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!

The Athletic fan poll: Ken Daniels, Mickey Redmond offer the NHL’s best TV broadcast

The Athletic’s Harman Dayal and James Mirtle report that The Athletic’s fan respondents have named the Detroit Red Wings’ NHL broadcast the league’s best:

1. Detroit Red Wings

The Broadcast: FanDuel Sports Network Detroit carries Red Wings games with Ken Daniels calling play-by-play and Mickey Redmond handling most games as the color analyst.

Local score: 4.96 [out of 5] (1st)

National score: 3.83 [out of 5] (1st)

Last season rank: 1

The results: It’s been a tough go for the Red Wings on the ice, and sometimes that can make life difficult for the broadcasters. No matter how many times they miss the playoffs in Detroit, however, fans still love this duo, who have been together nearly 30 years now.

Redmond, 77, has had multiple serious health setbacks over the years — including lung cancer — but continues to offer one of the most entertaining perspectives of any broadcaster in the league.

Fans praised this team’s ability to offer insights into opponents and the league in general, as well as their encyclopedic knowledge of the Red Wings.

“Mickey Redmond and Ken Daniels are Detroit legends who have more chemistry than Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta in ‘Grease.’”

“They provide great play-by-play calling and team/player insights. They have fun when they do their broadcasts. Ken Daniels does a great job of keeping the energy up regardless of who scores a goal.”

“Just give them the award now.”

Continued (paywall); no surprise here.

Ken and Mick are as professional as it gets in terms of balancing hometown coverage (they are employees of the Detroit Red Wings’ organization, after all) with a measured perspective, and their chemistry, cooperation and ability to capture the “spirit of the thing” is unmatched.

I’d argue that Ken Kal and Paul Woods (and the rising superstar that is Daniella Bruce) are among the NHL’s best radio broadcasters as well.

HSJ in the morning: Naming the Red Wings’ ‘All-21st Century Team’

The Free Press is naming “All-21st Century Teams” celebrating each and every one of Detroit’s sports teams.

This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James posts her “All-21st Century” Red Wings team. Her team leans heavily upon the Red Wings’ 21st century glory days, surrounding their 2002 and 2008 Stanley Cups:

In selecting players from the past 25 years, I considered not just tenure, but what impact they had on the team. All stats used are within the time frame of 2000-25, meaning we’re not considering the numbers put up in the 1990s, when the Wings won two Cups and made three Finals in four seasons.

First-line forwards: Pavel Datsyuk (2001-16), Sergei Fedorov (1990-2003) and Henrik Zetterberg (2002-18)

From Datsyuk’s arrival in fall 2001 to his departure in 2016, this Russian magician and Euro Twin electrified teammates and fans with his ability to dangle the puck and make opponents look foolish. With totals of 918 points in 953 games, his 0.96 points-per-game average leads all Wings during the quarter-century. Fedorov, his fellow Russian, was one of the best skaters in the game and a force to behold before departing in free agency in July 2003. In just 236 games this centuty, he put up 220 points, a 0.93 points-per-game average. His 0.878 playoff points average is a franchise best this century – narrowly ahead of Zetterberg’s 0.875. The other half of the Euro Twins (so nicknamed by Kris Draper), meanwhile, was the steadiest, most grounded and gifted performer among this team’s forwards. Zetterberg is the franchise’s 21st-century leader in points (960) and games played (1,082) and captained the team from 2013 to his retirement in 2018.

Second-line forwards: Lucas Raymond (2022-25), Brendan Shanahan (1996-2006) and Steve Yzerman (1983-2006)

Continued (paywall), with four full lines’ worth of forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders’ worth of “All-21st Century” players.

This is an obvious question, but what does your “All-21st Century” team look like? St. James mostly makes no-brainer picks, but there are some eyebrow-raising selections as well.

On Saturday, the Wings’ alums participated in a hockey game to raise funds for South Bend, Indiana charities

The Detroit Red Wings Alumni are busy all year round. On Saturday, the Alumni headed to the University of Notre Dame to take part in a charity hockey game.

South Bend, Indiana’s WSBT 22 reports that the Wings’ alums took part in a charity game to raise funds for Pucks for Autism and Camp Millhouse, a camp for special-needs kids:

Last Year, they raised $10,000 for Camp Millhouse & $3,000 for Pucks for Autism, and this year they want to do it again.

“The funds that come in are helping support the activity of the Pucks for Autism, and they offer so much to the people with disabilities in different programs, whether it be Millhouse here in Indiana or other programs in other states,” said volunteer David Pierce.

Pucks for Autism is a non-profit organization that hosts various adult hockey games and tournaments to help raise acceptance and support for children and adults on the Autism spectrum.

They also held a vendor Market & a Sports Card/Pokémon Trade Show inside the Compton Family Ice Arena from 12 pm-7 pm.

This year, the tournament has raised over $40,000.

It’s good to know that the Wings’ alums are still skating for charity in the middle of July!

Tweet of note: Tomorrow is Pavel Datsyuk’s birthday

The Magic Man turns 47 tomorrow:

A bit about Carter Bear and Emmitt Finnie

The Hockey News’s Adam Kierszenblat examines the WHL-drafted prospect pool of the Red Wings this afternoon. The Wings’ prospects from the WHL constitute a small pool of two players, forwards Emmitt Finnie and Carter Bear:

The Red Wings have a long history of selecting WHL players in the NHL Entry Draft. In fact, Detroit has drafted at least one WHLer in five of the last six drafts. This includes Everett Silvertips’ Carter Bear and Kamloops Blazers’ Emmitt Finnie, both of whom had significant impacts on their WHL teams last season. 

Starting with Bear, he was selected 13th overall in June after posting 82 points in 56 games. The 18-year-old forward finished tied for seventh in the WHL with 40 goals, while his 1.46 points per game ranked 13th in the league. Listed at 6’0″, 179, Bear has already signed his Entry-Level Contract and is projected to return to the WHL next season. 

As for Finnie, he spent the year as captain of the Blazers. The 20-year-old forward set a new career high with 84 points in 55 games, and had the opportunity to play in his first three AHL games after his WHL season came to a close. Listed at 6’1″, 190 lbs, Finnie’s WHL career has now come to a close as he will make the jump full-time to the AHL next season. 

Bear and Finnie are cut from the same cloth. Bear may be the better deke-and-dangle player, but both players make up for their lack of size (by today’s NHL standards) via work ethic and a bit of prove-everybody-wrong grit. They both skate well and are determined players who wear their hearts on their sleeves, and they’re both big assets for the Red Wings’ organization.

City of Detroit honors pioneer of Red Wings’ ‘Learn, Play, Score’ program

NHL.com’s William Douglas reports that the City of Detroit honored a man whose charitable passion involved helping the Red Wings establish their, “Learn, Play, Score” program:

Marlowe Stoudamire wasn’t a hockey player, but he was a player in the sport.

The Michigan native was a driving force in the Detroit Red Wings, NHL and NHL Players’ Association launch in February 2020 of “Learn, Play, Score,” an ambitious $1 million pilot program to bring hockey to more than 30,000 children in the city.

Stoudamire didn’t live to see the program’s progress. The always-smiling, entrepreneurial community advocate died at the age of 43 on March 24, 2020, after he contracted COVID-19 and became one of Detroit’s early pandemic casualties.

Detroit celebrated Stoudamire’s life and legacy on Saturday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, renaming a park near his childhood home on the city’s east side in his honor. Family, friends, city officials and members of the hockey community gathered at Marlowe D.F. Stoudamire Park to dedicate the newly renovated 1.1-acre space.

“One of the things that we realized was the importance of community to get us through (the pandemic), even in isolation,” Valencia Stoudamire, his wife, told the gathering. “That connection and sense of community was near and dear to Marlowe’s heart and who he was, whether he was advocating for access to sports like hockey in diverse communities or telling Detroit’s story through projects like the (Detroit Historical) Museum’s ‘Detroit 67’ exhibit…

“So, it is truly an honor to be able to renovate a space that once again honors Marlowe’s vision to create organic social collisions within our communities, especially one from which he came, and one where people knew him and remember him,” she said.

Continued; it’s important to recognize the figures who are working in the community to spread the message of hockey, and I’m sorry that Mr. Stoudamire was unable to witness the widespread success of the Red Wings, “Learn, Play, Score” initiative.

Tweet of note: We like Lucas

From NHL.com:

A little fast fashion, Red Wings jersey version

The Athletic asked its NHL writers to name every NHL team’s best and worst jerseys, and I can’t complain with Max Bultman’s choice for the Red Wings’ best one (though I think that the Wings’ “regular jerseys” are the best)…

TORONTO , ON – JANUARY 1: Pavel Datsyuk #13 of the Detroit Red Wings takes a faceoff during NHL game action against the Toronto Maple Leafs during the 2014 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic January 1, 2014 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. (Photo by Graig Abel/NHLI via Getty Images)

Best: 2014 Winter Classic

The Red Wings’ main uniforms are iconic, likely why they don’t have many alternates (and rather bland ones when they do). But the 2014 Winter Classic jerseys were sublime, incorporating history and legacy with a distinct look that jumps off the sweater. We’ll see what Detroit has planned for its centennial season, but these will be hard to top.

And Bultman’s “worst” Red Wings jersey is actually, well, this:

Continue reading A little fast fashion, Red Wings jersey version

DHN updates Al Sobotka’s legal situation

Sometimes it’s best for someone in my line of work to have no opinion about something, and that’s the case for me regarding this news from Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:

Former Detroit Red Wings Zamboni driver and arena manager Al Sobotka will be getting his day in court. The Michigan Supreme Court has denied a bid by Olympia Entertainment Inc. to have Sobotka’s wrongful dismissal suit thrown out of court.

“On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the February 14, 2025 judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered, and it is DENIED, because we are not persuaded that the question presented should be reviewed by this Court,” read the Michigan Supreme Court’s ruling that was announced on Friday.

The court’s ruling means that the case will be returned to the Wayne County, Michigan Circuit Court for a jury trial.

In April 2022, Sobotka filed a lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court after being fired by the Red Wings. He alleges that his termination violated the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, specifically claiming discrimination based on age and disability.

Continued; we all know by now that in 2021, Sobotka was fired by the team after being seen relieving himself in a Zamboni drainage ditch, and we all know that Sobotka claims that he suffers from a condition which makes him forcibly have to pee, for lack of a better term, facilitating the incident that was witnessed.

Etc., etc.

Some folks have rallied around Sobotka over the past three years, holding fundraisers with the Red Wings’ beloved Zamboni driver and facilities manager cooking his famous barbecue; for others, Sobotka has become “persona non grata,” or someone who should not be associated with.

I don’t know where you stand on this issue, because some fans have memed Sobotka into the ground, and others have cheered for the underdog.

I’m just glad that this is going to court, and that there will be a legal decision as to whether Sobotka was fired with cause or fired due to discriminatory issues. He deserves that much, and so does the team.