Author: George Malik

I had to crash over the course of Sunday afternoon an all of Monday, so I apologize for the lack of content during that time. Here’s a digest of what Red Wings-related happenings were posted during that time:

1. As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff noted, when Red Wings prospect Anton Johansson took a 5-minute major penalty for boarding in Leksands IF’s first exhibition game vs. Linkopings HC, he missed the opportunity to play in a full game with his brother Victor Johansson, who’s a 19-year-old left defenseman. As you probably know by now, Anton and Victor’s father, Thomas (or “Tjomme”) is Leksands IF’s GM.

Per Duff:

The two were forming a defense pairing on the weekend as Leksands was facing Linköping in SHL preseason action. However, the pairing didn’t last long. Anton was assessed a match penalty for boarding eight minutes into the game.

“I told him afterwards it was fun that I got to play with you,” Victor told Swedish website Falu-Kuriren.

“We had of course hoped to play more together now that we started together. But that’s what happens.

“I hope for more minutes (together) in the future.”

Anton’s older brother, Simon, plays for Ilves of the Finnish Liiga. He was in the Minnesota Wild’s system for several seasons.

2. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen also took note of several exhibition games’ results on Sunday:

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman lists his top prospects in the NHL this morning, all 172(?) of them…

And he lists Nate Danielson #42nd, Simon Edvinsson #46th, Marco Kasper #52nd, Axel Sandin Pellikka #54th, Carter Bear #66th, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard #68th, and Sebastian Cossa #137th.

Pronman is bullish on Danielson…

Danielson’s production in Grand Rapids wasn’t amazing this season, but he played huge minutes and was often highly noticeable, a trend that’s followed him the last few years. He has excellent one-on-one skills, he skates well and his ability to create chances in transition will make him dangerous in the NHL. He’s a strong passer and shooter who can make a lot of things happen inside the offensive zone. Danielson is also a diligent two-way center. I get the concerns about his production, and at some point, he’s going to need to produce points consistently, but when I’ve watched him, I think his skill is legit and that he can be a top-six forward.

But a little less psyched about Axel Sandin Pellikka…

Sandin Pellikka had an excellent season, posting huge numbers in the SHL for a teenage defenseman, and was the best defenseman at the World Juniors. ASP is a highly skilled and poised defenseman. He looks calm and intelligent with the puck, making a lot of great plays, and has the soft touch of a power-play quarterback. ASP can beat teams with his skill, but also his shot, as he has a bullet one-timer from the left circle that projects to be a legit weapon versus NHL goalies. He’s not that big, but he’s mobile and wins a surprising number of battles for a guy his size. He projects as a top-four defenseman who should be OK defensively in the NHL while being able to run a first power-play unit.

Trey Augustine doesn’t make his list at all, with Pronman believing that the 6’1,” 194-pound Augustine is too small to stick in the NHL, per the embedded audio clip.

5’10,” 170-pound Dmitri Buchelnikov probably misses the list due to his size as well.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff shares the highlights of a paywalled interview from iDnes.cz’s Patrik Czepiec as part of a larger article in which Duff profiles Red Wings prospect Ondrej Becher:

Detroit chose Becher 80th overall on draft day a year ago. That was following a 32-goal, 96-point season for Becher with the WHL Prince George Cougars.

Becher also collected 19 points in 15 WHL playoff games that spring. Red Wings’ bird dogs got plenty of chances to put their eyeballs on the Czech forward. His club wound up squaring off against Portland, the team of Detroit’s 2023 first-round pick Nate Danielson, in the WHL conference finals.

“His skating is something that when you watch him play, he has that extra gear,” Detroit assistant GM and director of amateur scouting Kris Draper said. “You watch him and he’s able to bring that speed and skill set.”

Slowed by an ankle injury at the start of last season, Becher would manage to accumulate 10-10-20 totals in 59 AHL games with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Similar to his time in Prince George, Becher, 21, was left to earn every minute of his ice time with the Griffins. And he’s fine with that.

“I had to fight for it,” Becher said. “I started on the third and fourth lines. The beginnings were very difficult, but I worked every day and earned my place.”

Continued; the Red Wings had to ink Becher to a 2-way contract as he “aged out” of the WHL this past season, but the 21-year-old center appears to have the patience necessary with which to maximize his developmental time in Grand Rapids.

He’s plucky, for lack of a better term, and having a strong work ethic in addition to a strong skill set affords him an attempt to buck the odds against him.

Updated 2x at 8:21 AM on Sunday, August 31st: According to Russian Machine Never Breaks’ Ian Odland and the Hockey News’s Sammi Silber, former Red Wings forward and Hockey Hall of Famer Pavel Datsyuk held his final “Magic Game” in Yekaterinburg today.

Alex Ovechkin, Ilya Kovalchuk, Sergei Fedorov and of course Datsyuk took part in the friendly game, and MatchTV’s Pavel Lysenkov conducted a very, very long interview with Datsyuk as part of the celebrations. Kovalchuk, Fedorov and Ovechkin discussed the game, which Datsyuk himself initially described as his “Farewell to Hockey,” and Datsyuk, who works for Avtomobillist Yekaterinburg’s youth program, was named an “Honorary Citizen of Sverdlovsk.” Fedorov also discussed the fact that the Red Wings will eventually retire #13, and Datsyuk expressed some disappointment that his North American teammates couldn’t attend the game.

I’m not going to plug the Lysenkov interview into Google or Firefox because it’s FRICKING LONG, and I’m gonna be honest, I don’t want to spend my Saturday night translating a lengthy Russian interview (it’s been a long week of both work and caregiving as Aunt Annie tweaked her back pretty badly, and I’m kind of fried here), but I can tell you that Pavel’s son, Pavel Jr., is a goaltender, and that, while Datsyuk’s very happy to discuss his start in Detroit on the “Two kids and a goat” line, the evolution of the game after the 2004-2005 lockout, the Wings’ rivalry with Pittsburgh, his personal comparisons to Marian Hossa, and his leadership role on the Wings…

He’s still damn proud about having fought and won against Corey Perry, too.

Right now, Datsyuk’s basically a youth hockey coach with Avtomobilist, and for a long time during the course of his NHL career, he said that he hoped to work with children during his post-NHL career, so it sounds like the Magic Man is “living the dream.”

Update: Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted two Tweets of note from the game:

If I were to be asked which Red Wings prospect I’m eying most closely going into this upcoming NHL season, I would say that it’s 23-year-old defenseman William Wallinder.

The 6’4,” 190-pound lefty is really in his “fish or cut bait” season with the Grand Rapids Griffins, and by that I mean that most Europeans who don’t make the NHL by the end of their 3rd season (which Wallinder is going into) tend to head back home to earn more money and notoriety while playing a less-punishing schedule back in Europe.

Wallinder is never going to be a massive point-producer, but he’s one of those 4-5-6 defensemen who could become a very important supporting piece on the Wings’ blueline, and this evening, the Hockey News’s Michael Whitaker picks Grand Rapids Griffins assistant coach Brian Lashoff’s brain about Wallinder’s development:

Wallinder has spent the previous two seasons with the American Hockey League affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins, skating in 127 total games along with another 12 postseason games. His ice time increased with the Griffins this past season to the numerous call ups by the Red Wings of William Lagesson, who often served as the club’s eighth defenseman. 

In the mind of Griffins head coach Brian Lashoff, a former Griffins and Red Wings defenseman in his own right, Wallinder is progressing nicely. 

“He’s steadily progressing into a guy that I think is definitely has potential to play,” Lashoff said of Wallinder. “He, you know, took steps last year, playing more minutes, and we had (William) Lagesson with us at the start of the season, and then he went up to Detroit, so Wallinder took over a lot of that ice time. And I think he did well.”

Lashoff touted Wallinder’s skating and stickwork among his strengths that will eventually help him earn a full-time gig at the NHL level. 

“And, you know, obviously a great skater, you know, underrated. I think defensively, he has a good stick, and those types of things are going to be huge for him to take the next step to go to the NHL,” he said. “So definitely a guy that I think is steadily, steadily progressing to the point where he’s going to be knocking on the door.” 

Continued; to me, Wallinder is sort of a giant-sized Albert Johansson, a larger version of the Wings’ stalwart second-pair defenseman with longer arms, legs and reach through his stick.

Wallinder, like Johansson, isn’t physical per se, but he takes no shit from his opponents, and while Wallinder is going to have to battle his way up the depth chart, his 128 regular season AHL games’ worth of experience and steady play during that period of time suggest that he should be at least earning his “cups of coffee” with Detroit by mid-season, presuming that all continues to accelerate in terms of his steady development.

This is a very small hockey blog, so I tend not to pay attention to page hits or “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) of headlines, blog entries or the occasional self-written piece.

I know that there’s a small but incredibly loyal readership base here, and I tend to write for them (you), and the rest just doesn’t matter very much, because we get by financially, and we get by in terms of making the loyal and dedicated readers happy in terms of the content delivered.

Today, I wrote an article about the tremendously uphill climb that Red Wings prospect and Russian phenomenon Dmitri Buchelnikov may very well face beginning when he comes over to North America next spring.

There were two things that got left out of the article that I want to highlight for you this evening:

The ECHL’s Toledo Walleye are the Red Wings’ AA hockey affiliate, but Toledo operates mostly independently, in no small part because the ECHL is both salary-capped and containing teams whose rosters bubble and boil with tumultuous change over the course of the regular season.

Players come and go with fast and furious frequency as they bounce up and down the minor league ladders, get injured, and sometimes sign elsewhere for more money.

As such, Toledo Walleye coach Pat Mikesch is as much a general manager and architect of a team whose roster is always changing. This evening, the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe speaks with coach Mikesch regarding his attempts to build a successful roster after the Walleye lost in the ECHL’s Kelly Cup Final to Trois-Rivieres:

Fresh off a trip to the Kelly Cup Finals, Mikesch said the expectation for a franchise that has reached the conference finals in four straight playoff appearances is to reload.

“It’s motivation to put another group together that gives us an opportunity to be playing at that time of the year again,” said Mikesch, who will be entering his third season at the helm. “I like that it’s a young group and it’s a talented group.”

Two-time ECHL MVP forward Brandon Hawkins is the returning cornerstone piece for a roster that has a dozen players back from last year’s team that fell to Trois-Rivieres in the championship finals.

“I like the way it’s taking shape,” Hawkins said. “We have some grit and some skill. It’s a different look to the team but in a good way.”

Among the returning forwards are Hawkins, Sam Craggs, Conlan Keenan, Darian Pilon, Will Hillman, Colby Ambrosio, and Nolan Moyle.

“We know how much goes into it and how much of a grind it is, so we want to make sure we’re doing in the offseason gives ourselves a chance to be as competitive as we were a year ago,” Mikesch said.

Defensemen Brendon Michaelian, Colin Swoyer, Dylan Moulton, Jed Pietila, and Bobby Russell also have re-signed.

“You want guys who’ve won important games and have played in important series,” he said. “And then you want to make sure you’re replacing pieces that you lost and players who fit what we need. There are a lot of great players out there, and that is why our league is so competitive. But it’s just finding the right ones for us.”

Continued, with this nugget:

The Walleye coach said he expects to add at least one more forward and one more defenseman down the road. The Grand Rapids Griffins, Toledo’s AHL partner, also are expected to once again sent down a couple of prospects — including one or two goaltenders.

I’m guessing that Carter Gylander will end up being the Walleye’s starting goaltender.

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau has been offering estimations as to how the NHL’s 4 divisions will shake out. Today he suggests that the Atlantic Division will include a Red Wings team that falls behind the Panthers, Maple Leafs, Lightning, Senators, Canadiens and Sabres, only fending off the Boston Bruins to finish 7th in the Atlantic Division:

7. Detroit Red Wings

The Hockey News Yearbook Division Rank: 6th

BetMGM Atlantic Division Winner Odds: 41.00 (+4000) 

Why I’ve Ranked Them Seventh: It’s been painful to imagine the frustration Red Wings fans feel. This organization was for a very long time the gold standard for hockey organizations, but for the past nine seasons, Detroit has flailed and wailed, and been a non-playoff team. And for the past six seasons, they’ve had franchise icon Yzerman underwhelming in his attempts to build an elite roster.

Thus, the Wings have been unable to consistently compete with actual Cup contenders in the East and the Atlantic. Since 2015-16, the best this franchise has finished is in fifth place (just twice), and every other year was spent in sixth, seventh or eighth place in the division. That’s not an anomaly. That’s what you really are as a team. And that’s why we think Detroit is going to finish in second-last in the Atlantic

Why I Could Be Wrong: Todd McLellan came in as the Wings’ coach last season and had some immediate success. However, that success was short-lived, and Detroit’s players once again proved they weren’t a playoff team. But Yzerman added goalie John Gibson in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks this summer, and the defense-challenged Wings could respond very well to Gibson coming in and providing experience between the pipes.

The high end for this Detroit team is a wild-card spot, and you have to figure Yzerman is desperate to use every bit of his $11.9-million in salary cap space during the season. The Red Wings have some components to like, and the newly rejigged roster might catch lightning in a bottle and emerge as a wild-card team. 

Continued; Proteau is a stand-up fellow, so I’m not going to bag on him, but we’ll say that he and I disagree as to where the Red Wings will end up…

While I’m more than ready to admit that we’re going to be reading a ton of previews which instantaneously write off the Red Wings as an Atlantic Division basement-dweller, without the “it could still be positive” framing from Proteau.

As the season previews and prognostications begin to pile up, we’re going to be seeing a significant number of prognosticators suggest that Detroit’s going to bring up the rear of the Atlantic, and it’s up to the Red Wings themselves to prove their legions of critics wrong–with a little help from their GM.

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye asked Grand Rapids Griffins coach Dan Watson to react to the extension of the NHL-NHLPA collective bargaining agreement which begins in 2026-2027, and Watson suggested that it’s not all roses for AHL players attempting to make a preseason impact given that the preseason will drop from 8 to 4 games…

The changes will be interesting to see with Detroit’s AHL head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins, Dan Watson, believing the deal is ” good for both sides.” Watson expanded on his comments by saying the extra two games should help business with two more gates rather than pre-season ticket sales that normally aren’t as strong. 

“I I think both sides sort of gave up something. The negative side is with only four games, hopefully the guys that are knocking on the door of making the team will get enough reps and will get enough gameplay for teams to see them and be able to evaluate them,” Watson explained. 

Watson also weighed in on several other topics, per Tye:

Bleacher Report’s Hannah Stuart lists every NHL team’s “top prospect” this morning, and there’s no surprise as to which player she picks to represent the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, D

If whatever is going on with the Yzerplan wastes the best years of Axel Sandin-Pellikka’s early career, I will be claiming emotional distress.

We’re obviously not there yet; I’m just getting it out there. The Swedish defenseman is an incredible player—an offensively minded, dynamic defenseman with the ability to read the ice like he was given the script before the game started. He can quarterback a power play, make plays off the rush at his top speeds, and generally make life difficult for his opponents. He was the Red Wings’ selection for this year’s NHLPA Rookie Showcase, and I cannot imagine he’ll do anything but shine during the Red Wings’ training camp.

Sandin-Pellikka played two games with the Grand Rapids Griffins at the end of last season. I’m very often a proponent of giving European players extended time in the AHL to adjust to the North American game, but some guys just don’t need it. I personally feel Sandin-Pellikka is one of those guys. Hopefully, Steve Yzerman and Todd McLellan agree.

Continued; Stuart need not worry about the Red Wings “wasting” ASP’s prime years, but I believe that he’s going to start the season in Grand Rapids, barring a tremendous training camp and exhibition season.