Month: July 2023

Tweet of note: Five Red Wings to take part in the ‘All in 4 ALS’ game in Windsor on August 12th

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

Talking Datsyuk’s HHOF candidacy

The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek answered reader questions in a mailbag feature today, and his answer as to whether Pavel Datsyuk is a Hockey Hall of Fame player is…weird:

How do you think the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee will handle Pavel Datsyuk next year in his first year of eligibility with the controversy around Russian players? With Mogilny, he’s been left out for so long it’s more of the same, but Datsyuk was generally thought to be a first-ballot lock. —Rory S.

I haven’t served on the selection committee for five years now, so I have no idea what the discussion was like this year when it came to a pair of Russian-born players, Alex Mogilny and/or Sergei Gonchar, who were thought to have reasonably good chances of making the grade in 2023 and didn’t. Was there a tacit fear that electing Russian players amid the war in Ukraine would reflect badly on the Hall? Hard to know. Selection committee chairman Mike Gartner, when interviewed on TSN after the selections were announced, carefully sidestepped a question about snubs or players who didn’t make the cut by saying that just because someone isn’t elected to the Hall of Fame one year doesn’t mean they won’t eventually become a Hall of Famer. Was that just a generic boilerplate observation, or can we read into that, that they were careful treading around Russian players? As for Datsyuk’s candidacy, he won four Lady Byngs, three Selkes, two Stanley Cups, appeared in five Olympics on behalf of Russia and scored 918 points in 951 NHL games. That’s a Hall of Fame resume. The debate or discussion will be: Is he a first-ballot choice or not? A few others who seemed like easy first-ballot choices – Joe Nieuwendyk and Dale Hawerchuk, for example – weren’t elected until their second years of eligibility. So there is a precedent to maybe push back Datsyuk a year.

Continued; yeah, war in Russia or no war in Russia, I don’t understand why you’d “push back Datsyuk.”

Khan profiles Sebastian Cossa

MLive’s Ansar Khan profiles Red Wings goaltending prospect Sebastian Cossa today. The 6’6,” 229-pound goaltender is attempting to build upon an excellent season with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye as he transitions to the AHL:

“It’s a big step up and one I want to continue taking for my development,” Cossa said. “I need to prove I can be there first.”

The Red Wings are counting on it. Cossa, who turns 21 on Nov. 21, is expected to team up with newly signed veteran Alex Lyon, 30, and give the Griffins better goaltending than they had last season when they used eight netminders.

Cossa was among the group but wasn’t AHL-ready, posting a 5.57 goals-against average and .783 save percentage, albeit in a small sample size (three games).

The 15th overall pick in 2021 fared much better in Toledo, going 26-16-4 with a 2.56 GAA and .913 save percentage. He went 5-2 in the playoffs, with a 2.32 GAA and .917 save percentage, helping the Walleye reach the Western Conference finals.

“I had some ups and downs, but I thought I had a strong second half and a good push in the playoffs,” Cossa said.

Continued

Kulfan profiles Red Wings prospect Dylan James

Eyebrows were raised when the Red Wings picked 6,’ 185-pound left wing Dylan James with the 40th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, but the Red Wings were satisfied with the progress the 19-year-old University of North Dakota player made this past season, as the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted:

James, 19, showed during his freshman season glimpses of why he’s a legitimate prospect. Playing for one of the nation’s best programs, James had 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in 36 games and was playing on special teams and late in games as the season progressed.

The 6-foot, 180-pound winger wasn’t overly thrilled with his season. James didn’t like his start to the season and was surprised the transition to college hockey was so bumpy. But if you ask Dan Cleary, the Red Wings’ director of player development, he felt James did just fine.

“He had a good season, the opposite of what he thinks,” Cleary said. “He came in (to North Dakota) and had to find his way. He made some freshman mistakes and had to sit, but that’s all part of it. At the end of the day, I always look at where you are at the end of the season, (and) he was trending upwards. Out there in the last minute, I was in Omaha watching and he scored a great goal shorthanded. He’s playing in the regionals as an important player. … That’s what I look at.”

James, who Cleary described as a “rink rat,” insisted that all went well over the course of the past season…

“Coach [Brad Berry] started to trust me at the end,” said James, who feels his biggest area of improvement needs to come offensively. “Just being able to get into scoring opportunities better, and that comes with my skating. I had a different role (last season). It was hard to score goals. Hopefully I’ll get that opportunity (this season). It was hard as a freshman. You have to gain the trust of your coaches. You usually start at the bottom of the lineup, and I was completely fine with that.”

Continued; James was one of the fastest and most competitive players out there during the summer development camp, so he’s got some skills going for him.

On DeBrincat’s possible DeBounce-back

Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell posted a list of 10 players who Maxwell believes will experience “bounce-back seasons” over the course of the 2023-2024 campaign, and new Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat leads his list:

Alex DeBrincat, Detroit Red Wings

82 GP – 27 G – 39 A – 66 P (34 G – 34 A – 68 P career 82 game pace)
-0.12 goals scored above expected per 60 (+0.3 career per 60 rate)
10.3% shooting percentage (14.4% career rate)
6.83% 5v5 on-ice shooting percentage (9.09% career rate)

DeBrincat’s brief tenure with the Ottawa Senators is one that both parties will want to forget. The Sens gave up a high price to get the winger, only to have him under-perform and want out one season later, resulting in them losing him for not quite the same return and finding themselves down a top-six forward. And then for DeBrincat, he had an opportunity to prove he didn’t need Patrick Kane to put up 40 goals and now still finds himself needing to prove that to the world.

A change of scenery should certainly help in Detroit, and if he plays alongside Dylan Larkin, that’s a much better option than Drake Batherson or Shane Pinto, who he ended up playing with in Ottawa on the second line. Combine that with his underlying numbers showing that he had some bad luck which aligns with how much he under-performed, and we’ll likely see a better season from DeBrincat. That concern of playing away from Patrick Kane is certainly there, but it’s not like DeBrincat is useless, especially since he had his best season in terms of expected goals output last year.

Continued; we’re going to find out whether DeBrincat can drive play on his own this upcoming season.

Former Wings prospect Jack Adams signs with ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays

It’s been a rough road for Jack Adams, who suffered a sprained ACL at the Red Wings’ 2019 Summer Development Camp, but the 26-year-old has found a professional home after 5 years in NCAA hockey:

Shapiro on the shrinking prospect tournament

The Hockey Writers’ Mark Scheig and EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro are reporting that the Red Wings’ 2023 Prospect Tournament may only include 4 teams this fall, down from the 5 which participated last year, and the original design of an 8-team tournament.

This morning, Shapiro discusses this development on his Substack, Shapiro argues that the Red Wings’ prospect tournament was too successful for its own good, and he suggests that it’s not a bad development that the number of teams participating has dropped from 8 to 4:

The Traverse City tournament the Detroit Red Wings hosted used to be the gold standard. It was launched in 1998 with four teams, eventually grew to an eight-team tournament, and has now shrunk back to it’s original size for 2023 with four teams — Detroit, Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Columbus Blue Jackets, the first game will be Sept. 14.

The Traverse City tournament is a victim of its own success.

Other teams, like the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks, saw the Red Wings were able to use it as a marketing event and further reach out to fans outside of metro Detroit. Others focused on the price and geography, Traverse City isn’t easy to get to, and the tournament started to shrink with the help of COVID-related budget assessments — it’s much cheaper, for example, for the Carolina Hurricanes to participate in a prospect tournament closer to home than northern Michigan.

CentreIce arena in Traverse City, with all due respect, also doesn’t offer the modern amenities that the Sabres are able to offer at the Harborcenter, which allowed Buffalo to pull some teams that Detroit would have courted in the past.

While selfishly it was great when the Traverse City tournament was in it’s heyday — you could watch eight prospect pools in a single day! — truthfully it was too much hockey. Each team played four games in five days, both had two back-to-backs and that final game — aside from the championship — was often a nothing-burger of a contest for all involved.

Continued; I don’t know what the future holds for the Red Wings’ prospect tournament.

It may be that the Red Wings have to move it down to Detroit to assure that there are better amenities available to the prospects who participate, or to eliminate some of the travel issues as Traverse City is still “out of the way” despite being an Ann Arbor-sized city with a fine regional airport.

It may be that the Red Wings and Centre ICE Arena have to work on some renovations to the rink to help draw teams in.

And it may be that the tournament simply dissolves, and Detroit ends up taking part in another team’s tournament, because other organizations are utilizing their practice facilities and specially-built downtown rinks to draw competition to their regionally-based tournaments.

For the present moment, the four-team tournament should be exciting, and I’m hoping that the Matthew Wuest Cup is awarded this September.

Link: FloHockey’s Peters discusses the Red Wings’ 2023 NHL Draft picks

I can’t embed this one, but I will as soon as the video is up on FloHockey’s YouTube page…

Anyway, FloHockey’s Chris Peters is one of the best draft experts and prospect gurus around, and this morning, he spends 5 minutes of video time (on today’s episode of Hockey Sense) discussing the Red Wings’ 2023 NHL Draft picks, and whether the Wings’ braintrust passed up on some “home run” players to land probable NHL’ers instead of possible superstars.

It’s an interesting discussion of more than just Nate Danielson and Axel Sandin Pellikka, and I guess the best thing I can say regarding the Red Wings’ 2nd through 7th round picks is this:

I have been covering the Red Wings’ draft for as long as I’ve been on hockey message boards or forums, and whether it was Ken Holland’s regime with Joe McDonnell as chief scout, or the Steve Yzerman Red Wings with Kris Draper as the man in charge of the draft…

The Wings always have their list, and they stick with the players on their list. It doesn’t matter whether even the wisest experts think that Detroit’s shooting for the moon or drafting for depth in the lineup–Detroit will stick with its list, and its list often does NOT include the top names of the draft.

Update: Here’s the video:

DHN’s Robinson profiles Tnias Mathurin

Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson profiles Red Wings prospect defenseman Tnias Mathurin this morning. The big (6’3,” 201-pound) defenseman from the OHL’s North Bay Battalion was beset by a shoulder injury that cost him all but 1 regular season game last year, but Duff reports that Mathurin is finally healthy and ready to make an impact:

“I think we could have a great team,” he said. “I’d like to play a role in leading the younger guys and leading the defense and the team to the (OHL) championship. I also want to have a healthy year. I want to get into the flow of the lineup and not be in and out of the lineup. I want to have a huge impact on the season this year.”

[North Bay GM Adam] Dennis, who played in the AHL and in Europe before settling in North Bay, says Mathurin had an impact on his team last season.

“I’d say about 90 percent of players wouldn’t have played last year,” he said. “But (Mathurin) was determined, and they way he stepped in was just impressive, including all the work he put in behind the scenes.”

Dennis lauds Mathurin’s maturity on and off the ice.

“He’s got  great hockey sense,” Dennis said. “He’s miserable to play against and has a really long reach and a long skating stride so he can close really quickly. He doesn’t take a lot of penalties, but he doesn’t back down from anybody.”

Continued; Mathurin doesn’t project to be a puck-mover, but he’s still growing into a big body, and he’s simple and steady.