Author: George Malik

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff posted a story this morning which discusses Alexandre Doucet’s desire to parlay a 19-goal, 41-point performance with the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye into a promotion to the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins:

[Doucet] believes he’s learned his lessons well and is prepared to make that next step up the hockey ladder.

“I’m working on my strength, getting faster,” the six-foot, 192-pound Doucet said. “I think I’ve got smarter playing the coast last year, so I’m just trying to show that I’ve improved a lot. I don’t want to go back in the coast, so I’ve tried to work hard this summer to prove that I belong in Grand Rapids.”

Griffins coach Dan Watson was behind the bench for those rookie games. He was liking what he was seeing from Doucet.

“What he put in the summertime, I think he’s in better shape,” Watson said. “We know he could score. We know he’s got that energy now. It’s being consistent with it, and I think we saw that consistency. He was able to follow up shift after shift with his skating, with his compete level. What he did with the puck, that’s what we need to see all the time with him, is just that high energy, but at a consistent level.”

COntinued

The Detroit News’s John Niyo reflects upon Lucas Raymond’s 8-year, $64.6 million contract extension this evening, discussing the ways in which “hope becomes expectation” now that Raymond’s probable prime years are in front of him, likely to be played here in Detroit:

Now that it is complete, Raymond is eager to show everyone he’s far from done growing as a player: “I mean, that’s the goal. I’m still 22, so hopefully I have a lot of development to still do.”

The fourth-overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft is coming off a career-best production last season, racking up 31 goals and 71 points while playing all 82 games. That breakthrough was attributed partly to his off-ice work last summer, as the young Swede arrived at training camp having added about 12 pounds of muscle. And that improved strength seemed to carry through his entire game, whether it was winning more puck battles early or finishing chances late.

As impressive as he was in carrying the Red Wings’ offense when Larkin missed time due to injury, he was even more so in that pressure-packed final month when every night felt like a playoff elimination game. There was the hat trick to salvage a point in Pittsburgh. The two late goals against Montreal to keep Detroit’s postseason hopes alive. Another just before the buzzer in Columbus to force OT. In all, Raymond scored 14 goals over the last 18 games, as the Wings ultimately lost a tiebreaker for the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

And while that finishing stretch “really helped his cause” when it came to this new contract — one that’s still under the $8.35 AAV deal Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle signed two years ago, by the way — it was just one of many factors.

“I don’t know that there’s a specific age that a player peaks at, but I think he’s just entering the early stages of his prime,” Yzerman said. “I fully expect him to become a better hockey player for a couple reasons. I think he’s extremely driven, an extremely bright player, and … he’ll just continue to get better over the next few years. On all these long-term deals for younger players, there is a little bit of projection in it. There’s an expectation that the player will take his game to another level — and that’s on both sides. And I’m very confident that Lucas will do that.”

Continued (paywall); now get Seider done, Mr. Yzerman…

DetroitRedWings.com’s Jonathan Mills reports that the Red Wings’ prospects made their traditional Tuesday-after-the-prospect-tournament visit to a local Traverse City school to teach the students about hockey. This time they added a wrinkle in giving Central Grade School’s students a “Little Free Library”:

In the Detroit Red Wings’ latest effort to make a difference off the ice, all 24 members of their 2024 NHL Prospect Games roster stopped by Central Grade School to host a ball hockey clinic on Monday morning.

Smiles were abundant inside the gym, as approximately 40 students learned the basic elements of hockey like stickhandling, passing and shooting at rotating stations that were led by the Red Wings prospects and several Ilitch Sports + Entertainment Community Impact colleagues.

Defenseman Shai Buium said he really enjoyed teaching the game of hockey to the students.

“It’s really cool,” Buium told DetroitRedWings.com. “Growing up in San Diego, I really didn’t get any of this. We didn’t have NHL prospects come and teach us how to play hockey, so it’s pretty special to be able to do this with the kids.”

…

During the interactive visit, forward Nate Danielson helped unveil a Red Wings-themed Little Free Library that was donated to the school by the Detroit Red Wings Foundation through the Red Wings for Reading Program, which is a literary initiative that encourages students in K-5 classrooms across the state of Michigan to spend more time reading.

Danielson then read “Dino-Hockey” – a book by Michigan-based author Lisa Wheeler – to a group of first graders before answering their questions. The fun Q&A session was wide-ranging, with the children asking Danielson what his favorite color is, why he likes playing hockey, if he’s ever done a backflip and more.

Continued

I can only provide a link to this one, but the NHL Network’s Stu Grimson broke down the Lucas Raymond re-signing and discussed the Wings’ need to re-sign Moritz Seider in a 5-minute clip posted on NHL.com.

97.1 the Ticket’s Will Burchfield offers something of a post-script to the Red Wings’ re-signing of Lucas Raymond on Monday night:

Raymond is a rudder for the Red Wings, who are starting to turn the corner. The 22-year-old forward nearly propelled the team into the playoffs last season for the first time in eight years. He put up career best numbers and “down the stretch,” as Steve Yzerman said Tuesday, “took his game to another level.” 14 of his 31 goals came in the final 18 games, and several of them were clutch.

“I think I figured out a lot of things about my game, what makes me good, and how to be able to do that on a consistent basis,” Raymond said.

And what did he figure out?

“Just the way that I perform the best when I play a certain way, my movement on the ice, the physical aspect was for sure one part of it, and my skating,” said Raymond. “That made it a lot easier, and also something to fall back on, when you might not be feeling great, to find your rhythm again. Trying to build off of that.”

…

“I’m not the biggest guy out there, but you get in those situations and get physical, that usually helps you get into the game a little bit easier,” he said. “I felt that was a big thing. Maybe it was a little bit of a conscious (decision) to do it, but I think that came naturally as well.”

The Red Wings have every reason to believe that Raymond’s surge at the end of last season was a sign of things to come. Their commitment to the player only backfires if he regresses. Yzerman is confident that Raymond will reach “another level” yet. His maturation was most evident last season when the Wings lost their captain and No. 1 center Dylan Larkin for several weeks to an injury and Raymond shined without him.

“He’s (been) our best player, I think,” Moritz Seider said at the time. “Even in tough stretches, he finds a way to get on the board, stay in it, play the right way. I think he’s just taken a real big step compared to last year.”

Continued;

The Hockey News’s Adam Proteau makes “five bold predictions” for Atlantic Division teams this evening, and this one seems to be more and more likely to come true as training camps approach:

Prediction: Detroit Red Wings top defenseman Moritz Seider signs a contract extension in the middle of training camp. His deal – which we believe will pay him $8.5 million per season – will ensure he begins the regular season without missing any time.

Per PuckPedia, the Red Wings currently have $8.74 million in salary cap space after signing dynamic young winger Lucas Raymond to an eight-year, $64.6-million contract. 

If Seider – the team’s top defenseman and a cornerstone component of GM Steve Yzerman’s plans – wants to play a full 82-game slate of games, he must settle for about $8.5 million per season.

In fairness, players comparable to Seider – Buffalo’s Owen Power ($8.35 million) – give Yzerman reason to keep Seider’s contract demands reasonable. And if Seider doesn’t feel like he’s being treated properly, he can sign for a short term and try again to hit a bigger jackpot down the line. 

In any case, we expect Seider not to miss any time and contribute right out of the gate for Detroit. Seider is too crucial to fight tooth and nail over financial issues, and both sides must temper their demands to ensure Seider is in the lineup to begin the season. As the Red Wings learned last season, any missed opportunity for one more point in the standings can cost them.

Continued; the one thing that concerned me during Steve Yzerman’s presser was a question about Raymond and Seider’s work visas. It sounded like if Seider signs before September 30th, the end of the fiscal year, there won’t be many problems, but if his visa expires thereafter…

It could get a little tricky.

This is one of those few occasions where I could be making this all up in my head…I’d need a H1B Visa expert to clarify the language.

The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta appeared on the NHL Network yesterday night to talk about Sidney Crosby’s re-signing and notable restricted free agents who remain unsigned.

So this is a little dated. Still!

At the 4:28 mark of the video, Pagnotta states that with Raymond and Seider, the conversations are ongoing, long-term is the expectations, and that both sides are having daily talks, but the gaps need to be bridged, and the expectation is $8+ million per player, with Seider gaining a higher AAV.

TSN’s Gino Reda spoke with Darren Dreger and Chris Johnston for the first episode of Insider Trading of the new season, and Johnston addressed Moritz Seider’s situation:

From the TSN.ca transcript:

GENO REDA: It’s the season debut of Insider Trading. They are the Insiders, Darren Dreger and Chris Johnston. Gentlemen, NHL training camps are opening up across league this week, and there are some big name restricted free agents still waiting for contracts. One of the biggest names out there right now, C.J., is Jeremy Swayman. At last word, Swayman and the Bruins were miles apart on a new deal. Any updates on that front?

CHRIS JOHNSTON: Well, what I can tell you as of early Tuesday evening, anyways, it was described as ‘status-quo’ in these talks, and I think the timestamp is important because this is an hour-by-hour situation with the camp opening in Boston on Wednesday. Obviously a lot of urgency trying to get the No. 1 goaltender of the Bruins signed, and really, this goes back a long time. They’ve been working at this file for quite some time trying to find an agreement on, what I think, has been focused on a long-term deal. You have to wonder if they can’t quite get there, if they can’t bridge that gap, maybe they find something a little shorter to get to a solution here. But certainly, this is a big one around the league.

Another situation worth monitoring is in Detroit, where Moritz Seider, the defenceman for the Red Wings, remains unsigned as well. The talks there had been focused on an eight-year contract, the maximum allowable, just as his teammate Lucas Raymond signed. But it sounds like now it’s going to be something a little shorter, and the reason for that is the Red Wings have been reluctant to pay anyone more than the $8.7 million per year that captain Dylan Larkin gets. I think one way to maybe get Seider into the mid-eights, or somewhere below that number is to do a six or seven-year deal, and so look for that as they look to get him signed and in camp here as soon as possible.

It’s difficult to make any career-spanning predictions as to how the Red Wings’ prospects who participated in the Prospect Games might pan out. They only played in two games over the course of two days, against their peers (age-wise), for the most part.

That being said, there were some conclusions to be made about some of the players who participated in the various rookie camps throughout the NHL this past weekend, and Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis tabs Red Wings goaltender Carter Gylander as one of his “Top 15 standouts” from the NHL’s various rookie tournaments:

Carter Gylander, G (Detroit Red Wings)

The Red Wings already have two high-end goalie prospects in Sebastian Cossa and Trey Augustine. Now, Gylander is off to an excellent start to his pro career after capping off a four-year run at Colgate University. He made 33 saves over a game and a half to register a .967 save percentage – marking one of the best stat lines of any goalie this weekend. It wasn’t a big sample size, but he still looked steady, using his 6-foot-5 frame to cover so much of the net. I like how well he tracks the puck through traffic and he’s got the athleticism to make up for plays when he can’t rely on pure size to make a save.

Continued; Gylander is just plain old steady.

At 23 years of age, he’s not a “young prospect,” and he’s going to face an uphill battle as the Red Wings’ goaltending situation in Grand Rapids already includes two goaltenders in Sebastian Cossa and Jack Campbell–and the situation in Toledo is no less crowded, with Gage Alexander and Griffins-contracted Jan Bednar vying for crease time–but those who’ve seen Gylander play know that his patience both in and out of the crease may very well pay off.

The Red Wings’ Prospect Games participants were asked to play in a “fun game” by the Grand Rapids Griffins’ social media crew, and, well, this ensued:

Elite Athletes 🤔🎾 pic.twitter.com/OgWf7bEuxp

— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) September 17, 2024