Month: June 2024

DHN’s Allen, Duff discuss Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s appeal to the Red Wings

As a couple of late-night addendums to the news that the Red Wings drafted Michael Brandsegg-Nygard 15th overall in the 1st round of the 2024 NHL Draft:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a profile of Brandsegg-Nygard in which he notes that the young man is highly-heralded by scouts:

Scouts like Brandsegg Nygard’s shot and his speed. He had 18 points playing for Mora in the Swedish second division. Next season, he will play in the Swedish Hockey League for Skelleftea where last year’s first round pick, Axel Sandin Pellikka plays.

Brandsegg Nygard also likes to play a physical game. The Red Wings are hunting for players who blend skill with a physical presence. This is the culture the Red Wings would like to develop.

“I feel like I’m pretty good to get in the defenseman’s body and push him away,” he said. “Bump him so that somewhere in the offensive zone, I can get the puck and shoot. And then the forecheck, too. I feel like I’m built to be quick up on the defenseman and him them and take the puck back so we try to stay in the offensive zone. I feel like I’m comfortable to try to protect the puck as well. ”

Former NHL general manager and scout Craig Button, now a TSN analyst, compares him to Zach Hyman.

“Not the 53 goal scorer Zach Hyman,” Button said. “But the 25 goal scorer that he was. Dog on a bone. He can play with good players and help them. He’s a really good penalty killer, good defensively.”

While Bob Duff spoke with GM Steve Yzerman about Brandsegg-Nygard’s qualities:

Assessing what he likes about Brandsegg-Nygard, Yzerman paused to take a breath.

“A lot,” he finally answered. “Big, strong young man. Physically developed. Can really shoot the puck. Thought he was a really good two-way player. Kind of a goal-scoring winger that obviously fills a void in our prospect pool.”

Big, powerful, punishing forwards wearing the winged wheel on their chest have proven to be as elusive as playoff games in these parts.

It wasn’t just his snarl that made the Red Wings decision to be sizing up Brandsegg-Nygard as the player they would want with the 15th overall pick of the draft.

“We want to have competitive hockey players that can think the game,” Red Wings assistant GM and director of amateur scouting Kris Draper said. “We think he brings a physical presence. Certainly doesn’t back down of getting in the corners, getting in on the forecheck, finishing checks, gets around the hard areas.”

Videos: Steve Yzerman, Kris Draper speak with the media at the 2024 NHL Draft

Per the Detroit Red Wings come these videos of GM Steve Yzerman and assistant GM/director of amateur scouting Kris Draper speaking with the media about the team’s selection of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=6RCA8qUJ9Ag%3Fsi%3DveWAHt-_Urak_On4
https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZjDHPaCFpLM%3Fsi%3DPWH6GWh7-DCVmAAr

Tweet of note: When the Wings selected Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (and a one-timer from Buccigross)

There’s a comment made by one ESPN’s John Buccigross made during this clip that’s earning some traction on social media…

Also:

Tweet of note: Hello, Emmitt Finnie!

Red Wings prospect Emmitt Finnie spoke with Bally Sports Detroit’s Natalie Kerwin from the Red Wings’ draft watch party:

Press release: the Red Wings post official MBN presser

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS SELECT FORWARD MICHAEL BRANDSEGG-NYGÅRD 15TH OVERALL IN 2024 NHL DRAFT 

  … Fifth-Ranked International Skater Becomes First Norwegian-Born Player to be Selected in the First Round of an NHL Draft …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today selected forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygård in the first round (15th overall) of the 2024 NHL Entry Draft at Sphere in Las Vegas.

Brandsegg-Nygård spent the majority of the 2023-24 season with Mora IK in Sweden’s second-highest professional league, recording 18 points (8-10-18), a plus-three rating and 19 penalty minutes in 41 regular-season games. The 6-foot-1, 207-pound forward also collected 10 points (4-6-10) and eight penalty minutes in 12 postseason contests, helping Mora IK reach the Semifinals for the second consecutive season. Additionally, Brandsegg-Nygård logged 12 points (5-7-12), a plus-nine rating and 10 penalty minutes in seven games with Mora IK’s under-20 team in Sweden’s top junior league. A native of Oslo, Norway, Brandsegg-Nygård is the first Norwegian-born player to be selected in the first round of an NHL Entry Draft.

Brandsegg-Nygård debuted with Mora IK in 2022-23, logging three points (1-2-3), a plus-three rating and six penalty minutes in 11 games, along with 38 points (17-21-38) in 35 games at the under-20 level and 10 points (5-5-10) in four games with the under-18 squad. Prior to arriving in Sweden, Brandsegg-Nygård made his professional debut as a 16-year-old with Vålerenga in the EliteHockey Ligaen, skating in eight games in Norway’s top professional league during the 2021-22 campaign. He also collected 42 points (24-18-42) in 25 games with Vålerenga’s under-20 squad and 19 points (10-9-19) in seven games at the under-18 level in 2021-22. Brandsegg-Nygård paced Norway’s under-18 circuit with 16 goals in eight games in 2020-21.

On the international stage, Brandsegg-Nygård played for Norway at the 2024 IIHF World Championship, recording five points (3-2-5) in seven games en route to being named one of his country’s top three performers. He also represented Norway at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship, logging five points (3-2-5) in five games. Brandsegg-Nygård won a gold medal at the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship Division I, collecting five points (2-3-5) in five games, and also captured a silver medal at the 2022 IIHF World Under-18 Championship Division I with four points (2-2-4) in five appearances.

Detroit currently has seven selections for the second day of the 2024 Entry Draft: one in the second round (47th overall), one in the third round (80th), one in the fourth round (126th), one in the fifth round (144th), one in the sixth round (176th) and two in the seventh round (203rd and 208th).

Update: Here’s NHL.com’s scouting report:

Continue reading Press release: the Red Wings post official MBN presser

Red Wings draft Michael Brandsegg-Nygard 15th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft

The Detroit Red Wings have drafted Michael Brandsegg-Nygard with the 15th overall pick in the 2024 NHL Draft.

PARADISE, NV – JUNE 28: Michael Brandsegg-Nygard is drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the first round during the Upper Deck NHL Draft on June 28, 2024 at the Sphere in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Speer/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Continue reading Red Wings draft Michael Brandsegg-Nygard 15th overall in the 2024 NHL Draft

The begging and pleading part of the fundraiser

Good morning.

Things are not going super in terms of raising funds to get me down to the Red Wings’ summer development camp next week. We raised $270 of the approximately $900 or so needed to rent a vehicle in order to get me downtown on the first day of fundraising…

And we haven’t raised a penny since.

I understand that it’s hard to pay for a product when it’s not here yet, but I’ve attended these development camps since 2006, and if I was able to drag down the 18-year-old Pacifica with its tailpipe scraping the ground, I would…But I can’t do that safely, so I need your help.

If you can’t or won’t donate, I ask you to please share this fundraiser with your friends, so that we can at least keep a sliver of hope available regarding being able to rent a vehicle to safely attend the Wings’ prospect camp by Monday, July 1st.

If that’s not possible…It’s really going to break my heart, and make me incredibly sad, but my family has endured so many setbacks and difficulties over the course of the last eight months that I won’t let it break me. I hope.

Anyway, things are going shittily, and all I can do at this moment is hope against hope that the unthinkable might actually come to pass.

Thanks for reading.

If you’re at all interested in having me attend the Red Wings’ summer development camp next week, here are the fundraising details: you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

Quid-pro-prospect fundraising update

Good evening, everybody.

We’ve been a little busy at TMR headquarters as our air conditioner has ceased to function, so I’ve got an 82-year-old sweltering upstairs in 80-degree heat at 11 PM, and so we’ve spent the past couple of days sorting out our options and working with a HVAC company to finance an air conditioner, which will be installed tomorrow morning.

In terms of the Quid-Pro-Prospect fundraising drive, we’re doing pretty well. We’ve raised $270 over the course of 2 days, which means that we’ve got about $700 to go. I’m hoping to pick the vehicle up sometime on Monday, July 1st (UFA day), so we’ve got approximately five days to work out the funding.

If you’re at all interested in having me attend the Red Wings’ summer development camp next week, here are the fundraising details: you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

Thanks again for your time and support. I know it’s been a weird year for TMR–first I got sick, then some profound depression hit, and had to be sorted out, and then Aunt Annie suffered falls and eventually a broken hip.

But we’re going to try to get back to “normal” this summer, and whatever that normal is, we’ll try to continue it into the 2024-2024 regular season.

It’s been a wild ride of on-and-off-again coverage for me, and I don’t like that fact, but life isn’t easy for a one-person blog whose blogger is also an elder caregiver. Aunt Annie is very supportive of this endeavor, however, and we both want to make this work.

Thanks again.