Month: August 2024

DobberHockey’s Brennan Des discusses the Red Wings’ offseason moves from a fantasy hockey perspective, suggesting that the Red Wings have slipped down a peg due to the offseason departures of David Perron, Shayne Gostisbehere, Daniel Sprong and Jake Walman…

It’s hard to get too excited about Detroit’s offseason additions because they mostly offset their offseason losses. The Red Wings narrowly missed the playoffs last year, finishing 18^th in league standings. They were carried by an offense that ranked ninth in the league with 3.35 goals per game but sunk by a defense that allowed 3.33 – ninth most in the league.

To address their defensive deficiencies, they brought in… Cam Talbot? Although the 37-year-old netminder posted solid results behind a defensively competent Kings team last year, he’ll be hard-pressed to repeat that performance behind a much more questionable defense in Detroit. The Red Wings struggled to keep the puck out of their net last year because they didn’t defend well enough, allowing the 8^th most expected goals across all strengths. They lost a promising piece in Jake Walman and made a somewhat lateral move by swapping Shayne Gostisbehere for Erik Gustafsson. Unless youngster Simon Edvinsson takes massive strides this year, the team’s blueline seems slightly worse off than it was last season – which obviously isn’t good news. Although new forward addition Vladimir Tarasenko can help the team’s offense, he doesn’t have a great defensive reputation, which could make their biggest issue even worse.

Lost in any excitement about what Tarasenko brings to Detroit’s offense is the reality that they’ve lost a fair bit of scoring this summer. Key departures – Gostisbehere, Perron, Sprong, Fabbri, and Walman – scored 75 of the team’s 275 goals last year (27%). Sprong and Fabbri each flirted with the 20-goal mark despite skating just 12-13 minutes a night, so the team’s depth scoring seems to have taken a hit this offseason.

But the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood offers a counter-point, at least regarding the Red Wings’ forward lines:

“We did a good job addressing some holes,” [Red Wings coach Derek] Lalonde said. “It feels like guys may be slotted going into the year a little bit. I think we did a good job addressing some loss offense, which is very important. It’s just exciting. All I’ve known here, since I’ve come here, is progression. Moving in the right direction, year one to year two. We did it going into the second year, obviously, and now we need to keep building.”

A well-built team has to be constructed from well-built lines. With this summer’s changes to the roster, Lalonde doesn’t have to build lines with the wrong parts. That’s a major progression for his team, even if the lost offense seems like a step backward on paper.

In reality, this advancement addresses an aspect of roster depth that is often ignored. Usually when talking about a team’s depth, the focus goes to scoring depth. Checking depth is often ignored for the flashy allure of goals and point totals. But, having players who can succeed in crucial defensive roles is an equally important aspect of depth, especially when goals are hard — and expensive — to come by.

Detroit would benefit from more scoring depth, sure, but Lalonde’s glass-half-full perspective also lends itself to the stylistic changes that he wants to make anyway. His marching orders at the end of last season called for him to make the Red Wings a better defensive team to make its scoring matter. Lower the goals against, and they don’t need as many goals for to make up for them. That’s what both Lalonde and general manager Steve Yzerman laid out at their closing press conferences, and it’s what they’ve maintained all summer long.

So far, Lalonde has been given the right players in the right spots to complete the job. Now, the task becomes putting them to good use once the season starts.

Is the truth somewhere in between? I’m not certain yet. We’ll have to see how the team performs during training camp and the exhibition season, as well as the first dozen-or-so games of the regular season.

NHL PROSPECT GAMES AND RED WINGS TRAINING CAMP RETURN TO TRAVERSE CITY IN SEPTEMBER

  … Annual Training Camp Events Return to Centre ICE Arena from Sept. 14-22 …

DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman today announced that the Red Wings will return to Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City, Mich., to host NHL Prospect Games and Training Camp, as well as the 2024 Training Camp Season Preview Party at Delamar Traverse City.

NHL PROSPECT GAMES

NHL Prospect action returns to Traverse City for its 25th season, with the Red Wings hosting the Dallas Stars for a two-game series on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 15 at 2:30 p.m. Over the history of prospect action at Centre ICE Arena, 772 players have moved on to play in at least one NHL game, including 13 who played for the Red Wings in 2023-24: Jonatan Berggren, Ben Chiarot (Atlanta), Alex DeBrincat (Chicago), Simon Edvinsson, Robby Fabbri (St. Louis), Ville Husso (St. Louis), Klim Kostin (St. Louis), Dylan Larkin, Michael Rasmussen, Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider, Joe Veleno and Jake Walman (St. Louis).

TRAINING CAMP SEASON PREVIEW PARTY

The Red Wings will open their annual NHL Training Camp with the 2024 Training Camp Season Preview Party, presented by Porsche Detroit North, on Wednesday, Sept. 18, at Delamar Traverse City. This exciting new event provides guests with incredible opportunities to meet Red Wings players, coaches and personalities, and hear directly from team leadership ahead of the 2024-25 season. Hosted by Red Wings TV broadcasters Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond, the Season Preview Party also features a silent and live auction, as well as a VIP package that includes an exclusive meet and greet with Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman and Head Coach Derek Lalonde, and reserved seating with a Red Wings player for the season preview show.  Proceeds from the event benefit Involved Citizens Enterprises (I.C.E.), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization providing affordable skating programs to Northern Michigan.

RED WINGS TRAINING CAMP

The 2024-25 Red Wings hit the ice for the first time for Training Camp on the morning of Thursday, Sept. 19, and continue daily through Sunday, Sept. 22. 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, Sept. 22. Following the Red and White game, the team will break camp for Detroit to begin its preseason schedule. A full camp roster and the complete training camp schedule will be announced at a later date.

TICKETS FOR ALL EVENTS ON SALE TUESDAY, AUGUST 20

Advance tickets for all September Red Wings events in Traverse City will be available online this season at www.mynorthtickets.com/organizations/centre-ice starting on Tuesday, Aug. 20 at 10:00 a.m. Ticket prices are as follows:

• NHL Prospect Games (Sept. 14-15): $25 per day (general admission)
• Training Camp Season Preview Party (Wednesday, Sept. 18) – visit www.centreice.org/drwseasonpreviewparty for details
• Training Camp Practice (Thursday, Sept. 19): $20 per day (general admission)
• Training Camp Practice (Friday, Sept. 20): $20 per day (general admission)
• Training Camp Practice (Saturday, Sept. 21): $30 per day (general admission)
• Red and White Game (Sunday, Sept. 22): $25 standing-room, $45 reserved seating or mezzanine

Select 2024 Training Camp merchandise will also be available for purchase in the arena store on the upper level behind the concession stand. For additional information, please call (231) 933-7465 or visit www.centreice.org.

1. It’s August 15th, and Red Wings Prospects on Twitter reminds us that this is the day that NCAA prospects who have completed their senior year of enrollment become free agents (and, obviously, you should go follow Red Wings Prospects, they’re excellent):

The Red Wings will no longer hold the rights of:
•Ryan O’Reilly(4th round’18 for ASU)
•Sam Stange(4th round’20)
•Cooper Moore(5th round’19 for Quinnipiac)

After 5PM today. None are expected to be signed. #LGRW

— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) August 15, 2024

O’Reilly has transferred to Providence College from Arizona State for his 5th year (due to COVID, NCAA-playing prospects who played through the pandemic can play for one extra year at NCAA schools);

Stange has transferred to Nebraska-Omaha from Wisconsin for his 5th year of eligibility;

Cooper Moore will play his 5th year for Quinnipiac, where he transferred from the University of North Dakota.

All three will become free agents today, and it is possible that the Red Wings and other teams will look at the pool of players who “age out” of NHL-drafted eligibility and become free agents at 22-25 years of age.

2. As previously stated, Red Wings prospects Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (Norway) and Marco Kasper (Austria) will play in the Olympic qualifying tournament from August 29th-31st, and here are some other significant dates for MBN and Axel Sandin Pellikka:

For Red Wings fans excited to see Michael Brandsegg-Nygård and Axel Sandin-Pellikka play together for the first time, here's some key dates to remember:

Aug 16 – 1st exhibition game

Sep 6 – 1st Champions League game

September 21st – 1st SHL game

— Jordan Harris (@Jordan_NHLDraft) August 15, 2024

3. Finally, via Red Wings Prospects, we find out about Dmitri Buchelnikov’s first game for Vityaz Moscow Region of the KHL (yes, the Russians are already playing in a month-long slate of preseason games and tournaments):

In Dmitri Buchelnikov’s(2nd round’22) preseason debut he didn’t pick up any points. (He had a couple 3rd assists) but he had this awesome shootout move. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/sW8zhoAOLh

— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) August 15, 2024

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses Jonatan Berggren’s situation as the restricted free agent hopes to earn regular playing time with the Wings this season:

“He’s shown the ability to create offense,” Lalonde said earlier in August. “When he’s been with us, he’s created offense. But we have a lot of guys with similar DNA. We need him to be responsible, like we are going to ask our whole team to be conscious of their two-way game, without taking away from some of his offense.”

The coaching staff’s issue with Berggren, a second-round pick (No. 33) in 2018, is they already have offensive-minded wingers in Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane and Raymond. Berggren, who plays in the bottom six, would have more trust from the coaches if he was stronger in his own end. It’s what ultimately led to Daniel Sprong not being re-signed — he scored 18 goals in 76 games averaging only 12 minutes, but down the stretch, when the games gained in magnitude, he was a healthy scratch until illnesses forced him back into the lineup.

With Sprong, David Perron, Robby Fabbri and Shayne Gostisbehere — a combined 63 goals — gone either via free agency or trade, improving team defense will be tantamount to success. If Berggren buys into that, he can start building on what he showed in 2022-23, when he had 15 goals in 67 games (along with a minus-14 rating). That was supposed to have been Berggren’s springboard to the NHL, but instead, he spent most of last season in the minors.

“It’s a credit to him,” Lalonde said. “He did a good job in a really tough situation last year. I would never say anyone has played themselves out of the AHL; it’s just too good of a league. But he’s proven, or maybe more he’s earned, this opportunity. He’ll have to show us, and he’ll have to do it in camp.”

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan discussed the Red Wings’ slowly-but-surely improving goaltending prospect pipeline, beyond Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine, anyway:

The Red Wings also have some depth in their system, selecting Jan Bednar (who signed a one-year contract with the Grand Rapids Griffins in June) in 2020 and Carter Gylander (who the Red Wings inked to a two-year entry-level deal in March) in 2019.

Rudy Guimond, a sixth-round pick in 2023, played for Cedar Rapids (USHL) last season and is bound for Yale in 2025-26.

The Red Wings added to their goaltending prospect pool this year by taking Landon Miller of Sault Ste. Marie in the fourth round (126th overall).

“We don’t want to draft a goalie just to draft a goalie, but we like to have enough goalie prospects, prospects at every position,” general manager Steve Yzerman said. “With the goaltending thing, it’s a little more complicated. You want to make sure they have a runway, so to speak, to get to where they’re going and when they do turn pro, they have a spot to play and we don’t have a logjam of goalies because we only have so many spots for goalies.”

3. And Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff tells the story of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard and friend/teammate Stian Solberg being pranked by Norwegian teammates and icons Mats Zuccarello and Patrick Thoresen, which came from Hockeysverige.se’s Uffe Bodin.

It’s a great story. I posted it on August 8th, and here’s the gist of it:

“Me and Stian were downtown in Prague. Then Mats and Thoresen bought blue cheese. The kind of cheese that smells absolutely awful. Then they took small pieces and placed them around [our hotel] room. When we got back it smelled so damn bad.

Brandsegg-Nygard was convinced that it was the room’s air conditioner that was malfunctioning, and he started looking into it.

“I thought it smelled like when you haven’t changed the filter on the car’s AC. Mats and Thoresen thought it was unbelievable because they knew it was the cheese when I was sure it was the AC.

A lot. But perhaps above all, despite their age, they still have a child’s mind.

Had to change rooms

The duo ended up having to change rooms.

“We went down to reception and had the owner come up with two caretakers who started examining the fridge and lots of stuff. In the end they said that we should switch rooms,” he says, laughing.

The Free Press’s Shawn Windsor posted a column which discusses the Detroit Lions’ training camp as a magnet for both sports personalities, politicians and plain old self-promoters over the past couple of weeks.

Windsor includes the Red Wings’ coach and player visitors among the throng, and he notes that Lions coach Dan Campbell tried to speak with the Wings last year, to no avail. Said coach Derek Lalonde:

“I woke up one morning to a 6:15 text from Coach Campbell and he said, ‘hey, can I come talk to the guys today?’ It didn’t work because we were flying out, but to me it’s … he woke up with us on his mind and I thought that was pretty cool.” 

Pretty cool, eh? 

Gauging by the company the Lions are keeping, no spot is cooler. Lalonde said he can feel the “cool” emanating from Allen Park all over metro Detroit.  

“We felt it last year, (too),” he said.  

It began when a couple Lions players and a coordinator started hitting the horn in Little Caesars Arena to kick off the games, if you’ll pardon the pun. Hutchinson took a turn. So did receiver Jameson Williams. So did offensive coordinator Ben Johnson. 

…

Lalonde’s team was playing a home game the day the Lions played Tampa Bay in the divisional round of the playoffs. About an hour before the Wings’ game began, the Lions were battling for a spot in the NFC title game a few blocks away.  

“We were playing in an hour and the guys were watching in the lounge,” recalled Lalonde. “[Alex] DeBrincat was doing a fist pump on first down. And I’m like, ‘did you just fist pump on a first down?’ And he said, ‘yeah, big first down.’ So, they were pumped.” 

Continued; right now, the Lions’ training camp is the hip, happening place to be, and a place where sports people are soaking up “good vibes.” Let it be so.

Fundraising is a strange beast, and it can be truly exhausting at times.

When it’s not going well–and, a month out from Traverse City, and two weeks from having to raise about $500 of the $861 to pay the server fees, things are not going well–it makes you feel absolutely worthless, because the days that you’re not raising funds, you feel like your value as a human being and a professional are diminished.

There have been a lot of, “I feel diminished” days lately. We’re about a month away from training camp, and I have absolutely no idea how we’re going to raise almost $5,000 to get both me and my 82-year-old Aunt Annie up there.

It’s been absolutely dead.

I understand that it’s mid-August, and that few people are thinking about prospect tournaments or hockey training camps as the Lions prepare for their preseason tilts, NCAA College Football is gearing up for its season, and baseball’s regular season is rounding 3rd base for its stretch run.

Continue reading When fundraising sucks, but you have to do it anyway

A short article and video about Marco Kasper’s on-ice training with his father, Peter, in Karnten, Austria appeared on ORF.at today. Here’s a rough translation of the article from German:

Marco Kasper: Training at home for the NHL

Carinthian NHL export Marco Kasper is currently at home, preparing for his upcoming overseas assignment. The 20-year-old, who spent last season with the Detroit Red Wings, wants to return to the best ice hockey league in the world, and is training hard for this.

Marco Kasper used the ice at the Heidi Horten Arena in Klagenfurt for an hour-and-a-half on Wednesday for an individual training session. The Detroit Red Wings have placed particular importance on the details of game tactics, which were not allowed to be filmed. But the focus of the training was clear, says Marco Kasper: “They have very well-trained skills coaches, and we naturally look at shooting, weight-shifting, how to skate, simple details that can be improved.”

Marco Kasper during training

During his debut in the NHL, the strongest ice hockey league in the world, in April 2023, Kasper suffered a knee injury and had to fight his way back. He spent last season with the Red Wings’ farm team, the Grand Rapids Griffins.

At the beginning, he had a really hard time, said Kasper: “It’s not easy, of course, to come from Europe to North America and find your way straight away. That’s why I needed time and just kept training hard, and then we came together as a team, got better and better, and then the season just got better.”

Goal: To play in the NHL again

His long-term goal is to play in the NHL again. To achieve this, Marco Kasper is also relying on his father’s advice. It’s less about his experiences as a player, said his father, Peter: “It’s more about my experiences as a coach. We also discuss what he can do better, what isn’t so good at the moment, and what we can work on. And then we do special exercises for that, and that’s exactly what we’re working on.”

Before Marco Kasper returns overseas, he’ll compete in the Olympic Qualification with the Austrian National Team at the end of August.

According to Mid-Michigan Now, Red Wings Alumni Association president Joe Kocur will be taking part in the Ally Challenge’s Celebrity Challenge this year:

The Ally Challenge presented by McLaren announced the return of one of the tournament’s fan-favorite events, the Celebrity Challenge. In 2024, the lineup for this marquee competition includes two-time Emmy Award winning actor Jeff Daniels, singer songwriter Quinn XCII, former Detroit Red Wings enforcer Joey Kocur and LPGA legends Juli Inkster, Laura Diaz and Leta Lindley.

The Celebrity Challenge will take place on Saturday, August 24, following the final pairing of round two of The Ally Challenge. The charity exhibition match will be contested over Hole Nos. 10, 11, 17 and 18 at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club.

The teams will compete for a $30,000 purse to benefit two Michigan based charitable organizations. Details regarding the event’s format, celebrity pairings and charitable impact will be announced prior to the event.

Continued

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood wonders “what a successful rookie season would look like” for one Simon Edvinsson, and the answer is pretty simple:

It’s a 2024-2025 season in which Edvinsson (who has 25 games under his belt already) allows his smooth skating and tremendous offensive skills to mesh with some real defensive responsibility as he plays his first full season in the NHL. Edvinsson is doubtlessly an offensive maestro in-the-making, but he’s got to get tougher on defense to earn the trust of his coaches and teammates:

Success in 2024-25 should mean that Edvinsson is an impact player, not just another guy in the lineup. If he stays on his current trajectory, he will be. His teammates have big expectations.

“I was very impressed,” Seider said April 18 in his exit interview. “I wasn’t really surprised, to be honest. I think everyone kind of knew what he was gonna bring to our team. I mean, he’s a big strong skater. He can pass the puck really well, isn’t afraid of blocking shots, of throwing his body around and also has a little dynamic element for his offense, and that’s definitely something that helped us.”

That dynamic offense is an interesting note, because Edvinsson’s footprint was rather small on the box score. He finished with one goal and one assist across 16 games. Respectable, but not truly impressive. Away from the realm of statistical recognition, he made some good decisions at the blue line. He laid pucks in for his forwards to work with. He found open teammates and cycled the puck. Most of all, he really didn’t turn the puck over. Poise has always been a premier trait in Edvinsson’s game, but he really put it into practice at the end of the season, not to mention that all this happened amid a near-miss playoff push.

That offense is one element that the boundaries of success for Edvinsson should hinge on. A shutdown defenseman should be the foundation for him, but his direct offensive output should steer how much of a success next season is for him. Given that Edvinson is probably going to be a second-pairing player without much power play time as far as current roster projections go, it’s probably unreasonable to judge him by the 40- or 50-point range that Seider has routinely reached. But, if Edvinsson falls somewhere in the 30s, that would be an outstanding result that Detroit should be thankful to see.

Continued; I don’t know whether Edvinsson is ever going to be a shut-down defender, nor am I going to judge him based upon his point totals.

He’s not necessarily a Calder Trophy-eligible rookie any more, but he’s still essentially a rookie NHL’er, so I want to see him focus on getting better defensively, and cashing in on his offensive chances when he glides up the ice and dekes and dangles opponents out of their skates.

Edvinsson has a ton of “upside” as one of the Red Wings’ very best prospects, but a Seider-like first full NHL season is an exception to the learning curve rule for most of even top prospects in today’s NHL.

Just a quick note here: Red Wings prospect Marco Kasper will be among a handful of NHL’ers taking part in Olympic Qualification hockey for Team Austria from August 29th to 31st in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Eishockey-Magazin reports that the team will hold an exhibition game in Graz, Austria against Slovenia on August 24th, as well as an exhibition game against Austrian stars this Saturday, and Eishockey-Magazin’s article also has a list of the Austrians taking part in the tournament.