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!

Former Wings prospect Kaden Fulcher’s now a goaltending coach for Sarnia

Just a quick note here: one-time Red Wings goaltending prospect Kaden Fulcher is now 25 years old, and after playing in the SPHL last season, Fulcher retired. According to the Sarnia Observer’s Mark Malone, Fulcher is now a goaltending coach with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting:

Assistant goalie coach Kaden Fulcher, left, speaks with Ethan Lawrence at the Sarnia Sting’s training camp Thursday at Progressive Auto Sales Arena. Fulcher was hired in the off-season after playing six years in the pros. (Mark Malone/Chatham Daily News)

Not everybody pans out as an NHL prospect, but I’ve found that the vast majority of the Red Wings’ prospects stay in hockey somehow.

Kasper’s Austrians suffer blow at Olympic Qualifying Tournament, drop 2nd loss to Kazakhstan

Marco Kasper and Team Austria are in a tough spot in terms of qualifying for the 2026 Olympics.

Kasper scored a goal on Thursday as Austria lost 2-1 to Slovakia, and today, Kasper was muted (though he went to the front of the net and stayed there, he won faceoffs, and he mucked and ground enough to take a 2-minute roughing penalty at the 60-minute mark) as Austria lost 2-1 to Kazakhstan.

Austria plays their final qualification game vs. Hungary on Monday, but as the Kazakhs have already won 2 games, it may not matter unless goal differential comes into play.

Update: The Austrian Ice Hockey Association’s website confirms that the Austrian team is out of the running for a 2026 Olympic spot.

Tweet of note: Emmitt Finnie, 19-year-old ‘greybeard’

Via Red Wings Prospects on Twitter, Wings prospect Emmitt Finnie had this to say about being a 19-year-old “veteran” among 16-year-olds trying to earn jobs on the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers:

Tweet of note/THN: NHL will air 15 national broadcasts of Red Wings games

From the Red Wings on Twitter:

Per the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood:

ABC will broadcast the Red Wings four times on the network’s local channels in 2024-25, while two more games will be aired on the ESPN channels including March 1’s outdoor game against Columbus at Ohio Stadium. The ESPN networks are also streaming two games only on ESPN+: Oct. 17 vs. the New York Rangers and Dec. 3 at Boston.

TNT is picking up seven games. Two of those — March 12 vs. Buffalo and the season finale April 16 at New Jersey — will be blacked out to local viewers. That means that if Detroit’s potential playoff push comes down to the final game like it did in 2023-24, fans wouldn’t be able to watch the game if they don’t have TNT in their channel package.

A chronological schedule of nationally broadcasted games, channels and times can be found below:

Oct. 17 vs. New York Rangers — ESPN+, 7:30 p.m.
Nov. 6 at Chicago â€” TNT, 8 p.m.
Nov. 13 at Pittsburgh â€” TNT, 7:30 p.m.
Dec. 3 at Boston â€” ESPN+, 7 p.m.
Dec. 18 vs. Philadelphia â€” TNT, 7 p.m.
Jan. 16 at Florida â€” ESPN, 7 p.m.
Feb. 8 vs. Tampa Bay â€” ABC and ESPN+, 1 p.m.
Feb. 22 vs. Minnesota â€” ABC and ESPN+, 12:30 p.m.
March 1 at Columbus (Outdoor Game) â€” ESPN, 6 p.m.
March 12 vs. Buffalo â€” TNT (not available locally), 7:30 p.m.
March 16 vs. Vegas â€” TNT, 1 p.m.
March 22 at Vegas â€” ABC and ESPN+, 8 p.m
March 29 vs. Boston â€” ABC and ESPN+, 8 p.m.
April 6 vs. Florida â€” TNT, 5:30 p.m.
April 16 at New Jersey (last game of regular season) â€” TNT (not available locally), 7:30 p.m.

Tweets of note: Kasper tips in a goal as Austria loses first Olympic Qualifying game vs. Slovakia

Update: The IIHF changed the scoresheet. Kasper did score the Austrians’ 2-1 goal.

In the second Olympic Qualifying game of the day, Marco Kasper didn’t fare as well as Michael “2 goals” Brandsegg-Nygard did in Norway’s 4-2 win over Japan.

Kasper’s Austrians battled a bigger, heavier Slovak team, and Slovakia prevailed 2-1. It looked like Marco Kasper tipped in the Austrians’ 2-1 goal, but the scoresheet credits Dominique Henrich with the goal instead.

Per Red Wings Prospects on Twitter:

From what I saw of the game, Kasper was an absolute buzzsaw for the Austrians, charging to the front of the net while playing as the first-line center, mucking it up a little bit and using his bursts of speed to get up and down the ice in a hurry. He looked great against heavy competition.

The Austrians play Kazakhstan on Saturday and Hungary on Monday, and they’re going to have to win both games in order to keep up with the Slovaks, who are favored to win the group and Olympic qualification.

Khan on the Wings’ Michigan connections

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the strong Michigan connections on the Red Wings’ roster, which may or may not be coincidental, especially after Ann Arbor’s Auston Watson has been invited to training camp on a Pro Try-Out:

“Honestly, it’s not part of the plan,” general manager Steve Yzerman said after free agency on July 4. “But we get into free agency … players indicate they’d be interested in coming back. I’ve been here five years and over the course of those years I’ve heard from agents that a player would really love to come back, but on these terms.

“Sometimes those terms work for us and sometimes they don’t. I think it’s only natural you see the kids, whether they’re Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa or Detroit (natives), they grew up in the city or their favorite team is the team in the city they grew up in and they’d love to play at home.”

The Red Wings have five Michigan natives: Dylan Larkin (Waterford), Alex DeBrincat (Farmington Hills), Andrew Copp (Ann Arbor), Jeff Petry (Ann Arbor) and Tyler Motte (St. Clair). That’s in addition to J.T. Compher, an Illinois native who played at Michigan.

Continued (paywall, sorry)

Fundraising update: server almost paid for, TC trip…a work in progress

It’s August 29th, and the fundraising news is mixed from the last missive to today.

The good news is that we’re about $150 from covering the server bill at Bluehost and the Jetpack subscription. With a little more $, we’ll be good to go for the 31st, when both bills are due.

The bad news is that, while the GoFundMe is starting to rumble to life, we are exactly two weeks from training camp, and we’ve raised $350 of somewhere between $4,500 and $5,000 needed to get both myself and Aunt Annie up to Traverse City for the truncated prospect tournament and main training camp.

Aunt Annie and I will be counting our pennies and living like we’re camping in our hotel room, but the expense of a handicapped room for my double-hip-replacement patient (even with a gigantic “small business discount”) and the rental car = it’s going to be expensive to get myself and my 82-year-old charge up to TC.

It’s just the way it is now. I wish that we had a working car right now, and that Aunt Annie could take care of herself, but we’re crossing the first bridge now, and I simply have two jobs now–blogger and caregiver. So she goes where I go.

So if you’re looking for me “singing for my supper,” I can do that. I can wash your car if you bring it to me, I can try to do your taxes or substitute in your bowling league at PINZ! if you want. We’re just at crunch time in terms of fundraising, and it’s gotten really scary because there are two weeks with which to raise a crap-ton of money.

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.

Press release: U.S. NTDP to host Michigan State on November 21st

From the United States National Team Development Program:

Michigan State Added to Team USA Home Schedule

Spartans to visit USA Hockey Arena on November 21

PLYMOUTH, Mich. – USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program announced today the addition of Michigan State University to the Under-18 Team’s home schedule. The Spartans will visit USA Hockey Arena on Thursday, November 21 at 7 p.m. ET and tickets are on sale now. 

Michigan State’s roster features five former NTDP players, including Spartans captain Red Savage (2019-21), goaltender Trey Augustine (2021-23) forwards Isaac Howard (2020-22), Charlie Stramel (2020-22) and defenseman Shane Vansaghi (2022-24). In addition, MSU head coach Adam Nightingale was an NTDP bench boss from 2020-22.

The match-up will be the 20th all-time contest between Michigan State and the NTDP. The series is tight as Team USA has posted an 8-11-0 all-time record against the Spartans, coming into this year’s game as winners of two of the last three. 

To purchase tickets to the game, please call the USA Hockey Arena box office at 734-453-8400 or click here to purchase online. 

Continue reading Press release: U.S. NTDP to host Michigan State on November 21st

Shapiro speaks with MSU captain Red Savage

EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro spoke with Red Wings prospect and new Michigan State University men’s hockey team captain Red Savage for Shapiro’s “Shap Shots” Substack:

Michigan State determines the captaincy by a vote of the team members, and I caught up with Savage this week about his new role and how his career has progressed over the past couple of seasons.

“It’s definitely humbling,” Savage said. “It’s a lot of respect from your coaching staff to be able to put this honor upon you, and I don’t take it lightly at all. I’ve been in leadership groups on teams in the past, and I think it’s something that comes pretty naturally to me … but it’s still humbling to be recognized by your teammates and coaching staff like that.”

Savage being named captain in his second year with the program, as a transfer, is a strong embodiment of how much the Spartans have turned a corner under Nightingale.

While Michigan State has recruited well, flipping Trey Augustine from Michigan for example completely flipped the balance of power in the Big Ten, the Spartans have also become an ideal destination for players in the transfer portal.

Continued (paywall)

Tweets of note: Brandsegg-Nygard scores 2 in Norway’s 4-2 win over Japan at Olympic Qualifying Tournament

Red Wings prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard scored 2 goals en route to Norway’s 4-2 win over Japan at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Milan.

As you might expect, IceHockeyGifs and Red Wings Prospects were all over the highlights (check their Twitter/X accounts for more):

Norway will continue their three-day blitz by playing against Great Britain tomorrow, and the IIHF’s YouTube channel will broadcast the game.