Month: September 2025

Meet Travis Hamonic

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a profile of new Red Wings defenseman Travis Hamonic earlier this afternoon, but you’re getting it now as my aunt is having a bad day, and I needed to step away from the blog for a bit to take care of somebody who’s just coming off a heavy antibiotic.

Anyway, Mills’ profile is quite good, and worth a read:

Not only does Travis Hamonic, who signed a one-year free-agent contract with the Detroit Red Wings on Aug. 15, want to bring a hardworking style of play to his new club in the 2025-26 season, but the veteran defenseman also hopes to make a difference away from the rink.

“I’m excited to come in,” Hamonic said in his introductory Zoom call with the media last week. “It seems like a great, very close group. I’m ready to integrate myself into the team and community. Such a storied franchise…I’ve only been a Wing for a little bit, but very proud of that opportunity to wear that jersey. Very thankful for the organization for giving me that chance, so I want to make sure that I’m ready to go and I believe that I am, and to be a positive impact through my time in Detroit and as a Wing.”

Embracing a physical, third-pair role with the Ottawa Senators last season, Hamonic finished with seven points (one goal, six assists) in 59 games while averaging 17:04 of ice time per contest.

Continue reading Meet Travis Hamonic

Tweet of note: Moritz Seider discusses his iron man streak

We can’t listen to the SiriusXM Canada NHL Radio’s 11-minute interview with Moritz Seider unless you happen to have SiriusXM Radio Canada, but the NHL posted a 1:45 teaser of Seider’s interview with David Pagnotta and Dennis Bernstein during the NHL/NHLPA European media tour:

‘Bear’-ing with Carter Bear’s status as a WHL’er for this upcoming season

The NHL’s collective bargaining agreement will enshrine various changes to long-standing rules, some of which will be going into effect this season…

But PuckPedia reports that the concept that 1 of a team’s CHL-drafted prospects may skip their draft-year tenure in the QMJHL, OHL or WHL and play in the AHL instead, with coordination with the CHL itself, won’t happen until 2026-2027–at the very earliest:

So the Hockey News’s Jake Tye’s suggestion that Red Wings prospect Carter Bear might play in the AHL this season…

Continue reading ‘Bear’-ing with Carter Bear’s status as a WHL’er for this upcoming season

This time it’s Patrick Kane who has an uphill climb to make the U.S. Olympic team

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau suggests that Patrick Kane won’t win a Stanley Cup with the Red Wings, and as such, the last “shot at glory” he could earn is a gold medal win if and/or when he makes the U.S. Olympic hockey team:

At 36, Kane can still be a solid contributor, posting 21 goals and 59 points last season. But Kane signed only a one-year, $3-million contract for this coming year on a middling Red Wings team that will compete hard just to try to make the playoffs. If Kane sticks with the Wings for the rest of his career, it’s unlikely he’ll have a chance of winning the Stanley Cup for the fourth time.

So Kane’s last chance at hockey glory could come on the international stage, if he makes the U.S. team at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

Kane doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone. His career totals of 492 goals and 1,343 points in 1,302 regular-season games, on top of his three Cup wins with the Chicago Blackhawks, make him a lock to be a Hockey Hall of Famer when he hangs up his skates.

But given that the Red Wings will be picked by many to miss the playoffs this coming season, you can see how Kane needs to make the most of his status as a U.S. icon and help lead Team America to a gold medal win at the 2026 Games in Milan, Italy.

That said, Kane isn’t guaranteed to make the American roster. Indeed, in this writer’s projected U.S. roster for the Olympics, Kane was not on the team.

“The one thing that’s kind of missing is a gold in best-on-best, right?” Kane told NHL.com last week at the Americans’ Olympic orientation camp. “It would be fun to have that opportunity.”

U.S. GM Bill Guerin has a very deep talent pool from which to draft a roster, and he may choose to go with a youth movement and select young wingers like Utah’s Clayton Keller, Minnesota’s Matt Boldy, Buffalo’s Tage Thompson and Montreal’s Cole Caufield at right wing. So Kane will have all the motivation in the world to come out of the starting gate strongly this season and nudge one of those aforementioned young players out of a roster spot for the Olympics.

If Kane does make the U.S. roster, who’s to say he won’t have one more place in the sun and one final chapter he can hang his hat on as an all-time great?

Continued; I’m gonna be mean here and suggest that Kane won’t be included on the 2026 U.S. Olympic team because Guerin does indeed show a preference for younger players and/or regular participants in the World Championship.

Guerin himself said this to ESPN’s Emily Kaplan recently:

Continue reading This time it’s Patrick Kane who has an uphill climb to make the U.S. Olympic team

The Cleveland crisis?

Red Wings prospect defenseman Brady Cleveland, a 2023 47th overall draft pick, has bounced around thanks to the NCAA transfer portal, playing for the University of Wisconsin during his freshman season, Colorado College as a sophomore, and now he’s headed to the University of Minnesota-Duluth as a junior.

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye suggests that Cleveland’s multiple transfers are somehow the Red Wings’ problem, and that Cleveland’s situation is representative of a developmental system in crisis:

Cleveland was a high draft pick by the Red Wings, and the organization is hoping he can finally find his footing and grow into a player worthy of an NHL contract. He still has two years of NCAA eligibility remaining, including this upcoming season, which means Detroit still has time to come to a decision. Once his college career is over, they will have a 30-day window to decide whether to sign him or allow him to become a free agent. The hope is that he can develop within a stable system in Minnesota-Duluth that has produced top NHL defensemen like Justin Faulk, Neal Pionk, and Carson Soucy.

What the Red Wings can’t afford is another situation like Red Savage, a fourth-round pick who ultimately went unsigned and wasted a fourth-round pick. For General Manager Steve Yzerman, continuing to miss on a second-round picks is something he can’t afford to continue. Other recent second-round selections, like Andrew Gibson (2023), Theodor Niederbach (2020), and Robert Mastrosimone (2019), have failed to make an impact and are no longer with the organization.

While Detroit has seen some success with their top picks like Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond, and Marco Kasper, those hits can’t overshadow the issue that has become the inability to draft impact players and developing talent from within. A lack of productive prospects from the AHL and below may be one of the reasons the Red Wings have now missed the playoffs for nine straight seasons. Cleveland’s trajectory could be used a symbol of a greater issue within the organization that has been if the team truly on the right path, or are its development issues holding it back?

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers have built up championship teams not just with star talent but players that excel in their roles even in the bottom six of their lineup. The Bolts had drafted and developed players like Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat and Ross Colton into impact players that weren’t superstars like Nikita Kucherov or Steven Stamkos but still played a pivotal role in the team’s success. The Red Wings will need to look to do the same if they want to eventually find success.

Continued; in NCAA hockey, players have a say in their developmental paths, and while Cleveland’s multiple transfers may have set his developmental path back a bit…

He’s going into his junior year of eligibility as a stay-at-home defenseman who plays mean hockey. And it is NOT the Red Wings’ problem that he’s transferred several times.

Moreover, the Red Wings have accumulated a very solid number of picks and prospects over Yzerman’s tenure with the team, and after leaning on their 1st round picks for the first few years of the Yzerman regime, they’re beginning to see players like Albert Johansson, Carter Mazur, Elmer Soderblom and Jonathan Berggren either push for jobs or plain old win them outright, there are more players to come from the AHL level…

And as much as I really liked Red Savage, losing a 4th line center with a tremendous work ethic to a 2-year AHL-level contract is not a tragedy here.

There is nothing to panic about here, and the reality of developing players is that not everyone you select pans out. The Red Wings are getting more and more out of their mid-round picks as the years progress, so I just cannot manufacture significant worry regarding someone like Cleveland not “sticking” should he not pan out.

It’s not the Red Wings’ fault that the young man has transferred three times, and it’s not the Red Wings’ fault if he doesn’t succeed at making it to the NHL. Player development is a two-way street, with the team equipping prospects with the best possible skill sets in terms of on-ice skills and off-ice responsibilities, and the players attempting to deliver in terms of their mental, physical and on-ice developmental curves ascending to a successful peak all at the same time.

It ain’t as easy as willing things to happen.

Press release: Reminder that the NHLPA Rookie Showcase takes place on Wednesday, September 3rd

Per the NHLPA:

2025 NHLPA ROOKIE SHOWCASE, HOSTED BY NHLPA AND UPPER DECK, SET FOR SEPT. 3

…Matthew Schaefer, Beckett Sennecke, Ryan Leonard and Zeev Buium, among group of more than 30 prospects and rookies scheduled to attend the 15th annual event with sports collectibles leader Upper Deck at MedStar Capitals Iceplex

TORONTO (Sept. 2, 2025) – The National Hockey League Players’ Association and Upper Deck will host the 15th annual NHLPA Rookie Showcase on Wednesday, Sept. 3 at MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Virginia, with over 30 NHL® prospects and rookies scheduled to attend. This unique event provides Upper Deck – the official trading card partner of the NHLPA and the NHL – with an opportunity to capture photographs and videos of many of the game’s top young prospects and rookies in their official NHL team uniforms. The content collected will be used by Upper Deck to create the players’ first NHL and NHLPA licensed rookie trading cards, as well as additional promotional materials throughout the season and beyond.

2025 NHLPA Rookie Showcase Scheduled Attendees:

Frederic Brunet (BOS), Zeev Buium (MIN), Berkly Catton (SEA), Igor Chernyshov (NJD), Ben Danford (TOR), Sam Dickinson (SJ), Karsen Dorwart (PHI), Jordan Dumais (CBJ), Jack Finley (TB), Marc Gatcomb (NYI), Konsta Helenius (BUF), Quinn Hutson (EDM), Tij Iginla (UTA), Joakim Kemell (NSH), Ryan Leonard (WSH), Oliver Moore (CHI), Alexander Nikishin (CAR), Jani Nyman (SEA), Zayne Parekh (CGY), Gabe Perreault (NYR), Francesco Pinelli (LA), David Reinbacher (MTL), Axel Sandin-Pellikka (DET), Gracyn Sawchyn (FLA), Matthew Schaefer (NYI), Beckett Sennecke (ANA), Jimmy Snuggerud (STL), Cam Squires (NJ), Matthew Wood (NSH), Brayden Yager (WPG), Carter Yakemchuk (OTT)

Bultman attempts to predict the 2028-2029 Red Wings roster

The Athletic’s Max Bultman attempts to predict what the 2028-2029 Detroit Red Wings’ roster might look like at forward, on defense and in goal this morning:

Forwards

Carter Bear (21)Dylan Larkin (32)Lucas Raymond (26)
Alex DeBrincat (30)Marco Kasper (24)Michael Brandsegg-NygĂĄrd (23)
Max Plante (22)Nate Danielson (24)Carter Mazur (26)
Elmer Söderblom (27)Emmitt Finnie (23)Jesse Kiiskinen (23)

When we did a similar projection one year ago, there was a glaring need at the top of the Red Wings’ future forward corps. That gap has been filled with Detroit drafting Carter Bear in the first round of this summer’s NHL Draft.

Bear projects as a top-six winger who brings significant offensive ability as well as sandpaper to complement the skilled players already playing at the top of Detroit’s lineup. And even though he’ll be just 21 on opening night in 2028, he should be in the NHL by this time, and Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond would be a great pair of linemates for him to break in with.

Larkin is one of the most interesting pieces of this projection. The Red Wings’ captain will be 32 in 2028, likely at the tail end of (or perhaps even beyond) his prime. Could that mean one of Marco Kasper or Nate Danielson is manning the 1C slot by then? Possibly. And one of those two young centers ascending to that level is arguably Detroit’s best path to true contention. But for now, we’re going to stick with Larkin until we see one of the younger pivots show they can produce true top-line offense. The good news is, Kasper and Danielson certainly look capable of being strong centers at the levels they’re slotted here.

Kasper’s production and underlying numbers from Jan. 10 (when he entered the top six full-time) through the end of the season were strikingly similar to those of Sam Bennett, the No. 2 center on the Stanley Cup-winning Florida Panthers, in the same span — and not far off some of the other second-line centers on some of the league’s elite teams.

Continued at length (paywall)