For your perusal this morning are two unique articles which discuss different aspects of the NHL offseason. The articles are very different, but their collective theme is one of “wishful thinking.”

1. The Athletic’s Max Bultman plays, “Who Says No?” with reader-suggested hypothetical trades, before offering one of his own:

Detroit gets Yanni Gourde, 2022 first-round pick, Tampa Bay gets future considerations: I was wondering if anyone was going to propose something like this with the Lightning. There was a Tyler Johnson proposal in the inbox that involved the Red Wings sending picks to Tampa, and obviously there was the Sergachev offer sheet mentioned above, but otherwise, there were very few true cap-crunch proposals with Yzerman’s former team.

So, I’ll offer one up.

Gourde, as a refresher, has five years at $5.17 million AAV left on his contract with the Lightning, who need every cap dollar they can get right now. And to be honest, before Friday, I might have put this one in Tier 2, thinking the Lightning could find easier ways out of their cap problem. Frankly, that still might be the case.

But something struck me while reading Joe Smith’s excellent Lightning trade tiers story, which Red Wings fans should be sure to check out. In that story, Smith quoted former NHL GM Craig Button as saying of Gourde that “you’re not moving that money and that player without giving up a significant sweetener,” and suggested a future first-round pick as the kind of asset it might take to get it done.

Bultman continues (paywall), discussing possible roadblocks to the trade (including Gourde’s no-trade clause), as well as 9 other possible moves suggested by readers…

2. In a different kind of “wishful thinking,” the Free Press’s Ryan Ford looks at the Red Wings’ 10 draft positions at the NHL Draft this Tuesday and Wednesday, determining which player or players would represent an absolute best NHL-player-producing scenario for each and every one of the Wings’ possible picks. There are some “reaches” and unique picks here, including the following:

Over the past couple of days, various mock drafts have linked the Red Wings to Cole Perfetti, Jamie Drysdale and even Yaroslav Askarov, and this morning, NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman, Mike G. Morreale and Guillaume Lepage continue to stir a lack of consensus as to whom the Wings might pick 4th overall–by making Marco Rossi their consensus Wings mock draft pick:

Detroit Red Wings

Kimelman — Marco Rossi, C, Ottawa (OHL): Rossi plays bigger than his size (5-9, 183), with a feistiness and compete level that’s reminiscent of Philadelphia Flyers forward Claude Giroux. Rossi led all CHL players with 120 points (39 goals, 81 assists) in 56 games, willingly goes to the net to generate offense, and has a high hockey IQ that makes him a solid two-way player capable of killing penalties. 

Morreale — Rossi: The Red Wings need a difference-maker at every position, and the Austria-born left-shot center averaged 2.14 points per game, second in the CHL behind Lafreniere. Rossi is capable of winning puck battles, is strong on face-offs (58.5 winning percentage) and generates offense with his IQ, slick hands and playmaking ability.

Lepage — Rossi: The 18-year-old may have given up some size to his opponents, but he still dominated this season. Rossi would be a key addition to the Red Wings’ rebuilding effort at forward.

Continued; I just want the Red Wings’ management and scouts to draft the player who they believe has the highest possible developmental ceiling. I don’t care which player they draft as long as they make no compromises come draft day, because, in this instance, I’m more than willing to admit that they know better than I do.

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe spoke with former Toledo Walleye coach Derek Lalonde on Saturday. Lalonde has moved on to the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Lalonde helped helm the Lightning to a Stanley Cup while serving as an assistant coach last month:

Known as a players coach with the Walleye (2014-16), Lalonde worked his way up to an assistant coaching position with the NHL franchise. On Monday, the 48-year-old hoisted the Stanley Cup as Tampa Bay became the first team to win the coveted trophy in an isolated bubble.

“It was certainly special,” Lalonde said. “It’s been surreal. I probably still haven’t soaked it all completely in. But it’s starting to come around — how special this run has been.”

Lalonde said he was finally able to take a breath while enjoying a beer with Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper at their favorite watering hole in Tampa on Thursday.

“It was such a non-stop process, playing every other day in the bubble. You’re locked into the process the whole time,” Lalonde said. “So, to finally win it … it was such a unique situation. We would have loved to have had family and friends there, which is obviously very traditional when you win the Stanley Cup. But it was an interesting, exciting experience to get the ultimate prize.”

Continued; Monroe’s article, which includes comments from former Walleye Kyle Bonis and Shane Berchbach, is really worth your time.

Of Red Wings prospect and loaned player-related note from Europe’s professional leagues on Saturday, October 3rd:

In the SHL, Albert Johansson played 14:01 in Farjestads BK’s 4-2 loss to Malmo. Malte Setkov sat out this game for the Malmo Redhawks;

Albin Grewe played 6:47 in Djurgardens IF’s 5-3 loss to Rogle;

Jonatan Berggren had a goal and an assist in 13:02 played, finishing at +2 in Skelleftea AIK’s 3-2 loss to Brynas IF:

Jonatan Berggren gör 2-1 med 20 sekunder kvar av perioden. @skelleftea_aik #twittpuck pic.twitter.com/JI1I3DlK2X

— C More Sport (@cmoresport) October 3, 2020

FYI:

Red Wings forward prospect Jonatan Berggren had 12 points in 24 SHL games last season before getting injured.

To start this year, he’s already up to 7 in his first 4, including a goal and an assist today.

— Max Bultman (@m_bultman) October 3, 2020

Matias Brome scored 2 goals and added an assist, taking 5 shots and finishing at +2 in 15:20 played as Orebro won 6-4 over Linkoping. Red Wings Prospects on Twitter re-Tweeted this .gif of one of Brome’s goals:

Mathias Bromé gör 5-2 till Örebro. #SHL #Örebro #LGRW #DRW pic.twitter.com/CRe0Yw4YSN

— Anton (@antonj85) October 3, 2020

And Elmer Soderblom played 5:00 in the Frolunda Indians’ 4-2 win over Leskands IF;

In the Finnish Liiga, Jared McIsaac and HPK did not play their game vs. Sport due to a positive coronavirus test in one of the family members of HPK’s team;

Victor Brattstrom stopped 21 of 24 shots in KooKoo’s 3-1 loss to Karpat;

Otto Kivenmaki played 9:42, taking 1 shot, and Kasper Kotksansako finished at +1 in 15:53 played during Assat Pori’s 3-1 loss to SaiPa;

And in Belarus, via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Kirill Tyutyayev scored a goal and had 2 assists, finishing at +3 in Yunost Minsk’s 7-1 over Mogolev.

Update on Monday at 8:25 AM:

Of NHL draft-related note this morning:

1. The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed another mock draft, and this time around, he believes that the Red Wings will focus on their defense:

► 4. Detroit Red Wings: Jamie Drysdale, defenseman, Erie (OHL). The Wings need help everywhere, so several prospects could be in play. The feeling here, though, is Drysdale is the type of defenseman the Wings can’t pass up.

2. In a convenient coincidence, Sportsnet posted a profile of Jamie Drysdale this evening:

3. Shifting gears, if the Wings are to pick a goaltender, former NHL goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin gave SKA St. Petersburg goaltender Yaroslav Askarov a glowing recommendation, per an article (and 7-minute, non-geoblocked video) from TSN’s Mark Masters:

SEEN Magazine’s Eric Adelson penned a superb article about Red Wings prospect Moritz Seider, profiling Seider from afar as the young defenseman prepares for a mid-November season start with the DEL’s Adler Mannheim:

“It’s very hard to find a defenseman with that size and skating ability who can play big minutes,” says [Red Wings director of player development Shawn] Horcoff. “I don’t know where you get those players if you don’t draft them.”

No, his stats weren’t eye-popping, but his vision was. Again — the Seider gift is seeing a little bit into the future.

“It’s all about reading the game and trying to be ahead of your opponents by two to five steps,” he says. “Maybe it will give you a little more time. That’s what I try to do. And I never had trouble with that at all. How quick can you turn your head to look up the ice — not to see your opponents but seeing my guys? I always see where my guys are and not so much where the pressure is coming.”

This sort of intangible has been part of his hockey life from the beginning, when he was a kindergartner skating laps with his classmates and a local coach noticed his raw talent.

His parents, who ran a home for the elderly, were wary but they eventually gave in. Seider — who eventually became the rookie of the year in Germany’s top league — grew up watching Red Wings nemesis Scott Niedermayer as well as Lidstrom, and he studied the way they chose when to join the offensive rush without losing any defensive leverage.

He picked more traditional jersey numbers as a youth — 21, 18 — but eventually settled on No. 53 because it was the year of his grandfather’s birth, and also because he liked the Volkswagen Beetle from Disney’s “Herbie” movies (which was emblazoned with 53 on the side). He is prepared to be called “Herbie” because of this choice. “It would be funny,” he says.

Continued

The 2019-2020 season was a rough one for the Detroit Red Wings, but goaltender Jonathan Bernier did his damnedest to keep pucks out of the net, often all by his lonesome. AWood40 on YouTube, a.k.a. Alex Wood, found seven minutes’ worth of Jonathan Bernier’s best work from the past season, and he compiled the happy highlights on his YouTube channel:

The Red & White Authority is back…

Back by popular demand… The Red & White Authority Podcast!!

Danny DeKeyser joins @ArthurJRegner as they discuss his recovery from back surgery, the acquisition of Marc Staal and more!

?️: https://t.co/h1AuLDj30Y
?: https://t.co/1TzfiHQsOk pic.twitter.com/VtiIf87KgZ— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) October 2, 2020

From NHL.com:

Alexis Lafreniere’s potential to be an immediate player and the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft, reasons why center Quinton Byfield should be the No. 2 pick and a look at why goalie Iaroslav Askarov is so highly regarded were among the topics discussed on the new episode of the NHL @TheRink podcast.

The podcast, recorded Friday, previewed the 2020 NHL Draft and featured co-hosts Dan Rosen and Shawn P. Roarke joined by special guest Adam Kimelman, NHL.com deputy managing editor and co-host of the NHL Draft Class podcast.

…

Kimelman said he thinks the New York Rangers, who hold the No. 1 pick, will get a player in Lafreniere, a left wing with Rimouski of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, who potentially could score 50 points next season.

He also said he thinks the Los Angeles Kings should take Byfield, a forward with Sudbuy of the Ontario Hockey League, with the No. 2 pick and the Ottawa Senators should take Germany-born forward Tim Stuetzle at No. 3. Stuetzle plays for Mannheim in Germnay’s top professional league.

While unlikely, Kimelman said he wouldn’t be surprised if Askarov, who has started his 2020-21 season with SKA St. Petersburg in the Kontinenal Hockey League, went as high as the No. 4 pick to the Detroit Red Wings. He thinks the Russia-born goalie can be a top-10 pick.

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill played hockey for Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan before embarking upon his coaching career. His coach at Ferris, Bob Daniels, reminisced upon Blashill’s coaching beginnings in a conversation with the Big Rapids News’s John Raffel:

“What happened was during his senior year, we had a meeting and I asked him what his plans were,” Daniels said. “He said he didn’t know and wasn’t sure he was going to pursue pro hockey and he was thinking of going on for his MBA.”

Daniels asked Blashill if he had ever thought about getting into coaching.

“He said he thought about it but didn’t know how to go about it,” Daniels said. “I said why don’t you stick around one year and work as a volunteer assistant coach for us and work on your MBA here? That summer, Jamie Russell left to go to Cornell. So we had an opening. So he went two weeks from being a student assistant coach to a fulltime assistant coach for us. It was a matter of being at the right place at the right time.”

He also spent six seasons (2002-08) with Miami University, helping the CCHA’s RedHawks qualify for the NCAA Tournament four times while recruiting three Hobey Baker Finalists

Blashill was a goalie four seasons at Ferris and was Rookie of the Year in 1994-95 and earned a spot on the CCHA’s All-Academic Team for 1996-97.

“He had a solid career for us,” Daniels said. “We’ve been blessed with having some really good goaltenders and certainly Jeff was one of them.”

Continued