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!

Nate Danielson speaks with his hometown paper regarding his draft and development camp experiences

Last week, the Red Deer Advocate’s Ian Gustavsson spoke with two of Nate Danielson’s youth hockey coaches regarding the on-ice maturation of the Red Wings’ 2023 9th overall pick, and this evening, Gustavsson speaks with Danielson himself regarding his draft and summertime experiences:

“To get drafted by the Red Wings and hear [general manager] Steve Yzerman call my name it was pretty surreal,” he said. “Just the history that they’ve had with such great players go through there it’s cool to be a part of that.”

The selection was also a historical moment for the city of Red Deer. He became the first from the community to be drafted that high since Glen Wesley was taken third overall by the Boston Bruins in 1987. He was surprised to be taken that high but felt he had a great interview with the Red Wings during the NHL combine.

Following the draft, Danielson joined his fellow draftees and prospects at the Red Wings development camp in Michigan which was five days long. Danielson spent plenty of time on the ice developing his skills and learning from experienced coaches. He also got to meet members of the organization and got acquainted with the local media. The camp also wrapped up with a three-on-three tournament.

“It was really fun. Just to get to go down there, see their facilities, and get to meet a lot of the people there was a lot of fun,” he said. “Also, learning through skills work and power skating and a lot of off-ice work too. It was a really great week.”

At the end of July Danielson will head back to Detroit to get settled in before training camp where he’ll compete for a roster spot. Danielson explained the Red Wings have not indicated whether he’ll be playing for their American Hockey League affiliate the Grand Rapids Griffins or if they’ll send him back to the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings where he’s spent the last three seasons.

They’ll talk about that more once training camp starts where they can further evaluate his development.

“It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Being in Nashville was a really cool week but having my family there too it was nice to be able to spend some time with them,” he said. “Detroit was a lot of fun and I had a really great week. I signed with the Red Wings a couple of days ago so that was a pretty cool moment to sign my first NHL contract. It’s something I’ve dreamed of ever since I was young.”

Continued;

Danielson plays in the Canadian Hockey League (and the WHL, specifically, with Brandon), so he has to play in the WHL if he doesn’t make the Red Wings’ roster out of training camp. The rule right now states that if you’re an 18-year-old or 19-year-old, you can’t play in the AHL–it’s the NHL or the WHL, and nothing in between. The little pandemic exemption that allowed Donovan Sebrango to play in the AHL instead of the OHL has expired.

Khan’s mailbag: Discussing potential personnel moves (or the lack thereof)

MLive’s Ansar Khan filed a mailbag feature today, and his first question might be the most pressing one to Red Wings fans:

Q: We still have cap space and there’s some intriguing options still available, like Patrick Kane and (Vladimir) Tarasenko. Would love to see Kane on (Alex) DeBrincat’s line. They worked well together in Chicago. Any chance of that happening? – Doug

A: For what it’s worth, this is what Yzerman said about potentially making another move after acquiring DeBrincat:

“I’m not going to rule anything out. If there’s a great player out there and we can acquire him … we would strongly consider it. We’re not restrained by finances, we’re restrained by the salary cap. We’re not going to go to the cap just to go to the cap, but certainly if an opportunity comes along that makes our team better … we’re prepared to do that. Having said that, I’m not aware of any scenario that’s going to happen at this time. So, I don’t see us doing a whole lot more.”

Kane underwent hip resurfacing surgery on June 1 and is expected to miss four-to-six months. He’ll likely sign with a team when he’s closer to returning. He’s probably looking for a multiyear deal with a Stanley Cup-contending club. Don’t think he’d be interested in being part of a rebuild at this stage of his career.

Tarasenko reportedly is seeking a multiyear deal in the $6 million-a-year range. He won’t get that in Detroit. If the New York Rangers can’t afford him, maybe he goes to Ottawa as DeBrincat’s replacement if the Senators can find the cap space.

The Red Wings aren’t going to exhaust all of their cap space but could use another forward, maybe a bottom-six center.

Perhaps they’d be interested in bringing back Pius Suter on a reasonable one-year deal. At this point, he’s probably not getting the two-year contract he’s seeking on the market.

Another possibility is helping a cap-strapped team by assuming an expiring contract and acquiring a second-round pick in the process, like they did with Marc Staal and Nick Leddy.

Continued;

Kulfan profiles Marco Kasper

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan profiles Red Wings prospect Marco Kasper today. Kasper is arguably the team’s best offensive prospect, and, as Kulfan notes, he may be Detroit’s most well-rounded player:

The pictures were all over social media and for many Red Wings fans, it was a stark realization of how old many of them are.

The pictures of Marco Kasper, 19, graduating high school in Sweden earlier this spring and beaming in his school uniform. It shows how relatively young Kasper still is. But also shows the dedication and will that are also some of Kasper’s main attributes on the ice.

“In Sweden it’s hard to try to juggle school and hockey,” said Kasper, who happens to speak fluent Swedish, German and English. “I managed to do it with help from the teachers and principal.”

A typical day in Sweden the last couple seasons was practice early in the morning, work out, have lunch, then go to school. Kasper would get his classes done, maybe get caught up in his school work right after, then go home, have dinner, and finish up more homework.

“Then do it all over again the next day,” Kasper said.

Continued (paywall)

Press release: Grand Rapids Griffins reschedule Wednesday, March 13th game at Cleveland for Tuesday, March 12th

Per the Grand Rapids Griffins:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The American Hockey League on Friday announced that the Grand Rapids Griffins’ road game against the Cleveland Monsters originally set for Wednesday, March 13 has been rescheduled for Tuesday, March 12 at 7 p.m. due to a scheduling conflict at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

The Griffins will begin the 2023-24 season at Van Andel Arena on Oct. 13 against the Colorado Eagles. Fans can secure their full-season, select-season  or group ticket packages by calling (616) 774-4585 ext. 2 or visit griffinshockey.com for more information. Single-game tickets for the Griffins’ 2023-24 season will go on sale to the public later this summer through griffinshockey.com/tickets. Be sure to sign up to receive the Griffins Nation newsletters to be the first to know when tickets go on sale.

Toledo Walleye ink D Sean Farrell to 1-year contract

The Toledo Walleye have inked defenseman Thomas Farrell to a 1-year contract:

Here’s the Walleye’s press release:

(Toledo, OH) – Defenseman Thomas Farrell has agreed to terms with the Toledo Walleye for the 2023-2024 season.

Farrell made his pro debut with the Walleye during the 2022-2023 season, appearing in four games starting on March 8 at Wheeling. The Lake Bluff, Illinois native scored his first pro goal in his second contest, March 10 at Kalamazoo. He finished with a goal and assist in his four contests with Toledo, while logging a plus three rating.

The 24-year-old played his college hockey at Army, appearing in 126 games over four years. He finished with 62 total points (16G, 46A) over his college career, while serving as team captain in the 2022-2023 season. Farrell posted career-bests in goals (6) and assists (14) in his senior season and was honored during the 2020-2021 by being named to the AHA First Team.

Reviewing Andrew Copp’s 22-23 season

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills looks back at Andrew Copp’s 2022-2023 season this morning:

While his Detroit Red Wings teammates prepared for the 2022-23 season throughout training camp and the preseason, Andrew Copp was rehabbing from offseason abdominal surgery.

Copp did recover to make his Red Wings debut on Opening Night, but the 29-year-old forward admitted he was not his normal self at the start of his first campaign in Detroit.

“Especially in the beginning of the season, I don’t think I was playing my best,” Copp said in his end-of-season media session. “I got very pass happy. Kind of related to the injury, not being able to drive and skate with the puck as well as I would have liked.”

But Copp got healthier as the season progressed and finished with 42 points, including a career-high 33 assists, and was one of only three Red Wings skaters to play all 82 games.

“As the year went on, I thought he had a bigger impact,” Red Wings Executive Vice President and General Manager Steve Yzerman said. “He was very good on our penalty kill. He’s a very good defensive player. He was one of our plus players and played a lot of hard minutes.”

Continued; Copp will definitely be a better player after a year’s worth of recovery from his core muscle surgery, as well as a year’s worth of acclimation to the Red Wings’ systems of play.

DHN’s Allen examines three statistical metrics for Red Wings improvement

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen suggests that the Red Wings need to improve in three specific statistical categories in an attempt to make the playoffs during the 2023-2024 season. Here’s one of those statistical categories:

271 Goals Scored: The Red Wings only netted 237 goals last season. That means the team needs to increase goal production by 14.3%. Even with the addition of Alex DeBrincat and JT Compher, that’s a big ask. The Red Wings added Daniel Sprong, coming off a 21-goal season. But they moved out Dominik Kubalik’s 20 goals.

The key, as Yzerman has pointed out, will be increased production from everyone on the roster. Can Lucas Raymond go from 17 to 25 goals? It feels like he can. Certainly, Andrew Copp will improve on his nine-goal production. At worst, he should score 15-plus goals. That’s also true for Michael Rasmussen who has made himself valuable by becoming a better all-around player. But more goals are expected.

Younger players like Joe Veleno and Jonatan Berggren can do more. There’s no reason why Berggren can’t go from 15 to 20, given enough ice time.

The 271 goal standard is important. Eleven of the 12 teams that reached that number made the playoffs last season. The Vegas Golden Knights (267) and Carolina Hurricanes (262) also made the playoffs after falling just short of 271.

Continued (paywall)

Tweet of note: Five Red Wings to take part in the ‘All in 4 ALS’ game in Windsor on August 12th

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

Talking Datsyuk’s HHOF candidacy

The Athletic’s Eric Duhatschek answered reader questions in a mailbag feature today, and his answer as to whether Pavel Datsyuk is a Hockey Hall of Fame player is…weird:

How do you think the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee will handle Pavel Datsyuk next year in his first year of eligibility with the controversy around Russian players? With Mogilny, he’s been left out for so long it’s more of the same, but Datsyuk was generally thought to be a first-ballot lock. —Rory S.

I haven’t served on the selection committee for five years now, so I have no idea what the discussion was like this year when it came to a pair of Russian-born players, Alex Mogilny and/or Sergei Gonchar, who were thought to have reasonably good chances of making the grade in 2023 and didn’t. Was there a tacit fear that electing Russian players amid the war in Ukraine would reflect badly on the Hall? Hard to know. Selection committee chairman Mike Gartner, when interviewed on TSN after the selections were announced, carefully sidestepped a question about snubs or players who didn’t make the cut by saying that just because someone isn’t elected to the Hall of Fame one year doesn’t mean they won’t eventually become a Hall of Famer. Was that just a generic boilerplate observation, or can we read into that, that they were careful treading around Russian players? As for Datsyuk’s candidacy, he won four Lady Byngs, three Selkes, two Stanley Cups, appeared in five Olympics on behalf of Russia and scored 918 points in 951 NHL games. That’s a Hall of Fame resume. The debate or discussion will be: Is he a first-ballot choice or not? A few others who seemed like easy first-ballot choices – Joe Nieuwendyk and Dale Hawerchuk, for example – weren’t elected until their second years of eligibility. So there is a precedent to maybe push back Datsyuk a year.

Continued; yeah, war in Russia or no war in Russia, I don’t understand why you’d “push back Datsyuk.”

Khan profiles Sebastian Cossa

MLive’s Ansar Khan profiles Red Wings goaltending prospect Sebastian Cossa today. The 6’6,” 229-pound goaltender is attempting to build upon an excellent season with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye as he transitions to the AHL:

“It’s a big step up and one I want to continue taking for my development,” Cossa said. “I need to prove I can be there first.”

The Red Wings are counting on it. Cossa, who turns 21 on Nov. 21, is expected to team up with newly signed veteran Alex Lyon, 30, and give the Griffins better goaltending than they had last season when they used eight netminders.

Cossa was among the group but wasn’t AHL-ready, posting a 5.57 goals-against average and .783 save percentage, albeit in a small sample size (three games).

The 15th overall pick in 2021 fared much better in Toledo, going 26-16-4 with a 2.56 GAA and .913 save percentage. He went 5-2 in the playoffs, with a 2.32 GAA and .917 save percentage, helping the Walleye reach the Western Conference finals.

“I had some ups and downs, but I thought I had a strong second half and a good push in the playoffs,” Cossa said.

Continued