Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the Red Wings’ signing of free agent goaltender and Czech Extraliga champion Michal Postava this morning, noting that Postava had his pick of the litter of NHL contracts over the course of last spring and this summer:

“I didn’t expect it at all, it was too good,” Postava, 23, said of the NHL attention. “But I’m enjoying every moment, and I’m proud to be a part of this organization. There have always been a lot of Czechs here, and they are still active in the organization. Plus, it’s a big club from the Original Six. It’s a huge opportunity for me.”

One of those well-known Czechs with the Red Wings is Jiri Fischer. Once a Stanley Cup-winning defenseman with the team, Fischer today works in player development for the club.

“I talked to Jiri Fisher, and he was telling me like, everywhere what happens and everything that was done here,” Postava said. “He helped me a lot to get here.”

The 2024-25 season was Postava’s first in the top league in his homeland. Hockey people found it impressive how poised he was, especially during the playoff run. He would post a shutout in Game 7 of the final series.

“It gave me a lot of opportunities and taught me to be calm,” Postava said. “I’ve improved a lot. This season, the main thing for me was to stay focused throughout the game and try to win every game. I think confidence was number one.”

The Hockey News’s Jared Clinton suggests that Red Wings forward Marco Kasper will “break out” this upcoming season, and I would argue that Kasper is already “breaking out” given his second-half-of-the-season performance during the 2024-2025 season:

Detroit Red Wings: Marco Kasper

The patient approach Detroit takes with prospects has paid dividends, and the development system has another success story after the rookie season Marco Kasper just had. The 21-year-old made a seamless leap to life in the NHL, with his 19 goals (fourth) and 37 points (seventh) placing him top 10 in freshman scoring. If not handed the second-line center job, Kasper will at least have a chance to earn it. His blend of speed, smarts and two-way play will make him a key cog as Detroit seeks to return to the post-season.

Continued; I’m expecting more of the same in terms of Kasper’s elite play this upcoming season.

I’m just not certain whether that’s a “breakout” given that he’s already posted just under 20 goals and 40 points while serving as the Wings’ 2nd line center under coach Todd McLellan.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills checked in with Red Wings free agent signing James van Riemsdyk, with the 36-year-old discussing his leadership qualities and the strengths of his game…

“Especially over the last few years, I think as you get older in your career, obviously you have your calling cards as a player,” van Riemsdyk said. “You have to find ways to be a bit more versatile, add value in different ways to a team and being able to contribute in different ways, so I think I’ve been able to add some different things to my game that can make me be able to play in different spots all over the lineup. Coming into camp, I’m sure that’s what we’ll try to figure out as a team – how the puzzle pieces start to fit together.”

Offseason NHL roster reconstruction can be compared to completing a puzzle, and van Riemsdyk is an ideal piece for Detroit. For starters, his presence should also be significant in the Red Wings’ dressing room.

“It’s a full-time commitment,” van Riemsdyk said about his leadership style. “Whether that’s your preparation, being ready to practice, being ready to play and being ready to recover to get ready for the next game. Just trying to do the right things like that every day. And just trying to bring positive energy to the group and on the bench. It can be a long year, lots of ups and downs, so I think you need to have some of that sounding board just to help things stay even keeled when maybe things aren’t going your way.”

As well as his long-time relationships with Patrick Kane and Justin Holl:

Continue reading Checking in with James van Riemsdyk

Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz offers “Early Bold Predictions” for the 2025-2026 NHL season, and you’ll have to forgive me for disagreeing with the premise:

Detroit Red Wings: Steve Yzerman’s seat finally gets hot

It probably already should be, but if it’s not, it will be when this season ends.

If the Red Wings end up missing the playoffs again — which seems likely given how slow the offseason has been — that will be 10 consecutive seasons, with seven of those coming under Yzerman’s watch.

Yes, he took over a mess.

Yes, rebuilds take time.

Yes, the Red Wings have been extremely patient while he waits for his players to develop.

But at some point you have to start having expectations for something better. You can’t keep blaming the end of the Ken Holland era anymore. Enough time has passed that Yzerman’s team should be ready to be in the playoffs and competing for something. So far, it hasn’t been. And it doesn’t seem close to doing so. This might be the year where the temperature starts to crank up on him.

Continued; Yzerman’s seat may be “hot” as far as fans are concerned, but I’m convinced that as long as Mrs. Ilitch is around and Chris Ilitch is in charge of the hockey team, Yzerman’s got a long, long leash in terms of his job security.

He’s the GM and he will see the rebuild through, whether we like it or not.

I never quite know what to do with these real estate articles, so we’ll just share it and see whether you’re interested.

The Chicago Tribune’s Bob Goldsborough reports that Red Wings forward Patrick Kane sold one of his several Chicago area properties:

Former Chicago Blackhawks great Patrick Kane, who now skates for the Detroit Red Wings, in late June sold his four-bedroom, 4,776-square-foot condominium on the 25th floor of the luxury Near North Side tower at 9 W. Walton Street in an off-market transaction for $6.4 million.

Kane starred as a right winger for the Blackhawks from 2007 until 2023, during that time leading the club to three Stanley Cup finals victories and being selected to nine NHL All-Star Games.

Over the years, Kane has owned several residential properties in Chicago and on the North Shore. In the building at 9 W. Walton, Kane paid $6.4625 million in 2019 for his unit.

In late June, Kane sold the unit in an off-market deal, according to public records, so no details about are available in listing information. However, in a sign of the softness of the downtown condo market, Kane took a loss on the $6.4 million sale, selling the condo for 1% less than he had paid for it in 2019.

Continued; if you’re interested, read further.

Friday, of course, Patrick Kane will be recollecting memories as 8/8 is Patrick Kane Day in Chicago.

Hockeysverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist interviews famous scout Christer Rockstrom today, discussing hockey experiences with one of the first prominent Swedish scouts in the NHL. Rockstrom worked for the Red Wings, Rangers and Canadiens, but he’s hanging up his scouting notebook at 68 years of age, and he describes his start in the NHL with the Red Wings…

How did you work initially?

“I came in the middle of the season, and I got some travel money to leave some information. Then I wasn’t really a scout, but it was more than I would keep track of the defenseman born in 1967 and 68’s.

“Then Detroit and Neil [Smith] began training me as a scout. Year two I was hired and got it as a part-time job. The first half of the year I didn’t report, but instead just a compilation of interesting players in Sweden. I wrote that together in cranky English and sent it in. The following year I started scouting, so it was with the 1968 litter that I really started my job as a scout.”

And Rockstrom discusses his time with Detroit…

Continue reading Roughly translated: Former Wings scout Christer Rockstrom ‘talks shop’ with Hockeysverige.se

The Free Press concludes its survey of the first quarter of the 21st century in Detroit Sports this morning, ranking the best Detroit sports teams over the past 25 seasons.

The 2005-2006 Red Wings earn an “honorable mention” from Christian Romo despite being upset by the Edmonton Oilers…

Continue reading Four Red Wings teams make the Free Press’s ‘All-21st Century teams’ list

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that the Red Wings have filled the vacancy caused by amateur scout Kevin Gibson’s decision to leave the Red Wings to become the GM of the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks:

The Detroit Red Wings have filled out the club’s scouting staff. Veteran scout Marty Hogan will be taking over for the departed Kevin Gibson as an amateur scout.

Hogan, 43, owns a lengthy resume of scouting in the Ontario Hockey League ranks. He has worked as a scout for the past eight years with the Ottawa 67s.

“Scout Marty Hogan has accepted a scouting position with the Detroit Red Wings,” the 67s posted on the club’s social media sites. “We’d like to thank Marty for all of his contributions over the last eight years with us, and wish him all the best with the Red Wings. Great, knowledgeable hockey man and unbelievable human being.”

Before his time with the 67s, Hogan served five years as an OHL scout with the Niagara IceDogs and one season with the Mississauga Steelheads.

He also spent two years as the video coach with the Estonian U18 national team. Currently, he is employed as an assistant coach by the NCAA Division III Lake Forest Foresters in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Continued; I would not be surprised if Red Wings coach Todd McLellan added one more coach to flesh out his staff of assistant coaches Trent Yawney and Alex Tanguay, as well as video coordinator Jeff Weintraub.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James profiles Red Wings prospect and Michigan State University goaltender Trey Augustine this morning, discussing the “unfinished business” at the NCAA level which gave Augustine pause about turning pro this summer:

Earlier this summer, the No. 41 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft went through a second development camp with the Wings, which gave team personnel a chance to help instill the habits that, down the road, project to make Augustine a good pro. For now, he wants to be a championship player for Michigan State hockey, to which he is returning for his junior year.

“There’s still something to prove there and I want to go back and win a national championship,” Augustine said. “But it was a lot of good things that happened throughout the year. I got better as a hockey player and as a person and am looking to do that again next year.”

Augustine, 20, had an outstanding sophomore season: 19-7-4 with a 2.08 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage, earning first-team All-Big Ten and All-America honors and leading the Spartans to their second straight Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles. The Spartans were a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament but were upset in the opening round by Cornell.

…

He’ll continue his development for another season what projects to be a highly competitive team and likely emerge even better for having made the right decision for himself.

“I didn’t feel there was a wrong answer – just kind of what worked best for me and my career,” Augustine said. “I still want to get stronger on and off the ice and I think staying in college gives me a little better opportunity to develop my body and get ready for the professional game.”

Continued;

I’ve read a couple of people suggesting that Augustine didn’t turn pro this past spring because he doesn’t want to play for the Red Wings, and that’s ludicrous “summer talk.” He’s going to sign with Detroit, whether it’s next spring or two springs from now.

I’ve been looking at the Red Wings’ prospect pool on an informal basis over the last couple of weeks. In the case of 23-year-old winger Jakub Rychlovsky, I had to double check PuckPedia and the Grand Rapids Griffins’ “Roster and Alumni Tracker” to confirm that the 5’10,” 181-pound Rychlovsky was still Red Wings property.

It was easy for Rychlovsky to get lost in the shuffle, because he followed up a 46-points-in-51-games season with the Bili Tygri Liberec of the Czech Extraliga with an injury-plagued North American rookie season in which he registered 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points in 38 games, which isn’t pretty.

I had assumed that Rychlovsky would be leaving the Red Wings’ organization to head back to Europe, but he’s still on the books for one more season.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports good news on the Rychlovsky front this morning (via a look behind the paywall at an article from iSport’s Zbynek Irgl, Radek Duda and Miroslav Horak). Duff reports that Rychlovsky still believes that he can salvage his North American career:

Continue reading Rychlovsky hasn’t given up on the North American grind