Author: George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

On playoff-determining factors

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff considers several factors which may improve the Red Wings’ chances of making the playoff cut–presuming that their 4-game road trip through Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest goes well–this morning:

Red Wings Need To Start On Time

It’s great that Detroit has been able to rally from 2-0 deficits to win each of the last two games. This shouldn’t be viewed as a pattern the Red Wings will want to be continuing.

Chasing the game wears a team down. Catch-up hockey is losing hockey in the long run. The Wings are 10-18-1 this season when the opposition opens the scoring.

Winning The Race To Three

When he was first arriving in Detroit, McLellan was talking about NHL games being a race to three. His theory was that the first team to score three goals won the vast majority of games.

So far, he’s been proven a prophet. Under McLellan, the Wings are 11-0 when getting to three goals first in a game. They are 0-4 when the opponents is the first to net three times.

Continued

‘No, thank you!’

According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, Red Wings goaltending prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins Sebastian Cossa had an interesting conversation with Rockford IceHogs goaltender Drew Commesso when the two encountered each other as their respective teams engaged in a spirited bout:

An altercation beside the Rockford net broke out between Grand Rapids forward Cross Hanas and Icehogs defenseman Kevin Korchinski. Bantle went after Korchinsi and then suddenly, Rockford goalie Drew Commesso was jumping into the fray to make it a foursome.

The next thing you know, Cossa is rambling all the way down the ice. He and Commesso wound up paired off in the midst of what was now a melee involving all 12 players on the ice.

“I asked him if he wanted to go,” Cossa said. “He said, ‘No.’ And then it was just kind of congratulating each other on our NHL debuts and stuff like that.”

…

On December 14, Commesso made his first NHL start. He was making 20 stops in a 4-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils.

“Wished each other the best of luck the rest of the way here,” Cossa added. “We’ll be seeing them down the road here.”

Continued

Tweets of note: January highlights and hits

The Red Wings posted a 4-and-a-half-minute long highlight clip spotlighting the best plays from January, 2025…

And they added another 26 seconds of big hits:

Friday night notebooks: Red Wings working on road game as they build new identity

Both the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan and DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills discuss topics related to the Wings’ road-heavy second-half-of-the-season schedule, with Kulfan noting that the Wings are attempting to become a better road team…

“You have to be prepared to start because you can lose games quickly on the road,” [coach Todd] McLellan said. “With momentum and fans and energy in the buildings, you’re playing back-to-backs often on the road. Your starts are important. The start against L.A. was not the start that we wanted. Here again (Thursday), when we were rolling a month ago, we were coming out of the gate. We were aggressive, we were the attacking team. (Now) we’re dipping our toe in the water a little bit and trying to wait to see what happens.”

Against Edmonton, a pair of fluky bounces hurt the Wings early. Ben Chiarot’s attempt at clearing the puck went awry when the puck skipped over his stick directly to Draisaitl, who one-timed a power-play goal. Then goaltender Alex Lyon was unable to cover up a bouncing puck, leading to Jeff Skinner tapping in a loose puck all alone in front of the net.

But the Wings settled down and played a sound, impressive road game, ultimately leading to a shootout victory behind the goaltending of Lyon.

“We’re just taking it one day at a time, which is important for us,” Lyon said of the upcoming road-heavy schedule to the finish line. “We can’t get ahead of ourselves. I don’t really want to look too far ahead, just want to stay in the moment. The coaches have done a good job of bringing us back and bringing us in when things get wonky.”

Making safer, smarter decisions during games, said McLellan, will be crucial on the road.

“You have to understand game management,” McLellan said. “In my mind, you have to pick your spots, when to go and not to go, and you have to win games in different ways. Sometimes you have to outscore mistakes or out-check your way there. You do those things, and you give yourself a chance.”

And Mills discusses the larger picture of the Red Wings’ attempts to build together as a team:

Continue reading Friday night notebooks: Red Wings working on road game as they build new identity

Khan assesses the Wings’ cap situation

The NHL released its “payroll ranges” for the next three seasons, with the salary cap tentatively rising to $95.5 million, $104 million and $113.5 million over the next three seasons. As such, MLive’s Ansar Khan assessed the Wings’ cap situation going into this summer:

The Red Wings are in good shape, cap-wise. Their top players (Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond) are locked up to long-term contracts through 2031 and 2032, and Alex DeBrincat has two more years on his deal after this season.

The Red Wings also will be trimming more than $10 million from their payroll with the unrestricted free agents not expected to return.

Their young players on entry-level contracts, notably Simon Edvinsson and Marco Kasper, aren’t up for new deals until 2026-27 and 2027-28, respectively.

This will give general manager Steve Yzerman flexibility to seek big-money players through free agency or trade, if the opportunity is there.

As of now, the Red Wings have 15 players signed for 2025-26 (nine forwards, five defensemen and one goaltender) at a cap figure of $69.6 million. That would give them roughly $25 million to fill out their 23-man roster with eight more players. That includes their own restricted free agents and any prospects being promoted to the NHL, most notably of which figures to be defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka.

Continued (paywall)

Tweets from practice: Red Wings are skating in Edmonton

The Detroit Red Wings are skating in Edmonton today, before flying to Calgary after having defeated the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 in a shootout on Thursday night:

Three things: On the win in Edmonton, winning on the road and the Wings’ goaltending

Of Red Wings-related note this afternoon:

  1. MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of the Red Wings coach and players’ comments as stated after last night’s 3-2 shootout win over Edmonton:

“I didn’t think we had enough players going and challenged them between periods,” McLellan told FanDuel Sports Network. “All we had to do was find two or three more in the second period and maybe two or three more players in the third and scrap our way to a win.

“But we needed great goaltending, which we got. And we needed some good penalty killing, which we got. And the opportunities we got in the second half of the game we buried. The first half, we missed nets on some of our chances, didn’t find a way to finish. But good night for our group.”

The Red Wings (25-21-5, 55 points) have won four in a row and are 12-4-1 under McLellan. They are only two points out of the wild card spots that Tampa Bay and Columbus currently occupy. They visit Calgary Saturday in the second stop of their four-game trip (10 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network).

“We’ll take any win we can get right now,” McLellan said. “As we win no matter how we do it I think we feel better about ourselves. But we do know we have to be better than we were tonight for the next 60 minutes in Calgary, but we’re not going to over-critique a win.”

2. The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton discussed the Wings’ road-heavy schedule over the final half of the NHL season:

Continue reading Three things: On the win in Edmonton, winning on the road and the Wings’ goaltending

Press release: NHL, NHLPA announce ‘Team Payroll Ranges’ for next 3 seasons

I’m a little late with this announcement, but it’s a consequential one, per the NHL and NHLPA:

NHLPA, NHL Announce Team Payroll Ranges for Next Three Seasons

NEW YORK/TORONTO (Jan. 31, 2025) – The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association announced today an agreement that will provide increased predictability on core Salary Cap economics for a minimum of the next three years (through 2027-28).

The agreement sets the following annual increases to the Upper Limit, subject to the Collective Bargaining Agreement being in effect beyond the 2025-26 season:

2025-26: $7.5 million

2026-27: $8.5 million

2027-28: $9.5 million

Those increases would set Team Payroll Ranges for the next three seasons to:

2025-26

Upper Limit: $95.5 Million

Lower Limit: $70.6 Million

2026-27

Upper Limit: $104 Million

Lower Limit: $76.9 Million

2027-28

Upper Limit: $113.5 Million

Lower Limit: $83.9 Million

The projected Team Payroll Ranges for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons will be subject to potential minor adjustments (up or down).

The parties still intend to meet to discuss other elements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that might need modification and/or improvement beyond the 2025-26 season.