Month: September 2024

Duff ponders the fates of three former Griffins

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes that three former members of the Grand Rapids Griffins find themselves jobless with just under two weeks before the start of NHL training camps:

Forwards Taro Hirose, Matt Luff and Joel L’Esperance are all unrestricted free agents who’ve yet to find a new hockey home.

Left-winger Hirose has been an ever-present in the Red Wings organization since 2019. He suited up for 60 games with Detroit, collecting 4-16-20 totals as an NHLer. Hirose also shows 51 goals and 151 assists in 248 AHL games for the Griffins. However, last year he was slumping to 9-27-36 numbers in 54 games and two assists in eight playoff games. He’d gone over 50 points in each of his two previous campaigns with the Griffins.

Injuries hampered right-winger Luff during his two seasons with the Detroit organization. When he did play, he certainly was playing well. Last season with the Griffins, Luff put up 10-8-18 numbers in 26 games. During the 2022-23 season, Luff was good for 25 points in 28 games with Grand Rapids and spent 19 games with the Red Wings, accounting for 2-2-4 numbers.

Center L’Esperance was playing for the Griffins on an AHL contract. He put up 16-12-28 numbers last season. That was down from the solid 25-24-49 totals he was posting in 2022-23.

Continued; all three players are likely to have to accept professional try-out contracts with NHL teams in order to earn AHL work.

Video: McCarty, ‘Operation Valhalla’ help local disabled veteran with home repairs

Former Red Wing Darren McCarty and Operation Valhalla helped a disabled veteran with home repairs recently, and Fox 2’s Scott Wolchek and David Komer covered the story as Operation Valhalla gave Mr. Herman McClain a check for $15,000 to cover his necessary home repairs:

THN’s ‘fantasy hockey outlook’ for the Red Wings attempts to discern the Wings’ crease crunch

The Hockey News’s Jason Chen breaks down the Red Wings’ 2024-2025 fantasy hockey outlook today, discussing potential break-out, bounce-back and bust players, as well as offering an assessment of the Red Wings’ goaltending situation:

This is arguably the most difficult position to project for the Wings, and certainly the most fraught part of its roster. There’s no reason to think Talbot will not be the No. 1 on opening night. He’s coming off an excellent season with the Kings and he’s far more experienced and reliable than anyone else they have right now. His stats likely won’t be as good as they were with the Kings, but the Wings have an high-upside lineup with an offense that can bail him out to secure wins. 

I wonder if the stylistically contrasting teams would affect Talbot’s play; I won’t reach for him but concede he’s a good zero-G option based on his play and the Wings’ goal support. 

Behind him will be Lyon, who was fantastic last season for a hot minute before he burned out, literally. The workload of a No. 1 is just too immense for a career journeyman backup such as Lyon, and he’ll likely factor in as the No. 2 behind Talbot. He’s a streaming option at best.

Then there’s the two wild cards: Ville Husso and Jack Campbell. Husso has a big contract and he was just fine for stretches in his first season with the Wings. Last season, he was limited to just 19 games due to injury with some strong starts and some really, really poor ones. He may force his way into the rotation ahead of Lyon, but he has to be really good and Talbot has to falter if Husso wants to be the No. 1 again. I’d add Husso to the watch list but fall short of committing a roster spot to stash him. 

Campbell was signed this summer as insurance. I doubt we’ll see him in the NHL barring some kind of catastrophe, but it’s amusing to see him ranked as the second-highest goalie on Yahoo, ahead of both Husso and Lyon.

Continued; when it comes to the outcomes for the Red Wings’ goaltenders, it truly is a guessing game.

Prospect round-up: Buchelnikov posts assist in Vityaz win

Of Red Wings prospect-related note on Saturday:

Red Wings prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov registered an assist in Vityaz Moscow Region’s 2-0 win over Amur Khabarovsk, finishing even with a penalty taken in 15:33 of ice time.

Here’s his assist, per Red Wings Prospects on Twitter:

Keeping the dream alive

Traverse City is beautiful in the early fall. The temperatures are essentially the same as Metro Detroit’s climate in mid-September, but the angle at which the sun rises and sets is different with the two-and-a-half degrees of northern latitude behind you.

There’s so much about the Traverse City trip that I’ve made every year over the last 15 years that has nothing to do with hockey, but soothes and restores my soul.

Bringing Aunt Annie along last year made the trip even better, oddly enough, because I wasn’t alone in a hotel for two weeks, and I had a copilot with which to enjoy the non-hockey parts of the trip.

As I stated this morning, it’s becoming increasingly unlikely that I’ll be able to raise enough funds to pay for the handicapped-accessible room that Aunt Annie’s new hips require at the hotel, or the rental car which we require due to our current automobile’s status as inoperable.

Long story long, unless a miracle happens over the next 3 or 4 days, I won’t be able to head up to Traverse City to represent you at the Prospect Showcase and training camp, and that’s gonna break my heart.

I’ll soldier on, because that’s what I try to do when bad things happen, and this has been a year of unexpected surprises (see: those two titanium hips Aunt Annie now sports), but it’s not going to be the same, for me or you.

So that’s why I’m still asking for a miracle in the form of continued donations toward an unlikely but still-possible Traverse City trip for The Malik Report’s constituent parts.

There’s nothing like being at the rink and taking notes on players as you watch them, observing drills and witnessing hockey on the dual sheets of ice at Centre ICE Arena as the “diggers” wait for their quotes, and there’s nothing like feeling that your in-person presence makes a difference.

If you’re still willing to help, we’ll gratefully take what you can give.

If you’re willing to lend a hand, have an official GoFundMe fundraiser page at https://gofund.me/c08de120; we have a PayPal option at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport; there’s Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2; if you’re into the, “I don’t want to use any of those pages” option, here’s always the Giftly option by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…

And in the banking options, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

As always, thank you for your readership and your time.

Tweet of note: A sneak peek of Cam Talbot’s new mask

Per CBS Detroit’s Rachel Hopmayer on Twitter comes a sneak peek at Red Wings goaltender Cam Talbot’s new mask, painted by David Gunnarsson:

Wings prospect G Rudy Guimond gears up for his second season in Cedar Rapids

Red Wings prospect goaltender Rudy Guimond tends to get lost in the goaltending shuffle. The Wings drafted the Cedar Rapids Roughriders’ goaltender 169th overall in 2023, and Guimond was a skinny kid whose rookie USHL season went…all right.

Guimond spoke with the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s Jeff Johnson about preparing for his sophomore year in Cedar Rapids, and it sounds like Guimond is determined to get onto the Red Wings’ prospect radar this upcoming season:

Guimond, 19, saw plenty of time between the pipes last season, playing in 33 games for the RoughRiders, who began their campaign Friday night with a preseason game at ImOn Ice Arena against Dubuque. The teams meet against Saturday night in Dubuque.

The Quebec resident basically broke even from a record standpoint, going 13-13-3-1. The peripherals were just OK: a 3.66 goals against average and .869 save percentage.

“I learned that this is a tough league. A lot tougher than I thought,” Guimond said. “It was funny, at the start of the season, I was super good and was blowing it out of the park with insane numbers and stuff. I was like ‘Oh, this might be easy.’ Then it was like nope. When teams started figuring it out and stuff, it gets much harder.

“I think mentally I got a lot better from last season. I mean, we talk about getting stronger in the weight room. This was stronger in the mind. There was a lot of stuff going on, with ups and downs, bad bounces, losses and that kind of thing. Just not let it play in my head.”

Guimond has good goalie size at 6-foot-2 1/2 and now has more weight to go with that height. He said he ended last season at 164 pounds and checked into fall camp a couple of weeks ago at 178.

He is headed to Yale for college hockey beginning next year. Guimond was a sixth-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in the 2023 National Hockey League Draft and said the club checks in with him regularly, about once every two weeks.

“I want to win a Clark Cup this season,” he said. “That’s my expectation, and I’ll do everything to fulfill it. I’m sure all the guys will, too. Individually, I just want to get consistently better. Develop and make sure every week that I’m getting better at something, so that next year I’m ready for college hockey.”

Continued

Prospect round-up: Forslund scores penalty shot goal in J20 league; Brandsegg-Nygard robbed of assist, Sandin Pellikka injured in Champions Hockey League

It’s a good news/bad news kind of thing as the Red Wings prospects’ season continues to rumble to life.

In the Swedish J20 league, Charlie Forslund scored a penalty shot goal and finished at +1 with a shot and a penalty in Mora IK’s 6-5 shootout loss to MoDo Hockey.

Per Red Wings Prospects on Twitter:

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills wrote a profile of Forslund today;

And in the Champions Hockey League, it’s good news/bad news as Skelleftea AIK won 4-3 over Red Bull Salzburg:

Continue reading Prospect round-up: Forslund scores penalty shot goal in J20 league; Brandsegg-Nygard robbed of assist, Sandin Pellikka injured in Champions Hockey League

Friedman talks Raymond and Seider in the latest ’32 Thoughts’ podcast

If you missed this in the Catch-Up Post of Doom, Sportsnet has reiterated Elliotte Friedman’s remarks regarding Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, per the latest episode of 32 Thoughts:

The Detroit Red Wings came as close to a playoff appearance as a team could get, falling just short of the final spot and failing to make the post-season for the eighth consecutive year.

Though that will undoubtedly fuel the hunger of the Red Wings to finally break their drought this year, the team still has to sign restricted free agents Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond to new contracts.

Despite the season fast approaching, little progress has been made between Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman and the two promising youngsters and, according to Friedman, the GM isn’t ready to budge just yet.

“They’re good players, they’re important players, they’re the cornerstone of the Red Wings, but because they’re RFAs, Yzerman doesn’t necessarily have to bend unless something forces him to do so,” Friedman said.

Seider, who won the Calder Trophy as the league’s best rookie in 2022, has been a consistent 40-plus point producer in his three years in the league. Raymond enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2023-24, scoring 31 goals and 72 points in 82 games, and is due a pay raise.

“It’s pretty clear that right now Raymond and Seider are higher than Yzerman wants to go, and if he’s dug into his position, you need something to get him to move,” Friedman said. “Either you bend, or you wait for him to bend. To be honest, right now, it’s not a pressure point.”

It’s not unheard of for RFAs to miss time while awaiting a new contract. In 2021-22, Canucks stars Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson missed training camp and parts of the pre-season before signing their contracts and in that same year, Brady Tkachuk missed training camp, the pre-season and the season-opener with the Ottawa Senators.

Though the Red Wings still have some time, the clock is ticking for their young guns to put pen to paper on a new deal.

Check out the 1 hour and 21 minute mark to hear it for yourself.

Meet Charlie Forslund

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills profiles big Charlie Forslund this morning. The 6’3,” 212-pound forward was drafted 176th overall by the Red Wings this past June.

Forslund will graduate from the Swedish 3rd division to the HockeyAllsvenskan with Mora IK’s J20 team this season, which everyone seems to agree will be good for the raw player’s development:

Forslund spent part of the 2023-24 season with Falu IF in Sweden’s third division, recording 19 points (nine goals, 10 assists) in 19 games. He also had 16 points (13 goals, three assists) in seven games with Falu IF’s U-20 team.

Red Wings Assistant Manager and Director of Amateur Scouting Kris Draper said he believes the ceiling is high for Forslund.

“Playing against those men at a lower level, Charlie stood out,” Draper said. “He has good size, can skate and can really shoot the puck…We did a lot of background checking and you sit there, this could be somebody that could be really good for us down the road.”

At 6-foot-3, 212 pounds, and still growing, Forslund said he’s learning how to use his size to his advantage.

“I play every game with my big body,” Forslund said. “I try to get into situations where it’s a bit tough, like in front of the net. Last year, my game was very good on the power play.”

Continued; Falu IF could only provide so much in the way of resources for Forslund to train and improve his physical conditioning, so the Wings believe that moving to Mora IK might jump-start his development.