Month: August 2025

Gratuitous Henrik Zetterberg appreciation Tweet

Henrik Zetterberg may not make the Hockey Hall of Fame, but he’s got a Stanley Cup ring and a Conn Smythe Trophy to his credit, and that and maybe a jersey retirement–or an induction to a “Red Wings hall of fame”–should count enough for “Captain Hank”:

Prospect round-up: Michal Svrcek registers an assist as Champions Hockey League play begins; Anton Johansson takes a 5-minute major in exhibition game

The Champions Hockey League is kind of weird. Technically speaking, the league’s games count and count for a whole hell of a lot as they determine playoff seeding for a set of playoff games which award a big, honking trophy and money…

But as far as “league play” is concerned, they’re essentially exhibition games between some of Europe’s best teams.

Today, two Red Wings prospects’ Champions Hockey League play got underway, and Noah Dower Nilsson finished at +1 with 2 shots in 13:59 played as Frolunda HC won 4-0 over HC Bolzano…

And Michal Svrcek had an assist in 11:36 played, registering his assist on the 3-1 goal, as Brynas IF won 4-1 over Kometa Brno.

I’ll post the highlights when they’re uploaded to YouTube, but for now, you can watch Svrcek’s assist here.

Update: Full game highlights:

Elsewhere, in preseason SHL hockey, both Hockeysverige.se’s Simon Eld and Hockeynews.se report that Red Wings prospect and Leksands IF defenseman Anton Johansson took a 5-minute major for hitting 18-year-old Loke Krantz into the Linkopings HC bench early on in Linkoping’s 3-0 win over Leksand.

Linkoping didn’t score during the 5-minute major penalty. And, as we might expect, Red Wings Prospects on Twitter has a clip of the rough hit:

At 6’4″ and 196 pounds, Johansson is a moose out there on the ice, but he does have a tendency to take bad penalties when his physicality gets the best of him. I’m assuming that Anton will either be suspended for the start of the SHL season or fined for this hit. Leksand opens its regular season on Saturday, September 13th vs. Eddie Genborg and Timra IK.

Talking about pro try-out forwards

MLive’s Ansar Khan wonders aloud whether the Red Wings might sign a forward to a pro try-out for the course of training camp and the exhibition season:

Andreas Athanasiou, 31: He’s a fast-skating skilled forward who never reached his potential after scoring 30 goals for the Red Wings in 2018-19. Lack of competitiveness and consistency have hounded him. He spent most of last season with AHL Rockford (11 goals, 27 points in 30 games). He played for Red Wings coach Todd McLellan for two seasons in Los Angeles.

Robby Fabbri, 29: He equaled his career high with 18 goals and had 32 points in 68 games with the Red Wings in 2023-24, his fifth season in Detroit, before being dealt to Anaheim, where he tallied only eight goals and 16 points in 44 games. A former Blues first-round pick who can provide secondary scoring but whose career has been marred by multiple ACL surgeries.

Luke Glendening, 36: Checker, penalty killer and strong face-off man who spent eight seasons with the Red Wings, he was a regular with Dallas and Tampa Bay the past four seasons, appearing in 77 games with the Lightning in 2024-25.

Luke Kunin, 27: The 15th overall pick in 2016 (Minnesota) appeared in 75 games last season between San Jose (11 goals, 18 points) and Columbus (no points in 12 games). He’s physical and kills penalties.

Max Pacioretty, 36: He’s played for four different teams in the past four seasons and has been linked to Detroit and Edmonton for a possible PTO. Pacioretty earned a contract from Toronto following a PTO last season and had five goals and 13 points in 37 games and eight points in 11 playoff games.

Jack Roslovic, 28: It’s surprising he remains unsigned after collecting 22 goals and 39 points in 81 games for Carolina. Chances are, he’ll sign a contract rather than a PTO. He’s been linked to Toronto.

Continued; that’s pretty much the crop of players who are available for PTO’s up front, and I’m iffy on everybody but Pacioretty and Roslovic.

Tweet of note: MSU vs. Penn State outdoors on January 31st, 2026

Per NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman, Red Wings prospect Trey Augustine will be taking part in an outdoor game vs. Penn State on January 31st, 2026:

Tweet of note via RWP: Kiiskinen rips one in preseason action

This one slipped under the radar, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen caught this highlight from Red Wings Prospects on Twitter.

It’s not the greatest angle, but HPK Hameenlinna forward and Red Wings prospect Jesse Kiiskinen swiped the puck from an opponent at the offensive blueline, walked in and wristed a nasty shot into the net in preseason Liiga hockey:

Tweets of note: Nikita Tyurin already knows how to ‘walk the line’

Red Wings prospect Nikita Tyurin recently spoke with the MHL’s website, and while the junior hockey-playing defenseman just turned 18, these clips from Red Wings Prospects on Twitter illustrate Tyurin’s very mature abilities in terms of knowing how to “walk the blueline” laterally in order to open up opposing defenses and find teammates to tip pucks.

He skates very well with his blades outside of the blueline to stretch the area with which to move the puck, and he’s got a very good shot, too.

It is incredibly early in Tyurin’s career, and he’s very likely to play for MHK Spartak of the MHL (the KHL’s version of junior hockey) this upcoming season, so he’s far from making the jump to North America to say the very least…

But it’s good to see some maturity in his game already, given that his draft year was played as a 17-year-old youngster.

Gerard Gallant weighs in on Sergei Fedorov’s jersey retirement

RG.com’s Daria Tuboltseva profiled former Red Wings player and long-time NHL coach Gerard Gallant, who’s coaching the KHL’s Shanghai Dragons this season. As Gallant prepares to helm an expansion team playing far away from Shanghai in St. Petersburg, he shares his opinions on numerous topics with Tuboltseva, including this:

Gallant’s ties to Russian hockey go back even further, to his playing days with the Detroit Red Wings, when he shared the ice with Sergei Fedorov.

“When Sergei came over, I was a couple of years older than him. He was a tremendous player for us at a young age. We knew he was good, but we did not know how good he was. He was just a tremendous, tremendous talent. He is a really good guy. We really liked Sergei. Obviously, his career in the NHL, he deserves to be up in the rafters in Detroit with Steve Yzerman and Gordie Howe and all those guys. He is a phenomenal player. I do not know if he is the best Russian player ever, but he has to be up there. When they talk about the best Russian players, his name has to be mentioned. I really like Sergei. I have not seen him for quite a long time, but I am very happy for him that his number is being retired in Detroit. Well deserved.”
Source: RG.org

Continued; Gallant may very well see Sergei this season as Fedorov is an advisor to CSKA Moscow.

Patrick Kane discusses his Olympic dream with The Athletic

The Athletic’s Michael Russo wrote a massive article regarding Patrick Kane’s attempts to earn a spot on the 2026 U.S. Olympic team. Kane understands that he’s skating uphill against Team USA and GM Bill Guerin’s attempts to build a younger, faster, leaner team:

“A gold medal is all I’m missing in my career,” said the three-time Stanley Cup champion, former Calder Trophy, Conn Smythe Trophy, Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award winner and 2010 Olympic silver medalist.

Last fall, Guerin, who doubles as the Minnesota Wild GM, flew to Detroit for a scouting trip. But the real reason he went was to meet with Kane after the game to explain to him that he wouldn’t be on the 4 Nations roster. Guerin felt Kane deserved that kind of respect. In December, U.S. 4 Nations and Olympics coach Mike Sullivan also met up with Kane after a Red Wings-Pittsburgh Penguins game.

Kane wasn’t surprised that he didn’t make the team. He got off to a rough start last season, “and pretty much knew and understood they wouldn’t be taking me.”

But Kane, who had missed the first two months of the 2023-24 season after hip-resurfacing surgery, got back to past form as 2024-25 went on and finished the season on a tear, with 16 goals and 45 points in the final 42 games. He went into the offseason feeling he’d have a shot to be chosen for the upcoming Olympics.

“There are a lot of good players here obviously — a lot of guys that are deserving of making it,” Kane said. “I just want to put my best foot forward and have a really good start to the season and kind of put yourself in a position, whether you’re making it or not, to say that I gave myself a chance.

“I didn’t really do much of that last year. It was just an easy decision to kind of leave me off. So, I definitely want to get off to a good start and get rolling the right way because if I’m on the team, I want it to be for the player I am now, not because of the player I was years ago.”

Continued at length (paywall); the American international teams are kind of insular–you only make it if you’ve “done your time” at World Championships most of the time, and the team’s been more than willing to nix veterans’ spots for the sake of building experience for younger players.

I don’t expect Kane to make the team unless he absolutely rockets to the top of the NHL’s scoring leaders, but at 36, I’m rooting for the “old guy.”

Snippet: Nicklas Lidstrom’s enjoying his role as a Swedish-based VP for the Red Wings

Red Wings vice-president of hockey operations Nicklas Lidstrom spoke with HockeyNews.se’s Andreas Hanson for a very lengthy article, but, regrettably, it’s stuck behind a paywall for the most part. Here’s the intro, at least:

Lidstrom on the Djugardens IF prospect: “Incredibly talented”

Nicklas Lidstrom follows hockey closely in his heavy role with the Detroit Red Wings.

For Hockeynews, the legend talks about:

  • His NHL mission
  • Hope for the Red Wings
  • What he sees in [2026 NHL Draft top prospect] Viggo Bjorck
  • What speaks for a boost to the West

Nicklas Lidstrom begins his first full season in the role of “vice president of hockey operations” for the Detroit Red Wings.

Hockeynews got a chat with the legend when he watched Vasteras and Djurgarden on Thursday in Stockholm.

“I’m still in the same role as before. I will mainly scout here in Sweden, see our guys we have, and scout as a ‘pro scout,’ i.e. on potential free agents. And so I travel over [to the U.S.] a number of times, five or six times a season, roughly.

He said he had as a claim against Steve Yzerman, his former teammate in Detroit, who has been a general manager for the Red Wings for several years.

“I told him: I’ll stay in Sweden when I jump on it. So I’m based here but travel over from time to time. It can be every two months to go over and work.”

The now 55-year-old Lidstrom was like Yzerman during Detroit’s glory days. The former big defenseman, one of Swedish hockey’s biggest of all time, has four Stanley Cup triumphs on his merit list, among many other things.

He says that he feels a little extra about being engaged for the team that he has such a strong history with–Lidstrom played his entire career with the Red Wings, 20 seasons and over 1,500 career games.

“I think it’s fun to be inside and back in the organization again. When I was a player, you had a role, but on management it becomes a different role. You build the team and look at a different perspective than as a player. I really enjoy the role I have.”

That’s not a whole hell of a lot, but now that Lidstrom’s four boys are grown men, it’s good to hear that he’s dove back into the business of hockey on a happy full-time basis.