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!

Morning news: It’s an exhibition game day, and we may see an Edvinsson-Seider pairing in Chicago tonight

Tonight, the Detroit Red Wings kick off their 8-games-in-12-nights exhibition season against the Chicago Blackhawks (8 PM start on DetroitRedWings.com):

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen took note of the fact that Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde won’t necessarily be loading up the roster in order to smack down opponents. On the contrary, the Red Wings’ coaching staff will be experimenting with different lines, different lineups and prospects over the course of the next 12 nights:

Detroit opens the preseason tonight on the road against the Chicago Blackhawks. Coach Derek Lalonde said he will use a mixed lineup of youngsters and veterans. “I think the exhibition game matrix is complicated; We end up with five games in six days and three in three,” Lalonde said. “Certainly is not ideal, especially with some of the objectives we want to accomplish in camp.”

The Red Wings want youngsters like Marco Kasper, Nate Danielson, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, etc. to see plenty of game time.

“I think you’re going to see a lot of mixed lineups,” Lalonde said. “Maybe a couple of NHL-experienced lines and with a couple of new guys. That’s what we’ll see tomorrow night.”

Also of Red Wings-related note this morning: The Free Press’s Helene St. James wrote a subscriber-only column which discusses Moritz Seider’s remarks made during yesterday’s press conference…

    “I want to get better every year and there’s definitely a lot more that hopefully I can show in the future,” Seider said Tuesday. “It’s just about making the next step, being more consistent, trying to eliminate off nights as much as possible. And then trying to contribute on both ends even more; hopefully offense can come a little more, too.” 

    Coach Derek Lalonde elaborated on areas where Seider can improve.

    “His defensive game can continue to grow,” Lalonde said. “Even with him, he’s had some lapses in some of his play. I think he can improve his skating, which is very exciting. I think he’s still very raw. I think there’s a lot of room for growth in him.”

    And St. James noted that the Red Wings’ coaches will experiment with a Simon Edvinsson-Seider defensive pairing this exhibition season:

    Continue reading Morning news: It’s an exhibition game day, and we may see an Edvinsson-Seider pairing in Chicago tonight

    On Moritz Seider and ‘große Erwartungen,’ I mean ‘great expectations’

    The Athletic’s Max Bultman discusses, “How [the] Red Wings’ Moritz Seider can make his long-term deal pay off” this morning. As you might expect by now, Max’s fine article self-references Dom Luszczyszyn’s model/metric suggesting that Seider hasn’t been quite cutting it defensively as compared to his peers, all while playing incredibly difficult minutes as both the Red Wings’ top shut-down defender and difficult minutes as an offensive catalyst.

    What I see as the real determinant, though, has to do less with the raw point totals and more with the way Seider can — and now, must — help the Red Wings control games in the coming years.

    It’s well known at this point that Seider took the NHL’s toughest minutes last season. We’re talking an off-the-charts level of difficulty relative to his peers. And it’s a major mitigating factor when talking about Seider’s underlying play-driving numbers, which last year dipped down to just a 43.26 percent expected goals share when he was on the ice at five-on-five, according to Evolving-Hockey.

    When you know a player is facing the hardest competition in the league, of course, it’s easy to understand why that number is what it is. None of the top-10 defensemen in strongest offensive opponents last season (as of March 28, when The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn covered Seider’s situation in-depth) finished with an expected goals share above 50 percent. Certainly, there are other factors at work there, such as the quality of teammates of rebuilding teams like Montreal and Chicago for players such as Kaiden Guhle and Alex Vlasic. But it stands out.

    Of the 10 defensemen with the next-toughest, nine of them managed to clear the 50 percent mark. That list includes Sanderson, Noah Hanifin, Gustav Forsling, Aaron Ekblad, Noah Dobson and Brett Pesce.

    And while, yes, Seider still played tougher minutes than all of them, those are realistically the kind of results that can make his deal a success for the Red Wings. Because as tough as that workload was for Seider last season, it’s not going anywhere.

    “I don’t foresee that changing,” head coach Derek Lalonde said. “Where we are as a team, how valuable he is, how he can handle top lines — I think part of our continued growth with (team) points and wins over the last two years, why it’s headed in the right direction, is because of that part of the game and being able to handle matchups. So, I don’t think that’s going to change, as long as he’s here with the Red Wings.”

    Continued; I know the metrics are the metrics, but I believe that getting that “expected goals share” to 50% or more involves both Seider’s self-improvement curve and spelling him of some of those minutes by adding a shut-down defenseman via trade at some point this season.

    Can Seider become a better player in terms of defending at the tender age of 23? Definitely. Does he need to become a better player in terms of defending because he’s going to earn $8.55 million this upcoming season? Definitely.

    Continue reading On Moritz Seider and ‘große Erwartungen,’ I mean ‘great expectations’

    Re-signing Raymond and Seider wasn’t exactly ‘bizarro’

    The Athletic’s Sean McIndoe consistently reviews teams’ offseason moves each September, pondering how strange the moves might be via a “bizarro meter.” He discusses the Eastern Conference today, and McIndoe seems a little surprised that the Red Wings managed to get their offseason work done before the end of training camp:

    Detroit Red Wings

    The offseason so far: At a high level, pretty much the same offseason Steve Yzerman has had for the last few years, as the Wings added a few interesting players without doing anything that really made you think they’d take a significant step forward.

    But their strangest story was: Getting the Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider deals done, although it took until the last few days for it to happen. Still, both deals were reasonable and could even be bargains, so Yzerman clearly played it well.

    Bizarro-meter ranking: 3.8/10. Pour one out for the theory that Seider’s agent was playing the long game to get his payback against Yzerman and the Wings. Ah well, the Yzerplan marches on.

    Continued (paywall); yadda yadda, Yzerplan in neutral, yadda yadda, Claude Lemieux vs. Steve Yzerman, etc. etc.

    I was disappointed that I wasted chunks of my summer worrying when or whether Raymond or Seider would re-sign, given that the team’s methodical GM simply utilized time and the potential of missing games to extract fair deals from J.P. Barry and Lemieux, respectively…

    But my therapist got a laugh out of me pondering when Raymond and Seider might re-sign as an anxiety trigger, and the Red Wings’ management group made the inevitable happen.

    That’s not bizarre. It’s Yzerman and company grinding away until the job was done.

    Duff discusses the Red Wings’ reinforced roster

    Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses whether this year’s Red Wings team is better-prepared for a successful playoff push, arguing that Detroit’s “bottom six” forwards are better-prepared to check, check and check some more…

    Andrew Copp, Michael Rasmussen and Christian Fischer established their credentials as a top-notch shutdown checking unit. A fourth line that could very well be comprised of Joe Veleno, Tyler Motte and Jonatan Berggren will still be capable of producing offense. But in grinders like Motte, Veleno and Fischer, there are players in that bottom six group who will also be meting out physical punishment on a consistent basis.

    “We talked about maybe this lineup slotting a little more natural than our teams have looked in the past going into the season,” [coach Derek] Lalonde said.

    And Duff suggests that the size and strength which the Red Wings now possess on the blueline–and in goal–should help the team:

    The top four of Moritz Seider, Ben Chiarot, Edvinsson and Jeff Petry are at least six-foot-three. Each weighs over 200 pounds.

    In goal, at 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, newcomer Cam Talbot looks more like today’s NHL netminder. He’s also a workhorse, twice starting 67 or more games in an NHL season. An NHL All-Star last season, Talbot would start 52 times for the Los Angeles Kings.

    “Again, we’re trying to take some steps from where we were last year,” Lalonde said. “It’s just guys understanding the roles, understanding their identity. I think that is successful to any team that’s trying to win hockey games. Again, it’ll be work in progress in the preseason, but I think we’re all excited to see it.”

    Continued; I’m not certain whether the Red Wings are going to make a playoff push this season, but I do agree that the Wings are better-slotted in terms of their forward lineup to have a scoring “top six” and a checking “bottom six.”

    As far as the defensive corps is concerned, it feels like a work in progress to me, but I do believe that Talbot should improve the team’s goaltending on an overall basis.

    We’ll see how things shake out, as coach Lalonde suggests, over the course of the preseason and the first 10 games of a very busy 20-day stretch in October.

    I’m crossing my fingers.

    Tweet of note: It was ‘content day’ at LCA

    It’s usually called “media day,” but the Red Wings are calling today’s events at Little Caesars Arena “content day” as the Red Wings’ players and goaltenders shot promos for their TV, online and in-house broadcasts. Cue the montage!

    Kulfan’s notebook: on Wings-Tigers connections and the exhibition grind

    The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed an interesting-to-read evening notebook article (of the subscriber-only variety), sharing some of coach Derek Lalonde’s remarks on the fact that the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings are “sister organizations” as the Tigers make their playoff run…

    The Ilitch family owns both the Red Wings and Tigers, and there is a level of camaraderie and cooperation between the organizations. Both have undertaken patient rebuilds, relying on draft picks and young talent, to fuel the rebuild.

    “Analytics is a big part of it,” Lalonde said. “We’re a fluid sport and it’s different, but of course, what a resource to be owned by the same group, same umbrella, and to be able to lean on those guys. We share the same ownership and even some internal growth beliefs and approach on some things. It’s been pretty cool what they’ve done.”

    Kulfan asked coach Lalonde what the lineup might look like tomorrow when the Red Wings travel to the Windy City to pla. Chicago (8 PM EDT start on DetroitRedWings.com), a game in which the Blackhawks plan on icing a very NHL-heavy lineup…

    Continue reading Kulfan’s notebook: on Wings-Tigers connections and the exhibition grind

    Engaging in a little thought experiment on the alumni front

    Daily Faceoff’s Anthony Trudeau engages in a thought experiment this evening, wondering what might happen if the Eastern Conference’s teams could bring back one retired veteran who’s a “fan favorite” or “All-Star” who would benefit his team the most:

    Detroit Red Wings: Niklas Kronwall, D (2003-19)

    The second Original Six team to jump back in time has several options to fix its uninspiring blueline. Vladimir Konstantinov might have ended up in the Hall if not for the limousine accident that cut him down in his prime. Reed Larson was a lock for 20 goals a season and is one of the most underrated offensive D-men ever. Both are right-handed, though, as is Mo Seider, the foundational piece of the Red Wings’ defense. Kronwall made his living with a devastating hip check on Nick Lidstrom’s left, and, later, as top dog himself. He and Seider would provide the modern Wings with a true top pair to build around.

    Continued; the Red Wings’ blueline is what it is until the team addresses the need for a physical, shut-down player via the trade market…Or until someone like Simon Edvinsson or Albert Johansson steps up and fills a hole on their own.

    For now, the Wings have what they have. I happen to believe that, by the trade deadline, they’ll be adding someone to fill the void to help spell Seider of some of those hard match-up minutes. We’ll see what happens over the course of the next six months.

    In the interim, I sure miss “Kronner” every day.

    Raymond, Seider are ready to bear the weight of 8 million expectations

    Updated at 6:37 PM: As new members of the Red Wings’ $8 million dollar-salary club, Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond and defenseman Moritz Seider realize that there will be significant pressure upon them to perform at higher levels than they’ve already achieved in their NHL careers (thus far).

    Over the course of a subscriber-only article, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the fact that Raymond and Seider face the kinds of expectations to deliver on a Dylan Larkin-like level–as the Red Wings’ coach and captain already know:

    “It’s a reality of it,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “People are aware of it. Knowing the person and whether it weighs on them or not, it’s just the reality of it and just like any other individual it’s just being aware of it.”

    Larkin found this out when he was agreeing to terms on an eight-year pact with an AAV of $8.7 million toward the end of the 2022-23 season. He was choosing to embrace the additional expectations, to use the pressure to be driving himself and the team forward. And he’s still seeking to accomplish more.

    “Still pushing myself to see if . . . I know I have a next level and I would like to see what I can do,” Larkin explained. “I’d like to be a dominant player like I have been when I’m healthy. And that’s a big thing for me, is staying healthy this year and trying to dominate and not do too much. Just play my game and be a good playmaker, someone that makes everyone around me better.”

    Without revealing the text of the entire article, Raymond and Seider have told Duff that they’re embracing the pressure from without as well as the pressure that comes from within. For Seider, it’s about expecting more of himself…

    “I think the expectations change,” Seider acknowledged. “For a lot of other people expectations are different. I don’t think I feel more pressure. I want to be good every single night. That shouldn’t be a matter of how much you make.”

    And for Raymond, it’s about accentuating the positive:

    “There’s obvious areas I want to keep growing in, keep developing, taking bigger strides, taking more responsibility and getting higher expectations on myself,” Raymond said. “So for sure that’s the goal. I’m still 22, so hopefully I have a lot of, development to still do.”

    Continued (paywall); and the Hockey News’s Connor Eargood noted that Seider’s taking a more defiant tone (on the day that The Athletic declared that Larkin has peaked, Raymond is a complementary player, and that Seider’s not doing enough to embrace the challenges thrown at him):

    Continue reading Raymond, Seider are ready to bear the weight of 8 million expectations

    Seider on his new deal (per Khan): ‘there are other guys thinking this contract is not right, so I’m ready to prove them wrong again’

    I’ve tried to leave the Moritz Seider press conference-related articles in a single post, but I guess this is rule-breaking day, because this quip from Seider, noted by MLive’s Ansar Khan, deserves its own post:

    Seider’s first contract after his entry-level deal makes him the team’s second-highest player, slightly below Dylan Larkin’s $8.7 million AAV. But it won’t add any more pressure on him.

    “I want to be good every single night,” Seider said. “That shouldn’t be a matter of how much you make.”

    He added, “I think there are a lot of people who thought I was a reach (when drafted sixth overall in 2019), and I had a chance proving them wrong, and there are other guys thinking this contract is not right, so I’m ready to prove them wrong again.”

    Seider celebrated by taking his parents and his agent and agent’s family to dinner in Germany before hopping a flight to Detroit. He and his buddy Lucas Raymond, who signed an eight-year pact with an $8.075 million AAV a few days before, are sure to spring for a team dinner during an early season road trip.

    “It’s great to give back now,” Seider said. “The team helped us a lot to get there at this point and obviously we’re excited to get on the road, play at home, play in front of the fans again and I think we’ll have a good time. I’m just really happy to wear that jersey for a very long time now.”

    Continued; given that The Athletic’s Luszczyszyn, Gentille and Goldman ranked Seider in a very middling tier of players this morning, because, and I quote…

    For Seider to reach Tier 3 and beyond, he needs to prove he can handle the heat — as hot as it is — much better than he currently has.

    Maybe it’s a good thing that Seider’s still got a huge chip on his shoulder.