Author: George Malik

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe spoke with Toledo Walleye coach Dan Watson regarding the state of the Red Wings’ ECHL affiliate, and coach Watson stated that his team is essentially built, despite the fact that not every roster player has been named yet…

The organization has officially announced the signing of 12 players, but Watson said his recruiting is essentially finished.

“We will have a very competitive group night in and night out,” Watson said. “We went and got pieces we feel can help us get to the playoffs again, but that is a long way away. We are pretty much set in what we have moving forward. We can’t wait to start training camp in October.”

…

The team is expected to make a series of signing announcements as the season draws closer. Most ECHL organizations space out the signings throughout the offseason to maintain interest in the team.

“The fans should be excited about every Walleye player announcement,” Watson said. “As a staff, we do our homework, and every player will fit a role and contribute to our team’s success.”

The Red Wings have chosen to make their affiliation with Toledo a little more static over the past couple of seasons, only assigning one player (a goaltender) to Toledo, and Monroe confirms that the tradition will continue:

Toledo’s American Hockey League affiliate in Grand Rapids is expected to assign one goaltender to the Walleye. The Walleye also have signed a goalie. Last year’s No. 1 netminder, Billy Christopoulos, has left pro hockey to continue his military career in the Air Force.

Continued; my best guess at this point is that Michigan State University graduate Jonathan Lethemon will be the goaltender assigned to Toledo, but if Sebastian Cossa turns pro, he might head to Toledo, too.

The Hockey News’s Ryan Kennedy posted a list of 10 young prospects to watch at the various rookie tournaments throughout the U.S. and Canada over the next week-and-a-half, and his choice for the Red Wings is an obvious one:

Simon Edvinsson, D, Detroit Red Wings: Reviews for Edvinsson’s performance at the world juniors were mixed, but I thought he played very well and showed off that great combination of skating and size that make him such an intriguing prospect on the back end. Now Edvinsson gets to prove himself in front of a Red Wings-friendly crowd in Traverse City, the latest in a string of hot prospects to play there before cracking the big club.

Continued; Edvinsson should lead a loaded Wings prospect tournament blueline.

Via the Red Wings on Twitter, Sam Cosentino spoke with the NHL Tonight’s Jamie Hersch and Mike Rupp regarding Simon Edvinsson’s potential:

Mo Seider last year.
Simon Edvinsson this year.

The @DetroitRedWings have a pair of pillars on defense as their blue line seems to be in great shape for years to come. @JamieHersch | @Rupper17 | #NHLTonight pic.twitter.com/2XXJ0VMJ93— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) September 9, 2022

Per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman:

Some weekend podcast listening, plus Moritz Seider and Jakub Vrana. Enjoy! Links to your preferred platform here: https://t.co/2JZVyj8zBY— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) September 9, 2022

The webpage link is here: https://podcast.sportsnet.ca/32-thoughts/

Red Wings defenseman Jordan Oesterle appears in the latest episode of “Summer Wings”:

The news that the Vancouver Canucks had signed Danny DeKeyser to a pro try-out is big news in Canuck land, so the Free Press’s Helene St. James spoke with Sportsnet 650 in Vancouver to discuss the situation with Canucks Central’s Dan Riccio and Sat Shah.

You can listen to it on Apple Podcasts..

The #Canucks potentially add to their defensive depth by signing Danny Dekeyser to a PTO.

▶️Hear from @irfgaffar & @HeleneStJames

➕The Friday Mailbag

It’s all on #Canucks Central with @danriccio_ and @SatiarShah!

🟢: https://t.co/lJN6l8eChF
🍎: https://t.co/5C1lTewOHn— Sportsnet 650 (@Sportsnet650) September 9, 2022

Or at this URL online: https://www.sportsnet.ca/650/canucks-central-at-noon/the-canucks-potentially-add-to-their-blueline-depth/

I think that DeKeyser is going to earn some preseason games’ worth of “a look,” but I have no idea what will happen in terms of his ability to play through his lingering back issues. I wish him luck.

Okay, Leksands IF won 4-3 over MODO Ornskoldsvik today in preseason action between an SHL team and an Allsvenskan one (MODO)…

Seger med 3-4 efter förlängning i Ö-vik! Leksands mål i matchen gjordes av Jon Knuts, Kalle Östman, John Quenneville och Matt Caito. Skottstatistiken blev 24-31 till Leksand.#leksandsif pic.twitter.com/peUD5YLpgI— Leksands IF (@leksands_if) September 9, 2022

And while he was scheduled to play as the 7th defenseman, Red Wings 2022 draft pick Anton Johansson impressed IceHockeyGifs enough to earn a couple of Twitter clips:

Anton Johansson is still making a case for himself in preseason #LGRW pic.twitter.com/7q3SP6KJlH— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) September 9, 2022

pic.twitter.com/wWcAGQID1H— IcehockeyGifs (@IcehockeyG) September 9, 2022

It still kind of baffles me that the 6’4″ Johansson, who the Wings picked 105th overall last July, is all of 174 pounds, per EliteProspects, but he’s that lanky.

Of prospect-related note today:

In the KHL, Dmitri Buchelnikov continues to be used sparingly with SKA St. Petersburg’s men’s team. He took 2 shots in 9:14 played on the 4th line and/or as the 13th forward as SKA St. Petersburg won 4-1 over Dynamo Moscow.

SKA is now 4-and-0 to start the season, and they play next on Monday, September 12th in Cherpovets vs. Severstal. The St. Petersburg MHL (Under-20 league) team, SKA-1946, doesn’t play again until September 14th, so it will be interesting to see whether Buchelnikov is kept up with men’s club, or whether he’s sent down.

Sportsnet’s Justin Bourne posted a column in which he examines the “bottom four” teams of the Atlantic Division, discussing their respective offseason moves to close the gap between themselves and the division’s four playoff teams.

Like most folks, he’s a bit skeptical of the Wings’ moves paying off, but he’s predicting that the days of Detroit being a doormat for Boston, Florida, Tampa Bay and Toronto are over, too:

Detroit Red Wings: You only get to try to lose for so long before people say “OK enough,” and after six straight years of missing the playoffs, the Wings have finally gone in. This will be Steve Yzerman’s fourth season as GM, and he’s seen enough. Now, will they be really good? I’m doubtful. But they have plenty of good young players. Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond got people excited last year in particular, and look who’s coming to join them:

They’ve added coach Derek Lalonde, goalie Ville Husso, defencemen Ben Chiarot, Olli Maatta and Mark Pysyk, and up front they tacked on Andrew Copp, Dominik Kubalik and David Perron. That’s seven established NHL players just plugged into the NHL lineup around their growing internal talent. The names listed there are big and competitive and capable, exactly the support you need to nurture talent at the sport’s highest level.

From Steve Yzerman: “So Chiarot’s a big body (6-foot-3, 234 pounds). Maatta’s a big body (6-foot-2, 210). Even Kubalik’s an offensive player, but he’s a big, strong guy (6-foot-2, 179). So we want to be harder to play against because we’re better defensively, we’re more competitive and even we have more depth up front that we can match up better, whether it’s strong offensive teams or strong defensive teams.”

Again, I don’t think they’re suddenly better than any team in the top-four, but I’m certain they’re going to be harder to take points off. Particularly if Husso gives them the quality goalkeeping of which he’s shown himself capable.

Continued

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills reports that Red Wings forward Michael Rasmussen helped address the issue of pediatric cancer on Thursday night:

On Thursday night, Red Wings forward Michael Rasmussen stopped by Walled Lake Northern High School in Commerce Township, Mich., for the varsity girls volleyball Gold Out game between Walled Lake Northern and Kettering High School to help kick off Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, as part of the American Cancer Society Gold Together Champions Michigan campaign, presented by the Detroit Red Wings Foundation.

“Whether you’re a pro athlete or anyone in the spotlight, you can help different causes or have a voice,” Rasmussen said on Thursday. “I think it’s important.”

Rasmussen added that being part of the state-wide campaign “means a lot.”

“I think it affects everyone in their own way, personally or someone they know,” Rasmussen said. “It means finding a cure for cancer and helping people with cancer.”

Continued