28-year-old defenseman Jalen Smereck plays for the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye during the regular season, but this summer, he’s playing 3-on-3 hockey for the 3ICE hockey league. NHL.com’s William Douglas profiled Smereck for NHL.com on Monday:

Being a defenseman in the high-scoring, fast-paced 3ICE tournament is a seemingly impossible job, but Jalen Smereck doesn’t mind.

“When you can play hockey in South Florida in July and August, there’s not much to complain about,” the 28-year-old Detroit native said.

Smereck, who played for Toledo of the ECHL last season, is thriving as the lone defenseman on the roster for Tennessee in the eight-team, 3-on-3 professional tournament that began July 17 and concludes Aug. 14 with the Patrick Cup Championship at Baptist Health IcePlex, the Florida Panthers practice facility in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Smereck has four points (one goal, three assists) in four games for 3ICE Tennessee. Coach John LeClair said he leans on Smereck for his defensive prowess as much as his scoring touch in games where action is nearly nonstop with games consisting of two eight-minute halves and a running clock.

…

Smereck said 3ICE fits his style of play. He led all Toledo defensemen with 46 points (eight goals, 38 assists) in 70 games last season and was the highest-scoring player at the position in the Kelly Cup Playoffs (14 points; three goals, 11 assists in 20 games). Toledo lost the best-of-7 league finals to Trois-Rivieres in five games.

“Being in those 3-on-3 situations in overtimes throughout my career and doing it in practice, I love it,” Smereck said. “I liked at the end of our first game he (LeClair) said, ‘Hey, I might need you to stay out there a little longer because you’re the only defenseman.’ That’s always been my game, getting extra ice whenever I can, staying out there to play defense to win a game or provide offense to win a game.”

Continued, with significant discussion of Smereck’s charitable endeavors back home in Metro Detroit…

MLive’s Ansar Khan suggests that this season’s Detroit Red Wings team needs to find more “mental fortitude” and consistency of effort if they are to make a playoff push over the course of the 2025-2026 season:

“I can’t speak for what has happened in the past, but from the time I got here, this team was very streaky,” coach Todd McLellan said. “When it goes good for this group, coaches included, we can get ahead of things. But it doesn’t take much for us to start taking on water. And when that happens, it takes a long time for us to get out of it. For me, that’s mental fortitude, some resiliency that’s built into the group that’s driven by us as a coaching staff to put them through it in practice and put them in stressful situations.

“You could see that we could sustain the good for a number of games, find different ways to win when it was going well. When it didn’t go well, we scrambled and struggled to get ourselves breathing again. It happened over days, it happened within games, within periods. I could list a number of games where that happened, and we couldn’t recover. So, mental fortitude, resiliency has to come from us.

“You probably hear me talk about game management until you’re sick of it. That has to get better. We can’t just put our skates on and play the game. We have to manage our way through the game.”

The Detroit Red Wings’ Alumni Association will take part in their second annual charity game against “Yoopers United,” a team representing the United Way of Marquette County, on Saturday, September 13th in Marquette.

MyUPNow’s Tor Thorne reports that the charitable game’s cast of characters, many of whom were selected from the amateur ranks, have been selected:

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses the Red Wings’ signing of free agent goaltender and Czech Extraliga champion Michal Postava this morning, noting that Postava had his pick of the litter of NHL contracts over the course of last spring and this summer:

“I didn’t expect it at all, it was too good,” Postava, 23, said of the NHL attention. “But I’m enjoying every moment, and I’m proud to be a part of this organization. There have always been a lot of Czechs here, and they are still active in the organization. Plus, it’s a big club from the Original Six. It’s a huge opportunity for me.”

One of those well-known Czechs with the Red Wings is Jiri Fischer. Once a Stanley Cup-winning defenseman with the team, Fischer today works in player development for the club.

“I talked to Jiri Fisher, and he was telling me like, everywhere what happens and everything that was done here,” Postava said. “He helped me a lot to get here.”

The 2024-25 season was Postava’s first in the top league in his homeland. Hockey people found it impressive how poised he was, especially during the playoff run. He would post a shutout in Game 7 of the final series.

“It gave me a lot of opportunities and taught me to be calm,” Postava said. “I’ve improved a lot. This season, the main thing for me was to stay focused throughout the game and try to win every game. I think confidence was number one.”

The Hockey News’s Jared Clinton suggests that Red Wings forward Marco Kasper will “break out” this upcoming season, and I would argue that Kasper is already “breaking out” given his second-half-of-the-season performance during the 2024-2025 season:

Detroit Red Wings: Marco Kasper

The patient approach Detroit takes with prospects has paid dividends, and the development system has another success story after the rookie season Marco Kasper just had. The 21-year-old made a seamless leap to life in the NHL, with his 19 goals (fourth) and 37 points (seventh) placing him top 10 in freshman scoring. If not handed the second-line center job, Kasper will at least have a chance to earn it. His blend of speed, smarts and two-way play will make him a key cog as Detroit seeks to return to the post-season.

Continued; I’m expecting more of the same in terms of Kasper’s elite play this upcoming season.

I’m just not certain whether that’s a “breakout” given that he’s already posted just under 20 goals and 40 points while serving as the Wings’ 2nd line center under coach Todd McLellan.

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills checked in with Red Wings free agent signing James van Riemsdyk, with the 36-year-old discussing his leadership qualities and the strengths of his game…

“Especially over the last few years, I think as you get older in your career, obviously you have your calling cards as a player,” van Riemsdyk said. “You have to find ways to be a bit more versatile, add value in different ways to a team and being able to contribute in different ways, so I think I’ve been able to add some different things to my game that can make me be able to play in different spots all over the lineup. Coming into camp, I’m sure that’s what we’ll try to figure out as a team – how the puzzle pieces start to fit together.”

Offseason NHL roster reconstruction can be compared to completing a puzzle, and van Riemsdyk is an ideal piece for Detroit. For starters, his presence should also be significant in the Red Wings’ dressing room.

“It’s a full-time commitment,” van Riemsdyk said about his leadership style. “Whether that’s your preparation, being ready to practice, being ready to play and being ready to recover to get ready for the next game. Just trying to do the right things like that every day. And just trying to bring positive energy to the group and on the bench. It can be a long year, lots of ups and downs, so I think you need to have some of that sounding board just to help things stay even keeled when maybe things aren’t going your way.”

As well as his long-time relationships with Patrick Kane and Justin Holl:

Bleacher Report’s Adam Gretz offers “Early Bold Predictions” for the 2025-2026 NHL season, and you’ll have to forgive me for disagreeing with the premise:

Detroit Red Wings: Steve Yzerman’s seat finally gets hot

It probably already should be, but if it’s not, it will be when this season ends.

If the Red Wings end up missing the playoffs again — which seems likely given how slow the offseason has been — that will be 10 consecutive seasons, with seven of those coming under Yzerman’s watch.

Yes, he took over a mess.

Yes, rebuilds take time.

Yes, the Red Wings have been extremely patient while he waits for his players to develop.

But at some point you have to start having expectations for something better. You can’t keep blaming the end of the Ken Holland era anymore. Enough time has passed that Yzerman’s team should be ready to be in the playoffs and competing for something. So far, it hasn’t been. And it doesn’t seem close to doing so. This might be the year where the temperature starts to crank up on him.

Continued; Yzerman’s seat may be “hot” as far as fans are concerned, but I’m convinced that as long as Mrs. Ilitch is around and Chris Ilitch is in charge of the hockey team, Yzerman’s got a long, long leash in terms of his job security.

He’s the GM and he will see the rebuild through, whether we like it or not.

I never quite know what to do with these real estate articles, so we’ll just share it and see whether you’re interested.

The Chicago Tribune’s Bob Goldsborough reports that Red Wings forward Patrick Kane sold one of his several Chicago area properties:

Former Chicago Blackhawks great Patrick Kane, who now skates for the Detroit Red Wings, in late June sold his four-bedroom, 4,776-square-foot condominium on the 25th floor of the luxury Near North Side tower at 9 W. Walton Street in an off-market transaction for $6.4 million.

Kane starred as a right winger for the Blackhawks from 2007 until 2023, during that time leading the club to three Stanley Cup finals victories and being selected to nine NHL All-Star Games.

Over the years, Kane has owned several residential properties in Chicago and on the North Shore. In the building at 9 W. Walton, Kane paid $6.4625 million in 2019 for his unit.

In late June, Kane sold the unit in an off-market deal, according to public records, so no details about are available in listing information. However, in a sign of the softness of the downtown condo market, Kane took a loss on the $6.4 million sale, selling the condo for 1% less than he had paid for it in 2019.

Continued; if you’re interested, read further.

Friday, of course, Patrick Kane will be recollecting memories as 8/8 is Patrick Kane Day in Chicago.

Hockeysverige.se’s Ronnie Ronnqvist interviews famous scout Christer Rockstrom today, discussing hockey experiences with one of the first prominent Swedish scouts in the NHL. Rockstrom worked for the Red Wings, Rangers and Canadiens, but he’s hanging up his scouting notebook at 68 years of age, and he describes his start in the NHL with the Red Wings…

How did you work initially?

“I came in the middle of the season, and I got some travel money to leave some information. Then I wasn’t really a scout, but it was more than I would keep track of the defenseman born in 1967 and 68’s.

“Then Detroit and Neil [Smith] began training me as a scout. Year two I was hired and got it as a part-time job. The first half of the year I didn’t report, but instead just a compilation of interesting players in Sweden. I wrote that together in cranky English and sent it in. The following year I started scouting, so it was with the 1968 litter that I really started my job as a scout.”

And Rockstrom discusses his time with Detroit…

The Free Press concludes its survey of the first quarter of the 21st century in Detroit Sports this morning, ranking the best Detroit sports teams over the past 25 seasons.

The 2005-2006 Red Wings earn an “honorable mention” from Christian Romo despite being upset by the Edmonton Oilers…