Author: George Malik

My offerings for Thursday at the World Junior Summer Showcase were somewhat limited. I posted an “arrival, and here’s how it goes in terms of schedule/games” post, and interviews with Axel Sandin Pellikka and Anton Johansson of Sweden, as well as Trey Augustine of Team USA White.

My first-day takeaways, on a team-by-team basis, were fairly straightforward:

The Swedes ran an efficient practice, emphasizing economy of motion and no wasteful spending of time, with the name-and-number-less players engaging in some fairly competitive drills that covered the fundamentals of the game, with a lot of emphasis on dynamic plays and special teams.

The Finns seemed to engage in a little more of a casual approach, sort of a, “Welcome to the U.S., here are some basic drills to shake off the jet lag” before really getting into puck possession drills and working on sorting out defensive coverage, transitions and retrievals.

The Americans, under University of Denver coach David Carle, really took things to another level, for both Team USA White and Team USA Blue. Right off the bat, the teams were split into two units which engaged in “battle drills” off the bat, with stick and body checking fully engaged, and things got more complicated from there. The Americans really busted their humps from stem to stern of their 1-hour practices in a way that the elegantly efficient Swedes and slightly slow-starting Finns did not.

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton did a superb job of breaking down the practices which Team Sweden, Team Finland and Team USA (White and Blue) held today at the World Junior Summer Showcase, offering detailed notes and videos describing said happenings, and he focused in on Axel Sandin Pellikka’s play as well:

2023 Red Wings first rounder Axel Sandin Pellikka takes plenty of reps along the point during Sweden’s power play work, showing once again the skills that made him such a coveted prospect in the lead up to June’s draft.  

Two habits of his that jumped out at me this morning were the way he keeps his head up from the point and the way he always has the puck in a dual threat position.  Put those two skills together (and throw in some remarkable balance and edgework), and it’s not hard to see why he’s been so effective in that position throughout his amateur career.  

Sandin Pellikka also has a clear affinity for a dying art in the modern game: the old fashioned, non-one-timed slap shot.  He has an excellent shot fake in his bag, and it’s no empty threat; the Swedish blue liner has no compunction about firing a clapper on goal.  That tool further feeds the sense that he is just as comfortable beating you with his playmaking or his shooting from the point.  He can wind and fire, he can wind and slap pass, or he can wind, hold and survey his options.

Continued; give Sam a read as he really knows his stuff.

Red Wings prospect and 2023 draft pick Trey Augustine is all business: when myself, the Hockey News’s Sam Stockton and The Athletic’s Max Bultman spoke with the affable goaltender from South Lyon, Trey let us know that the Americans have one goal: to win the gold medal at the World Junior Championship.

That apparently starts now, because the Americans on Team White and Team Blue have been practicing full-out with battle drills and combative play from the first drop of the puck today at USA Hockey Arena.

Augustine also talks about preparing for his freshman season at Michigan State by spending the last month in East Lansing and how he’s incorporated what he learned at the Red Wings’ Summer Development Camp into his routines.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman offers several “offseason thoughts” today, including the following:

Once [restricted free agent Joe] Veleno’s deal gets done, Detroit should be as deep down the middle as they’ve been in years. That’s mainly due to the addition of J.T. Compher, who not only finally gives Detroit a right-shot center, but gives them another tough-minutes option who last season topped 50 points.

Now, Compher probably won’t get 20 minutes a night next season, as he did in Colorado, and won’t have any linemates as good as Mikko Rantanen, his most frequent linemate last season, either. But between him, Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp, the Red Wings now have three centers they should be able to pencil in for 40-plus points, all of whom they can trust against opposing teams’ top players.

That’s going to be important for each of them, and perhaps especially for Copp, who often drew the toughest matchups last season and finished with just nine goals, after breakout scoring seasons the previous two campaigns. Whether it’s him or Compher technically slotting as the second-line center, it’s probably safe to expect they log similar ice time, with a much more balanced division of the toughest matchups.

And Veleno should benefit, too. With three centers above him who can all take on opponents’ top players, the door should be open for Veleno to get more of an offensively-driven deployment than is typical of fourth lines.

With all that said, even with their best outlook in years, the Red Wings can’t yet call this position a strength compared to some of the teams they’re competing with in the Atlantic Division. Maybe it gets there in time, with top-10 picks Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson on the way, but right now the top end of the NHL group still has question marks relative to its divisional foes.

Their 1-2 punch won’t, for example, stack up favorably against Toronto, Tampa Bay, Florida, Buffalo or Ottawa. But the depth of the position is stronger and will be counted on to neutralize that gap.

Continued (paywall)

Sportsnet’s Sonny Sachdeva posted a lengthy article discussing the “All-Bargain Teams,” consisting of players whose performances exceeded their contractual values this past season.

In his “Top 10 Value Performers” list, Daniel Sprong earned a nod for betting on himself with the Seattle Kraken this past season, and parlaying his one-year deal with Seattle to something of a payday with Detroit…

2. Daniel Sprong, Seattle Kraken

2022-23 Impact: 46 points, $750,000 cap hit

Cost per point: $16,304

After bouncing around the league and showing glimpses of his potential during stints in Pittsburgh, Anaheim and Washington, Sprong put together a breakout season with Seattle in 2022-23, potting 21 goals and 46 points through just 66 games. Having taken time to find his footing in the league, the young sniper was playing out his third post-ELC contract, meaning his strong depth scoring season came with a price tag of just $750,000 for the Kraken. The 20-goal effort earned Sprong a one-year, $2-million deal with Detroit for 2023-24.

Sachdeva also picks Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider as players who are delivering maximum value for their entry-level contracts…

Here are my interviews with Team Sweden defensemen Axel Sandin Pellikka and Anton Johansson on Thursday, July 27th at the 2023 World Junior Summer Showcase.

The Red Wings have three participants in this week’s World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, MI in Axel Sandin Pellikka and Anton Johansson of Sweden, as well as Trey Augustine of the United States.

As such, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen spoke with USA Director of Hockey Operations John Vanbiesbrouck regarding the summertime tournament:

“I’m a little biased but I think (Augustine) was the best goalie in the (2023) draft,” said John Vanbiesbrouck, USA Hockey’s director of hockey operations.

As one of the top American-born goalies in U.S. Hockey history, Vanbiesbrouck owns the credentials to evaluate Augustine’s potential. He also oversees the U.S. national team program.

“The No. 1 thing that is universal in the position is your compete,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “Trey has trained himself well to compete. He stays in the game. Very few mental lapses in his style of play. The part that I like the most…He makes it look easy.”

Tickets are available for the games that begin Saturday at 1 p.m. with Sandin Pellikka’s and Johansson’s Sweden team facing off against the USA (Blue) squad. Augustine’s USA (White) Team plays at 4 p.m. against Finland.

Continued

ESPN’s Greg Wysyhski engaged in a wide-ranging question-and-answer session with NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh, and the product thereof is not behind a paywall (so everyone can read it). Here’s part of their conversation:

Over the last decade, the NHL has seen franchise valuations boom, to the point where it was reasonable to expect a team like the Ottawa Senators would sell for over $1 billion. (Michael Andlauer’s winning bid came under that, but just barely.)

The NHL has considerable media rights deals in the U.S., Canada and abroad for its games. Sponsor United reported that the NHL’s sponsorship revenue grew 21% in 2022-23 to reach $1.28 billion. The NHL salary cap in the 2012-13 season was $70.2 million. The salary cap for the 2023-24 season is $83.5 million.

Walsh said in his conversations with players, he heard concerns about the salary cap’s lack of growth. But the “flat cap” due to the COVID pandemic certainly played a role in that lack of exponential growth for the salary cap.

“The salary cap is based off the revenue and in the last couple of years, COVID threw a huge curveball at everyone. If COVID doesn’t happen, the salary cap is going up. Because of COVID, there was a debt that was owed [by the players], and hopefully that’s resolved by the end of next season,” said Walsh. “Then what you have is a system that will be tied into growth and revenue.”

By 2025-26, the cap is expected to rise above $92 million.

That’s growth. But is it growth commiserate with the revenues the league is generating? Is it growth that would put the NHL’s top stars closer to the salaries of counterparts in other pro leagues, or growth that would “un-squeeze” the salaries of veteran role players whose earnings have frequently been casualties of the cap?

“I’m not being critical, but team franchise wealth is certainly growing at a disproportionate [rate] compared to what the players are making,” said Walsh. “You now have a lot of teams in the next couple of years that will be worth a billion dollars, and then you’ll be talking about the $2 billion team.”

Continued (give this one a read)

Okay, I’m at the World Junior Summer Showcase in Plymouth, Michigan for the majority of the next eight days.

The event has a combination of daily practices and inter-squad games on July 29th, 31st, August 2nd and August 4th as Team USA White, Team USA Blue, Sweden and Finland battle for supremacy here at USA Hockey Arena.

If you can’t make it out here, the games will be streamed on USAHockeyTV.com.

If you haven’t already heard, Red Wings 2023 2nd round pick and goaltender Trey Augustine will represent Team USA White, and 2023 1st round pick/defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka and 2022 4th round pick/defenseman Anton Johansson will represent Sweden.

Right now Sweden is hitting the ice and both the forwards and defensemen are warming up their goaltenders with point shots and a layered screen/tip…

Anyway, if you have any questions about the event or the players involved, please send me a blog comment, Tweet or email (at rtxg@yahoo.com).

NHL.com posted a 2:20 clip of the NHL Tonight’s experts suggesting (during Atlantic Division Week on the NHL Network) that the Buffalo Sabres are much more ready to take a “next step” than the Detroit Red Wings are due to the state of the Sabres’ defense and goaltending: