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.
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It’s hard to get reliable news out of Russia these days, hockey stuff included, but the rumors have been circulating that one Pavel Datsyuk is going to retire from professional hockey later this summer.
Buffalo Hockey Beat’s Bill Hoppe ended up getting a scoop as to the former Red Wings forward’s next career move while Hoppe spoke with Buffalo Sabres director of amateur scouting Jerry Forton regarding Sabres prospect and 74th overall draft pick Viktor Neuchev.
Neuchev played for Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, Datsyuk’s hometown KHL team, this past season:
Forton said Neuchev’s organization also appealed to the Sabres. He said Detroit Red Wings legend Pavel Datsyuk, who retired in June after ending his career in Russia, will be taking over as Yekaterinburg’s head of development.
“(He) has already had his hands on some of these players, so that’s very appealing to us,” Forton said. “We think he’s in a very good development spot right now.”
Continued; Datsyuk has always enjoyed coaching kids, so this career move would make a lot of sense for him.
The Red Wings’ 2022 summer development camp got underway on Sunday at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center without some of the team’s most notable prospects in Simon Edvinsson, William Wallinder and Theodor Niederbach. As Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen notes in his Sunday camp notebook, there’s a good reason why the three Swedes were not in attendance:
“[Edvinsson] still doesn’t have his passport back from the consulate in Sweden,” said Dan Cleary, Detroit’s Director of Player Development. “He’s just been tied up with that but as soon as he has it he’s coming.”
Team Sweden had Edvinsson[‘s passport] because he is supposed to play with the team at the delayed World Junior Championships. Edvinsson will stay in Detroit and go to the August tournament from here.
Two other Swedish players, William Wallinder and Theodor Niederbach, has similar problems.
“They’re hoping to arrive later this evening and be on the ice tomorrow,” Cleary said.
The delayed didn’t diminish the enthusiasm for the development camp which didn’t happen the past two years because of COVID-19.
“We haven’t seen a lot of these kids in a couple of years,” Cleary said. “It was great to see some of these guys.
Allen’s notebook continues, discussing some of the camaraderie at camp, as well as the noticeable improvements made by Carter Mazur, Shai Buium and Cooper Moore…
Wearing #92, the Red Wings’ 8th overall draft pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, one Marco Kasper, hit the ice at Little Caesars Arena’s BELFOR Training Center (i.e. the practice rink) this morning with lots of promise and potential in the mix.
The Red Wings’ summer development camp is an educational one, as Daniel Cleary told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan today, so the various skating tests that the players engaged in (with Kasper starting most of the drills) are designed to give players a “baseline” assessment as to where they are compared to NHL players.
The off-ice portion of today’s activities included a media relations course, but you probably know by now that Kasper, who’s headed back to Rogle BK of the SHL this upcoming season, is polished in speaking with the press in both German and Swedish.
The National Post’s Michael Traikos is a Toronto-based columnist, so he has a good feel for the Maple Leafs’ Atlantic Division rivals. Traikos suggests that three up-and-coming teams–the Red Wings, Senators and Sabres–are probably going to be very aggressive in the free agency marketplace (starting on July 13th) in order to make up the ground on the Beasts of the Atlantic:
Forget about Toronto. Or Edmonton. Or any of the favourites to win the Stanley Cup.
After acquiring Alex DeBrincat from Chicago in a trade for Ottawa’s seventh-overall pick, the word coming out of the last week’s draft was that the Senators were also lining up to try to sign Claude Giroux to feed passes to the two-time 40-goal scorer.
Detroit, which traded for St. Louis goalie Ville Husso, is now reportedly looking at Tampa Bay pending free agent winger Ondrej Palat, whom GM Steve Yzerman and new head coach Derek Lalonde both know well from their time with the Lightning.
New Jersey, which traded for Washington goalie Vitek Vanecek, and Philadelphia, which traded for Carolina defenceman Tony DeAngelo, are both reportedly trying to pry Johnny Gaudreau out of Calgary. If that doesn’t materialize, both will probably turn their attention to Nazem Kadri. Or Evander Kane.
And though they might not be considered the frontrunners, expect Buffalo, which had a trade in place for Ottawa’s Matt Murray, to join the bidding war for goaltenders Darcy Kuemper and Jack Campbell.
Between the Montreal Canadiens’ struggles and the fact that the Boston Bruins are in flux, Traikos believes that one of the Wings, Sabres or Senators could attempt to usurp a playoff spot as Toronto, Tampa Bay and Florida battle for Eastern Conference supremacy while facing salary cap issues. He says this about the Red Wings’ potential:
Red Wings assistant director of player development Dan Cleary spoke with the media regarding the purpose of the Wings’ first summer development camp in three years on Sunday.
While the Red Wings did test the players’ skating on Sunday, and they will work on educating players regarding on-ice skill development, working out properly, learning how to rest and recuperate, engaging in best nutritional practices and learning to deal with the media, both social and otherwise…
Cleary made sure to point out that the Red Wings’ brass is in attendance to help educate their prospects, and not overly focus on evaluating them–which is what the fall prospect tournament is for–as he told the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan:
“This is not an evaluation one bit,” Cleary said Sunday, after Day 1 of the camp. “This is an education and enjoy it, get to meet all these guys you haven’t seen. Take whatever information we’re giving you and ask questions. That’s strictly it.”
There was various on-ice testing done Sunday, but it was done mostly to have baseline numbers to compare with the past, and in the future. The testing isn’t done to compare against other players.
“We tested them today, but this is strictly testing to let them know ‘Hey, this is where the pro level is at and this is where you’re at’,” Cleary said. “You’re 18, 19 years old, but there’s not evaluation at all. We’re doing skills, skating, we have vision training, some fun things to do and then, on Thursday, we’ll do a small three-on-three tournament. That’s really it.”
Instilling what the culture of the Wings’ organization, said Cleary, along with the work ethic and character are also key aspects of the week. As in previous camps, and while working with young players in the Wings organization, Cleary has found today’s young athletes receptive to coaching.
“It’s a different athlete,” Cleary said. “Today’s young person, you really have to adapt to them, they have a different mindset, I feel, but a good mindset. We’ve had great kids to work with and some kids who are way more mature at 18 or 19 year old, and we’ve had some, maybe, who weren’t as mature as others. But I’ve never had a kid who has been hard to deal with. They’ve all been terrific.”
Kulfan continues, discussing several topics, and if you missed Cleary’s presser, here it is:
MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Husso’s comments regarding an inconsistent but promising 2021-2022 season played in St. Louis, as well as Husso’s remarks about coming to Detroit in a draft-day trade:
Husso had a strong second NHL season (25-7-6, 2.56 goals-against average, .919 save percentage), tying for seventh in Vezina Trophy voting as the league’s top goalie (one third-place vote)
The Red Wings hope Husso plays more like he did the first half of the season (2.03 GAA, .935 save percentage) than the second half and playoffs (3.23 GAA, .901 save percentage). After posting a shutout in his playoff debut against Minnesota, the remainder of the postseason was a struggle (1-5, 4.29 GAA, .869 save percentage).
“The last year was a really good start and unfortunately I got COVOD and was out for three weeks,” Husso said. “Next year I need to be on the level I played that long part of last season. My next goal is to be on that level every single night.”
Husso was going to test the unrestricted free agent marketplace before his trade to Detroit, but he chose to ink a 3-year contract with the Red Wings instead:
“I’m very happy to join the Detroit Red Wings, a historic team, 11 Stanley Cups,” Husso said.
He enters a room with some familiar faces. Yzerman since becoming Red Wings GM has made three trades with the Blues, acquiring Robby Fabbri in 2019 and, at this year’s deadline, sending Nick Leddy to St. Louis for Oskar Sundqvist and Jake Walman.
“They (three former teammates) said good things about Detroit and the fans and everything. I’m looking forward to that,” Husso said. “I’m a pretty easygoing guy, so hopefully all the guys like me, and I think it will be fine.”
The Red Wings posted two videos while I was driving home.
First, here’s assistant director of player development Dan Cleary’s press conference regarding his expectations for development camp…
And Ville Husso spoke with the media for the first time as a Detroit Red Wing on Sunday, packing up his home in St. Louis to prepare for a summer spent in Finland:
This Tweet from the Red Wings is worth a post as one Dylan Larkin made sure to call Marco Kasper during the first day of the Red Wings’ summer development camp:
Red Wings director of player development Dan Cleary spoke with the media for about 15 minutes regarding the start of the Red Wings’ first summer development camp in three years. This will be uploaded by the Wings to video soon, but you can listen now:
