Month: July 2025

Fundraising to pay the server bills

I’m not thrilled with having to do this, but I have no choice. I’ve got a combination of server bills ($477) and regular bills ($139) that add up to $616.42, and those bills come due at the end of August. As such, I must go back to banging the fundraising drum.

I realize that this is a small blog with a loyal audience, and that I’ve only been “back” for about seven weeks now, but I’d like to continue blogging as July turns to August and the hockey news cycle slowly builds again…So it’s time to pay the server bill, which I cannot do on my own.

I realize that I’m testing the limits of your generosity here, but that’s survival for you.

So:

Continue reading Fundraising to pay the server bills

Rudy Guimond hopes to sustain positive momentum in Moncton this season

Red Wings prospect goaltender Rudy Guimond went on a 16-game winning streak after joining the QMJHL’s Moncton Wildcats last season, and he followed up his regular season unbeaten streak with an 8-and-1 playoff record.

Today, MLive’s Ansar Khan profiles Guimond, who has chosen to return to Moncton for his “overage” 20-year-old season due to both hockey and financial reasons:

Guimond (6-4, 175) went 16–0 with a 1.73 goals-against average, .940 save percentage and three shutouts during the regular season. He was 8-1 in the playoffs, helping the Wildcats win the QMJHL Championship and earn a spot in the Memorial Cup.

“It was really amazing, but it was a testament to the group in front of me, with the D core and almost every guy was drafted,” Guimond said earlier this month at Red Wings development camp. “So, I just had to do my job.”

Guimond didn’t play in the Memorial Cup – the Wildcats went with the more experienced Mathis Rousseau – but he learned from the experience. Moncton lost in the semifinals to London, which won the championship.

“Just how hard it is to win a series like that,” Guimond said. “And obviously in my career, I’ll run into those experiences, and it’ll just make me more prepared for when that comes.”

Guimond will be Moncton’s No. 1 goalie now that Rousseau is done, giving the Red Wings a bigger sample size to evaluate him.

“Pretty incredible statistics when you think about it,” Dan Cleary, Red Wings assistant director of player development, said. “I’m very close with (head coach) Gardiner MacDougall and (general manager) Taylor (MacDougall). Those guys in Moncton did a tremendous job. And their goalie coach (Antoine Samuel), but I think Rudy just got to an environment where he felt comfortable. They embraced him, they helped him, and his game really shines. So, testament to Rudy and the people in Moncton that really saw something.”

Continued (paywall) with an explanation as to how Jimmy Howard’s goal pads influenced Guimond’s developmental path…

9 Red Wings make Daily Faceoff’s Larkin’s ‘fantasy hockey top 300 player rankings’

Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin posted his top 300 fantasy hockey players for the 2025-2026 season, and, remarkably, he added comments about every selection:

36. Lucas Raymond, RW, Red Wings: Hyper-intelligent playmaker, first-line role, 23 years old, still getting better. Checks so many boxes for me. The supporting cast isn’t improved, though, so I envision a stat line similar to last season’s 27-53-80.

66. Alex DeBrincat, LW, Red Wings: At least 27 goals in seven of his eight full seasons, with occasional spikes like last year’s 39. A great early-round pick for goals if you targeted a goalie or defenseman with your first couple selections.

78. Dylan Larkin, C, Red Wings: Four straight years between 30 and 33 goals and between 69 and 79 points. Reaching on young talent is fun, but it’s always smart to load up on these reliable late-prime vets in the early middle rounds.

Continue reading 9 Red Wings make Daily Faceoff’s Larkin’s ‘fantasy hockey top 300 player rankings’

Tweet of note: The NHLPA praises Ted Lindsay on his 100th birthday

As posted last night, NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs wrote a fantastic article about Ted Lindsay to commemorate his 100th birthday. This morning, the NHLPA pays tribute to Lindsay, who was instrumental in the founding of the league’s players association:

Roughly translated: Eduards Tralmaks says he’s receptive to starting this season in the AHL

There’s been some significant concern of late, via some fine reporting from Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, that Red Wings free agent signing Eduards Tralmaks might end up playing in the Czech Extraliga (where he was the leading scorer last season) for HC Energie Karlovy Vary if he doesn’t make the Red Wings’ NHL roster.

Thankfully, Tralmaks gave an interview to Rem Ratnikov on HokejaZinas.com in which the 28-year-old winger (who stands at 6’4″ and 209 pounds) seems receptive to starting the season in the AHL.

There’s an 8-minute video accompanying the interview, but it’s in Latvian–as is the interview itself–so you’ll have to be patient with the rough translation from a hard-to-translate language:

Tralmaks: My style of play doesn’t fit the NHL’s first or second line

Eduards Tralmaks, the forward of the Detroit Red Wings and the Latvian national ice hockey team, and now the National Hockey League (NHL), told Sporta Studija about his preparation for the season.

HokejaZinas.com has already reported that Tralmaks signed a two-way contract with Red Wings for one season.

“I know how to prepare. I’ve been preparing in the Czech Republic for the last two years, I know the training plan. At the beginning or middle of August, I will have to fly to Detroit, where I will be examined and continue to prepare in the presence of their coaches.”

“If it were that easy, I would love to withdraw the one-way contract. After such a season, I’ve been given the opportunity to move back [to North America] and fulfill the goal of the dream I have. At that point, I didn’t really think whether the contract is one-way or two-way, it was just important to me that the team sees in me the potential to play in the NHL. I think I have that with the Red Wings organization,” says Tralmaks.

Continue reading Roughly translated: Eduards Tralmaks says he’s receptive to starting this season in the AHL

The ‘henchmen’

Former Red Wings players Sean Avery and Chris Chelios appear in the movie Happy Gilmore 2, very briefly, as mafia henchmen:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff explains:

Adam Sandler may be decked out in a Boston Bruins jersey as the star of Happy Gilmore 2, but a couple of former Detroit Red Wings are the ones representing the NHL in the hit film.

Sandler portrays a hockey player turned golfer, but it’s ex-Red Wings Sean Avery and Chris Chelios who are hockey players turned actors on screen.

Well, actors might be a bit of a stretch. Extras would be the more appropriate acting handle to apply to their cameo roles on screen.

Billing in the credits shows them as Henchman #1 (Avery) and Henchman #2 (Chelios). The two former hockey stars feature briefly in a black and white scene, serving as the muscle for a 1950s-era gangster. Chelios appears especially impressive in his role, looking as though they were lifting him straight out of an old George Raft gangster flick. Don’t blink or you might miss it, though.

Continued…

Praising Lucas Raymond’s ‘value contract’

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn posted a column ranking the NHL’s 10 best “value contracts per Luszczyszyn’s metrics as to a player’s value over the remainder of the contract.

Lucas Raymond makes the cut with his $8.1 million contract, which Luszczyszyn says is worth $12.6 million in market value, but Moritz Seider does not make the cut (nor does any defenseman or goaltender):

8. Lucas Raymond

Contract: $8.1M x seven years
Surplus Value: $31M
Positive Value Probability: 92 percent

Lucas Raymond has reached another level. That was clear to close out the 2023-24 season and confirmed the following year with a near point-per-game season. Raymond is the real deal and the Red Wings are about to benefit greatly from it.

That’s because of his $8.1 million cap hit, an amount that will equate to a high-end second-line player during the remainder of Raymond’s deal. It’s a mark he looks likely to blow past. Raymond is already a bona fide top-line talent and looks likely to ascend to stardom as he enters his prime. He’s on track to become a franchise winger, a legit star-level threat and his current price tag is a pittance for the kind of value he should bring. 

Raymond’s deal looked like a win last year before he truly established his current level. Now, it’s a slam dunk. The fruits of Detroit’s rebuild are finally coming together.

Continued (paywall); it’s great to read some due praise for Raymond’s value. There’s no doubt that, with the salary cap rising, Raymond’s $8.075 million cap hit will be a pittance soon.

I’m just a little puzzled as to why all 10 of Luszczyszyn’s deals are forwards. There are some great deals out there for defensemen, like Seider and his $8.55 million cap hit deal.

Remembering Ted Lindsay on his 100th birthday

NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs is a real gem of a fellow, a passionate hockey historian and writer. This morning, Stubbs honors what would have been the 100th birthday of Red Wings legend Ted Lindsay, offering a set of vignettes symbolizing the life and legacy of “Terrible Ted”:

You won’t find Lindsay’s name on the Stanley Cup today. In 2010, the sterling and nickel-alloy band bearing the champions from 1953-54 to 1964-65 was retired to the vault of the Hockey Hall of Fame, the names of Howe, Maurice Richard, Glenn Hall (a friend packaged in his 1957 trade to Chicago), Bobby Hull and more than 300 others also removed.

“That’s part of history,” Lindsay said. “I’m fine with it. I know I won the Stanley Cup; I don’t need to see my name on it.”

He joked about the fact his name was misspelled “Lindsey” for the 1949-50 championship, saying “it didn’t bother me as long as we won the Cup.” And it was Lindsay who as captain of the Red Wings began the tradition of carrying the trophy around the ice for fans to have a better look.

“In those days (before shatterproof glass), everything was chicken wire at the end of the rink, from the faceoff dots and around behind the net,” he remembered. “Where the screen ended, the fans would lean on the boards, over the ice. They’d move back when the play came by.

“These were the people who paid my salary. When I saw the Cup sitting on a table after Clarence (Campbell, the NHL president) presented it to (Red Wings GM Jack) Adams, I guess I saw these people by the penalty box. So, I just picked it up. Adams was probably thinking, ‘What’s that idiot Lindsay going to do, throw it?’ The fans all wanted to see it.”

The small gesture was one of Lindsay’s many, part of his impressive, important legacy that is celebrated a century after his birth.

Today, the footprint on hockey of this small giant remains immeasurable. He is still larger than life, still heavier than the scale suggested, still taller than the tape measure read.

“I hope it’s good, what they would say,” he said of how he’d like to be remembered. “Maybe I didn’t always have a good night, but I never cheated them.”

Continued; you can find out more about Ted and his charitable endeavors for autism research at the Ted Lindsay Foundation’s webpage.

Talking about Detroit’s 5-on-5 scoring and the Wings’ PK

Pro Hockey Rumors’ Brian La Rose conducted a mailbag feature in which he answers a Red Wings-related question (and PHR is an unfortunate name for a website that does a lot more than discuss rumors):

rule78.1: The Red Wings had a couple of major issues last season. Their ability to score 5-on-5 and their penalty kill.  Do you see any improvement in these areas up to this point for this coming season after their signings?

Let’s look at the offensive moves.  They gave up Vladimir Tarasenko and added James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton.  On paper, that’s not a lot better although van Riemsdyk was much better than usual at five-on-five last season.  But generally, he’s more of a power play specialist (nearly 43% of his goals from 2020-21 through 2023-24 were on the man advantage) so I think the even strength production might drop.  At best, I think it’s a wash beyond hoping for some internal improvement and bounce backs.

Before digging into the second question, let’s review the defensive moves.  John Gibson is now the starting goalie and as a team that needed to make some defensive changes, they added Jacob Bernard-Docker to replace Jeff Petry.  I like the Bernard-Docker contract but that’s not a needle-mover.

But Gibson gives them a shot at improving shorthanded.  If we look at Goals Saved Above Expected (per MoneyPuck) at four-on-five, Cam Talbot was one of the worst goalies in the league at -7.1.  Alex Lyon was at -2.3 and Petr Mrazek was in that range, also including his time with Chicago.  Gibson was still in the negative but at -0.5 which is at least closer to average.  All else being equal (and given the skater group, it largely is), even average goaltending on the penalty kill will be an improvement.  Appleton has killed penalties in the past as well so he could help.  They’ve improved a bit here but it still could be one of the weaker units overall.

Continued; I want to see what coach Todd McLellan and assistants Trent Yawney, Alex Tanguay and video coordinator Jeff Weintraub–and whoever else the Red Wings hire this summer to fill in the bench–are able to instill upon the Red Wings’ player personnel before making any hard-and-fast judgments as to whether the current personnel are “enough” to “move the needle” in terms of even-strength scoring or penalty-killing.

The interplay between coaches and player personnel are essential, starting with what’s taught during training camp and the exhibition season, and we’ve got very little data to go upon save a half-season of coaches McLellan and Yawney working with the Wings’ staff.

Once McLellan hires his preferred lieutenants, then I want to see what the Wings can really do in terms of cleaning up their play and leaning less on the PP to bail out everything else.