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!

Tweet of note: Red Wings will stream tonight’s game vs. Toronto

Tonight’s exhibition finale against the Toronto Maple Leafs will air on TSN4 in Canada, and ESPN+ in the United States, but if you live in Michigan, you’ll be able to watch the game on DetroitRedWings.com:

Morning Khan: Marco Kasper’s almost ready to make the Wings’ roster

Marco Kasper scored two goals during the Red Wings’ 4-3 OT loss to the Ottawa Senators last night, and if you’ve watched Kasper play this preseason, you know that he’s transformed from a raw rookie to a player who is very close to making the Red Wings’ NHL roster.

This morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses Kasper’s journey over the past year:

“Just trying to get out there and work really hard to do the best you can,” Kasper said. “That’s what I’ve tried to do. I think that’s what everybody has tried to do. “Obviously, it’s always fun to score. Just trying to help the team win. And I think it’s always good to score for me, for everybody, for a team, just to get two quick goals. And now we got to work on keeping the lead, not losing games like that.”

Kasper’s added weight and got stronger in the offseason. It’s made a difference.

“I think just the confidence managing his game, puck play,” Lalonde said. “You guys saw last year; he looked like a deer in the headlights. He was turning pucks all over the place, opening himself up for hits. It’s a credit for him how much he’s developed in the year. Probably a credit to the guys in Grand Rapids. He had a really good camp and he’s an exciting player for us.”

Despite his strong camp, Kasper likely will start the season with the Griffins since the Red Wings have 12 waiver-exempt forwards ahead of him on the depth chart and injuries. He’ll get an opportunity to continue playing a big role in all situations and figures to be among the first recalls.

“Can use him in every situation,” Lalonde said. “Obviously, he wasn’t on the power play today, but I trust him on the penalty kill. Trust him in some face-offs.”

Continued; if you know the history of the 20-year-old Innsbruck native, you probably know by now that Kasper’s father, Peter, was a professional hockey player with EC-KAC of the Austrian league, and that Kasper inherited his father’s meticulous sense of preparedness and desire to self-improve.

Kasper may never be a 60-point scorer, but, like Nate Danielson and Carter Mazur, he looks like a player who has matured and gained mental and physical strength over the course of the summer, and as such, Kasper’s game is mature and well-rounded for his age. He’s also got a gritty edge to his game, and he doesn’t shy away from scrums or stopping at the front of the net to engage in battles for pucks.

Ultimately, Kasper’s going to serve the Red Wings very, very well as a second-line center in the future, and there’s no doubt that he and the aforementioned Danielson and Mazur will all be called up at some point this upcoming season because he’s “ready to go.”

Video: Max Plante appears on the ‘Bulldog Insider’ podcast

Red Wings prospect and University of Minnesota-Duluth forward Max Plante is playing with his brother, Zam, on the Bulldogs this upcoming season, and the Duluth News-Tribune’s Bulldog Insider podcast featured the two recently in an episode discussing the brothers as the main topic:

After two years apart, brothers Zam and Max Plante are back home in the Twin Ports, and roommates again. The Hermantown natives both moved away in 2022 to play hockey elsewhere following a win for the Hawks in the Minnesota Class A state championship game. Zam Plante went to Chicago, and later Fargo, to play in the United States Hockey League while younger brother, Max, moved to Plymouth, Michigan, to play for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program.

Prospect round-up: Captain Finnie scores 2 for Kamloops; Augustine stops 24 of 25 in MSU OT win

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in North America on Friday night:

In the OHL, Landon Miller served as the back-up in the Soo Greyhounds’ 4-2 win over the Guelph Storm;

In the WHL, Kamloops Blazers captain Emmitt Finnie scored 2 goals on 9 shots and went 8-for-15 on faceoffs as Kamloops lost 8-6 to the Vancouver Giants;

In the USHL, Rudy Guimond was the back-up in the Cedar Rapids Roughriders’ 4-2 win over the Youngstown Phantoms;

And in NCAA Hockey, Trey Augustine stopped 24 of 25 shots and Red Savage finished at -1 with 3 shots and a 4-for-9 faceoff record as the Michigan State University Spartans won 2-1 in overtime over Lake Superior State;

Kienan Draper finished even with an 8-and-4 faceoff record as the University of Michigan Wolverines lost 5-2 to Minnesota State.

Red Wings-Senators wrap-up: shaking out the demons

The Red Wings’ 4-3 overtime collapse to the Ottawa Senators on Friday did not count toward anything other than a 3-2-and-2 preseason record for a Red Wings team that will head to Toronto to wrap up an astonishing stretch of 8 games played over the course of 11 nights on Saturday (7 PM on ESPN+/TSN4).

Long story long, blowing 2-0 and 3-1 leads and surrendering a very ugly overtime goal don’t count for much. The Senators’ B Team getting away with trying to push around and out-work the Red Wings’ A- team doesn’t count.

Austin Watson taking a set of penalties that ended up placing the Red Wings on the penalty kill for 7 minutes doesn’t really matter…To anybody but coach Lalonde, anyway:

But this one stung, at least for those of us for whom the Senators have become a heated and sometimes hated rival. The Sens are the young punks of the Atlantic Division, and they seem to have an uncanny ability to vex and wreck the Red Wings.

The Senators’ press corps didn’t travel to Detroit, so the Senators’ website, the Hockey News’s Steve Warne and the Ottawa Sun’s Tim Baines provide recaps from the Sens’ side of things, and I’d argue that Baines’ recap offers the real bottom line here:

Continue reading Red Wings-Senators wrap-up: shaking out the demons

Red Wings-Senators preseason quick take: frustrating collapse against the Sens, again.

The Detroit Red Wings attempted to rebound from Thursday’s 2-0 loss to Toronto as they faced the Ottawa Senators’ “B Team” on Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

This game didn’t count, but it was incredibly frustrating to me.

Detroit blew a 2-0 and then a 3-1 lead en route to a 4-3 overtime loss, on a weird goal only 19 seconds into OT, where Noah Gregor blew past Moritz Seider, skated in alone on Alex Lyon, and fell over, the puck rolled into the net, and that goal (helped by the fact that Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin lost their checks) yielded a 3-3-and-1 record for the Wings…

Negating a fantastic game by Marco Kasper, who scored two goals, a great game by Lyon, who was superb despite surrendering 4 goals on 26 shots, and a Red Wings penalty-kill that had to stop a SEVEN-MINUTE PENALTY after Austin Watson got in trouble for peeling a Senators player off Moritz Seider.

The Sens were running around all night and mouthing off at the Wings and being their Ottawa-y selves, and nobody got booted from the game but Watson.

In their own weird way, the Wings never seemed to recover from losing their 12th forward, and Detroit’s own power play went 0-for-3 as Anton Forsberg was just good enough to make up for a bad goal against from Kasper and a worse goal against from Vladimir Tarasenko…

So Detroit blew another game where its “A-minus team” was playing against the Sens’ decidedly “B-minus team.”

Frustrating. Stupid, hard-working, dirty, mouthy Senators. Winning against Detroit again. Boy, have they become a rival!

Detroit closes out its exhibition season tomorrow vs. Toronto (7 PM EDT on ESPN+/TSN4).

Continue reading Red Wings-Senators preseason quick take: frustrating collapse against the Sens, again.

Red Wings land 4 players in Niyo’s ‘Top 25 Detroit pro players under 25’

The Detroit News’s John Niyo ranked the “Top 25 Detroit pro players under 25,” and here’s where the Red Wings’ stars landed:

6. Moritz Seider (23), D, Red Wings: The Red Wings worked long and hard to get their No. 1 defenseman locked up to a seven-year contract extension worth nearly $60 million this summer. And that’s fitting, because no NHL blueliner played tougher minutes last season than Seider, Steve Yzerman’s first draft pick who has yet to miss a game in three seasons.

8. Lucas Raymond (22), LW, Red Wings: Raymond, the No. 4 overall pick in 2020, made the jump straight from Sweden to the NHL a few years ago. And the dynamic young forward took a huge step toward stardom last winter, putting together his first 30-goal season and getting rewarded with an eight-year, $64.6 million contract extension.

17. Simon Edvinsson (21), D, Red Wings: The sixth overall pick in 2021 hardly looked out of place in a 16-game stint down the stretch last season, flashing some game-changing offensive ability from the blue line. But now Detroit is counting on the smooth-skating, 6-foot-6 Swede to play a reliable top-four role on defense for a full season.

25. Joe Veleno (24), C, Red Wings: The 24-year-old forward just re-upped for two more years in Detroit after posting career-best numbers in goals and assists last season. But while his position versatility is key, it’s his defensive responsibility that has made him an NHL regular, mostly as a fourth-line center for the Wings.

Among the honorable mentions:

Nate Danielson, C, Red Wings

Marco Kasper, C, Red Wings

Axel Sandin Pellikka, D, Red Wings

Sebastian Cossa, G, Red Wings

Carter Mazur, LW/RW, Red Wings

Now that Jack Campbell’s in the NHL/NHLPA player assistance program, what do the Wings do about Grand Rapids’ goaltending?

So Red Wings goaltender Jack Campbell has entered the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. The Red Wings anticipated that the 32-year-old Port Huron native would back up and/or push Sebastian Cossa in Grand Rapids, and now the Red Wings have some decisions to make.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman and Ambika Sharma discussed the Wings’ decision-making process:

Campbell was expected to be with AHL Grand Rapids this season, likely as the backup and mentor to top prospect Sebastian Cossa. Certainly, his NHL experience was also valuable to the organization if injuries necessitated a call-up.

Now, though, Detroit will have some tough decisions to make on how to address the void in Grand Rapids. The Red Wings kept three goalies on the NHL team last season and have looked prepared to do so again, with Ville Husso, Alex Lyon and Cam Talbot all in the fold. But with Campbell now out indefinitely, Detroit will have to decide whether to stick with that trio, and promote one of Carter Gylander, Jan Bednar or Gage Alexander as Cossa’s backup, or waive one of its NHL goalies.

Husso would be the likeliest of the three to clear waivers and make it to Grand Rapids, because of his $4.75 million cap hit, but that’s also a big salary to not be on the NHL roster. — Max Bultman, Red Wings beat writer

As far as I’m concerned, the Red Wings will stick with their 3-goaltender rotation for the first 10-15 games, then probably make a decision as to whether to trade or waive a netminder, presuming that they remain healthy. I would imagine that the season will start with Gylander and Cossa in Grand Rapids and Bednar and Alexander in Toledo.

It is possible, however, that the Wings might sign a veteran goaltender to a pro try-out in order to help Cossa with some NHL veteran presence.