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!

Prospect news: ASP 1+1 in Champions League; Buchelnikov 2A in VHL

Of prospect-related note:

In the Champions Hockey League, Axel Sandin Pellikka scored the 5-2 goal and had an assist on the 2-0 goal in Skelleftea AIK’s 5-3 win over Tappara. Skelleftea has won 3 of its 4 CHL games thus far.

Sandin Pellikka had a goal and an assist, finishing at +1 in 16:53 played for Skelleftea.

You can watch highlights of the game here:

And in the VHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov had two assists in SKA Neva St. Petersburg’s 4-2 loss to AKM.

Hockey News Hub on Twitter/X posted highlight clips:

The VHL is incredibly slow in terms of updating their game sheets, so I’ll post Buchelnikov’s game stats as soon as they’re posted here.

Update: Buchelnikov finished with 2 assists and a +1, taking 1 shot in 15:16 of ice time.

Some (proper) panning of the Chiarot contract

Bleacher Report’s Joe Yerdon discusses the contracts which he deems to be the “worst contracts” for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and he’s not a fan of the Ben Chiarot deal in Detroit:

Ben Chiarot has a particular set of skills and he’s generally pretty good at them.

He’s a defensive defenseman to whom points are an afterthought. He’s a great depth defender and specialized matchup guy.

The problem for Detroit is he’s paid like a guy who has to do more than that and now he’s got more competition for ice time. Chiarot has the highest cap hit among Red Wings defensemen at $4.75 million a year for the next three years.

With how poorly things have gone for Chiarot in Detroit, there’s a chance he could be fighting for ice time this season, never mind the two years after that.

Detroit added Shayne Gostisbehere, Justin Holl and Jeff Petry this summer in free agency and via trade. Mix in Moritz Seider, a healthy Jake Walman, Olli Määttä, and rookie Simon Edvinsson and it’s a real crowded house on the Motor City blue line.

If Detroit winds up out of the playoff picture once again, expect this will be a major point of discussion as to why.

Continued; I’d be very happy if the Red Wings were using Chiarot as a 2nd or 3rd pair, physical defender instead of a 1st pair puck-carrier.

When playing with a defensive partner who understands that Chiarot doesn’t stick to his side of the ice when he’s pursuing a check or another opportunity to hit or impede an opponent, he’s effective. He’s not effective as the partner for a puck-moving defenseman, because “losing his side” of the ice forces that puck-carrier to clean up some egregious defensive mistakes at times.

Bultman’s ‘burning question’ for the Red Wings

The Athletic surveyed its NHL beat writers regarding a “burning question” which each NHL team faces going into training camp, and Max Bultman weighed in with the following:

Detroit Red Wings

Exactly how much better are they? The Red Wings should be improved next season after adding a premium goal scorer in Alex DeBrincat, another strong two-way center in J.T. Compher, defensemen Jeff Petry, Shayne Gostisbehere and Justin Holl, and rounding out their depth on the wings and in goal. The question is: How much better? Those are some big adds, but the Red Wings also subtracted Tyler Bertuzzi, Filip Hronek and Jakub Vrana late last season. Is the sum total of those moves enough to push the Red Wings into serious wild-card contention in a loaded Eastern Conference? And what kind of steps will key returners Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider take? Training camp will give us our first look at just how much better than last season the Red Wings actually might be. — Max Bultman

Continued (paywall); I’m curious to see what the revamped Red Wings look like through training camp and the exhibition season as well. The team turned over nearly half its roster, and Tyler Bertuzzi was a big driver of play. I don’t know who’s going to step up to fill his role.

If we were to do a podcast…

Everybody’s got a podcast these days. I’m surprised that Aunt Annie doesn’t have one, honestly.

Living with an aunt means that I hear an earful of my own, “You should start a podcast” nags, too, but the hockey world seems so very jam-packed with podcasts that I’ve held off, because I’m not certain that there’s really anything else left to say.

With that out of the way, I may have a person lined up who is interested in doing a podcast with me, and if we’re doing one here on TMR, it’s going to have to be different.

So the questions here are obvious: what are you looking for that you can’t yet find in the other Red Wings podcasts?

What slides through the cracks, and what do you want to hear a different take on? What can we do to stand out, and what can we do to be outstanding?

This is all theoretical right now, but I’m very serious about establishing a podcast once training camp is over, and I need your input to make it worth your time.

That’s not easy in a crowded marketplace of Red Wings blogs and podcasts, but I believe that we can accomplish it together.

Post a comment below, send me a Tweet or an email (at rtxg@yahoo.com) and let me know what you think.

Tim Stuetzle’s ‘good luck on your way’ not exactly the tell-off it’s being made out to be

We’re all aware of the fact that the Red Wings acquired Alex DeBrincat in no small part because he wanted to “come home,” and today, a comment came out from Ottawa Senators forward Tim Stuetzle, appearing on the 32 Thoughts podcast, that stirred the drink.

If you’re into drumming up drama. Per the Score’s Sean O’Leary:

Ottawa Senators superstar Tim Stutzle made his stance on Alex DeBrincat’s desire to leave Canada’s capital crystal clear in a recent appearance on Sportsnet’s “32 Thoughts” podcast.

“If he doesn’t want to be there, I don’t want to make him have to be there,” Stutzle said. “You know, like, that’s fine to us. I think the whole group, we’ve been saying it, we want him to stay. We want him to be part of this group and he’s a great guy, great player.

“If you don’t want to be there, then good luck on your way.”

DeBrincat entered the offseason as a restricted free agent but was reportedly unwilling to sign an extension with the Senators. He was ultimately traded to the Detroit Red Wings and signed a four-year, $31.5-million contract.

Continued; getting a German “Good Luck With That” is not exactly being told off, but as the Red Wings and Senators’ fan bases do not like each other very much right now, this is being played up significantly.

Let’s wait until the teams meet, and see what happens then.

Khan: former Wing Chase Pearson signs in Slovakia

According to MLive’s Ansar Khan, former Red Wings prospect Chase Pearson has signed with a Slovakian Extraliga team:

Chase Pearson, a one-time fourth-line center prospect for the Detroit Red Wings, will continue his career in Slovakia following five seasons with the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Pearson, 26, signed a one-year contract with HK Dukla Michalovce of the Slovak Extraliga.

The 6-2, 200-poiund forward appeared in 47 games last season with the Griffins (four goals, 10 assists). Overall, he played in 194 games in Grand Rapids (29 goals, 49 assists, minus-33).

Pearson played three games with the Red Wings in 2021-22 (no points).

Rental car appraisal

For two weeks and two days, the rental car would cost $1,434.00.

There was no discernible difference between a compact car and an SUV given the demand for vehicles at present.

We’re going to need some assistance bridging this gap.

If you can lend a hand with our overall expenses, we have an old-fashioned GoFundMe here https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-george-annie-attend-prospect-tournament, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

Pre-trip complication: our 06 Pacifica’s been deemed ‘unsafe to drive’ by our mechanic

Gang, we’ve got a big, fat complication in terms of the Traverse City trip. My 2006 Chrysler Pacifica has been deemed unsafe to drive long distances (any distance, really) by our mechanic in town. Norm says that the sub-frame is rusted out, and that we cannot drive the car to Traverse City.

Renting a car for the approximate two-week trip would cost us around $1,500 from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which is our local rental place. We’ll try to see whether we can get discounts due to Aunt Annie’s AARP status and our status as customers of Norm’s Total Automotive, but we don’t have the money budgeted for this expense, so I don’t know what to do.

If you have any recommendations, I could use them.

If you can lend a hand with our overall expenses, we have an old-fashioned GoFundMe here https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-george-annie-attend-prospect-tournament, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

Trying to keep the fundraising faith

As we near the departure date for the prospect tournament and training camp, today is a particularly nerve-wracking, because I’m going to receive the estimate as to how much it will cost to repair.

That repair bill might cut into the hotel money, and we haven’t been able to raise the full $2,925 in the GoFundMe yet–we’re about $300 short today–so we’ll be going up uncertain whether we can cover our costs without exhausting what little discretionary income we might have.

Our fundraising drive has been absolutely blessed by a couple of high-profile donors and some real die-hard fans, but I get the feeling that some of you are holding off for one reason or another. So we’re crossing our fingers that, once I produce some product, those of you who remain on the fence might find value in what you’re reading.

However, we’re at where we’re at in terms of overall fundraising and trying to break even somehow, and the grind of doing this has not been pleasant. In an era where every cause has a GoFundMe, and it’s not really hockey season yet, I suppose that it shouldn’t be that surprising that we’ve struggled thus far, but it is discouraging.

That being said, optimism must prevail to get us up to Traverse City, so:

If you can lend a hand with our overall expenses, we have an old-fashioned GoFundMe here https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-george-annie-attend-prospect-tournament, you can use PayPal at https://paypal.me/TheMalikReport, Venmo at https://venmo.com/george-malik-2, Giftly by using my email, rtxg@yahoo.com, at https://www.giftly.com. And you can contact me via email if you want to send me a paper check. I’m also on Cash App under “georgeums.”

Tweet of note: Wings will stream prospect tournament games

Red Wings play-by-play announcer Ken Kal confirms that the Wings will be streaming their three prospect tournament games: