Author: George Malik

Updated with highlights at 5:44 PM: Team Sweden defeated Switzerland 3-2 in their first round robin game at the World Junior Championship, but it was a sloppy win…

In no small part because Red Wings prospect and Rogle BK center Theodor Niederbach had a rough go, negating an assist with 3 penalties, including a 5-minute major for boarding in the 3rd period.

Simon Edvinsson played major minutes and registered an assist, playing savvy, heads-up hockey, using his skating skills and confidence to register an assist on Sweden’s first goal and generally play a dominant, intelligent and physical game. Edvinsson finished with 1 assist and an even plus-minus rating, with 3 shots taken, in 26:09 played;

William Wallinder made a bad boo boo by charging up to center ice on the Swiss 3-2 goal, causing himself and Edvinsson to lose position as the Swiss players stormed the Swedish net and fired a slot shot through the pair of Wings defensemen screening Jesper Wallstedt, but in all honesty, Wallinder was very good for the vast majority of the game, shutting down the Swiss offense and playing low-event hockey to a shut-down defenseman’s tee. Wallinder finished at +1 with 1 shot in 19:43 played;

And Niederbach took two bad stick penalties 200 feet from his net, redeemed himself with a behind-the-back assist, and then took a 5-minute major penalty for boarding, ultimately finishing with an assist, a +2 and 1 shot, but 29 minutes in penalties in 15:23 played.

I’ll post the IIHF’s highlights when able, but in the interim, you’ll get Twitter clips to watch:

Red Wings prospect and Team Canada alternate captain Donovan Sebrango spoke with TSN’s Mark Masters on Canada’s game day, addressing the state of his team ahead of today’s game vs. Latvia (6 PM EDT start on TSN/NHL Network):

#WorldJuniors GAME DAY: Donovan Sebrango ‘very confident’ in Canada: We’re a bit bigger than we were at Christmas time… https://t.co/ruq4Qf2CBh#TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/ag6rY0M7Vr— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) August 10, 2022

Update: Also:

#WorldJuniors GAME DAY: Team Canada head coach Dave Cameron looks ahead to the opening game against Latvia and the challenge they present, shares his thoughts on Logan Stankoven’s game and why he wanted Donovan Sebrango as part of his leadership group – https://t.co/XtE2y4VcCD pic.twitter.com/vWRBCFHvfB— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) August 10, 2022

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan filed a notebook article which focuses on new Red Wings forward David Perron’s remarks made during his introductory press conference:

Perron, at age 34, will be the oldest player on the Wings’ roster. A 2007 first-round pick of the Blues, Perron is only 27 games shy of reaching 1,000 games played in his career.

That experience, plus the championship pedigree, could prove invaluable on a younger roster. Perron joins Robby Fabbri, Oskar Sundqvist, Ville Husso and Jake Walman as former St. Louis teammates now with the Wings. Perron was integral in the Blues’ leadership structure in recent years and feels he can help build a winning culture in Detroit.

“Those are guys I exchanged text messages (with),” Perron said. “Some of us won together there in St. Louis and would like to kind of bring some of that success to Detroit. That’s very important for the organization, the value of the older guys, the type of culture they want to build. I’m going to show up to be one of the guys at the start, but then you are going to try to instill some of the things you’ve learned over the years to help the team out. You see some of the strides that (young St. Louis forwards) Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou have taken over the last couple of years. In my mind, hopefully in a little way I’ve helped them become those guys.”

Perron’s impact on the power play was also a factor in Yzerman acquiring the veteran. Eleven of Perron’s 27 goals last season in St. Louis were on the power play. Conversely, the Wings’ power play has been consistently near the bottom of the NHL the last several seasons.

“With the Blues last year we had the best power play in the history of the team. I was part of that solution, it’s something that I want to help,” Perron said. “A team that goes on a good run on the power play usually starts the year pretty well. If you start behind the eight ball and you have to dig yourself out, it’s tough to come back and have a good season.”

Continued (paywall)

TSN’s Travis Yost continues to rank every NHL team on a position-by-position basis, and he somehow ranks the Red Wings’ blueline as “under-performing,” though he offers praise for the Red Wings’ best defenseman:

Detroit: Another group with plenty of upside, like Buffalo. Mo Seider was well deserving of last year’s Calder Trophy in a tough environment. It will be fascinating to see what Seider’s puck movement and awareness can do on a team with more attacking threats up top.

Continued; according to Yost, the Red Wings’ defense consists of Ben Chiarot, Moritz Seider, Olli Maatta, Filip Hronek, Jordan Oesterle and Gustav Lindstrom. I’m not sure whether things are going to shake out that way in training camp.

Red Wings prospect and Team Sweden alternate captain Simon Edvinsson tells SVT.se that he’s ready to play in today’s 2 PM EDT game vs. Switzerland:

Edvinsson ready for the WJC premiere

Swedish star defenseman Simon Edvinsson was injured in the WJC exhibition game.

Now he’s been given the green light to play in the opener against Switzerland.

“I’ve practiced,” he says to SVT Sport.

It was in the exhibition against Canada that 19-year-old Simon Edvinsson stepped off the ice with an injury.

However, now it’s clear that the key player, who broke through with Frolunda and has been drafted by Detroit, will play in tonight’s opener vs. Switzerland.

He has his eyes set on gold, and underlines the importance of the collective effort from Sweden.

“We will have to come together as a group to make it work. This is not a one-man show.”

The Junior Krona premiere at the WJC starts at 20:00 Swedish time tonight.

IIHF.com’s Chris Jurewicz posted a profile of Red Wings prospect Simon Edvinsson this morning. Edvinsson is currently in Edmonton, Alberta, playing for Team Sweden at the World Junior Championship:

Simon Edvinsson remembers his first trip to Detroit. Walking through Little Caesars Arena for a Swedish defenceman is somewhat akin to visiting the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“Yeah, it was pretty cool when I went there for the first time,” says Edvinsson. “You see all of those players on the wall. It was pretty cool to see. Of course, we were rebuilding and now we are going forward. I feel like the team is playing a lot better and it’s new energy every day. It’s going to be fun.”

Edvinsson is the next Swedish defenceman who Red Wings fans will come to love, perhaps right up there with the great Nicklas Lidstrom and Niklas Kronwall. It’s never easy to be compared to legends but Edvinsson – a key member of Sweden’s team at the 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship in Edmonton – has all the right tools for stardom.

He’s 199 cm / 6-foot-6, 95 kg / 209 pounds and is noticed for high-end skill and skating. He is a product of Frolunda Gothenburg in Sweden, the same program that developed Rasmus Dahlin. He had four points in seven games in helping lead Sweden to the gold medal at he 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey U18 World Championship and had one goal and two assists through two games at the Covid-cut-short 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship in December.

This week, Edvinsson returns to Edmonton with one thing on his mind – bringing a gold medal to Sweden. For all of that country’s hockey dominance and strength over the years, gold medals at the World Juniors have been hard to come by, with just two in the country’s history at the event (2012 and 1981).

Continued

Updated 4x at 12:28 PM: Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman:

Jake Walman and DET avoid arbitration at one-year, $1.05M (one-way). With Walman (The Pride of Armour Heights) signing…arbitration cases are done for this summer— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) August 10, 2022

The Red Wings have yet to re-sign Filip Zadina, who is a restricted free agent without arbitration rights; and Walman will be on the LTIR to start the season as he recovers from shoulder surgery.

Update #1:

Detroit #LGRW update after signing Jake Walman.

Cap space: $9,246,111
Roster Size: 23 (12F – 9D – 2G – 1 IR)

RFAs remaining:
Filip Zadinahttps://t.co/H7WCJ5rN69— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) August 10, 2022

Update #2: The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan is confirming the news:

Former Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom spoke with Aftonbladet regarding Borje Salming’s ALS diagnosis, and Lidstrom, Daniel Alfredsson and Anders Hedberg also spoke with Expressen’s Svante Storlinge and Linus Summervik regarding the news. What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:

“Borje, thinking of you in this difficult time”

Greetings have poured in for Borje Salming after the announcement that he’s been affected by ALS.

Both defensive giant Nicklas Lidstrom and NHL pioneer Anders Hedberg have sent their support to Salming.

“You’ve been my idol for all these years, and I know that you will fight with everything you can against this terrible disease the way you fought on the ice,” writes Lidstrom in a text message to SportExpressen.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman filed a mailbag feature several days ago, and part two thereof hit the internet wires today. Among Bultman’s questions and answers:

How “on the hot seat” is Filip Zadina? Seems like the additions of David Perron, Dominik Kubalik, and the emergence of Jonatan Berggren makes his hold on a roster spot extremely tenuous. — Starlino

I get what Starlino is getting at, because as we sit here today, it’s already hard to find a spot for Zadina on the power play, with Perron, Kubalik, Raymond and Jakub Vrana figuring to lock down spots on the flanks, Larkin and Copp presumably in the bumper, and Bertuzzi and Rasmussen around the net. From that standpoint, yes, there’s certainly some pressure on Zadina this season. You only get so much time to solidify yourself as a key piece, even in a rebuild.

I do think some perspective is helpful when comparing him to Berggren, though. The two were part of the same draft class, and Zadina has played 160 NHL games, compared to none for Berggren. Their paths have been different, and Berggren had a nice season in the AHL last year, no doubt, with 64 points in 70 games. But the difference between the AHL and NHL is steep — in Zadina’s last AHL stint, way back in 2019-20, he had 16 points in 21 games. Which is all to say, Berggren may well make his way into the NHL picture this season, and in time, maybe he ends up better than Zadina. But as of now, I’m not ready to say Berggren’s emerged in a way Zadina hasn’t.

The fact Zadina’s had more NHL opportunities means fans — and likely management — have had more time to grow impatient with him. He does need to have a breakthrough under Derek Lalonde, or a change of scenery could very well be in order. But in terms of losing his roster spot outright? I’ll need to see eight wingers on this roster be better before I’m ready to go there.

Continued (paywall)

Former Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom spoke with Aftonbladet’s Simon Norberg, Tomas Ros and Hans Abrahamsson regarding the news that legendary defenseman Borje Salming is ill with ALS. Here’s a rough translation of the article from Swedish:

Salming: “Fight with all you can”

Borje Salming is suffering from AHL. Now he’s supported by Nicklas Lidstrom.

“I know you will fight with everything you can against this terrible disease,” he says.

Between 1973 and 1989, Borje Salming played in over 1,000 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Classified by many as the biggest pioneer for Swedish players to enter the NHL.

Today, the now-71-year-old ice hockey legend announced, via the news agency TT, that he’s suffering from the nerve disease ALS.

“Have a good dialogue”

The message was received with great despair by the former great defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom.

“Borje, I am thinking of you during this tough time. You have been my idol all these years, and I know that you will fight with all you can against this horrible disease, just as you fought on the ice. You have always been my role model,” he says to Sportbladet.

Even Inge Hammarstrom, who went over together with Salming in the 70’s, supports his former teammate.

“I say hello to you and all of you. I have a good dialogue with him and support him as much as possible. We have to keep our fingers crossed that they find the right medicine to stop this.”