Author: George Malik

Per the ECHL:

The ECHL announced on Monday that eight ECHL on-ice officials, along with Manager of Officiating Riley Yerkovich, will work the 2023 NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City, Michigan from Sept. 14-17. This marks the 11th consecutive tournament that ECHL officials have worked games.

Debuting in 1988, the NHL Prospects Tournament will feature four clubs this year – Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Yerkovich will be responsible for the selection and scheduling of the officials for each game of the tournament and will assist any playing or rule situation that takes place during the tournament. The officiating staff for the tournament includes four referees and four linesmen.

“The ECHL Officiating Team would like to thank the NHL, Detroit Red Wings and participating teams for hosting one of the best off-season events in hockey,” Yerkovich said. “The Traverse City Prospects Tournament allows our officials to officiate high-caliber hockey and is incredibly important to the development of our on-ice staff. Furthermore, the ECHL Officiating Team would like to thank the support staff for all teams and Centre Ice Arena. Our officials always feel welcome at the event, and it is a highlight of many of their careers.”

ECHL officials who will work during the Prospects Tournament include referees Chad Ingalls, David Lilly, Hunter Mottinger and Brendan Schreider along with linespeople Zach Carson, Luke Pye, Tyler Willie and Kirsten Welsh.

Here’s a video of Lucas Raymond speaking with Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman for 10 minutes, as part of their “32 Thoughts” podcast. This was filmed during the NHL’s European Media Tour:

I’ve only rented a car once before in my life, so I headed to Enterprise today in my rolling deathtrap, a.k.a. my mechanically-deemed-unsafe Chrysler Pacifica, to pick up a rental car for the trip.

There were several terms and conditions which, as you might expect, popped up at the last minute, but I was a little stunned when the nice young lady at the counter told me that the red Chevy Equinox came with a $300 deposit that I had to make immediately, in addition to the rental fee to take the vehicle into my possession.

The Detroit Red Wings’ 2023 Prospect Tournament gets underway this Thursday as the Red Wings’ prospects will battle the Dallas Stars at Centre ICE Arena.

Detroit’s prospects will play in 3 games over the course of 4 days, battling Dallas, Columbus and Toronto, and the prospect tournament is an excellent warm-up for the break-neck pace of instruction and pace of play at the Red Wings’ main training camp.

Here’s a “Getting to Know You” summary of the Red Wings’ prospects, free agent invites and one Grand Rapids Griffins player participating in this year’s tournament:

Sportsnet’s staff posted a lengthy article assessing the Atlantic Division’s teams, and they’ve ranked the Red Wings in their third tier: “How High Can They Go?“

DETROIT RED WINGS
Key additions: Alex DeBrincat, J.T. Compher, Klim Kostin, Daniel Sprong, Christian Fischer, Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Holl, Jeff Petry, James Reimer
Key subtractions: Dominik Kubalik, Pius Suter,

Expectations: Do you still believe in the Yzerplan? Admittedly, this has not gone quite as patiently as many expected, as the Red Wings haven’t been shy to spend money on middle-of-the-lineup contributors, presumably to speed up the process and introduce a winning culture. The results have been improving, little by little, but last season’s Wings still finished over 10 points off the playoff pace.

This summer, GM Steve Yzerman made a splash for a top-liner, acquiring Alex DeBrincat, who they need to return as a 40-goal scorer or something close to it. But these Wings will be competing against the more deliberate rebuilders from Ottawa, Buffalo and even Montreal to rise up, and have to hope one of the contenders atop the division steps down. The Red Wings might be at the lower end of this tier, and you might even be able to argue for them to join Montreal at the bottom. Behind that, though, progress needs to be made.

Continued

Consider this a heads-up: two weeks from today, I’ll be taking part in a podcast which will discuss several prospect tournaments taking place around the NHL, including the Red Wings’ prospect tournament in Traverse City:

After this week on the @DPR_show, we will be covering the Sabres prospect challenge, Vegas rookie faceoff, and NHL prospects tournament in Traverse City (MI) with @TylerBall497 @megangley and @georgemalik. If you have players participating you want to hear about, let us know.

— Fantasy Hockey Lifer – Victor Nuño (@VictorNuno12) September 11, 2023

This week’s “32 Thoughts” podcast includes an interview that Jeff Marek and Elliotte Friedman conducted with Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond, during the NHL’s European Media Tour.

Raymond appears at the 39:40 mark of the podcast. Click on the link to listen.

The Red Wings’ annual prospect tournament gets underway in Traverse City, Michigan on Thursday, and runs through Sunday. Detroit will battle prospects from the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dallas Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Ahead of the tournament, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton examined the Red Wings’ roster for the tourney:

Not all of the top picks from the 2023 Draft will play (neither Axel Sandin-Pellikka, nor Trey Augustine), but Nate Danielson will be among the Red Wing delegation.  He will be joined by two other first round picks in Sebastian Cossa and Marco Kasper.

As a member of Detroit’s 2019 draft class, Elmer Soderblom will be among the most veteran players at the event. Elsewhere, Carter Mazur and Amadeus Lombardi will be look to build on their strong performances at development camp in July as they look to start their ’23-24 campaigns on the right foot.  

Meanwhile, William Wallinder (who did not attend development camp) will be manning the blue line for Detroit, as he continues his acclimatization process to the North American game.  Wallinder spent most of last season with Rogle in the SHL before a one-game cameo in Grand Rapids to close out his year.

Continued; here’s the Red Wings’ roster, which is very top-heavy:

Full 2023 #DRWPT roster. ⤵️

Who are you looking forward to watching?! pic.twitter.com/rLYjDpO9JE

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 24, 2023

Good morning. I wanted to let you know what’s going on with the fundraising push ahead of tomorrow’s departure date for the Traverse City trip.

Right now, barring any further setbacks, Aunt Annie and I are preparing as if we’re going up tomorrow. I went grocery shopping on Sunday, we’ve done some packing, and I pick up the rental car early this afternoon.

We’re still somewhat torn regarding the fact that we found out that we need to replace my 17-year-old Chrysler Pacifica on Friday, but we also understand that those of you who donated are paying for a service here, and that we would be letting you down by not going up.

The weekend’s been kind of weird, in both good and bad ways. We continue to receive both remarkable support and remarkable monetary donations from our hockey friends.

Via Paul Kukla of Abel to Yzerman comes an article in which The Score’s Josh Wegman discusses the “10 best under-the-radar NHL offseason additions.” Wegman ranks new Red Wings forward Daniel Sprong among his top ten:

Daniel Sprong

Position: RW
Cap hit: $2M
Term: 1 year

Sprong has been one of the game’s most efficient scorers over the past three seasons, ranking seventh in goals per 60 minutes at five-on-five since the 2020-21 campaign. He’s coming off his best year with 21 goals and 25 assists in 66 games despite averaging just 11:25 per contest.

It’s a mystery why the Seattle Kraken didn’t issue Sprong a $737,500 qualifying offer to retain his rights considering he’s only 26 years old and coming off his best season. But the Red Wings stand to gain.

Scoring efficiency doesn’t always translate when a player is bumped up the lineup. Still, it’s worth a shot for Detroit to see if Sprong can do more damage with extra opportunities. At the very least, the Red Wings have a bottom-six winger they know can provide offense.

Continued, with praise for the Canucks’ signing of Pius Suter, and Filip Zadina’s signing by the Sharks…