Author: George Malik

WDIV is airing the Bob Probert documentary Tough Guy tonight at 9 PM, and ahead of the airing, WDIV’s Devin Scillian interviewed Probert’s daughters, Tierney and Brogan, about their father’s legacy and the film itself.

It’s a 12:11 interview:

In case you missed the TSN 1050 interview with Adler Mannheim coach Dallas Eakins that was posted a couple of hours ago, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli confirms that Red Wings restricted free agent Moritz Seider remains in Germany, practicing with his former team:

As #LGRW grind away on a new deal for Moritz Seider, he skated today with his home club Adler Mannheim in Germany.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 18, 2024

MLive’s Ansar Khan reexamines some of the comments made by Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman during yesterday’s press conference, including his expectations for the team as a whole:

“I want to see progress in our team as a whole, progress in all the areas we’ve always talked about and progress individually from our younger players,” Yzerman said. “As long as we’re moving in the right direction, I think it’s positive. Obviously, making the playoffs would be another positive step, so I’ll worry about that as the season goes along. We’ll see how much progress we’re making.”

Barring a surprise or injuries, the Red Wings’ 23-man roster appears set, once defenseman Moritz Seider is signed. The competition during the four-day camp at Centre I.C.E. Arena and eight-game preseason that starts Sept. 25 at Chicago is mainly for ice time and roles on special teams, as well as lineup spots on defense and the goaltending pecking order.

The Red Wings, despite ranking 24th in goals against per game, missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker with Washington. The mandate for coach Derek Lalonde, entering his third season, is to lower the goals against.

“I think we need to be a better defensive hockey club,” Yzerman said. “Your special teams have to be good. Our special teams both improved last season and we scored more goals. We gave up too many to make the playoffs. You can get by maybe not having the best power play, but you better be solid in all the other areas. You can get by not having maybe the best penalty killing unit, but you better be solid in other areas. But the key is, I think ultimately for long term success, is to be a good defensive hockey team.”

Continued (paywall)

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen discusses the possible demise of the Red Wings’ annual Prospect Tournament this morning:

Dan Cleary’s fondness for the Red Wings-hosted Traverse City NHL Prospect Tournament is rooted in both nostalgia and practicality.

“I came up to the first ever tournament here when I was in Chicago,” the Red Wings Director of Player Development said. “We drove up and stayed in one of those little motels along the water…when I was 18. So I certainly hope it stays.”

Today, Cleary’s enjoyment of the tournament comes from watching some of his team’s best young prospects measuring themselves against other top prospects. Cleary and the Detroit executives were doing that last week when the Red Wings played the Dallas Stars youngsters in two games.

“I like the idea. I know it’s only one team, but just to judge them against their peers and see where they stack up and the competition, and it sets these kids up for a great week (at training camp),” Cleary said. “… Have put a lot of value in it. I gotta be honest.”

The members of the Red Wings and Stars management teams watched that tournament knowing they may have been witnessing the end of an era. After 25 tournaments, GMs Steve Yzerman and Dallas GM Jim Nill are discussing the tournament’s future.

“The event up in Traverse City is a little bit up in the air for next year,” Yzerman said.

Continued with comments from Yzerman and Dallas Stars GM Jim Nill, who was instrumental in building up the Prospect Tournament….

Red Wings Prospects on Twitter has been following Axel Sandin Pellikka’s situation as the young defenseman is battling back from an unspecified preseason injury, and it sounds like Sandin Pellikka will be able to play for a shorthanded Skelleftea AIK defensive corps when the SHL season begins this Saturday.

RWP reports that Norran.se’s Robin Lindgren passes along the information via a behind-the-Swedish-paywall article this morning:

“"It's been hard to miss games, but in the pre-season it's a bit more about being on the safe side and right now the body feels very good"

Axel Sandin-Pellikka has had a rough pre-season but seems ready for Saturday.” #LGRW https://t.co/EKdsvsj5aZ

— Red Wings Prospects (@LGRWProspects) September 18, 2024

NHL.com’s Dave Stubbs reports that former Red Wings coach Scotty Bowman turns 91 today:

Happy, healthy 91st birthday this Sept. 18 to William Scott Bowman, the winningest coach in hockey history. Photos here: Scotty at age 7; with 1970s Canadiens; in 2017; and in 2021. My appreciation of Scotty, truly a legend, on his 90th birthday last year: https://t.co/tgVi5a4p38 pic.twitter.com/NhCbdMSewT

— Dave Stubbs 🇨🇦 (@Dave_Stubbs) September 18, 2024

TSN 1050’s “First Up” radio show hosts, Carlo Colaiacovo and Aaron Korolnek, interviewed Adler Mannheim coach Dallas Eakins this morning, and coach Eakins hosted Red Wings forward Lucas Raymond and the yet-to-be-re-signed Moritz Seider for part of August.

At the 7:20 mark, Eakins discusses the time which Raymond and Seider spent/spend with the team, stating that Seider is practicing with Adler every day as he waits for his contract to be negotiated, and that Seider is treated like a regular member of the team. It’s just a quick quip, but it’s informative:

The Hockey News’s Connor Eargood discusses three significant “positional battles” which are of note going into training camp, including the tangle of young forwards hoping to make the roster, the goaltending situation, and the battle for time on the Red Wings’ third defensive pairing:

Of the eight defensemen, some are clearly going to be lineup regulars. Moritz Seider, when he signs an extension, will be on the top pairing, likely with Ben Chiarot or perhaps Simon Edvinsson. Outside of those two potential counterparts, it’s likely that power play specialist Erik Gustafsson will be in the lineup to run the man advantage in some capacity.

The final two spots come down to some combination of Olli Maatta, Jeff Petry, Justin Holl and Albert Johansson. The former two were lineup regulars last season, while Holl spent most of the season as a healthy scratch. Johansson cannot be sent down to Grand Rapids without going through waivers, where another team might claim him for free.

Who has the edge for a spot on what will, in all likelihood, be the bottom pairing? That’s one of the questions this training camp will seek to answer. Maatta and Petry appear to be favorites given their regularity in last season’s lineup. Maatta anchored last season’s third pairing, while Petry played most of the season on the second. A demotion out of the lineup would probably take some development — either themselves losing a step with age, or other players like Holl and Johansson proving their claim to those spots.

In the case of Holl, he’s probably this team’s seventh defenseman as it currently stands. He spent more time as a healthy scratch last season than he did in the actual lineup, but Yzerman kept him around for a reason. He’s one of just three right-handed defensemen among the eight projected NHLers, so that’s a bit of an edge.

Finally, Yzerman said Tuesday that while Johansson may be on the final roster due to his waiver eligibility, the defenseman will have to earn his way into actual games. That process commences at training camp, where all eyes will be on him and how he might factor in at the NHL level.

“Watching him in junior, watching him at the pro level in Sweden, and then in the American Hockey League, he’s adjusted at every level,” Yzerman said of Johansson. “So I’m pretty optimistic that he’ll be a good, solid defender for us. And it’s up to him to outplay one of the other guys, or wait until he gets his opportunity and impress well to stay in the lineup.”

Continued; injuries will play into the situation as well.

Injuries are guaranteed given the fact that the Red Wings will play 8 exhibition games over the course of 12 nights. That’s something I really dislike as someone who worries about the team’s players, but the team seems to want to maximize not only its player evaluations, but also its income, so the Wings play the most exhibition games in the league. Most teams play 5-7 exhibition games.

The Free Press’s Helene St. James discusses the Red Wings’ desire to play better defensive hockey this season, starting from the opening of training camp tomorrow in Traverse City:

“We need to be a better defensive hockey club, top to bottom,” [Red Wings GM Steve] Yzerman said. “Our special teams have to be good. Our special teams both improved last season and we scored more goals. We gave up too many to make the playoffs. But you have to be solid in those areas. You can get by maybe not having the best power play, but you better be solid in all the other areas. You can get by not having the best penalty killing unit, but you better be solid in other areas.”

The Wings don’t project to be as big of a scoring threat, not with the off-season departures of David Perron (17 goals), Daniel Sprong and Robby Fabbri (18 goals each), and Shayne Gostisbehere (team-leading 29 power play points). But former 40-goal scorer Vladimir Tarasenko joins the lineup, and Patrick Kane will be in from the start, and Jonatan Berggren is the candidate most likely to audition for Sprong’s old role on the fourth line/power play.

But even if they can make up for the scoring lost, last season showed it’s not enough when the play lacks in their own end.

“The key is ultimately I think for long term success to be a good defensive hockey team,” Yzerman said. “We are going to need to score goals – we’ve lost David Perron, Daniel Sprong and Robby Fabbri, simply couldn’t afford to keep all three of them. We like to think Vlad Tarasenko offsets one of those losses. We think Jonatan Berggren can offset another of those losses. Are those goals made up by potentially one of our young players making the team, or Patrick Kane for an entire season? Improved play from Lucas [Raymond]? Dylan Larkin hopefully healthy for 82 games – what not. Collectively if the goals we lost, if we can make up for them as a group. But being solid in all areas, that makes you a pretty good team.”

Continued (paywall)

The Athletic posted several articles which are Red Wings-related this morning.

1. First, The Athletic surveyed its NHL beat writers to determine the “biggest question” facing each of the NHL’s 32 teams heading into training camps, which begin today and tomorrow across the league.

Max Bultman suggests that the Red Wings need to be concerned about their defensive corps, as opposed their offensive deficit after David Perron, Daniel Sprong and Shayne Gostisbehere left the organization as free agents:

Detroit Red Wings

Is the team’s defense improved? The Red Wings lost a lot of production this offseason, and while they’ll hope to replace that scoring with contributions from Vladimir Tarasenko and via internal improvements, their bigger short-term priority will be defending better as a team. Detroit gave up the league’s ninth most goals per game last season (3.33), and too often gave away easy scoring chances via turnovers and defensive breakdowns. They’ll certainly hope the full-time arrival of Simon Edvinsson can help on the blue line thanks to his length and mobility, but a big part of the equation will need to come from their forwards, who last season tended to be more offensively tilted. Tyler Motte will help there as a matchup forward who can kill penalties, and Christian Fischer will return in a similar role. From there, it’s about getting a little more responsibility out of some of the more skilled forwards, a task which will fall to Derek Lalonde and his staff to execute. — Max Bultman

Continued (paywall); even Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman suggested that the Wings need to focus on the team’s defensive play this upcoming season when the GM spoke with the media on Tuesday.

2. Second, Bultman zooms in perspective-wise while discussing the state of the Wings’ defense and four more questions which the team faces before training camp begins tomorrow. In this case, hope always springs eternal for a player to “earn a spot” on the team, even with its 12 forwards mostly set: