Author: George Malik

The Toledo Walleye’s championship run ended a little short as they lost in the ECHL final to the Newfoundland Growlers, but the Walleye have impressed those in professional hockey circles as a winning machine over the past half-decade. The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe reports that the Walleye’s playoff success has turned out to be a good thing for player recruitment, as coach Dan Watson suggests:

“With the success we had … more names are coming across the desk,” Watson said.

Toledo also hosted the ECHL all-star game for the first time, giving the league’s top players an up-close look at how the franchise is operated and supported.

“Players in this league and their agents understand what Toledo is all about,” Watson said. “We have a really good organization and the city is behind us.”

The team sold-out 31 of its 36 home games at the Huntington Center. An average crowd of 7,783 attended the games at the downtown arena, which seats 7,431 for hockey games. The team also set a new single-game attendance record when a crowd of 8,397 filled the arena to beyond capacity on April 6.

“Players want to play in front of those atmospheres,” Watson said.

However, the third-year coach believes there will be significant roster turnover in the offseason due to a variety of reasons.

“For the most part, we will have a pretty new team. There are a lot of guys who will be moving on,” Watson said. “That’s just the nature of the beast [at the ECHL developmental level].”

Monroe continues, explaining the Walleye’s personnel situation…

On Day 4 of the Red Wings’ summer development camp, the Red Wings’ prospects spent their morning/early afternoon taking part in skating drills, and this evening, the players were able to stretch their competitive legs, taking part in a trio of 3-on-3 games.

Ahead of what will surely be a competitive Red and White Game on Saturday (12 PM start), the players engaged in what was sometimes wild and woolly hockey. Crazy things happened, like Filip Larsson getting lit up for 8 goals and QMJHL try-out Mathieu Bizier scoring a hat trick, and as someone who had to haul ass to a Filip Zadina interview between games, I didn’t get to see all of the consolation or championship games, though I sure tried to soak in as much as I could.

If you missed it, the Wings archived the game on YouTube, so you can watch the stream for yourself and make your own impressions:

Of Red Wings-related note on a balmy Friday evening:

1. MLive’s Ansar Khan penned an article regarding Filip Zadina’s comments made to the media corps this evening. As Khan notes, a hamstring injury sidelined the young Czech sniper for development camp, but Zadina’s going to put in extra effort to be ready come September:

Zadina said it’s not a long-term injury and that he feels good. He will return home to the Czech Republic for a short time and then come back to Detroit to train the rest of the summer with several other Red Wings at the Barwis Performance Center in Plymouth.

“I’ve been there last year for a week; it was great so hopefully it can just make me a better athlete,” Zadina said. “Then on the ice it’s up to me.

“I’m just trying to be patient and get healthy as soon as possible and then start again and just probably get stronger and quicker and be probably faster on the ice.”

Zadina had 16 goals and 35 points in 59 games for the Griffins and one goal and two assists in a nine-game stint with the Red Wings late in the season.

“Lots of new experiences during the season, ups and downs,” Zadina said. “I enjoyed the time in Detroit. I’ll take it as it was, and I think it was a good season for me. I got to learn something, and I hope, and I believe that next season will be way better.”

Khan continues, and he posted a video of Zadina’s remarks:

2. Hockeybuzz’s Bob Duff also spoke with Wings free agent signings Ryan Kuffner and Taro Hirose, finding that Kuffner doesn’t view the development camp as repetitive…

The Detroit Red Wings’ summer development campers engaged in a 3-on-3 tournament on Friday, with Team Delvecchio taking the crown. Here’s the Wings’ archived broadcast of the event, with Ken Kal and Arthur J. Regner doing the commentary:

A couple of days ago, the Red Wings’ PR corps were ferrying players to a spot that I was unfamiliar with in the bowels of Little Caesars Arena. At the end of the parade of prospects, Trevor Thompson came out of the room and gave the PR guys some firm handshakes and some heartfelt thank-yous.

As it turns out, the very fancy-looking backdrop where the Red Wings give their sit-down interviews with Fox Sports Detroit is sort of jammed into an auxiliary locker room, and that’s where Fox Sports Detroit’s Thompson spoke with half-a-dozen Wings prospects for interviews scheduled to air over the past couple of days’ worth of Tigers games.

Among the interviewees who spoke with Trevor Thompson are one Moritz Seider…

Filip Larsson…

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects engaged in some 3-on-3 action on Friday, with Team Delvecchio ultimately defeating Team Lidstrom 5-3 to capture the summer development camp’s victory.

Tomorrow, the Red and White game takes place at 12 PM.

Between the “consolation game” and championship game of the 3-on-3 tournament, Filip Zadina spoke with the assembled media, and I was surprised that he was a bit demurring in his answers. Zadina isn’t happy about having injured his hamstring during training, and he was admittedly disappointed that he could only engage in a little bit of skating as his teammates participated in the summer development camp. Zadina said that, save a week back home in the Czech Republic, he’s staying in Detroit and training with his Red Wings teammates at Barwis Methods, and when he was asked what he can do better in this year’s training camp/exhibition season to earn an NHL spot, he said he has to “show his game” instead of focusing on a specific area for improvement:

The ever-quotable Jack Adams was next, and the Union College junior scored 2 goals for Team Delvecchio in its first game, coming ever-so-close to a hat trick on numerous occasions as he used his 6’5,” 207-pound frame to his advantage. Adams discussed his play and the balance between playing against teammates and playing to be evaluated by the Wings’ front office:

Ryan Kuffner could hold a course on media relations with Adams. Kuffner scored a pair of goals in the championship game, and the 6’1,” 195-pound forward who was signed this past season as a free agent out of Princeton was downright bubbly as he discussed the 3-on-3 tournament, his and his teammates’ performances, and the need to turn things around fairly quickly for Saturday’s game:

Both in Twitter and YouTube form:

Hey fans we will be streaming the Red Wings 3 on 3 games from ⁦@LCArena_Detroit⁩ starting at 6pm. Go to https://t.co/1EArXKCYT0 pic.twitter.com/HlYnJBbgPp— Ken Kal (@KenKalDRW) June 28, 2019

The Detroit Red Wings engaged in fitness testing during the first day of this summer’s development camp at Little Caesars Arena, and days two and three involved developing skills with Swedish coach Daniel Broberg and the Power Edge Pro fitness team.

On Thursday, both Teams Howe and Lindsay worked on skating drills with an as-yet-unnamed skating coach. The defensemen and forwards were separated to work with said coach, with each taking part 45-minute skating sessions which emphasized proper posture and skating technique.

There was a lot less jumping over things today, but the skating coach got quite technical regarding working on one’s inside and outside edges, maneuverability drills and a strong emphasis on the skaters’ first couple of strides serving as a foundation for whatever moves they might make, be they c-cut turns, crossovers or explosive strides powering the players in a straight line.

The goalies also were finally able to spend 45 minutes working very specifically with goaltending coaches Jeff Salajko and Brian Mahoney-Wilson, as well as skill development coach Brandon Narauto, doing goalie things like reading passes and dump-ins, stopping shots from oblique angles and recovering from saves to stop secondary and tertiary shots, often with screens occupying their fields of vision.

This evening, the players are going to take part in a 3-on-3 tournament, whose schedule reads as follows, and whose teams can be found here:

The Detroit Red Wings’ prospects will take part in a series of 3-on-3 games this evening, and the Wings just released the rosters of their teams:

A little 3-on-3 #DRWDC action tonight. ?

Game 1: Team Howe vs Team Delvecchio
Game 2: Team Lindsay vs Team Lidstrom
Game 3: Consolation Game
Game 4: Winner GM 1 vs. Winner GM 2 pic.twitter.com/NG3m6bv4ay— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) June 28, 2019

Each game will consist of two 10-minute periods. All games will be running time, with the exception of the last minute of the 2nd period of each game. If any games are tied after 20 minutes, there will be a three round shootout.

So… WHICH TEAM WILL TAKE IT?— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) June 28, 2019

Here’s the schedule:

6:00 – 6:20 p.m. – On-Ice Warm-Up (All Players)

6:30 – 6:50 p.m. – 3-on-3 Tournament Game #1

7:10 – 7:30 p.m. – 3-on-3 Tournament Game #2

7:40 – 8:00 p.m. – 3-on-3 Tournament Consolation Game

8:20 – 8:40 p.m. – 3-on-3 Tournament Championship Game

The Wings will be streaming the games.

On a day that the beat writers are predicting the Red Wings’ potential free agent targets, the Windsor Star’s Jim Parker feels that it’s wise to glance back at what Wings GM Steve Yzerman has had to say about his plans for the $12 million in cap space that the Wings have to play with on July 1st:

“We have spots on the roster available,” Yzerman said. “I would look, before doing it through trade, I would look at free agency to fill those roster spots. We also do want to have some opportunity for our younger players to fill those spots, but we will look at free agency.”

With the NHL salary cap set at $81.5 million for 2019-20, the Red Wings are believed to have about $12 million available to spend.

Yzerman could try and make a splash by using some of that money to make an offer sheet to a young, restricted free-agent player, but it doesn’t sound like he’s inclined to go that route.

“The position that we’re in today, I don’t say I definitely wouldn’t do it, but it’s unlikely,” Yzerman said.

He has young players and plenty of draft picks and a philosophy that rebuilding the Red Wings, who have missed the playoffs and posted a losing record the last three seasons, will not come overnight.

“It takes time,” Yzerman said. “I don’t have a ceiling. I’m not going to make any predictions at all. The attitude is we’re all trying to be a part of getting the Red Wings back into Stanley Cups and being a good team.”

Continued; again, I believe that the best move for the Red Wings come July 1st is not to play in free agency at all.