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!

Duff discusses Tarasenko and Kane’s motivations for signing with Detroit

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted an subscriber-only story discussing Patrick Kane and Vladimir Tarasenko’s motivations for choosing to stay with and sign with Detroit, respectively:

Tarasenko, fresh off a Stanley Cup win with the Florida Panthers, chose to turn down other teams and was in agreement on a two-year pact with the Red Wings. Likewise Kane, after joining Detroit last November, eschewed the chance to depart as a UFA.

Kane took a look around at the potential opportunities he could be finding elsewhere, and came to the determination his best opportunity was to stand pat and stay put.

“I think I was just kind of going over what happened last year and for the team and me personally, I thought it was a good fit, so looking forward to build off that for another year,” Kane said. “You know, obviously, it was a pretty crazy end to the year and (we) just missed the playoffs by a point, so it’ll be nice to kind of start building off that right from training camp. I’m excited about being a part of that and hopefully getting the chance to have a good regular season and playoff hockey again.”

Continued (paywall); Kane and Tarasenko obviously have healthy motivations as to why they’ve joined the Red Wings, and they’re really the first free agents without Michigan ties to suggest that Detroit is a destination for UFAs.

That’s a very good thing for the Red Wings, who’ve still been eschewed by a bunch of targets because they’re still in a rebuilding process.

Tweet of note: it’s a mid-August preseason game…but MBN rips a slapper goal for Skelleftea AIK

It’s just a preseason game in mid-August, but IceHockeyG posted a clip of Michael Brandsegg-Nygard scoring a nifty slap shot goal for Skelleftea AIK in their game vs. Bjorkloven IF today:

EP Rinkside ranks their top 100 NHL-affiliated skaters and top 15 goalies

EP Rinkside’s Mitch Brown, David St-Louis and J.D. Burke ranked their top 100 NHL-affiliated prospects for the 2024-2025 season today, with a heavy emphasis on Calder Trophy-eligible players and 2024 draft picks:

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard finished 35th…

With his speed, motor, and physical skills, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård pressures the opposition, retrieves pucks, and passes them to teammates. Once his line has established control, he hunts space to set up his catch-and-release and one-timer shots. He’s the type of forward who complements skilled playmakers very well, amplifying their effectiveness and pushing a contending team over the edge. The Detroit Red Wings like to take their time with their prospects, but Brandsegg-Nygård’s package of tools could put him on a faster-track to the NHL. 

Axel Sandin Pellikka finished 37th…

The NHL seems to be slowly moving away from defencemen of smaller size, but the best ones, like Axel Sandin Pellikka, will continue to find their place in the league. His defensive mechanics improved this season. More engaged and better capable of battling with opponents, he managed to stop the opposition’s offence earlier and get the play flowing offensively, where his game truly shines. With his deception and playmaking skills, he could inject creativity in Detroit’s offence. 

Marco Kasper finished 45th…

Continue reading EP Rinkside ranks their top 100 NHL-affiliated skaters and top 15 goalies

Tweet of note: Red Wings reveal numbers for free agent signings

Here we go:

So that’s #56 for Erik Gustafsson, #39 for Cam Talbot, #11 for Vladimir Tarasenko and #14 for Tyler Motte.

DetroitHockey.net’s Clark Rasmussen reveals the balance of players’ numbers:

Erik Gustafsson taking #56, Tyler Motte getting #14, Sheldon Dries going with #15, and Joe Snively picking #21 were all pretty obvious (and among my predictions) as well, as they were numbers the players had usually worn and were all available.  Similarly, Cam Talbot getting #39 was an obvious choice as he probably wasn’t going to get #33 from Sebastian Cossa.

William Lagesson taking #84 seemed likely to me but it’s an “out there” enough number that you never know what direction it’ll go.  That’s why I couldn’t predict Tory Dello taking #87; his usual numbers were out of the mix so I had no way of knowing which way he’d go with it.

I’d expected Jack Campbell to take either #31 or #32 and he took #32.  I’d mentioned in my Development Camp jersey number wrap up that I thought Carter Mazur might be switching from #32 to #43 this season and Campbell taking #32 solidifies that for me.

Speaking of Development Camp, Jakub Rychlovsky already wore #81 there so it’s not a surprise to see him listed with it here.

A little Red Wings ‘Vibe Check’

Bleacher report’s Sara Civian offers a late-summer “Vibe Check” on NHL teams this morning, and her “Summer Thoughts” discuss the so-called “Yzerplan” and its hiccups of late:

Yzerplan: Yay or Nay?

I’m usually on the same page as my beloved Detroiters when it comes to their beloved Red Wings, but I ruffled some feathers on X when I suggested Vladimir Tarasenko’s two-year, $9.5 million contract was an overpay.

Look, two things can be true at the same time: That’s a slight overpay for the veteran winger, especially when you look at how the Cup champion Panthers were able to acquire him midseason. But unlike the Panthers, the Red Wings can afford a slight overpay for this player on a less-than-three year contract.

Detroit isn’t expected to contend right now, nor does it have too much money tied up in other overpays. I like Tarasenko on this team and his flexibility in the top six as some of the younger players hopefully evolve into bigger roles. A player like him gives some space and time for that to happen.

Then, there are the deals for Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond that GM Steve Yzerman has had to take into consideration. That’s perhaps why you lose a player like Jake Walman seemingly out of nowhere.

All in all, I still believe in the Yzerplan—the plan was to cultivate in-house and have a rotating cast of outside talent until it’s time to seriously contend, right? I’m good with two more years of letting the kids grow up.

Continued; I’ll readily admit that now I’m starting to get a little nervous about the Raymond and Seider contracts getting done, but Yzerman seems to be one of those wait-until-all-extra-time-has-expired GM’s, so I’m trying to have a little faith in that.

As for Tarasenko, yeah, the Wings gave him maybe half-a-million to a million more dollars than a contender would have, but that’s okay. The Red Wings do have to continue to sign star or near-star players to build up their cachet as a free agency destination, and sometimes, that means making hard decisions–like bringing in Tarasenko after David Perron left for more money and term than he was worth, or making a lateral move in signing Erik Gustafsson after Shayne Gostisbehere signed a cheap-for-a-contender contract with Carolina.

This free agency business isn’t easy–see one Andrew Copp–and sometimes mistakes are made. Here’s hoping that Tarasenko ends up fitting in well.

Video link: A bit more about the ‘Yoopers United’ vs. Red Wings Alumni game on September 13th

The Detroit Red Wings’ Alumni Association is going to face off against a team of Yoopers representing the United Way of Marquette County on September 13th, and Steve Carlson from Slap Shot will be giving the Yoopers a hand.

This morning, the United Way of Marquette County‘s executive director, Andrew Rickauer, appeared on Marquette’s TV 6 to discuss the event further.

I can’t embed the video, but Mr. Rickauer discusses some of the logistics of the event, its two-year history, and the day’s events.

The alumni will apparently be wearing a uniquely-designed jersey as well, and the jerseys for the Wings’ alums will be auctioned off after the game.

Talking about playoff droughts

Daily Faceoff’s Matt Larkin examines the five teams with the longest playoff droughts, including the Red Wings:

  1. Detroit Red Wings, eight seasons

Last playoff appearance: 2015-16

By summer 2016, GM Ken Holland’s Red Wings had made the playoffs 25 consecutive seasons but were no longer any kind of threat once they got in, limping along as a veteran-laden club loaded with questionable contracts. I asked him whether the 25-year streak had actually become a curse, because it created a pressure to keep winning and handing out veteran deals when it might have been wiser to take a step backward. His response was that he couldn’t bring himself to make a determination about the team five years in the future and that he had to keep trying to win as long as he had a roster constructed to be competitive. He felt a true rebuild would require missing the playoffs five, six, seven years in a row.

Yikes, did those words ever prove prophetic. It took Detroit so long to get out from under the Justin Abdelkaders and Frans Nielsens of the world that the 25-year run indeed set them back badly, to the point Detroit has now gone eight years without making it. It’s debatable whether GM Steve Yzerman acted too rashly in free agency in the past few summers and built a veteran-heavy roster before assembling a strong enough young talent pool, but he has undeniably made the Wings more competitive. They missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker this past season, so even the tiniest amount of progression could halt the drought.

Continued; as we all know by now, a real rebuild takes something like 10-12 years, and the Red Wings are doing it the hard way, without any draft lottery luck. It’s obvious that there’s enough shine off the “Yzerplan” to conclude that the GM is in fact human and not a god-like figure, but other than that, Mr. Yzerman’s methodical rebuild is going about as well as we can expect.

Roughly translated: Axel Sandin Pellikka won’t attend training camp

This morning, Hockeysverige.se’s Rasmus Kagstrom clarifies the rumors and reports that Axel Sandin Pellikka will attend the Red Wings’ training camp alongside teammate Michael Brandsegg-Nygard. According to Kagstrom, Sandin Pellikka has told Norran.se’s Robin Lindgren that he will not attend Detroit’s training camp:

Axel Sandin Pellikka is not going to Detroit Red Wings training camp

After winning SHL gold with Skelleftea, the great talent Axel Sandin Pellikka signed an NHL contract with the Detroit Red Wings. Now the defensive prospect tells Norran that he will not go over to the team’s NHL camp this fall.

Michael Brandsegg-Nygard will go over to the Detroit Red Wings’ training camp this fall, and thus risks missing the start of the SHL regular season. Skelleftea AIK has risked that the promising Axel Sandin Pellikka will join Michael Brandsegg-Nygard–but that’s not the case.

To Norran, the defensive talent confirms that he’s not going to training camp.

“We talked and since I will be playing here with Skelleftea this upcoming season, we agreed that I will stay here the whole season,” says Sandin Pellikka to the newspaper.

Last season, Axel Sandin Pellikka posted 18 points (10 goals and 8 assists) in 39 regular season games played, and another seven points (2 goals and 5 assists) in 14 playoff games for Skelleftea.

Detroit’s training camp begins on September 19th, two days before the SHL premiere, and lasts until the NHL premiere on the night of October 5th, Swedish time. During that period, the Red Wings will play eight exhibition games.

Khan predicts the Wings finishing 5th in the Atlantic Division

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses how teams in the Atlantic Division will finish this upcoming season, and he’s predicting that the Red Wings will finish 5th in the division:

5. Detroit

Key additions: LW Vladimir Tarasenko, D Erik Gustafsson, G Cam Talbot, C Tyler Motte.

Key losses: RWs David Perron, Daniel Sprong, LW, Robby Fabbri, Ds Shayne Gostisbehere, Jake Walman, G James Reimer.

The Red Wings are not as strong on paper as the team that missed a playoff spot due to a tiebreaker. They lost a lot of offense, including a key power-play component in Gostisbehere. Tarasenko, Jonatan Berggren and improvement from within will compensate to some degree, but they must move up several spots from 24th in the league in goals against to end an eight-year playoff drought.

Continued; no Perron, no Gostisbehere, no Sprong, yeah, that looks like a “step back,” but the goaltending situation is going to get sorted out, Tarasenko might ride shotgun with a fully healthy Patrick Kane…

And you lose the defensive struggles and penalties committed by David Perron’s slow-footed status, Gostisbehere’s inability to defend at even strength, and Sprong’s inconsistency.

Sometimes there’s “addition by subtraction,” and while the losses in terms of goals-for will hurt, if the Red Wings work on their goals-against average, and players like Simon Edvinsson, Jonatan Berggren and Joe Veleno take steps forward, they’ll be all right.

Twitter video: NHL Network’s Coyle and Grimson discuss Raymond and Seider’s next contracts

Red Wings players Lucas Raymond, Moritz Seider and Jonatan Berggren are still restricted free agents, and the NHL Nework’s Jameson Coyle and Stu Grimson discussed the “big fishes'” likely contractual terms: