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!

Not surprisingly, the Wings’ ‘next wave’ has a Scandinavian flair

Sports Illustrated’s Jacob Punturi discusses the fact that the Red Wings’ ebb of Swedish-born players over the last five-to-seven years appears to be returning to its usual gush of Scandinavian-born, SHL-bred talent (with a bit of a twist this time around):

The team selected German defenseman Moritz Seider sixth overall in the 2019 NHL Draft. In 2020-2021, he played a full season with BK Rogle in the SHL and it readied him for a top-pairing defensive role with the Red Wings.

In 2020, the team selected Swedish forward Lucas Raymond with the fourth overall pick. After developing in the SHL for several seasons, he quickly succeeded in the Red Wings lineup, scoring 23 goals as a rookie. He’s entering his fourth season in the NHL at just 22 years old, looking to improve on his 72-point outing in 2023.

The pipeline continues with prospects waiting to contribute in the NHL. Top prospect Simon Edvinsson is on the verge of a full-time role with the Red Wings. He honed his craft with the Frolunda HC of the SHL, playing as a top-pairing defender as an 18 and 19-year old. Now 21, he has 25 NHL games under his belt and should be a permanent fixture on their blueline for years to come.

Similarly, Jonatan Berggren is an intriguing Swedish forward that could impact the Red Wings in 2024. Two seasons ago he was a 15-goal scorer at the NHL level, but he spent the 2023 season with the AHL team, racking up 56 points in 54 games with Grand Rapids.

Behind Edvinsson, the prospect pool is bright thanks to the Swedish connection the Red Wings built. Last year’s first-round pick, Axel-Sandin Pellikka, had 10 goals and 18 points in 31 games with Skelleftea AIK of the AHL. It was a solid post-draft season for the athletic and skilled defender, who is looking to round out his play in his second season with the team.

He’ll be joined this upcoming season by the Red Wings’ most recent first-round pick, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard. The Norwegian-born forward is set to play in Skelleftea, provided he doesn’t make the Wings’ team this season, where he should be an absolute menace to deal with.

Continued; there are some constants in the world, and the Red Wings being good at finding players who skate in Sweden is one of them. The number of Swedes on the Wings’ roster may rise and fall over time, but as long as Hakan Andersson is around, they’ll be making at least one draft pick a year from the home of their former fishing guide turned prospect guru.

Tweet of note: HBD, Brian Lashoff

Per the Grand Rapids Griffins on Twitter, I’ve met scores of professional athletes, but I’ve never met anyone as professional as Griffins assistant coach Brian Lashoff. So “Lash” gets a shout-out on his birthday:

THN’s Ferrari examines the Red Wings’ prospect pool

The Hockey News’s Tony Ferrari examines the Red Wings’ prospect pool today, and he prefaces his deep dive into the Wings’ developmental pipeline with the following:

The Detroit Red Wings took a step toward playoff contention last season, being eliminated in the final minutes. But their young NHL players played an important role in nearly making it.

Lucas Raymond put the team on his back in the final month of the season, picking up the slack with captain Dylan Larkin out. Their goaltending waned, some of their depth scorers weren’t producing as much, and the blueline was being exposed left and right, but Raymond was there to score a game-tying goal or an overtime-winner to keep Detroit in the thick of the race. His ascension to stardom truly began.

Moritz Seider faced arguably the toughest competition in the NHL as the team’s top defenseman, and his numbers took a hit because of it. While he did a solid job, the Wings will need some help going forward.

Thankfully, the Wings have a number of blueliners coming with Simon Edvinsson being the next in line for NHL work. He saw some action at the end of the season and immediately looked like the team’s second-best defender. He uses his 6-foot-6 frame well, and his skating is impressive. He has all of the tools you want from a do-it-all blueliner, but he just needs to refine some of his decision-making. There is no reason he shouldn’t be in the lineup on Day 1 of the season because outside of Seider, the Red Wings don’t have a defenseman who can affect the game in as many ways.

Albert Johansson will be an interesting player to watch, as the Swedish defender is no longer waiver-exempt. Having played for the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins last season, Johansson was consistently praised for his mature approach to the game. He is good at many things but doesn’t have an elite standout trait. He should beat out some of the vets on the NHL roster based purely on talent, but if not, he could be a player the Wings regret losing on waivers.

Overseas, the development of Axel Sandin-Pellikka has been going just as the Wings had hoped. The uber-talent offensive blueliner won a Swedish League championship with Skelleftea, collecting the Salming Trophy for the best Swedish defenseman in the league. He was also named the best defenseman of the world juniors while winning silver. 

Continued (it’s a good read!)

Tweet of note: Darren McCarty to promote Tim Horton’s ‘Camp Day’ on Wednesday in Southfield

Of Twitter-related note from the Red Wings: Darren McCarty will be appearing at a Tim Horton’s in Southfield, Michigan tomorrow to promote Camp Day:

Roughly translated: Lucas Raymond speaks with NHL.com/sv about the 2023-2024 season

Red Wings forward and current restricted free agent Lucas Raymond was profiled by NHL.com/sv’s Sebastien Noren today, and here’s a rough translation of said profile:

The 2023-2024 season in the rear view mirror: Lucas Raymond

Detroit Red Wings forward accounted for his definitive breakthrough: “It’s something to build on”

During the offseason, NHL.com/sv looks back on the past season. In this series of articles, we’ve picked the 21 most popular players on the site, and studied how they performed in 2023-2024. From Elias Pettersson to Adrian Kempe and Auston Matthews: here’s the 2023-2024 season in the rear view mirror.

Today: Lucas Raymond

After experiencing an up-and-down second year in the league, Lucas Raymond had his definitive breakthrough this past season. The 22-year-old from Gothenburg led the Detroit Red Wings with 72 points (31 goals + 41 assists) in 82 games, and he set new personal bests in all categories.

Raymond was one of the big reasons that the Red Wings were in the race for a wild-card spot until the end of the regular season, and he’s blossomed into a key player for Detroit, which took a big step forward as a team in 2023-2024.

The Red Wings have been a rebuilding team for several years, but this past season, they shifted gears, and they came very close to making the playoffs for the first timie since 2017. Recording 91 points, Detroit ended up just outside the playoff cut in the Eastern Conference, with the Washington Capitals clinching the final wild-card spot with the same number of points but more regulation time wins.

“It was so close now, and it’s hard. But with some distance from it, we’ll feel more satisfied,” Raymond says. “We have learned a lot; this was a good experience for the guys who haven’t been in this situation before. When I look back upon my first two years here, we were out of the playoffs very early, and we were just playing meaningless games toward the end. And even though we missed now…It was big for us and for our team to play games that mattered right down to the end.

“We have something to build upon.”

Continue reading Roughly translated: Lucas Raymond speaks with NHL.com/sv about the 2023-2024 season

A little bit about ‘Taxi’

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton posted a “Getting to Know” feature on Red Wings 2024 1st round draft pick Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, and you may not know about MBN’s nickname as of yet:

One unique aspect of Brandsegg-Nygård’s game is that he is foregoing the usual NHL nickname convention (diminutive of last name plus -y or -er) for something more entertaining.  Cleary also revealed that Brandsegg-Nygård goes by the nickname “Taxi” on the ice, a soubriquet he inherited from his father.

Brandsegg-Nygård’s father Richard’s family drove a cab, so when Richard’s mother dropped him off for hockey practice or a game, she did so in the cab, and the name nickname “Taxi” came to be.  When it was Michael’s turn to be dropped off at the rink, the family car and were business were unchanged, so that nickname added a new generation.

Continued; he’s not on EliteProspects, but Richard Brandsegg-Nygard was a pro hockey player for Valerenga, MBN’s parent team.

IceHockeyGifs shares part of a Swedish-language interview with Simon Edvinsson

Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson gave an interview to Norra Halland’s Christian Johansson, and the interview is paywalled, but IceHockeyGifs on Twitter shares some of the interview with us:

5 Wings prospects crack The Athletic’s Wheeler’s ‘Top 100 drafted prospects’ list

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler posted a list of his top 100 drafted prospects this morning, and the Red Wings are represented by Simon Edvinsson at #29, Axel Sandin Pellikka at #37, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard at #39, Nate Danielson at #49 and Marco Kasper at #62. Here’s what he has to say about Sandin Pellikka (one paragraph out of two, anyway):

Sandin Pellikka is an individually talented, competitive 5-foot-11 defenseman with natural scoring instincts and the tools to execute. He’s got really good edges and mobility and has shown improved speed in straight lines to pull away from chasers (with more room for growth there still). He walks the line to get shots through at a high level, wants the puck in the offensive zone and has the skill and shot to make things happen when teammates find him off the point or as the trailer off the rush (which he often activates into). He keeps his head up in the neutral and defensive zones and is a confident puck carrier on exits and entries. Though he’s not big, he’s athletic and he plays hard and physical and engages in battles in the defensive zone with some sneaky strength. He’s got a good stick. He does a good job maintaining gaps and matching opposing forwards step for step skating backward, and times his close-outs and pinches effectively. He can really shoot it with a pinpoint accurate shot, a wrister that comes off hard and an eagerness to put pucks on net from the point. There are times when he can wait too long to make his decisions and I wouldn’t call him super creative, but he makes good choices more often than he’s careless and he has progressed really rapidly. He’s got a chance to be an impactful, maybe even high-end offensive defenseman and defensively capable second-pairing one. When he’s on, he can control the game in all three zones.

Continued (paywall)

White Lake’s Austin Baker takes his first developmental steps

The Red Wings drafted White Lake Township’s Austin Baker, a 6,’ 190-pound left wing, 203rd overall during last month’s NHL Draft. Baker may be a 7th round pick, but he’s delighted to have been drafted by the Red Wings as one of three National Team Development Program picks in 2024 (see: Max Plante and John Whipple).

This morning, Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson profiles Baker via a subscriber-only article:

“[Development camp]’s super cool,” Baker said. “I got the chance to skate with [Pavel Datsyuk] when I was younger at one of his camps. Seeing him out there now, I’m a little older, he was trying to teach me something out there, so that was pretty cool.”

He worked at the camp, of course, but admits to a little rubbernecking.

“I’m just kind of taking everything in right now,” he said during camp earlier this month. “Just learning from the older guys. (Niklas) Kronwall’s out there, too. Some cool guys walking around. Just kind of taking everything in.”

Baker played for the U.S. Team Development Program the past two years, and is a Michigan State commit. But he’s going to spend another year in the USHL this winter, playing for the Sioux Falls Stampede.

“I think Michigan State’s got a really great organization,” Baker said.”They’re gonna have a really good team next year. I think I’ve still got a lot more to prove in the USHL.”

Continued (paywall) with comments from Sioux Falls Stampede coach Ryan Cruthers…

Khan discerns the Red Wings’ defense and goaltending situations

Yesterday morning, MLive’s Ansar Khan attempted to determine what the Red Wings’ forward lines might look like come opening night, and this morning, Khan examines his probable defensive pairs and goaltending hierarchy.

I think that Khan’s got the goaltending down pat, but that’s a little easier to say in mid-July than to watch shake out in September:

1. Cam Talbot

2. Alex Lyon

3. Ville Husso

Lyon didn’t play the first five weeks of the season as the No. 3 goalie and ended up appearing in more games (44) than any Detroit goalie due to Husso’s injuries. Uncertainty about whether Husso will be healthy and how effective he’ll be prompted the Red Wings to sign Talbot, who’s coming off a strong regular season and can handle a heavy workload at age 37. A lighter workload (25-30 games) should be good for Lyon. Having a No. 3 goalie – if that’s where Husso lands on the depth chart – at a $4.75 million cap hit is far from cost-effective, but the club’s hands could be tied. Husso probably isn’t tradeable and sending him to Grand Rapids would not provide much cap relief ($1.15 million).

Continued (paywall, sorry); at this point, it really does appear that the Wings will award Talbot the #1 job and utilize Lyon as the team’s back-up goaltender.

I don’t really know what will happen with Husso, because the Wings would have to eat a big portion of his salary to move him.