Month: July 2024

‘Gramps’ Augustine

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an article about Red Wings goaltending prospect Trey Augustine, as described by his Michigan State University teammate, Red Savage:

“We call him Gramps sometimes because he’s always waddling around the rink,” said Savage, a Red Wings prospect talking about his MSU teammate and fellow Wings prospect. “You forget he’s just a little 19-year-old. I forget I’m two years older than he is.”

Augustine has certainly matured over this last calendar year, from last year’s development camp with the Red Wings to this week’s, given his experiences and accomplishments.

All Augustine did was help lead a program renaissance at Michigan State and win Most Outstanding Player of the Big Ten Tournament. He also won gold at the world junior championships with Team USA, and validated every reason why the Wings selected him in the second round last year.

“Trey is a special player,” Savage said. “We have a good friendship and it’s something I take a lot of value in. His maturity is something that really stands out. He tries to learn as much as he can every day at the rink. He goes into every practice with the same mentality, to not only make himself better, but the people around him better.”

Continued with commentary from Augustine himself…

Press release: Wings confirm the Vladimir Tarasenko signing

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS SIGN VLADIMIR TARASENKO TO TWO-YEAR CONTRACT

  … Two-Time Stanley Cup Champion Has Recorded 629 Points in 751 Games Since 2012-13 …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today signed forward Vladimir Tarasenko to a two-year contract with an average annual value of $4.75 million.

Tarasenko, 32, split the 2023-24 season between the Ottawa Senators and Florida Panthers, recording 41 points (17-24-41), a plus-13 rating and 12 penalty minutes in 57 games with the Senators before tallying 14 points (6-8-14) in 19 regular-season games with the Panthers. The 6-foot-1, 219-pound forward helped the Panthers win their first Stanley Cup championship, logging nine points (5-4-9) in 24 postseason contests. Tarasenko played the 2022-23 season with the St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers, collecting 29 points (10-19-29) and eight penalty minutes in 38 games with the Blues, along with 21 points (8-13-21) in 31 regular-season games for the Rangers. He captured a Stanley Cup title with St. Louis in 2019, finishing with 17 points (11-6-17) in 26 playoff matchups. Tarasenko has been selected to four NHL All-Star Games, including three consecutive appearances from 2015-17. Additionally, Tarasenko was named to the NHL Second All-Star Team in 2014-15 and 2015-16, and was a finalist for the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy in 2016-17.

Continue reading Press release: Wings confirm the Vladimir Tarasenko signing

Tweet of note: Hunter Johannes discusses the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp

Grand Rapids Griffins forward Hunter Johannes spoke with the Grand Rapids Griffins about the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp, his summertime experiences, and his goals for the upcoming AHL season:

Es gibt learnen

The Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp is billed as an educational experience by the Red Wings’ personnel, and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan got Dan Cleary to explain why that is:

“It’s been going good,” said Cleary, who is thrilled to have former teammate Pavel Datsyuk on the ice working with the prospects. “It’s been great and pretty exciting to have Pavel around the kids and great to see all of our kids (prospects). The kids are enjoying it. Some of the kids are a little rusty, they haven’t been on the ice (in a while).”(But) we tell these kids it’s more of an educational week than evaluation.”

Cleary used this year’s first-round pick, forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, as an example.

“He’s had trouble with his skates and falling down,” Cleary said. “I told him, ‘Listen, I’m not here judging whether you can’t stand up or not. We’ve seen your body of work. (Kris) Draper (amateur scouting director) has seen him all year and our scouting staff.

“It’s most important that they take all the information they can (out of this camp). We test, but we get the results and we’ve met with a few kids and we’ll tell them basically, this is what you have to work on, this is what you are good at and give them feedback and go from there.”

Continued

Red Wings trade Robby Fabbri to Anaheim for Gage Alexander, 4th round pick

Moving salary:

Here we go, Tarasenko! 2 years, $9.5 million for the scoring forward

Updated 2x at 6:30 PM: The Red Wings have signed Vladimir Tarasenko to a 2-year, $9.5 million contract while I was writing about prospects:

He’s 32, and at $4.75 million, the 23-goal-scorer isn’t what he was as a 25-year-old, but he’s going to help the top six recover from the loss of David Perron with a lot more speed and sniping.

Continue reading Here we go, Tarasenko! 2 years, $9.5 million for the scoring forward

Khan: Cam Talbot wants to earn the starter’s job

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed an article discussing Cam Talbot’s conference call with the media yesterday afternoon, and Khan noted that Talbot fully believes that he can assume the starting goaltender’s role here in Detroit:

“Absolutely,” Talbot, who signed for two years at an average annual value of $2.5 million, said. “That’s one of the reasons why I chose to sign here. There’s going to be competition no matter what between three or four of us. I feel healthy and good even at my age. I played 54 games last year, made an All-Star appearance. I still feel like I got a lot to give. That’s one of the biggest reasons why I wanted a two-year deal to come in and try to help a team win and compete for starts.”

Talbot went 27-20-6 for the Los Angeles Kings, with a 2.48 goals-against average and .913 save percentage. He wasn’t sharp in the first-round playoff series against Edmonton, allowing 16 goals in the first three games (1-2) before being replaced by David Rittich, who lost the next two resulting in the team’s quick exit.

The Kings traded for Darcy Kuemper and moved on from Talbot, who was surprised the Red Wings called because they have Husso and Alex Lyon, who played 44 games, a heavier workload than he was accustomed.

“That internal competition is good for everyone,” Talbot said. “It pushes us. It pushes the goalie coaches to try to make us better. But it gives the team confidence in both of the guys that are in there. And when they see us battling hard for that spot, they’re going to want to play that much harder for us in front of us.”

Continued

A trio of Tweets from the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp

Of note from the Detroit Red Wings’ third day of the Summer Development Camp:

Update: Make it a quartet:

Shapiro notes that the Augustine’s gloves match his pads…for now…

Red Wings goaltender Trey Augustine is a bit of a hybrid goalie in that he’s worn different pads and gloves for the majority of his career…But EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro reports in his “Shap Shots” blog that the Vaughn glove and blocker that Augustine prefers may have to go to the way of the dodo for his sponsorship deal with True by Lefevre:

I spoke with Augustine about his equipment during the season, particular the Vaughn glove. He really liked the break of the Vaughn glove, and at the time hadn’t found a similar fit or comfort from True, which I know has pushed to sponsor the goalie.

And while it’s common to see mismatched equipment in a local beer league game, mismatched gear in the NHL simply doesn’t happen. To my knowledge, Jake Allen was the last NHL goalie to use a mixed up set, using a Brian’s glove and True pads before switching completely to Brian’s last season.

For Augustine, to get the full financial benefit of a gear sponsorship, he’ll have to match his pads and gloves before reaching the NHL. He was smart when I asked him about it on Wednesday, saying he didn’t want to comment on whether the Vaughn glove was still his go-to choice.

Continued (paywall)