Author: George Malik

DobberHockey’s Michael Clifford discusses the Red Wings’ offseason changes from a fantasy hockey point of view this evening, offering Detroit a “B” grade for the management team’s moves:

Fantasy Outlook: A healthy and effective [John] Gibson is a difference-maker in net for Detroit. While they won’t be an elite defensive team at even strength, the Red Wings gave up the third-fewest power plays last year and sixth-fewest over the last two seasons. For comparison, Anaheim gave up 43 more power plays than the next-closest team from 2023-2025. Seeing nearly one less power play opportunity against per game will help Gibson’s ratios in and of themselves, so he is in a much better spot now than he was 10 months ago.

Under new coach Todd McLellan, Detroit improved from 29^th in scoring before Christmas to 15^th after Christmas. A lot of it came from the power play, but they did jump from last in even strength goal scoring to 21^st. While some improvements to the forward depth this offseason will help the team (and goalies) in general, further scoring improvements under McLellan’s guidance will be more important for fantasy-relevant options like [Dylan] Larkin, [Marco] Kasper, Alex DeBrincat, Lucas Raymond, Patrick Kane, Moritz Seider, and Simon Edvinsson.

Detroit doesn’t have any super-elite fantasy options, but all of Larkin, DeBrincat, Raymond, and Seider can be top-100 skaters, and Gibson can be a top-10 goalie. If one of those names were to become a top-5 fantasy option at their position, it is Seider. Holding a top PP role on a great unit, earning a pile of ice time, and amassing huge peripherals gives him nearly all he needs to have a career year. The missing ingredient is a better offensive team at even strength to push him past the 50-point mark, and that’s where the second-half improvements under McLellan really matter.

Fantasy Grade: B (last year was B)

Continued (and it’s a good read); again, quite a bit of the Red Wings’ performances, both fantasy hockey and otherwise, are going to depend upon what the coaching staff can get out of them.

The Hockey News’s Jake Tye spoke with Grand Rapids Griffins assistant coach Brian Lashoff regarding one Simon Edvinsson, and Lashoff’s sold on Edvinsson’s potential:

Before making the jump to an everyday player, Edvinsson played just 25 NHL games with a majority of his development coming at the AHL level with the Grand Rapids Griffins. He spent two seasons in Eastern Michigan, where he played 106 games and posted an impressive stat line with 57 points, including 44 assists as an elite puck distributor. During his time in the minors, he got to play alongside and learn from a Red Wings veteran in Brian Lashoff. 

After playing the entirety of his 14-year professional playing career in the Red Wings organization, Lashoff decided to move behind the bench and now works as one of the team’s assistant coaches. Before swapping his skates for a clipboard, he got to play with Edvinsson and can speak to the talent of the player. 

“I’m obviously really proud of him, I had played with him in my last year, and then I got the chance to coach him and work with him my first year coaching, so I had a good relationship with him and try to help him with as much as possible,” Lashoff explained “You could see the talent right away, the size of him and his ability to skate, the one thing that I think he took really seriously from when he got over here and us working with him as a staff, is just his defending.”

Lashoff would go on to explain that Edvinsson’s strides in his defensive game helped him transition to the NHL better than most young defenseman as he had the offensive talent but needed to better round out his game. 

“I think the sky’s the limit for him,” Lashoff said “Just as a defender, for being that age and playing the minutes he did against tough competition, it’s impressive what he did, and now it’s on him to kind of pull himself to that standard as well and continue to grow and keep pushing the bar as high as he can, year after year, which he certainly has the potential to do.”

Continued

MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses the Mason McTavish trade rumors this afternoon, and Khan is blunt and to the point here:

The Red Wings probably don’t have the assets it would take to get MacTavish or at least would be reluctant to part with what it would cost.

Moving any combination of Jonatan Berggren, a second-tier prospect and a second round or lower pick isn’t going to get it done.

Perhaps the Ducks would be interested in Nate Danielson, the center selected No. 9 overall in 2023. But Danielson is unproven, coming off his first season with the Grand Rapids Griffins during which he did not stand out (12 goals, 39 points in 71 games). It would take more than Danielson to land a proven NHL center in MacTavish, who has averaged 20 goals and 47 points in three seasons.

Anaheim’s asking price likely would start with Marco Kasper or defense prospect Axel Sandin Pellikka. At that point, it doesn’t make sense for the Red Wings.

Here’s his bottom line:

Yzerman undoubtedly feels pressure to make a move after the thin free-agent market yielded only a few supporting pieces (forwards James van Riemsdyk and Mason Appleton and defensemen Jacob Bernard-Docker and Travis Hamonic). But he’s not going to make a trade out of panic.

Forget about any team tendering MacTavish an offer sheet, which is rare anyway. The Ducks have more than $20 million in cap space and would match any offer.

Much like the Red Wings signed Lucas Raymond just prior to training camp last year and inked Moritz Seider during camp, chances are the Ducks will sign MacTavish when the urgency escalates. And if they move him, it’s highly unlikely Detroit will be the landing spot.

Sportsnet’s Ryan Dixon discusses “possible trade destinations for [restricted free agent forward] Mason McTavish” this morning, and he’s buying the concept that there’s a real fit between Anaheim and Detroit:

Detroit Red Wings

There’s a blatant connection here, given Verbeek worked under Detroit boss Steve Yzerman for years, both in the Motor City and before that, with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Red Wings are looking to push forward as they attempt to end a playoff drought that’s creeping up to 10 years.

Marco Kasper had a strong, 19-goal rookie season, but you could definitely see Detroit wanting to beef up down the middle behind the captain and No. 1 pivot Dylan Larkin.

By all rights, you’d expect Anaheim to be targeting a return that helps the club right now as the Ducks try to move up into the Western Conference playoffs under first-year Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville.

Still, Anaheim might think long and hard about a piece like defenceman Axel Sandin Pellikka, if the Wings were willing to deal him. The 17th overall pick from 2023 might be ready to push for an NHL job following two strong years in Sweden’s top league. He’s not big, but Sandin Pellikka comes in the coveted right-shot package, which offers a nice counterbalance to the young lefties Anaheim already has in Jackson LaCombe, Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger.

Continued; for me, that’s a straight-out NOPE. You don’t fill a hole by creating one on the roster, and to me, Axel Sandin Pellikka is more important to the Red Wings than Mason McTavish could be.

I try to respect The Athletic’s subscription status while providing you a peek behind the paywall, and this morning, I chose to discuss Max Bultman’s “burning question” about the Red Wings’ coaching staff…

But Pro Hockey Rumors’ Josh Erickson offers a summary of another important point, and we’re gonna share it here:

The biggest training camp storyline for the Red Wings will be who begins the season as their top line left wing next to Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. They’ve had a revolving door there for the first four years of the latter’s career, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon.

To that end, Max Bultman of The Athletic explored that topic today. Their most frequent linemate last season was youngster Marco Kasper, but with his development more apt in filling a much-needed second-line center role for the Wings, that’s where Bultman anticipates him staying to open the season.

If not Kasper, it’s a rather uninspiring list for a unit expected to be Detroit’s most productive. The leading contender might be a swap of who Kasper replaced down the middle late last year. Veteran Andrew Copp has played exclusively down the middle since signing with the Wings three years ago, but could slot in on Larkin’s wing to “bring some of the same heaviness and defensive elements Kasper did to that line,” Bultman writes.

Copp is arguably the leading contender because of Detroit’s relatively quiet offseason, leaving them with uninspiring top-line options in the likely scenario they keep wingers Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane as their second-line anchors. Other names in the mix, Bultman writes, will be free agent pickup James van Riemsdyk and the towering young Elmer Söderblom. The former was more productive last season with 36 points in 71 games for the Blue Jackets, but only averaged 12:24 per night.

Continued; I wouldn’t be surprised if the Red Wings bring in somebody like Max Pacioretty on a pro try-out during training camp, but at this point, the internal options are JVR and Soderblom.

I wouldn’t mess with the chemistry of the DeBrincat–Kasper–Kane line as I believe that Kasper is the Wings’ 2nd line center of the present as well as the future, and instead, I’d experiment with Michael Rasmussen or even J.T. Compher or Jonatan Berggren on the top line if necessary.

TSN’s Travis Yost is ranking the NHL’s teams by positional strengths and weaknesses, and he’s already discussed the NHL’s goaltending tiers and defensive tiers. Today, he ranks the NHL’s teams’ winger positions in a tiered format, and the Red Wings land smack dab in the middle (tier 3) due to Lucas Raymond’s presence:

Detroit Red Wings (T3) – Lucas Raymond is a top 50 goal scorer over the past two seasons, one goal shy of a player the calibre of Vegas’ Eichel and his 59 goals. With Raymond producing like this on an $8-million per year contract at the age of 23, it has the chance to chance to age as gracefully as any contract in the league.

Continued; between Raymond, Alex DeBrincat, Patrick Kane, James van Riemsdyk and big Elmer Soderblom, I’d argue that the Wings,’ well, wings are a bit top-heavy and just above average, but that’s just me.

Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz ranks “best defenseman” for every NHL team from 1 to 32 The Red Wings’ selection is an empty-net tap-in…But one Moritz Seider is still only ranked 19th out of 32 top NHL defenders:

Detroit Red Wings: Moritz Seider

19 of 32

If you look at Seider’s underlying metrics and advanced stats he does not really stand out as a terribly effective defender. But he is one of the examples as to where the eye test still matters because he just has the look of a top-pairing defender. He is extremely durable (yet to miss a game in the NHL), has the type of size NHL general managers dream about for a defender, plays a physical game and has been remarkably consistent offensively. The Red Wings just need to give him more help, both in terms of a steady partner and better second-and third-pairing defenders.

Continued; Seider’s underlying metrics have improved while playing incredibly difficult minutes, and he does shoulder the load of being the Red Wings’ best even-strength and PK defenseman, as well as their PP catalyst.

I don’t feel that he should be penalized for his assignment to do everything well at the same time.

He does need more help, whether that’s from Simon Edvinsson or an improving Ben Chiarot, and the Red Wings definitely have to improve their defensive depth to reduce Seider’s workload. That being said, he does a great job, all things considered, and he’s being penalized for that workload.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman asks “burning questions” regarding the Detroit Red Wings a month out from training camp, and this question is of most urgency to me:

What does a full season with McLellan mean?

This one will be the hardest to quantify, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. The Red Wings looked markedly better after hiring Todd McLellan at Christmas, reviving their season in the second half. One of those aforementioned March slumps ultimately derailed any playoff hopes, but even with that lumped in, Detroit played to a 95-point pace under McLellan. That would have been enough to make the playoffs over a full season.

Of course, there won’t be any new coach bump this time around. But in its place will be other advantages, like a full training camp to install McLellan’s preferred systems and structures. And after how the second half went, the buy-in from players should remain strong.

Ultimately, the players’ effort and engagement level is probably more important than the particulars of which schematic McLellan and his staff decide on. And McLellan certainly got that out of the roster in his 48 games last season. Now the key will be to maintain the same blend of energy and instinct that fueled last season while also mixing in any new structures. That’s easier said than done, but it could go a long way toward determining the season’s trajectory.

Continued (paywall); while concerns about who plays with Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond, the goaltending under John Gibson, the improvement of the Wings’ young players and the potential impact of rookies are all interesting discussions, I feel that the coaching staff’s performance may be the greatest determinant of success or failure this upcoming season.

Coach Todd McLellan and his revamped staff have to set the tone for team consistency starting on the first morning of training camp, and avoiding customary swoons in December, March and April will be essential for the team’s playoff relevancy.

McLellan, assistant coaches Trent Yawney and Alex Tanguay, and video coordinators Jeff Weintraub and Erich Junge have a hard job ahead of them, and marginal personnel improvements to work with. It’s going to be essential that the coaches get the most out of their players regardless of their “name value” for the team to take a step forward.

As Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff notes, former Maple Leaf, Red Wing and Vancouver Canuck Mark Kirton has passed away at 67 years of age due to ALS:

Former Detroit Red Wings center Mark Kirton never sought out sympathy as he battled with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The neurodegenerative disease, often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, claimed Kirton’s life on Sunday. He was 67 years old.

“I don’t want anybody to feel sorry for me,” Kirton said in a 2021 interview with the CHL website. Right until the end, even as his body steadily betrayed him, he never allowed his bleak prognosis to impact his outlook on life.

“Even though it’s humbling, I just wasn’t going to change,” Kirton said. “I was going to be positive and not allow any negativity to enter my DNA.”

He worked tirelessly raising funds for research into the illness. Kirton was able to incorporate several of his NHL contemporaries to help with his fight, including former Red Wings star Paul Henderson.

He’s the second former Detroit player to lose his life to ALS in recent years. The disease also killed Hall of Fame defenseman Borje Salming in 2022. Salming spent his last NHL season with the Red Wings in 1989-90.

Continued;

Dobber Hockey’s Puneet Sharma brings up a Red Wings “Bubble Keeper Prospect” who does have some questions to answer in what is likely a pivotal season for his North American hockey career in one William Wallinder:

William Wallander, D – Detroit Red Wings

Wallander took another step forward in his second North American season, posting 19 points with Grand Rapids. He is a big mobile defenseman that uses his mobility and frame effectively to control space and read plays well in his own zone. Offensively, he makes smart plays under pressure but will not drive production. He projects as a steady third-pair option who could see NHL time with Detroit this season. From a fantasy perspective Wallander is a keep in deeper formats as he is a low-risk, defensively sound option with modest upside.

Bubble Keeper Status: Keep

The Red Wings have two left-shooting defensemen with solid futures in the 6’4,” 190-pound Wallinder, who’s 23, and 6’3,” 222-pound Shai Buium, who’s 22, but I do wonder whether players like Wallinder or right-shooting defenseman Antti Tuomisto, 24, might end up packing their bags for Europe if they don’t make progress this season.

Put bluntly, when European pros hit their third year in North America, they tend to make a decision as to whether they’re willing to ply their trades in the AHL for another season or two in order to make the NHL–or at least make a good living here in North American pro hockey…

Or whether they’re of the mind to head back to European pro hockey, where they can make several hundred thousand dollars more per season while playing a less-demanding schedule in terms of both travel and the number of games played.

In Europe, being an “NHL-merited” or “NHL-drafted” player carries a bit of a cachet, too, and it earns players bigger paychecks as a result.

When you can play about 50 regular-season games in the SHL, Liiga, DEL, Swiss league, Czechia, Slovakia or even the KHL, and earn more money as while not enduring those 8-to-10-hour bus rides and 74 regular-season games of punishing AHL hockey, well…Some guys choose the former option, understandably so.

Given that Wallinder came from a very successful Rogle BK team, and that Tuomisto has already gone back home to Finland and come back to North America, it’s getting close to “fish or cut bait” time for both players, and you and I tend to hope that everybody succeeds, but it’s very difficult to make the NHL, and harder still to stick there.

It’s going to be a climb up the depth chart for Wallinder, Buium and Tuomisto, and it’s not going to be easy for any of them. I certainly wish them all success.