Month: December 2024

Video: Griffins go Christmas shopping for ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ and Family Promise of Michigan

Per the Grand Rapids Griffins, captain Josiah Didier and forward Brogan Rafferty took their families out for a shopping trip for Random Acts of Kindness and Family Promise of Michigan:

On scrambled defense

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a meaty notebook article this afternoon, discussing the Red Wings’ “scrambling” defense last night, J.T. Compher breaking his 22-game goal-less slump, and sharing Ville Husso’s demotion to Grand Rapids.

Regarding Simon Edvinsson’s absence due to his upper-body injury (there was not clarification on that as the Red Wings didn’t practice today), Kulfan offers this:

With Edvinsson unavailable, Ben Chiarot filled in to play with Moritz Seider and played a season-high 29 minutes, 14 seconds. Seider, who absorbed a shot near his head late in the game but was not hurt, played a season-high 28:02.

Jeff Petry played 20 minutes, Justin Holl played 17:14 and Erik Gustafsson 15:30 as the Wings compensated for the loss of Edvinsson (played six shifts, 5:36).

Edvinsson collided high with Philadelphia’s Rasmus Ristolainen in the first period and appeared a little uneasy skating back to the bench.

“Obviously he (Edvinsson) only played a handful of minutes there,” Lalonde said. “Really good on our D-core to play most of the game with five (defensemen) and a lot of those D are not accustomed to playing top-four minutes. They gutted it out.”

Seider and Chiarot have plenty of experience playing together and the chemistry returned quickly. Chiarot ended with a plus-three for the evening, and arguably had one of his best games of the season, adding three hits and two blocks.

“Both played really well,” Lalonde said. “We had (Philadelphia) registered for three (scoring) chances in the third. We gave them 19 shots the entire game and that’s a pretty good offensive team and obviously those two are leading it playing most of the minutes. Good on them, they were winning shifts for sure.”

Continued (paywall)

Press release: Ville Husso assigned to Grand Rapids

Per the Red Wings:

RED WINGS ASSIGN VILLE HUSSO TO GRAND RAPIDS

  … Goaltender Has Appeared in 140 Games with St. Louis and Detroit Since 2020-21 …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today assigned goaltender Ville Husso to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

Husso, 29, has appeared in eight games with the Red Wings during the 2024-25 season, posting a 1-4-2 record with a 3.47 goals-against average and an 0.877 save percentage. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound netminder has also logged a 4-0-0 record with a 1.58 goals-against average, a 0.944 save percentage and one shutout in five appearances with the Griffins this season. Husso was limited to 19 appearances with Detroit in 2023-24, showing a 9-5-2 record with a 3.55 goals-against average and an 0.892 save percentage. He also stopped all 25 shots he faced with the Griffins on Jan. 26 against the Belleville Senators during a conditioning stint. Originally selected by the St. Louis Blues in the fourth round (94th overall) of the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, Husso has compiled a 70-44-18 record with a 3.03 goals-against average, a 0.901 save percentage and seven shutouts in 140 appearances with the Blues and Red Wings since 2020-21. Additionally, Husso has posted a 55-54-16 record with a 2.64 goals-against average, a 0.910 save percentage and 12 shutouts in 135 AHL games with the Chicago Wolves, San Antonio Rampage and Griffins, earning a place on the AHL All-Rookie Team in 2017-18. 

A native of Helsinki, Finland, Husso played three seasons with HIFK in Finland’s SM-Liiga from 2013-16 prior to arriving in North America, finishing with a 60-33-21 record and 10 shutouts in 121 appearances. In his final season with HIFK, Husso was named to the SM-Liiga All-Star Team and captured the Urpo Ylönen Award as the league’s top goaltender after recording the circuit’s best goals-against average (1.91) and save percentage (0.927) in 39 games during the 2015-16 campaign. On the international stage, Husso represented Finland at the 2018 IIHF World Championship, showing a 1-2-0 record with a 2.33 goals-against average in three appearances. He also competed at back-to-back IIHF World Junior Championships in 2014 and 2015, winning a gold medal at the 2014 tournament. Husso was a member of Finland’s bronze-medal entry at the 2013 IIHF World Under-18 Championship and made three appearances at the 2012 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament.

Tweet of note: FloHockey profiles Trey Augustine

FloHockey’s Chris Peters profiled Team USA World Junior team goaltender and Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine today…

And you can watch the entire 2:49 video here (no embed code, sorry).

Update: Here’s the YouTube embed:

Stockton on the sticky situation that is #91

Sergei Fedorov turned 55 on December 13th. I know that because Fedorov was born on the same day and same year that my parents were married.

As the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton noted on Twitter, Fedorov’s former team, CSKA Moscow, retired the #18 that Fedorov wore during his time in Russia (via HockeyNewsHub):

But we all know that #91 is not retired in Detroit, which Chris Chelios remarked upon during last night’s TNT broadcast of the Wings’ 6-4 win over Philadelphia:

Stockton posted an article about the situation, and the situation is…complicated:

Continue reading Stockton on the sticky situation that is #91

Waiting on Edvinsson’s status as the ‘Holiday Roster Freeze’ looms

According to The Athletic’s Max Bultman, the Red Wings are not practicing today, though they are hoping to build upon last night’s 6-4 win over Philadelphia…

As a home-and-home series with Montreal (and goaltender Samuel Montembeault) looms on Friday and Saturday, and the pre-Christmas portion of Detroit’s schedule will conclude with a home game against St. Louis on Monday the 23rd of December.

The condensed schedule consists of 3 games in 4 nights, so, with Ben Chiarot playing 29:14 and Moritz Seider playing 28:02 after Simon Edvinsson left last night’s game with an “upper-body injury,” the Wings are going to have to manage their defensemen’s ice time better over the course of the next three games.

That’s all presuming that Edvinsson doesn’t play tomorrow or Saturday, but there’s a complicating factor in the Edvinsson saga:

Tonight at midnight, the NHL’s “holiday roster freeze” goes into effect.

The “roster freeze” means that teams can’t make trades or recall players between December 20th and 27th, save “roster emergencies,” and as Albert Johansson’s presence on the Wings’ blueline = Detroit having 6 healthy defensemen, the Wings would have to place Edvinsson on the IR (and lose his services until the 27th vs. Toronto) to open up a roster spot.

There may be no practice today, but it will be interesting to see whether the Wings do something like waiving Ville Husso again in order to create a roster spot for a healthy defenseman, or whether they attempt to make a recall from Grand Rapids.

Such moves would indicate that Detroit’s #1B defenseman might miss some time, which would not be good news for Red Wings fans.

Bultman on Simon Edvinsson, essential defenseman

The Athletic’s Max Bultman wrote a lengthy article discussing Simon Edvinsson’s incredibly important status as one of the Red Wings‘ top defensemen:

It’s easy to forget that just one year ago, he was still just waiting for his chance — marinating with Detroit’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids while so many were itching to see him at the next level. That wait had to be hard for Edvinsson, as it took until late March for him to get a full-time shot with the big club. But looking back now, Edvinsson can see all the ways that time with the Griffins helped him get to where he is today.

“It was huge for me,” Edvinsson said Wednesday morning. “It helped me so much. It was great to be down there, play for Grand Rapids and the fans. I just enjoyed it, and I just learned so much from there. It was huge for me to get those reps in down there, and then come up here and feel confident enough to do it up here as well.”

Now, Edvinsson looks like a foundational piece of the Red Wings’ core going forward. Of course, that was always the hope. At 6 feet, 6 inches with graceful skating, soft hands and a bit more edge than expected, his profile is straight out of central casting for a modern-day shutdown defenseman.

His skating and long reach make him an asset not just in defending against the rush but also in being able to skate the puck up ice himself — becoming a sort of one-man breakout when needed. Both aspects are big parts of why, despite his difficult workload, he is the only Red Wings defenseman with a five-on-five on-ice expected goals share north of 50 percent.

“Obviously him and (Seider)’s numbers of getting pucks out, getting pucks out clean, (have) been really high,” Lalonde said. “And it’s been a huge positive, and part of who he is.”

Continued (paywall);

A Talbot rumor without legs

The Hockey News’s Lyle Richardson is one of the most respected writers out there, but I’m scratching my head at “Spector’s” suggestion, via the New York Post’s Larry Brooks, that the Red Wings may be willing to trade one Cameron Talbot in order to help clear the decks:

Turning to the Detroit Red Wings, [the New York Post’s Larry] Brooks noted that Cam Talbot has performed well thus far in Motown. The 37-year-old goaltender has a record of 6-6-2 with a 2.69 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.

Talbot has an affordable two-year contract with an average annual value of $2.5 million. Brooks believes the Colorado Avalanche or New Jersey Devils might come calling if their current goalie tandems don’t work out as hoped. 

Continued; anything is possible, especially if Sebastian Cossa takes leaps forward in his development, and/or Trey Augustine turns pro…

But I’m not seeing the Wings moving Talbot unless all hope is lost, especially given Ville Husso and Alex Lyon’s up-and-down performances.

Shapiro on Team USA’s World Junior team, Trey Augustine included

The man of many hats, EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro, wrote an article for USAHockey.com which discusses the United States‘ 2026 World Junior team, which includes incumbent starting goaltender and Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine:

On paper, the Americans are a deep team at all three position groups, but during camp, almost everyone pointed to goaltending as one of the foundations for the medal chase.

Augustine, who joked he was the “old man” in camp, will be playing in his third straight World Juniors and is the likely starter. Augustine has been one of the best goalies in college hockey the past two seasons, currently posting a .930 save percentage for Michigan State, and made his U.S. Men’s National Team debut this past spring at the IIHF World Championship.

Augustine is the calming force and has been that way for the U.S. at multiple tournaments, winning both World Junior and Under-18 gold medals in the past two years.

“He’s just so composed and calm, and he understands the game,” David Lassonde, USA Hockey’s national goaltending coach, said. “He reads the game so well; there’s so rarely a time or place where he isn’t in the right position.”

Continued; Shapiro’s article is a good read…

Axel Sandin Pellikka gets ‘talked up’ before the World Junior Championship

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler posted a list of the “top 25 prospects” participating at the 2026 World Junior Championship in Ottawa.

With Axel Sandin Pellikka (Sweden), Jesse Kiiskinen (Finland), Trey Augustine (USA) and possibly Max Plante (USA) participating against a field of 2025 draft stars, Pronman and Wheeler decided that there was only one Red Wing on their list:

10. Axel Sandin Pellikka, RHD, Sweden (Detroit)

Sandin Pellikka enters his third World Juniors as the tournament’s reigning top defenseman, an SHL champion and the winner of the Salming Trophy (awarded annually to the best Swedish-born defenseman playing in Sweden). He’s a near-point-per-game defenseman in the SHL as a teenager and projects as a competitive, right-shot offensive defenseman in the NHL. He should be one of the top players in this year’s tournament — again.

Continued (paywall); again, Pronman and Wheeler really leaned upon both 2025 draft prospects and 2024 draft picks, so maybe it’s not a surprise that Augustine was left out. [sarcasm] He is only a goalie, after all [/sarcasm].