Month: September 2023

Nobody expects the $300 deposit

I’ve only rented a car once before in my life, so I headed to Enterprise today in my rolling deathtrap, a.k.a. my mechanically-deemed-unsafe Chrysler Pacifica, to pick up a rental car for the trip.

There were several terms and conditions which, as you might expect, popped up at the last minute, but I was a little stunned when the nice young lady at the counter told me that the red Chevy Equinox came with a $300 deposit that I had to make immediately, in addition to the rental fee to take the vehicle into my possession.

Continue reading Nobody expects the $300 deposit

Getting to know the Red Wings’ prospect tournament roster

The Detroit Red Wings’ 2023 Prospect Tournament gets underway this Thursday as the Red Wings’ prospects will battle the Dallas Stars at Centre ICE Arena.

Detroit’s prospects will play in 3 games over the course of 4 days, battling Dallas, Columbus and Toronto, and the prospect tournament is an excellent warm-up for the break-neck pace of instruction and pace of play at the Red Wings’ main training camp.

Here’s a “Getting to Know You” summary of the Red Wings’ prospects, free agent invites and one Grand Rapids Griffins player participating in this year’s tournament:

Continue reading Getting to know the Red Wings’ prospect tournament roster

Sportsnet ranks the Red Wings as a 3rd-tier Atlantic Division team

Sportsnet’s staff posted a lengthy article assessing the Atlantic Division’s teams, and they’ve ranked the Red Wings in their third tier: “How High Can They Go?“

DETROIT RED WINGS
Key additions: Alex DeBrincat, J.T. Compher, Klim Kostin, Daniel Sprong, Christian Fischer, Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Holl, Jeff Petry, James Reimer
Key subtractions: Dominik Kubalik, Pius Suter,

Expectations: Do you still believe in the Yzerplan? Admittedly, this has not gone quite as patiently as many expected, as the Red Wings haven’t been shy to spend money on middle-of-the-lineup contributors, presumably to speed up the process and introduce a winning culture. The results have been improving, little by little, but last season’s Wings still finished over 10 points off the playoff pace.

This summer, GM Steve Yzerman made a splash for a top-liner, acquiring Alex DeBrincat, who they need to return as a 40-goal scorer or something close to it. But these Wings will be competing against the more deliberate rebuilders from Ottawa, Buffalo and even Montreal to rise up, and have to hope one of the contenders atop the division steps down. The Red Wings might be at the lower end of this tier, and you might even be able to argue for them to join Montreal at the bottom. Behind that, though, progress needs to be made.

Continued

A heads-up regarding an upcoming DobberProspectsReport podcast

Consider this a heads-up: two weeks from today, I’ll be taking part in a podcast which will discuss several prospect tournaments taking place around the NHL, including the Red Wings’ prospect tournament in Traverse City:

THN’s Stockton examines Detroit’s prospect tournament roster

The Red Wings’ annual prospect tournament gets underway in Traverse City, Michigan on Thursday, and runs through Sunday. Detroit will battle prospects from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ahead of the tournament, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton examined the Red Wings’ roster for the tourney:

Not all of the top picks from the 2023 Draft will play (neither Axel Sandin-Pellikka, nor Trey Augustine), but Nate Danielson will be among the Red Wing delegation.  He will be joined by two other first round picks in Sebastian Cossa and Marco Kasper.

As a member of Detroit’s 2019 draft class, Elmer Soderblom will be among the most veteran players at the event. Elsewhere, Carter Mazur and Amadeus Lombardi will be look to build on their strong performances at development camp in July as they look to start their ’23-24 campaigns on the right foot.  

Meanwhile, William Wallinder (who did not attend development camp) will be manning the blue line for Detroit, as he continues his acclimatization process to the North American game.  Wallinder spent most of last season with Rogle in the SHL before a one-game cameo in Grand Rapids to close out his year.

Continued; here’s the Red Wings’ roster, which is very top-heavy:

Monday’s fundraising update

Good morning. I wanted to let you know what’s going on with the fundraising push ahead of tomorrow’s departure date for the Traverse City trip.

Right now, barring any further setbacks, Aunt Annie and I are preparing as if we’re going up tomorrow. I went grocery shopping on Sunday, we’ve done some packing, and I pick up the rental car early this afternoon.

We’re still somewhat torn regarding the fact that we found out that we need to replace my 17-year-old Chrysler Pacifica on Friday, but we also understand that those of you who donated are paying for a service here, and that we would be letting you down by not going up.

The weekend’s been kind of weird, in both good and bad ways. We continue to receive both remarkable support and remarkable monetary donations from our hockey friends.

Continue reading Monday’s fundraising update

Via A2Y: Praise for the Daniel Sprong signing

Via Paul Kukla of Abel to Yzerman comes an article in which The Score’s Josh Wegman discusses the “10 best under-the-radar NHL offseason additions.” Wegman ranks new Red Wings forward Daniel Sprong among his top ten:

Daniel Sprong

Position: RW
Cap hit: $2M
Term: 1 year

Sprong has been one of the game’s most efficient scorers over the past three seasons, ranking seventh in goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five since the 2020-21 campaign. He’s coming off his best year with 21 goals and 25 assists in 66 games despite averaging just 11:25 per contest.

It’s a mystery why the Seattle Kraken didn’t issue Sprong a $737,500 qualifying offer to retain his rights considering he’s only 26 years old and coming off his best season. But the Red Wings stand to gain.

Scoring efficiency doesn’t always translate when a player is bumped up the lineup. Still, it’s worth a shot for Detroit to see if Sprong can do more damage with extra opportunities. At the very least, the Red Wings have a bottom-six winger they know can provide offense.

Continued, with praise for the Canucks’ signing of Pius Suter, and Filip Zadina’s signing by the Sharks…

Khan’s mailbag: Seider may sign a ‘bridge deal’

MLive’s Ansar Khan answers mailbag questions this morning, including this question regarding defenseman Moritz Seider’s next contract:

Q: How will Jake Sanderson’s new contract impact the Wings’ negotiations with Moritz Seider? If Sanderson is worth ($64.4 million over eight years for an annual average value of $8.05 million), I have to believe Seider is worth at least $9 million a year. – Jack

A: Agreed. Seider, with 164 NHL games and a Calder Trophy to his name, is worth more than Sanderson, who is coming off his rookie season (four goals, 28 assists in 77 games with Ottawa).

Seider is entering the final year of his entry-level contract and will be a restricted free agent after the season. I think the first question is how much term will he get in his new deal. General manager Steve Yzerman prefers shorter terms – Larkin being the exception. But I’m guessing he’d love to get his franchise cornerstone defenseman locked up for the maximum eight years.

Seider might prefer a shorter term, three or four years, before cashing in bigger on a max-term deal in a few years when the cap increases significantly.

My guess is that is what will happen.

Seider is worth an AAV of more than $9 million a season. Will Yzerman want to pay him more than Larkin, whose AAV is $8.7 million? It wouldn’t be surprising to see Seider sign a bridge deal in the $8.5 million range before becoming the team’s highest-paid player in his next contract.

Continued; for better or worse, the Sanderson contract sets an $8 million salary as the minimum “comparable” for Seider. He’s going to get paid–the only question is whether he’ll make more than Larkin, as Khan notes.