Author: George Malik

As noted last week, the ESE Hockey All-Star Challenge is taking place today at Mt. Clemens Ice Arena:

The 2022 ESE All-Star Challenge will kick start the event with two High School Division games and an Elite Division game – all part of the ESE Summer League. Following the two High School Division games and Elite Division game, an ESE All-Star Challenge – College Division will take place featuring elite NCAA players. The main event is the highly anticipated and fan-favorite ESE All-Star Challenge – Pro Division! The ESE All-Star Challenge – Pro Division will feature NHL, AHL, and ECHL players including NHL All-Stars Dylan Larkin, Alex DeBrincat, Zach Werenski, and local favorites Vlad Namestnikov, Jordan Oesterle, Michael Rasmussen, Taro Hirose, Riley Barber, Josh Norris, Will Lockwood, and Ben Gleason!

The event starts at 2:30 PM, and tickets should be available at the door.

As CapFriendly notes, the Red Wings are one of only 2 teams that has not come to terms with 1 of the 24 players who filed for salary arbitration in early July. Defenseman Jake Walman, who’s coming off a 2-year deal with an average annual value of $725,000, might end up going to arbitration with the Red Wings on Thursday.

There are now only 2 arbitration cases remaining, both scheduled for August 11th (Thursday):

1. Jake Walman (DET)
2. Pavel Zacha (BOS)https://t.co/YAOHlKX0Fl pic.twitter.com/rB72vAJAKI— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) August 8, 2022

The Hockey News’s Stan Fischler spoke with Red Wings executive vice-president Jimmy Devellano for an interview published today:

On Building Detroit’s First Championship Team: “We had Steve Yzerman but we needed a few more superstars to go along with him. We got two in the 1989 Draft — Lidstrom and Fedorov — so we had three world-class players. We then made a deal to add a power forward, Brendan Shanahan, giving up Paul Coffey and Keith Primeau!!! These four players drove the bus.”

About The Current Rebuild: “It’s been long and tough but we are making slow, gradual progress and getting better. We now have terrific young players such as Dylan Larkin, Lucas Raymond, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Moritz Seider, the young defenseman who won the Calder Trophy.

Looking Ahead: “Those young players are the building blocks and we’ll keep adding to them. Steve has acquired a lot of extra Draft picks and is using them wisely.”

Playoff Possibilities: “I suspect that we’re getting closer to competing for a playoff spot but now — in a 32-team NHL — it’s never been so tough with 16 teams not making it. I feel that we’re two seasons away but we are getting better.”

Overall Overview: “Steve Yzerman has just completed his third season. We have improved some in each of his three seasons and we will be somewhat better in the upcoming season because he added four good players from Free Agency in July. Steve got goalie Ville Husso, right wing David Perron, who can score, Andrew Copp, who can play center or wing, and Ben Chiarot, a defenseman who is big and mobile. These four players are upgrades for us. I believe that our team can push for 90 points!”

Continued

Per the NHLPA:

NHLPA selects firm to assist with Executive Director search

The NHLPA has retained the executive search firm of Russell Reynolds Associates in the search for a new Executive Director.

TORONTO (Aug. 8, 2022) The National Hockey League Players’ Association announced today that its Executive Board has approved the Executive Director Search Committee’s recommendation to retain the executive search firm of Russell Reynolds Associates. Before making its recommendation, the Search Committee considered and met with several executive search firms with experience in sports and related industries.

Russell Reynolds has offices in 26 countries around the world, and has led many searches for sports, business, financial and other executives worldwide. The NHLPA’s Executive Board previously approved the retention of Christina Guerola Sarchio, partner of the law firm Dechert LLP, to provide advice and counsel during the search process. The NHLPA is also being advised by long-time counsel, Virginia A. Seitz, partner of the law firm Sidley Austin LLP. The search process is expected to take several months and the NHLPA continues to be led by long-time Executive Director Don Fehr.

The NHLPA’s Search Committee consists of seven NHLPA members Ian Cole (Tampa Bay Lightning), Justin Faulk (St. Louis Blues), Sam Gagner (UFA), Zach Hyman (Edmonton Oilers), Kyle Okposo (Buffalo Sabres), Nate Schmidt (Winnipeg Jets) and Kevin Shattenkirk (Anaheim Ducks).

Any applications or recommendations for the Executive Director position can be sent to EDSearch@nhlpa.com.

Expressen is already writing up its preseason previews of the SHL’s teams, and Sanny Lindstrom lists two Red Wings prospects among his “14 breakthrough players.” Here’s a rough translation of his comments:

Liam Dower-Nilsson, Frolunda: Frolunda has chosen to leave some space on its forward spots to give some of the team’s junior players a chance. One such player is Liam Dower-Nilsson, who I know Frolunda believes and sees as a player who can actually fight for some playing time on the power play. I’m unsure whether Dower-Nilsson is ready to take on that role, or if the Hockey Allsvenskan [the Swedish AHL] would be a better first step to be able to establish himself at the senior level.

Nevertheless, Dower-Nilsson has good game sense and finds creative solutions. The question mark is whether he’s got the speed to be able to use his first talent at the SHL level this season already. Otherwise, there’s another super-exciting forward in Otto Stenberg, born in 2005. The question is whether Frolunda can have their famous patience with him, or whether he can earn ice time this upcoming season. Stenberg is really, really sharp and an extraordinary talent. Commit his name to memory.

Marco Kasper, Rogle: Rogle hasn’t replaced Leon Bristedt, and I think that it’s obvious that Marco Kasper can take that role. It’s a bit like how Rogle has worked in recent years with great success. There’s still uncertainty as to whether Kasper will remain with Rogle or whether Detroit wants to bring him over. But given the trust that Detroit has in Rogle’s model, I take it for granted that Kasper will stay for at least one more season. I don’t see it an impossibility at all that Kasper can register between 30 and 40 points.

Continued; I think it’s pretty obvious that Kasper will remain with Rogle, given that he’s said he’s staying there a) to the media at the summer development camp, b) to fans on Instagram, c) to the Austrian media and d) to the Swedish media.

TSN’s Travis Yost posted a survey of the depth of every NHL team’s center corps, and he ranks the Red Wings as “under-performers,” but I’m a little confused as to his criteria regarding centers:

Detroit: Upside in this group, but it’ll hinge on a couple of things: Robby Fabbri coming back from injury, and what the Red Wings decide to do further down the lineup. Derek Lalonde will have his choice between Pius Suter and Michael Rasmussen.

According to Yost, the Wings’ centers are, in order, Dylan Larkin, Robby Fabbri, Andrew Copp and Pius Suter.

According to the Red Wings’ website, in no particular order, the Wings’ centers are Dylan Larkin, Andrew Copp, Pius Suter, Michael Rasmussen, Robby Fabbri and Oskar Sundqvist. Not the deepest group in the league, but not terrible, either.

The Athletic’s Max Bultman filed a mailbag article this morning. In addition to discussing the Red Wings’ ultimate fate, he offers this take on the fact that Dylan Larkin and Tyler Bertuzzi have yet to sign contract extensions:

At what point might we become concerned that Larkin and Bertuzzi haven’t signed extensions? — Nezzy

There were many variations of this question asked last week, which makes sense: Other than Jake Walman’s arbitration hearing and Filip Zadina’s pending RFA status, extensions to Larkin and Bertuzzi are really the only pieces of business remaining for the Red Wings this summer.

Of course, if you asked Steve Yzerman, he’d probably tell you the Red Wings don’t need to get either done this summer. This is the same GM who got Steven Stamkos’ contract in Tampa Bay done at the 11th hour back in 2016, after all, and he’s not going to want to move up the hard deadlines any sooner than he has to.

But realistically, there has to be at least some concern if there’s no agreement by opening night. The threat of one (or both) players leaving as free agents next summer would then begin to loom, and if Detroit is outside the playoff picture come mid-January, Yzerman would be faced with some tough decisions on how to proceed.

The fact Larkin has a no-trade clause gives him protection there — and more leverage right now. That’s one of a few reasons I believe that deal will ultimately get done this summer. And my guess is, it comes in somewhere in the ballpark of the (cap-adjusted) Mika Zibanejad and Evgeny Kuznetsov contracts — both eight years at about 10.4 percent of the salary cap at the time they were signed. At the current cap, that would be around $8.6 million. Maybe it’s a little higher accounting for expected growth in the cap in coming years, or maybe it’s a little lower if Larkin just wants to get a deal done, but that’s the approximate range I’d expect.

But Bertuzzi does not have a no-trade clause, and if he and the Red Wings aren’t at least close on a longer-term extension by the start of the season, that’s when I’d start getting nervous.

In-season extensions do happen — Robby Fabbri just signed one in December — so even then, it’s not a five-alarm fire. But by February, it could become one if the Red Wings are out of playoff position. And if it were me, I’d want to avoid that altogether and get the situation resolved — whether by extension or by trade — before the puck drops on next season.

Continued (paywall)

NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs posted an article on Sunday which commemorated Dominik Hasek’s 1991 trade from the Chicago Blackhawks to the Buffalo Sabres, which of course helped Hasek blossom into the dominant NHL goaltender that we all remember.

I held off on posting the article because it was about Buffalo and not really about Dom’s tenures with the Red Wings, but I did find this detail about the eccentric-but-brilliant goaltender to be particularly interesting:

[His history] is all quilted into the tapestry of a brilliant athlete who had no idea that the 30th anniversary of his life-changing trade to Buffalo was at hand until he took a call in his car last week.

“I very much appreciate the reminder but honestly, I live in the present, not in the past,” said Hasek, who has virtually all of his important hockey memorabilia not displayed in his home but in the Czech Hockey Hall of Fame in Prague, on loan to the shrine.

Hasek does speak with enormous respect of two frames that hang on his walls: an autographed painting of the Sabres’ famed “French Connection” line of Gilbert Perreault, Richard Martin and Rene Robert, and a photo of Red Wings legends Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman, sitting together on Detroit’s bench.

“I bought that one of Gordie and Stevie because they’re great guys,” Hasek said. “I had a chance to meet Gordie many times and Stevie was my captain in Detroit.

“I decided to buy this picture because I admire them, as I admire the French Connection, just as I remember all the people in Buffalo who helped me, who were part of my success for nine years — management, teammates, the fans.”

Continued, mostly as a love letter to Buffalo and the Sabres fans, but I don’t think that the Wings win the 2002 Stanley Cup unless Hasek plays so dominantly–or the 2008 Cup, unless an older, wiser Hasek allows the Wings to replace him with Chris Osgood after he struggles in the first round series vs. Nashville.

It’s neat to know that, despite spending the vast majority of his career in places other than Detroit, he values Mr. Howe and Mr. Yzerman so greatly.

The re-staged 2022 World Junior Championship will take place between Tuesday, August 9th and Saturday, August 20th in Edmonton, and IIHF.com and NHL.com will be two very good places to glean news from during that time.

Prior to the tournament, IIHF.com’s Chapin Landvogt posted a set of players who he expects to step up as World Junior Championship “rookies,” and one of the lesser-known Swedish Red Wings prospects earned a nod:

William Wallinder – D – The goaltending is the big story for Team Sweden, seeing as how all three nominees would be the likely starter for a handful of teams in this tournament, but the gigantic 193 cm Wallinder is a shot-blocking machine who’ll help his last line of defence see fewer pucks. He’ll also have little problem being one of the tourney’s better breakout defenders. Already the beneficiary of a ton of professional experience, the 20-year-old Detroit Red Wings prospect shot up the prospect chart during the 21/22 season, not only seeing action in 60 games for contender Rogle Angelholm, but also contributing 20 points along the way.

Continued; Wallinder is going to be fun to watch because the Rogle BK defenseman, who is a lanky 6’4″ and 190 pounds, has really stepped up over the past season (his first full SHL campaign), and player development surprises are definitely in store throughout the tournament.

In case you forgot the 9 Wings prospects taking part in the tournament, let’s go through the list. I’m going to put an asterisk next to the names of players who will be able to take part in the Red Wings’ prospect tournament and main camp this fall:

With the 2022 World Junior Championship’s “second take” upon us on Tuesday, MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a profile of Red Wings prospect and Team USA forward Carter Mazur, whose competitiveness and work ethic should shine for the Americans in Edmonton:

Mazur, the Red Wings’ fourth pick in 2021 (70th overall), had a strong freshman season [at the University of Denver], scoring 14 goals and tying for fifth on the team with 38 points. It was capped with an NCAA championship, when the Jackson native picked up a pair of assists in a 5-1 victory over Minnesota State in the title game.

“You don’t expect to come in and make such a big difference on a team,” Mazur said. “And then I went in and was expecting a lot of myself. I felt I grew a lot physically, I felt I grew mentally, especially doing school with hockey.”

Mazur, 20, is eying another big title this month as a key part of the U.S. World Junior Championship team. The event, which was postponed shortly after it began in December due to COVID-19, starts Tuesday in Edmonton. Red Savage, the Red Wings’ fourth round pick in 2021 (114th overall), who is coming off his freshman season at Miami University, also made the team.

Mazur, in addition to his offense, also displayed a gritty element at Denver.

“I was always playing two years up, so I felt like having an edge to my game … you kind of have to,” Mazur said. “You’re going against bigger people. You might as well try to get under their skin. Doing that is more fun for me. Having them come after me gets them off their game. I’m drawing penalties and having fun in hockey.”

The edgier he plays, the more scoring opportunities he gets.

“I usually find myself scoring net-front and that’s where everyone is to start scrums and all that,” Mazur said. “And then I would say playing edgier really does bring a different element to my game. It makes me become more open in some spots where other people might not want to come.”

Continued; Mazur’s one of those players you love to have on your team, and absolutely despise playing against. Every NHL team needs one of those kinds of players on their roster at some point.