Month: June 2025

Wings earn an ‘overtime win’ from Wheeler

In addition to a quintet of Red Wings draft grades issued by experts who weighed in on the Detroit Red Wings’ 2025 NHL Draft haul this evening, The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler has offered a column which discusses all 32 teams’ draft picks in terms of “winners” and “losers.” Wheeler issues an “overtime win” for the Red Wings:

The Red Wings got two Red Wings and two players I’d mocked to them at different points in Carter Bear and Eddie Genborg. They’re both competitive, hard-working, committed, pro-style players. Bear has top-six talent and potential and Genborg’s profile is a bottom-six one, but nobody will ever be able to question future teams in Detroit for their work ethic.

I’ll never fault a team for taking a goalie in the middle rounds, either. Once the top goalies in the draft were gone, and they were by No. 75, the big Michal Pradel was in that next tier and was a fine third-round pick. The Red Wings aren’t a team that’s desperate for young goalies either, so they must really like him.

My favorite pick for the Red Wings was Slovak forward Michal Svrcek in the fourth round. He was No. 70 on my board; they got him at No. 119 and I’ve yet to see him play a bad game. He attacks and scores against his peers and I think they could look back on that pick like the Dmitri Buchelnikov one because I think he has legit skill and he’s an SHL/AHL top-sixer for sure.

Also in the fourth round, Minnesota high schooler Brent Solomon is an interesting dice roll. He has a long way to go but he can rip the puck.

Continued (paywall)

Videos: Steve Yzerman and Kris Draper weigh in after Day 2 of the 2025 NHL Draft

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman and assistant GM/director of amateur scouting Kris Draper both spoke with the media over the course of lengthy press conferences via Zoom, summarizing the Red Wings’ 2025 NHL Draft haul, the Wings’ trade for goaltender John Gibson, the team’s buyout situation, and much more:

A trio of Red Wings draft grades

Updated 2x at 7:04 PM: The NHL’s 2025 Draft ended just an hour-and-a-half ago, but the NHL’s draft gurus are already weighing in on the Red Wings’ draft haul. Here are the first three sets of draft grades that I have found:

First, The Score’s Kyle Cushman gives the Red Wings a B- grade, with a small summary of the Wings’ eight picks…

[Carter] Bear’s tenacity and competitiveness are standout traits. He has top-six upside as a fun complementary winger. He sustained a partially lacerated Achilles in March but is expected to be ready for training camp. [Michal] Pradel is a 6-foot-5 goalie who moved to the USHL midseason from Slovakia and showed promise as a potential future starter.

Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis is a little more enthusiastic, giving the Wings an A- grade…

Continue reading A trio of Red Wings draft grades

Discussing the John Gibson trade and its implications for Sebastian Cossa

Updated 2x at 9:52 PM: Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman spoke with the NHL Network’s E.J. Hradek after making the trade to bring 31-year-old goaltender John Gibson to Detroit, as noted by NHL.com’s staff writers…

“(Ducks general manager) Pat (Verbeek) and I had some discussions last season around — if I recall — the Trade Deadline,” Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman told NHL Network on Saturday. “John was dealing with some injuries at that time, so the timing didn’t really work. Leading up to the draft as we all do our offseason work, we had some discussions and as we got closer here, we were able to (make the trade).

Gibson has two seasons remaining on the eight-year contract he signed with Anaheim on Aug. 4, 2018. He is 204-217-63 with a 2.89 GAA, a .910 save percentage and 24 shutouts in 506 regular-season games (494 starts) and 11-13 with a 2.80 GAA, a .912 save percentage and one shutout in 26 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

He earned the William Jennings Trophy, given to the goalie on the team with the fewest goals-against, after the 2015-16 season when he was 21-13-4 with a .920 save percentage and 2.07 GAA in 40 games. He shared the award with teammate Frederik Andersen.

In the past two seasons, Lukas Dostal has emerged as the No. 1 goalie in Anaheim. The 25-year-old was 23-23-7 this season with a 3.29 GAA and a .902 save percentage.

“I just placed a call in to John, I haven’t talked to him yet, Yzerman said. “There was no need to convince him (to come to Detroit). Our understanding he was looking for a fresh start and saw an opportunity in Detroit to get in the net and play a lot of games. I look forward to speaking with him. I’ve been assured he’s excited about coming to Detroit and we’re excited to have him.”

And Shap Shots’ Sean Shapiro reflected upon the Red Wings’ new tandem of Gibson and Cam Talbot in his Substack blog:

Continue reading Discussing the John Gibson trade and its implications for Sebastian Cossa

Another Gibson-for-Mrazek trade grade

After the Red Wings traded Petr Mrazek and two draft picks to the Anaheim Ducks for John Gibson earlier today, The Athletic’s Mark Lazerus and Shayna Goldman offered trade grades, and the same is true for ESPN’s Ryan S. Clark:

Detroit Red Wings
Grade: B+

Red Wings general manager Steve Yzerman had plenty of questions to answer this offseason after the club had missed the postseason for nine seasons. One of them is what he and his front office staff would do about their goaltending situation.

They tried different solutions in recent seasons. Ville Husso went from winning 26 games in his first season with the club (2022-23) to being traded to the Ducks during 2024-25. A tandem of Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot combined for a 0.899 save percentage, which is why the Wings traded for Mrazek before the deadline; he had a .902 save percentage in five games.

Lyon is an unrestricted free agent, whereas Mrazek and Talbot both had a year left on their contracts. It presented the possibly they could turn to Sebastian Cossa, their first-round pick from 2021, who finished with a .911 save percentage and a 2.45 goals-against average in the AHL. Some believe he could use another year of development as the Red Wings seek to avoid a 10th consecutive season without the playoffs.

Acquiring Gibson now provides them with a chance to have the stability that has eluded them. Injuries — along with the growth of Lukas Dostal — played a role in why Gibson was limited to 28 starts last season. But in that time, he won 11 games while registering a .912 save percentage — a strong figure compared to what the Red Wings experienced with their options in 2024-25.

The Red Wings could use Gibson and Talbot as a tandem while letting Lyon walk in free agency. The 31-year-old has two years left on his contract at $6.4 million annually, which also gives the Red Wings more time to develop Cossa in the AHL.

Per PuckPedia, Detroit now has $18.411 million in cap space to address a roster that has decisions to make regarding UFAs such as Patrick Kane and a three-player restricted free agent class that includes Jonatan Berggren.

Clark gives the Ducks an A- for unloading Gibson and his contract…

Two Tweets of note from Steve Yzerman’s post-draft presser

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman revealed two items of note during his post-second-day-of-the-draft presser, as noted by The Athletic’s Max Bultman and the multi-talented (EliteProspects, DLLS Sports, Shap Shots, and more) Sean Shapiro:

The first bit of news is a shock to me because Osaer did a good job as a “goalie whisperer,” and he will be missed by the Wings’ prospects; the second bit of news is a shock, period. I can understand trying to give Vladimir Tarasenko another year, but Justin Holl is Persona Not Great right now, and that’s going to be a tough sell to the paying public.

Red Wings select 8 players over the course of the 2025 NHL Draft’s 7 rounds

The Red Wings selected 8 players over the course of the 2025 NHL Draft’s 7 rounds, including the following…

Carter Bear, 13th overall;

Eddie Genborg, 44th overall;

Michal Pradel, 75th overall;

Brent Solomon, 109th overall;

Michal Svrcek, 119th overall;

Nikita Tyurin, 140th overall;

Will Murphy, 172nd overall;

And Grayden Robertson-Palmer, 204th overall.

A bit more about the Wings’ decision to select Carter Bear

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills examines the Red Wings’ reasons for selecting Carter Bear 13th overall during the 1st round of the 2025 NHL Draft,

“We’re getting a very intelligent hockey player, extremely competitive,” [Red Wings GM Steve] Yzerman, from Little Caesars Arena, said in a Zoom call with the media on Friday. “At the junior level, he really can score. We think all of his game translates to the NHL as well. I think our fanbase will really take to him when the time comes that he’s playing for the Red Wings because he competes hard, he’s a really good person. I know we’re very excited about this pick.”

This season, Bear tied for seventh in the Western Hockey League with 40 goals and paced the Everett Silvertips with 82 points in 56 games.

“Obviously, if you just look at the stats that he put up, he put up some real good numbers playing on a good team,” [Kris] Draper also said via Zoom. “The thing with Carter is that he can score in different ways. He can score from the perimeter, the way he shoots the puck. He can score off the rush and off the cycle. He gets around the net, so that’s obviously a skill in itself – not being a one-dimensional pure shooter or a guy that just scores goals one way. He can score in a lot of different ways, which is a great attribute for Carter to have.”

Although an Achilles injury sustained in March prematurely ended Bear’s season, Yzerman said that wasn’t something Detroit was overly concerned about moving forward.

“We were aware of that,” Yzerman said. “We checked it out. We talked to him. He’s been examined fully, and we expect it to heal.”

Continued; Bear seems to be a high-character, high-motor forward who’s grounded thanks to his family and his First Nations community. The Wings got a good egg.

Red Wings draft Grayden Robertson-Palmer 204th, trade 211th pick to Calgary to wrap up their 2025 NHL Draft haul

The Detroit Red Wings drafted USHL forward Grayden Robertson-Palmer with the 204th overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft…

Continue reading Red Wings draft Grayden Robertson-Palmer 204th, trade 211th pick to Calgary to wrap up their 2025 NHL Draft haul