

As a 19-year-old, Wallinder led all U20 Swedish Hockey League defensemen last season with 19 points in 47 games for Rogle BK, earning the league’s top U20 player award.

“It went just the way I wanted to,” Wallinder said about his 2021-22 campaign. “I got my game going, my defensive game started to work out and went in the right direction.”

Wallinder is the second straight Red Wings prospect to take home the honor, as Moritz Seider won the award in 2020-21 before making the jump to the NHL.

“I’m really comfortable,” Wallinder said. “This last season, it felt like everything was coming into place.”

…

When asked to describe himself, Wallinder said he is a “big defenseman with great skating.”

“I like to carry the puck,” the 6-foot-4, 191-pound blueliner said. “And lead offensive plays on the blue line.”

Continued

Kicking fundraising into high gear

Between Labor Day weekend yielding an inconvenient break for me–I’ve been a bit under the weather–and the the weekend yielding eyes away from the blog, I chose to pause the fundraising effort.

Now that the long weekend’s over, however, I find myself in difficult territory. I pack up a week from now, on the 13th, and leave a week from tomorrow, on the 14th, and I realistically need to raise about $1,500 to pay for half of the hotel bill (which comes due when I check in), pay for fixing my Pacifica’s headlight and tail light, and get me out of the door with gas, groceries and dry cleaning done.

Once I’m up in Traverse City and working, I’ll need to raise just as much to get me back home, but that’s a story for another day.

I’ll say this before engaging in the rigamarole: it takes all kinds of TMR reader support to ensure that this trip happens, and at this point, it’s where the smaller donations tend to add up. If there’s any way you can lend a hand, no matter how small the donation, I need that help now.

If you’re are willing to help, 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.

The Athletic’s Bultman examines training camp expectations for the Red Wings’ forwards

The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted an article in which he discusses the expectations for every Red Wings forward going into training camp, and we’ll start from the top:

Lucas Raymond: What kind of second-year leap is in store?

This time a year ago, the question with Raymond was simply where he would play. And frankly, he seemed destined for a season in Grand Rapids.

Yeah, about that. Raymond exploded onto the scene, making the NHL’s All-Rookie team behind a 23-goal, 57-point season. Now the question is: What will he do for an encore?

Now that he’s been through the grind of an NHL schedule — which he seemed to feel as the season wore on — Raymond could very well pop even more this season. Especially if Detroit’s power play, on which Raymond will be a key piece, can take a long-awaited step forward. Teams know more about him now than they did a year ago, but the bet here is Raymond’s improvement will outpace the ways opponents adjust to defend him.

And examine a “new guy”…

David Perron: Can he help establish a new culture?

Perron might have been the single best addition the Red Wings made this summer. He’s a high-level scorer who shoots right-handed, which will help the power play, and he should bring some jam to the top six, as well. That all will give Detroit a boost right away.

In the big picture, though, one of the most valuable things Perron brings to the Red Wings may be in the dressing room. He’s been a part of a Stanley Cup winner in St. Louis, and he wore a letter on the famous “Golden Misfits” team in Vegas that shocked everyone in the franchise’s first season. Those experiences could prove vital as Lalonde tries to set a foundation in Detroit.

Perron knows what it takes to set and maintain a winning standard, and for that reason, he’s a candidate to wear an “A” for the Red Wings — and to back it up on the ice.

Continued (paywall)

Tweets of note from the Wings: Banging the walls with medicine balls, and the NHL Network on the Wings’ future

Per the Red Wings comes two Tweets of note today:

First, this is an unmistakable sound when you’re at the BELFOR Training Center, the Red Wings’ practice facility, and Dylan Larkin illustrates how the Red Wings’ players make it:

Second, the NHL Network gents had a little discussion about the fact that the Red Wings were picked by Twitter-based fans as the rebuilding team with the brightest future:

Prospect round-up: Buchelnikov 2G+1A in MHL; Tuomisto plays 25:25 in TPS Turku CHL loss

Of prospect-related note on a Sunday in early September:

Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, I had to do some Russian-language digging to find this one, but in the MHL, which is the equivalent of a Russian Major Junior hockey league, Dmitri Buchelnikov posted a goal and 2 assists for 3 points, finishing at -1 with 5 shots in 20:51 as SKA-1946 won 7-6 over Red Army Moscow.

It’s very early in the KHL and MHL seasons, but it looks like Buchelnikov will be bouncing up and down between the men’s league, where he’s going to play 4th line minutes, and the Major Junior league, where the 18-year-old who turns 19 on September 6th is a dominant player.

And in the CHL, at least Antti Tuomisto is playing a ton with TPS Turku. TPS lost 1-0 against EV Zug on Sunday, but Tuomisto finished at -1 in 25:25, leading all TPS Turku players in ice time.

It’s not ideal that Tuomisto headed back to Finland after playing for two years at the University of Denver, but if he’s going to average 25+ minutes per night, that’s a net plus.

There aren’t any highlights yet, but I’ll post them when they pop up.

Update: Here are the highlights at 3:59 PM: