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!

Berggren will get his chance to impress this season

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen revisits Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman’s comments regarding the importance of adding Jonatan Berggren’s offense to the Wings’ mix:

“He’s a smart hockey player,” Yzerman said. “He’s got good skills and it’s just the ability to do it at the NHL level. And he’s shown in some of the his call ups, brief periods that he’s called up that he has the ability and the hockey sense to play in the NHL.”

Yzerman recently reached an agreement with Berggren on a one-year contract for $825,000. Both the team and players were fine with that.

“We talked about one or two years,” Yzerman said. “Ultimately, with one player remaining unsigned, knowing what the salary cap is, probably weren’t in a position at this time to do a two-year deal… And if Jonathan goes out and has a solid season, he’s in a very good spot to renegotiate after one year. So you know what he needs to do? Just be a good hockey player in all areas of the aspects of the game, offensively, defensively.”

Berggren has been working out in Detroit lately.

 “He looks like he’s worked really hard this summer,” Yzerman said. “He’s in good shape… He’s worked hard, he’s been patient and get a good opportunity this year. Pretty confident that he’ll be a positive influence on our team.”

Continued

Press release: Ticketing info for the Stadium Series

Per the NHL:

Ticketing Information To The 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ Is Now Available

Tickets will go on sale to the general public October 4

Red Wings and Blue Jackets Set to Play Outdoors at Ohio Stadium on March 1

WATCH: 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series™ Tickets on Sale

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Sept. 19, 2024) – The NHL® announced today ticketing information for the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series. The outdoor game between the Detroit Red Wings and the host Columbus Blue Jackets is set for Saturday, March 1, 2025 at Ohio Stadium, home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes football team, in Columbus, Ohio. The game will start at 6 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN, SN360, SN+ and TVAS2.

A 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series Special Student Section Ticket Presale Offer will begin today, Thursday, Sept. 19. Ohio State students will receive information from the Ohio State Athletics Ticket Office via email prior to the presale.

Tickets to the 2025 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series go on sale to the general public on Friday, Oct. 4 at 10 a.m. ET,via Ticketmaster, the official ticketing partner of the NHL®. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, while supplies last. Ticketmaster is the only official marketplace of the NHL®, providing fans with the peace of mind in knowing the seats they buy on Ticketmaster.com and the Ticketmaster app are the seats they’ll get.

Continue reading Press release: Ticketing info for the Stadium Series

A quick Seider quip from Friedman

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman touched upon several topics this morning, including Moritz Seider’s contract situation:

As for the other remaining RFAs: it is hard to see an eight-year deal for Moritz Seider if Detroit wants to keep him below Dylan Larkin’s $8.7M AAV — while New Jersey, Winnipeg, Dawson Mercer and Cole Perfetti might be eying each other to see who signs first. It’s believed the Devils and Mercer were discussing two- and three-year deals, while two appeared to be the preferred term for Perfetti. Again, all of this can change with one phone call. 

Continued; TSN’s Chris Johnston suggested something similar on Insider Trading yesterday.

It’s better than an F, I guess…

The Score’s Josh Wegman issues offseason grades for Atlantic Division teams this morning, and here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings: In a perfect world, the Red Wings would’ve signed Raymond and Seider to extensions last offseason. Raymond’s price, specifically, would’ve been far lower. It’s still a fair contract, but it remains to be seen if he’ll be able to repeat his breakout 72-point season that was buoyed by a robust 19% shooting percentage.

The Red Wings still have more than enough cap space to give Seider a slightly more expensive long-term deal, but a bridge deal feels increasingly likely the longer this drags out. It’s difficult to give Detroit a high grade with Seider unsigned.

However, the Gustafsson contract is very team-friendly, and Kane and Tarasenko should both provide veteran leadership and offensive punch. Kane, in particular, vastly exceeded expectations last season coming off hip surgery. All three players are old and liabilities defensively, though, which isn’t ideal for a team that needs to improve at five-on-five. The 37-year-old Talbot doesn’t solve the team’s goaltending concerns, either.

Grade: D+

Continued…OH NO OLD PLAYERS. Oy.

Training camp Tweets of note: it begins

The Hockey News’s Sam Stockton reports that training camp has begun as Team Lindsay, which is constituted of amateur try-outs and a couple of the Wings’ goaltending prospects, is on the ice at Centre ICE Arena:

I’m going to try to keep this thread going with updates as the NHL groups–Team Delvecchio and Team Howe–hit the ice at 9:20 AM and 11:35 AM, respectively.

For what it’s worth, Team Lindsay always starts with video at 7:55 AM and a practice between 8:10 AM and 9:10 AM, so the Wings will rotate some youngsters in and out of the “early-morning unit.”

Teams Delvecchio and Howe practice for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, with a break for video in between two on-ice skates.

Continue reading Training camp Tweets of note: it begins

Morning news round-up: Training camp storylines

The Red Wings begin training camp around 8 AM this morning, and I’m not there for the first time since the last lockout. I’ve expressed my frustration about not being at what is essentially Christmas for Wings fans and correspondents, but the situation is what it is, so I’m going to do my best to give you what coverage I can over the next four days.

You’re also going to see some fundraising posts to plain old pay the bills, because I’m already pondering a paywall, but I want to keep this website reader-supported and ad-free but still free to peruse, so the NPR of blogs = the fundraising never ends.

Let’s begin with some content.

Of Red Wings-related note this morning:

  1. The Free Press’s Helene St. James posts her training camp preview this morning, discussing items of note as training camp begins in about an hour:

Second line option: Patrick Kane and newcomer Vladimir Tarasenko are familiar with one another from being teammates with the New York Rangers, albeit briefly. They’re both natural right wingers who shoot left, but during his time last season with the Ottawa Senators, Tarasenko played on the left wing, and in July, he didn’t sound averse to giving it another go: “It just took a little bit of time to understand the systems and if you know what you are doing on the ice, I don’t think there is a difference what wing you play.”

Putting Kane and Tarasenko on the same line, likely with J.T. Compher in the middle, would be worth exploring for the Wings. These next handful of days offer an opportunity for Kane and Tarasenko to work on their chemistry and see if they can be a fit together, behind what projects to be a top line of Dylan Larkin with Raymond and Alex DeBrincat.

Man advantages: No offseason departure may be felt more pointedly than that of Shayne Gostisbehere, who took his offensive expertise to the Carolina Hurricanes as a free agent. He led the Wings with 29 power play points while running the first unit. Seider played the point on the other unit, so as long as he remains absent, there’s an opportunity to audition two options. Newcomer Erik Gustafsson was brought in on the blue line via free agency (two years at $2 million per) partly in the expectation he could run one of the units. Jeff Petry has done it in the past, but this seems like a good opportunity to give Simon Edvinsson some looks in no-pressure situations.

After camp breaks, the Wings return to Detroit and begin an eight-game exhibition slate on Wednesday (in Chicago against the Blackhawks) that features home games against the Blackhawks (Sept. 27), Pittsburgh Penguins (Sept. 28), Toronto Maple Leafs (Oct. 3) and Ottawa Senators (Oct. 4).

Continued (paywall);

2. MLive’s Ansar Khan discusses five roster and/or position battles as training camp begins…

Continue reading Morning news round-up: Training camp storylines

NHL Network names Dylan Larkin the 42nd-best player in the NHL right now

The NHL Network is releasing its “Top 50 players right now” list, and Wednesday night’s #50-41 reveal includes someone who will probably be the Red Wings’ only participant:

42. Dylan Larkin, C, Detroit Red Wings

The Red Wings captain scored an NHL career-high 33 goals and had 36 assists in 68 games last season, the fourth time in his career he’s scored at least 30 goals. The 28-year-old averaged more than a point per game (1.01) for the first time in nine NHL seasons, scored his 200th NHL goal Jan. 27 and got his 500th point April 11.

There’s a 3:04 video included in the story, in which Stu Grimson talks about Larkin’s attributes, but I can’t embed it as NHL.com no longer allows you to embed videos.

DHN’s Rasmussen posts his annual jersey number post, notes a 3rd pro try-out player on Wings’ roster

DetroitHockey.net’s Clark Rasmussen has posted his annual assessment of the Red Wings’ training camp jersey number changes:

Regarding jersey numbers, there aren’t a whole lot of surprises, either.

Two of my predictions came true.  With Cam Talbot having taken #39, Tim Gettinger has switched to #26.  Carter Mazur is also switching, giving up #32 (now assigned to Jack Campbell) for the #43 he had been assigned up until last season.

[Austin] Watson’s usual #51 is assigned to Eemil Viro, leaving Watson with #24.  Similarly, Talbot has [Alex] Chiasson’s usual #39 and the #48 he wore in his previous stint with the Wings now belongs to Jonatan Berggren so he’s wearing #79.  Both #24 and #79 were last assigned in this summer’s Development Camp, to Axel Sandin-Pellikka and Larry Keenan, respectively.

[Try-out Isaac] Ratcliffe has been given #76, worn in Development Camp by Cy LeClerc.

The only other number curiosity is Griffins’ captain Josiah Didier, who wore #84 in camp last year and is wearing #94 this year.  That switch was necessitated by William Lagesson signing in Detroit over the summer and taking #84.

Continued; kudos to Clark for spotting Isaac Ratcliffe on the roster. He’s a 25-year-old left wing who stands at 6’6″ and 225 pounds, and he spent last season playing for the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, posting 10 points in 66 games (along with 60 penalty minutes).

I’d guess that Ratcliffe is being evaluated for a spot on the Grand Rapids Griffins’ roster.

Tweet of note: Measures great and small

Via The Athletic’s Max Bultman on Twitter, those of us who are sort of information junkies tend to peruse the Red Wings’ annual training camp rosters to see the players’ listed heights and weights. This year’s roster offers some surprises, as DobberProspects’ Jordan Harris noted:

A person’s weight tends to vary by a couple of pounds, but Mazur and Edvinsson have definitely bulked up at 6′ and 189 pounds for Mazur and 6’6″ and 225 pounds for Edvinsson; Finnie’s listed at 6’1″ and 190 pounds, and Danielson’s now at 6’1″ and 191 pounds.