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 givin’ up the grind (and Radim Simek)

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):

Continue reading On givin’ up the grind (and Radim Simek)

Holl, Husso likely to remain Red Wings despite Detroit possessing a second buyout window (after signing Joe Veleno pre-arbitration)

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:

Continue reading Holl, Husso likely to remain Red Wings despite Detroit possessing a second buyout window (after signing Joe Veleno pre-arbitration)

Tweet of note: NHL Network’s ‘Brett Hull Day’ includes two Red Wings games

Per the NHL Network:

Tweets of note: A little bit of MBN’s interview with Norran and WJSS roster news

Of prospect-related note from Twitter/X:

  1. IceHockeyGifs shares the headline from Michael Brandsegg-Nygard’s interview with Norran yesterday:

2. And Red Wings Prospects shares some news regarding the World Junior Summer Showcase:

Time ticks on regarding the Raymond and Seider extensions

The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a mailbag feature this morning, and the first question he answers involves the time that it’s taking for the Red Wings to sign restricted free agents Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider to long-term contract extensions:

In my view, the biggest reason they have yet to be completed is because of their importance: If Seider and Raymond sign long-term, their new deals (along with Dylan Larkin’s contract, which runs through 2031) will form the long-term foundation of Detroit’s cap structure. From Seider and Raymond’s perspective, such deals would cover the majority of their prime earning years.

Both sides need to try to maximize the potential value of a long-term deal. As with any contract, it’s hard for both parties to do that at the same time.

Another potential reason it’s taking this long involves the effects of the rising salary cap — this year and the expected rises in the future. It’s easy to see the potential for wide discrepancies between team and player on what a fair deal should look like in this new market, especially one that could stretch up to eight years, with the potential for seven new cap raises in that span. Using percent-of-cap adjustments helps to mitigate that in Year 1, but there’s still some potential for sticker shock on the team side, compared to what Seider and Raymond’s peers have signed for in the past few years.

Detroit will get deals done with both players. But the big question at this stage is whether it leads to a bridge for Seider and Raymond. I wouldn’t recommend that route with Raymond, as his production seems the likeliest to shoot up again, but it would involve less long-term guesswork for all parties.

Continued (paywall); if I may be blunt, the Red Wings are negotiating against some pretty dumb $10+ million-average deals that other young players have been awarded by teams like the Sabres, and those “comparables” are definitely tying up some time in terms of negotiating more realistic cap numbers for Raymond and Seider.

Augustine earned rave reviews this past season

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a subscriber-only profile of Red Wings goaltending prospect Trey Augustine this morning, with Duff noting that Augustine played in 35 NCAA games for Michigan State University, 4 games at the World Junior Championship and 4 games at the men’s World Championship:

Taken to the senior worlds as the third goalie for USA Hockey. Augustine, 19, was pressed into action by an injury to Red Wings goalie Alex Lyon, and managed to win a couple of games.

“I’ve had some pretty unbelievable opportunities,” Augustine admitted. “I’m super glad for everyone that’s helped me get to this position I’m in today. It’s super cool and obviously I’d like to have some more cool ones in the future.”

Teaming with Augustine at the worlds, Lyon remarked at how wise beyond his years the teenaged puckstopper was proving to be.

“Obviously when I hear stuff like that it means a lot to me,” Augustine said. “Alex is a great guy. He kind of taught me a lot in the time he was there. I think just kind of seeing him prepare, seeing how serious he takes it on game days, it was super different than what I’ve seen from my past teammates. Very grateful that he was around.”

Continued (paywall); as Duff notes, Augustine is a kind of quiet young man, but he’s sharp and is a bit of a rink rat (according to teammate Red Savage), which may have something to do with his tremendous work ethic.

Vladimir Tarasenko, ‘brick house’

The Red Wings aren’t getting the same Vladimir Tarasenko that the Russian forward was when he was 25, but the 32-year-old winger provides thick body at 6’1″ and 219 pounds, and he possesses a wee bit of a mean streak, as Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes:

“For sure,” Detroit GM Steve Yzerman said, acknowledging the uniqueness of Tarasenko on his club’s roster. “A left-shot winger, a bigger body, a different-type player than our other wingers like Lucas (Raymond), Patrick Kane, Alex DeBrincat. He’s a scorer, a straight-ahead guy who’s big and strong and will go to the net. We feel it’s a really good addition.”

There are different methods through which a bigger player can utilize their body to bring successful outcomes on the ice. Tarasenko isn’t a Brendan Shanhan type. He’s not going to be banging bodies, dropping the mitts and collecting Gordie Howe hat-tricks.

Nor is he James van Riemsdyk. Tarasenko won’t be camping out at the net front, tipping home pucks and knocking in rebounds.

His big game is more about maximizing his frame to get and maintain possession of the puck in the offensive zone.

“He’s obviously a skilled guy, a great shooter, but he works so hard,” said Kane, Tarasenko’s teammate with the New York Rangers in 2022-23. “He’s hard on pucks. He wins a lot of pucks back, and he’s got a great knack for getting open as well, so I think it’d be a good fit.”

Continued

A bit about Ondrej Becher

This evening, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan discusses the Red Wings’ decision to draft 20-year-old center Ondrej Becher with the 80th overall pick in this past June’s NHL Draft.

“It just looked like everything potentially that he had as a 17-, or 18-year-old kind of hit as a 19-year-old,” said Kris Draper, the Wings’ director of amateur scouting/assistant general manager, after the draft. “He got a great opportunity and took advantage of it and was comfortable in it. He certainly put up great numbers. His skating is something that when you watch him play, he has that extra gear. He’s just sort of starting to come into his own and starting to feel comfortable about the type of player that he could possibly be.”

Becher realizes there’s plenty of more work ahead.

“I have to work hard every day, more than even before,” Becher said at the conclusion of the Wings’ development camp earlier this month.

Becher exploded for 96 points (32 goals, 64 assists) for Prince George (WHL) last season, and also had an impressive world junior championship for his native Czechia, with 10 points (seven assists) in seven games.

Considering Becher had 38 points for Prince George the season before, it was a monumental offensive improvement for a 6-foot-1, 184-pound center who many scouts actually grade out better defensively. Becher felt concentrating on the defensive end this past season helped him achieve success all over the ice.

“I start(ed) playing more defensively, so I become two-way player now,” Becher said. “I wasn’t a two-way player before. I try to improve in defensive zone, and I did. That’s why I am here now.”

Continued; as Kulfan notes, the Red Wings aren’t quite sure where Becher will play this upcoming season. The WHL’s Prince George Cougars can only have 3 20-year-old players on their roster, so Becher may be traded to another WHL team, or he may end up playing for Grand Rapids or Toledo.