Author: George Malik

As noted yesterday night, the Grand Rapids’ signing of 6’4″ forward Carson Bantle is the third signing of a very large winger by the Griffins to an AHL contract this summer.

The Griffins have already signed 6’4,” 214-pound Gabriel Seger and 6’3,” 217-pound Hunter Johannes to AHL contracts.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the trio of signings, as well as Detroit-signed 6’8″ winger Elmer Soderblom, as a departure from the team’s previous tendency to sign under-sized but plucky scorers like Kyle Criscuolo (5’9,” 174), Tyler Spezia (5’10”) and current Griffins forward Dominik Shine (5’11,” 181 pounds).

Add in 6’6,” 218-pound Detroit-signed winger Tim Gettinger, and you’ve suddenly got a very big set of wingers to complement the Red Wings’ mid-sized and getting-bigger set of prospects:

Since late last season, Grand Rapids has been sizing up the club’s future. North Dakota left-winger Hunter Johannes (6-foot-3, 217 pounds) was added near the end of the 2023-24 AHL campaign. Over the summer, they were picking up free agent left-winger Gabriel Seger, a 6-foot-4, 213-pound Swede who was playing college hockey at Cornell.

This trio will be joining the likes of left-winger Elmer Soderblom (6-foot-8, 246 pounds) and left-winger Tim Gettinger (6-foot-6, 218 pounds). Both Soderblom and Gettinger are showing NHL playing experience on their respective resumes.

Since all three of the newcomers were inking AHL pacts, it’s entirely possible that none of Seger, Johannes or Bantle will ever be playing for the Red Wings. Still, that doesn’t mean they won’t be capable of making an impact on Detroit’s future.

There’s an old saying that you can’t coach size. What these big wingers could prove capable of doing is forming a protection racket to be providing insurance that liberties aren’t taken with top Red Wings prospects such as Nate Danielson, Marco Kasper and Carter Mazur. They can also provide time and space for diminutive Amadeus Lombardi (5-foot-11, 175 pounds) to be at his creative best.

Continued; my sense as to the Grand Rapids Griffins’ size and strength around the Wings’ prospects was pretty simple–it was, for lack of a better word, minimal…

And while the game has gotten less nasty over the past couple of years, the AHL is still one of those leagues where you need big players riding shotgun (and you still need to carry an enforcer like 6’3,” 225-pound defenseman Chaz Reddekopp).

The Red Wings’ front office has begun to embrace the benefits of surrounding their top prospects with bigger, grittier players.

While it’s not necessarily certain that all the Griffins’ large signings will end up in Grand Rapids–there is big, heavy competition for roster spots at the AHL level, too–whether they’re in GR or Toledo, more Red Wings prospects will have a bigger, better set of insulation around them.

I haven’t been doing well over the last couple of days, so you’ll have to forgive me for posting a summary of the articles which came out over the last 12-16 hours or so.

On Monday, I had a massive anxiety attack, one that my three Klonopin didn’t knock down, so I spent a good chunk of the day in bed…And Tuesday, both Aunt Annie and I fell ill, and, given that it’s quiet, I decided to spend more time in bed.

It wasn’t an easy decision, but it is August 20th, and things are only going to get busier from here, so I figured that even though I’m fundraising, sometimes you’ve got to take a couple of 12-hour breaks.

Anyway, here’s what hit the internet today:

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

GRIFFINS SIGN CARSON BANTLE TO TWO-YEAR DEAL

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Grand Rapids Griffins on Tuesday signed left wing Carson Bantle to a two-year AHL contract.

Bantle was selected with the 142nd overall pick by the Arizona Coyotes in 2020 and concluded his collegiate career last season at the University of Wisconsin, showing career-high numbers in games played (39), goals (14), points (19), penalty minutes (45), and plus-minus rating (+7). During his time as a Badger from 2021-24, the Onalaska, Wisconsin, native produced 49 points (31-18—49) in 101 games. The 22-year-old began his college career at Michigan Tech University and was dubbed the 2020-21 WCHA Preseason Player of the Year as a freshman. During the COVID-affected season, Bantle registered three points (2-1—3) and 22 penalty minutes in 19 appearances at Michigan Tech.

Prior to joining the college ranks, Bantle spent two seasons in the USHL with the Madison Capitals from 2018-20 and totaled a combined 69 points (30-39—69) and 86 penalty minutes in 111 outings. The 6-foot-5, 207-pound forward had his best USHL campaign in 2019-20 when he paced Madison with 49 points (20-29—49) in 49 games. Bantle served two seasons at Shattuck-St. Mary’s from 2016-18, competing for its U14 and U16 AAA teams. At the U14 AAA level in 2016-17, Bantle amassed 42 points (19-23—42) in 56 games before he showed 28 points (12-16—28) in 52 games in 2017-18 at the U16 AAA division. Bantle has also competed at the 2019 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the 2018 U17 Five Nations Tournament for Team USA.  

The NHL Network’s Mike Johnson discussed the situations of six restricted free agents, including Red Wings players Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider (at the 2:25 mark):

WXYZ’s Brad Galli reported from the Joe Kocur Foundation for Children’s annual golf outing in White Lake, MI yesterday:

Red Wings 2023 draft pick Brady Cleveland is a hulking defenseman at 6’5″ and 209 pounds, but Cleveland has a lot of rough edges to his game, in no small part because he only played in a limited role in 16 of the University of Wisconsin Badgers’ 36 games last season.

Cleveland had an option to kick-start his college career via the NCAA transfer portal, and he chose to make the jump to the Colorado College Tigers, where Cleveland believes he’ll play more regularly under CC’s coach, Peter Mannino, as he told DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills…

“Entering the portal, I formerly had a relationship with (Colorado College assistant coach) Peter Mannino so I had some contact with him,” Cleveland said during the Red Wings’ 2024 Development Camp last month. “After talking to him, there’s not really much you can’t like about what they have going on out there. Brand new facilities recently built. Over the last four years since (Mannino) got there, they’ve been on the up climb and I think that’ll continue when I get there.”

Cleveland, who appeared in 17 games at Wisconsin last season, said he believes he can elevate his game through more ice time.

“Just getting out there every game and playing more minutes is what I would like to do,” Cleveland said. “Just helping my team win and being better offensively, I know I can work on that. But also defensively cleaning up some things and being a good first pass, shutdown defenseman.”

Cleveland felt he was more self-aware entering his second Development Camp since being selected by the Red Wings in the second round (No. 47) of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft.

“Previously what I learned from Wisconsin is there’s things you need to work on that you don’t know before,” Cleveland said. “Different coaches have different assessments of every player. Just coming back here with that information now, (Development Camp) is a really different experience for me. Obviously I knew some things that I wanted to work on before coming into last year. Now it’s kind of building off what I’ve already been working on and adding some new things.”

Continued; if Cleveland develops his skating skills and overall strength, he’s got the chance to develop into a big, mean shut-down defenseman, but he needs to play first and foremost.

Okay, folks, it’s time for the rubber to meet the road in the fundraising department.

We’re four full weeks from the point at which my 82-year-old Aunt Annie and I are supposed to head up to Traverse City in a rented car, and stay in a heavily-discounted handicapped-accessible hotel room, so that I can be in place to bring you reports regarding the Red Wings’ truncated prospect tournament and training camp.

We also need to fund the web server by the 31st of this month, and at present, we’ve got $276.77 in my Venmo account (where I’m keeping my server and TC money) and $10 in the GoFundMe.

Those are not ideal numbers for a $4,500-5,000 trip. And yes, I know it costs a ton to accommodate my 82-year-old, who’s a couple months out from double hip replacement surgery. I don’t really have a choice–Aunt Annie has to come up with me, because I’m her only caregiving option.

I understand that many of you have been enjoying your summertime activities and not following the offseason on a day-to-day basis, which is okay, but if you’re thinking about donating to our efforts to head up to Traverse City, now’s the time.

Regardless of whether your donation is big or small, we take ’em all, and now’s the time to really hit the fundraising drum here, because right now, it doesn’t look like we’re going.

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 Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses realistic expectations for 8 of the Red Wings’ top prospects today, and we’ll examine his take regarding the potential performance of Marco Kasper:

Marco Kasper

Expected level: AHL, with some NHL time

Analysis: Kasper finished strong in his first AHL season — particularly in the playoffs, where his hard-nosed game translated to seven points in nine playoff games. And while he has an outside shot at making the NHL roster right away with a big camp, the best bet is on him starting in Grand Rapids again, looking to pick up where he left off.

Point production is only one piece of the way Kasper will be evaluated, but certainly Detroit would take as much offense as it can get from the 2022 No. 8 pick, who put up 35 points in 71 games last season. Increasing that rate would be encouraging, and if he could creep up toward that same 0.7 or 0.8 points-per-game territory, that would be excellent — that’s the range where ace shutdown centers Anthony Cirelli (.73) and Lars Eller (.81) were in their draft-plus-three seasons in the AHL.

And of course, that comes with Kasper continuing to look like a strong defensive center who won’t be pushed around, and one who keeps possessions alive in the offensive zone — the bedrocks of his profile.

He has a good chance to work his way into becoming a call-up at some point this year.

Continued (paywall); Kasper will probably start the year in Grand Rapids, as Bultman suggests, and yes, adding more in the points category would be good.

I’m not certain whether we’re looking at a two-way center of the Lars Eller variety or a real defensive stalwart at center with Kasper, however–and I’m hoping for the former–so I’m going to measure his success by hearing and hopefully seeing reports of Kasper playing well defensively and playing with that trademark edge to his game.

The second year of North American hockey is normally where prospects’ stats bump up to the neighborhood of a realistic professional ceiling, but I’ve seen some prospects never really figure out the chaotic nature of the AHL game as compared to the NHL, so I’m not going to panic if Kasper continues to be a point-per-every-other-game guy at the AHL level.

Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz has posted an article declaring the “biggest losers of the 2024 NHL offseason,” and he bags on the Red Wings’ defense (or the lack thereof) pretty heavily:

Moritz Seider and the Red Wings Defense

The Detroit Red Wings had one thing they needed to improve this offseason. Their defense.

Not only in terms of adding more high-level talent on that unit, but also adding more depth.

They have one bonafide stud in Moritz Seider, and then a bunch of question marks and bad contracts surrounding him. The lack of depth forced Seider into playing some of the toughest minutes in the NHL during the 2023-24 season. He was constantly starting in the defensive zone, he was playing against every team’s best players, and he did not have anywhere near enough support on a team that finished the season as one of the worst defensive teams in the league.

What did the Red Wings do to help him this offseason?

They gave away one of the only other reliable defenders in the roster in Jake Walman in a salary dump trade and signed Erik Gustafsson, while also taking some significant defensive hits at forward with the re-signing of Patrick Kane and addition of Vladimir Tarasenko in place of David Perron.

That is not enough. It is not enough for the Red Wings’ playoff pursuit, and it is not enough to take some of the pressure of Seider.

They really need a young player like Simon Edvinsson to take a huge leap forward and become an immediate star to make a difference.

Continued; the Red Wings had to walk and chew gum at the same time.

They needed to assuage the losses of David Perron and Daniel Sprong, they needed to bolster the defense in terms of both Shayne Gostisbehere’s exit and yes, adding a shut-down defender to spell Moritz Seider, and they needed to reinforce their goaltending situation.

Oh, and the team needed the cap space to re-sign Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider.

The team’s management at least adequately addressed its offensive issues by re-signing Patrick Kane and bringing in Vladimir Tarasenko; they tried very hard to bring in Erik Gustafsson to replace Gostisbehere; Cam Talbot will shore up the team’s goaltending, and they’ve got the cap space to ink Raymond and Seider (and Jonatan Berggren) to extensions.

They did not address the glaring need for a shut-down defenseman to spell Seider, that is true. It may take until the 2024-2025 trade deadline to address that issue fully (and Jacob Trouba was probably going to be “that guy” until the trade fell through).

As such, yes, Simon Edvinsson will have to take a step forward. But the team does not have two defensemen, it has eight. They are not elegant “studs” on the blueline, or the belles of the ball, but it’s up to Ben Chiarot, Justin Holl, Olli Maatta, Erik Gustafsson, Jeff Petry and Albert Johansson to step up and play better.

That’s what the team’s got, and you work with what you’ve got until you can bring in reinforcements. Again, not “sexy” names by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s what coach Lalonde and his assistants have to work with, and they have to make due with it.

The Wings’ forwards will have to chip in in terms of reducing the team’s goals-against average, too, as will the goaltenders.

It’s a team dynamic, not Seider’s job alone, though he’s definitely going to continue playing hard minutes for a bit yet. But all is not doom and gloom.

Of Red Wings-related note early on Monday morning:

1. My apologies for the lateness of noting this Tweet from the Red Wings, who wished coach Derek Lalonde a happy 52nd birthday:

Help us wish Newsy a happy birthday! 🥳 pic.twitter.com/uLMkDfbToL

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 18, 2024

2. And Alex Wood on YouTube posted a 15-minute clip of Red Wings players scoring their first goal with the team in their first games with Detroit: