Month: September 2024

‘Raymond the rudder’

97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield offers something of a post-script to the Red Wings’ re-signing of Lucas Raymond on Monday night:

Raymond is a rudder for the Red Wings, who are starting to turn the corner. The 22-year-old forward nearly propelled the team into the playoffs last season for the first time in eight years. He put up career best numbers and “down the stretch,” as Steve Yzerman said Tuesday, “took his game to another level.” 14 of his 31 goals came in the final 18 games, and several of them were clutch.

“I think I figured out a lot of things about my game, what makes me good, and how to be able to do that on a consistent basis,” Raymond said.

And what did he figure out?

“Just the way that I perform the best when I play a certain way, my movement on the ice, the physical aspect was for sure one part of it, and my skating,” said Raymond. “That made it a lot easier, and also something to fall back on, when you might not be feeling great, to find your rhythm again. Trying to build off of that.”

…

“I’m not the biggest guy out there, but you get in those situations and get physical, that usually helps you get into the game a little bit easier,” he said. “I felt that was a big thing. Maybe it was a little bit of a conscious (decision) to do it, but I think that came naturally as well.”

The Red Wings have every reason to believe that Raymond’s surge at the end of last season was a sign of things to come. Their commitment to the player only backfires if he regresses. Yzerman is confident that Raymond will reach “another level” yet. His maturation was most evident last season when the Wings lost their captain and No. 1 center Dylan Larkin for several weeks to an injury and Raymond shined without him.

“He’s (been) our best player, I think,” Moritz Seider said at the time. “Even in tough stretches, he finds a way to get on the board, stay in it, play the right way. I think he’s just taken a real big step compared to last year.”

Continued;

Proteau predicts that Seider might sign during training camp

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau makes “five bold predictions” for Atlantic Division teams this evening, and this one seems to be more and more likely to come true as training camps approach:

Prediction: Detroit Red Wings top defenseman Moritz Seider signs a contract extension in the middle of training camp. His deal – which we believe will pay him $8.5 million per season – will ensure he begins the regular season without missing any time.

Per PuckPedia, the Red Wings currently have $8.74 million in salary cap space after signing dynamic young winger Lucas Raymond to an eight-year, $64.6-million contract. 

If Seider – the team’s top defenseman and a cornerstone component of GM Steve Yzerman’s plans – wants to play a full 82-game slate of games, he must settle for about $8.5 million per season.

In fairness, players comparable to Seider – Buffalo’s Owen Power ($8.35 million) – give Yzerman reason to keep Seider’s contract demands reasonable. And if Seider doesn’t feel like he’s being treated properly, he can sign for a short term and try again to hit a bigger jackpot down the line. 

In any case, we expect Seider not to miss any time and contribute right out of the gate for Detroit. Seider is too crucial to fight tooth and nail over financial issues, and both sides must temper their demands to ensure Seider is in the lineup to begin the season. As the Red Wings learned last season, any missed opportunity for one more point in the standings can cost them.

Continued; the one thing that concerned me during Steve Yzerman’s presser was a question about Raymond and Seider’s work visas. It sounded like if Seider signs before September 30th, the end of the fiscal year, there won’t be many problems, but if his visa expires thereafter…

It could get a little tricky.

This is one of those few occasions where I could be making this all up in my head…I’d need a H1B Visa expert to clarify the language.

Video: TFP’s Pagnotta talks RFA’s on the NHL Network (on Monday night)

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta appeared on the NHL Network yesterday night to talk about Sidney Crosby’s re-signing and notable restricted free agents who remain unsigned.

So this is a little dated. Still!

At the 4:28 mark of the video, Pagnotta states that with Raymond and Seider, the conversations are ongoing, long-term is the expectations, and that both sides are having daily talks, but the gaps need to be bridged, and the expectation is $8+ million per player, with Seider gaining a higher AAV.

Video: Chris Johnston updates Moritz Seider’s contract negotiations in TSN’s ‘Insider Trading’

TSN’s Gino Reda spoke with Darren Dreger and Chris Johnston for the first episode of Insider Trading of the new season, and Johnston addressed Moritz Seider’s situation:

From the TSN.ca transcript:

GENO REDA: It’s the season debut of Insider Trading. They are the Insiders, Darren Dreger and Chris Johnston. Gentlemen, NHL training camps are opening up across league this week, and there are some big name restricted free agents still waiting for contracts. One of the biggest names out there right now, C.J., is Jeremy Swayman. At last word, Swayman and the Bruins were miles apart on a new deal. Any updates on that front?

CHRIS JOHNSTON: Well, what I can tell you as of early Tuesday evening, anyways, it was described as ‘status-quo’ in these talks, and I think the timestamp is important because this is an hour-by-hour situation with the camp opening in Boston on Wednesday. Obviously a lot of urgency trying to get the No. 1 goaltender of the Bruins signed, and really, this goes back a long time. They’ve been working at this file for quite some time trying to find an agreement on, what I think, has been focused on a long-term deal. You have to wonder if they can’t quite get there, if they can’t bridge that gap, maybe they find something a little shorter to get to a solution here. But certainly, this is a big one around the league.

Another situation worth monitoring is in Detroit, where Moritz Seider, the defenceman for the Red Wings, remains unsigned as well. The talks there had been focused on an eight-year contract, the maximum allowable, just as his teammate Lucas Raymond signed. But it sounds like now it’s going to be something a little shorter, and the reason for that is the Red Wings have been reluctant to pay anyone more than the $8.7 million per year that captain Dylan Larkin gets. I think one way to maybe get Seider into the mid-eights, or somewhere below that number is to do a six or seven-year deal, and so look for that as they look to get him signed and in camp here as soon as possible.

A bit of praise for Carter Gylander’s Prospect Games performance

It’s difficult to make any career-spanning predictions as to how the Red Wings’ prospects who participated in the Prospect Games might pan out. They only played in two games over the course of two days, against their peers (age-wise), for the most part.

That being said, there were some conclusions to be made about some of the players who participated in the various rookie camps throughout the NHL this past weekend, and Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis tabs Red Wings goaltender Carter Gylander as one of his “Top 15 standouts” from the NHL’s various rookie tournaments:

Carter Gylander, G (Detroit Red Wings)

The Red Wings already have two high-end goalie prospects in Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine. Now, Gylander is off to an excellent start to his pro career after capping off a four-year run at Colgate University. He made 33 saves over a game and a half to register a .967 save percentage – marking one of the best stat lines of any goalie this weekend. It wasn’t a big sample size, but he still looked steady, using his 6-foot-5 frame to cover so much of the net. I like how well he tracks the puck through traffic and he’s got the athleticism to make up for plays when he can’t rely on pure size to make a save.

Continued; Gylander is just plain old steady.

At 23 years of age, he’s not a “young prospect,” and he’s going to face an uphill battle as the Red Wings’ goaltending situation in Grand Rapids already includes two goaltenders in Sebastian Cossa and Jack Campbell–and the situation in Toledo is no less crowded, with Gage Alexander and Griffins-contracted Jan Bednar vying for crease time–but those who’ve seen Gylander play know that his patience both in and out of the crease may very well pay off.

Funny Tweet: the new ‘ball game’

The Red Wings’ Prospect Games participants were asked to play in a “fun game” by the Grand Rapids Griffins’ social media crew, and, well, this ensued:

Middle-of-the-road in goal (for now)

EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro just posted an article which discusses the “long-term outlook in goal” for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and he ranks the Red Wings in the middle tier out of 5 (i.e. “tier 3”) for their combination of present quality of goaltending and future prospects:

Detroit Red Wings 

Projected starter: Cam Talbot 

Future watch: Trey Augustine, Sebastian Cossa

The Red Wings are going into training camp with three goalies, and all of them have big question marks. Ville Husso missed almost all of last season with injury, Alex Lyon has yet to prove he’s more than a reliable backup, and Talbot is starting to slow down with age. The good news is that Detroit has perhaps the best tandem of the future with Cossa and Augustine, who I expect to be taking over Detroit’s crease in a couple seasons. 

Continued (paywall); there’s no doubt that the Red Wings are hoping that redundancy takes root in terms of the team’s goaltending situation resolving itself over the course of training camp and the exhibition season, but Cossa and Augustine definitely hold much promise down the line.

Tweet of note: Raymond’s not too shabby

The Red Wings just Tweeted out this “more to come” post about Lucas Raymond’s status among the Red Wings’ 21-and-under players:

Afternoon news: more comments from Steve Yzerman and Lucas Raymond’s press conferences

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman and recently re-signed forward Lucas Raymond both spoke with the media this morning, and this early afternoon produced a wealth of articles which reacted to the comments made in the morning.

Here’s a second crop thereof, starting with the Free Press’s Helene St. James, who discusses Raymond’s re-signing:

The Swedish forward, deftly plucked with the fourth selection in the 2020 draft by general manager Steve Yzerman, has a few details to deal with now that he’s been brought into the fold with an eight-year, $64.6 million deal: Namely, he needs to get to Detroit, his work visa needs to be renewed, and then he needs to get to training camp, which begins Thursday in Traverse City. This will be a whirlwind of a week, but it puts to an offseason to end that had grown increasingly tense as negotiations for the restricted free agent went the distance.

“It’s a special feeling, for sure,” Raymond said Tuesday. “Very excited. You go around, you look at your phone a lot. A lot of screen time. You spend a lot of time on the phone, and to be able to move on from that, I feel like that’s a huge relief.”

The massive contract, second among Red Wings forwards only to captain Dylan Larkin’s $8.7 million annual contract, reflects the value Raymond added especially down the stretch last season, as the Wings chased a playoff spot all the way till Game 82. Raymond had 21 points the last 18 games, and wrapped things up with a six-game point streak (six goals, five assists).

“He certainly took his game to another level, production-wise,” Yzerman said. “We didn’t base everything on the last 20 games, but it certainly has an impact. But I felt throughout the season he continued to get better. There was a significant growth from Year 2 to Year 3. He had a very good offseason last year and came in and played really well and took off down the stretch. We were not shocked by that. We were very pleased with the way he finished the season and showed that he has the ability to play at a higher level, and he did that in all aspects.

“I expect him to be one of our top players again, I expect his game to continue to grow this year. But yeah, it helped his case a lot – I think he had 13 goals the last 20 games. He really helped his cause and we were thrilled to see him play that well. 

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood asked Raymond whether being part of the contract negotiations was difficult for him…

Continue reading Afternoon news: more comments from Steve Yzerman and Lucas Raymond’s press conferences

As of Tuesday, the Wings’ only injuries consist of Ondrej Becher and Shai Buium

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted an article which discusses the Red Wings’ injuries going into training camp–which, as it turns out, involve players who participated in this past weekend’s Prospect Games vs. Dallas:

Youngsters Ondrej Becher (80th, 2024) and Shai Buium (36th, 2021) are the only players listed as injured heading into the start of Detroit Red Wings’ training camp on Thursday.

“Becher has a sprained ankle that he did prior to coming to Detroit,” Detroit GM Steve Yzerman said. “I think skating on his own, so he’ll be out for a little while.”

Buium, projected to be a regular in Grand Rapids this season, was injured blocking a shot in Game 2 of Red Wings’ prospect series against the Dallas Stars.

“He’s kind of day to day,” Yzerman said. “We’re doing some more tests at this stage. It doesn’t look like it’s anything serious, and hopefully it’s not. But still, he potentially might miss a few days.”

Allen also included this comment from assistant director of player development Dan Cleary regarding Buium:

“At the end of the day I watched how he played quite a bit,” Cleary said. “Obviously a very successful career in Denver. He can certainly run a power play. He’s smart — makes his good hockey sense work for him. He’s got a good little feel. He can find the middle of the ice well. And he certainly knows what he’s got to work on. But he’s gotten stronger, he’s gotten quicker, he’s in better shape, but the pro game’s tough. American League is a tough league. It’s hard. So it’s gonna be growing (pains) for sure.