Month: September 2025

Roughly translated: Lucas Raymond speaks with NHL.com/sv at length

NHL.com/sv’s Janne Bengtsson posted a lengthy interview with Lucas Raymond in Swedish today. Here’s a rough translation thereof:

Lucas Raymond on the playoff hunt with Detroit

The Red Wings’ Swedish star forward has set his sights on copying Zetterberg and Datsyuk

Lucas Raymond turned 23 at the end of March. But despite his relatively low age, he has already played four seasons in the National Hockey League.

Now Raymond is preparing for his fifth year in the world’s best hockey league. And he’s planning to take Red Wings to the playoffs after nine years outside them. That’s an eternity for a team that, between 1991 and 2016 reached the playoffs 25 times in a row, and also won the Stanley Cup four times during that period. Facts that everyone, players, club management and fans, are aware of in the hockey-crazy city in Michigan and on the team that is one of the NHL’s legendary Original Six.

“We have the capacity to get back to the playoffs. I feel like we’re doing it this season (25-26),” Lucas Raymond said.

“Detroit is a cool city to play in. Not only for the tradition and history of the team, but also because of how the fans treat us (players). We haven’t gone to the playoffs during the time I’ve been to the team, and we’ve had some really difficult years, so if there’s any who are disappointed and frustrated, it’s us players. But still, it’s sold out to every game,” says Raymond.

“And when you meet fans on the street, it’s never in a bad way. We have magical fans who support us in the wet and in the dry. Not the least, it’s something that drives me and the players; to get back where we belong.”

Continue reading Roughly translated: Lucas Raymond speaks with NHL.com/sv at length

Reminder: ‘Hockey Night in Marquette County’ takes place Friday, September 13th as Wings’ alums face off against ‘Yoopers United’

The Detroit Red Wings Alumni are going to face off against a “Yoopers United” team to help raise funds for the United Way of Marquette County next Friday, September 13th via an exhibition game called “Hockey Night in Marquette County.”

The event will be held at the Berry Events Center on Northern Michigan University’s campus (click the link for tickets), and two high-mark donators, Brad Boudrie and Kevin Thompson,mwill be skating with the Yoopers United team.

WNMU-FM of Marquette interviewed executive director Andrew Rickauer about the event, and you can listen to the 10-minute interview here.

Tweet of note: Dylan Larkin and Mickey Redmond ‘go to bat’ for Oakland County animals

Per Oakland County Executive David Coulter:

You can find more about the Oakland County Animal Control & Pet Adoption Center here.

Meet Red Wings Prospect Games invite Justice Christensen

The Detroit Red Wings revealed their Prospect Games roster on Thursday, and one of their free agent invites is Justice Christensen, the captain of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders. The 5’9,” 185-pound right-shooting defenseman is 20 years old, and he posted 22 goals and 24 assists for 46 points in 64 games played for Prince Albert this past season.

Prince Albert Now’s Nick Nielsen spoke with Christensen and the Raiders’ two other prospect tournament invitees today:

Captain Justice Christensen is heading to camp with the Detroit Red Wings, the newly acquired Max Heise is heading to San Jose Sharks camp, and Lukas Dragicevic is heading to camp with the Seattle Kraken.

Starting off with Christensen, the 20-year-old defenceman was not drafted by the Red Wings, but has earned his spot after leading all WHL defencemen in goals and earning a scholarship with the University of Nebraska-Omaha for next season. He first heard from the Red Wings in early July when he captained Canada’s U20 World Ball Hockey Team to a gold medal in Slovakia.

“It’s been about a month and a half-ish. I got the call when I was in Slovakia, actually, so that was a crazy week for me. But yeah, I’m super pumped to get there.”

Raiders Assistant Coach Connor Yawney is the son of Red Wings assistant coach Trent Yawney, but Christensen says the two of them have not spoken much about the opportunity to head to Detroit. For Christensen, he believes it’s important to keep some distance between the Raiders and the Red Wings to make sure he has his focus in the right place.

“I was in touch with Connor over the summer and yeah, we just talked a little bit about it, but yeah, just kind of keeping the two separate a little bit. Like I want to do my job when I’m here, but then obviously when I get the opportunity there to prove myself. Not a whole lot’s been said, but it’s definitely exciting.”

Continued; I’ll be posting an article on the Wings’ Prospect Games invites soon.

Buchelnikov’s in the big city now

Red Wings prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov begins his KHL season tomorrow when CSKA (the Central Red Army team) battles Dynamo Moscow in a “Moscow derby.” As such, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes that Buchelnikov’s moving from the Russian pro hockey hinterlands to both Russia’s capitol and a capital of hockey:

It’s been hard to fully analyze Buchelnikov (52nd, 2022) because he has played for weak, non-competitive KHL teams for the past two seasons. But the Red Wings have seen enough to know that the flashy Russian athlete possesses, at the very least, the potential to be an impact offensive performer. The smallish, speedy winger finished 17th in last season’s KHL scoring race with 15 goals and 39 assists for 54 points for Balashikha Vityaz.

Buchelnikov’s only 5’10” and 170 pounds, and he did begin his hockey career in the mighty SKA St. Petersburg system, but after 10 games played for the men’s team, he was loaned to the Admiral Vladivostok, a team in Russia’s far east, and as Allen notes, he played for Vityaz Moscow Region last season, a small-market team stuffed into a Moscow suburb.

Buchelnikov’s KHL profile is changing this season because he is playing for CSKA Moscow, the country’s most storied franchise. One of the reasons CSKA acquired Buchelnikov is team officials believe he can help CSKA return to the prominence. In the KHL preseason, no player registered more points than Buchelnikov (three goals, four assists).

Not every KHL standout ends up as an NHL star. But could Buchelnikov end up having NHL impact like New York Rangers’ Artemi Panarin and Minnesota’s Kirill Kaprizov? After this season we may be better able to answer that question. Playing in CSKA’s top six, Buchelnikov will be matched up against the KHL’s best forwards every night. This season will provide a more demanding challenge for him before he comes to North America.

Continued; I’m not certain where Buchelnikov will ultimately play, but he’s got the chops to make it…It’s just a matter of how much he can develop both physically, mentally and game-wise when he makes the jump to North America next spring.

Duff quizzes us as to whether it’s Albert or Anton Johansson

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff offers a quiz regarding facts about the Red Wings’ Johanssons, roster player Albert Johansson and prospect and Leksands IF defenseman Anton Johansson.

I don’t know if it’s that hard to pick between the two as Albert is smaller (6,’ 185 pounds), shoots left and plays a sound positional game, while Anton (6’4,” 196 pounds) shoots right and plays a more rangy, physical game…

But what the hell, here we go:

Which Johansson played in the Hlinka-Gretzky Tournament? Who won an IIHF World Junior Championship silver medal? Name the Johansson who won a gold medal at the IIHF World U18 Championship. Which Johansson led the Swedish J20 league in goals by a defenseman? Who was the Johansson who led all Swedish J20 defensemen in assists? Which of the Johanssons won a Swedish Hockey League championship? Who is the Johansson who was a teammate of former Red Wings forward Jacob de la Rose? Which Johansson was a teammate of Red Wings 2022 draft pick Maxmilian Kilpinen?

Continued; as Duff suggests, it’s not all that rare for fans and pundits alike to mistake Albert for Anton, and vice versa.

I fully expect Anton to join Albert in the NHL at some point in the future, however, so I assume that we will see Albert-vs-Anton confusion for the foreseeable future.

Without acquiring a top-six forward or top-four defenseman, Detroit’s roster ‘is what it is’

Bleacher Report’s Sara Civian offers “1 Reason Why Your Favorite Team Won’t Win the 2026 Stanley Cup” this morning, and I can’t say that she’s wrong about the Red Wings’ Achilles heel…But it’s kind of being hammered to death here.

Detroit Red Wings

Reason Why They Could Surprise: Detroit’s immediate turnaround upon hiring Todd McLellan was palpable, and they may have solved their goaltending weakness in acquiring John Gibson.

Why They Won’t: Has Steve Yzerman been a bit too cautious with the plan? What’s the worst that would happen if the Red Wings signed a true impact center or top defenseman in his prime? We’re still waiting on that kind of thing.

Continued; I’ve said it, you’ve said it, we’ve all said it.

But it doesn’t appear that the cavalry’s coming in terms of the team adding an impact top-six forward and/or a top-four defenseman with shut-down abilities–at least not yet, anyway–and the Red Wings will have to make due with what they’ve got.

What they’ve got is a little thin without that extra impact forward and top-four defenseman, but the free agent marketplace was thin…

And as far as we all know, trade prices were high enough that there weren’t any significant trades over the course of the post-free agency summer, so things are what they are.

The situation is not ideal, of course, but one must deal with reality as it presents itself. And I don’t know whether it’s important whether the Red Wings contend for the Stanley Cup as long as they battle for a playoff spot via more consistent winning play coming down the stretch drive.

A reminisce about Hasek and Osgood’s Cooper-style helmet-cage combos (and goalie mask art)

NHL.com is spotlighting goaltenders this week, and as such, Kevin Woodley has assembled a set of iconic goalie masks which represent one of the world’s strangest professions. Woodley includes the helmet-cage combo masks worn by Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood:

Dominik Hasek and Chris Osgood, Detroit Red Wings

Prior to the Harrison-Dryden combo, NHL goalies had switched briefly to using a combination of a metal cage and players helmet dubbed the “birdcage.” First seen in North America when Vladislav Tretiak wore one for the Soviet Union during the 1972 Summit Series against Canada, the birdcage didn’t debut in the League until 1976.

Though the Harrison-Dryden design became the NHL mask of the choice not long after, some goalies continued to use the helmet-and-cage combo throughout their careers. That included Hasek, who finished his Hall of Fame career in Detroit wearing a custom fiberglass helmet made by famed mask builder Gary Warwick with a custom paint job attached to his birdcage. Osgood, whose search for his preferred-but-discontinued Cooper helmets, led to some being purchased off eBay before realizing one of the Red Wings trainers had some from his time with the Soviet Red Army team in his garage. Osgood retired in 2011 as the last goalie to wear a true birdcage combo, and it was indeed a Soviet helmet.

Continued; there are now specialty mask-makers who will make you a carbon fiber Hasek/Osgood-style shell in the shape of the former Cooper SK 2000 helmet, and you can purchase what were once Cooper HM 50 (Hasek) or HM 30 (Osgood) cages from these mask-makers as well. No more need to go onto eBay or into someone’s garage unless you want authentic 80’s or 90’s-made Cooper/Bauer steel and plastic on your head.

Honestly, the carbon fiber helmets made by Warwick Masks in Port Huron are far superior in terms of their levels of protection, but I’m an old Jofa helmet-cage combo wearer, so I understand the picky peculiarities of goaltenders of all ages.

Prospect round-up: Noah Dower Nilsson registers 2A in CHL action; Anton Johansson, Eddie Genborg battle in preseason play

Of prospect-related note today:

In the Champions Hockey League, Noah Dower Nilsson had 2 assists, finishing at +2 in 12:22 played as Frolunda HC won 3-1 over GKS Tychy:

Michal Svrcek didn’t play in Brynas IF’s 4-2 win over KAC Klagenfurt;

And in preseason action, Red Wings Prospects on Twitter captured Leksands IF’s Anton Johansson registering a goal and an assist while playing against Timra IK’s Eddie Genborg, who registered a secondary assist in Leksand’s 4-3 overtime win.

Daily Faceoff profiles Red Wings assistant GM Shawn Horcoff

Daily Faceoff’s Anthony DiMarco profiles Red Wings assistant GM and Grand Rapids Griffins GM Shawn Horcoff today, and DiMarco’s interview is both lengthy, in-depth and very much so worth your time;

His role in Detroit has since elevated quite significantly since starting out in player development, as Horcoff now not only holds the title of assistant GM with the Red Wings but also the GM of the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL. The elevation of Horcoff was fast tracked after Holland moved on to the Oilers and was succeeded by Steve Yzerman

“I run the team in Grand Rapids, working closely with the coaching and development staff and making sure our plan in Detroit is being executed down there,” Horcoff said. “Secondly, I work closely with Steve on the professional side. I watch a lot of pro hockey and have a big player personnel role.”

Many players will take the route of coaching in their post-playing career. In the ever growing/evolving media world, many elect to become on-air analysts, as well. Media was never something Horcoff considered – he wanted to stay involved with the game. He had thought about coaching in the past, but the first opportunity was in player development which he really enjoyed. Not knowing exactly what management entailed when he first got in, being part of a front office allowed Horcoff to still have intimate ties to hockey. 

“I loved being on the ice with the guys in player development, it was a great transition,” Horcoff said. “As a player all you know is the locker room, it’s all I’ve known my whole life and all of the sudden it’s gone. Being around a professional locker room was great for the transition in that regard.”

Continue reading Daily Faceoff profiles Red Wings assistant GM Shawn Horcoff