Author: George Malik

From Hockeysverige.se’s Rasmus Kagstrom:

Anton Olsson and Simon Edvinsson may miss the WJC premiere

Both Simon Edvinsson and Anton Olsson left with injuries in the WJC exhibition game with Canada. When the Junior Crowns practiced the day before Wednesday’s opener vs. Switzerland, neither was on the ice.

“We will evaluate them now,” says team coach Tomas Monten.

Edmonton. Tomorrow the Junior Crowns start the WJC tournament with a game against Switzerland. In the exhibition game against Canada on Monday, both Anton Olsson and Simon Edvinsson were forced to leave with injuries–and ahead of Wednesday’s premiere game, the defensive duo’s status is still unclear.

Neither Olsson or Edvinsson practiced with the team on Tuesday.

“It’s all right with them. They were involved and did some rehab. We’ll evaluate them now, then we’ll see how it goes. We’re hopeful,” says team captain Tomas Monten.

“Yes, no BS”

If the defensemen don’t play, after all, Monten will still have six healthy defensemen available.

“We usually use seven defensemen, and it’s clear that you always want to dress the team that you want, but this is something that happens.”

But if there had been the WJC final tomorrow, would both have been able to play?

“Yes, no BS talk.”

Of quick World Junior Championship-related note:

Red Wings prospect and Acadie-Bathurst Titan goaltender Jan Bednar stopped 24 of 28 shots in the Czechs’ 5-4 victory over Slovakia in the World Junior Championship’s opening game.

Here are the game’s highlights on Vimeo:

Red Wings prospect Joe Veleno spoke with La Presse’s Katherine Harvey-Pinard regarding his offseason training regimen and his hopes of making the Red Wings’ roster full-time this upcoming season. What follows is roughly translated from French:

Joe Veleno is confident in the process

Joe Veleno has reached a new stage in his career by playing almost a complete first season in the NHL in 2021-2022. Although his development is not complete, the 22-year-old forward is hopeful that he’ll become an impact player.

A first-round pick, 30th overall, of the Red Wings in 2018, Veleno has spent the last few seasons in the American Hockey League–including 46 games in Sweden during the first pandemic year in 2020-2021.

Recalled from the Grand Rapids Griffins by the Detroit Red Wings at the end of October, the Montreal native scored a goal and added an assist in his first game [vs. Toronto]. He was then able to play in 66 games in Gary Bettman’s league. The previous season, he only took part in 6 games in the red and white uniform.

“I gained a lot of experience. I had the chance to play in a lot of games this year, and see the difference between the American League and the NHL,” says the center, who we met at the Kevin Raphael Classic on August 6th.

Enjoy:

Ahead of Thursday’s arbitration hearing….

Arbitration filings for Jake Walman (DET): Team is at $775K/$225 (two-way)…player ask is a one-way at $1.7M— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) August 9, 2022

Thanks to the Detroit News’s Nolan Bianchi for the Tweet.

The Detroit Red Wings’ 9 prospects participating in the World Championship will begin play in Edmonton today, and here’s the TV schedule for today’s games:

Czechia (Jan Bednar) vs. Slovakia, 2 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network;

Finland (Eemil Viro) vs. Latvia, 6 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network;

USA (Carter Mazur, Red Savage) vs. Germany, 10 PM EDT on TSN and the NHL Network.

#WorldJuniors GAME DAY:

Czechia 🇨🇿 🆚 Slovakia 🇸🇰: 2pm et on TSN 1/4

Latvia 🇱🇻 🆚 Finland 🇫🇮: 6pm et on TSN1

USA 🇺🇸 🆚 Germany 🇩🇪: 10pm et on TSN 1/4

Also LIVE on https://t.co/BQGeAnElqf and the TSN App: https://t.co/3PTSwVFR94#TSNHockey pic.twitter.com/ijQ2XLtL0L— TSN Hockey (@TSNHockey) August 9, 2022

The #WorldJuniors are BACK on NHL Network! Today’s triple header gets underway at 2pm ET with Slovakia vs. Czechia.

6pm ET – Finland vs. Latvia
10pm ET – Germany vs. @usahockey pic.twitter.com/fCyPM7T6Bj— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 9, 2022

Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala filed an article discussing several players to watch at the World Junior Championship, and his only Red Wings player included is Acadie-Bathurst Titan goaltender Jan Bednar:

Jan Bednar

Goalie | Catches left | Six-foot-four | 201 pounds | Detroit Red Wings (fourth round, 107th overall in 2020)

Team Czechia has a history of using more than one goalie at this event so it’s not a given that Bednar gets the net and keeps it. Having said that, the team will need big saves throughout the tournament and Bednar appears to have the most capable pedigree to give them a chance. This tournament could provide Bednar an opportunity to impress the Red Wings brass. He’s unsigned to date so he will want to prove he’s ready for a contract.

Continued; Bednar makes the big saves, but it’s his concentration and consistency that need work.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff asked HockeyProspecting.com‘s Byron Bader about the Red Wings’ prospect pool and 2022 draft picks, and Duff received mixed answers regarding the former and the latter:

“Their big strength is just the depth of the system,” said NHL Draft consultant Bader, founder of HockeyProspecting.com. “They have a ton of players in the system that have sort of NHLer potential, you could call it. And some star potential as well.”

Bader isn’t as certain about the depth of prospects who were Detroit’s selections in the 2022 NHL entry draft.

“In terms of their picks, their first three picks were okay, pretty decent value,” Bader assesses. “Then after that, it seemed like they got just a lot of low probability guys.

“Even a guy like (Marco) Kasper, who they took eighth overall. There were a lot of players at that point that show a lot better in my analytical models. When they take Kasper, there was so many players still there. There was (Matthew) Savoie, (Denton) Mateychuk, (Danila) Yurov, all these guys with super high NHLer probability and also star potential that were sitting there.”

Continued

Per the Detroit Red Wings:

NHL PROSPECT TOURNAMENT AND RED WINGS TRAINING CAMP RETURN TO TRAVERSE CITY IN SEPTEMBER

  … Annual Training Camp Events Return to Centre ICE Arena from Sept. 15-26 …

DETROIT – Detroit Red Wings executive vice president and general manager Steve Yzerman today announced that the Red Wings will return to Centre ICE Arena in Traverse City, Mich., to host the NHL Prospect Tournament and Training Camp, as well as the 2022 Training Camp Golf Classic at the Traverse City Country Club.

Two more Red Wings-related World Junior Championship notes this morning:

1. Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen posted a summary of the Red Wings’ prospects participating in the WJC this morning, and he notes this regarding one Simon Edvinsson:

Six-foot-six defenseman  Edvinsson should play for the Red Wings this season. Wallinder is another blue chip defensive prospect and Niederbach is one of the top forwards in the Detroit pipeline.

“When I was a little kid I always wanted to play in the World Junior Championship,” Edvinsson said. “I just played two games. That hunger goes a little bit more. It’s in the summer, I think that’s a good run-up to training camp to be prepared for the training camp. I always wanted to play in the World Juniors, always wanted to win one, too.”

Canada is the favorite, but the Swedes have an exceptional team. They launch their tournament Wednesday against Switzerland (2 p.m., NHL Network)

“After the World Juniors I think I’m going to go home and say goodbye to my family and everyone there and go straight up here (to Detroit) to fight for a spot,” Edvinsson said.

2. And MLive’s Ansar Khan posted an article about Eemil Viro, who will man Finland’s blueline before coming to Detroit to compete for a roster spot, though he’s likely to start the season in Grand Rapids:

“(The Red Wings) said to get ready in battles, to get ready to come and play here,” Viro said. “The rink is smaller and there’s going to be more competition in the corners. I needed to be better at that. Of course, the game is going to be a lot faster, hit harder in the battles. I’m really looking forward to that.”

Before [training camp], Viro, 20, will represent Finland at the World Junior Championship, which starts today in Edmonton.

The Red Wings’ sixth selection in 2020 (70th overall in the third round) will participate in his first NHL training camp next month and possibly play in some preseason games before being assigned to the Griffins. He’ll join a blueline that includes fellow prospects Jared McIsaac, Donovan Sebrango, Albert Johansson, Seth Barton and possibly 2021 top pick Simon Edvinsson.

Playing in Finland’s top men’s league for 2½ seasons with TPS Turku, including two long playoff runs, helped him prepare.

“I think defensively I got a lot better,” Viro said. “I think the season was also good. The team was playing well and got better in the end and got to the finals, but we lost.”