Month: September 2024

Tweet of note: Your morning Kane deke-and-dangle

During yesterday’s Red vs. White Game, Patrick Kane scored a classic shootout goal on Sebastian Cossa, with Kane roaring in from the center ice faceoff dot, slowing down at the hash marks, and then roofing a wrist shot over Cossa’s glove. The Red Wings, who aren’t practicing today, used Kane’s goal as a “good morning” Tweet:

Another middling prospect ranking for the Red Wings

Bleacher Report’s Hannah Stuart ranked the NHL’s 32 teams’ prospect pools, and the Red Wings predictably land in the middle of the league’s rankings due to their “lack of star power”:

15. Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings are one of a few prospect pools on this list that can be described as quite deep but without any truly star-potential prospects (at least, who count as prospects anymore) which frankly is fine. A deep pool means both assets to build out your roster and assets to deal to get those star-quality guys.

Now that Simon Edvinsson doesn’t count as a prospect anymore, the top guy in the Wings’ system is Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, who feels like he was destined to be a Red Wings pick. European winger who is relentless on the forecheck—sound familiar? Although he has a bit of a development ramp ahead of him before he makes the NHL, there’s so much to like about Brandsegg-Nygård’s game. To name a few: his tenacity, his physicality, great release and high-end skating ability.

Other Red Wings prospects to watch:

  • Axel Sandin-Pellikka: Sandin-Pellikka is the best defenseman in the pool and one that I love watching. He’s highly skilled across the board and is developing quite a nice play-driving ability, which we know Steve Yzerman and company love to see. He’s as effective without the puck as he is with it. 
  • Nate Danielson: The WHL center had a slow start last season with the Portland Winterhawks, but his solid skating skills and the way carries the puck in transition have us hesitant to push him down our list just yet. We’ll be watching whether he works on improving his playmaking ability this year. 
  • Marco Kasper: Kasper is an effective middle or bottom-six center who brings a lot of value in how effective he is away from the puck. His physicality and skating are high end, and combined with his work ethic drive his ability to support his teammates. We would love to see him further develop the playmaking aspect of his game. 

Continued; Danielson had a slow start to last season with the Brandon Wheat Kings. When he was traded to the Portland Winterhawks, his production ramped up.

Regarding a ‘nightmare’ in the Wings’ crease

Bleacher Report’s Lyle Richardson offers suggestions as to “Every NHL Fan Base’s Worst Nightmares For the 2024-2025 Season.” Richardson picks the Red Wings’ crowded crease as a problematic situation in Detroit:

Detroit Red Wings: Porous Goaltending

The Detroit Red Wings narrowly missed qualifying for the 2024 playoffs, extending their postseason drought to a franchise-record eighth straight season.

One reason was the inconsistent goaltending of Alex Lyon, Ville Husso and James Reimer, combining for a 3.33 goals-against per game that was among the league’s worst.

Veteran netminder Cam Talbot was signed to replace the departed Reimer, but at 37, he’s well past his best-before date. Lyon and Husso are back, but it’s questionable if they can provide the Red Wings with the goaltending necessary to end their playoff drought.

The Wings’ defensive game is also an issue, but they’ve been lacking reliable goaltending capable of stealing games for years. Until they finally find some, the possibility of a ninth straight season outside the playoff picture remains very real, which could raise questions about general manager Steve Yzerman’s stewardship of this team.

Continued; I hate to criticize Mr. Richardson, but this one’s rife with cliches for me. Cam Talbot was an All-Star last year at 36 years of age, albeit behind the stifling Los Angeles Kings’ defensive corps, so age isn’t much of a concern for me, and if I have to read a “question the Yzerplan” line one more time this preseason, I’m going to yell and scream.

Yes, the state of the Red Wings’ crease is a concern. Talbot is going to be adjusting to a more porous defense in front of him, Lyon’s near-All-Star caliber play at the middle-season mark broke down as he was over-used in the stretch run, and Husso may or may not be healthy and may or may not be a competent #1B goaltender.

It’s a bit of a mess that needs sorting out over the course of the exhibition season and the first 10-15 regular season games, and, should the Red Wings still have crease deficiencies come November, the management team will have to make aggressive moves to shore up the crease.

Is a continued crease crisis the Wings’ worst nightmare? Sure, yeah, I’ll believe that. But I’m not buying the concept that Talbot is an ancient mummy whose wrappings are coming undone, and the, “Well, if X happens, it’s time to question Steve Yzerman” line.

X, Y and Z have already happened, and Wings fans are already questioning the team’s leadership. That’s healthy, not scary.

Three things: HSJ on the Red vs. White Game, Allen on Detroit’s U of M connection, and Bultman projects the Wings’ roster

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

  1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses Red Wings free agent signing Vladimir Tarasenko’s fit with his new team as she recaps the Red vs. White Game:

Vladimir Tarasenko set up a power play goal by rookie defenseman Simon Edvinsson in Sunday’s Red-White scrimmage, won 6-1 by the White squad. The event ended a four-day camp that was especially helpful for someone such as Tarasenko, who signed a two-year, $9.5 million deal in free agency in July.

“It was nice for me to spend a lot of time with the guys, get to know guys better,” Tarasenko said. “We have a few pretty hard days. It’s nice to get back to work again and most important for me, get to know my teammates more and I feel way more comfortable around them.”

Alex DeBrincat scored the first goal, for the Red team, against Ville Husso 24 seconds into the event. Amadeus Lombardi evened things up in the first period, and then Team White took over in the second, highlighted by Edvinsson’s power play goal off Tarasenko’s setup. Tyler Motte scored shorthanded, and Sheldon Dries had two power play markers.

The format featured a little bit of everything. The first period was 25 minutes. The second period was all special teams, alternating power play and penalty kill every minute for 16 total minutes. The third period featured five minutes apiece of four-on-four and three-on-three and a 10-man shootout.

“We had a feel of some lines together, but I wasn’t really overly concerned about any line combinations or defense pairings,” Lalonde said. “It was more about getting some 5-on-5 structure on some things to teach off now, some video to work off. Same thing with our special teams — very valuable reps. And four-on-four and three-on-three is valuable — we’re always looking to get that introduced into camp.”

Continued (paywall); St. James reports that the Red Wings will not be practicing today as the team regroups after training camp and relocates its operations back to Little Caesars Arena after spending the last four days in Traverse City;

2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a short article which points out that, should Tyler Motte play at the center position this season, the Red Wings would have four “Michigan Men” skating up the middle (alongside Dylan Larkin, Andrew Copp and J.T. Compher):

Continue reading Three things: HSJ on the Red vs. White Game, Allen on Detroit’s U of M connection, and Bultman projects the Wings’ roster

Prospect round-up: Austin Baker posts assist in Sioux Falls OT win

Of Red Wings prospect-related note:

The Red Wings’ European-playing prospects skated earlier today, and this afternoon, Red Wings 2024 draftee Austin Baker posted an assist in the USHL as his Sioux Falls Stampede won 4-3 over Muskegon in a shootout.

Baker finished at -1 with 1 shot in the game, and Red Wings Prospects on Twitter snagged his assist:

Red vs. White Game recaps and multimedia

The Red vs. White Game ended with Team White defeating Team Red 6-1, Patrick Kane’s gorgeous top-shelf shootout goal excluded. With the shootout included, Team White won 7-4 (per the box score on PointStreak.com).

EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro offered the first set of observations on the game via his Substack blog, Shap Shots…

Continue reading Red vs. White Game recaps and multimedia

Belated press release: Red Wings reassign/release 11 players

Right after the Red vs. White Game:

RED WINGS REDUCE TRAINING CAMP ROSTER BY 11 

  … Fifty-seven Players Remain with Detroit Ahead of First Preseason Game on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at Chicago … 

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today returned goaltender Landon Miller to the Ontario Hockey League’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. Additionally, the Red Wings have released forwards Brayden Edwards, Chase Lefebvre, Charlie Paquette and Borya Valis, and defensemen Bauer Dumanski, Marcus Kearsey, Zackary Sandhu, Blake Smith, Josh Van Mulligen and Matthew Virgilio from their amateur tryouts.

The Red Wings currently have 57 players on their training camp roster: 33 forwards, 16 defensemen and eight goaltenders. Detroit will practice at the BELFOR Training Center inside Little Caesars Arena on Tuesday, Sept. 24 before opening its eight-game preseason schedule with a road game against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 8:00 p.m. at United Center.

Expecting the Red Wings to be playoff-hungry even as the preseason begins

Sportsnet’s Rory Boylen offers “one thing to remember about each NHL team as the preseason begins,” and here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings: They missed last season’s playoffs only by the tiebreaker

It’s been a long time coming for the “Yzerplan” as Steve Yzerman begins his sixth year as GM of the Red Wings. Point totals have been climbing, and the team finished with 91 last season — their most since the last time they made the playoffs in 2015-16.

But that point total and a good finish weren’t enough to claim the East’s second wild card spot. Detroit got points in each of its last four games, and won the last three, which was enough to tie the Capitals in points. However, they needed to leap over the Caps (who also won their last three games) since Washington finished with five more regulation wins (the first tiebreaker) than the Wings.

Two critical games down the stretch turned out to be the difference, with Washington beating Detroit 4-3 in OT on home ice in late March, and then 2-1 on the road in the second last game of the regular season. One bounce really could have got Detroit in.

But now everyone starts back at zero and the Atlantic Division itself is going to be a heck of a competition to outlast. Are the Red Wings the favourites to claim a wild card spot, or even leap over one of the Big Four out front? Ottawa, Buffalo and even Montreal will all have something to say about that.

Continued;

Allen talks ‘roster battles’

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen makes three sets of roster projections this morning, including whether Marco Kasper or Nate Danielson will make the roster, whether Isaac Ratcliffe or Austin Watson might be signed based upon their pro try-out performances, and how the goaltending situation will shake out:

If [Ville] Husso, 29, shows in the preseason that he’s the best choice for the Red Wings, he will be given the opportunity to play. As [GM Steve] Yzerman says, no decision has to be made today. The Red Wings also don’t have to make a decision by opening day. They can carry three goalies, like they did last season, to make sure they get the goalie decision right.

But if the Red Wings are to get rid of a goalie, Husso is the likely choice. This is his last season on a contract paying him $4.75 million. With Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine as the team’s goalies of the future,  the Red Wings are not likely to re-sign him. That could change if Husso wins the job, but Husso’s save percentage has been below .900 in three of the four seasons he’s been in the NHL.

If [Cam] Talbot wins the Detroit job, the likely scenarios for Husso are to be put on waivers or to be traded with the Red Wings retaining salary.

Continued (paywall); I think that, should coach Derek Lalonde’s “it’s really wide open” projection for the goaltending competition play out, either Husso or Lyon may be waived. I’m honestly expecting the Wings to carry 3 goalies for the first 10-15 regular season games.