Three things: on the fourth line, MBN training in Sweden and Veleno’s worth

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

First and foremost, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted an article which discusses the state of the Red Wings’ fourth line:

With the bulk of the offseason’s reshuffling done, the Red Wings’ fourth line is taking on new character from the one it occupied a year ago.  Daniel Sprong and Robby Fabbri are out.  Joe Veleno and Christian Fischer are re-signed.  Tyler Motte has joined the effort.  And some combination of Nate Danielson, Jonatan Berggren, Carter Mazur, and Marco Kasper are lurking in the wings.

A year ago, Sprong and Fabbri spent a significant portion of the season as Detroit’s fourth line wingers, often with Veleno between them.  Neither player was a conventional fourth liner.  Both made their living on scoring.  They weren’t penalty killers by trade; they helped out on the power play.  At times, it served the Red Wings well.  At others, their willingness to trade offense for defense was exploited.

This year, with players like Fischer and Motte likely to wind up the two fourth line wingers (at least to open the year), Detroit will be adopting a more traditional approach to its last forward line, in keeping with an offseason’s objective of defensive tightening.

“We scored a ton more goals this year,” coach Derek Lalonde said at his end-of-season press conference. “We went from 26th to 13th in goals for. Those goals helped us, but we want to keep pushing, and you hope to get over that line. I still think it’s team defense and keeping it out of your net.”

Stockton continues…

Second, Norran’s Johanna Salo posted an article about Red Wings first-round draft pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygard training with Skelleftea AIK this summer, and while I cannot punch past the paywall to share the article, I can share a positive picture (and I can tell you that MBN tells Ms. Salo that he’s preparing to play for Skelleftea this upcoming season):

Third and finally, EP Rinkside’s Ryan Lambert posted his weekly “What We Learned” article, and let’s all be surprised that he believes the Red Wings overpaid Joe Veleno:

Detroit Red Wings: Doesn’t this contract seem like a lot? It does, doesn’t it?

I’m not dancing naked in the street about the Red Wings paying Veleno $2.275 million for 2 years as a 24-year-old 3rd or 4th-line center, but that’s market value. Bashing Steve Yzerman’s every move is very much so in fashion right now, especially for anti-Wings folks like Lambert, but he made an expedient signing.

Veleno’s 24, he had arbitration rights, and he posted 12 goals and 16 assists for 28 points this past season, his 3rd full season in the NHL. For better or worse, that’s a $2 million player in today’s NHL.