Author: George Malik

DetroitRedWings.com’s Dana Wakiji examines Dennis Cholowski’s 2018-19 campaign this morning, discussing significant figures and adding commentary of note regarding Cholowski’s rookie season:

“I also think on the defensive side of the game, not so much the thinking but I don’t think through his young career growing up, he was ever in a situation where he really had to defend. He was always relied upon to produce offense. So now all of a sudden, he leaves college and two years later, he’s in the NHL where you’ve got to defend the best players in the world every shift every single night and he gets exposed a little bit. But that’s the same thing that most young players go through. It’s the best league in the world for a reason. It’s not easy to play against the best players every night and I thought he did a good job of it. He’s learning as he goes here how to defend in the National Hockey League and we focused a lot on that in the offseason. I think you’re going to see a better defender in him this year.” — Shawn Horcoff, Red Wings director of player development/assistant director of player personnel

Continued

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a 2019-2020 season outlook for Christoffer Ehn earlier today, and he asks a pertinent question regarding a center who looked like a fourth-line workhorse in 2018-19: is Ehn expendable due to the Wings’ free agent additions, at least for now?

Ehn surprised by earning a roster spot out of training camp in his first season in North America. The 2014 fourth-round pick (106th overall) was better-prepared for the NHL than some others due to his age and experience of playing in the Swedish men’s league with Frolunda.

The coaching staff and front office were swayed by Ehn’s attention to detail and responsible defensive play. Aside from two relatively brief stints in the AHL, Ehn was a fixture on the Red Wings’ fourth line.

The organization is hoping he has a little more offense in him, but he hasn’t shown that at any level. If he’s going to remain in the NHL, it will be as a bottom-six checking forward and penalty killer who can play center and the wing.

Ehn’s primary competition for a roster spot in training camp might come Ryan Kuffner. Both are young, waiver-exempt players who will only stick around if they’re in the lineup regularly.

Continued

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn previews the Detroit Red Wings’ 2019-2020 team this morning, and his prediction for the Wings’ season outcome is gloomy:

Last season the Red Wings finished with 74 points. The year before it was 73 points. The most likely landing spot for next season is right in the same ballpark with a 45 percent chance of landing somewhere between 70 and 80 points and an average projection right in between at 73.7 points.

It’s an extremely bleak projection, one exacerbated by the fact the team arguably plays in the league’s toughest division, one where three playoff spots are basically spoken for already. It would take everything going right for Detroit and everything going wrong for plenty of teams in front of them for the team to have a winning season. The Red Wings were one of the league’s weakest clubs last year and only got worse after dealing Gustav Nyquist and Nick Jensen. Prior to the deadline, the Red Wings had an expected goals percentage of 46, but that already bad number dropped significantly afterwards, all the way to dead last in the league at 39 percent.

There should be no surprises about how dire this projection is, especially after they didn’t do much to improve their underlying talent (unless you count adding two fourth-line calibre players) in the offseason, all while many other teams made tangible improvements.

Continued (paywall)

Red Wings defenseman Danny DeKeyser appeared on 97.1 the Ticket’s Jamie and Stoney Show yesterday, and he suggested that the Red Wings are not so far removed from a playoff berth as some might think:

“Obviously it’s a little bit different here for Wings fans, used to being in the deep playoff runs. But the last couple years haven’t gone our way,” he told the Jamie and Stoney Show on 97.1 The Ticket. “We got a great youth movement coming in here, a lot of good talent. Larks, Double-A, Mantha, Bertuzzi, a lot of good young players.

“We’re trying to get back into the playoffs, and I think we have a team that can do it. It’s just about being consistent every night. We see flashes throughout the season at some points and then at other points, for whatever reason, we don’t have it. For us to get back into the playoffs, we’re going to have to be at the top of our game every night.” 

While the Wings finished third to last in the East last season, 24 points out of a playoff spot, they did make strides. Led by the core of forwards DeKeyser mentioned, they proved capable of hanging with some of the best teams in the league. 

They showed a sense of resiliency that wasn’t so evident the couple years prior.

“I agree,” DeKeyser said. “I think a lot of that is having younger guys on the team who are coming in with a fire under them and trying to make an impression on the staff and the coaches. It’s always good when young players have that fight and have that energy, because I think it pushes everybody to be a little bit better as well.” 

Here’s the interview:

Good news from the London Free Press’s Ryan Pyette, who spoke with Red Wings prospect Alec Regula. Regula has recovered from a nagging knee injury that limited his summertime activities without requiring surgery:

He went through a month and a half of rehabilitation at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena to be cleared for this week’s action and get ready to report to Traverse City, Mich., next week for the NHL rookie tournament.

“It was a long summer,” the 19-year-old defenceman said, “and especially with being so young, I wanted to be cautious with it. It feels good to be playing and skating around and healthy again. It means a lot to be game ready and I want to be a good leader for the guys and play the right way.”

Regula’s knee woes developed after the Knights season and were diagnosed shortly after reporting to the Wings’ American league affiliate in Grand Rapids. He is a critical part to London’s success this year as the most experienced rearguard left on the team.

He had 11 goals and 39 points in 66 games last season with a plus-32 rating, but is expecting more with major minutes forthcoming and Bouchard, Boqvist and Will Lochead graduating.

“The Wings always tell me if I’m going to play in the NHL, it’s going to be as a defender, not an offensive guy,” he said, “but in my fourth year of junior and third year here, it’s time to take a step and I think I can hold that responsibility. I’ll shoot for 20 goals and see what happens. It’s not easy to do.”

Continued

In an NHL.com video, commentator Stan Fischler suggests that Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux is the modern-day analogue to Sid Abel:

The Red Wings invited Charlottetown Islanders center/winger Thomas Casey to their summer development camp this past June, and the 5’8″ forward spoke with the Charlottetown Islanders’ website’s Aidan Northcott regarding some of the lessons he learned at Detroit’s camp:

“The amount of quality hockey players at camp was impressive, and Detroit’s staff are all high-quality people,” said Casey on the camp. “I haven’t learned that much at any point in my life with regards to hockey. The tools and resources they supply us make it so much fun. It’s an experience I really cherish and was happy to have.”

Thomas was one of a number of QMJHL players at Detroit’s camp, including top drafted prospects Joe Veleno, Jared McIsaac, and Filip Zadina (though McIsaac and Zadina didn’t participate due to injuries). Casey said one of the main takeaways from development camp were the finer techniques that they taught.

“It was everything from how to change the angles of our shots to skills on the odd-man rush,” he said “It was amazing, all the little tips and tricks they had from guys who were in the NHL that I had never heard of.”

With no prior experience at the NHL level, Casey leaned on a former Islander and one of his training partners: Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ryan Graves told him to remain calm, play his game, and everything would be fine.

“I was kind of anxious getting ready for it, but when I got there the nerves went away,” Casey said. “You have to soak it all in; thankfully I did that, it was a lot of fun.”

Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels joined Matt Sheppard and Jack Morris in the Tigers’ broadcast booth yesterday night, discussing the Celebrity Roast of Mickey Redmond on September 7th, the progress made by the Jamie Daniels Foundation and the expectations for the Red Wings coming into a new season. Fox Sports Detroit posted 2 videos and almost 20 minutes’ worth of Daniels speaking with Sheppard and Morris last night:

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that Toledo Walleye coach Dan Watson addressed his team’s significant roster turnover at a season-ticket holder event on Tuesday, issuing an honest answer regarding the team’s need to build chemistry and combinations thanks to the number of players they’ve seen exit the organization:

Only five skaters who suited up for Watson last season will be coming back: forwards T.J. Hensick, Shane Berschbach, and Abbott Girduckis, and defensemen Brenden Kotyk and Connor Schmidt. Hensick and Berschbach were the team’s leading scorers.

Last season, Watson brought back only six players from the 2017-18 team that won a Central Division title.

“We’re doing the exact same thing this year with different names,” Watson said. “The quality and character of the people that we’re adding with their skill set … it will be a very dangerous lineup.”

Nine of the 15 players on the roster have appeared in 1,267 total games in the higher-level American Hockey League. Forwards Hensick (653), Zack Phillips (260), Josh Winquist (137), Branden Troock (119), and defensemen Blake Hillman (54), and Brandon Anselmini (27) have all spent time in the AHL.

“We’ll have a little more experience this year,” Watson said. “With the players we’ve signed, we will be faster with a little more skill up front. I think we will be able to defend better on the back end. I think that’s extremely important. It’s something we learned in the finals.”

Continued; as Watson suggests, roster turnover is the nature of the beast in the ECHL.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Arthur J. Regner reviews Filip Zadina’s 2018-19 campaign “By the Numbers” this morning, and Regner’s analysis includes an intriguing quote from Red Wings director of player development Shawn Horcoff, who suggests that Zadina needed to spend his summer working on his skating:

Quotable: “He’s good in tight spaces, we want to create a little more explosiveness and improve his first three steps a little bit. The NHL game, there’s so much backside pressure, we just need to help him separate a little bit more and create some open ice.” – Shawn Horcoff, Red Wings director of player development/assistant director of player personnel.

Continued, and Horcoff has a point. Zadina’s skating is not a detriment by any means, but he’s still working on building the kind of strength necessary to use his legs to his advantage in battles for the puck.