Author: George Malik

Pavel Datsyuk is 45 today, and the Red Wings celebrated via a clip of highlights on Twitter:

No better day than his birthday to re-share some of these moves. 🤌🎂 pic.twitter.com/39VklL8dbP

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 20, 2023

Eyebrows were raised when the Red Wings picked 6,’ 185-pound left wing Dylan James with the 40th overall pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, but the Red Wings were satisfied with the progress the 19-year-old University of North Dakota player made this past season, as the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan noted:

James, 19, showed during his freshman season glimpses of why he’s a legitimate prospect. Playing for one of the nation’s best programs, James had 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in 36 games and was playing on special teams and late in games as the season progressed.

The 6-foot, 180-pound winger wasn’t overly thrilled with his season. James didn’t like his start to the season and was surprised the transition to college hockey was so bumpy. But if you ask Dan Cleary, the Red Wings’ director of player development, he felt James did just fine.

“He had a good season, the opposite of what he thinks,” Cleary said. “He came in (to North Dakota) and had to find his way. He made some freshman mistakes and had to sit, but that’s all part of it. At the end of the day, I always look at where you are at the end of the season, (and) he was trending upwards. Out there in the last minute, I was in Omaha watching and he scored a great goal shorthanded. He’s playing in the regionals as an important player. … That’s what I look at.”

James, who Cleary described as a “rink rat,” insisted that all went well over the course of the past season…

“Coach [Brad Berry] started to trust me at the end,” said James, who feels his biggest area of improvement needs to come offensively. “Just being able to get into scoring opportunities better, and that comes with my skating. I had a different role (last season). It was hard to score goals. Hopefully I’ll get that opportunity (this season). It was hard as a freshman. You have to gain the trust of your coaches. You usually start at the bottom of the lineup, and I was completely fine with that.”

Continued; James was one of the fastest and most competitive players out there during the summer development camp, so he’s got some skills going for him.

Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell posted a list of 10 players who Maxwell believes will experience “bounce-back seasons” over the course of the 2023-2024 campaign, and new Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat leads his list:

Alex DeBrincat, Detroit Red Wings

82 GP – 27 G – 39 A – 66 P (34 G – 34 A – 68 P career 82 game pace)
-0.12 goals scored above expected per 60 (+0.3 career per 60 rate)
10.3% shooting percentage (14.4% career rate)
6.83% 5v5 on-ice shooting percentage (9.09% career rate)

DeBrincat’s brief tenure with the Ottawa Senators is one that both parties will want to forget. The Sens gave up a high price to get the winger, only to have him under-perform and want out one season later, resulting in them losing him for not quite the same return and finding themselves down a top-six forward. And then for DeBrincat, he had an opportunity to prove he didn’t need Patrick Kane to put up 40 goals and now still finds himself needing to prove that to the world.

A change of scenery should certainly help in Detroit, and if he plays alongside Dylan Larkin, that’s a much better option than Drake Batherson or Shane Pinto, who he ended up playing with in Ottawa on the second line. Combine that with his underlying numbers showing that he had some bad luck which aligns with how much he under-performed, and we’ll likely see a better season from DeBrincat. That concern of playing away from Patrick Kane is certainly there, but it’s not like DeBrincat is useless, especially since he had his best season in terms of expected goals output last year.

Continued; we’re going to find out whether DeBrincat can drive play on his own this upcoming season.

It’s been a rough road for Jack Adams, who suffered a sprained ACL at the Red Wings’ 2019 Summer Development Camp, but the 26-year-old has found a professional home after 5 years in NCAA hockey:

Rookie forward Jack Adams joins @SCStingrays https://t.co/7bQpOL0qja

— ECHL (@ECHL) July 20, 2023

The Hockey Writers’ Mark Scheig and EP Rinkside’s Sean Shapiro are reporting that the Red Wings’ 2023 Prospect Tournament may only include 4 teams this fall, down from the 5 which participated last year, and the original design of an 8-team tournament.

This morning, Shapiro discusses this development on his Substack, Shapiro argues that the Red Wings’ prospect tournament was too successful for its own good, and he suggests that it’s not a bad development that the number of teams participating has dropped from 8 to 4:

The Traverse City tournament the Detroit Red Wings hosted used to be the gold standard. It was launched in 1998 with four teams, eventually grew to an eight-team tournament, and has now shrunk back to it’s original size for 2023 with four teams — Detroit, Dallas Stars, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Columbus Blue Jackets, the first game will be Sept. 14.

The Traverse City tournament is a victim of its own success.

Other teams, like the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks, saw the Red Wings were able to use it as a marketing event and further reach out to fans outside of metro Detroit. Others focused on the price and geography, Traverse City isn’t easy to get to, and the tournament started to shrink with the help of COVID-related budget assessments — it’s much cheaper, for example, for the Carolina Hurricanes to participate in a prospect tournament closer to home than northern Michigan.

CentreIce arena in Traverse City, with all due respect, also doesn’t offer the modern amenities that the Sabres are able to offer at the Harborcenter, which allowed Buffalo to pull some teams that Detroit would have courted in the past.

While selfishly it was great when the Traverse City tournament was in it’s heyday — you could watch eight prospect pools in a single day! — truthfully it was too much hockey. Each team played four games in five days, both had two back-to-backs and that final game — aside from the championship — was often a nothing-burger of a contest for all involved.

Continued; I don’t know what the future holds for the Red Wings’ prospect tournament.

It may be that the Red Wings have to move it down to Detroit to assure that there are better amenities available to the prospects who participate, or to eliminate some of the travel issues as Traverse City is still “out of the way” despite being an Ann Arbor-sized city with a fine regional airport.

It may be that the Red Wings and Centre ICE Arena have to work on some renovations to the rink to help draw teams in.

And it may be that the tournament simply dissolves, and Detroit ends up taking part in another team’s tournament, because other organizations are utilizing their practice facilities and specially-built downtown rinks to draw competition to their regionally-based tournaments.

For the present moment, the four-team tournament should be exciting, and I’m hoping that the Matthew Wuest Cup is awarded this September.

I can’t embed this one, but I will as soon as the video is up on FloHockey’s YouTube page…

Anyway, FloHockey’s Chris Peters is one of the best draft experts and prospect gurus around, and this morning, he spends 5 minutes of video time (on today’s episode of Hockey Sense) discussing the Red Wings’ 2023 NHL Draft picks, and whether the Wings’ braintrust passed up on some “home run” players to land probable NHL’ers instead of possible superstars.

It’s an interesting discussion of more than just Nate Danielson and Axel Sandin Pellikka, and I guess the best thing I can say regarding the Red Wings’ 2nd through 7th round picks is this:

I have been covering the Red Wings’ draft for as long as I’ve been on hockey message boards or forums, and whether it was Ken Holland’s regime with Joe McDonnell as chief scout, or the Steve Yzerman Red Wings with Kris Draper as the man in charge of the draft…

The Wings always have their list, and they stick with the players on their list. It doesn’t matter whether even the wisest experts think that Detroit’s shooting for the moon or drafting for depth in the lineup–Detroit will stick with its list, and its list often does NOT include the top names of the draft.

Update: Here’s the video:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Tim Robinson profiles Red Wings prospect defenseman Tnias Mathurin this morning. The big (6’3,” 201-pound) defenseman from the OHL’s North Bay Battalion was beset by a shoulder injury that cost him all but 1 regular season game last year, but Duff reports that Mathurin is finally healthy and ready to make an impact:

“I think we could have a great team,” he said. “I’d like to play a role in leading the younger guys and leading the defense and the team to the (OHL) championship. I also want to have a healthy year. I want to get into the flow of the lineup and not be in and out of the lineup. I want to have a huge impact on the season this year.”

[North Bay GM Adam] Dennis, who played in the AHL and in Europe before settling in North Bay, says Mathurin had an impact on his team last season.

“I’d say about 90 percent of players wouldn’t have played last year,” he said. “But (Mathurin) was determined, and they way he stepped in was just impressive, including all the work he put in behind the scenes.”

Dennis lauds Mathurin’s maturity on and off the ice.

“He’s got  great hockey sense,” Dennis said. “He’s miserable to play against and has a really long reach and a long skating stride so he can close really quickly. He doesn’t take a lot of penalties, but he doesn’t back down from anybody.”

Continued; Mathurin doesn’t project to be a puck-mover, but he’s still growing into a big body, and he’s simple and steady.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted an article profiling Red Wings free agent acquisition Daniel Sprong this morning. The speedy left winger from Amsterdam stands at 6′ and 194 pounds, and the 26-year-old inked a 1-year, $2 million contract with Detroit on July 1st.

As such, Sprong believes that he will thrive on a deeper, stronger Red Wings team:

“If you look at our team last year in Seattle, we had four lines that can play,” Sprong said in early July. “The way I played last year on the power play and scoring five-on-five, I think that’s something I excelled at, and the defensive side as well, and I am excited to bring that to Detroit.”

Sprong, 26, posted 46 points in 66 games in 2022-23; over hist previous seasons, with Seattle and the Washington Capitals, his goal output was in the mid-teens. Of the 22 players who scored either 20 or 21 goals last season, Sprong was the only one to average less than 12 minutes per game. Even so, the Kraken did not give Sprong a qualifying offer, and now he is eyeing an opportunity with the Wings.

“I think it will be a good fit for both sides,” Sprong said. “I thought it would be a good fit to be there and help with the scoring and grow with the guys there and be part of the organization. Detroit was only 12 points out of the playoffs, so you’re talking about maybe a six-or-seven game swing. You’re not far out.”

Continued; Sprong may very well find himself on a line with Jonatan Berggren, Michael Rasmussen, or J.T. Compher, so he’s going to have some talent feeding the young sniper passes.

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton took a “deep dive” into an examination of what Jonatan Berggren’s role on the rebuilt and renovated Red Wings’ roster will look like this upcoming season:

After a busy off-season, it will be more difficult just to crack the Red Wings line-up for Berggren than it was a year ago, much less move up it.  To be absolutely clear, this doesn’t mean I expect Berggren to start the season in the press box as a healthy scratch or with the Griffins in the AHL—just that his competition has only increased relative to his rookie year.

The off-season’s marquee acquisition—Alex DeBrincat—will almost certainly slot into a top line role.  As I discussed last weekend, that leaves the Red Wings with a decision to make regarding who will play beside DeBrincat and Larkin: a third scoring threat like Lucas Raymond or a forechecker/battle winner like Michael Rasmussen.

If the Wings don’t opt for an all-offense approach there, that would drop Raymond (or, if Derek Lalonde and company decide for a change of pace, DeBrincat) to the second line.  At that point, the same question—should the line be filled out with another scoring winger or a more rugged and workmanlike one—pushes down to the second line as well.

I point this out to note that Berggren probably isn’t looking at a top six role in the immediate future, and he will have to continue to ply his craft in a depth role to start his second season in the NHL.

Still, Detroit’s improved depth should only make life easier for an offensively minded player in the Red Wings’ bottom six this season as compared to last.  With no disrespect intended to Czarnik, the Red Wings’ new bottom six options (namely Daniel Sprong, Klim Kostin, and Christian Fischer) should provide a significant upgrade.  As such, Berggren could reasonably be in line for a nice boost to his point total, even without much of an uptick in role and ice time.  

Continued; as Sam says, Berggren will obviously be hard-pressed to crack the “top six” initially, but he should be able to maximize his ice time thanks to an improved supporting cast, and there’s no doubt that he’s still a big part of the Red Wings’ future.

Okay, here we go:

New jersey numbers just dropped.

Let's ride. 🚗😏 pic.twitter.com/GcMceAGMo4

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 20, 2023

So that’s Justin Holl, #3;

Jared McIsaac, #15;

Klim Kostin, #24;

Carter Mazur, #32;

Alex Lyon, #34;

Christian Fischer, #36;

J.T. Compher, #37;

Tim Gettinger, #39;

Shayne Gostisbehere, #41;

Nolan Stevens, #42;

James Reimer, #47;

Jonatan Berggren, #48;

Brogan Rafferty, #52;

Wyatt Newpower, #62

Simon Edvinsson, #77;

Daniel Sprong, #88;

Alex DeBrincat, #93.

Whose number are you going to rock?! pic.twitter.com/xuUc4eysFR

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 20, 2023