Month: July 2023

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers the second part of a two-part mailbag feature today, and Max lists his top 10 (well, 11) Red Wings prospects as part of a superb set of answers to reader questions:

What is your personal top 10 ranking of our prospect pool? — Luke Y.

Corey Pronman will have his full Red Wings under-23 rankings out sometime this summer, but my personal ranking of the prospects would go:

1. Simon Edvinsson
2. Marco Kasper
3. Nate Danielson
4. Carter Mazur
5. Axel Sandin Pellikka
6. William Wallinder
7. Sebastian Cossa
8. Amadeus Lombardi
9. Elmer Söderblom
10. Albert Johansson
11. Trey Augustine

I threw Augustine in there as a bonus at 11, because I feel he belongs in that same tier, before a bit of a drop-off.

The ranking isn’t a pure upside ranking, it blends that factor with the likelihood (as I perceive it) of reaching that ceiling. That’s why Mazur ranks higher than the much higher-drafted Sandin Pellikka, for example: He has the potential to be a top-six NHL forward and is already getting close to the NHL.

Max’s rationale continues (paywall), and I said yesterday that I’d cut some of the paywall-peeking short after yesterday’s gob of text, so you’ll have to subscribe to read it.

Anyway, yes, my list is different, but I’ll have to think about where players rank as to who fits where among the 33 players who EliteProspects consider to be Red Wings prospects at this time.

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn posted his list of the most-improved teams of the 2023 offseason, and, somewhat surprisingly, he ranks the Red Wings as the best-improved team not named the New Jersey Devils:

2. Detroit Red Wings

Goal Difference added: 14.4
Salary added: $22.9 million

In: Alex DeBrincat, Daniel Sprong, Shayne Gostisbehere, J.T. Compher, Justin Holl, James Reimer, Klim Kostin, Christian Fischer
Out: Dominik Kubalik, Robert Hagg, Pius Suter, Jordan Oesterle, Filip Zadina

The Red Wings were the offseason champion last summer and once again find themselves near the top of the list this year after a very busy offseason. The end result is a team whose goal differential improves by 14, a number that wouldn’t be enough to put them into a playoff position, but would bring them significantly closer. Let’s recap.

At the top of the list is Alex DeBrincat, a big-time get that immediately adds oomph to the top of Detroit’s lineup. I’m skeptical a team can contend with DeBrincat as their second-best forward, but he’s obviously an improvement over a team having David Perron as their second-best forward.

After DeBrincat is a steady stable of talent meant to improve Detroit’s depth. Up front, Daniel Sprong showed promise as a depth scorer last season, J.T. Compher should stabilize the middle behind Dylan Larkin, and Klim Kostin adds some strength to the bottom six. On the back end, Shayne Gostisbehere is a strong puck-mover that can play on the second pair while Justin Holl is a cromulent defender that can handle tough minutes. In net, James Reimer should be an improvement over Alex Nedeljkovic.

There’s a lot happening here and while it’s difficult to say how all the pieces fit, it’s very easy to say that all the pieces are better than what’s being replaced.

Slowly and steadily the Red Wings are getting there. But even after this summer, it’s more than likely that they still aren’t there yet. A little more patience is required.

Continued; a lot of things are going to have to develop correctly for the Red Wings to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference’s best division this upcoming season, from the goaltending sorting itself out to better special teams play and the team avoiding the worst of the injury but…

But it’s possible, maybe realistically possible for the first time in a long time, and that’s exciting.

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler posted a list of his top 50 drafted prospects yesterday, with the caveat being that his list consisted of “skaters.” Today, Wheeler shares his top 10 drafted goaltenders, and two of them are Red Wings prospects:

5. Sebastian Cossa, G, 20 (Detroit Red Wings — No. 15, 2021)

Cossa is a huge (6-foot-6), powerful, athletic goalie, and those last two things don’t always come with the first. He’s a fiery, confident, talkative competitor who doesn’t like to get beat (which contrasts with the stoic demeanour we see in many goalies) and wants to command the net and the room. Bigger goalies often struggle with their movements and their recoveries, but neither is an issue for Cossa. His positioning (he does a really good job holding his outside edges to be patient on shots) and reflexes (he’s got great hands up high) help him block and grab a lot of pucks. But it’s his ability to bounce back into his stance or change directions with passes that separates him. His power through his pushes gives him rare side-to-side ability for a goalie that big as well.

But there are also some question marks. Some of them are contextual, like how good the Oil Kings were in front of him for three years, and some of the leaks his game has displayed while playing behind teams with less structure in front of him (including in Hockey Canada camps and then last year in spurts in the ECHL, a league that’s notoriously hard on goalies — although he did find his groove). But other questions are about the tools, including some of the trouble he faces closing his five-hole because of his size (this is a major recurring issue, even though he does a really good job kicking pucks aimed for the lower corners) and the way he can occasionally lose himself in his net on scramble plays (those strong pushes to get to tough lateral saves can pull him off his lines). He can get pulled out of his net over-committing on dekes, too.

His natural gifts give him undeniable upside, though. When he’s set and square to shots, he’s tough to beat. I’ve seen him look unflappable and make point-blank save after point-blank save when he’s dialed in. I’ve also seen him look rattled as shots sneak through holes they shouldn’t be finding. I still think he’s got starter upside due to his combination of size, dexterity and explosiveness in the net, but he’s got work to do, and patience will be imperative.

6. Trey Augustine, G, 18 (Detroit Red Wings — No. 41, 2023)

The definition of calm, cool, and collected, Augustine is the best goalie prospect to come through the national program since Knight. I like him more now than I liked Blackhawks goalie prospect Drew Commesso at the same age, for example.

He’s just dialed in, by all accounts just as much off the ice in the way he carries himself and goes about his business as on the ice, where his game has rare detail for a netminder his age. He’s got a good glove hand. He’s good moving on his knees/in a crouch. He’s good at tracking pucks through traffic and across ice on seam plays. He plays good, sharp angles. His rebound control steering pucks into the corners is good. He’s good at getting down into his butterfly to close his five-hole quickly. He’s just a good goalie. And while he’s not big for a goalie and I’m not 100 percent certain he’s the best of a strong 2023 draft class in net even though he’s ranked that way for me, he’s the one I’d feel most comfortable with starting a game for my team tomorrow.

Continued (paywall);

Jesper Wallstedt is Wheeler’s #1 prospect, and at this point, I can only shrug my shoulders at the Wings’ decision to draft Cossa over Wallstedt, and suggest that Detroit picked Cossa two years ago because Cossa still has a lot of raw talent that needs to be refined.

His developmental trajectory will take longer than Wallstedt’s, but it’s still entirely possible that Cossa becomes the “next big thing” in goal in two or three seasons.

As for Augustine, he’s only 6 feet tall, which isn’t gigantic by today’s goaltending standards, but he’s solid in every aspect of his game, and he’s probably the safest bet that the Red Wings have made this side of Nate Danielson in terms of guaranteeing that he’s going to turn pro at some point because he’s just so damn strong in everything he does.

Former Toledo Walleye defenseman Gordi Myer and Walleye forward Trenton Bliss (who recently signed a 2-way contract with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins) happen to have played for the relatively-unknown new Walleye head coach, Pat Mikesch, in the USHL with Green Bay, and both Myer and Bliss tell the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe that the Walleye have made a sound hire in their former bench boss:

“He’s super competitive. He wants to win,” said Myer, the Sylvania native who recently announced his retirement after playing the past two seasons for the Walleye. “He wants his team to score a lot of goals. We played a similar style in Green Bay like we do here in Toledo. Walleye fans should be excited.”

Myer played two seasons under Mikesch (2014-15 and 2015-16), who was officially announced as the fourth coach in Walleye history last week.

Bliss, who played in 51 games for the Walleye last season, started his junior career under Mikesch. Bliss played in 86 games with Green Bay during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons.

“We played fast-paced. We wanted to get out in transition and create odd-man rushes,” Bliss said. “That all started with being sound defensively, and he was really trying to emphasize the importance of taking care of our D-zone. He was able to trust a lot of us in Green Bay to be sound defensively and not cheat the game, play 200 feet. That’s just kind of an expectation and everyone bought into that culture. I think it’s a great hire for the Walleye.”

Myer said he appreciated playing in the attack mentality as an offensive defenseman.

“Of course, you take care of the defensive side first,” he said. “But he lets guys play their game and be creative. The forwards are going to appreciate that. Hopefully, they get some defensemen that can move the puck and get up in the rush.”

Continued (at length)

The Detroit Red Wings drafted goaltender Rudy Guimond, a 6’4,” 179-pound goaltender from Taft School of the US High School Prep league, with the 169th overall pick in this past July’s NHL Draft in Nashville.

Guimond looked very good in his worn, slightly floppy pads during the Red Wings’ 2023 Summer Development Camp, and today, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen offers an analysis of the USHL-bound goaltender, who will spend a “gap year” with the Cedar Rapids Roughriders before heading to Yale University:

[Guimond] is scheduled to play in the United States Hockey League and won’t enroll at Yale as a freshman until 2024-25. That timetable fits well into the Red Wings’ goalie development plan. GM Steve Yzerman and his assistant GM Kris Draper seemed to place special emphasis this summer on strengthening their goalie pipeline. They drafted two goalies (Trey Augustine and Guimond) and re-signed John Lethemon.

Late last season, they signed Red Wings draft pick Jan Bednar, presumably to use in Toledo this season. Sebastian Cossa is clearly the team’s goalie of the future, but Augustine is highly regarded. Plus, the Red Wings seem to like Colgate goalie Carter Gylander. He’s 6-foot-4 and was drafted in the seventh round in 2019.

NHL Central Scouting ranked Guimond 17th overall among North American goalies. Augustine was ranked No. 3 in North America. That probably puts Guimond in the project category. But he is almost 6-foot-3, and scouts seem to like his athleticism.

Continued; as he’s coming out of high school hockey, it will do Guimond good to play in a league where the best of the college-bound players skate in the USHL, and then, the lanky goaltender (who grew up as a Red Wings fan in Quebec) will begin his maturation in earnest.

Of all the European languages that are available for translation, I’m still most hesitant to put Google Translate to work with Finnish and Russian. Finnish can be indecipherable on a good day, and Russian is just…Finnicky.

‘That being said, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff did a very good job of translating parts of an interview that CSKA Moscow coach Sergei Fedorov conducted with KP.ru’s (Komsomolskaya Pravda’s) Kirill Serov.

Fedorov, who has won two straight Gargarin Cups with the Central Red Army team, offers effusive praise for the work of Torpedo Nizhny-Novogorod coach and fellow former Red Wing Igor Larionov…

Larionov joined him in working behind a KHL bench last season, taking over as coach of Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod. In Larionov’s first season, he would guide a group of young, out of favor players to a fourth-place finish in the KHL Western Conference. Torpedo would reach the second round of the playoffs.

“I think that Igor succeeded in everything,” Fedorov told Russian website Kp.ru. “He discovered the versatility of those young players who ended up in the Torpedo system. And the game that they showed, it was difficult to play against them.

“I think in one season, in one preseason, the team made a lot of progress. Many players were not well known. But I understand that the team has climbed very, very high in terms of the level of play and dedication, and their results are quite logical for me.”

Duff continues, and the interview’s rather tame (thankfully) overall.

On Monday, The Athletic’s Max Bultman offered an assessment of the shapes which the next contracts for Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond might take, and MLive’s Ansar Khan delves into the same topic this evening, noting that both players will be restricted free agents next summer (and, thus, are eligible to be extended as of July 1st of this year):

Seider, 22, has shown in two seasons that he’s destined to be an elite player for years to come. Yzerman surely would like to get him signed long term, but for how many years and for how much?

With defensemen, there are more factors than production to consider. But one comparable is Miro Heiskanen, who Dallas signed for eight years at an $8.45 million average annual value two years ago at age 22. Seider would probably slot in at around the $8.5 million range for eight years, if both sides want the maximum term. That would come just under Larkin’s $8.7 million AAV for his eight-year deal that starts this upcoming season.

But perhaps the 2022 Calder Trophy winner as rookie of the year prefers a shorter term (5-6 years) for a chance to cash in bigger when he’s still in his prime at age 27 or 28?

Yzerman last week hinted at his own preference for “mid-term deals,” calling them a good compromise for both sides.

“You’re starting to see more players, at least this offseason, and I think it might be a trend, signing shorter-term contracts, not necessarily going the full 7-8 years,” Yzerman said after acquiring Alex DeBrincat. “I’m not sure I have a hard set philosophy on contracts. There’s risk in every deal. There’s short-term risk you lose control of the player. On the back end, the long-term risk is a lot of things can happen that affect a player’s ability to perform on a long-term deal. What is my philosophy? I try to make a deal with the player, try to understand what they’re looking for and what’s important to them, but ultimately, I’m comfortable. I like these mid-term deals.”

Continued with discussion of Raymond’s possibilities of taking a “bridge deal” or maximizing his term and salary ASAP…

The Hockey News’s Mike Stephens posted a list of four NHL teams who have “helped themselves the most” over the course of this summer’s offseason (so far, anyway), and he lists the Red Wings among the ranks of the most improved:

Detroit Red Wings

Biggest Moves: Alex DeBrincat, Justin Holl, Klim Kostin, J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong, Shayne Gostisbehere, Christian Fischer, James Reimer, Alex Lyon
Departures: Dominik Kubalik, Filip Zadina, Pius Suter, Mark Pysyk, Robert Hagg, Alex Nedeljkovic

In a vacuum, the Red Wings are a much better hockey team now than they were last season. Authoring one of the busiest off-seasons in the NHL has juiced their depth at all three roster positions, headlined by adding a legitimate offensive weapon in Alex DeBrincat. 

Does that mean they’ll make the playoffs in 2023-24? It’ll be tough. 

Outside of DeBrincat, GM Steve Yzerman didn’t really add any difference-makers to a roster that desperately needed some, opting for quantity over quality. Compher is a second-line center at best. Holl can play second-pair minutes with mixed results. Kostin, Sprong, and Fischer have all only been bottom-six grinders. Reimer and Lyon are 1Bs at best. There are a lot of new names on Detroit’s roster that can play a brand of hockey that is more serviceable than the names they’re replacing. But that’s all they are – serviceable players. 

The Red Wings’ future hinges on two players: DeBrincat and Lucas Raymond. If DeBrincat can go back to his perennial 40-goal form, and Raymond can get back onto the trajectory that made him seem destined for stardom as a rookie in 2021-22, then the Red Wings are in a very good position. But both players regressed last season – particularly DeBrincat, who took a step back in the goal-scoring department the second he was stripped from Patrick Kane’s wing. 

There are a lot of “ifs” at play with the Red Wings here. But no one can deny they’re a better team overall. 

Continued; I would suggest that not forgetting Moritz Seider improving over the course of a full season with Jake Walman, as well as Ville Husso finding a more consistent form in net, will be critical to the Wings’ improvement as well.

That being said, the Red Wings had very little depth before last summer, and Steve Yzerman has spent two summers and a lot of cap space on building a team from the center on out.

Will Detroit make the playoffs? I don’t know, given how stacked the Atlantic Division is, and how competitive the Eastern Conference may be. But they’ve got a chance “if everything goes right,” and that’s more than they’ve had over the last couple of seasons.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a profile of Red Wings 1st round draft pick Nate Danielson this afternoon, and Kulfan focuses on #1 overall draft pick Connor Bedard’s endorsement of the man who went 9th overall last month in Nashville:

Kris Draper, the Wings’ assistant general manager/director of amateur scouting, heard an interview with top overall draft pick Connor Bedard. The subject was players who did a good job defending Bedard, the scoring phenom that was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks. The answer cemented everything Draper felt about Danielson.

“He said Danielson was one of the toughest players to play against,” Draper said. “That kind of stands out in an interview. When we heard that, it was something that put a little smile on our face.”

Bedard reaffirmed it during an interview with reporters before the draft.

“He was probably the guy that maybe gave me the hardest game,” Bedard said. “He’s so fast, so skilled. If you turn it over or something, he’s going to go down and do something. He’s a great player.”

Danielson and Bedard met at hockey camps in Canada as both were progressing into junior standouts. With both playing in the Western Hockey League, they faced each other often and were able to maintain contact and a friendship. Both, incidentally, were roommates at the draft in Nashville.

“I’m super happy for him,” Bedard said after hearing of Danielson going to the Wings. “We first met when I was 15 and he was 16. We did some training in Toronto and we hit it off right away, had a lot of fun together. He’s someone I’m really close with. To be able to be here with him and a lot of friends, and to hear the news that he got taken (by the Wings) is so incredible. He’s a special player and great person.”

Continued

Tim Horton’s has a big promotion in both the U.S. and Canada to support summer camps for kids, and the Red Wings reported on Twitter that former Wing Darren McCarty will be taking part in a promotion to raise support for tomorrow’s “Camp Day”:

TOMORROW! ☕️🍩⛺️

Join @DarrenMcCarty4 at Tim Hortons in Warren (26900 Groesbeck) from 10-11am as he'll be serving up coffee, donuts & more in support of Camp Day! pic.twitter.com/T4xc2wJbqT

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 18, 2023