Month: September 2023

Will DeBrincat hit 50 goals? One optimistic list-maker thinks so

DobberHockey’s Tom Collins offers a list of 10 players who could hit the 50-goal mark this season, and he includes Alex DeBrincat among them:

Alex DeBrincat

In the 56-game covid season, DeBrincat hit the .62 goals per game mark, but didn’t hit 50 goals due to a lack of games. Aside from that year, he hit the 41-goal mark twice. Last year, it didn’t work out in Ottawa for DeBrincat as there were plenty of other options for goal-scoring. Now in Detroit, DeBrincat will be the main guy Detroit will lean on to score goals. Dylan Larkin had 32 goals last year to lead Detroit. Two other players had 20 goals, but one is now in Ottawa, and the other is 35-year-old David Perron. DeBrincat should be seeing an extra two minutes per night in Detroit, and if he has chemistry with anyone with the Red Wings, there should be an uptick in goals.

Continued; it would be great if DeBrincat hits 30 goals this upcoming season. The Red Wings need offense from wherever it can come, and they need a significant amount thereof.

The Athletic previews the Atlantic Division

The Athletic posted an Atlantic Division preview this morning, and Max Bultman weighed in as to which players left, which players joined the fray, and he offers reasons for optimism and reasons for concern as the 2023-2024 season approaches:

Reason for optimism: Did you see all those new names? The Red Wings turned over nearly 40 percent of their roster and addressed some huge needs in the process. The most glaring need entering the summer was for a scorer, and they got one of the league’s most dangerous in DeBrincat, plus a 2022-23 breakout story in Daniel Sprong. They needed to improve their blue line, and they made a significant investment there as well, trading for Petry and signing a bona fide power-play QB in Gostisbehere and a minute-eater in Holl. Compher gives them a deep center group and a much-needed right-handed option on draws, and he, Kostin and Fischer should make them tougher to play against. DeBrincat is the big one, and he’ll naturally grab the headlines, but the real story of Detroit’s offseason is how much deeper the team could be.

Reason for concern: There are a few. First, while the Red Wings got deeper, they still may not have the top-end stars to really threaten in a division teeming with them. To stack up, they’ll need continued steps forward from young standouts Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond plus likely a surprise or two. Second — and relatedly — DeBrincat (and Sprong) alone likely won’t be a total cure for Detroit’s scoring shortage. This was a bottom-10 scoring team in the league last season, which leaves a lot of ground to make up. And then there’s the goaltending: Ville Husso was very good for long stretches of last season, but his final line — an .896 save percentage and a 3.11 goals-against average — left a lot to be desired. The best explanation is fatigue, as Husso’s play noticeably dropped as a heavy 56-game workload piled up, but the Red Wings will likely count on him for at least 50 starts again, and they’ll need him to hold up better this time around.

Bold prediction: Raymond breaks out for 30 goals and 70 points. After Raymond’s dazzling rookie season, when he had 23 goals and 57 points, predicting this kind of output in Year 3 hardly would have seemed bold. But that was before a classic “sophomore slump” last season, when he finished with 17 goals and 45 points. The bet here, though, is Raymond bounces back in a big way, putting it all together and becoming the top-line threat the Red Wings so badly need him to be.

Continued (paywall); The Athletic’s beat writers still believe that the Wings will finish seventh out of the Atlantic’s eight teams.

Duff profiles Cross Hanas

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a profile of Red Wings prospect Cross Hanas, who played particularly well during the Red Wings’ 2023 Prospect Tournament:

Detroit Red Wings prospect Cross Hanas will be the first to tell you that he didn’t know what to expect from himself as he was taking the ice at the NHL rookie tournament in Traverse City.

“I think (in the first game) I did feel in the first period those little things on the mental side where you’re back in it,” Hanas admitted of his initial trepidation. “But once you get that first bump or maybe hit someone for the first time you just kind of realize, ‘Alright, everything’s good. We’re good. We’re ready to roll.’”

In early January of last season, his first as a pro, Hanas was injured in a game playing for the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins, Detroit’s top farm club. He underwent shoulder surgery. His season was done. In fact, he was only given medical clearance to return to game action the week prior to the rookie tournament.

The 21-year-old left-winger was enjoying a decent rookie pro campaign when he was suffering that injury. Hanas was good for 9-8-17 numbers through 30 games with the Griffins. And just like that, it was all over.

“The first couple of months were pretty tough for sure,” Hanas remembered. “The rehab is no joke. It’s a lot of work, a lot of time. Probably the biggest thing you gotta to is be patient, have a good work ethic. I know I can’t stand sitting out a game, so me having to sit and watch every game the rest of the season last year was real tough. But it makes you just want to keep working and get your rehab done as fast as possible.”

Continued; this is quite good, and Hanas is definitely an under-the-radar prospect.

What’s next in Traverse City (for the Red Wings)

Per the Traverse City Record-Eagle, here’s what happens next for the Red Wings and their prospects as the two-week odyssey in Traverse City continues:

With the NHL Prospects Tournament now in the rearview mirror and Red Wings Training Camp right on the horizon, the Detroit prospects will stay in Traverse City and visit Blair Elementary School on Monday from 10:40 a.m.-12:10 p.m. to run a hockey clinic for students in the school’s gymnasium.

The Red Wings’s roster of prospects, which includes recent draft picks, free-agent signees and tryouts, will introduce elementary students to the basic elements of hockey through hands-on instruction with multiple rotating stations. The Red Wings will also gift the school with several sets of equipment to encourage students to continue playing hockey while supporting an active and healthy lifestyle.

The Red Wings then hit the ice back at Centre Ice Arena for the first time for training camp on Thursday morning and continue daily sessions through Sept. 25.

Red Wings players, prospects and tryouts will be divided into teams that will practice and scrimmage throughout camp, including the annual Red and White Game on Sunday. Following the Red and White game, the team will remain in Traverse City and hold practice on Monday, Sept. 25, prior to breaking camp for Detroit to begin its preseason schedule.

Impressions from the Red Wings prospects’ 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2023 Prospect Tournament

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects closed out the 2023 Prospect Tournament with an unpleasant 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday afternoon, and the Wings’ 0-and-3 record at their own prospect tournament, combined with Sebastian Cossa’s struggles in goal, has the fan base pretty freaked out right now.

More than a few of you seem to believe that 1) Cossa’s career is over before he even made the jump to the AHL, and that the Red Wings are clearly 2) Struggling from a dearth of prospects under the collapsing Yzerplan.

Now I’m not about to make excuses for the prospect tournament team here–they weren’t good enough in terms of their play over the course of three games in four nights.

They blew leads in every single game–the 4-2 loss to Dallas on Thursday, the 10-7 loss to Columbus on Friday, and today’s 6-5 loss–Detroit had a middling power play, the worst penalty-kill in the tournament, and they couldn’t score to rally from their self-inflicted wounds in terms of bad goals against and bad penalties taken at the wrong times.

Continue reading Impressions from the Red Wings prospects’ 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs at the 2023 Prospect Tournament

Prospect round-up: Bicker still breaking in; Buchelnikov 1A in VHL; Kilpinen scores 3rd goal in J20

Of prospect-related note on Sunday:

In the DEL, Kevin Bicker finished at +1 in 6:24 of ice time as the Lowen Frankfurt won 3-2 over Augsburger Panther.

In the VHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov had an assist and 4 shots in 16:21 played as SKA Neva St. Persburg won 3-2 in overtime over Dynamo Altai;

And in the Swedish J20 league, Maximilian Kilpinen scored a goal on 2 shots, finishing at +1 in Modo’s 4-1 win over Brynas IF.

Red Wings’ prospects lose 6-5 to the Toronto Maple Leafs to close out the 2023 Prospect Tournament

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects wrapped up their 2023 Prospect Tournament with an 6-5 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ prospects, finishing with a record of 0-and-3 for the first time ever at the prospect tournament.

Update:

Tweet of note: Osgood and Zetterberg, taking in the Lions-Seahawks game

Detroit Red Wings alumni Chris Osgood and Henrik Zetterberg, the latter of whom was inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame this past week, are taking in today’s Detroit Lions-Seattle Seahawks game:

Tweets of note: Detroit and Toronto’s lineups for today’s 2 PM game

Here are the lineups for today’s 2 PM EDT game between Detroit’s prospects and Toronto (to be streamed on the Red Wings’ social media channels), per Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Kal: