Author: George Malik

It’s one of those long days for me as a caregiver today. My aunt’s been up since 4 AM with acid reflux and bad body aches. I’m not feeling spectacular myself. It’s a gloomy day outside and my progress in terms of getting stuff done, be that in terms of phone calls I have to make or blog content, is slow and unsteady at best.

So I’m cranky, and when Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen offered this perfectly innocuous Tweet from the Hockey News’s Jacob Stoller, I all but audibly growled:

Hearing that the Toronto Marlies have re-signed Robert Mastrosimone to an AHL contract.

The 23-year-old recorded stellar underlying numbers in a bottom-six role as a rookie.

Mastrosimone was drafted 54th overall by the Detroit Red Wings in 2019. DET opted not to sign him. pic.twitter.com/nydLYa8dSZ

— Jacob Stoller (@JLStoller) July 23, 2024

With no disrespect involved toward Mr. Stoller, who I respect greatly…

Mastrosimone was the one who opted to hold out until the Red Wings’ rights to him expired on August 15th after his graduation year, not the other way around.

The Red Wings wanted to sign the 5’10,” 170-pound forward to an NHL contract and place the plucky little forward in Grand Rapids.

It was Mastrosimone and his advisor/agent who sent out smoke signals that they didn’t feel that the Red Wings were a good fit for him, and that they were going to test the open market, even as early as March of 2023. I remember the college hockey insiders writing columns and posting Tweets/X posts saying, “Yeah, he’s not going to sign with Detroit.”

Teams own the rights to drafted players who play in NCAA hockey until August 15th after their graduation year, and some players always hold out to test the marketplace as unrestricted free agents. The 23-year-old Mastrosimone was the one who chose to explore the market, not the other way around.

And it’s obviously annoyed this tired blogger on a Wednesday afternoon in late July.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills reports that Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde took part in a Q and A session with Ilitch Sports + Entertainment employees recently. Lalonde and Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Daniels discussed the direction of the team:

“Coming to the arena late in the season, those butterflies, you could feel the tension in the room because it mattered,” Lalonde said. “We’re methodically going in the right direction. To see some of the growth in those guys, yes it translates to wins, but it’s very rewarding as a coach.”

In 2023-24, his second season behind Detroit’s bench, Lalonde guided the club to its most wins (41) and points (91) since the 2015-16 campaign. And for the Red Wings to build on that success, the 51-year-old head coach said every player must be more committed to team defense.

“We’re going to ask the group for a little more this year,” Lalonde said. “Those teams that end up at the very end, the experience I had winning Stanley Cups, there was still an emphasis about keeping it out of the net.”

The Red Wings will open their 2024-25 regular-season schedule on Oct. 10 against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Little Caesars Arena. Lalonde said he’s excited about the potential of Detroit’s roster, expressing an eagerness to see how Patrick Kane performs after a full, healthy offseason.  

Kane recorded 47 points (20 goals, 27 assists) in 50 games last season after signing a one-year contract with the Red Wings on Nov. 28, following hip resurfacing surgery on June 1, 2023.

“First and foremost, I think it says something about Patrick Kane that he wanted to be here,” Lalonde said about Kane signing a one-year contract extension. “I think he was very clear in the process that he probably had — and obviously I wasn’t involved in those meetings but talking with Patrick after — better opportunity, more term and probably more money (in NHL free agency), but he felt part of something here last year.”

Continued

From Fox 28 in Columbus, Ohio:

The 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series game at the Ohio Stadium in March has been highly anticipated for months.

Presale tickets will be made available on July 30 for Blue Jackets 2024-25 Season Ticket Holders, with tickets for the general public going on sale later this year.

Another presale opportunity is for fans with partial ticket packages, including half and quarter-season packages, on Aug. 6.

At the game, the Columbus Blue Jackets will be facing off against the Detroit Red Wings as part of their historic rivalry.

The game is expected to bring over 122,000 people to The Shoe.

Anyone with ticket questions can visit this website. All other information about the NHL Stadium Series can be found here.

Here’s a bit more from the Blue Jackets’ website:

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted this Tweet from the KHL’s English-language account, which shows Red Wings prospect Dmitri Buchelnikov scoring a shootout goal last season, when he played for Admiral Vladivostok:

Sheesh, Dmitry Buchelnikov#KHLMoments pic.twitter.com/KRjFyOSBaq

— KHL (@khl_eng) July 23, 2024

Buchelnikov was loaned to Vladivostok by SKA St. Petersburg last season, and SKA traded his rights to Vityaz Moscow Region this summer. He’s 20 years old, he stands at 5’10” and 170 pounds (per EliteProspects), and he just signed a 2-year contract with Vityaz after posting 13 goals and 19 assists for 32 points in 55 KHL games last season.

Because the Red Wings’ management can’t get into Russia right now, they lean on European scouts and video to watch Buchelnikov. He may not come over until his contract with Vityaz is up, but Detroit wants him out of Russia and in their own developmental system as soon as possible.

We’ve discussed two Norwegian-language articles on Nitten.no in which Red Wings prospect Michael Brandsegg-Nygard told Wegard Bakkehaug that signing an entry-level contract with the Red Wings means that he may play for Skelleftea AIK of the SHL, the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL or the Red Wings, should he earn a spot in Detroit’s lineup out of training camp.

Then Bakkeheug spoke with Brandsegg-Nygard and Stian Solberg’s GM for the Norwegian “parent club,” Valerenga, and Anders Myrvold (a former Red Wing!) suggested to Bakkehaug that it will be best for MBN to play for Skelleftea after playing a level below for Mora of the Allsvenskan this past season.

Yesterday, we discussed an article in which MBN spoke witth Norran—behind a paywall–indicating that he’s training with Skelleftea this offseason, expecting to play there…

And this morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the first article from Nitten.no, as well as the behind-the-paywall article form Norren as they apply to Brandsegg-Nygard’s playing future:

I’m a little shocked to report that The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, Jesse Granger and Sean McIndoe rank the Red Wings as having the 18th-best overall goaltending situation in the NHL, when “current goaltending,” “future prospects” and teams’ “cap and contracts” are taken into account. They aren’t a fan of the Red Wings’ current goaltending situation, however (shockingly, I say, with sarcasm intended):

18. Detroit Red Wings

Current: 32

Granger: The Red Wings enter 2024-25 with four different goalies with extensive NHL experience. Cam Talbot is coming off a strong statistical season, but he did it behind a staunch Kings defense that tends to inflate goaltending numbers (just ask Ottawa how signing Joonas Korpisalo went). Detroit has some incredibly exciting goalie prospects, but the current situation doesn’t inspire that same excitement.

Future: 1

Wheeler: The Red Wings are the only team in the league with two goalies I believe are both top-10 goalie prospects in the sport. They’re also two very different goalies, with Sebastian Cossa’s size, fire, athleticism and raw potential contrasted against Trey Augustine’s stoic, cerebral calm and control. I’d be surprised if both don’t become 1A/1B types and the Red Wings don’t eventually have a tough decision to make on whether or not to turn over the net to two young goalies. Colgate’s Carter Gylander and 2024 fourth-rounder Landon Miller could give them some organizational depth as well. (I don’t see the recently acquired Gage Alexander as much.)

Cap: 11

McIndoe: The Wings have four veterans under contract for a total of $8.8 million this year, although a chunk of that will be buried in the AHL. Only Talbot is signed past this coming season; his $2.5 million deal is for two years, but otherwise, the plan seems to be to clear the deck and reassess in a year, which is probably smart. One question for then will be whether the team wants to recommit to Ville Husso, who’s been just OK on a $4.75 million AAV deal that expires next summer.

Bottom line: You have to love a team covering both ends of the current/future spectrum. For a franchise undergoing an ultra-patient rebuild, the future is probably still the priority, but the current situation will make a playoff run tougher than it probably should be unless one of those veterans steps up.

Continued (paywall); the whole point of having a five-goaltender platoon is to ensure that one of those vets do exactly that.

The Netflix film Axel F, a Beverly Hills Cop sequel, begins with a scene in which the Red Wings’ locker room at Little Caesars Arena is supposedly being robbed, and one Axel Foley, a.k.a. Eddie Murphy, has to foil the caper.

According to NHL.com’s William Douglas, Murphy nailed the scene–in no small part due to the fact that a “hockey guy” wrote the jokes:

Grant Fuhr gave the scene in “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F” five stars. In the new Netflix film, wisecracking detective Axel Foley, played by Eddie Murphy, tells a band of thieves that he’s the Detroit Red Wings’ new goalie as they attempt to rob the team’s dressing room at Little Caesars Arena.

“I am a five-time recipient of the Stanley Cup,” Foley says. “… I just want my goalie pads.”

Fuhr, the only Black goalie to win the Stanley Cup five times — with the Edmonton Oilers (1984, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1990) — loved the bit.

“I thought it was pretty funny,” he said. “I had a bunch of friends call me and they were like, ‘Hey, you got to see this.’ I’m, like, ‘Why? I’ve seen all the “Beverly Hills Cop” (movies).’ They’re, like, ‘No, no, you need to see this one.’ I think it’s awesome and a great honor.”

The goalie line in the opening moments of the hit action-comedy sequel is one of several that give a nod to Black hockey history.

They are the work of Kevin Etten, the self-described “hockey guy” on the writing staff of “Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.” Will Beall, along with Etten and his partner Tom Gormican, wrote the screenplay.

Continued; here’s the trailer:

The Red Wings acquired Czech defenseman and 31-year-old Radim Simek in a trade with the San Jose Sharks this past trade deadline, and the San Jose Barracuda captain continued to play in the AHL this spring, skating in 9 regular season and 8 playoff games for Grand Rapids.

According to Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff, Simek gave a Czech-language interview to iSport.cz’s Miroslav Horak which sounded some very familiar notes regarding European players suffering from minor-league fatigue:

The Detroit Red Wings wanted to keep defenseman Radim Simek in the organization. His point of view, though, was that he didn’t want to keep on riding buses.

“It is true,” Simek told Czech website iSport of the offer from the Red Wings. “It was a two-way contract with a guarantee of a lot of money, which was around the minimum amount in the NHL. But it wasn’t worth the money to me anymore.”

Last season, the Sharks were assigning him to the AHL San Jose Barracuda, where he would serve as team captain. It was the first taste of minor pro hockey in four years for Simek, who’s seen duty in 209 NHL games.

…

“I didn’t see a real future there,” Simek said of the North American pro game. “I would keep flying around the farm, take the bus eight hours round trip. At the age of thirty-two, I didn’t want to go through this anymore. I have other priorities.

“My wife and I are expecting the birth of our second child in October. For me to spend time on the bus and my wife was at home with two daughters, one of them a newborn . . . so I just said no to this.”

You hear this a lot from European players who aren’t too thrilled about their experiences in the AHL.

AHL teams play a 73-game schedule, and for teams like Grand Rapids, who are five to six hours away from Chicago, Rockford and Cleveland, so there’s a fair amount of bus travel, and especially for a player like Simek, who’s used to flying everywhere (though it’s not like San Jose has an easy travel schedule, either), that’s a rough go.

Players are generally on the hook for their own transportation and housing (though AHL teams will help players find a place to live), whereas European teams pay for housing of some sort (usually an apartment), a vehicle lease (though you’re going to be driving around with a sponsor decal on your car), and even bills and groceries on occasion.

There’s usually less guaranteed money in a European contract than the NHL side of an NHL/AHL contract (though veteran players can earn up to $300-$500K), but be

On top of that, Simek, who had 5 NHL seasons to his credit, was pissed off about the Red Wings requiring him to play in the AHL playoffs instead of being allowed to head back to Czechia for the World Championship (quote from iSport):

FYI:

The Stars-Red Wings Traverse City prospect games will be Sept 14-15

— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) July 23, 2024

The Red Wings are currently enjoying a second “buyout window” after reaching a pre-arbitration contract agreement with Joe Veleno on Friday.

As such, both The Athletic’s Max Bultman and the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood have wondered aloud today whether the Wings should exercise the option to buy out one of the millstones on the roster.

As Bultman notes, it’s not going to be easy to buy out Justin Holl this summer…

Why didn’t Steve Yzerman buy out Justin Holl’s contract? His contract is unmovable. His cap hit is an expensive one for a player sitting in the press box. — Mark F.

They likely didn’t want to be on the hook for four years of dead cap that would have come with a buyout. It wasn’t a massive number ($1.13 million each year), but four years is a long time to pay dead cap. The Red Wings’ management team likely believes Holl can play. Whether Lalonde uses him is another question, but I don’t get the sense from Yzerman that he thinks Holl is a lost cause.

Your point about the cap hit sitting in the press box is good, but the Red Wings probably don’t expect to be quite as lucky injury-wise this season as they were in 2023-24 — and if that’s the case, Holl could play more this season.

But if he doesn’t and he’s again a $3.4 million scratch for most of the season, I’d have to imagine they’ll explore a buyout next year, for just two years of dead cap at the same $1.13 million cost.

And Eargood wonders whether the Wings will buy out goaltender Ville Husso: