Author: George Malik

GRIFFINS RELEASE 2024-25 PROMOTIONAL SCHEDULE

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Wednesday announced their promotional schedule for the 2024-25 season, featuring a number of giveaways and the return of many popular season-long promotions. Single-game tickets for each of the team’s 36 regular-season home games at Van Andel Arena will go on sale to the general public on Friday, Sept. 13 at 10 a.m. at griffinshockey.com/tickets.

The Griffins will launch the home portion of their 72-game slate on Friday, Oct. 11 against the Milwaukee Admirals with Opening Night presented by Huntington Bank. Promotions for the home opener include a magnet schedule giveaway and $2 beers/hot dogs.

Grand Rapids’ other giveaways this season include a team calendar (Oct. 19), camo hooded t-shirt (Nov. 15), Brad Thompson beard chia pet (Nov. 24), Sebastian Cossa bobblehead (Dec. 1), Batman bobblehead (Jan. 11), adult Dino Night jersey (Jan. 18), Simon Edvinsson Flying Toasters bobblehead (Feb. 23), and a Beer City Hockey hat (March 22).

I apologize for delays in coverage. I’m still sick today. I’ve been bedridden for the last three days with fever-and-chill symptoms, heavy fatigue, sinus problems and general malaise.

I’m trying my best to get better ASAP–this is a shitty time of the preseason to miss time–but I appear to have a bad cold and there isn’t much I can do other than rest, because I feel truly awful.

As soon as I can sit up, I’ll be back behind the laptop and working for you.

My apologies, but I’m not feeling well today and am in bed due to bad fatigue.

I will catch up as soon as I can sit up.

We already know that Michael Brandsegg-Nygard is going to take part in two Champions Hockey League games later this week before departing for Detroit to attend the prospect tournament and main training camp. This morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff confirms those plans:

“He is with us this week and plays two (Champions Hockey League) games,” Skelleftea coach Robert Ohlsson was confirming to Swedish website Aftonbladet.

Skellefta will be playing Austria’s Red Bull Salzburg on Friday and Germany’s Straubing Tigers on Sunday in CHL competition.

“Then he goes to training camp and will play some practice games (with the Red Wings),” Ohlsson said. “Then (Detroit GM Steve) Yzerman and the boys have to make a decision if he is NHL-ready or if he is going back to Skelleftea. There it is. He is Detroit’s player.”

For his part, Brandsegg-Nygard doesn’t seem to think he’ll be making his Red Wings debut during the 2024-25 NHL season.

“I’m going to do everything I can, and everyone wants to play in the NHL, but it’s a very difficult goal now,” Brandsegg-Nygard told Norwegian website Nitten. “I doubt it will happen.”

Continued; Brandsegg-Nygard has repeatedly stated that he’d prefer to play for Skelleftea AIK (and Axel Sandin Pellikka) this upcoming season, and unless the Red Wings feel that he’s truly ready for AHL hockey, they’ll respect his wishes.

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman ranks “the best players and prospects under 23” this morning, and you know the drill by now: many players and prospects finish ahead of Detroit’s class, which includes Lucas Raymond but not 23-year-old Moritz Seider. I’m surprised how low Raymond ranks, below both NHL’ers and a gaggle of prospects, but that’s how things tend to go:

28. Lucas Raymond

Raymond had a great season; he was a constant offensive threat for Detroit and led their team in scoring. He has special puck skills, with the ability to make high-skill maneuvers in tight areas at a high rate. He combines that skill with excellent offensive IQ and vision. He had a good shot and with how many plays he makes he can run a PP1 in the NHL. Raymond isn’t that big, but he works hard and doesn’t shy from going to the net. He’s not that big or fast, but he’s very elusive and has good edges. He is a legit top-line forward in the NHL.

31. Nate Danielson

Danielson’s season started off poorly in Brandon, but after he was traded to Portland he looked more like the top-10 pick, especially in the playoffs. His numbers aren’t amazing for where I have him projected, but I’ve seen enough offense from this player to think he’s going to score in the NHL. He has excellent 1v1 skills, he skates well, and his ability to create chances in transition will make him dangerous as a pro. He’s both a strong passer and shooter who can make a lot of things happen inside the offensive zone. Danielson is also a diligent two-way center. I get the concerns on his production, but when I’ve watched the player I think his skill is legit. If he’s Detroit’s second-line center of the future he can be a heck of a 2C.

49. Simon Edvinsson

Edvinsson was very good in the AHL this season and earned 16 games up with Detroit. Edvinsson is a rare package of size, mobility and skill. You don’t find big men who can one-on-one opponents often like he can. He is huge and competes well, showing the ability to close on checks
with his length and body. He skates pucks up ice well and retrieves them well. There will be a minor debate on if Edvinsson will ever be a top-end point producer as I don’t see a true playmaker in his game. The sum of the parts should still add up to a good top-four defenseman.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted an early fall mailbag this morning, and he dives right in with an assessment of the Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider contract situations:

Should we be worried about Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider long-term at this point, or just have to be patient? What could be keeping it from happening at this point? — Will G.

On the one hand, I do feel that I should remind Red Wings fans that Seider and Raymond are not the only unsigned RFAs remaining. Other big names, including Jeremy Swayman and Dawson Mercer, are also still unsigned as of this writing. So it’s not unprecedented. Negotiations can drag on, even this late into the summer.

As for what could be keeping it from happening, the only real answer is a difference on valuation. That’s what it (almost) always comes down to.

I don’t think it’s panic time yet, before camp begins, but that’s probably the point at which it’s fair to have concerns about how this could affect the on-ice product, and perhaps the locker room. Those are two important pieces to be without when camp opens.

Waiting may well have cost Detroit some money here, in the form of new comparables such as Brock Faber’s eight-year, $8.5 million AAV contract. That deal would seem to set a floor for Seider’s deal. And while everyone involved in the NHL knows it’s a business, having two crucial pieces unsigned can’t be great for morale, either. Ideally, you’d want players to see they’ll be rewarded for the kind of hard work and results Seider and Raymond have delivered.

With that said, the Red Wings also have an incentive to set a standard that everyone will need to sacrifice for the sake of the team, and that’s relevant too. It’s not always easy to square those things.

Regardless, I do think deals are going to get done with both players. And if it happens before training camp, then I think any tensions (if there are any) would be pretty quickly forgotten.

Continued (paywall)

Alex Wood on YouTube posted a remarkable 47-minute clip of Red Wings game-tying goals scored in the last minute of the 3rd period since 1990, including game-tying goals which resulted in wins, ties, and overtime losses:

I’m trying to lay low on what is usually the last “quiet day” before the news build-up to the NHL season, but I’ve got to be bluntly honest here:

Aunt Annie and I are supposed to leave for Traverse City on September 12th. As such, in terms of fundraising, I need to raise about $500 a day between now and September 11th.

Yesterday, we raised $200, which is great, and that gives us $400 out of the approximately $4,500-5,000 needed to head up to the Red Wings’ prospect tournament and training camp.

But we’re already at a deficit, and I don’t really know how we’re going to make it without the vast majority of TMR’s readers lending a hand.

I understand that it’s a difficult time to raise funds. There are many worthy causes, and while inflation is cooling, we all feel price spikes in our grocery bills, mortgages and so forth.

So all I can do is please ask that you consider making a small donation, a not-so-small donation, that you step up and help me make the increasingly unlikely trip to training camp to represent you.

Put bluntly, I’m scared, I’m frustrated and I’m just worried today. I don’t know how the hell we’re going to make it Up North, and not doing so would really be a crushing blow. I hope you can help me change that.

If you’re willing to lend a hand, have an official GoFundMe fundraiser page at https://gofund.me/c08de120; we have a PayPal option at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport; there’s Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2; if you’re into the, “I don’t want to use any of those pages” option, here’s always the Giftly option by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com…

And in the banking options, you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check, or “Zelle” me via my email, rtxg@yahoo.com. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

As always, thank you for your readership and your time.

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood discusses the legacy of Ted Lindsay, who essentially sacrificed his NHL career’s fortunes in order to establish what would become the NHL Players’ Association:

Through a network of captains, Lindsay and [Montreal’s Doug] Harvey enrolled every player in the league save for Toronto’s Ted Kennedy to their union. In February of the 1956-57 season, they announced the formation of a player’s union. The NHL’s front offices had no idea the movement had taken place until the announcement. Their workers had collectively organized themselves.

“I was doing it because I believed in it,” Lindsay said. “I was doing it not to irritate owners, I was doing it to help out (other players). All of us needed help, we needed a voice as a group, not as an individual.”

For this movement, managers took exception. Detroit’s own general manager Jack Adams stripped Lindsay of his captaincy in 1957, and he slandered his character with fake contract figures and ad hominem attacks through the press. Then, Adams shipped Lindsay off to the much worse Chicago Black Hawks organization in what amounted to exile. On the heels of an 85-point season where he and Gordie Howe led the league in scoring, Lindsay’s career was all but derailed as punishment. In today’s NHL, this move would be like Edmonton trading off Leon Draisaitl, or Boston trading Brad Marchand.

Continued; “Terrible Ted” was a legend on the ice, he was a legendary figure for the NHL’s player labor movement, and his foundation continues to support autism research and treatment.

He left a hell of a legacy.

Daily Faceoff’s Tyler Kuehl posted a fantasy hockey-friendly Red Wings season preview today, estimating the Red Wings’ lineup, summarizing the team’s offseason moves, breaking down the Wings’ offense, defense, goaltending and coaching situations, and asking three “burning questions”:

1. Will Simon Edvinsson be on the top pair? At first? Probably not. As important as he was down the stretch last season, he probably starts on the second or third pair. Edvinsson certainly has the tools to be a No. 1 defenseman, but with he and Seider both having the offensive vision, the two probably wouldn’t work well together on the same line.

2. What needs to happen to reinvigorate Alex DeBrincat? The former Windsor Spitfire scored 27 goals for the second consecutive season, far from the 40-goal guy that Debrincat became while as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks. They tried pairing him with his old linemate, Kane, but only with limited success. It might sound like a lame answer, but DeBrincat just needs to get off to a good start like he did last year, and keep on the grind to show that he is still an elite scorer.

3. Is it Jonatan Berggren’s time to make an impact? One of the quiet storylines is what the Red Wings are trying to do with Berggren. The former second-round pick was one of the best players in the AHL last season but saw limited time in Detroit compared to the 2022-23 campaign. Even when he was called up, Berggren hardly saw the ice, which left the Swedish forward feeling disgruntled near the end of the regular season. He has shown he can be an everyday NHLer, but he needs to demonstrate that he can buy into the Red Wings’ system.

Continued;

1. Probably not is right, though Seider wants to play alongside Edvinsson thanks to his tremendous skating speed;
2. The renaissance of DeBrincat, a former Erie Otter, is definitely an important story line heading into the upcoming season. Whether he can score 35-40 goals is uncertain at this point;
3. Berggren’s offensive abilities are well-known; coach Lalonde wants to see whether Berggren can play a two-way game this upcoming season.