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!

Quick quip: Yzerman doesn’t think Seider, Wings are ‘terribly far apart’

There will be much more from the Red Wings’ media corps regarding the press conferences held by Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman and recently re-signed forward Lucas Raymond as the day progresses, but this note from WXYZ’s sports department merits its own entry:

Detroit Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman spoke to the media ahead of training camp on Tuesday morning and addressed the contract negotiations with defenseman Mo Seider. Yzerman said that they hope to have a deal with Seider very soon.

“We continue to talk. I’m hopeful we can get a deal done at some point, sooner rather than later would be better for both parties. I don’t think we’re terribly far apart,” Yzerman said.

Seider, 23, has played in every game for the Red Wings over the past three seasons, scoring 21 goals and adding 113 assists, with an average of just under 23 minutes time on ice per game.

Also:

Raymond, 22 skated in all 82 games for the Red Wings last season and was second on the team in goals and assists with 31 goals and 41 assists respectively. His 72 points were the highest on the team.

“I think he’s just entering the early stages of his prime. I fully expect him to become a better hockey player for a couple reasons,” Yzerman said. “I think he’s an extremely drive, extremely bright player. His motivation and what not will continue to get better over the next few years.”

He also said there’s an expectation with these long-term deals that the player will take his game to another level.

Tweets of note from Lucas Raymond’s presser

Lucas Raymond spoke with the Red Wings’ media corps after signing an 8-year, $64.6 million contract yesterday evening. Here are the pertinent Tweets from his presser:

Talking about a DeBrincat resurgence from a fantasy hockey perspective

ESPN’s Sean Allen discusses the resurgence of potential “rebound” candidates from a fantasy hockey perspective, and he includes Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat in his list:

Alex DeBrincat, W, Detroit Red Wings (2021-23 FPPG: 2.15, last season FPPG: 1.85): As mentioned above already, DeBrincat has already had a bounce-back campaign on his resume, when he had a down season in 2019-20. He’s actually scored 27 goals for two consecutive seasons, but we know he can do closer to 40 if the circumstances are correct. Assuming the Red Wings sort things out with Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider as RFAs, this team will have more than one line of offense for opponents to think about and, hopefully, a more potent power play.

Verdict: I think DeBrincat gets a pass for a situational downturn in his first season with a not-so-hot Red Wings offense. Above 2.0 FPPG should be the expectation again.

Continued; Allen also believes that Vladimir Tarasenko may be a good pick for “Fantasy Points Per Game”:

Vladimir Tarasenko, W, Detroit Red Wings (2021-23 FPPG: 2.08, last season FPPG: 1.66): He didn’t earn fantasy roster spots last season, but should be heavily involved in the Red Wings top six for this coming campaign.

Tweets of note from Steve Yzerman’s pre-training camp presser

Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman spoke with the Detroit media this morning, and here are some Twitter-based highlights of his remarks:

Continue reading Tweets of note from Steve Yzerman’s pre-training camp presser

Video stream link: Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman to speak with the media at 10 AM EDT

Per the Red Wings’ YouTube channel:

Update: Per EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro:

Do the Red Wings lack ‘a certain je n’ais ce quoi?’

ESPN’s Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton ask “burning questions” for every NHL team this morning. Shilton takes care of the Eastern Conference’s “burning questions,” and she suggests that the Red Wings face a deficit of star power:

What — or who — will be the difference-maker?

The Red Wings have been missing … something. Despite good talent, a solid structure and, at times, long stretches of momentum last season, Detroit managed to fall just short when it mattered most. How will the Red Wings go about fixing that?

It starts with training camp. Detroit is expecting growth from its young players like Simon Edvinsson, Jonatan Berggren and Carter Mazur. Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko will need to play key roles as veterans on and off the ice. And other returning stars — led by captain Dylan Larkin — have to be better, too.

On the back end, the Red Wings could be minus one significant skater in Moritz Seider. He doesn’t have a contract yet (fellow RFA Lucas Raymond signed his new deal on Monday night), and that’s a potential distraction the Red Wings can’t afford to let derail their progress. Coach Derek Lalonde has enough to sort through as it is identifying how to get Detroit back into the postseason picture.

Continued; I don’t know whether the Red Wings need another star player as much as they need to sort out their goaltending and, once Moritz Seider’s signed, find a second-pair defender to spell Seider…

And Larkin, Raymond, Seider, Kane, et. al. tend to bust their asses when they’re on the ice. Can they all be a little better? Sure, I’ll buy that one. But without improvement from the rest of the roster, I’m not certain whether the Red Wings can satisfy the question as to whether the team can fulfill Shilton’s “je n’ais ce quoi.”

Roughly translated: Marco Kasper discusses his push to make the NHL

An article popped up in German wire services this morning regarding the NHL’s two star Austrian players in Red Wings forward Marco Kasper and Montreal Canadiens defenseman David Reinbacher. The article, which was found in Die Presse, offers two pertinent paragraphs, which offer a quote from Steve Yzerman and a quote from Kasper himself:

“Marco has gotten better and better over the course of the year. He has begun to develop more offensive play, especially in the playoffs. He is a really good two-way player, he drives to the goal, is strong on the puck. We are really satisfied with his development,” explained GM Steve Yzerman, who selected the Austrian 8th overall in the 2022 draft.

The opinion of the boss coincides with the self-assessment of the 20-year-old.

“In the beginning it was difficult to get in–the smaller ice surface, everything is a little bit faster. At the end of the season, I felt comfortable,” said Kasper.

His goal in the next few weeks is clearly defined.

“I want to play in the NHL, that’s what I’m working on,” the native of Carinthia said. For this, it’s important to work on many details.

“At a high level, these are small things. Becoming faster and more powerful, win battles in the corner, play better defensively” were the items Kasper included for improvement before training camp, which begins on Thursday.

More praise for Nate Danielson’s Prospect Games performance

Yesterday, The Athletic’s Max Bultman wrote a fine article regarding the Red Wings’ participants in the Prospect Games this past weekend, and this morning, The Athletic’s prospect experts combined their expertise to share a slate of standout players from each of the NHL’s various rookie tournaments.

Here’s what Bultman had to say about Red Wings prospect Nate Danielson, who definitely stood out from the pack at the Red Wings’ pair of games vs. the Dallas Stars:

Nate Danielson, C, Red Wings: The Traverse City “tournament” this year was really just a two-game set between Detroit and Dallas,  of which Detroit won both games largely on the strength of players who were already pros last year. But one notable exception was Danielson, whose skating and playmaking really stood out, particularly in the second game of the weekend. In the end, he finished with just one assist in two games, but he created a significant number of chances for himself and his teammates. The Red Wings will of course want to see that turn into more point production, and that’s been a trend for him the last couple seasons, but his impact on the game was still clear. He’ll be of considerable interest this preseason, after a strong exhibition showing for Detroit last fall. —Max Bultman

Continued; EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro suggested that Danielson’s NHL internship should begin this season. I’m not certain that the Wings will place Danielson in their “bottom six” (even if there is an inevitable injury suffered over the course of training camp or the exhibition season), but I do believe that Danielson will be recalled at some point, and at that juncture, he may end up “stealing a job.”

That’s really been GM Steve Yzerman’s bottom line regarding prospects–that they have to push out an NHL’er in order to earn a spot on the team. I don’t expect that to change for Nate Danielson, Marco Kasper, Carter Mazur, William Wallinder, Sebastian Cossa, etc.

Roughly translated: Raymond’s European agent weighs in

As noted last night, Red Wings executive VP of hockey operations Nicklas Lidstrom spoke with Expressen’s Gunnar Nordstrom regarding Lucas Raymond recently. Overnight, Nordstrom updated his article with comments from Raymond’s European agent, Peter Werner:

“Lucas is very happy that this became clear [was signed] and he can focus on what he wants, to win hockey games for the Detroit Red Wings,” said Raymond’s agent, Peter Werner at CAA Sports in Stockholm.

About the content of the agreement and high salary, Werner says this:

“The terms are good and reasonable given how he has performed.”

When will Lucas go to the United States and Detroit?

“It could be either day. Everything has happened at high speed, and now it’s about getting him over before training camp in Detroit that starts at the end of the week.”