Author: George Malik

Red Wings defenseman Olli Maatta turns 28 today:

🎂🎉‼️ pic.twitter.com/AzPT3gzXeL

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) August 22, 2022

The Athletic’s Max Bultman weighs in on the World Junior Championship performances of the 9 Red Wings prospects who took part in the WJC:

Donovan Sebrango: He may have been overshadowed a bit by the production of his defense partner — Anaheim prospect Olen Zellwegger was arguably the tournament’s top defenseman — but I liked what I saw from Sebrango at this tournament. Playing on Canada’s top pair, he looked like a player who spent the last two years competing against men and was the defensive stalwart of the pairing with Zellwegger. I liked his first pass, and he’s fearless going into battles along the boards. Sebrango’s arrow keeps trending up.

Sebastian Cossa: Cossa played only one game in the tournament for the eventual champs, giving up a pair of goals to an upstart Latvia team that advanced out of pool play. After he appeared to be the third-string netminder in the winter, though, Cossa being Canada’s back-up for the rest of the tournament was no surprise. It’s just hard to take much away from the one game.

Of course, while starter Dylan Garand was good for Canada, the fact Cossa was relegated largely to the bench while fellow top 2021 netminder Jesper Wallstedt was the tournament’s top goaltender has to sting a bit for the Red Wings. Detroit traded up to pick Cossa over Wallstedt last summer, and while there’s plenty of room for both to develop into quality NHL netminders, Wallstedt is clearly off to the better individual start post-draft.

The two don’t need to be compared against one another forever — nor should they be — but right now, it’s fair to be left wanting a bit more out of Cossa.

Eemil Viro: I saw fewer of Finland’s games than most of the others here, so apologies for a lighter report on Viro. When I did see him, he was largely the same profile I’ve seen in the past: a defense-first defender with good mobility and a solid first pass, playing a second-pair role. He had an assist and was +1 for the tournament on a Finnish team that was inches from upsetting Canada for the gold, and his assist came in that gold medal game.

He’s got a solid foundation to become a depth defenseman, and we’ll now see if he can pop a bit more as he begins his North American pro career in Grand Rapids.

Continued…

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff weighs into the Jesper Wallstedt-vs-Sebastian Cossa debate by suggesting that success or failure at the World Junior Championship is simply a poor barometer of future NHL success or NHL failure:

As much as everyone likes to see their team’s prospects shining when on the game’s biggest stages, the fact of the matter is that it doesn’t always mean greatness is blooming. Judging a goaltender’s quality off of a world junior performance is akin to writing off a 19-year-old netminder because they didn’t step to the fore.

Looking back at the netminders who were earning golden moments at the World Juniors, there isn’t a track record of NHL success on most resumes. For every Juuse Saros (Finland, 2014), John Gibson (USA, 2013) and Carey Price (Canada, 2007), there are countless guys like Dmitri Shikin, Jeff Glass, Tomas Duba and Tyler Parsons.

In 2006, after Justin Pogge was leading Canada to gold, the Toronto Maple Leafs were certain they’d found their goalie of the future. So certain, in fact, they traded the rights to the guy who was No. 3 in the goalie stats at the World Junior tourney. Fellow by the name of Tuukka Rask. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

Carter Hart (2018) and Kaapo Kahkonen (2016) are gold-medal winners from whom the jury remains out regarding long-term NHL success. Certainly, that ship has set sail for journeymen puckstoppers Zach Fucale (2015) and Dustin Tokarski (2009).

Continued

MLive’s Ansar Khan answered questions about the playing futures of Sebastian Cossa and Simon Edvinsson in a mailbag feature:

Q: With all the bodies the Wings have on defense now, what are the chances of Simon Edvinsson making the team? Will they need to trade someone to make room for him? – Rick

A: They wouldn’t need to trade anyone but might have to eventually waive a defenseman to keep Edvinsson on the NHL roster. Yzerman indicated in the offseason that he has Edvinsson “penciled in” for the Red Wings roster this season. But his play in training camp and the preseason ultimately will dictate whether he’s in the NHL at the start of the season or in Grand Rapids.

Injuries to Mark Pysyk and Jake Walman alleviate the logjam a bit at the start. Pysyk could miss half the season following surgery for a torn Achilles tendon. No timeline was provided for Walman’s return following shoulder surgery.

The Red Wings’ top four is pretty much set with the likely pairs of Ben Chiarot-Moritz Seider and Olli Maatta-Filip Hronek. That would leave four others competing for the third pair spots – left-shooters Edvinsson, Jordan Oesterle and Robert Hagg and righty Gustav Lindstrom.

Do the Red Wings want Edvinsson playing third-pair minutes as opposed to a potential starring role and big minutes in all situations in Grand Rapids? Would they slot him ahead of the veteran Maatta alongside Hronek? This will make for a competitive camp.

One thing seems certain: If Edvinsson makes the roster at the start of the season, it won’t be as a temporary replacement for an injured player. The last thing the Red Wings would want to do is start him in the NHL and then demote him, unless he struggles. And it goes without saying Edvinsson won’t stick around as the seventh or eighth defenseman. He’ll only be in Detroit if he’s playing every game.

Continued

Last night around this time, I posted a translation of an article in which new Red Wings forward Dominik Kubalik spoke with NHL.cz after a charity hockey game in Prague, and there’s a similar article out there in which Kubalik speaks with the CTK News Agency. The article has many similar themes to the NHL.cz article, but this one offers some new quips and quotes as well, so, here we go:

Kubalik: Detroit means new blood in my veins; I believe it will work

Prague: Hockey forward Dominik Kubalik has had his first jersey change in the NHL. His tenure with the Chicago Blackhawks ended with a not-so-successful season, both personally and as a team. Thanks to signing a 2-year, $5 million contract, a new stage of his overseas career awaits him in Detroit. Today, the just-turned-27-year-old Kubalik believes that his move to the Red Wings will be an impetus for his star to rise again.

With the new contract, which he signed on July 13th, the first day of the opening of the free agent market, the Pilsen native was relieved. “A person in a similar position always has the urge to question whether it will work out, where things will go, what position he will have and the like. But after the talks with Detroit, it poured new blood into my veins, and I believe it will work,” Kubalik says in an interview with journalists.

Two more NHL scouts and prospect gurus weighed in on the performances made by participants at the 2022 World Junior Championship on Sunday.

Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala wrote an “NHL Scout’s Take” on the players that he watched during the World Junior Championship, and he had this to say about Simon Edvinsson:

Simon Edvinsson, Sweden (Detroit Red Wings, sixth overall, 2021)

WJC Stats: 6GP-1G-1A-2PTS

Edvinsson is a hulking 6-foot-6, 207-pound defender. He projects to be a two-way “D” at the NHL level. He skates very well for his stature and can lead the rush on occasion. He sees his options and makes sound puck plays. I thought he could have been used more at this tournament. This kid is going to have a long career in Detroit. He compliments a partner who is more of a risk taker. There’s also some growl to his game. He takes away space effectively and gaps up physically.

Bukala continues, and I’d say that’s a particularly polite take on Edvinsson’s ups and downs at the tournament;

And The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler offered the following takes on Red Wings prospects who participated in the WJC (and I can’t include everything he says, given that there were 9 Wings prospects participating, so we’re going to go with his takes on Team USA and Team Sweden):

Russian Machine Never Breaks’ Chris Cerullo noted that Red Wings forward and former Washington Capital Jakub Vrana held a charity hockey game to benefit his youth hockey team, HC Letci Lethany, which turned 20 this week.

Vrana’s friend, Vitek Vanecek, was part of the festivities, as were players like David Pastrnak, Jakub Voracek, Jan Rutta and Filip Zadina (among others). Vrana, wearing his old #33, scored 5 goals as the “HC Letci” team took advantage of the fact that the All-Stars team only had 12 skaters.

Because HC Letci is located in Prague, Vrana and his friends gave a ton of interviews, speaking with iDnes.cz, Hokej.cz (including a 3-minute video report from the game), iSport, Sport.cz and Prazsky Denik, which is my preferred interview to try and translate.

It turns out that Vrana apparently spent some time sleeping at the rink (in the ice cream shop, no less) when he was a little kid, and he stayed with HC Letci until he was 15:

Here’s what Vrana and company had to say to Prazsky Denik’s Filip Ardon:

Pastrnak, Vrana and other stars celebrated the anniversary with summer hockey

The Letani [a part of Prague] hockey team celebrated its 20-year anniversary, and they prepared a great program for hockey fans. In an exhibition game, the Airmen’s cadets, led by Jakub Vrana, played against Czech stars, led by David Pastrnak. The packed ice arena saw a total of 19 goals, and the visitors shared interesting hockey artifacts, which were placed into a raffle.

The game itself, which featured the leading stars of Czech hockey, was preceded by a great team honor. Twelve legends of summer hockey received awards on the ice, and three of them received an even greater honor. Frantisek Kuchera, his brother Votjtek, and Zbynek Zavadil looked on as flags with their names were raised to the ceiling of the rink, where they will hang from now on.’

“Goose. I was here every day, so I saw all of them quite a lot. They did well,” praised the Airmen’s most famous student, Jakub Vrana.”

Yes, the translation and the original article said “Goose!”

Red Wings forward Dominik Kubalik turns 27 today, and this is the time of year when Czechia’s players take part in exhibition hockey games for charity, so Kubalik spoke with NHL.cz’s Pavel Mandat at a charity game. Here’s a rough translation of their conversation:

Kubalik enjoyed the exhibition game. Detroit? “It put new blood in my veins,” he says.

Dominik Kubalik was one of the big starts of a charity game held in Zdar nad Sazavou. the Detroit forward praised the event after it ended.

“I think it was very successful, and everyone enjoyed it. I really didn’t expect it to be sold out here,” he confides.

Thanks to the strong backdrop of spectators, the hockey players played through a lot of heat, something that’s not usual for the sport. “It was noticeable from the beginning, and you had to get used to it. But gradually it got better and better. Moreover, everyone had the same thing [to deal with],” says Kubalik.

A new challenge awaits the famous scorer for the new season. He’s one of the Red Wings’ recent acquisitions, and he’ll meet other Czech players there.

The Hockey News’s Steven Ellis compiled a list of his top 20 players from the 2022 World Junior Championship, and, just as Simon Edvinsson is due a little criticism for an up-and-down outing, Carter Mazur’s performance merits praise:

Carter Mazur, LW (USA, Detroit): Mazur has quickly developed into an incredible find for the Detroit Red Wings after getting selected 70th overall in 2021. Mazur had five goals and seven points in five outings for the Americans, becoming an integral piece of the team’s scoring core.

Continued; I’ve said my piece on Mazur, and I’ll suggest that he was less than an incredible find given that the Red Wings’ director of amateur scouting, Kris Draper, happened to coach Mazur on Little Caesars’ Under-12 team at one point.

Red Wings prospect Donovan Sebrango certainly played like a leader among men at the World Junior Championship, finishing a tournament for 18-to-20-year-olds with 2 assists, a +7 and 19:58 in average ice time over the course of 7 Gold Medal-winning games.

As it turns out, Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff also reports that Sebrango was the oldest player to win a World Junior Championship, thanks to the fact that the 2022 World Juniors were re-held in Edmonton this summer after being cancelled last December due to COVID concerns:

Born on January 12, 2002, at 20 years, 220 days of age, Sebrango is the oldest player ever to win a world junior title. Since players from the postponed December World Junior tourney were still considered eligible for the August rescheduled event, Sebrango was able to make his mark on tournament lore.

Sebrango wasn’t about to let anyone label him an old man, however.

“Kind of being around the same age group, you kind of go back,” Sebrango said. “You get that feeling like you’re back in junior. But I mean I guess I kind of feel like a veteran here but I still feel pretty young and I am pretty young.

“Maybe I feel a little older than these guys. When you’re around guys the same age, you kind of bond a little quicker.”

Continued; not a bad record to have.