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!

Brandsegg-Nygard’s return to Skelleftea is big news in Sweden

The Red Wings’ decision to send Michael Brandsegg-Nygard back to Sweden is big news there, and Aftonbladet’s Jonathan Pinhiero Diamant and Tomas Ros spoke with MBN’s European agent about the move:

Brandsegg-Nygard is the first Norwegian to ever be drafted in the first round. Now he comes to a Skelleftea team that has started the SHL season well, and is in second place.

“He did a great camp and they were super happy with him. Several good games against NHL resistance,” his agent, Andreas Johansson, told Sportbladet.

He also tells us that there will not be a game on Thursday against Rogle, but hopefully against Timra two days later.

“Now he’s ready to play with Skelleftea AIK this season. There won’t be a game on Thursday, but we aim for Saturday,” Johansson said.

Justin Holl, gone but not forgotten

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman and Harman Dayal discuss 10 notable players on the waiver wire, and they include this assessment of Red Wings defenseman Justin Holl, who was waived at 2 PM today:

Justin Holl, RHD, Detroit Red Wings

Holl established himself as a competent No. 5 quality defender during his tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He was a whipping boy at times for making loud, costly mistakes but his overall body of work wasn’t bad. Holl offered size (6-foot-4) and genuinely excellent penalty-killing ability and wasn’t even half-bad at moving the puck according to manually tracked data. Right-shot defensemen with that profile are desirable, but the Red Wings went too far and overpaid him last summer on a three-year contract with a $3.4 million cap hit. Holl has been a disappointment in Detroit. The Red Wings had a logjam of bottom-of-the-lineup defensemen and Holl became a frequent healthy scratch. The 32-year-old is still a bona fide NHL quality player, but with two years left on a bloated contract, it’d be surprising if a team rolls the dice on him.

Continued (paywall); Holl will probably be recalled at some point this season, given that injuries are inevitable on the Wings’ roster. I just don’t know if he’s going to re-earn a regular spot.

At this point, it looks like either a trade with salary retention on the Wings’ part or a buy-out this summer are the options for Holl as Detroit will only receive $1.15 million in cap relief for Holl playing in the AHL.

Some quick thoughts on the Red Wings’ initial roster

The Red Wings have waived 5 players and cut their preseason roster down to 28 players, yielding a 23-man roster for the team.

The team both demoted Marco Kasper to Grand Rapids, and they sent Michael Brandsegg-Nygard to the place he wanted to play, Skelleftea AIK of the SHL, instead of assigning the 19-year-old to Grand Rapids.

Pro try-out Austin Watson remains on that 28-man roster, and Shai Buium and Tim Gettinger are injured and not on the roster presently.

Here’s what the roster looks like now. Assuming that all the Wings’ waiver wire players clear or are picked up by other teams (that is always a possibility), the team will be down to 23 players and cap compliant when the team has to submit its opening-night roster by tomorrow at 5 PM EDT.

Here’s the roster, with the waiver claims on board:

Continue reading Some quick thoughts on the Red Wings’ initial roster

Press release: Red Wings trim roster to 28 players, send Kasper to GR, Brandsegg-Nygard to Skelleftea AIK

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS TRIM PRESEASON ROSTER TO 28

  … 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 Nate Danielson, Cross Hanas, Marco Kasper, Carter Mazur and Elmer Söderblom, defensemen Tory Dello, Antti Tuomisto, Eemil Viro and William Wallinder, and goaltenders Sebastian Cossa and Carter Gylander to the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins. Additionally, the Red Wings have loaned forward Michael Brandsegg-Nygård to Skellefteå AIK of the Swedish Hockey League.

The Red Wings currently have 28 players on their training camp roster: 15 forwards, 10 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.

Here’s the Griffins’ version:

Continue reading Press release: Red Wings trim roster to 28 players, send Kasper to GR, Brandsegg-Nygard to Skelleftea AIK

PuckPedia: Red Wings waive Holl, Lagesson, Rafferty, Snively, Dries

Per PuckPedia on Twitter:

That brings the Wings’ roster down from 41 to 36, should all players clear.

Red Wings waive Justin Holl

Per TSN’s Chris Johnston and Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman:

Update: MLive’s Ansar Khan estimates that the move will free up space to play Marco Kasper as a regular lineup player:

That could clear a roster spot for Kasper, the eighth overall pick in 2022 who’s had an outstanding training camp and preseason.

Kasper’s performance in Friday’s 4-3 preseason overtime loss to Ottawa might have factored into this decision. The two-way center scored a pair of goals in the first period and had at least two other terrific chances to complete the hat trick. He has also killed penalties during the preseason.

Starting Kasper, 20, on the NHL roster would give the Red Wings 13 forwards. He will only be on the team if he’s playing regularly. Otherwise, he would return to Grand Rapids. Kasper had 14 goals and 21 assists in 71 regular season games and four goals and three assists in nine playoff games with the Griffins last season, his first in the AHL.

Tweet of note: PuckPedia explains waiver options, should the Wings attempt to sign Austin Watson

Prior to today’s waiver wire frenzy, PuckPedia posted a Tweet which is notable.

It spells out the Red Wings’ options for signing Austin Watson to an NHL contract and then waiving him to send him to Grand Rapids on or before the NHL’s 23-man roster deadline of 5 PM on Monday, October 7th:

So now we know.

Praise for Lucas Raymond’s star power

The Hockey News’s Tony Ferrari lists four players which he believes will graduate from “star player” status to that of superstars, and Lucas Raymond is one of the players Ferrari believes will continue to blossom:

Detroit Red Wings: Lucas Raymond, LW

Late last season, Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin was injured and the team sputtered amidst a fight for their playoff lives. The team needed a hero and like Superman ripping open his shirt to reveal the ‘S’, Lucas Raymond burst into the spotlight and put this team on his back. Whether he was scoring late tying goals to push the game to overtime, a clutch hat trick, or dramatic game-winning goals, Raymond was consistently at the forefront of their success.

While the team came up just short of the playoffs, Raymond announced his arrival to the rest of the NHL. His 31 goals were second on the team and the 72 points led the Wings in scoring. Now that he’s secured the big contract that will keep him in Motown long-term, Raymond is poised to take the next step. Challenging 40 goals and 90 points isn’t out of the question for the cerebral Swedish star.

Continued; I don’t see Raymond achieving those heights points-wise, mostly because I believe that he’s going to be asked to be a good two-way player, but I think that he’s going to be a star player for a very long time. There is more for him to give–and the same is true for Moritz Seider.

‘Two sentences’ sum up the party line on the Red Wings’ status

Sportsnet’s Justin Bourne has posted an article in which he writes two sentences describing the expectations for every NHL team, and here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings: It’s actually strange to look back at last season and remember the Red Wings only missed the playoffs by a tiebreaker with Washington, as most of the time they seemed unthreatening and mostly just “OK” (which checks out when it comes to the final playoff spot in the East last year). Their off-season was defined by absolutely treading water with their in/out list, and retaining their good players, so they seem primed for…91 points again, maybe?

Continued; the Red Wings and their fan base believe that the team can improve. Everybody else believes they’re going to tread water at best, if not decline behind the respective rises of the Senators and Sabres.

It’s the Red Wings Vs. the World this season.

Did Ville Husso win the starter’s job?

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen discusses the performance of Ville Husso, who may or may not have won the Wings’ “open competition” for the #1 goaltender’s job over the course of the Red Wings’ preseason:

You can bet Husso feels like he won after posting a 2.28 goals-against average and .931 save percentage in three preseason games. Coming into training camp, Husso hadn’ t played a full NHL game since December.  Injuries undermined his season.

“It was a good summer doing stuff and I feel good to go,” Husso said earlier this week. “I’m confident.”

Over the past week, Husson turned in an impressive 43-save performance to post a 2-1 road win at Pittsburgh aond made 31 stops Saturday in a 3-2 loss at Toronto.

Cam Talbot, signed this summer as an unrestricted free agent, had a better GAA (2.05). However, his .911 save percentage couldn’t match Husso’s work. Alex Lyon, meanwhile, boasted a 2.57 and .903.  All three Detroit goalies showed well in the preaseason. Presumably, coaches will also be factor who each faced and how they looked in practice in determining their status. The season starts on Thursday.

The Red Wings are talking as if they are definitely keeping three goalies, as they did last season.  Regardless of who is designated as the early starter, it seems likely Lalonde will go with the hot goalie as the season progresses.  That’s what happened last season.

Continued; as Allen notes, the Red Wings also need to find a mentor for Sebastian Cossa, who currently has no veteran back-up in Grand Rapids. The Wings may sign a veteran goaltender as a result of Jack Campbell entering the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program.