Month: July 2023

Sean Shapiro digs into the Grand Rapids Griffins’ coaching changes, and the results thereof, on his Substack today:

With [Dan] Watson now at the helm in Grand Rapids, the Red Wings and Griffins are expected to better sync schematically. Watson and [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde have similar views of the game, and while Lalonde isn’t going to give a mandate on how the Griffins play — like some organizations do — there will be an understanding that organizational tactics take precedence.

Which brings us to Carter Mazur and Marco Kasper. Before July 1, there was a chance that Mazur and Kasper could start the season with the Red Wings. But after some veteran signings by Steve Yzerman, even with the potential contract buyout for Filip Zadina, it seems more likely that both will start the season in Grand Rapids.

Mazur turned pro this spring and played six AHL games for the Griffins, scoring six points, and then played for Team USA at the IIHF World Championships, where Lalonde was on staff as an assistant coach.

He’s already an organizational favorite who played for Little Caesars growing up, was coached by current Red Wings assistant GM Kris Draper, and from both a hockey and marketing perspective, could be a key cog to the future of the rebuild.

Kasper is coming to North America for his first full season after playing for Rogle in the SHL. He had a one-game NHL cameo, where he got hurt, which was indicative of how highly Detroit thinks of the 2022 first-round pick.

For both players, this season, where they will likely play in both the NHL and the AHL, is vital to the long-term and short-term build in Detroit.

Continued (paywall)

Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell is not a fan of two of the Red Wings’ free agency contracts, suggesting that the signings of J.T. Compher and Justin Holl will age poorly:

J.T. Compher, Detroit Red Wings

Five years, $5.1 million AAV, 10-team no-trade clause

Look, I understand why this contract is what it is. I addressed it last month in my article predicting which players might get overpaid on the market. There weren’t a lot of quality centers in this year’s free agency class. It slightly improved from when I wrote that piece due to some of the buyouts, but even then it was still slim pickings. That alone was going to see Compher get an overpayment, nevermind the fact that he put up a career year and positioned himself as one of the best centers in that weak market. He’s a fine player, and if he can stay at the level he played at this past season, this contract won’t be that bad, although it’s still a big bet.

That almost convinced me to not include this contract, but what keeps it on the list is the fact that it just doesn’t make sense for Detroit. They made a similar signing last season with Andrew Copp, so while that gives them a reliable 1-2-3 punch down the middle with those two behind Dylan Larkin, neither is a strong No. 2 option. The back-and-forth decisions from the Red Wings also have me questioning the Yzerplan, as GM Steve Yzerman jumped the gun signing veterans who weren’t gamebreakers last season for a team not ready to take that next step, backtracked later in the year when it failed, and is now doing it again this season.

Compher is a solid player, but the Wings now have eight forwards who are 26 or older, and only one is a high-end talent in Larkin. The rest are solid players who would help surround a playoff team, not a rebuilding team, and all they do now is just block the young talent they’ve assembled from developing in the NHL and actually getting playing time.

And Justin Holl’s contract earned a (dis)honorable mention:

Credit: Dennis Schneidler-USA TODAY Sports

Free agency has always been looked at as the time for teams to make some adds without having to give up assets in a trade or use the draft picks and in-house resources required to develop prospects. It’s like someone else put all the work into that player for you, and you just have to open the wallet to have them on your team.

Except in a salary cap world, spending money can also cost you. All the trades we’ve seen where a third team is involved to retain some salary for a draft pick, or a team takes on a bad contract along with assets for nothing in return, have proven that cap space is just as big of an asset. That makes it all the more important to spend it wisely, and there are plenty of opportunities for a team to do the exact opposite.

Today I’m looking at those opportunities, listing off some of the worst contracts handed out so far in free agency. Some come at absurdly high cap hits, some come much longer than they should, but all of them are easy to see aging poorly. I did a prediction of which players would get bad contracts this year before free agency started, and four of them ended up on this list, which just goes to show how easy it is to see coming, and how easy it should have been to avoid them.

To start, here’s a few honorable mentions, deals that aren’t quite as bad as other contracts given out but could still cause problems for their teams.

Justin Holl, Detroit Red Wings ($3.4 million x 3 years) – I don’t hate Holl as much as a lot of other people who’ve watched him regularly seem to, but I was surprised to see him get this much considering the playoff performance he was coming off of. He’s a solid defender that can play in a shutdown role with a good defenseman in a pinch, but it just feels like way too much for him at age 31. And as I’ll get into with another Red Wing contract, it feels like it will just get in the way of their incoming young talent.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen filed an article in which he discusses the strange fact that former Red Wings forward Pius Suter can’t seem to land a job as an unrestricted free agent:

Suter is a reliable NHL player. He’s responsible, versatile and you can count on him for 13 or 14 goals per season. He’s a desirable bottom six forward who can move into a scoring line when injuries mount. The Red Wings liked him and were interested in keeping him, but he was looking for a two-year deal and they were only willing to give him one year.

Perhaps that is holding Suter back in the free agent market. At this point, teams are looking for bargains. They want players making $1 million or less on one-year deals. Suter had an AAV of $3.25 on his last Red Wings’ two-year deal. Doubtful he will get that in today’s market.

Oskar Sundqvist is another ex-Red Wing that remains out-of-work. The Red Wings appreciated his efforts last season as well. He was a plus in the locker room as well.

Now that Alex Nedeljkovic and Magnus Hellberg (Pittsburgh), plus Robert Hagg (Anaheim) and Jordan Oesterle (Calgary), have signed, Suter, Sundqvist, Alex Chiasson and Adam Erne are the remaining unsigned Red Wings from last season.

Continued; Suter had a solid run in Detroit, but I do hope that he finds success elsewhere.

The Athletic’s Ian Mendes discusses the taboo that involves NHL teams making trades to division rivals this morning, with Mendes suggesting that there should not be such a hubbub about teams like the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings possibly doing business to move one Alex DeBrincat:

The Red Wings could desperately use an infusion of talent in their forward group. Detroit has clearly labelled Filip Zadina a failed experiment. Their top goal-scoring winger last season was 34-year-old David Perron, who tallied 24 goals. DeBrincat’s down season in 2022-23, which saw him only score 27 goals, would still make him the highest-scoring winger for the Red Wings.

Given the fact that DeBrincat grew up in the state of Michigan, it’s safe to assume the Red Wings would be on his shortlist of preferred destinations. Detroit also has the draft capital, prospect pool and cap space to make this trade a reality. In some ways, this feels like the most natural landing spot for DeBrincat.

But should Ottawa be leery of sending a two-time 40-goal scorer to a divisional rival?

When Boston and Toronto made the Kessel trade in 2009, the Bruins were coming off a first-place, 116-point campaign. The Maple Leafs, conversely, finished dead last in the division with only 81 points. So maybe Boston didn’t feel that sending Kessel to Toronto would significantly shift the balance of power in their rivalry. (Sure enough, the Bruins were crowned Stanley Cup champions about 20 months after this trade, while the Leafs continued to languish in the basement of the standings.)

The Ottawa-Detroit dynamic right now is quite a bit different. While both the Senators and Red Wings are mired in two of the longest active playoff droughts in the league, both franchises feel like they are on the precipice of success.

Ottawa might feel concerned that by sending DeBrincat to Detroit, it would push the Red Wings over the threshold of success and into a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. If there is only one new playoff spot up for grabs in the Eastern Conference next season, the Senators would probably be kicking themselves if they improved Detroit’s roster in a manner that pushed the Red Wings into a postseason spot at the expense of Ottawa.

Continued (paywall)

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an article which summarizes the importance of the Red Wings’ 2023 Summer Development Camp this morning:

Nearly 50 players participated at Little Caesars Arena, including all 11 selections from the just-completed 2023 NHL draft. Dan Cleary, the assistant director of player development, was among the team personnel in charge of guiding the players the Wings are counting on to turn into future NHLers.

“We say it but I feel like they don’t believe us: It’s more just education,” Cleary said Wednesday. “Come in, have fun, meet people, hopefully your future teammates. We flood them with information. It’s almost overload and then we’ll circle back with them, whether it’s nutrition or sleep. But the on-ice stuff, the skating and the skills, a lot of these guys just need to continue to work on it. Almost every kid here has to get stronger in some aspect of their body.”

That is where team dietician Lisa McDowell has a starring role, guiding the teenagers on what to eat and when.

“A lot of these kids don’t know how to cook, they don’t know how to grocery shop,” Cleary said. “They think what they’re eating is good, but Lisa is great at educating these kids, giving them recipes that they can cook and learn, for all different times of day, whether it be breakfast, snacks, before a game, after a game. It’s a lot for these kids to take in, but when they are turning pro it’s a really big thing because they are living on their own and they have to go get groceries, they have to cook, they have to figure it out. I remember when I was 18, 19, I didn’t have that. As you get older, you get better at it. So we are just trying to give them all the information we can so they’ll be like, ‘Oh, I’ll have this instead of that.’ “

Continued (paywall)

Here’s even more Alex DeBrincat trade talk from the Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch, via Paul Kukla of Kukla’s Korner:

Though the talks with the Detroit Red Wings, DeBrincat’s hometown team, have been on and off again throughout this process, there’s talk those discussions have been revisited.

Andy Strickland, a well-connected St. Louis broadcaster, reported Wednesday the Wings were back in the mix. Sources told Postmedia the Anaheim Ducks and New York Islanders are also among the club’s still trying to find a way to make a deal.

The expectation is that if the Senators can find a way to get DeBrincat and his $9 million salary off the books for next season, Ottawa could sign unrestricted free agent winger Vladimir Tarasenko.

The first order of business is to get DeBrincat moved. That’s turned out to be a challenge because after being given permission to speak to at least three teams regarding a contract extension, his agent, Jeff Jackson, hasn’t been able to get the term or money he wants.

TSN’s Darren Dreger said Monday Jackson is seeking a deal similar to Timo Meier’s eight-year, $70.2 million extension with the New Jersey Devils. That’s an average of $8.8 per season, but teams don’t believe he deserves that salary.

They value him closer to a deal in the $7.8 million range, and sources say none has been willing to offer the eight-year deal that Jackson is demanding for DeBrincat.

The Wings haven’t been willing to go long-term with DeBrincat up to this point, but perhaps both sides are willing to compromise to see if there’s a middle ground that would make a trade with the Senators work.

Continued

If Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek weren’t enough for you, Detroit Hockey Now’s ever-estimable Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff suggests that the Red Wings are indeed in on the Alex DeBrincat sweepstakes, too:

An NHL source is confirming that the Detroit Red Wings are far from out in terms of their chances of acquiring Ottawa Senators forward Alex DeBrincat. However, the currently is a significant stumbling block that if it can’t be overcome, will certainly eventually scuttle any hopes of a deal being made between the two teams.

There’s been rumors of the Red Wings making a move to acquire DeBrincat for a few months now. Speculation regarding those talks hav run hot and cold during that span. More recently, there are reports linking his name in connection with the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals.

However, that doesn’t mean that the Red Wings should be counted out of the running in the DeBrincat sweepstakes. Indications from the source are that talks between Detroit and Ottawa are continuing.

On Wednesday, the NHLPA was announcing that DeBrincat was filing for arbitration.

Continued

I didn’t ask Kris Draper a question when he spoke about the Red Wings’ summer development camps today, because he more or less answered them.

It’s very evident to me, after attending at least a dozen of these things, that the Red Wings believe in attempting to afford their prospects and free agent try-outs every avenue that they can access in order to become better professional athletes and better people.

Whether it’s nutrition, sleep, fitness, social media, financial planning, you name it, the Red Wings probably have some sort of presentation ready to go to help a prospect with it (regardless of whether that prospect is headed for the NHL or headed for remembering that one time they went to development camp). And the Red Wings seem to really want to draft and develop the kinds of people who are self-improvers.

Great week at camp!

🎥 Draper » https://t.co/TJHpu2dcnh
🎥 Cleary » https://t.co/FohCMAFCQe pic.twitter.com/xOgZdcpcVP

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 6, 2023

So, with this, I’m leaving you for the night and going to take care of my aunt by giving her dinner (we have Culver’s tonight, my favorite), filling up her medications, changing a bandage or two if necessary, and doing the kind of stuff I did in the nine months prior to the last, wonderful, wacky and exhausting week of blogging through the draft, free agency, and development camp.

See you a little later.

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton offers up a very superb set of observations regarding the Red Wings‘ 2023 Summer Development Camp this evening:

There were two Red Wings present at development camp with a legitimate shot to start the 2023-24 season at the NHL level: Marco Kasper and Carter Mazur.

Kasper, Detroit’s first round selection in 2022, is coming off a nasty injury at the tail end of last season, and while there were hints of rust during his week of camp, he was still able to turn heads with his skating.

In particular during the 3-on-3 tournament, Kasper was a monster on zone entries.  He could wind up into his own end, traverse the neutral zone, and get the puck safely into the offensive third of the ice with ease.  He scored off one such play.

Kasper also flashed the kind of forechecking pressure that helped make him such an effective player back in Sweden.  Kasper’s puck protection put him at another level from many of his prospect peers.  The 19-year-old Austrian looked at ease with a defender draped across his back, whether in drills early in the week or the 3-on-3 games at its conclusion.  That will be an invaluable tool for Kasper when he does get to the NHL.

Still, Steve Yzerman emphasized that for Kasper (or for Simon Edvinsson, who did not skate at development camp) the Wings will default to starting the player in Grand Rapids but remain open to the possibility that they will play well enough to bypass that step.  Especially considering Kasper’s injury, I would be surprised if he makes the Detroit roster out of training camp, but he will almost certainly play himself into a steady diet of NHL minutes by season’s end.

Continued (at length!)

Check it out at the 7:32 mark: