Author: George Malik

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau was trading Patrick Kane away from Detroit a week ago, but today, he’s suggesting that the Red Wings extend Kane’s contract for another season:

Patrick Kane, RW, Detroit Red Wings

If the Red Wings are intent on making the playoffs – a long shot for this season – they will need to keep Kane in the fold. Like most of the Wings, Kane has struggled this season, posting just seven goals and 17 points in 32 games. But he’s clearly bought into GM Steve Yzerman’s plan, and a decent contract extension shouldn’t be all that difficult for him to obtain. The 36-year-old is making $4 million, but he’s not looking to break the bank on a new contract. A slight raise should be able to keep him in the fold.

Continued; there have been a significant amount of trade proposals regarding Red Wings players over the past three weeks, mostly involving the Buffalo Sabres’ top players, but it’s a lot of fluffernutter.

I don’t see the Wings and Sabres making a significant trade unless “the stars line up” and both teams find good fits in terms of both salary and compensation, and that’s bloody difficult to do.

If the Red Wings do choose to “buy” or “sell,” it’s far more likely that they’ll stay out of their own division when doing so.

After last night’s 1-0 shootout win, I was thinking that the Grand Rapids Griffins are doing a great job of making a 3-goaltender system work as all of Jack Campbell, Ville Husso and Sebastian Cossa are earning playing time and practice time…

But the Hockey News’s Caleb Kearney sees the glut of goaltenders in GR and says that it’s time for the Red Wings to trade Campbell or Husso:

Husso has been lights out with two shutouts in eight games. He currently holds a 6-1-0 record to go along with a 1.86 goals against average (GAA) and a .935 save percentage (SV%).

With 18 games played, Cossa has taken most of the year’s starts. He has a 10-5-3 record in those starts, a 2.31 GAA, a .919 SV%, and one shutout.

Campbell is starting to get his feet wet, with four games and a 2-2-0 record. Although this sample is small, he has a 2.02 GAA and a .924 SV%.

Having several goalies who perform well is not a bad thing. What is bad about this situation is that the veterans, Husso and Campbell, will take away Cossa’s starts.

While this might give Cossa a nice break in the short term, it’s not good for his long-term development. Having a break is one thing, but sitting too long can negatively impact goaltending performance. Therefore, one of Husso or Campbell must be traded.

Husso is probably the easiest of the two to visit the trade block. Campbell fell out of favor with NHL GMs last season and is still rebuilding his game to deliver consistent results.

Campbell’s contract is more digestible: He earned $775,000 this season. Husso, on the other hand, is in the last year of a three-year $4.75 million deal.

I’m going to have to disagree here. The Wings would have to eat half of Husso’s salary to trade him, and while it’s a nice thought to clear the Griffins’ logjam, right now, it’s working, and that matters more than one might think, especially with the possibility of an injury at the NHL level quite probable at some point this season.

Do we count this as a Red Wings “Hall-Of-Famer?” This morning, the IIHF named former Islander and Red Wings forward Frans Nielsen, who was no doubt a Danish hockey pioneer, to its Hall of Fame class of 2024:

Frans Nielsen had an exceptional international career with Denmark and was just the second Dane to play in the NHL after Poul Popiel (who was born in Sollested but moved to Canada as a child). Nielsen made his national team debut in 2002, in Division I, and was part of the historic team that earned promotion to the top level for the first time since 1949. Thereafter, Nielsen played in nine top-level Men’s Worlds, accruing 26 points in 56 games between 2003 and 2022. Such was his reputation that even though he came from a small hockey country, the New York Islanders drafted him 87^th overall in 2002. He remained in Europe a further four years, joining the Isles in 2006. Over the next 16 years, Nielsen played in 925 NHL games with the Islanders and Detroit, earning a reputation as one of the best defensive forwards and also as one of the most successful players in the newly-introduced shootout. Nielsen’s crowning glory was playing at the 2022 Olympics, the first time Denmark had ever qualified for the quadrennial event.

Continued

Per Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

New coach Todd McLellan said he didn’t have a “magic wand” to fix the Detroit Red Wings. But somehow the team owns a three-game winning streak heading into Saturday’s road game against the Winnipeg Jets. The Jets will provide the Detroit with its first major test: They boast the NHL’s best record (27-11-2) and goal-differential (+45). By contrast, after three wins a row, the Red Wings (16-18-4) are two wins below .500 and their differential is minus-21. The Jets are tied for second in scoring at 3.63 goals per game, while Detroit is 25th at 2.68. It’s as if Detroit starts the game down 1-0.

Continued

EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro breaks down the Red Wings’ new penalty-killing “diamond” formation today on his Shap Shots blog, and it’s an interesting read, in no small part because Shapiro tells us that the Red Wings’ old PK was, well, getting old:

It’s easy to take pot shots at the old system once it’s been discarded, but multiple Red Wings told me in the past week that the old in-zone killing system was exhausting and frustrating for players. One Red Wings penalty killer told me it felt a bit juvenile and put Detroit in a spot where NHL-level players could simply expose Detroit.

Again, I don’t like taking pot shots as someone is out the door, but that’s what players told when breaking down the changes on the PK.

So [coach Todd] McLellan and [assistant coach Trent] Yawney came in and installed a passive diamond on the penalty kill, which looks just like it sounds, it’s a diamond that really doesn’t move too much.

In the version of the diamond the Red Wings are playing, each player is responsible for their quadrant, and one player said the coaching staff had explained it like rubber bands that give-and-take — players stretch into ares of their quadrant to defend, but always elastic back.

Continued…

Evan Sabourin, Tony Wolak, Devin Little and I discussed the Red Wings’ coaching change, the team’s winning streak as they “play effing hockey” and Joe Veleno’s status as a first-line forward (for now, anyway) on the latest episode of the Flying Octopus podcast.

This one was one of those podcasts where I’m afraid that I let loose with some word salad, but we had a good conversation going, and I had no idea that we were talking for 38 minutes when it was all over with!

The Athletic’s Sarah Jean Maher wrote a superb article about Team Sweden captain and Red Wings prospect defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka, whose father, Janne, has made the trip to Ottawa to cheer on his son as Sweden aims to earn World Championship gold:

Sandin Pellikka is well on his way to repeating as the tournament’s top defenseman but says he isn’t interested in personal triumphs. He’s only focused on winning his country’s third-ever gold medal and first since 2012 — this time as captain, an “honor” he’s taking very seriously.

“I’m here to win a championship with the team. Nothing personal,” he said.

Sandin Pellikka loves to score goals and looks up to fellow Swedish defenseman and goal scorer Erik Karlsson, but Skelleftea general manager Erik Forssell has also seen firsthand how Sandin Pellikka’s defensive play one-on-one has improved over the past two seasons. He’s also taken note of how much his confidence has grown.

“When he came into the league two years ago, age 17,” Forssell said, “his skating and how he moves the puck, handles the puck, stood out right away, and that is obviously what makes him a very special player. But the last two years he has really improved that defensive play and now being one of the best.

“He’s confident and he believes in himself. And I think that’s a very valuable asset as a player in the team because when games are tough and tight, there’s a lot of pressure. Having players that can be confident is very, very important. “

Continued (paywall)

The Columbus Dispatch’s Brian Hedger offers an interesting piece of information this morning:

Going into the NHL draft last summer, Todd McLellan was the Blue Jackets’ top choice to replace Pascal Vincent as head coach.  

The Dispatch learned that talks fell apart due to a disagreement on contractual terms, which led to Blue Jackets president of hockey operations/general manager Don Waddell going with Dean Evason instead. Evason has since gotten off to a great start in Columbus, while McLellan was recently hired by the Red Wings – with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2008 as an assistant coach. 

McLellan did his homework on the Blue Jackets’ roster and organizational system while discussing their coaching vacancy and has studied it even closer since joining the Red Wings. He’s impressed with the progress they’ve shown under Evason and senses that even brighter days are ahead in Columbus. 

“I think Dean has his fingerprints all over this team,” McLellan said. “Anytime a coach comes in, and he can flip the identity and get the players believing in what he’s selling, it becomes contagious. I can see that throughout their lineup. … In my mind, they’ve definitely turned the corner and they’re going to give not only the Red Wings but every other team in the league a handful.”

The Detroit Red Wings’ coaching staff unsuccessfully challenged James van Riemsdyk’s 4-4 goal in last night’s 5-4 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Free Press’s Helene St. James asked coach Todd McLellan what his thought process was going into the risky move:

“From the angle we saw, we thought that van Riemsdyk went into the blue paint on his own,” McLellan said. “His feet were in there. We didn’t feel Talbs could get across to make the play. Obviously Justin [Holl] had made some contact, but we thought [van Riemsdyk] entered on his own.  It’s tough for everybody – it’s tough for coaches, it’s tough for the players, it’s tough the officials. These things often go 50-50, and we ended up on the wrong side.”

In addition to the coaches on the bench, the Wings have their goaltending coach watching from the press box and, a two-man video crew in the locker room.

“We give everybody an opportunity to chime in,” McLellan said. “We have to decide in a fraction of a second. That decision was mine. It wasn’t anybody else’s. That’s on the head coach. I made that decision and I was on the wrong end of it.”

The Wings’ penalty kill (69.2%) ranks second from the bottom in the league, but they got the job done Thursday. McLellan explained why he was willing to gamble, even given how late in the game it was.

“We’re asking our team to be aggressive,” he said. “We’re coming to play to win and there was a gamble aspect to our call. We also have confidence in our penalty killers. They came through for us. Obviously if they score, we’re talking about it in a completely different way. But I’d still own that and I’d still like our players to know we’re playing to win, and we’ll be aggressive when we need to be.”

Continued

The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses the Red Wings players’ sense of freedom to play instinctive hockey under coach Todd McLellan, as evidenced by Jonatan Berggren’s renaissance:

“Right from the start, with practice since Todd came in, the speed — I think everyone that has watched the practices sees it,” Berggren said. “Feeling like we translate that to the games pretty good. Like, how we start the games and how much we skate. Then when you get these wins, the confidence gets higher.”

“I think there’s no quit,” Alex DeBrincat added. “We give up that late goal (to make it 4-4), and our PK does a great job, and obviously Berggy scores after that. We’re not getting down on the bench when we have a momentum swing. We just keep working to get that momentum back.”

McLellan noted an “attack mentality” for his team, playing off the goaltender’s pads to try and create rebounds and secondary chances, and the buy-in he’s gotten from players in doing so. He feels they’re spending less time in the defensive zone, which by definition tends to mean more opportunities the other way.

It’s everything you’d want to hear from a new coach, and the results have matched.

McLellan has already been quick to admit, however, that it’s still a “honeymoon” right now between him and his new players in Detroit. There’s a reason the new coach bump has its own name in the sports world, after all.

Continued (paywall), and the disappointment regarding Berggren’s game-winning goal in last night’s 5-4 win is palpable in the video below:

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton put the Wings’ resilient victory this way:

The Red Wings killed the penalty, and as it expired, a diving Tyler Motte swatted the puck through to send Jonatan Berggren—stepping out of the box, having served the two-minute minor—in for a breakaway.  Berggren scored his second breakaway in as many games with just 35 seconds left in regulation.  Detroit held on for a 5–4 victory, with Cam Talbot making 19 saves to backstop the victory.

In the end, it was messy, but unequivocally, the Red Wings figured out a way to win, and that’s what mattered most for a team in dire need of stockpiling points, a team that will now travel to Winnipeg for Saturday’s game with the Jets having taking six of its last possible six.