The Red Wings posted a lovely little Tweet of note regarding the Red Wings and the City of Detroit on its 322nd birthday:
All love on your birthday, @CityofDetroit. 👊@tracywolfson@alroker@rachaelray@craigmelvin pic.twitter.com/xSNMAfbLPc
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 24, 2023
DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills filed a profile of Red Wings prospect Sebastian Cossa today:
Cossa spent most of his 2022-23 campaign with the Red Wings’ ECHL-affiliate Toledo Walleye, posting a 26-16-4 record with a 2.56 goals-against average, .913 save percentage and four shutouts in 46 regular-season games. The 20-year-old netminder also appeared in three games for Grand Rapids.
“I didn’t really know what to expect going down there,” said Cossa, who was Detroit’s 15th overall pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. “It was tougher than what I thought. I had some ups and downs along the way but had a strong second half and a good push in the playoffs there.”
Cossa said a key part of his development will be learning how to use his 6-foot-6, 229-pound frame to his advantage.
“I’m a big guy,” he said. “Sometimes, I don’t have to be at the top of my crease to make saves. It’s more realizing the game and getting used to that level.”
The Fort McMurray, Alberta native also wants to increase his focus and ability to track pucks.
“Guys are bigger at the pro level and know how to use their body a little bit better,” Cossa said. “In the second half, I started to feel more comfortable and confident in it.”
Continued; Cossa is still a long-term project, but he’s one with a significant amount of “upside,” presuming that he continues to work on refining his game.
The Red Wings made a solid investment in Ville Husso last summer, but Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva doesn’t seem to take the team in front of #35–or his lack of a viable goaltending partner–into account while ranking Husso’s acquisition and signing by Detroit as a “Big Money Meh“:
Ville Husso, Detroit Red Wings
Acquired by Detroit for a 2022 third-round pick, signed to three-year, $14.25-million deal
The Red Wings found themselves in a similar position as the young Devils — a growing core of young talent, incremental growth, but in need of a more substantial step forward. Also similar was their question mark in the crease, the club having bet on Calder Trophy finalist Alex Nedeljkovic and getting limited success in 2021-22. In Husso, they seemed to find the perfect do-over for that strategy, the Blues netminder breaking out with a .919 season in St. Louis, earning a Vezina vote, and seemingly setting himself up to be the biggest name on the goalie free-agent market before the Red Wings snagged him. But it didn’t necessarily all go to plan. While Husso looked strong for stretches in his first season as a Red Wing, he ultimately left more to be desired by season’s end. There’s no question the defensive strength of the group in front of him played a role, and that he could still thrive as that group improves. Still, given the numbers he put up previously, and the fact that Detroit gave him more money than the two goalies above, the first chapter of Husso’s Red Wings tenure finished as something of a disappointment.
Continued; Husso wore down because Alex Nedeljkovic, Magnus Hellberg and Victor Brattstrom were unable to stabilize the Red Wings’ goaltending, and Husso was tremendously over-worked by the 55-game mark, and his fundamentals broke down.
He finished the season with a 26-22-and-7 record, with a 3.11 GAA and an .896 save percentage, which is obviously not good enough for a team that hopes to contend for a playoff spot–or at least playoff relevance–this upcoming season.
That’s not to say that his first full season as a starting goaltender couldn’t have gone better–there’s no doubt that he needs to reinforce his fundamentals this summer, work on not flip-flopping from side to side in the crease, and squeezing closed a couple of holes between glove-and-blocker-and-body…
But James Reimer and Alex Lyon’s respective performances in the Red Wings’ crease will help tell the tale as to whether Husso can succeed as a late-blooming starting goaltender, as will the state of the Red Wings’ revamped defense.
There is no doubt that Husso played in at least a couple of his 56 appearances while playing through injuries, and he’s going to have to stay healthy this upcoming season…
But it’s hard to keep every squeaky goal out of the net when the season is winding down, the wheels have come off the playoff train, and you’re playing through pain because the coaching staff doesn’t trust your back-up goaltenders.
iSport.cz’s Pavel Barta posted a behind-a-paywall article in which he interviewed now-Ottawa Senators forward Dominik Kubalik yesterday, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff translated the part of the article not stuck behind the paywall:
When the word came from Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman that he was being dealt to the Ottawa Senators, forward Donimik Kubalik didn’t exactly fall over from the shock of the news being delivered.
“Not that I was ready for the exchange, but I knew it could happen,” Kubalik told Czech website isport.blesk.cz. “Now I’m just looking ahead.”
The Red Wings were sending Kubalik, prospect defenseman Donovan Sebrango and a future first round draft pick to the Senators in order to acquire two-time 40-goal scorer Alex DeBrincat from the Senators.
…
As he was running his annual youth hockey camp back home in Czechia, Kubalik was still adorned in red gloves and red hockey pants adorned with the Red Wings logo.
“Nothing has arrived yet, I’m using old things,” Kubalik explained. “But we got the red gloves from Bauer years ago, so here I had the same color as I wore all last season.”
Continued; Kubalik’s from Plzen, so he’s going to be skating with HK Skoda Plzen shortly.
Via The Athletic’s Max Bultman on Twitter, KHL news source “Hockey News Hub” on Twitter did the hard part of translating an interview that Red Wings prospect and SKA St. Petersburg forward Dmitry Buchelnikov gave to Championat’s Anton Nekrasov:
#LGRW prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov tells Championat why he didn't attend the 2022 NHL Draft and communications with the Red Wings.
— Hockey News Hub (@HockeyNewsHub) July 23, 2023
Source: https://t.co/0jRhHzB5VM pic.twitter.com/Kz74OOzgQJ
Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen discusses how the Red Wings might reach a playoff-worthy level of goal-scoring this upcoming season, over the course of an interesting mid-summer exercise:
Everyone in the NHL, including the Detroit Red Wings, understand that being dominant in one area of hockey doesn’t guarantee success. The Buffalo Sabres finished third in goal scoring last season and missed the playoffs for the 12th consecutive season.
The Sabres were done in by inferior goaltending, inexperience and inconsistent defensive play. It doesn’t matter if you can score 3.57 goals per game if you’re giving up 3.62 goals per game.
But Buffalo’s 2023-24 woes don’t change the truth that team goal scoring is a predictor of season success. Defense and goaltending historically do win championships, but being one of the top 12 scoring teams gives you a high probability of making the playoffs.
One of GM Steve Yzerman’s offseason priorities was improving the team’s offense
In a recent subscription story, Detroit Hockey Now pointed out that 11 of the 12 highest scoring teams made the playoffs. Thirteen of the top 15 scoring teams (86.6%) qualified for the playoffs. Those top 15 scoring teams all scored 271 or more goals over 82 games. That number will change this season, but it’s a good jumping off point to determine how much more productive the Red Wings need to be this season.
The Red Wings scored 237 goals last season. That means they need a 14.3% increase in scoring this season to get to 271.
Per the Grand Rapids Press’s Patrick Nothaft:
In a field of more than 1,000 players at the 2023 Beer City Open, only one competitor owns four NHL championship rings, and on Saturday, he’s tucked away in the northeast corner of Grand Rapids’ bustling Belknap Park pickleball complex.
Donning a backward Toronto Blue Jays hat and Vancouver Canucks athletic shorts, Kris Draper isn’t drawing attention to himself, but there’s a bit of a buzz building around Court 11, where the longtime Detroit Red Wing and his doubles partner, James Fernandez, are locked in an intense elimination match with Jayce Landheer, of Caledonia, and Jordan DeWeerd, of Hudsonville.
“C’mon, Kris!”
“Let’s go, Draper!”
The former Grind Line center, who’s now the Red Wings assistant general manager, has the support of a growing crowd, but he maintains a steady demeanor, hesitant to celebrate winning shots too vigorously or chirp at his opponents like he did during his 17-year playing career in Detroit.
“It’s funny. I’m the exact opposite on the pickleball court,” he said. “I kind of try to play low-key and all that, and a lot of the other guys are very vocal and cheering, so it’s kind of ironic how that happened.”
The fan support wasn’t enough, however, as the West Michigan natives defeated Draper and Fernandez by the slimmest of margins, 15-13, to advance in the men’s doubles consolation bracket at the 5.0 skill level, which is the tournament’s highest amateur offering.
The Free Press’s Helene St. James filed a morning column regarding the maturation of Marco Kasper. The tri-lingual prospect will “make the jump” to North American hockey after two seasons with Rogle BK in Sweden, where Kasper adjusted to playing professional hockey while juggling the demands of completing his high school education outside his native Austria:
Kasper stands to be in for a big change now that he is transitioning to play in North America. Not just the smaller ice surface, but daily practices, games three-to-four times a week, and a demanding travel schedule. Development camp at Little Caesars Arena in early July was a good primer for Kasper to learn how much of an impact nutrition and sleep can make — and to show how far he has come in the year since the Wings drafted him. In fact, there’s an argument for him to slow down a bit.
“He does too much, if that makes sense,” Wings director of player development Dan 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’s drive — along with his skills, skating and hockey sense — are what led general manager Steve Yzerman to select Kasper at No. 8 a year ago. But as with 2021 top pick Simon Edvinsson, Yzerman isn’t going to hand Kasper an NHL job before he is ready. Trading for Alex DeBrincat and Klim Kostin and signing J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong and Christian Fischer stocked the Wings with NHL forwards, and signaled that higher-ups anticipate Kasper starting with the Grand Rapids Griffins.
To Kasper’s advantage, he already is used to playing in a men’s league; before he was recalled to Detroit on March 30, Kasper played 52 games with Rögle BK in his third season in Sweden’s top men’s league, where he posted eight goals, 15 assists — and a team-high 72 penalty minutes.
It was evident in his one NHL game that Kasper isn’t one to shirk from physical confrontation.
“I’m trying not to back down at all and be where the goals are scored,” Kasper said. “There’s going to be scrums and I’m trying to be there and not back down and stand up for myself and my teammates.”
Continued; Kasper might be best-served adjusting to the North American grind by playing a season in Grand Rapids, but he’s very close to being NHL-ready. If there’s a significant injury that affords Kasper the opportunity to jump into the top six, he may steal a job. We’ll see where the pesky forward lines up come September.
The Hockey News’s Jacob Stoller penned a list of six particularly underappreciated NHL players this afternoon, and he suggests that Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman has at least entered the chat in the “underrated” category:
Jake Walman, D, Detroit Red Wings: Jake Walman flies under the radar, but players like him are a coach’s dream. The 27-year-old game is centered around simplicity and efficiency. Walman knows who he is. He knows he’s not Mortiz Seider, and you’ll never find him attempting a crafty, highlight-reel dipsy-doodle.
Ultimately, the beauty of Walman’s game lies in the positive impact he makes that often doesn’t attract the naked, unsuspecting eye. He’s terrific at executing zone exits, finishing 13th among defensemen in carried exits (10) per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 this past season, according to allthreezones.com.
Walman is a cerebral defenseman who knows when to jump into the play, when to stay back, and when to distribute the puck versus skate with it. The 6-foot-2 left-shot rearguard is the perfect partner for Seider, acting as somewhat of a safety blanket for the uberly talented – albeit sometimes reckless – offensive defenseman.
In 63 games last season, Walman averaged 19:43 minutes per game and recorded nine goals and 18 points. He also averaged only 2.28 expected goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, which ranks him 14th among defensemen that played at least 500 minutes this season, according to naturalstattrick.com.
Continued; I agree that Walman does sometimes cover up for Seider’s more dangerous plays, and fantastic advanced stats aside, Stoller’s best observations here is that Walman knows who he is and who he is not.
Walman plays as a complementary defenseman, and he plays a simple, smart game, knowing when to simply dump the puck out of the zone and when to send a pinpoint pass, when to sneak a slap shot or when to simply walk into a wrister from the point, and when to stay back and make sure that little to nothing happens during his shift (because, as Henrik Zetterberg said, sometimes a shift where nothing happens is a successful shift).
The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe posted a Q and A with new Toledo Walleye coach Pat Mikesch this morning. We’ll start with the first three questions…
Question: What have your initial impressions of the community been?
Answer: “Ninety percent of my time has been downtown. But I’ve been impressed with all the parks here. We have three dogs. They’ll love getting into the trails and running. We have an older dog, Maggie. She’s a Shih Tzu that’s 16 years old now. We have two other Labs, Beano and Wally, and they are 3 years old. So they’re the active ones. [Toledo] has a very Green Bay feeling to it with the sports community downtown. And we’ve loved our time in Green Bay. It’s set up the same way with some very good neighborhood communities, great people. I think that’s good for us settling in.”
Q: How is the recruiting process going?
A: “Right now I’m just letting [the six players that are already signed] get to know me, and they’ve all done their homework. Those guys are ready to get in town. They want to win a championship, and a lot of these guys have been close. We’re talking to one free agent right now that we’re working hard on. Most of the free agents we’re talking to are still trying to see if they’re gonna get that American League contract. We want that guy who’s right on the fringe. I want players to feel comfortable that if they end up coming to Toledo, they’re coming to a great market and a place that has its own energy every night. Hockey players want to enjoy their experience and be taken care of. Overall it’s been exciting.”
Q: What attributes are you looking for in a player?
A: “Every player has their own skill set, and you’ve got to have all the pieces. Character, the hockey sense, and skating [are important]. I want to play fast. So we better have that core group that can play at that level. I want to see what their history is as far as winning. Where was their last championship team? That’s a big thing. We want to be playing late into the season, very meaningful games, so went to see their playoff stats.”
