Author: George Malik

Red Wings prospect Dmitry Buchelnikov spoke to KHL.ru about a month ago for a feature that has both text and a YouTube interview, and Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of Buchelnikov’s remarks regarding his father, Vladimir, who’s the goaltending coach for SKA-1946, the VHL team where Buchelnikov played for 9 games this past season:

Vladimir Buchelnikov was a professional netminder in the Russian second and third divisions for over a decade. He saw most of his playing days stopping pucks for Sputnik Nizhny Tagil.

While his father suited up in goalie gear, Dmitri is focusing his hockey ability on undressing goaltenders. It was his combination of puck skills and finishing touch that was leading the Red Wings to make Buchelnikov the 52nd overall selection of the 2022 NHL entry draft.

Still, that doesn’t mean his dad isn’t serving as an inspiration as the younger Buchelnikov is chasing the elusive dream of playing in the NHL.

“I saw how dad trains hard, plays,” Buchelnikov told KHL.ru. “I watched and rejoiced. Probably, it was a foregone conclusion before my birth.”

He credits his extended family for the tremendous support they’ve been offering him throughout his hockey journey.

“My dad helped me from a coach’s point of view, and my mom found the right words and supported me emotionally,” Buchelnikov said. “My grandparents would come to other cities to cheer me on. I also have a sister who is 10 years older, and we communicate very well. The support of my whole family is valuable.”

Continued; I’d sure appreciate it if any of you Russian-speakers could help us Red Wings fans by watching the video!

AWood40 on YouTube has posted an hour and fourteen minutes of Red Wings-Hurricanes Stanley Cup Final highlights, and it’s quite the package:

The Red Wings picked defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka 17th overall in this past July’s 2023 NHL Draft, and today, MLive’s Ansar Khan has filed a profile of the promising young offensive defenseman:

“It was important to find the right-shot D and the right kind of right-shot D,” Kris Draper, Red Wings assistant general manager and director of amateur scouting, said. “We really like his hockey sense. We really like his poise with the puck. He was 17 years old, he played in the World Juniors. By the end of the tournament, he was running the power play. That was the thing you kept coming back to. He’s really smart, knows how to manage a game. He knows how to manage the puck; he has deception with it. He really moves well on the offensive blueline as well.”

Sandin Pellikka sounds similar to Filip Hronek, the player the Red Wings traded to Vancouver to acquire the pick used to select Sandin Pellikka.

Defense was Hronek’s shortcoming. Sandin Pellikka must improve in that area, too. He’ll return for his second season with Skelleftea AIK in Sweden’s top men’s league.

“That’s something I’m working on with my defensive coach in the SHL, Pierre Jonsson,” Sandin Pellikka said. “He always helps me with that and wants me to get stronger. He takes me aside after pretty much every practice and makes me do one-on-one drills. Just basically makes me beat down a forward so I can get stronger.”

Continued; Sandin Pellikka needs to get bigger, stronger, and sounder defensively, but he’s a smart and driven young man who will be playing with an excellent team this upcoming season.

9-and-a-half minutes’ worth of “a day in the life” of Red Wings defenseman Jake Walman:

Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon filed a mid-summer set of power rankings, discussing every team’s offseason additions (or the lack thereof), and here’s where he ranks the Red Wings:

22. Detroit Red Wings Getting Alex DeBrincat at a discount is a clear coup for Detroit, which will be banking on 35 to 40 goals for the local guy. J.T. Compher was a nice add, too. There’s no question the Wings are moving in the right direction, it’s just a question of at what speed they’re doing it.

Continued; I do agree that the Wings’ collective and individual performance levels for the upcoming season are in question, but that’s where we’re at.

This Tweet comes to you via Paul Kukla of Kukla’s Korner: Red Wings invited big defenseman Jeremie Biakabutuka to their prospect tournament and training camp last fall, but chose not to sign the 21-year-old defender.

Biakabutuka also played in 3 games for the Grand Rapids Griffins after wrapping up a 42-point season for the QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders, but he signed with the St. Louis Blues today:

We've signed Jeremie Biakabutuka to a three-year entry-level contract. https://t.co/kCrV8HXkdP

— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) July 19, 2023

The Toledo Walleye have re-signed defenseman Jake Willets today:

(Toledo, OH) – Monroe, Michigan native and defenseman Jake Willets has agreed to terms with the Toledo Walleye for the 2023-2024 season.

Willets joined the Walleye after completing his final college year at Lake Superior State to make his pro-debut this past March. He made a splash with scoring goals in each of his first two professional games, notching his first on March 24 vs. Reading. Willets ended the year appearing in ten total contests for the Walleye with four points (2G, 2A) and 15 penalty minutes.

He posted 12 points (4G, 8A) for the Lakers during the 2022-2023 season, which was his second year at Lake Superior after starting his college career at Ferris State. In total, the 23-year-old appeared in 120 college games between the two with 54 points (15G, 39A) and 89 penalty minutes. Willets was named to the WCHA All-Rookie team for his efforts with Ferris State in the 2019-2020 season.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers the second part of a two-part mailbag feature today, and Max lists his top 10 (well, 11) Red Wings prospects as part of a superb set of answers to reader questions:

What is your personal top 10 ranking of our prospect pool? — Luke Y.

Corey Pronman will have his full Red Wings under-23 rankings out sometime this summer, but my personal ranking of the prospects would go:

1. Simon Edvinsson
2. Marco Kasper
3. Nate Danielson
4. Carter Mazur
5. Axel Sandin Pellikka
6. William Wallinder
7. Sebastian Cossa
8. Amadeus Lombardi
9. Elmer Söderblom
10. Albert Johansson
11. Trey Augustine

I threw Augustine in there as a bonus at 11, because I feel he belongs in that same tier, before a bit of a drop-off.

The ranking isn’t a pure upside ranking, it blends that factor with the likelihood (as I perceive it) of reaching that ceiling. That’s why Mazur ranks higher than the much higher-drafted Sandin Pellikka, for example: He has the potential to be a top-six NHL forward and is already getting close to the NHL.

Max’s rationale continues (paywall), and I said yesterday that I’d cut some of the paywall-peeking short after yesterday’s gob of text, so you’ll have to subscribe to read it.

Anyway, yes, my list is different, but I’ll have to think about where players rank as to who fits where among the 33 players who EliteProspects consider to be Red Wings prospects at this time.

The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn posted his list of the most-improved teams of the 2023 offseason, and, somewhat surprisingly, he ranks the Red Wings as the best-improved team not named the New Jersey Devils:

2. Detroit Red Wings

Goal Difference added: 14.4
Salary added: $22.9 million

In: Alex DeBrincat, Daniel Sprong, Shayne Gostisbehere, J.T. Compher, Justin Holl, James Reimer, Klim Kostin, Christian Fischer
Out: Dominik Kubalik, Robert Hagg, Pius Suter, Jordan Oesterle, Filip Zadina

The Red Wings were the offseason champion last summer and once again find themselves near the top of the list this year after a very busy offseason. The end result is a team whose goal differential improves by 14, a number that wouldn’t be enough to put them into a playoff position, but would bring them significantly closer. Let’s recap.

At the top of the list is Alex DeBrincat, a big-time get that immediately adds oomph to the top of Detroit’s lineup. I’m skeptical a team can contend with DeBrincat as their second-best forward, but he’s obviously an improvement over a team having David Perron as their second-best forward.

After DeBrincat is a steady stable of talent meant to improve Detroit’s depth. Up front, Daniel Sprong showed promise as a depth scorer last season, J.T. Compher should stabilize the middle behind Dylan Larkin, and Klim Kostin adds some strength to the bottom six. On the back end, Shayne Gostisbehere is a strong puck-mover that can play on the second pair while Justin Holl is a cromulent defender that can handle tough minutes. In net, James Reimer should be an improvement over Alex Nedeljkovic.

There’s a lot happening here and while it’s difficult to say how all the pieces fit, it’s very easy to say that all the pieces are better than what’s being replaced.

Slowly and steadily the Red Wings are getting there. But even after this summer, it’s more than likely that they still aren’t there yet. A little more patience is required.

Continued; a lot of things are going to have to develop correctly for the Red Wings to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference’s best division this upcoming season, from the goaltending sorting itself out to better special teams play and the team avoiding the worst of the injury but…

But it’s possible, maybe realistically possible for the first time in a long time, and that’s exciting.

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler posted a list of his top 50 drafted prospects yesterday, with the caveat being that his list consisted of “skaters.” Today, Wheeler shares his top 10 drafted goaltenders, and two of them are Red Wings prospects:

5. Sebastian Cossa, G, 20 (Detroit Red Wings — No. 15, 2021)

Cossa is a huge (6-foot-6), powerful, athletic goalie, and those last two things don’t always come with the first. He’s a fiery, confident, talkative competitor who doesn’t like to get beat (which contrasts with the stoic demeanour we see in many goalies) and wants to command the net and the room. Bigger goalies often struggle with their movements and their recoveries, but neither is an issue for Cossa. His positioning (he does a really good job holding his outside edges to be patient on shots) and reflexes (he’s got great hands up high) help him block and grab a lot of pucks. But it’s his ability to bounce back into his stance or change directions with passes that separates him. His power through his pushes gives him rare side-to-side ability for a goalie that big as well.

But there are also some question marks. Some of them are contextual, like how good the Oil Kings were in front of him for three years, and some of the leaks his game has displayed while playing behind teams with less structure in front of him (including in Hockey Canada camps and then last year in spurts in the ECHL, a league that’s notoriously hard on goalies — although he did find his groove). But other questions are about the tools, including some of the trouble he faces closing his five-hole because of his size (this is a major recurring issue, even though he does a really good job kicking pucks aimed for the lower corners) and the way he can occasionally lose himself in his net on scramble plays (those strong pushes to get to tough lateral saves can pull him off his lines). He can get pulled out of his net over-committing on dekes, too.

His natural gifts give him undeniable upside, though. When he’s set and square to shots, he’s tough to beat. I’ve seen him look unflappable and make point-blank save after point-blank save when he’s dialed in. I’ve also seen him look rattled as shots sneak through holes they shouldn’t be finding. I still think he’s got starter upside due to his combination of size, dexterity and explosiveness in the net, but he’s got work to do, and patience will be imperative.

6. Trey Augustine, G, 18 (Detroit Red Wings — No. 41, 2023)

The definition of calm, cool, and collected, Augustine is the best goalie prospect to come through the national program since Knight. I like him more now than I liked Blackhawks goalie prospect Drew Commesso at the same age, for example.

He’s just dialed in, by all accounts just as much off the ice in the way he carries himself and goes about his business as on the ice, where his game has rare detail for a netminder his age. He’s got a good glove hand. He’s good moving on his knees/in a crouch. He’s good at tracking pucks through traffic and across ice on seam plays. He plays good, sharp angles. His rebound control steering pucks into the corners is good. He’s good at getting down into his butterfly to close his five-hole quickly. He’s just a good goalie. And while he’s not big for a goalie and I’m not 100 percent certain he’s the best of a strong 2023 draft class in net even though he’s ranked that way for me, he’s the one I’d feel most comfortable with starting a game for my team tomorrow.

Continued (paywall);

Jesper Wallstedt is Wheeler’s #1 prospect, and at this point, I can only shrug my shoulders at the Wings’ decision to draft Cossa over Wallstedt, and suggest that Detroit picked Cossa two years ago because Cossa still has a lot of raw talent that needs to be refined.

His developmental trajectory will take longer than Wallstedt’s, but it’s still entirely possible that Cossa becomes the “next big thing” in goal in two or three seasons.

As for Augustine, he’s only 6 feet tall, which isn’t gigantic by today’s goaltending standards, but he’s solid in every aspect of his game, and he’s probably the safest bet that the Red Wings have made this side of Nate Danielson in terms of guaranteeing that he’s going to turn pro at some point because he’s just so damn strong in everything he does.