Month: August 2024

Tweet of note (from me): IIHF’s YouTube channel will air two Austrian WC Qualifying games

Good morning. I’m just re-posting this Tweet so that folks know on the blog as many of you do not intersect:

The IIHF’s YouTube page itself doesn’t have the placeholders, but you can subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@iihf/videos

Shout out to ALL of the Red Wings prospect community’s members for the heads-ups regarding the World Championship Qualifying games.

Now here’s Elmo for your entertainment.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=KY5HgYGfpaM%3Fsi%3DJvUyJIzqbgltGr7a

Morning Duff: Hat Trick Dick’s in the Swedish news. Again.

I guess I have to post this one, but as someone who bookmarks Swedish websites…It’s a chore. “Hat Trick Dick” Axelsson played in the SHL for a long time after leaving the Grand Rapids Griffins at Christmas of 2009, and…

He’s had some good results points-wise, but my goodness, is he ever a drama queen. Axelsson was constantly in the news for one grumble or another or one controversy or another. It got tiresome a long, long time ago, and I’d hoped that the Dick Axelsson Circus was reaching a conclusion when he retired a year ago.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes this morning, that was a premature hope:

Eighteen years after he was a Detroit Red Wings hopeful, Dick Axelsson is making a pro hockey comeback. The 37-year-old left-winger will be playing this season with Djurgarden in the Allsvenskan, Sweden’s second division.

The veteran Swede was ending a two-season retirement last season to play for Brodernas/Vasby in the Swedish third division and Allsvenskan qualifiers. He was announcing his retirement a second time following the campaign. But Djurgarden, his club from 2007-09 and again from 2018-22, were luring Axelsson back to the ice.

“I am of the belief that a person deserves both one and two chances to show what one is fully up to,” Djurgarden sports director Niklas Wikegard said in a statement on the team’s website.

Axelsson is a two-time SHL champion and was an Elitserien All-Star selection in 2010-11. He also won a Swiss League title with Davos.

Wikegard happens to be an outspoken former hockey TV personality in Sweden, and he’s been tasked with returning Djurgarden to the SHL, so it’s not surprising that he’s made a “go back to the well” move in pulling Axelsson out of retirement.

Anyway, Duff notes that Axelsson did a lengthy interview with Expressen’s David Carlsson back in June, in which he discussed his ill-fated time trying to make the Red Wings, his time in Grand Rapids, and his decision to leave the Griffins for Sweden at Christmastime…

But I’d rather give Mr. Duff the click and suggest that you read about Axelsson’s short sojourn with Detroit and his decision to head back home (with the help of Mattias Ritola, who eventually packed his bags and moved home) over on Detroit Hockey Now.

It’s a story those of us who try to follow the Swedish Wings have become too familiar with, because “Hat Trick Dick” has no shortage of sympathy for himself, and his many trials and tribulations, when there’s a microphone around.

He’s still a drama queen, pure and simple, and while I appreciate Mr. Duff’s decision to fill you in on the latest twist in Axelsson’s weird and winding career…

I’ve had way too much of “Hat Trick Dick” over the years of surveying Expressen, Aftonbladet, Hockeysverige.se and Hockeynews.se.

He really gets on my nerves, because there was no doubt for a minute that Axelsson was a very talented player, but there’s no doubt for a minute that Axelsson also can’t stand to be out of the media spotlight for long. He always found a way to get back “in the papers” with an outspoken interview or some sort of on or off-ice calamity that perked up the ears of the Swedish sports tabloids, and it’s unbelievable how much I’ve read (and not read) about a has-been-that-never-was.

Video: Dylan Larkin doing Dylan Larkin things with Power Edge Pro in Plymouth

I’m not the savviest when it comes to Instagram, but I saw this from Power Edge Pro, the skating and hockey skill development program that came to fame thanks to the edge-work of Connor McDavid’s blades…

And it appears that the PEP folks are in Plymouth to give the group of American NHL’ers who train at USA Hockey Arena a hand:

And yes, if you are not aware of the fact that Dylan Larkin, the Hughes brothers, Cole Caufield, Alex DeBrincat and a small constellation of American stars are spending their summers training and skating in Plymouth, Michigan, you’re not paying attention. It’s one of those “hidden gem” things around here.

In case you missed it: Kasper, Brandsegg-Nygard will participate in Olympic qualifying games for Austria and Norway, respectively

I tend to assume that you’ve been paying attention, dear readers, and that might not be the wisest thing to do all the time.

We’ve talked about Marco Kasper and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard a bit over the course of the last couple of weeks, with Kasper training in Klagenfurt, Austria under his dad/agent/mentor’s watchful eye, preparing for the Olympic Qualifying tournament, where he’ll play for Austria…

And the highlight clips of Brandsegg-Nygard have been flowing as he prepares for a truncated preseason which includes preseason games played for Skelleftea AIK of the SHL, a couple of Champions League games, and the same Olympic Qualifying games from August 29-31, where MBN is going to play for Norway.

If you were not aware of these two players’ statuses as attempting to help their respective countries make the Olympics in Turin in 2026, the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood posted an explainer:

Continue reading In case you missed it: Kasper, Brandsegg-Nygard will participate in Olympic qualifying games for Austria and Norway, respectively

Daily Faceoff discusses the Red Wings’ cap management

Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell is ranking the NHL’s 32 teams by their salary cap management.

You will be shocked to find that the rebuilding Red Wings do not rank highly due to over-paying free agents and so forth, but Maxwell makes some cogent points here, too:

28. Detroit Red Wings (2023: 30th)

Good Contract Percentage: t-30th (2023: 24th)
Quality Cheap Deals: t-24th (2023: 9th)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: t-24th (2023: 28th)
Dead Cap Space: 14th (2023: 24th)
Quality of Core: t-26th (2023: 20th)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 12th (2023: 21st)

The Detroit Red Wings are a team whose ranking should be taken with a massive grain of salt. The fact they have yet to sign two of their biggest young stars in Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider means that they could very well not finish in this spot by the time we publish the full list. Whether that will see them improve or get worse remains to be seen, but for now, let’s look at what they do have.

The biggest issue with the Red Wings is their continued desire to block their young talent by signing veterans to fill up their cap space. Admittedly, all three of their big veteran adds in Vladimir Tarasenko, Erik Gustafsson and Cam Talbot all grade out as good deals, but the pre-existing deals like Andrew Copp, J.T. Compher, Ben Chiarot and Justin Holl meant they already had no room to add more without getting in the way of their talent. The team has certainly improved, but they have a salary cap picture that looks daunting to navigate going forward, which is almost impressive considering how well Steve Yzerman did cleaning up the previous mess left by Ken Holland.

Continued; I’m not going to disagree, honestly. I understand that the Red Wings are going to be judged heavily as to how the management group manages (no pun intended) to work Raymond and Seider’s deals in under the cap (and Jonatan Berggren’s, for that matter)…

And the one thing that really pisses me off about Steve Yzerman’s management is that the team does over-veteran-ize the team. I’m comfortable with some of the free agent signings, and at least at peace with the Copps and Holls of the world as “things that cannot be undone,” but you guys know me by now…

I’m somebody who wants to see what the young kids can do 80% of the time. I understand that when you build a team, you do not build a convertible–you build a big, honkin’ SUV with snow tires and tow hooks–but there has to be some available space left for promoting from within, and that space has been taken up by veteran players for the past couple of seasons.

Has it been necessary due to the lack of depth left over by the crater that Ken Holland left for Yzerman? Sure, but Steve has not been perfect in his cap management or 50-man-roster management, and there are times that you can put up roadblocks for your younger players, and fans want to see the Edvinssons and Johanssons and Mazurs and Kaspers and Danielsons for more than one or two games per season.

Now some of that falls upon coaching decisions, but between Yzerman’s over-pollenating of the roster with veterans and Lalonde’s seeming unwillingness to trust anyone not named Zach Aston-Reese with a call-up, I think that there has been some stunted development over the past couple of seasons, and that has to be rectified.

That does apply to cap and roster management, too, so it’s relevant here. And now that the Red Wings have a prospect pool, it’s time to include some wiggle room in terms of call-ups and promotions to afford the young kids time to impress and improve before their waiver-exempt statuses expire.

Ultimately, the NHL is not a developmental league, the coaches and GM’s tell us, but without affording top prospects some ability to acclimate themselves to NHL action, your team begins to stagnate, and the Wings have been really stagnant at times over the past couple of seasons.

It’s time to see that slowly change.

Tweets of note: Maatta’s birthday, a Griffins schedule change, a Walleye signing and a Buchelnikov OT goal

Okay, of some minor Red Wings and Griffins-related note today:

  1. It’s Olli Maatta’s birthday. He hits the big 3-0 today!

2. The Griffins announced a time change to their schedule:

3. The Toledo Walleye have signed defenseman Anthony Firriolo. The 26-year-old isn’t big at 5’11” and 165 pounds…

4. And this highlight clip slipped through the radar, so thank you to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff for posting the overtime goal Dmitri Buchelnikov scored for Vityaz Moscow Region vs. Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod:

Brandsegg-Nygard and Buchelnikov’s highlight clips are fantastic. They’re also just the beginning (we hope).

IceHockeyGifs on Twitter posted Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s busy late-August travel schedule, per Norran.se:

So that’s two more preseason games for Skelleftea AIK, a couple of games for Norway’s Olympic Qualifying team from August 29th to 31st,two CHL games played for Skelleftea on September 6th and 8th, and then he’s off to the Red Wings’ prospect tournament and main training camp.

After that, however?

Well, it’s rant, incoming!

Continue reading Brandsegg-Nygard and Buchelnikov’s highlight clips are fantastic. They’re also just the beginning (we hope).

Tweet of note: Copp and Chiarot visit U of M football practice

Via the Red Wings on Twitter, it appears that Red Wings Andrew Copp and Ben Chiarot joined University of Michigan hockey coach Brandon Naurato at a Michigan football practice today. I would imagine that the University of Michigan men’s hockey team was in tow:

Tweet of note: NHL Network names Dylan Larkin 15th-best center in the league

The NHL Network is revealing its “Top 20 Centers Right Now” presently, and Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was named the 15th-best center in the NHL:

The NHL’s full list is probably designed to spur discussion, so it goes as follows:

20. Nico Hischier;

19. Mika Zibanejad;

18. Robert Thomas;

17. Tim Stuetzle;

16. Nick Suzuki;

15. Dylan Larkin;

14. Roope Hintz;

13. Connor Bedard;

12. Sebastian Aho;

11. J.T. Miller;

10. Elias Pettersson;

9. Jack Hughes;

8. Jack Eichel;

7. Brayden Point;

6. Sidney Crosby;

5. Aleskander Barkov;

4. Leon Draisaitl;

3. Auston Matthews;

2. Nathan MacKinnon;

  1. Connor McDavid.