Month: July 2023

Woodward Sports Network’s Terry Foster discusses what he believes are the “hold-ups” to a possible trade between the Red Wings and Ottawa Senators for one Alex DeBrincat:

The Red Wings and Ottawa Senators reached a tentative agreement bringing him to Detroit. That is why his name was taken off the Ottawa Senators website.

However, Yzerman is a tough negotiator. The Wings won’t make anything official until reaching an agreement with DeBrincat. Yzerman does not like long-term deals no matter who is the player because he does not want a situation where DeBrincat is stumbling across the ice like a drunken sailor at age 34 or 35.

DeBrincat wants an eight-year deal valued at between $8.75 million to $9 million per season.

Yzerman won’t move off five-years at $7.5 million a year. The number of years is more important to Yzerman than the money. He does not want a replay of the Tigers Miggy deal where slugger Miguel Cabrera still commands a huge salary despite minimal production on a losing team.

DeBrincat, 25, says he wants to play for the Red Wings but in his defense this is his last chance at a big contract.

So the Red Wings and DeBrincat must find a compromise to make this happen.

The Wings do not want to pay DeBrincat more than Captain Dylan Larkin (eight-years, $69.5 million). Unless they swing for the fences and obtain Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, the next Wing to earn $9 million or more will be defenseman Mo Seider.

Continued

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

UPDATE: The Detroit #RedWings today re-signed goaltender John Lethemon to a one-year, two-way contract. pic.twitter.com/1SjR5CUpNI

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 8, 2023

RED WINGS RE-SIGN GOALTENDER JOHN LETHEMON TO ONE-YEAR CONTRACT

  … 2022-23 ECHL Goaltender of the Year Posted 18-1-3 Record With Toledo Walleye …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today re-signed goaltender John Lethemon to a one-year, two-way contract.

Continue reading Red Wings re-sign G John Lethemon to 1-year, 2-way contract

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen wonders aloud which of the Red Wings’ younger players might earn the roster spot once held by former Red Wing Filip Zadina:

No one in the Detroit organization, GM Steve Yzerman in particular, liked how the Filip Zadina departure unfolded. But the result of the contract termination:  Detroit has roughly $13.5 milion in cap space (according to capfriendly.com).

That figure includes Alex Lyon playing in the American Hockey League. Plus, the Red Wings still have to pay restricted free agent Joe Veleno. AFP Analytics projects Veleno’s salary will be $1.259 million on a two-year deal. It wouldn’t be surprising if Yzerman gave him $1.3 or 1.4 million. Veleno has shown progress.  Zadina was earning an average of $1.8 million per season

But the other factor of the Zadina departure is that it opens up a roster spot. The Red Wings currently have 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies for 22 players on the roster.

That could be a spot for Alex DeBrincat. (It should be noted that a DeBrincat deal could include someone off Detroit’s roster.)

If the DeBrincat deal doesn’t come to pass, players such as Elmer Soderblom, or one of the young defensemen, or Marco Kasper could claim it. Also, don’t rule out the Red Wings acquiring another veteran. Yzerman has said he’s still talking to other GMs.

Continued

The Athletic’s beat writers discuss the “biggest unaddressed need(s)” of each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams a week into the unrestricted free agent period, and you won’t be surprised to find out that scoring is an issue that the Red Wings have yet to address:

Detroit Red Wings

A scorer: Yes, but it will take a big trade. The free-agent market was thin this year, and especially considering the Red Wings are still building toward an ultimate window that’s more in the future than the present, they need any such addition to be young (or young-ish). All eyes are of course on Alex DeBrincat, and to a lesser extent William Nylander, but both are expected to be pricey, both in acquisition cost and the potential contract they would command. That makes any potential trade a fine line to walk for a Detroit team that’s not in win-now mode and has to keep its big picture in mind. — Max Bultman

Continued (paywall); I wouldn’t buy into the Nylander hype.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff profiles Alexandre Doucet this morning:

Last season, the 21-year-old left-winger tallied 58 goals in a QMJHL season split between the Val d’Or Foreurs and Halifax Mooseheads. He counted an additional 14 goals and 31 points in 21 playoff games for the Mooseheads.

Along the way, the undrafted junior also was catching the eye of the Red Wings, who would sign the free agent to a pro contract.

“I started to talk in January,” Doucet said. “I couldn’t sign before March 1. Talked to a couple of teams and it was really Detroit. They like the way I play. They told me to just keep continuing working on my speed and everything.”

When he was never made a selection the NHL entry draft, Doucet did not despair. Instead, he would utilize being overlooked as inspiration that was helping to grow his game.

“Even my draft year I knew I wasn’t going to get drafted, so it’s more like not being drafted is motivation,” Doucet explained. “It’s my first camp, too, so it’s just hard work and not being drafted, not having camp and finally I had a great year last year as a 20-year-old. A couple of teams saw that and the Red Wings, too.”

Continued

The Free Press’s Shawn Windsor weighs in regarding the Red Wings’ pursuit of Alex DeBrincat this morning, suggesting that the fact that the organization is making a push to acquire a star player is good news in itself:

Yzerman obviously isn’t finished trying to add a jolt of lightning to the “collective approach,” as evidenced by the reports of talks with Ottawa all week. And assuming the reports are true — that the Wings and Senators have been talking — then it’s safe to assume Yzerman is ready to take a bigger swing.

It’s time.  

That some level of talks — and/or full-fledged negotiations — are happening is a sign that the next phase of the rebuild is finally here: Pushing for the playoffs. 

The Wings haven’t made the postseason in seven seasons now, the longest drought in franchise history. Four Stanley Cups and a 25-year playoff streak surrounding those Cups obviously helped ease the pain of the current drought.  

But seven years is a long time in a league where half the teams make the playoffs. And though head coach Derek Lalonde’s arrival helped reset the grace period a bit, the franchise can only acknowledge its need for a serious scorer for so long without seriously trying to go get one. 

It looks like they are.  

And if they don’t land him? 

Continued (no paywall)

Yahoo Sports Canada’s Anthony Petrielli discusses “the 5 best moves” of the unrestricted free agent period (thus far), and the Red Wings actually earn a nod for their acquiring and then signing of one Klim Kostin:

Red Wings acquire, then sign Klim Kostin: One of the most unheralded trades last season was the Blues and Oilers‘ October swap of Dmitri Samorukov for Klim Kostin. It wasn’t until mid-November that Kostin got into the Oilers lineup, and it wasn’t until Dec. 1 that he actually got a point. He never really looked back from there, putting up 21 points in 50 games through to the end of the season, and bringing some real physicality along the way. He fought four times during the season and once more in the playoffs and laid a number of big, heavy hits.

In the playoffs, he also put up five points in 12 games, though he wasn’t even playing eight minutes per contest. He showed he can be a physical contributor, capable of changing games with energy shifts and chipping in double-digit goal totals. Drafted 31st overall in 2017, the 24-year-old is finally looking like a player putting it together, but he was caught in a cap crunch and was packaged with Kailer Yamamoto (who later signed with Seattle), in a trade to Detroit.

The Red Wings then signed Kostin to a two-year, $4-million deal. If he stays the same — a 10-plus goal scorer that hits and fights some — he’s worth that contract. If his game continues to improve basically at all, it’s a bargain. When the contract expires, he will still be an RFA, to boot.

The Red Wings have signed a number of questionable contracts over the past two offseasons that carry all sorts of risk, but this one is relatively risk-free with really only upside here. Adding Kostin’s game to their lineup that features quite a bit of skill should be a welcome addition to the group, and gives them all sorts of options to move him around their forward lines.

Continued; Kostin also spoke with on YouTube with the “Cherkas Atlant” channel, but you might not get much out of it unless you speak Russian:

The NHL Network’s Mike Rupp and Bruce Boudreau weigh in on the Red Wings and Filip Zadina’s mutual decision to part ways:

My feelings regarding Filip Zadina are pretty simple right now:

1. I wish him all the best in his endeavors to find success in the NHL;
2. And, at the same time, I don’t give a shit about where he lands, or which team’s fan base believes that a player who has struggled in the NHL thus far is going to represent an “unbelievable steal” for their fan base.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, Zadina’s decision to walk away from nearly $5 million in pay was perhaps the exclamation point upon an era of sub-par drafting by the Red Wings under the late Ken Holland/Tyler Wright regime:

On the surface, that the sixth player chosen by the Red Wings in the 2018 NHL entry draft didn’t pan out is certainly an alarming situation.

“Theoretically or statistically, the higher players are picked, the more likelihood you’re gonna get that impact player,” Detroit GM Steve Yzerman said.

For example,  in 2019, Yzerman’s first draft as Detroit GM, he got defenseman Moritz Seider with the sixth overall pick. Two years later, he tabbed another defenseman, Simon Edvinsson, in the same draft slot.

“There’s no guarantees,” Yzerman said. “The first pick overall, usually you’re getting a pretty good player. Sometimes you’re getting a superstar. With each pick, the numbers decrease a little bit.”

Not hitting on the sixth pick is devastating, and even more so for a rebuilding club like the Red Wings. But it’s also an indication of how the previous Detroit regime, through a combination of poor drafting and some ill-advised trades, were leaving the cupboard virtually bereft of talent when Yzerman took over.

Detroit’s current lineup includes just three first-round selections made by the combination of GM Ken Holland and amateur scouting director Tyler Wright – forwards Dylan Larkin (15th, 2014), Michael Rasmussen (9th, 2017) and Joe Veleno (30th, 2018). It certainly hasn’t helped Yzerman’s cause that first-round picks such as Zadina, Dennis Cholowski (20th, 2016) and Evgeni Svechnikov (19th, 2015) didn’t pan out as NHLers.

Continued; many first-round picks don’t pan out. As Steve Yzerman suggested, it hurts, but it’s not surprising. That being said, swinging poorly in three of the final five Holland drafts didn’t help the cause…

But Ken Holland has moved on, the Red Wings have another scouting staff in place, and the team is doing its best to bolster their draft picks with free agent signings like Alexandre Doucet.

We’ll see what the future holds for both Zadina and the Red Wings. I hope the latter case is brighter.

MLive’s Ansar Khan penned a profile of Red Wings 2022 first round draft pick Marco Kasper, discussing the affable young man’s oversized “motor“:

“He does too much, if that makes sense,” Red Wings director of player development Danny Cleary said. “He’s wanting more and more and more. It’s like, ‘Kasper, you might have to bring it back a little bit.’ There’s no issue with Kasper’s work ethic and determination. He’s got high character. He’s just a good person.”

Kasper will be competing for a roster spot in training camp. Realistically, he will need development time with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins. General manager Steve Yzerman said it without saying it after acquiring forwards J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong, Christian Fischer and Klim Kostin in the past week.

Kasper isn’t putting pressure on himself to make the team. After completing his second development camp this week, he’s focused on having a strong summer of training and fully recovering from a knee injury suffered in a 5-2 victory at Toronto on April 2, six days before his 19th birthday.

And the Austrian native who speaks German, Swedish and English is happy to be a high school graduate.

“In Sweden, it’s hard to try to juggle school and hockey, but I managed to do it with help from the teachers and principal,” Kasper said. “Typical day was practice first, usually started at 9, and then work out and go to lunch and then go to school for a little bit, do some work in school, go home, relax, do some more schoolwork and then do it all over again the next day.

“I’m trying to become a hockey player, but it was important for me and my family to graduate. I think it’s good for younger players to focus on other things instead of only focusing on hockey, so you can take your mind off hockey and just go to school, meet other kids, have fun outside of hockey as well.”

Continued; I’ve seen a lot of prospects over my time as a blogger, and I can tell you that Marco is going to make the NHL, and be successful. How much so, I’m not certain, but he’s going to be an everyday NHL player. He just cares too much and works too hard to not succeed.