Author: George Malik

Today was supposed to be the day that Aunt Annie and I were going to pack up the car, pack up the aunt, and make the 250-mile journey to Traverse City to cover the Red Wings’ “Prospect Games” and training camp.

Instead, I’ve gone to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and now I’m back home for the weekend.

I guess I’m sort of grieving the trip after realizing that we weren’t going to raise enough funds to go to Traverse City this year.

There are definitely times that I’m angry, wondering whether my readers are sending a message that I’m simply unnecessary at this point, or unworthy of their support–which pisses me off–but I’m mostly in denial right now.

Real frustration and sadness will probably going to hit home on Saturday, when the Red Wings’ Prospect Games team takes to the ice for their morning skate at Centre ICE Arena, ahead of a pair of games against Dallas Stars prospects on Saturday and Sunday, and I’m not in the cold, crisp atmosphere of the rink.

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted a rather stock preview of the Red Wings’ Prospect Games this weekend:

The Wings roster is highlighted by first-round picks from each of the last two NHL Entry Drafts — center Nate Danielson (2023; ninth overall) and right wing Michael Brandsegg-Nygard (2024; 15th overall). Chances are slim that either will make the Wings’ opening night roster, but a good start this weekend will likely mean more preseason games and chances to be evaluated by the front office and coaching staff.

Defenseman Shai Buium (2021; second round), who recorded 36 points, 29 assists and a plus-33 rating in 43 games at Denver to help the program win its second NCAA national championship in three seasons, as well as center Emmitt Finnie (2023; seventh round), who led the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers with 59 points and 40 assists in 62 games before making his professional debut in Grand Rapids last spring, are on the squad.

Also of note on the roster is center Ondrej Becher (2024; third round), who had 96 points and 64 assists in 58 regular-season games to go along with 19 points and 14 assists in 15 playoff games with the WHL’s Prince George Cougars, and right wing Jakub Rychlovsky, an undrafted free agent who signed with the Wings in June after leading Czechia’s top pro league with 26 goals last season.

Continued (paywall)

The Hockey News’s Rory Boylen has posted his first set of power rankings for the 2024-2025 season ahead of training camps starting for NHL teams, and there’s not all that much to say about his blurb on the Red Wings:

18. Detroit Red Wings: The Wings surged forward to compete for a playoff spot, but this is where we find how out much gas is left in the tank to fuel the Winged Wheel higher. First things first: get Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider signed.

Continued; the Red Wings had some significant offseason additions and subtractions, and whether the additions outweigh the subtractions is a big talking point; there is the goaltending situation to be rectified; and yes, Raymond and Seider need to be re-signed…

And I guess 18th is representative of where the Wings finished last season.

Bleacher Report’s Joe Yerdon issues “1 reason for every NHL team to be optimistic” with about a month to go before the NHL’s 2024-2025 regular season begins:

Detroit Red Wings

Eventuality

Fans in Detroit have been patiently waiting for GM Steve Yzerman to put it all together to get the Red Wings back to the playoffs. And it’s got to come together now, right?

Dylan Larkin was the guy who made it all go. Patrick Kane arrived and found a way to turn back the clock and pile up points. Alex DeBrincat’s homecoming was everything they thought it could be. Lucas Raymond exploded last season and was brilliant. Moritz Seider showed he can handle the weight of being a No. 1 defenseman so young.

Now they’ve got Vladimir Tarasenko reuniting with Kane after winning his second Stanley Cup and Cam Talbot signed on to solidify their goaltending. It has to work now because there are so many question marks with many of the other teams in the Eastern Conference and they showed last season for a good chunk of it that, yes, they can be a playoff-caliber team.

It’s got to happen eventually, and maybe eventually is right now.

Continued; it doesn’t have to happen this season, but it has to happen soon.

DobberProspects’ Ben Gehrels discusses the Red Wings’ top prospects this morning, offering assessments of the Red Wings’ likely NHL graduates, their turning-pro players, a rising prospect and a falling prospect as he offers a “top 20” prospects list:

Graduating Players: Minors to NHL

Jonatan Berggren, LW/RW

Berggren, 24, definitively proved his NHL readiness last season in the minors, leading Grand Rapids (AHL) in points with 56—a total nearly 20 points higher than his nearest teammate. He also led the team in shots (2.9 per game), which suggests he will provide help in that category unlike many smaller playmaking winger types. He also racked up a healthy number of penalty minutes, surprisingly tying for second on the team in PIMs, so he is clearly not afraid to mix things up. 

With Berggren’s 19 PPP representing 20% of the team’s total production with the man advantage last year, the Griffins’ power play will need to find a new engine next year. Berggren is going to be sticking with the Red Wings full time in 2024-25. Even if he kicks off the year playing down the lineup, do not be surprised to see the skilled Swede ascend into the top six before the end of the year. Dobber has his upside at 82 points in the Guide, higher than many top prospects. Point-per-game upside with a very short timeline.

Simon Edvinsson, LHD

Although he spent most of the year with the Griffins, Edvinsson played the final 14 games of the year with Detroit on the bottom pair with Jeff Petry. While on paper it may seem like he did not progress much in his second AHL campaign, he posted slight increases all across the board— points, shots, PPP, and plus/minus—suggesting he had a greater overall impact on the game and is figuring out how to drive play at the pro level. 

His NHL audition in 2023-24 showed that Edvinsson has a real shot at being a prized asset in multi-cat formats. He put up over 1.5 hits and blocks per game and broke even in terms of driving play (49% expected even-strength goal share), demonstrating that he is ready for a larger role on this team. Like Berggren, his time is now.

Continued; good stuff here.

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed an early-morning article which discusses whether the Red Wings will be able to make the playoffs if they earn 91 or fewer points this upcoming season, the same number of points that they posted last year:

What’s it going to take for the Red Wings to end their eight-year postseason drought? More than 91 points, history shows.

The Washington Capitals earned the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with 91 points in 2023-24, the lowest total for a playoff qualifier in the East, excluding the COVID-shortened seasons of 2019-20 and 2020-21, since the NHL realigned to four divisions and moved Detroit to the East in 2013-14.

The Capitals also compiled the most points for a final playoff team when they accumulated 100 in 2021-22.

In nine full seasons under the current alignment, the average point total for the final wild card club in the East is 95.6.

So, chances are, after their 11-point improvement last season, the Red Wings will need to increase that total by four or five points to get in.

Continued (paywall)

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the impasses between the Red Wings’ management and restricted free agents Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider this morning, wondering aloud whether the players might miss part or all of the Red Wings’ training camp:

Nothing leaks from the front office of general manager Steve Yzerman, and when asked last month, all coach Derek Lalonde said was he wasn’t worried. There’s also Chris Ilitch to consider, as ownership tends to have to approve big deals.

The way Raymond, 22, played in the final stretch last season certainly helped his argument. He figures to slot in around $7.5 million.

The Wings would prefer not to pay anyone more than the $8.7 million salary cap hit of captain Dylan Larkin, but Seider is a 23-year old defenseman who won the Calder Trophy in 2022. He plays in all situations – as Yzerman said in April: “We’re asking him to do a lot.”

And that’s why Seider can ask a lot as he segues from his entry-level deal ($863,334 annually for the past three years) to one that will make him a multimillionaire. The Buffalo Sabres are paying 24-year-old Rasmus Dahlin $11 million per year and Owen Power, who is 21, is about to start a seven-year contract with an $8.35 million cap hit.

Seider has not missed a game since entering the NHL, with his streak reaching 246 games. During that run, he has 21 goals and 113 assists; 53 of his 134 points have come during power plays. This season, he reached a career high with nine goals among 42 points; he was also the only NHL player with at least 200 blocks and 200 hits. Dahlin has 185 points in 239 career games.

St. James comes to a logical conclusion:

There’s still time for the Wings to get deals done. They’ve been negotiating for months, but as camp arrives and then the exhibition season, the urgency is going to grow. The Wings want to be competitive, and that’s not happening without Seider and Raymond in the lineup.

I posted a scouting report regarding the players taking part in the Red Wings’ Prospect Games against Dallas this weekend, and this morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the free agent invites:

Among this group are right-wingers Borya Valis (Prince George, WHL), Charlie Paquette (Guelph, OHL) and Dylan Edwards (Erie, OHL), centers Chase Lefebvre (Peterborough, OHL) and Brayden Edwards (Lethbridge, WHL). Defensemen Matthew Virgilio (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL), Bauer Dumanski (Prince George, WHL) John Van Mulligen (Medicine Hat, WHL), Blake Smith (Flint, OHL), Marcus Kearsey (Charlottetown, QMJHL) and Zack Sandhu (Oshawa, OHL) are other free agents coming to rookie camp.

If you’ve got an eagle eye and a sharp memory, you’ll recall that Lefebvre, Paquette, Valis, Kearsey, Smith and both of the Edwards boys were participating in the Red Wings July development camp.

Both Valis and Dumanski were WHL teammates of Red Wings 2024 third-round draftee Ondrej Becher last season with the Prince George Cougars.

Los Angeles-born Denver resident Valis was acquired last season in a trade with the Regina Pats. “Valis is an offensive player that has a nose for the net,” former Red Wings forward Mark Lamb, coach/GM of the Cougars, told the Prince George Citizen.

Dumanski is the type of defender with the necessary skills to work the back end in the current pro game. “His puck movement skills are what you need to be effective in today’s game,” Cougars scouting director Bob Simmonds told the Prince George Citizen.

Continued; this one’s worth your time.

Of brief prospect-related note early this morning:

1. NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale examined one player to watch for every team taking part in a prospect tournament/showcase/set of games this upcoming weekend. He gives Nate Danielson his nod as the Wings’ prospect to watch…

Traverse City Prospects Tournament

Nate Danielson, F, Detroit Red Wings: There’s a professionalism and determination about Danielson that has the Red Wings excited about his future with the organization. The 19-year-old right-handed shot (6-2, 185), selected No. 9 in the 2023 draft, will likely play this season in Grand Rapids (AHL). Blackhawks center Connor Bedard, who won the Calder Trophy last season, called Danielson the most difficult player to skate against in his draft class. Danielson plays every situation and has shown consistent success on face-offs.

Emil Hemming, F, Dallas Stars: The 18-year-old right wing (6-2, 205), chosen No. 29 in the 2024 draft, will play for Barrie of the OHL after scoring 11 points (seven goals, four assists) and averaging 10:04 of ice time in 40 games last season with TPS in Liiga, Finland’s top professional men’s league. He’s a sniper, a good physical presence, hard to knock off the puck and has a willingness to work in the dirty areas of the ice to create offense.

And Red Wings prospect and University of Notre Dame forward Brennan Ali was among a slate of NHL-drafted players who spoke about the experiences of attending summer development camps with FightingIrish.com:

A 2022 Detroit Red Wings draft pick, Brennan Ali has also spent the previous three summers attending development camps in Michigan. He shared a similar sentiment, “I feel like camp can be a grind, but you’re ready for it because you’ve been at Notre Dame, which is very academically and athletically challenging as well as being very regimented, you’re very scheduled, so you’re ready for that grind because you’ve experienced it before.”

…

Through all the mental battles and hard work the draftees were competing and training with other players in the same boat as them. Players on other college teams or playing in European or Canadian leagues, all with the goal of playing for an NHL team.   

“It’s pretty eye opening how detailed and hard working a lot of the other players are,”  Ali said of his Red Wings peers. “Everyone has a mutual respect for one another because we all know how much work we’ve put in to be there and you know that everyone else is putting in just as much work as you, so we all understand that we all deserve to be there.”

Former Grand Rapids Griffins forward Tyler Spezia has chosen to continue his professional hockey career by signing with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, and Spezia spoke to the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe about rejoining the ECHL team:

“I’m excited,” said Spezia, who re-signed with the Walleye last week. “My last taste of meaningful playoff hockey was when we lost in 2018-19 to Newfoundland in the Kelly Cup Finals. So that was a big thing. I want to play meaningful games on a good team and compete for a championship. There’s no better place to do that than in Toledo.”

Spezia, a native of Clinton Township, Mich., had played the past four seasons for Toledo’s American Hockey League affiliate in Grand Rapids after splitting time between the organizations in his first two years of pro hockey. He hopes the next stage of his career ends with an on-ice celebration.

“It’s not really any shocker that’s the focus from day one here,” Spezia said. “Although you do need a lot to go right to get yourself in that position — it definitely looks like we’ve got the team to do it.

“The last two years, it’s been in the back of my mind coming back here. Toledo was great to me, and I loved it there. When you’re not enjoying the game as much as you had in the past, you go back to when it was really fun. That’s the mindset. I want to enjoy it and be on a good team. It’s almost going back to your roots.”

Continued