Of Red Wings-related note this morning:
- Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes that new Red Wings forward James van Riemsdyk has a tie to Patrick Kane as the players went 1st and 2nd (Kane first, JVR second) in the 2007 NHL Draft:
After all these years, they’ve finally put it together. For the first time, the two friends will also play as NHL teammates with the Red Wings. Detroit signed JVR as a UFA earlier this month, two years after doing likewise with Kane. In fact, Kane signed his new one-year deal with Detroit one day prior to van Riemsdyk also agreeing to a one-year pact. He was with the Columbus Blue Jackets last season.
“He’s one of my really good buddies and we’ve obviously been kind of through this whole journey over the years together in a lot of ways,” van Riemsdyk said. “Through some different USA hockey things and some different things over the years with training or bouncing ideas off each other or stuff like that. So it’s really exciting that we get a chance to do all that on the same team.”
It’s the first time they’ve played on the same team since the 2005-05 US NTDP under-18 squad. Both were 16 years old. Kane was the team’s leading scorer that season with 17-17-34 totals. Third in scoring with 18-11-29 numbers was van Riemsdyk.
2. And I hate summertime trade rumors, but MLive’s Ansar Khan notes that several members of the Pittsburgh Penguins have been linked to the Red Wings in the rumor mill. While I don’t understand how Erik Karlsson would fit as a wild and rangy offensive defenseman with a $10 million cap hit, these two players make some sense in terms of “fit”:
Bryan Rust, LW/RW
Age: 33
Contract: Three years remaining at a $5.125 million average annual value.
Rust is a native of Pontiac, Mich., and the Red Wings as we’ve seen have a knack for bringing in players from the state. Beyond that, he’s coming off his most productive season with 31 goals. 34 assists and 65 points in 71 games. He’s played his entire 11-year career in Pittsburgh.
Rickard Rakell, RW
Age: 32
Contract: Three years remaining at a $5.0 million AAV.
Like Rust, Rakell is a right shooter coming off his best season, positing career highs in goals (35), assists (35) and points (70) in 81 games. He’s native Swede but has Michigan ties, having played three seasons for the former OHL Plymouth Whalers. The Penguins probably won’t move both Rust and Rakell and leave Sideny Crosby with fewer potential top-line wingers.
I’m a big Rakell fan, and I think that he’s got a higher “B game” than Rust. That being said, as Pittsburgh Hockey Now’s Dan Kingerski noted a couple of days ago, and The Athletic’s Josh Yohe noted on Sunday, it’s not like the Penguins are in a rush to trade either player, and they’d want more than Khan’s proposed return (Jonatan Berggren and a draft pick).
I want to see the Red Wings be aggressive and address their needs for a top-six, scoring winger and a top-four, shut-down defenseman as much as anybody, but we’ll have to wait and see whether there’s really smoke where there’s fire here.
Speaking of smoke, The Hockey Writers’ Devin Little dropped a sensible name on defense in Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Connor Murphy. Murphy’s been linked to Detroit before, he’s 32, 6’4″ and 212 pounds, and is in the last year of a contract with a $4.44 million AAV. I could see Murphy fitting well as a second or third-pair shut-down guy.
