Month: August 2025

Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon discusses “possible trade destinations for [restricted free agent forward] Mason McTavish” this morning, and he’s buying the concept that there’s a real fit between Anaheim and Detroit:

Detroit Red Wings

There’s a blatant connection here, given Verbeek worked under Detroit boss Steve Yzerman for years, both in the Motor City and before that, with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Red Wings are looking to push forward as they attempt to end a playoff drought that’s creeping up to 10 years.

Marco Kasper had a strong, 19-goal rookie season, but you could definitely see Detroit wanting to beef up down the middle behind the captain and No. 1 pivot Dylan Larkin.

By all rights, you’d expect Anaheim to be targeting a return that helps the club right now as the Ducks try to move up into the Western Conference playoffs under first-year Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville.

Still, Anaheim might think long and hard about a piece like defenceman Axel Sandin Pellikka, if the Wings were willing to deal him. The 17th overall pick from 2023 might be ready to push for an NHL job following two strong years in Sweden’s top league. He’s not big, but Sandin Pellikka comes in the coveted right-shot package, which offers a nice counterbalance to the young lefties Anaheim already has in Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger.

Continued; for me, that’s a straight-out NOPE. You don’t fill a hole by creating one on the roster, and to me, Axel Sandin Pellikka is more important to the Red Wings than Mason McTavish could be.

I try to respect The Athletic’s subscription status while providing you a peek behind the paywall, and this morning, I chose to discuss Max Bultman’s “burning question” about the Red Wings’ coaching staff…

But Pro Hockey Rumors’ Josh Erickson offers a summary of another important point, and we’re gonna share it here:

The biggest training camp storyline for the Red Wings will be who begins the season as their top line left wing next to Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. They’ve had a revolving door there for the first four years of the latter’s career, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon.

To that end, Max Bultman of The Athletic explored that topic today. Their most frequent linemate last season was youngster Marco Kasper, but with his development more apt in filling a much-needed second-line center role for the Wings, that’s where Bultman anticipates him staying to open the season.

If not Kasper, it’s a rather uninspiring list for a unit expected to be Detroit’s most productive. The leading contender might be a swap of who Kasper replaced down the middle late last year. Veteran Andrew Copp has played exclusively down the middle since signing with the Wings three years ago, but could slot in on Larkin’s wing to “bring some of the same heaviness and defensive elements Kasper did to that line,” Bultman writes.

Copp is arguably the leading contender because of Detroit’s relatively quiet offseason, leaving them with uninspiring top-line options in the likely scenario they keep wingers Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane as their second-line anchors. Other names in the mix, Bultman writes, will be free agent pickup James van Riemsdyk and the towering young Elmer Söderblom. The former was more productive last season with 36 points in 71 games for the Blue Jackets, but only averaged 12:24 per night.

Continued; I wouldn’t be surprised if the Red Wings bring in somebody like Max Pacioretty on a pro try-out during training camp, but at this point, the internal options are JVR and Soderblom.

I wouldn’t mess with the chemistry of the DeBrincat–Kasper–Kane line as I believe that Kasper is the Wings’ 2nd line center of the present as well as the future, and instead, I’d experiment with Michael Rasmussen or even J.T. Compher or Jonatan Berggren on the top line if necessary.

TSN’s Travis Yost is ranking the NHL’s teams by positional strengths and weaknesses, and he’s already discussed the NHL’s goaltending tiers and defensive tiers. Today, he ranks the NHL’s teams’ winger positions in a tiered format, and the Red Wings land smack dab in the middle (tier 3) due to Lucas Raymond’s presence:

Detroit Red Wings (T3) – Lucas Raymond is a top 50 goal scorer over the past two seasons, one goal shy of a player the calibre of Vegas’ Eichel and his 59 goals. With Raymond producing like this on an $8-million per year contract at the age of 23, it has the chance to chance to age as gracefully as any contract in the league.

Continued; between Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, James van Riemsdyk and big Elmer Soderblom, I’d argue that the Wings,’ well, wings are a bit top-heavy and just above average, but that’s just me.

Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz ranks “best defenseman” for every NHL team from 1 to 32 The Red Wings’ selection is an empty-net tap-in…But one Moritz Seider is still only ranked 19th out of 32 top NHL defenders:

Detroit Red Wings: Moritz Seider

19 of 32

If you look at Seider’s underlying metrics and advanced stats he does not really stand out as a terribly effective defender. But he is one of the examples as to where the eye test still matters because he just has the look of a top-pairing defender. He is extremely durable (yet to miss a game in the NHL), has the type of size NHL general managers dream about for a defender, plays a physical game and has been remarkably consistent offensively. The Red Wings just need to give him more help, both in terms of a steady partner and better second-and third-pairing defenders.

Continued; Seider’s underlying metrics have improved while playing incredibly difficult minutes, and he does shoulder the load of being the Red Wings’ best even-strength and PK defenseman, as well as their PP catalyst.

I don’t feel that he should be penalized for his assignment to do everything well at the same time.

He does need more help, whether that’s from Simon Edvinsson or an improving Ben Chiarot, and the Red Wings definitely have to improve their defensive depth to reduce Seider’s workload. That being said, he does a great job, all things considered, and he’s being penalized for that workload.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman asks “burning questions” regarding the Detroit Red Wings a month out from training camp, and this question is of most urgency to me:

What does a full season with McLellan mean?

This one will be the hardest to quantify, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. The Red Wings looked markedly better after hiring Todd McLellan at Christmas, reviving their season in the second half. One of those aforementioned March slumps ultimately derailed any playoff hopes, but even with that lumped in, Detroit played to a 95-point pace under McLellan. That would have been enough to make the playoffs over a full season.

Of course, there won’t be any new coach bump this time around. But in its place will be other advantages, like a full training camp to install McLellan’s preferred systems and structures. And after how the second half went, the buy-in from players should remain strong.

Ultimately, the players’ effort and engagement level is probably more important than the particulars of which schematic McLellan and his staff decide on. And McLellan certainly got that out of the roster in his 48 games last season. Now the key will be to maintain the same blend of energy and instinct that fueled last season while also mixing in any new structures. That’s easier said than done, but it could go a long way toward determining the season’s trajectory.

Continued (paywall); while concerns about who plays with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, the goaltending under John Gibson, the improvement of the Wings’ young players and the potential impact of rookies are all interesting discussions, I feel that the coaching staff’s performance may be the greatest determinant of success or failure this upcoming season.

Coach Todd McLellan and his revamped staff have to set the tone for team consistency starting on the first morning of training camp, and avoiding customary swoons in December, March and April will be essential for the team’s playoff relevancy.

McLellan, assistant coaches Trent Yawney and Alex Tanguay, and video coordinators Jeff Weintraub and Erich Junge have a hard job ahead of them, and marginal personnel improvements to work with. It’s going to be essential that the coaches get the most out of their players regardless of their “name value” for the team to take a step forward.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, former Maple Leaf, Red Wing and Vancouver Canuck Mark Kirton has passed away at 67 years of age due to ALS:

Former Detroit Red Wings center Mark Kirton never sought out sympathy as he battled with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The neurodegenerative disease, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, claimed Kirton’s life on Sunday. He was 67 years old.

“I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me,” Kirton said in a 2021 interview with the CHL website. Right until the end, even as his body steadily betrayed him, he never allowed his bleak prognosis to impact his outlook on life.

“Even though it’s humbling, I just wasn’t going to change,” Kirton said. “I was going to be positive and not allow any negativity to enter my DNA.”

He worked tirelessly raising funds for research into the illness. Kirton was able to incorporate several of his NHL contemporaries to help with his fight, including former Red Wings star Paul Henderson.

He’s the second former Detroit player to lose his life to ALS in recent years. The disease also killed Hall of Fame defenseman Borje Salming in 2022. Salming spent his last NHL season with the Red Wings in 1989-90.

Continued;

Dobber Hockey’s Puneet Sharma brings up a Red Wings “Bubble Keeper Prospect” who does have some questions to answer in what is likely a pivotal season for his North American hockey career in one William Wallinder:

William Wallander, D – Detroit Red Wings

Wallander took another step forward in his second North American season, posting 19 points with Grand Rapids. He is a big mobile defenseman that uses his mobility and frame effectively to control space and read plays well in his own zone. Offensively, he makes smart plays under pressure but will not drive production. He projects as a steady third-pair option who could see NHL time with Detroit this season. From a fantasy perspective Wallander is a keep in deeper formats as he is a low-risk, defensively sound option with modest upside.

Bubble Keeper Status: Keep

The Red Wings have two left-shooting defensemen with solid futures in the 6’4,” 190-pound Wallinder, who’s 23, and 6’3,” 222-pound Shai Buium, who’s 22, but I do wonder whether players like Wallinder or right-shooting defenseman Antti Tuomisto, 24, might end up packing their bags for Europe if they don’t make progress this season.

Put bluntly, when European pros hit their third year in North America, they tend to make a decision as to whether they’re willing to ply their trades in the AHL for another season or two in order to make the NHL–or at least make a good living here in North American pro hockey…

Or whether they’re of the mind to head back to European pro hockey, where they can make several hundred thousand dollars more per season while playing a less-demanding schedule in terms of both travel and the number of games played.

In Europe, being an “NHL-merited” or “NHL-drafted” player carries a bit of a cachet, too, and it earns players bigger paychecks as a result.

When you can play about 50 regular-season games in the SHL, Liiga, DEL, Swiss league, Czechia, Slovakia or even the KHL, and earn more money as while not enduring those 8-to-10-hour bus rides and 74 regular-season games of punishing AHL hockey, well…Some guys choose the former option, understandably so.

Given that Wallinder came from a very successful Rogle BK team, and that Tuomisto has already gone back home to Finland and come back to North America, it’s getting close to “fish or cut bait” time for both players, and you and I tend to hope that everybody succeeds, but it’s very difficult to make the NHL, and harder still to stick there.

It’s going to be a climb up the depth chart for Wallinder, Buium and Tuomisto, and it’s not going to be easy for any of them. I certainly wish them all success.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen suggests that the Red Wings are going through another “Dead Things” era under the Ken Holland/Steve Yzerman rebuild, but Allen lets Yzerman’s remarks on the team’s attempt to turn its ship around as well:

GM Steve Yzerman was asked after last season whether he had concerns that this young group only knows frustration when it comes to trying to qualify for the playoffs.

“I guess I do,” Yzerman said. “I look at last season and this season, although we didn’t make it, we’re fighting every night for a playoff spot if you like, believe it or not, we are trying to win, our players are trying to win. We need to be better.”

What the Red Wings want to avoid is to make the playoffs once, like the 1977-78 Red Wings, and then miss again for a few years. They are trying to build a team that can make the playoffs every year for an extended period.

Continue reading Slowly but surely

Former Red Wings center and current SKA St. Petersburg coach Igor Larionov is hosting a podcast on Vedmosti.ru, as first reported by Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff on August 1st.

This morning, Duff shares a readout of a conversation Larionov had with fellow Wings alumnus Pavel Datsyuk from Sport-Express, and Datsyuk told Larionov that even #13 was a bit star-struck when he joined the 2001-2002 Red Wings team:

“The whole time it seemed like I didn’t close my mouth,” Datsyuk explained. “I ended up on some crazy planet, where another world opened up to me, a hockey world. I could attend a training session, where each training session was like a lesson for me. One day I could watch one player, another day another. It was such a wonderful time.”

Detroit’s roster that season included nine future Hall of Fame players – Larionov, Dominik Hasek, Nicklas Lidstrom, Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille, Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, and Chris Chelios. And of course, Datsyuk, who would go on to a spectacular career of his own.

“You joined the team and still became an outstanding personality,” Larionov said to Datsyuk. “This is something to strive for, understanding that this is a lot of work that you have to go through. And you did it. And I am glad that I was able to play with you on the same team for a couple of years.”

Continued; the actual readout is interesting. Kudos to Duff for finding it and sharing it with us.

If you look at the Red Wings’ depth chart after the Travis Hamonic signing, Detroit has Ben Chiarot, Erik Gustafsson, Simon Edvinsson, Albert Johansson and William Lagesson as left-shooting defenders–though Albert Johansson plays the right side–and Moritz Seider, Justin Holl, Hamonic and Jacob Bernard-Docker as right-shot defenders.

Long story long, the Red Wings are now 4 NHL defensemen deep on the left-D side, and 5 NHL defensemen deep on the right-D side.

As such, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan made the following assumption about one Axel Sandin Pellikka‘s immediate playing future…

Friday’s signing likely erases any chance of Axel Sandin-Pellikka, the Wings’ 2023 first-round draft pick, of making the opening-night roster. The offensive defenseman turned pro last spring and played three playoff games with minor league affiliate Grand Rapids.

But the 5-foot-11, 176-pound Sandin-Pellikka likely needs more time, and develop more strength, to play the more physical and faster North American pro game.

While Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen offered a slightly more optimistic tone on Sandin Pellikka’s chances of “stealing a job” on defense:

Continue reading On the realm of possibility