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!

Press release: Red Wings re-sign Jonatan Berggren to 1-year, $825,000 deal

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

RED WINGS RE-SIGN JONATAN BERGGREN TO ONE-YEAR CONTRACT

  … 2018 Second-Round Pick Has Recorded 34 Points in 79 Games with Detroit …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today re-signed right wing Jonatan Berggren to a one-year contract with an average annual value of $825,000.

Berggren, 24, skated in 12 games with the Red Wings during the 2023-24 season, recording six points (2-4-6) and two penalty minutes. The 5-foot-11, 194-pound forward also played in 53 games with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins in 2023-24 and ranked among the team leaders with 24 goals (1st), 32 assists (1st), 56 points (1st), 58 penalty minutes (T2nd), four power play goals (T3rd), 19 power play points (1st), four game-winning goals (T1st), 156 shots (2nd) and a 15.4 shooting percentage (1st), representing the club at the 2024 AHL All-Star Classic. Additionally, Berggren led the Griffins with 10 points (5-5-10) in nine postseason contests, including a pair of overtime goals in the Central Division Semifinals against the Rockford IceHogs. Berggren spent the majority of the 2022-23 season with the Red Wings and placed among the team leaders with 15 goals (5th), 28 points (9th), five power play goals (T4th), nine power play points (7th) and a 15.3 shooting percentage (1st) in 67 games. He also registered seven points (4-3-7) in seven appearances with the Griffins in 2022-23. Selected by the Red Wings in the second round (33rd overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, Berggren has collected 34 points (17-17-34) and 18 penalty minutes in 79 career NHL games. He has also logged 127 points (49-78-127) and 84 penalty minutes in 130 AHL games with the Griffins since 2021-22.

Prior to arriving in North America, Berggren played for Skellefteå AIK in the Swedish Hockey League, tying for the team lead with 45 points (12-33-45) in 49 games during the 2020-21 campaign, in addition to four assists in 12 postseason contests. In all, Berggren notched 60 points (14-46-60), a plus-seven rating and 28 penalty minutes in 99 games with Skellefteå AIK in Sweden’s top professional league from 2017-21. Berggren also registered 69 points (24-45-69), a plus-19 rating and 42 penalty minutes in 67 career games for Skellefteå’s under-20 team from 2016-18. The Uppsala, Sweden, native represented his country at the 2023 IIHF World Championship, tallying seven points (2-5-7), a plus-five rating and two penalty minutes in eight games. Berggren earned a bronze medal at the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship, recording five points (1-4-5) in seven games. He captured a bronze medal with Sweden at the 2018 IIHF World Under-18 Championship after leading the team with 10 points (5-5-10) in seven games, and also won bronze after picking up five points (3-2-5) in five games at the 2017 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. Additionally, Berggren won a gold medal with Sweden during the 2016 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, tallying three points (2-1-3) in six games.

Praise for Carter Gylander

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen profiles Red Wings prospect goaltender Carter Gylander this morning:

Carter Gylander (pronounced GUY-Lander) stopped 29 of 30 shots (.967 save percentage) to help the Red Wings down the Dallas Stars twice in their NHL Prospect Series. The Alberta native owned a 0.67 goals-against average for 90-plus minutes of work in the series.

Here is the scoring summary for the two games of the series.

The Red Wings signed Gylander, 23, after he played four seasons at Colgate.  At 6-foot-5, 195 pounds, Gylander has a similar body type to Cossa. Both are tall and thin.

“I thought he had a great game and a half, to be honest with you,” the prospect team coach Dan Watson said. “He played aggressive (Sunday). He saw a lot more action to what he did last night. So for him to be able to put together four and a half really, really solid periods is good for him. You know, he got a little bit of a taste last year in the Grand Rapids, some practice time. So I think he was maybe a little bit ahead of the curve there. But I think overall very pleased with his outings. ”

Continued; Gylander has a ways to go, but his steady style and massive size are encouraging.

Some final Prospect Games thoughts

The Red Wings’ “Prospect Games” against the Dallas Stars are over, and, after issuing “Player Takes” regarding both Saturday’s 5-1 victory and Sunday’s 3-2 win over the Stars’ prospects, I’d like to wrap things up with a reassessment of my initial prospect games roster breakdown.

I need to qualify all of this with an obvious caveat: these observations are based upon only two games’ worth of prospect-vs-prospect games, and nothing more…


And one of the most painful parts of not being able to go to training camp is that I won’t be able to see which prospects continue to impress against NHL competition, and which prospects end up falling off the radar screen. It’s inevitable that some prospects will shine, and others will struggle, and witnessing that process in-person is a fascinating endeavor that will be sorely missed this year.

Life takes us in disparate directions, however, so here’s the best I can offer:

Continue reading Some final Prospect Games thoughts

Tweet of note: Red Wings are asking fans to choose an alumni bobblehead: Larionov, Hull or Ciccarelli

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

Profiling Amadeus Lombardi

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills posted a profile of Red Wings prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins center Amadeus Lombardi this morning:

After spending his 2023-24 season with the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, and with all the work he put in this summer, Amadeus Lombardi feels stronger and more confident as he prepares for the upcoming campaign.

“Last year was a huge adjustment, just with the speed and physicality,” Lombardi said after Saturday’s 2024 NHL Prospect Games opener. “You have so much less time and space (in the AHL), but I adapted to that. Coming back here, it’s obviously good for my confidence. I feel stronger out there, being able to make plays. It’s just nice to round out my game before camp.”

Last season, Lombardi ranked third among Griffins rookies with 26 points (five goals, 21 assists) in 70 games. The 21-year-old forward also played in eight Calder Cup Playoff contests, scoring one goal.

“He’s starting to want more now,” Detroit Red Wings Assistant Director of Player Development Dan Cleary said about Lombardi. “He’s going to get some preseason games. He got a taste in his first year and he’s gotten stronger. He’s got the new haircut, a little bulked up.”

Reflecting on his first full professional hockey campaign, Lombardi said he quickly learned how demanding the daily grind of the AHL is.

“You’re playing 72 games,” Lombardi said. “They are hard, very defensive. You don’t have a lot of time and space. A big adjustment for me was being smart with the puck at the right time.”

Continued; good stuff here.

Friedman on Raymond, Seider and the Wings’ ‘internal cap’

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman has posted his first 2024-2025 season version of “32 Thoughts” (as well as a podcast with Kyle Bukauskas today) sand here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings’ restricted free agents:

The Detroit Free Press reported the Red Wings want to keep Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider below Dylan Larkin’s $8.7M. I see the rationale from their perspective: Larkin signed his contract right before becoming an unrestricted free agent, while the current duo are still restricted. I don’t believe that will be a problem in Raymond’s case, as his comparables (ranging from Seth Jarvis to Tim Stutzle) are lower than Larkin.

I had heard of some progress with Raymond, but nothing is done until it’s done. If Seider and the Wings opt for maximum term, the defender would argue to eclipse the Red Wings’ captain. Yzerman has made it clear he is not crazy about term. I don’t know how he feels about this specific case, but some teams are trying to lock up core players before the cap is expected to jump in 2026-27 — just as some agents are wary of signing long-term deals that look tiny if the anticipated rises occur.

Seider has been skating with Dallas Eakins’ Adler Mannheim club and Raymond has joined them from time to time.

Continued; Seider is from Mannheim, so he’s working with the Adler right now; as previously noted, Raymond is mostly working with his brother in Gothenburg, Sweden, as reported by GP.se’s Johan Rylander.

Both players have said that they’re not coming over to North America until their contracts are signed, which puts pressure on the Wings’ management to re-sign them by the time that the regular season arrives on Thursday, October 10th.

That’s really the cut-off date in terms of “success or failure” for the Wings’ management team–they need to incorporate Raymond and Seider back into the Wings’ machine by the start of the regular season, so I would not be surprised at all if one or both players miss training camp due to increasing pressure to cut the best deals possible by their agents.

Ultimately, Raymond’s agent, J.P. Barry, and Seider’s agent, Claude Lemieux, will work out the details with Steve Yzerman and company over the next couple of weeks.

Bultman’s Prospect Games observations include Brandsegg-Nygard’s future

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers a six-part series of observations regarding the Red Wings’ Prospect Games this morning, including the following about Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s eventual playing destination (Skelleftea AIK of the SHL? The Grand Rapids Griffins? Or even the Red Wings?):

[Red Wings assistant director of player development Dan] Cleary left that open-ended, saying general manager Steve Yzerman would ultimately make that decision and that it would be a great experience for him either way — whether he’s in Skellefteå or North America.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Cleary said. “Obviously he’s going to play some preseason games and get a feel, and we’re just going to sit back and watch. … You’re going to be able to see how he looks. He’s got the strength, he’s got the maturity, it’s not easy to step in and play. So we’ll see how things go.”

I asked Brandsegg-Nygård where he’d like to be, and his answer was unsurprising:

“I mean, I would like to be (with) the Detroit Red Wings,” he said with a laugh. “But I have no idea what’s going to happen, and I’m just going to do my best and hope for the best and just see what happens.”

For what it’s worth, I got the sense that if it’s not Detroit, Brandsegg-Nygård might prefer to play in Sweden this season. But that decision will ultimately come after the preseason, and he’s got plenty of opportunity now to show the organization what he can do, regardless of where he spends the season.

He wants to show coaches that he can play in tight, in late-game situations, and up or down a goal, to go along with his physicality and shot.

Continued (paywall); Brandsegg-Nygard said repeatedly this summer that he wants to play for Skelleftea AIK this upcoming season, but he may change his mind depending on how training camp goes–and the Red Wings may persuade MBN to play in North America if they feel that doing so would be best for his development.

At this point, all options really are on the table, and the Red Wings are going to take their time making a decision (read: by playing Brandsegg-Nygard in several exhibition games).

Some folks already think that the AHL would be the best destination for MBN; I’m not so certain about that, but the Red Wings signed him to control his playing future, and now they have the ability to determine what fit is best for the budding power forward.

Wednesday’s ‘Season Preview Party’ is the next training camp event for the Red Wings’ personnel

The Detroit Red Wings’ players and executives will either board team buses or drive themselves up to Traverse City on Wednesday, and after they arrive, the Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that the Wings will do some socializing for charity:

The Red Wings will open training camp with a season preview party Wednesday at Delamar Traverse City. The new event provides guests with opportunities to meet Red Wings players, coaches and personalities, and hear directly from team leadership ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Hosted by Red Wings TV broadcasters Ken Daniels and Mickey Redmond, the party also features a silent and live auction, as well as a VIP package that includes an exclusive meet and greet with Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman and head coach Derek Lalonde, and reserved seating with a Red Wings player for the season preview show. Proceeds from the event benefit Involved Citizens Enterprises (I.C.E.), a 501©3 non-profit organization providing affordable skating programs to Northern Michigan.

Tickets to the event start at $200 per person, which includes two drink tickets and two tickets to the opening day of training camp. The VIP package starts at $600 per person, with discounts for purchases of four tickets ($2,000 total), eight ($3,750) or 12 for $5,000. VIP packages include two drink tickets at the party, two tickets to opening day of training camp, two club-level tickets to a Red Wings home game. Full details are available at centreice.org/drwseasonpreviewparty.