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!

Lalonde, DeBrincat believe the Wings will be ‘ready to go’ come Thursday evening

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills took note of comments made by coach Derek Lalonde and forward Alex DeBrincat after today’s practice at the BELFOR Training Center underneath Little Caesars Arena:

The Red Wings will have two more practice days before the Penguins come to town. Lalonde said now having a little more roster clarity will help the club prepare for Thursday’s season opener.

“Unique schedule in that we played six [preseason] games in six days, going two teams and we tried to ramp up practice by design,” Lalonde said. “We asked a lot of these guys throughout the exhibition [schedule], especially the games. We were tired in some of those games and unfortunately, it probably showed. But now, I wouldn’t call it a full reset because we’re building off camp, there’s a little time to refocus.”

Alex DeBrincat said he feels the team is in a good spot, but there’s still plenty of work to be done.

“We’ve been practicing really hard, competing out there,” DeBrincat said. “A couple of our preseason games weren’t up to par with our compete. Obviously it’s a lot of timing out there, stuff like that. I thought the last [exhibition] game was pretty good, and in practice we’ve been competing a lot. We should be ready for Game 1.”

DeBrincat also noted it will be important for the Red Wings to get back to what helped them be successful last season.

“When we’re working hard, we’re a good team,” DeBrincat said. “There’s stretches when we get away from that. I think we can learn from last year and really buckle in this year. Be focused every game, and you can’t afford to lose any points.”

Continued; Detroit plays 3 games in 5 nights to open the regular season, hosting the Penguins and Predators, and then the Wings head to New York to play the Rangers. After a two-day break, the Wings host the Rangers and head to Nashville to wrap up their season series with Nashville, so those first five games are going to be difficult, and they’re going to come in a hurry.

THN’s Eargood helps explain the Red Wings’ salary cap gymnastics

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood did a very capable job of explaining some of the intricacies of the NHL’s salary cap as it applies to the Red Wings’ decisions to send Justin Holl down to the Grand Rapids Griffins (for now) and waive Austin Watson to send him to Grand Rapids tomorrow (for now).

Most of us are familiar with cap space as a year-long concept. If a player signs for $1 million, then a team is committing $1 million in cap space to them for the season. But cap hit is actually calculated by prorating the daily cap hit through however many days are left in the season. So long as a team doesn’t take advantage of long term injured reserve, whatever is left over to reach the salary cap is saved up as something called accrued cap space.

Accrued cap space is calculated with the formula: Projected Cap Space x (Total Days in the Season / Days Left in the Season). Accrued cap space is essentially saved up cap space that teams can use to afford bigger transactions later on. Let’s say a team comes in $2 million under the salary cap all season. By the 100th day of the 192-game season, they can spend $3.84 million and still be under the salary cap.

This accrued cap space is very useful. It allows teams to acquire players at the trade deadline when they would otherwise come in over the salary cap. Blogger Brett Lee broke this down well in a Substack post in 2023. I highly recommend you read his work.

So what does this have to do with Justin Holl? The Red Wings save $1.15 million in cap relief by sending him down to the AHL. On a daily basis, that is $5,989.58 in daily cap savings. This money, accumulated over however long he isn’t with the NHL team, can be used to pay the remaining cap hit later on a potential acquisition. Detroit already needed to send him down to clear the roster space to sign Watson without exceeding the 23-man roster limit. Now that he has cleared, there is no incentive to call him up early because Detroit is saving up cap space to use later each day he is on the AHL books.

Cap space is also accrued by not calling up a player to fill that 23rd roster spot that Watson’s AHL assignment opens up. And as Detroit already has the players for its opening night roster in place, there is no reason to fill that space with a player who won’t play. The open roster spot allows the Red Wings to make appropriate moves in the future — calling up Holl, Watson or even rookie Marco Kasper — while still accruing cap space.

These moves are all about flexibility — both for the usage of Holl, the usage of the final roster spot and the usage of accrued cap space later on.

Continued; good stuff here.

Coach Lalonde believes that the Red Wings have three capable goaltenders

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an expansive notebook article which discusses Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s remarks today regarding the Red Wings’ 23-man roster, the state of the team’s goaltending, and more.

Here’s what coach Lalonde had to say about the Wings’ three-goaltender rotation…

“We’re going with three, and three in a positive way,” Lalonde said. “By that, I mean you saw all three guys had very good camps. Good to excellent sometimes. All three had good camps and I’d be confident in playing any of the three.”

Lalonde did not disclose who the Wings’ starter will be against Pittsburgh.

“We’ll decide that, but again, that’s a good problem in that we came into camp with a blank slate and hoping someone could show us he could help us on night one,” Lalonde said. “The positive is all three have done so in camp.”

Having gone through the three-goalie situation once, the Wings have a better feel on how to divide the workload in practice and games this season.

“(It was) complicated last year because it was new, and finding the proper reps and giving guys what they need (in reps) and keeping guys sharp was a challenge,” Lalonde said. “We learned and have some experience from it. We’ve learned how to manage the games and managing practice so we’re a little better equipped with it this year.”

Continued (paywall); I have figured that the Wings will be working with a three-goaltender rotation for the first 10-15 games, but it’s entirely possible that the Wings will stick with all three goaltenders for the entirety of the regular season. We’ll see.

Update: Here’s a bit more from Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

As it turned out, everyone is a winner in Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde’s “blank slate” goaltending competition.

“We’re going with three and three in a positive way,” Lalonde said. “All three guys had very good camps. Anywhere from good to some excellent at times. We’ll start with three and it’s not a real clear picture. All three had good camps and we’d be confident in playing any one of the three.”

In other words, he’s not ready to name a starting goalie for the Red Wings’ home opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday at Little Caesars Arena.

“A good problem,” Lalonde said. “We came into this talking about a blank slate. We came in hoping someone could show us they could help us win on night one and the positive is all three did.”

Ville Husso was probably the most impressive goalie, throwing up a 43-save effort against to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins on the road, and then putting up a 30-save effort Saturday in a 3-2 loss to the Maple Leafs Saturday in Toronto. But Cam Talbot and Alex Lyon also had their moments in the preseason.

Reprise Three Goalies

This is the second consecutive season the Red Wings are carrying three goalies, and are open to using all of them. Last season, Husso, Lyon and James Reimer all had time as the interim starter.

“I wouldn’t say it was complicated last year,” Lalonde said. “it was new, in finding proper reps in giving guys what they need and keeping guys sharp was a challenge. I think we learned and have some experience from it. Last year was a little different in that Alex probably came into camp as a little bit of a distant No. 3 and carried our team during a stretch there.

Husso’s preseason was probably the most important occurrence because he was coming off an injury that prevented him from playing a full game after December.

“He had a little extra load and that was by design and he handled it very well,” Lalonde said. “There were some question marks with Ville, physically coming into the preseason and within his three games he answered those questions.”

Tweet of note: what the Holl?

Well, there’s this from MLive’s Ansar Khan:

Austin Watson’s likely to head to GR due to the Wings’ ‘fluid roster’ situation

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen explains that Red Wings signee Austin Watson has been waived for the express purposes of placing him with the Grand Rapids Griffins–for now:

Right wing Watson came to the Red Wings’ training camp on Professional Tryout Offer (PTO) and earned a place in the organization. He gained everyone’s attention by record 12 hits in a preseason 2-1 road win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“We’re excited to have him in our organization,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “I think with all of our moves here, it’s kind of fluid. I think it’s today’s NHL with where you are in the cap. We’re trying to maximize your roster, so it might look clean today as in who’s here and who’s not. It’s something we’re working through.  We’re going to start with 12 forwards in Detroit, so that might have him spending some time in Grand Rapids to start.”

Continued

Tweet of note: On Brandsegg-Nygard’s decision to play in the SHL

Updated at 4:05 PM: Of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard related note from The Athletic’s Max Bultman and Norran.se’s Robin Lindgren:

No surprise at this translation, given that Brandsegg-Nygard spent all summer telling the Swedish and Norwegian press that his first choice, should he not make the NHL, was to head back to Skelleftea:

Yesterday, Sunday, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård was told by Steve Yzerman that they wanted to keep him in the AHL, but “MBN” and his agent are said to have insisted on playing in the SHL.

“Skellefteå has a very good team and it is better for my development to play in the SHL”

It was ultimately Brandsegg-Nygard’s decision, and he made the right one for himself.

Update: From IceHockeyGifs:

Continue reading Tweet of note: On Brandsegg-Nygard’s decision to play in the SHL

PuckPedia posts the Red Wings’ 23-man roster breakdown, cap space

Per PuckPedia on Twitter:

Red Wings submit 23-man roster, sending Holl to Grand Rapids

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

Red Wings reduce 2024 roster to 23

Detroit to begin 99th season in franchise history on Thursday, Oct. 10 with home game against Pittsburgh Penguins at 7:00 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today assigned forwards Sheldon Dries and Joe Snively, and defensemen Justin Holl, William Lagesson and Brogan Rafferty to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins.

The roster moves bring the Red Wings to a 23-man roster, consisting of 13 forwards, seven defensemen and three goaltenders. The Red Wings will begin their 99th season in franchise history on Thursday, Oct. 10 with a home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at 7:00 p.m. at Little Caesars Arena.

We may assume that Austin Watson will be assigned to Grand Rapids tomorrow.

Tweet of note: Walleye have hired a goaltending coach

Per the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

Also: