Month: July 2023

AP on Yzerman/DeBrincat remarks: DeBrincat hopes to ‘restore the roar’

The Associated Press posted a summary of the remarks made by Steve Yzerman and Alex DeBrincat this morning:

“I hope all the changes we’ve made, additions we’ve made to the roster, make us a more competitive team,” Yzerman said Monday.

Detroit dealt one of its first-round picks next year, a 2024-fourth round selection, 20-goal scorer Dominik Kubalik and defensive prospect Donovan Sebrango to add a proven talent to its offensively challenged team.

The 25-year-old DeBrincat, who scored 41 goals in two of his six NHL seasons, has 187 goals and 373 points in his career with the Senators and Chicago Blackhawks. He had 27 goals — including 11 on the power play and six that won games — and 66 points last season.

DeBrincat, who is from Farmington Hills, Michigan, was a fan of Detroit’s 2008 Stanley Cup championship team. His favorite player was dazzling center Pavel Datsyuk.

“Growing up here and rooting for the Red Wings when I was younger, it’s definitely a dream come true,” he said. “I don’t think anyone is happier than my parents. Everyone’s happy. It’s a good spot for me.”

The Red Wings have been in a bad spot for several years, failing to make the playoffs for seven straight seasons, after winning four Stanley Cups during a run of 25 consecutive postseason appearances.

“They were just so successful through my childhood,” DeBrincat said. “It was so fun to watch. It’s a big reason why I play the game. Hopefully, we can be successful here again.”

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Bultman on Yzerman and DeBrincat’s remarks: pluck added

The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses Steve Yzerman and Alex DeBrincat’s remarks this morning, offering a sound analysis of both gentlemen’s pressers:

Yzerman didn’t completely rule out another move this summer — he said, “If there’s a great player out there and we can acquire him or something, that forces us to go, we would strongly consider it” — but concluded more tellingly: “I don’t see us doing a whole lot more.” That means Detroit’s roster, as it stands, now looks somewhat set for next season.

There were more additions than just DeBrincat this summer, with J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong, Christian Fischer and Klim Kostin all joining the forward mix, Justin Holl and Shayne Gostisbehere added on defense, and a pair of potential backup goalies in James Reimer and Alex Lyon. The idea is for the totality of those additions to make Detroit deeper, harder to play against and ultimately just better. But there’s little doubt DeBrincat is the highest-leverage move of the summer — and the one that raises their chances of competing for a playoff spot the most.

“I think obviously early in my career (the Red Wings were) deep in the rebuild, and these past couple years you can see that the compete level has definitely been higher,” DeBrincat observed. “You see a team that’s maybe frustrated with being in a rebuild and wants to get out. I’m excited to be here, and kind of join that and hopefully be part of the solution to get out of that. Just really excited to join these guys, and I definitely see the potential in this group.”

When Larkin and DeBrincat were playing golf earlier this summer, the two agreed it would be fun to play together. Maybe that will be on Detroit’s top line — combining Detroit’s current leading scorer and its new most lethal finishing threat — or maybe on separate deployments, spreading out the offense for their shared hometown team. No doubt, that question will be one for coach Derek Lalonde to chew on as the dog days of summer kick in.

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HSJ on Zadina, who signed with San Jose: Yzerman respects Zadina’s gumption

As the Free Press’s Helene St. James notes, Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman doesn’t take Filip Zadina’s decision to terminate the 2 years remaining on his contract by going through unconditional waivers to be a fool’s errand:

Locking up newcomer Alex DeBrincat through 2026-27 on a deal with a $7,875,000 annual average value still leaves the Wings flexibility, thanks partly to terminating the contract of Filip Zadina. When that was triggered last week, the Wings saved $1.825 million in salary cap space and $4.56 million in actual salary over the next two seasons, while Zadina walked away from the nearly $5 million in guaranteed salary.

“That’s a positive,” Yzerman said Monday. “I go back to, when we signed Filip a year ago, the feeling was he’s going to get better and continue to play a bigger role. Mostly through injury this year, that didn’t happen. I’d rather have a $1.8 million in cap space than potentially a player playing in the AHL. So, Filip wanted a fresh start. He’s able to do that. Good for him. And we’re able to put the not only the cap space but the actual dollars into other things.”

…

“We discussed it, I brought it up with Filip earlier in the summer, discussed it with his agent a little bit,” Yzernan said. “Ultimately if he wanted a fresh start — I tried to trade him, we put him on waivers, just couldn’t move him. This is the only way to get a fresh start. 

“I really respect him for making this decision. He’s not a dumb person. He knows what he’s given up. But his career is more important than the dollars and I wish him well, I really do. My experience with him was always good. He’s a nice young man, he’s worked hard, it just hasn’t worked out. I wish him good luck somewhere else.”

Hopefully it happens in San Jose, where Zadina signed a 1-year, $1.1 million contract.

HSJ on DeBrincat deal: offering the GM’s perspective

The Free Press’s Helene St. James weighed in regarding the Alex DeBrincat trade today, and she emphasizes Steve Yzerman’s perspective in having completed his main summertime task:

Steve Yzerman has a few administrative things to take care of this week, but otherwise, things are about to dramatically slow down.

That was Yzerman’s report Monday from his office suite at Little Caesars Arena, where his list of 2023-24 Detroit Red Wings now includes Alex DeBrincat. It took about two weeks of chatting with his Ottawa Senators counterpart to get the deal finalized, and the end result is adding the offensive firepower the Wings needed.

“We talked about adding goal-scoring ability to the team and I think Alex definitely fits that bill,” Yzerman said. “I think he’s a very intelligent hockey player. He has shown he can score goals at every level – at the junior level, at the NHL level. Very intelligent player. He’ll fit in nicely on the wing with us, whoever the coach decides to play with him. 

“I would say I think we’re a better team today with Alex DeBrincat in the lineup. I hope all the changes we’ve made, additions we’ve made, make us a more competitive team.”

It cost Dominik Kubalik, a veteran winger who scored 20 goals last season; mid-range defense prospect Donovan Sebrango, and a conditional first-round and fourth-round pick in 2024. The condition is the Wings get to choose between their own or the one they got from the Boston Bruins in the Tyler Bertuzzi trade, so that, Yzerman said, “gives us a little protection.” The Wings turned around and signed DeBrincat for four years at a $7.875 million annual average value.

“It was a number we were both comfortable with,” Yzerman said. “Bringing a player in, things are changing. You’re starting to see more players signing shorter-term contracts, not necessarily going the full seven and eight years. We discussed four and five and we were both comfortable doing four years.”

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Detroit News’s Bianchi weighs in on the Yzerman and DeBrincat pressers

The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi is the first to post an article regarding the comments made by Steve Yzerman and Alex DeBrincat this morning:

“It’s definitely a dream come true,” DeBrincat said Monday about playing for his hometown team. “I do have to say, I don’t think anyone’s happier than my parents. It’s a full-family (thing), everyone’s happy and it’s a good spot for me.”

DeBrincat, 25, was traded from Ottawa to the Red Wings Sunday night in a deal that sent back defense prospect Donovan Sebrango, 27-year-old winger Dominik Kubalik, a conditional first-round pick in 2024 and a 2024 fourth-rounder. DeBrincat, who was in his final offseason as a restricted free agent, signed a four-year extension with Detroit with a $7.875 average annual value (AAV).

At his introductory Zoom press conference Monday — where he was wearing a teal Detroit Pistons hat — he was clear on the expectations for his arrival in Hockeytown. It’s not all about feel-good stories and playing close to home.

“They were just so successful through my whole childhood. It was so fun to watch. That’s a big reason why I play the game. To get to that point, that success, is definitely a goal of mine. Hopefully, we can be successful here again,” DeBrincat said.

“Obviously, early in my career, (the Red Wings were) deep in the rebuild. These past couple years, you can see that the compete level has definitely been higher. You see a team that’s maybe frustrated with being in a rebuild and wants to get out. So, I’m excited to be here and join that and hopefully be part of the solution to get out of that. … I definitely see the potential in this group.”

Between DeBrincat, captain Dylan Larkin (Waterford), centers Andrew Copp (Ann Arbor) and Austin Czarnik (Washington Township), the Red Wings now roster four Michigan-born players. Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman said there’s an “added benefit” of a player “being more invested” when they play for their hometown team.

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Audio: 97.1 the Ticket debates whether the Red Wings are a playoff team

Per the “Stoney and Jansen with Heather” show:

Tweets of note: A DeBrincat highlight clip, and quotes of note

The NHL posted an Alex DeBrincat highlight reel…

And the Red Wings posted this:

More DeBrincat trade analysis from EP Rinkside

EP Rinkside’s Dmitri Filipovic breaks down the DeBrincat trade from an analytical perspective:

When we wrote up our main takeaways from July 1st’s spending spree recently, I was rather critical of how the Red Wings were going about their business. For the second straight summer, they were aggressively dipping into the free agent market and investing legitimate resources in players that didn’t really make sense for their purposes. 

It wasn’t even a critique of the players themselves in isolation, it was purely a question about the awkwardness of how they fit within big-picture plans. Detroit isn’t nearly good enough right now, nor are they close enough to seriously competing in the immediate future to justify that sort of team building approach. Tying up money years down the road on players who already aren’t legitimate difference-makers into their late 20s and early 30s is an easy way to limit your upside for growth as an organization, and to make sure that you’re stuck in the purgatory that is the mushy middle in the NHL.

DeBrincat is an entirely different story however. Even when applying the context of where the Red Wings are currently at as an organization, it’s still nearly impossible not to like this deal from their perspective. He turns just 26 a couple of months into the season, and they now have him for his 26, 27, 28, and 29-year-old campaigns. They essentially managed to get him for the remainder of his most productive seasons, without having to pay for any of the stuff at the back end that you’d typically pinch your nose about and attempt to justify as the price of doing business. 

Not only is he a really good player, but he’s also conveniently one who possesses the type of the skill that the Red Wings are desperate for in the worst way. To put it bluntly, their offence last year was awful. 

At 5-on-5 Detroit finished 28th in scoring, 31st in high danger chances generated, and had this monstrosity of a shot chart. 

The area where he’ll help provide a much needed shot in the arm most specifically is off of the rush. Regularly creating quality looks in today’s game has become largely dependant on your ability to attack in transition, so it’s no surprise that a team like the Red Wings struggled so mightily offensively in 2022-2023. 

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