Author: George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

DHN’s Duff on Herman Liv

I was keeping this one to myself, but Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff is talking about it, so enjoy:

When Herman Liv walks the streets of his hometown of Jönköping, Sweden, he gets the same question.

Is he the son of Stefan Liv?

Like father. Like son.

It’s the same when he dons his goalie gear. Herman Liv is definitely the son of Stefan.

Once a top goaltending prospect in the Detroit Red Wings system. Stefan Liv was one of the players tragically killed when the plane carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl KHL club crashed on September 7, 2011.

Herman was five at the time of his father’s death.

“I am happy when people say that we are the same,” Herman Liv, 15, told Magnus Nystrom of Swedish website Expressen.se. “And I’ve heard that many times.”

Continued; Nystrom’s article on Liv is really fun to read, if you’re willing to plug it into Google Translate and read the lengthy missive.

Herman’s just an upbeat young man who’s playing in Orebro’s system right now, and he was on the Swedish Under-18 team recently, so he seems to have a real future.

Monroe: Toledo Walleye sign defenseman Kurt Gosselin

Per the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye have made a late-summer signing to bolster their blueline:

The Toledo Walleye have signed defenseman Kurt Gosselin for the upcoming season. Gosselin, a native of Brighton, Mich., has played in 54 games in the ECHL over two seasons. He has produced 25 points with 11 goals and 14 assists.

The 27-year-old last played for the Cincinnati Cyclones in 2019-20. He finished with 18 points (6 goals, 12 assists) in 47 games that season.

Gosselin made his pro debut at the end of the 2018-19 season when he had three assists in eight games for the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League. He also skated in seven games for the Cyclones and had seven points (5 G, 2 A).

“A couple of years away from the game, Kurt will look to get back into the form he was in previous to his break from hockey,” Walleye coach Dan Watson said. “He is reliable, has a good shot, and can think the game well.”

The 6-foot-1 and 201-pound defenseman played four years at the University of Alabama.

Continued; expect more signings as Monroe reports that the Walleye only have 11 players signed right now.

Ivan Ivan’s going to be attending the Red Wings’ prospect tournament as a try-out

Well, we’ve got our first prospect tournament try-out named via the Cape Breton Post’s Jeremy Fraser, listing the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Screaming Eagles’ notable training camp roster additions and omissions:

Czech Republic product Ivan Ivan remains on the roster as an overage player for the time being and will attend the Detroit Red Wings training camp next month. Zachary Gravel, Samuel Johnston and Romain Rodzinski are the other overage players.

So now we know that the Red Wings have invited 2022 Czech World Junior Championship participant in Ivan Ivan Ivan (his real name), a 20-year-old who’s 5’11” and 172 pounds, per EliteProspects.

Ivan only posted 1 point in 7 games for the Czechs at the World Juniors, but he’s coming off a 65-points-in-65-games season (31 goals and 34 assists) for Cape Breton this past year (with an ugly -52 on a struggling team). His father Marek was a long-time European pro at various levels of competition.

Anyway, Ivan has been passed over in the draft twice, but his name caught on among fans during the summertime World Juniors: you can read more about him at the Sporting News or USA Today’s For the Win blog, as well as this Tweet from TSN’s BarDown blog:

I don’t mean to sound flippant, but this is the same case as last year’s most name-worthy try-out, T-Bone Codd, who’s still playing for the Saginaw Spirit of the OHL: his name is great and all, but it’s his play that will determine whether the Wings are intrigued by Ivan, who’s still eligible for the 2023 NHL draft.

Thomas Greiss, Nick Leddy speak with The Athletic about Greiss’s move to St. Louis

Former Red Wings goaltender Thomas Greiss spoke with The Athletic’s Jeremy Rutherford recently regarding the end of his tenure with the Detroit Red Wings…

After Detroit’s season ended in April, goalie Thomas Greiss had a meeting with general manager Steve Yzerman.

The rebuilding Red Wings had missed the playoffs for the sixth straight season and given up the second-most goals in the NHL (310). Though starter Alex Nedeljkovic had been in net for 178 of those, Greiss’ goals-against average (3.66) and save percentage (.891) were worse.

The 36-year-old was also going to be an unrestricted free agent.

“I really respect Steve, I think he’s a good GM, and we had a good talk about the whole thing,” Greiss said. “He was very honest with me and told me he’s shopping around and seeing what he can get. So they went in a different direction.”

And his decision to sign with the Blues, for 1 year and $1.25 million:

A couple of other clubs expressed interest, and there was “a chance,” Greiss said, that he might have retired if the right situation didn’t come along. But after 13 seasons in the league, he didn’t want to call it a career and was hoping to hear from a contending team.

“It was definitely, ‘What’s out there? What’s available?’” Greiss said. “St. Louis, being a very good team and a good city for the family too, it was an easy choice. There were other options, and St. Louis was my No. 1 pick.

“I think I still have some good hockey in me. Obviously last year wasn’t my best year, but looking back, I’ve been a pretty good goalie overall in the NHL in my career. I just want to have a good year. I still enjoy playing hockey, and that’s the most important part.”

Continued (paywall), with a few more interesting snippets from Gresis and Nick Leddy about playing for the Wings and Islanders as teammates…

Donovan Sebrango speaks with DetroitRedWings.com’s Mills about winning the World Junior Championship

Red Wings prospect Donovan Sebrango spoke with DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills earlier today regarding winning a gold medal with Team Canada’s 2022 World Junior Championship team, where Sebrango served as an alternate captain:

According to Sebrango, making the most of his time with Detroit’s American Hockey League-affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins last season prepared him to wear the ‘A.’

“Most of those guys are trying to make steps in the AHL next year,” said Sebrango, who had seven points (1-6-7) in 65 games with the Griffins in 2021-22. “Giving them my experience helped a lot. And with my experience playing a bit of professional hockey, that probably helped calm the team down a bit in stressful situations.”

Sebrango added that seeing his mother and grandmother watching from the stands throughout the tournament was extra special.

“Having them there helped me realize it wasn’t as stressful,” he said. “You look up in the crowd and you see them, then you are trying to win the gold medal and you do, then sharing that moment with my mom was probably the most special moment of my life.”

Sebrango wasn’t the only Red Wings prospect to take home hardware. Goalie Sebastian Cossa, who won his only appearance for Canada after stopping 22 shots in a 5-2 victory over Latvia on Aug. 10, also won gold. Defenseman Eemil Viro of Finland earned silver, while forward Theodor Niederbach and blueliners Simon Edvinsson and William Wallinder helped Sweden win bronze.

“It looks promising for Detroit to have all those guys there and be as good as they are,” Sebrango said. “Detroit is on the rise now. I was really impressed with how we did throughout the tournament. It’s an exciting time to be a Detroit Red Wing.”

Continued

Via DSN: Ville Husso’s Red Wings mask channels Mike Vernon and Eddie Mio

Via Detroit Sports Nation’s Michael Whitaker, Red Wings goaltender Ville Husso’s new goalie mask, painted by IFK Helsinki equipment manager Joni “Bona” Hallikainen, very purposefully combines mask designs once worn by Mike Vernon and Eddie Mio:

2022 Red Wings draft pick Owen Melenbacher speaks with his hometown newspaper

Red Wings prospect and 2022 draft pick Owen Melenbacher spoke with his hometown newspaper, The Post of Fort Erie, Ontario, about his selection by the Red Wings and his decision to remain with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks for one more season before heading to the University of Wisconsin:

He is coming off a season where he tallied 42 points on 17 goals and 25 assists in for the Lumberjacks as a second-line centre.

“The extra year will help,” he said. “It’s about development.”

Melenbacher chose to go the collegiate route rather than play in the OHL when he was just 15. After a year with the Buffalo Jr. Sabres of the Greater Horseshoe junior-B Hockey League, he was tendered by the Lumberjacks. A full-ride scholarship to Wisconsin soon followed. While he attended the Red Wings’ prospect development camp, he will not be a part of the NHL’s club’s training camp for the upcoming season.

“I’m only allowed to go to the prospects development camp. If I went to training camp, it would hinder my college eligibility.”

On the ice, Melenbacher describes himself as two-way player who plays both ends of the ice.

“I’m a 200-foot power forward with size and strength. I have pretty good skills for a big guy.”

Continued

DHN’s Duff: Fetisov sues IIHF over Russia/Belarus bans from competition

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff reports that former Red Wings defenseman and current Russian Parliament member Slava Fetisov is suing the International Ice Hockey Federation for their decision to ban Russia and Belarus from international competition:

Fetisov also can’t see his national team in action. The IIHF has placed a ban on Russian involvement in international tournaments. This is also a result of the country’s attack on Ukraine.

Naturally, Fetisov isn’t supportive of this decision.

“The Russian team is always the draw of the World [Championship],” Fetisov told Russian TV program RBC Sport. “It is outrageous that the team with the most victories is missing from international tournaments.”

Fetisov previously served as head of the Russian Sport Federation. He is of the belief that any world hockey tourney minus the Russian national team is a decision on par with leaving the USA out of Olympic basketball, or Brazil and Germany out of soccer’s World Cup. It’s a move that lessens the caliber of the event.

He’s also of the opinion that allowing the political climate to influence the sporting world is a backwards philosophy. In the past he notes, sport has often proven to be a vehicle for breaking down cultural and political differences between nations.

“It is a reduction in quality and all the principles on which world sport was built,” Fetisov said. “I think it’s totally on purpose.

“It is necessary to reach a decision on the return of our players to the international stage or to abolish the sport as an international organization and create another, political organization. Then everything will be clear.”

Continued; why yes, it’s totally on purpose, and I agree with the IIHF in this situation.