Author: George Malik

Red Wings prospect and Team Canada defenseman Donovan Sebrango gave a 1:16 interview to TSN’ Tessa Bonhomme after Canada’s 6-3 win over Finland at the World Junior Championship on Monday night.

I can’t embed the video, but here’s the summary:

‘Everyone wants that gold’: Sebrango says Canada will do anything possible to win

Donovan Sebrango talks to TSN’s Tessa Bonhomme following Canada’s victory over Finland and says he’s willing to do anything possible to capture gold with his Canadian teammates.

Sebrango says that the Canadians can’t be too mad having held off the Finns, and that they’re willing to put their bodies on the line in order to win Gold, so that’s not a surprise. He also says that the Canadians are seeing different and new faces take the spotlight, and the whole team working together, as a balanced lineup.

Updated 2x at 10:06 PM: A bit of a shock hit the Red Wings Twitter world when the Tre Kronor, a.k.a. the Swedish national team, announced on Twitter that their lineup for Monday night’s game vs. Germany at the World Junior Championship would not include Simon Edvinsson.

Här är laget! 😍

Förbundskapten Tomas Montén ställer följande formationer på isen när Juniorkronorna möter Tyskland. Nedsläpp strax efter kl 4. Du ser matchen i TV6/Viaplay.

Heja Sverige! 🙌🇸🇪#worldjuniors @IIHFHockey pic.twitter.com/rDHAqxesOa— Tre Kronor (@Trekronorse) August 16, 2022

Edvinsson played 22:46 during Sunday night’s 3-2 loss to Team USA, so it’s possible, if not probable, that Edvinsson is nursing some sort of minor injury, but going into Wednesday’s Quarterfinal round, I do not expect coach Tomas Monten to clarify his status.

Update: Via the Detroit News’s Gregg Krupa on Twitter:

Simon Edvinsson spelar inte den avslutande gruppspelsmatchen mot Tyskland. Lär vara en ren försiktighetsåtgärd. #Juniorkronorna— Rasmus Kågström (@rasmuskagstrom) August 16, 2022

Simon Edvinsson does not play the final group stage match against Germany. Supposed to be a mere precaution.

Update #2: From me:

TSN’s Bob McKenzie says that there is speculation that Edvinsson is either 1) banged up or 2) got food poisoning.

I’m hoping for the food poisoning?— George Malik (@georgemalik) August 16, 2022

Team Canada and Team Finland squared off in a battle for supremacy in Group A at the World Junior Championship on Monday night, with the 3-and-0 Canadians looking to finish round robin play at 4-and-0, and the Finns looking to improve upon their similar (2 regulation wins and 1 overtime win) record.

As TSN’s James Duthie said before the game, the winner of the Canada-Finland game would face Switzerland in Wednesday’s Quarterfinal, while the loser would battle the loser of tonight’s 10 PM EDT-starting game between Sweden and Germany.

Two underrated Red Wings prospects would battle in Canadian defenseman Dominic Sebrango and Finland’s Eemil Viro, also a defenseman.

As Sebastian Cossa was set to back up Dylan Garand in goal, Monday night’s game involved players that “you don’t really notice” as Sebrango plays a spare, steady and physical game on Canada’s top defensive pair, and Viro quietly embodies a similar (albeit less physical) role the Finns’ second defensive pair.

This was a unique game! Canada dominated the first period, absolutely blew Finland away in the 2nd period, and then got into penalty trouble in the 3rd, and was really worked over by the Finns, who almost pulled off an improbable rally.

The score was 6-3 Canada, but Canada, who will face Switzerland in the Quarterfinal on Wednesday, had to bust its butt to play in the 3rd.

In terms of Red Wings prospects playing in the game:

Donovan Sebrango was his steady self, finishing at +1 in 21:01 played, earning lots of PK time, taking one untimely penalty, and blocking shots;

Eemil Viro had perhaps his best game of the tournament thus far, moving the puck up ice with pace and aplomb while avoiding hits and using his short stick to break up plays in the defensive zone, ultimately finishing at +1 with 1 shot in 16:43 played.

In terms of the game’s narrative…

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen ponders the reasons why several former Red Wings players, including forward Sam Gagner, have not been able to find gainful employment in the NHL over the course of the free agency period thus far:

Veteran Detroit Red Wings forward Sam Gagner made the joking observation at the end of last season that some of his younger teammates “are a little closer to my kids’ age.”

But the 33-year-old Gagner is far from over the hill. His 13-goal, 31-point production in 2022-23 represented his best season since 2017-18. Gagner is a penalty-killer, polished defensive forward and a natural leader.  If the Red Wings were trying to win a Stanley Cup, instead of rebuilding, they may have re-signed Gagner.

That’s why it’s mildly surprising that Gagner is still available in the free agent marketplace.

….

It still seems likely that he will sign with a good team. He’s been linked to both the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs. He could be a valuable role player on a contender.

“I try to have the same mindset every night,” he said at the end of the season. “It’s not always going to go the way you want but for the most part I’ve felt pretty good about where my game has been at most of the year.”

Allen Continues, and, yesterday, the Edmonton Journal’s Kurt Leavins reported the following:

The Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi posted an article in which he discusses Red Wings prospects and Team USA forwards Carter Mazur and Red Savage’s strong World Junior Championship performances thus far with both players, who are particularly confident in their abilities:

Heading into Team USA’s elimination round slate, which begins Wednesday, Mazur is in the midst of announcing himself to the hockey world. He’s tied for fifth in points (four goals, two assists) among all players in the tournament. Who would have thought? Mazur would.

“Yeah, I honestly did,” Mazur said when asked if he’d thought following the 2020 draft, when he went undrafted through seven rounds, that he’d ever get the opportunity to play on this stage.  Once (I was drafted) it felt like my confidence sorta jumped through the roof and I started finally coming together and believing in my game and know what I could do. So I felt like once that all came together, that I had a really good shot to make this team in the winter.”

Savage, on the other hand, as been less productive, but only slightly. His hard-nosed game shows up less on the scoresheet than others, but with two goals and an assist, he’s also getting onto the radar of hockey fans.

“It’s a hard team to make, but I’ve always been confident in my abilities,” Savage said. “It was definitely something that I had to really work towards, and it was definitely always a big goal of mine to make this team.”

Continued; Savage also reveals that he used to play for Compuware in Metro Detroit, whereas Mazur played for Kris Draper’s Little Caesars team, and as such, they grew up as rivals.

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau has been posting lists of players who he believes are “on the hot seat” for each NHL team, and he feels that Red Wings trade acquisition Ville Husso is “on the hot seat” in Detroit:

RED WINGS HOT SEAT: VILLE HUSSO, GOALTENDER: WHY: Detroit will begin the 2022-23 season on an optimistic note, after GM Steve Yzerman infused the lineup with free agent veterans, including forwards Andrew Copp and David Perron, and defenseman Ben Chiarot. But their biggest free agent acquisition is goaltender Ville Husso, whose negotiating rights were acquired by St. Louis in early July, and who subsequently signed a three-year, $14.25-million contract to become the Red Wings’ starting goalie.

To be sure, there were stretches last season with the Blues where the 27-year-old Husso looked like a legitimate No. 1 threat in net, and he did finish the regular season with career-highs in games played (40), Goals-Against Average (2.56) and Save Percentage (.919). However, Husso ultimately lost the starter’s job to veteran Jordan Binnington by the end of the season, and his seven playoff appearances in 2022 for St. Louis were not ideal (2-5 record, 3.67 G.A.A., .890 SP). If he were better than Binnington, the Blues wouldn’t have traded Husso.

Nevertheless, Wings GM Steve Yzerman had to improve on his team’s abominable goaltending performance last season, and he clearly saw Husso as the best option available to him this summer. He paid the price of a third-round draft pick to St. Louis to get ahead of his competitors and sign Husso before he hit the free agent market. And then he gave Husso a hell of a raise from the relatively paltry $750,000 he made in 2021-22. A $4-million raise, in fact.

So, now. Husso is “The Man” in Detroit, but that comes with highly-raised expectations. He has only 57 regular-season games of NHL experience, and he’s not going to be playing in front of the most stingy defensive team, even with the addition of new head coach Derek Lalonde. The Red Wings have a different defense corps with Chiarot and veterans Mark Pysyk and Olli Maata joining rising star Morris Seider and Filip Hronek. But that may not be good enough to push the Wings into a playoff berth in the Atlantic Division. They’ll need Husso to step up and steal some games.

Continued; I’m a little more optimistic that Husso and Alex Nedeljkovic can both rebound from last season’s performances, but that’s just me.

The Red Wings’ prospects will wrap up their World Junior Championship round robin play with games this afternoon and evening, and they’re consequential games at that.

After Switzerland plays Austria at 2 PM EDT in Edmonton…

Team Canada vs. Finland takes place @ 6 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network; Canada has to win this evening to win Group A:

Donovan Sebrango and Sebastian Cossa play for Canada; Eemil Viro plays for Finland;

Team Sweden vs. Germany takes place @ 10 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network; the winner of this game will finish second in Group B:

Simon Edvinsson, Theodor Niederbach and William Wallinder play for Sweden.

Update: Here’s TSN’s schedule:

#WorldJuniors GAME DAY:

Switzerland 🇨🇭 🆚 Austria 🇦🇹: 2pm et on TSN 3/5

Canada 🇨🇦 🆚 Finland 🇫🇮: 6pm et on TSN 3/5

Germany 🇩🇪 🆚 Sweden 🇸🇪: 10pm et on TSN 3/5

Also LIVE on https://t.co/BQGeAnElqf and the TSN App: https://t.co/3PTSwVFR94#TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/oa23sBA3XY— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) August 15, 2022

Detroit Hockey Now’s Nate Brown concludes his analysis of the “Yzerplan” as it applies to Detroit’s draft picks by writing an exhaustive analysis of Yzerman’s 12 last drafts, and comparing his selections as Tampa Bay’s general manager from 2010-2018 with his selections as the Red Wings’ GM from 2019-2022.

I’m going to disagree ever-so-slightly with his conclusion:

After spending nearly a decade in Tampa where the Lightning would spend the latter half of the decade in the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final, Yzerman flipped the script when he arrived in Detroit in terms of drafting. Instead of going heavy in the junior leagues north of the border, he’s continued to pick from international talent.

Now, there could be a number of reasons for this. When beginning his career as a manager, Yzerman was heavily involved with the Canadian National Team, winning gold medals in both 2010 and 2014. Seeing that talent up close, perhaps it led to a confirmation bias that the best talent to build around was still coming from Canada.

Second, the scope of how he built in Tampa was different than Detroit. With the Red Wings, he was essentially starting over. Of the building blocks he had in Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, Yzerman truly only had that elite player in Dylan Larkin. The other “core” members were contributors, but hardly the foundational pieces like Stamkos or Hedman.

Finally, Yzerman ended up trading or not re-signing many of the very players he drafted from the Canadian junior leagues. Drouin comes to mind first, who he dealt for Mikhail Sergachev. While Sergachev was drafted by Windsor in the CHL Import draft, his career began in the MHL, a league Yzerman has chosen from often with both the Lightning and Red Wings.

Continued; I know that Nate has busted his butt attempting to discern how the Yzerman regime has drafted from rounds 1 and 2 to rounds 3 through 7, and he’s compared Yzerman’s draft tendencies to those of Ken Holland.

That’s a lot of work, and I respect the pants out of it. He really worked his tail off looking at the data, crunching the numbers and classified players from drafts from 2014-22 for the Red Wings and 2014-18 for the Lightning. That’s a shit-ton of work. You’ve got to tip your hat to that sort of thorough analysis.

All of that being said…

Sunday’s nightcap at the World Junior Championship was a doozy.

Carter Mazur, Red Savage and Team USA, who were 3-and-0 coming into their final “round robin” game, faced Simon Edvinsson, Theodor Niederbach, William Wallinder and Team Sweden, who sat just behind Team USA at 2-and-0 in Group B.

Prior to the game, Simon Edvinsson had this to say to NHL.com’s Mike G. Morreale:

“It’s going to be a hard game,” Sweden defenseman Simon Edvinsson (Red Wings) said. “I know they are going to be fired up to play us, so it’s going to be fun. They’re a team that’s good in the offensive zone and have good players all over the place. I’m looking forward to the game.”

This was an unusual one. Team USA won 3-2, but the Americans raced out to a 3-0 lead, and didn’t surrender a goal until the final 8:22 of regulation time, absolutely dominating the Swedes for 51 minutes and 38 seconds…

But the Swedes were absolutely dominant for 8:22, and while the Americans have advanced to face the Czechs on Wednesday, Sweden heads back onto the ice tomorrow night vs. Germany, and the Swedes need to win that one to not finish 3rd in the group.

Statistically speaking, here’s how your Red Wings prospects did: