Author: George Malik

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff takes note of a comment made by new Red Wings goaltender James Reimer during his introductory press conference. It’s just a quick comment, but what the hey:

James Reimer became a Detroit Red Wings netminder on July 1, singing as a UFA with the club. which certainly was great news for his older sister Christy.

“My older sister, and not to embarass her in any way, was and probably is and now again it’s reborn,” Reimer explained. “She’s a diehard Red Wings fan.”

In the 1990s and 200os when Detroit was ruling over the NHL, the Red Wings were also filling the heart of at least one member of Reimer’s family with joy.

“She was big into that (Red Wings) era,” Reimer recalled.

Continued

The Free Press’s Helene St. James posted her usual early-morning column today, discussing the “fit” and hopes of one J.T. Comper as he joins the Red Wings for a playoff push:

“There are a lot of attractive parts about playing for the Red Wings,” Compher said Sunday. “I think that at the end of the day was my conversation with Steve and hearing about the direction of the Wings and what he was trying to build. He’s done it before. He has experience, not only as a player, but in management. I really believed in what he’s doing with the team and the sort of people they want to bring in. You want to have a great team on the ice and good guys in the locker room. I know what sort of room I’m getting myself into.”

It doesn’t hurt that the room includes two friends in fellow former Michigan teammates Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp, both of whom Compher talked to in the week leading up to free agency.

“There’s a lot that attracted me to be a Red Wing,” Compher said. “First of all playing at Michigan and growing up in Chicago, both things things helped me see the great legacy and tradition the Detroit Red Wings have. I have a lot of respect for the organization. I had some really good talks with Steve and the coaching staff and what they are trying to build and how they are trying to build it. In terms of this year and the future, it sounds like a great place to play hockey. On the other side of it, I do have good friends on the team, and I’m excited to get on the ice with those guys as well. “But overall it was the direction of the team, the desire to win. I could hear it in their voice. That’s what you want as a player, a chance to build and try to win a championship.”

Continued; here’s hoping, Mr. Compher.

DetroitHockey.net’s Clark Rasmussen examines the jersey numbers assigned to the Red Wings’ 2023 Summer Development Camp participants this morning:

Jersey numbers in development camp are almost always meaningless but sometimes we see interesting patterns from them.  This year, the somewhat remarkable thing is that only six returning players (Marco Kasper, Carter Mazur, Redmond Savage, Sam Stange, Tnias Mathurin, and Sebastian Cossa) kept the same number as last year.  Of those, Mazur’s #43 had been reassigned to Mark Pysyk in the interim, while Savage’s #67 went to Joel L’Esperance in Detroit’s training camp last fall.

Another player, Amadeus Lombardi, is wearing a different number from last development camp but it’s the same number as he wore last fall in Detroit’s main camp, when he switched from #96 to #78 to accommodate Jake Walman’s switch to #96 last summer.

For the newest Detroit draftees, Nate Danielson was assigned the #29 that hasn’t been used since Thomas Greiss had it, Axel Sandin Pellikka got the #84 that was assigned to camp invitee Julien Anctil last year, Trey Augustine got the #80 worn in last year’s camp by invitee Pierce Charleson, Andrew Gibson got the #26 that was assigned to Pontus Andreasson in last fall’s training camp, Brady Cleveland took the departed Adam Erne’s #73, Noah Dower Nilsson got the #83 previously assigned to William Wallinder, Larry Keenan was given the #86 that had been worn by camp tryout Ivan Ivan, Jack Phelan got the #87 that was assigned to Jacob Mathieu in last fall’s training camp, Kevin Bicker got thew #89 that hasn’t been worn since Sam Gagner had it, Rudy Guimond was assigned the #68 worn in training camp by John Lethemon, and Emmitt Finnie got the #88 previously assigned to Liam Dower Nilsson, which will be worn this season by Daniel Sprong.

With Noah Dower Nilsson having taken his number, Wallinder switched to the #54 worn last year by Steven Kampfer.  Meanwhile, Noah’s brother Liam moved to the #62 worn in the 2022 development camp by Theodor Niederbach (and in last fall’s training camp by Drew Worrad) to accommodate Finnie getting #88, with Niederbach switching to the #70 worn last season by Oskar Sundqvist.

Continued

The Athletic’s Max Bultman examines the Red Wings’ depth chart after the team’s numerous free agent signings:

[At forward, the] big questions here are: Who plays alongside Larkin and Raymond, and where does Compher slot? It’s possible, frankly, that they could answer each other, with Compher slotting right into the Tyler Bertuzzi role.

That would probably take a big preseason performance from Kasper, though, to show he’s ready to handle the 3C job, because with how strong Rasmussen looked on the wing, you have to think he’ll start right there next to Copp next season.

And given all those moving parts — plus Detroit’s desperate need for a right-handed center — the safest expectation is probably to see Compher down the middle, listed here as the “third line” but realistically interchangeable with Copp’s.

In that scenario, Perron’s smarts, battle level and wall play would fit with Larkin and Raymond, and conveniently keep the three most likely members of “PP1” together at even strength, so that’s the one I went with here. (It’s worth noting in the alternative, though, Perron would make one heck of a first linemate and mentor for Kasper.)

Continued (paywall)

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted an overnight article discussing new Red Wings center J.T. Compher’s belief that his new employer can turn things around:

“I’ve seen both sides of it and I know what it takes,” Compher said. “[The Avalanche’s Stanley Cup run] was a fun journey to be a part of for sure. It’s hard, it’s not easy at all. It sounds simple but one team wins the Stanley Cup every year.

“We had plenty of teams we thought could do it over the years. Even the year we won there were challenges and adversity to go through. You learn a lot about yourself and teammates when you get in those tight series in the playoffs.”

Arriving in Detroit via unrestricted free agency, Compher agreed to the five-year deal with an AAV of $5.1 million. He’s a former Michigan player who was a captain with the Wolverines and a teammate there of current Red Wings Dylan Larkin and Andrew Copp. He could also find himself slotting into the Detroit depth chart between Larkin and Copp.

Larkin is the No. 1 center for the Red Wings. Ideally, the Detroit brass would like to see Copp skating as the club’s third-line center. That means they’ll need someone to anchor the second forward unit. Compher is capable of delivering those goods.

“I played a little second-line center in the playoffs with Colorado the year we won,” Compher said. “That was good for my confidence, it was good experience. Just continued trusting my own game.”

Continued

The Red Wings’ prospects participating in the 2023 Summer Development Camp weighed in on their potential jobs, should they not end up playing hockey as a profession:

A well-versed group of prospects. 🤓#DRWDC pic.twitter.com/wRWCnfDRju

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) July 3, 2023

Now, the Red Wings’ brass insists that the team’s annual Summer Development Camp isn’t about evaluating players for jobs–because there are no jobs on the line–as much as it is about exposing players to the “Red Wings’ way,” both on and off the ice.

Over the course of five days, the Wings’ prospects and free agent invites alike work with power skating coaches, skill development coaches and goaltending coaches on the ice, and off the ice, they’re taught the proper ways to work out, approach nutrition, sleep, how to cook and even how to deal with the demands of both traditional and non-traditional media in this non-stop world.

You send me to the Red Wings’ annual Summer Development Camp to make some observations, however, so that’s what I’m going to try to do, bearing in mind that this camp is indeed about player development: it’s the fall Prospect Tournament and the Red Wings’ training camp and exhibition season which determine whether players earn spots on Detroit’s roster.

I do know that the development camp matters in terms of setting the players up with a strong foundation for their skill development (both on and off the ice) over the course of their amateur and minor pro careers, however. I know that because there were as many as fourteen members of the Red Wings’ front office and scouting staff watching on Sunday.

The idea here is to build a strong foundation for self-improvement and guided improvement under the eyes of the Wings’ player development department, and that means that people like assistant director of player development Dan Cleary, European development consultant Niklas Kronwall, and the rest of the Wings’ front office are made available to the players over the course of their seasons, should they wish to consult with Detroit’s best in order to self-improve.

The Detroit News’s Bob Wojnowski reflects upon the moves made by the Detroit Pistons and Detroit Red Wings over the course of the past two weeks’ worth of drafts and free agency periods this evening, noting that neither team has added the star player they were hoping to find as of yet:

Both teams improved their future outlooks and were salary-cap responsible, but neither got significantly better in the short term. Disappointing? Sure. Surprising? Not really. Out of necessity and circumstance, Yzerman and [Pistons GM Troy] Weaver keep making moves for a future that remains hazy, and distant.

By nature, I think both would prefer to be aggressive deal-makers. Amid playoff droughts of seven seasons (Wings) and four seasons (Pistons), fans want bigger and bolder, understandably so. Many saw two prime possibilities, and both teams passed.

Yzerman apparently didn’t aggressively pursue Ottawa scoring wing Alex DeBrincat, figuring the cost in trade assets and cap space was too high. DeBrincat, 25, is a two-time 40-goal scorer who would seem to fit on the scoring-starved Wings. He does have defensive deficiencies, and as we’re learning with Yzerman, defensive deficiencies matter. That’s one reason he traded Tyler Bertuzzi, who just signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract with Toronto.

DeBrincat is in limbo, as teams perhaps find his price tag too steep. If it comes down, maybe the Wings revisit it. There hasn’t been a trading-and-signing frenzy around the NHL. No team dealt a single first-round pick. Stars mostly stayed put. Instead of spending upwards of $8 million per season for DeBrincat, Yzerman opted for former Michigan center J.T. Compher at $5.1 annually over five years. Compher, 28, is coming off his best season with the Avalanche and is a good two-way player. He figures to plug in as a second-line center behind Dylan Larkin.

Yzerman loaded up with veteran depth guys, including two goalies, and decent players on one-year prove-it deals, such as Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere ($4.125 million salary). Seattle forward Daniel Sprong, 26, could be an under-the-radar prize with a one-year contract ($2 million) after a career-high 21 goals. Same with forward Klim Kostin, 24, acquired from Edmonton to provide a much-needed physical presence.

Savvy and solid, not spectacular. Same with the Wings’ two first-round picks — center Nate Danielson and defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka. Same with the Pistons’ two first-round picks — Thompson and Marcus Sasser.

Continued (paywall)

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a profile of Red Wings free agent signing J.T. Compher this evening, discussing the former Colorado Avalanche center’s decision to join the Red Wings on a 5-year contract:

Compher rattled off reasons why he joined the Red Wings, including familiarity with the area having played for the U.S. National Team Development Program in Plymouth prior to three seasons at Michigan. He also cited good conversations with general manager Steve Yzerman and coach Derek Lalonde.

“There are a lot of attractive parts about playing for the Red Wings,” Compher said. “I think at the end of the day it was my conversation with Steve and hearing about the direction of the Wings and what he was trying to build. I really believed in what he’s doing, the sort of people they want to bring in. You want to have a great team on the ice, but you need to have good guys in the room.

“But overall, it was the direction of the team, the desire to win. I could hear it in their voice. That’s what we want as players, a chance to build and try to win championships.”

Larkin and Copp gave Compher the lowdown on what it’s like playing for the Red Wings.

“They said they love the room and they have a really good group of guys that want to win,” Compher said. “I was excited to work together and try to make the playoffs and push the team into being as good as it can be. They both had really good things to say about management and coaches.”

Continued

Red Wings free agent signing J.T. Compher spoke with the NHL Network for six-and-a-half minutes today: