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!

On occasion, the Red Wings’ reputation still draws players to Detroit

The Red Wings’ reputation as a popular team over the past three decades–despite their difficult times of late–has afforded the team a pair of free agent signings who are fans of the team while growing up.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses Vladimir Tarasenko and Erik Gustafsson’s status as Wings fans this morning:

Growing up in Yaroslavl, Russia, they were the childhood heroes of Detroit Red Wings forward Vladimir Tarasenko. The Russian Five were iconic in his view.

“I think this is Detroit as a team,” [Vladimir] Tarasenko explained. “It’s one of the most famous, if not the most famous team in the world. Like, when you talk about how to give it a history and no offense to other teams, but we grew up in Russia. A lot of people follow Detroit because of the Russian Five.

“When I had my first PlayStation. I was playing for Detroit too, with my friend. So, yeah, this was the team all the kids in my neighborhood where I grow up, when we talk about hockey.”

In Scandinavia, a similar scenario was playing out inside the childhood home of Detroit defenseman Erik Gustafsson in Nynashamn, Sweden. He also worshipped at the altar of the Red Wings, but his iconic hero was a different winged wheel legend.

“The history of this club, my favorite defenseman growing up was Nicklas Lidstrom,” Gustafsson said. “It’s obviously a great organization.”

Continued; the Red Wings may find themselves amidst a substantial playoff drought, but the team’s still got fans around the world (they are definitely still huge in Sweden, for example);

We can only hope that the team reclaims its position as one of the NHL’s powerhouse franchises over the next half-decade.

Red Wings finish 6th in The Athletic’s ‘salary cap era’ franchise rankings

The Athletic’s Sean Gentille and Michael Russo ranked the NHL’s 32 franchises by their performances during the salary cap era, and the Red Wings, not surprisingly, are riding the coattails of their Stanley Cup win in 2008:

6 (tie). Detroit Red Wings

Total: 27 points
2023: 6th (tie), 27 points

The Wings came within a tiebreaker of ending their playoff drought and breaking a tie with the Ducks — but instead it’s now at eight seasons and counting. The fact that they’re here at all is a testament to how good they were for the first decade of the Cap Era. It’s fair to wonder whether general manager Steve Yzerman is building a true contender around Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider and Co., but he’s finally assembled a group that’s capable of playing meaningful hockey. Is a roster without any glaring holes enough? It might be time to find out.

Total playoff years: 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 09SCF, 08SC, 07CF, 06

Playoff-only years: 8 | Conference finals: 1 | Cup finals: 1 | Cup wins: 1

Continued (paywall);

This is a lot higher than I thought the Wings would finish given their play over the past eight seasons, but some good news is welcome, even if it comes with the customary dig at both Yzerman and the Wings’ personnel (or lack thereof).

A pair of good reports about Max Plante at the WJSS

The World Junior Summer Showcase is taking place this week at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, and it’s taking place in the summer for a simple reason.

Most of the participants for the U.S. teams (USA White and USA Blue) are NCAA-committed athletes, so they can’t take part in a normal fall training camp as they’d be in school in September or October…

And in terms of the European players for Team Sweden and Team Finland, those players also have team commitments to leagues which usually start regular-season play in September as well, so, for both parties, there’s no other time to really “warm up” for the World Junior Championship.

As such, I’m pretty damn gloomy that our transportation issues persist here at TMR, preventing me from attending the WJSS at the only time of year when you can really interact with the players close to home base.

There’s some good news regarding Red Wings prospect and 2024 draft pick Max Plante, though, as Plante’s apparently doing something that the almost pure play-maker hasn’t done with authority as of yet in his young career.

According to Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis and FloHockey’s Chris Peters, Plante is finding his shot. He scored a goal for Team USA Blue today:

Per Ellis:

#14 Max Plante, LW (Detroit Red Wings): I wanted Plante to shoot the puck so much more than he did last year, so it felt good to see him score on his first shot of the game. He also nabbed an assist in a great first game against U-20 competition. I was higher on Plante than many others last year because of how well he passes the puck, but I’m glad we saw him get a few dangerous chances of his own, too.

And Peters:

Max Plante, LW (DET): Plante is being given some really good looks with this team, playing on USA Blue’s first power play unit with Hagens, Leonard, Perreault and Buium. He is a very smart player who makes good decisions with the puck and has some creativity. There’s also a good work ethic there and he showed off his speed at various points. I think he made a positive impression with the maturity of his game. 

Plante, who’s going to play for the University of Minnesota-Duluth this upcoming season, is never going to be huge at 5’11” and 176 pounds, and he’s never going to be a natural goal-scorer…

But, as a player who posts massive assist totals (he posted 46 assists among his 61 points with the U.S. Under-18 team this past season), it’s good to hear that he’s being placed in a position to succeed by coach David Carle.

Three things: No news too small

There are times that you forget that no bit of news is “too small” during the summertime for Red Wings fans.

So:

  1. I had seen the Tweet that Red Wings prospect and Grand Rapids Griffins forward Elmer Soderblom hit a hole-in-one the other day, but I passed on it. The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood did not:

Soderblom’s had a rough couple of seasons in Grand Rapids, battling an assortment of injuries, but he just turned 23, he posted 29 points in 61 games last season, and his size remains an intriguing intangible that he needs to utilize more regularly if he is to reestablish himself as a Red Wings prospect;

2. And, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes, you ought to keep your eye on the EliteProspects “transfers” page on the homepage, because you’ll see some familiar faces changing places all summer long:

Oscar Plandowski, a 2021 unsigned Detroit draft pick (155th), will play hockey at the University of New Brunswick next season. The school has won the past two Canadian university national titles. Also, former Red Wings player Tomas Jurco is switching teams in the KHL. He left Avangard Omsk as a free agent to sign with Kunlun Red Stars. He had 16 points in 21 games last season for Omsk.

It’s good to see Plandowski further his career and academic aspirations. His mom, Jill Plandowski, is a premier power skating coach;

I’m kind of cringe-y about players who are still choosing to take the money they can make in the KHL, but I guess it’s their choice. Grand Rapids Griffins alumnus Danny O’Reagan signed with the Kunlun Red Star today as well;

3. Finally, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen followed up Bob Duff’s current “All-Michigan Team” with an all-time All-Michigan Red Wings Team, and I’m going to spotlight one of my favorite short-time Wings from Allen’s subscriber-only article in former Wing and former Wings director of pro scouting Mark Howe:

Mark Howe (Detroit, 1992-95): Gordie Howe’s son didn’t play for Detroit until the final three seasons of his career. But he was a Hall of Famer, and fans knew of his ability long before he played here. He played for the Detroit Junior Red Wings and was always around the rink when Howe played here.

At the now-defunct Olympia, Mark played floor hockey outside the Red Wings dressing room while waiting for his father to sign autographs after games.

Mark Howe felt like a Red Wings hometown hero even before he actually played here. After retiring as a player, he worked for many years as a Detroit professional scout.

I’d argue that Mark Howe, who played his best NHL years as a Philadelphia Flyer (as such, he lives in the Philadelphia area), may have been one of the more underrated NHL’ers of all time. His smooth-skating style and puck-handling were just so damn elegant that, even in his later years, you could see that Howe was something special in his own right.

Update: Make that four things: According to Hockey-News.info, Red Wings prospect Marco Kasper has taken an invite from HC Innsbruck to attend the team’s training camp, which begins on August 7th. Kasper’s father, Peter, was asked if he’d allow his son to participate, and Marco is apparently going to sign some autographs and take some fan photos after practice.

Update #2: Also:

Sunday morning round-up: on Raymond and Seider, an All-Michigan Team and big Erik Gustafsson

Of brief Red Wings-related note early this Sunday morning:

  1. We both know that GM Steve Yzerman and the Red Wings’ management team want to get restricted free agents Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider re-signed to significant contracts by the start of training camp this September, if not the start of the 2024-2025 regular season in early October at the latest.

I really enjoyed an article written by the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood on Saturday night. Eargood accurately estimates the start of training camp (Thursday, September 19th is probably the date), he explains how restricted free agents can hold out until 5 PM on December 1st as a final re-sign or sit-out-the-season deadline, and then he discusses the status of Detroit’s other restricted free agent, Jonatan Berggren:

As of publication, a Sept. 19 [training camp] start date leaves 54 days for the Red Wings to sign their restricted free agents. Again, that’s a whole lot of time left to get a deal done, and general manager Steve Yzerman will probably use a lot of it given he isn’t someone who negotiates with unnecessary urgency.

Training camp isn’t a hard deadline for the RFAs to sign. If there are any players who can join the team late and still be effective, its No. 1 defenseman Seider and last season’s leading scorer Raymond are probably among them. But in all likelihood, Detroit and the RFAs don’t want to tempt fate and see what that could look like.

We also know that Steve Yzerman isn’t constrained by human concepts like space and time (kidding!)…

Continue reading Sunday morning round-up: on Raymond and Seider, an All-Michigan Team and big Erik Gustafsson

Meet the Johanssons

Here’s your fun fact(s) of the day on a late-July Saturday (no, I don’t think that this will be a daily thing, but let’s try it out for sh*ts and giggles’ sake):

Red Wings prospect Anton Johansson plays a stay-at-home, defensively responsible game as a shut-down defenseman, but he’s not alone in his family at pursuing his craft.

This morning, HockeySverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist notes that all three Johansson brothers have been drafted by NHL teams, and that all three play defense.

Victor, 18, was drafted 120th overall by Toronto in this past June’s NHL draft, and he’s playing for Leksands IF’s J20 team as an 18-year-old.

Anton, 20, was drafted 105th overall by the Red Wings in 2022, and he just played in his first full season for Leksands IF of the SHL, posting 3 goals and 5 assists for 8 points in 46 games (and 4 points in 7 playoff games).

Anton also played at the World Junior Championship, going scoreless in 7 games played, and he played in 14 games overall for the Swedish Under-20 team last season.

The Red Wings have a wealth of defensemen in their developmental system (mostly Swedish ones, too), but I’m fairly certain that Anton will be signed to a contract in the next year or two, having watched Anton play. He’s a right-shooting defender who stands at 6’4″ and 195 pounds, and he’s still growing into his big body, but he’s got a bit of an edge to him.

Sweden’s defender Anton Johansson and USA’s defender Lane Hutson clash during the final ice hockey match between USA and Sweden of the IIHF World Junior Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden on January 5, 2024. (Photo by Adam Ihse/TT / various sources / AFP) / Sweden OUT (Photo by ADAM IHSE/TT/TT News Agency/TT NYHETSBYRÅN/AFP via Getty Images)

Older brother Simon, 25, was drafted 148th overall by the Minnesota Wild back in 2018. He plays for the AHL’s Iowa Wild. He’s played two seasons in North America after maturing in Djurgardens IF’s system. He’s probably the most offensively talented of the three Johansson brothers, having posted 21 points in 71 games for Iowa last season.

Both Victor and Anton have to deal with the slings and arrows of trash talk sometimes, because their dad is Thomas Johansson, a former professional hockey player who is now the GM of Leksands IF. He’s going into his seventh season as the SHL team’s general manager…And dad was a defenseman, too, playing for Stockholm-based Djurgardens IF for most of his playing career.

If Andrew Copp’s become Detroit’s shut-down center, that’s okay

Red Wings center Andrew Copp hasn’t produced a ton of offense over his two-season tenure with the team, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that Copp wants to tap into his offensive game this upcoming season, but Copp understands that he’s probably going to be playing on a “third line” with Michael Rasmussen and Christian Fischer, yielding more of a shut-down role:

“Role wise it kind of changed from last year being a little more offensive to this year kind of playing against the other team’s top line in a checking capacity,” Copp said. “There’s more to my game offensively but that wasn’t really asked of me. You kinda just gotta do what’s asked of you. It felt like I did a decent job, especially down the stretch.”

As much as he downplays his offensive contribution, Copp did score 13 goals last season. That was his third-highest output as an NHLer. And he did so while seeing very minimal power-play time.

“It’s really tough to produce five-on-five in this league,” Copp said. “Power play is a huge part of producing.”

Between them, Copp (13), Rasmussen (13) and Fischer (five) would combine for 31 goals. The Red Wings will again be seeking that type of scoring depth from their bottom-six forwards.

“It felt like, especially when Me, Ras and Fish were going, I thought we were producing and we were playing against the other team’s top line through a lot of the games that we won down the stretch,” Copp said.

Continued;

If Copp works best as a 3rd line center, that’s where the Red Wings should play him. I was initially expecting more offense from him given his salary, but I’m comfortable with the concept that Rasmussen, Copp and Fischer can be used as a shut-down line, with Copp teaming up with J.T. Compher as a fine penalty-killing unit.

Going into his third season in Detroit, Copp may not have fulfilled the expectations of Wings fans thus far, but as long as he’s maximizing his impact with the team, I’m comfortable with the Wings spending $5.25 million on a checking-line center.

Sometimes you get what you get from a player offensively. Copp’s going to be around for a couple more seasons at least given the size of his contract, so let’s see him play well and worry about the here and now.

After all, as my Aunt Annie and the great comedian Carol Burnett say, “Should’ves and could’ves are words we don’t use; they only depress us, and give us the blues.”

More about the ‘Yoopers United’ vs. Red Wings Alumni game on September 17th

As previously noted, on September 17th, the “Yoopers United” hockey team (with Slap Shot’s Steve Carlson in tow) will battle the Red Wings Alumni in order to raise funds for the United Way of Marquette County.

On Friday, the team’s liason, Nick Boyle, spoke with UPMatters.com’s Jake Durant about the upcoming event:

Tickets for the Yoopers United vs. Detroit Red Wings Alumni game are on sale right now. You can get those online or at the NMU Ticket Office. Boyle says grab them now while you still can.

“I can tell people is that we’re going to get a fantastic roster that’s coming up,” said Boyle. “I know it’s hard waiting for find out what’s going on. Some people are waiting to buy tickets. Please don’t because when the roster is announced, it’s going to be incredible.”

While the final rosters are not yet finalized, Boyle did give us a sneak peak of what to expect.

“We’re going to have at least six players coming up that are directly involved with the Red Wings from Traverse City. So, we know we’re getting big name talent from that. Also, we’ve got guys returning from the Red Wings as well that everybody loves up here. Obviously where Mickey Redmond, Joey Costa, when he was up last year, said he wasn’t going to miss this one. So, we can almost assume that he’s going to be here. Then, Randy McKay, everybody loves Randy and he’s already confirmed that he’s going to be coming down as well. We know for a fact that we’re getting a fantastic team. So, I really can’t stress enough to people, come on out, support the United Way, get your tickets early so you don’t miss out.”

Ottawa Senators assistant coach Bob Jones passes away due to ALS

A year ago in early August, I attended the “All in 4 ALS” charity game in Windsor, Ontario as a media guest of the Windsor Spitfires. It was a charity game held for Ottawa Senators assistant coach Bob Jones, who had been diagnosed with ALS a in January of 2023.

The game raised over $200,000 for charity, and Wings assistant coach Bob Boughner, then-Sens coach D.J. Smith and Red Wings coaches Derek Lalonde and Jay Varady brought in members of the Senators, Red Wings (including Dylan Larkin and Alex DeBrincat) and other players with Windsor Spitfires and Soo Greyhounds ties for what was essentially a gigantic party for Jones. From Brady Tkachuk to

I spoke with coach Lalonde after the game, but most of the players and coaches were far too busy holding the most raucous party for Jones after the game to speak, and that was OK: I understood that Mr. Jones faced a long fight, and it wasn’t my place to stick my nose in the party looking for quotes.

It turns out that Mr. Jones’ fight was a short one:

The Ottawa Sun’s Bruce Garrioch and the Hockey News’s Steve Warne penned obituaries today, and…

I didn’t know Bob Jones personally, but through the game last summer, I saw how very much he was loved by his friends in hockey and in life. There were at least forty players and a cast of what seemed like dozens of coaches, family and friends who showed up at the All in 4 ALS game, and Jones was feted like a hero.

He deserved the praise. And now he’s gone, and even though I didn’t know the man, I feel like I lost a friend given the amount of love I witnessed him receive. The man know how to throw a party, too.

ALS is a mean son of a bitch. And it needs to be erased.