Author: George Malik

DetroitRedWings.com’s Ethan Sears posted a training camp notebook which discusses the impression that Kirill Tyutyayev has made upon coach Jeff Blashill:

Kirill Tyutyayev got on everyone’s radar with a strong NHL Prospect Tournament. With preseason on the horizon, he’s still impressing.

“He’s been good,” Blashill said. “He’s got a lot of good instincts. He doesn’t totally look the part, he’s a little undersized, he’s not an elite skater. And those guys aren’t flying around the NHL a whole bunch, but some guys do make it.

“He knows how to create space for himself. He’s really slippery. He’s smart. He’s heavy on the puck for a smaller guy. He works his tail off.”

A seventh-round pick in 2019, Tyutyayev is in his first year in North America after playing in Belarus last season. It’s still unlikely he ends up playing for the Red Wings anytime soon, but he’s given reason to start paying attention.

“No aversion to traffic,” Blashill said. “No aversion to holding onto the puck. No aversion to playing extremely hard. … So we’ll see how it goes in exhibition season if he can continue to impress the way he has so far. But he’s done a good job so far.”

Continued

Per the Toledo Walleye:

? PLAYER ANNOUNCEMENT ?

We’ve signed veteran center John Albert (nine games in the NHL!) for the 2021-22 season.

? https://t.co/Tn18zKOt9X pic.twitter.com/ElvwN4Gk2O— Toledo Walleye (@ToledoWalleye) September 28, 2021

On ToledoWalleye.com

(Toledo, OH) – Cleveland, OH native and center John Albert has agreed to terms with the Toledo Walleye for the 2021-2022 season.

Albert split the 2020-21 season between Wichita and Rapid City with five goals, six assists, and ten penalty minutes over 30 games combined. The former sixth round pick by Atlanta in the 2007 draft made it to the highest level with nine games for the Winnipeg Jets during the 2013-14 campaign, scoring a goal. Albert is a longtime veteran of the AHL, with six total seasons and 339 total games that featured 72 goals and 98 assists.

In the 2019-20 season, Albert skated for Jacksonville with 44 contests with eight goals and 21 assists. He posted career-bests in goals with 28 and points (45) while skating for St. John’s in the 2013-14 season (63 contests). Prior to turning professional, the 32-year-old spent four seasons in Ohio playing for Ohio State. He had over twenty points in all four years for the Buckeyes including surpassing 30 points in each of the last three years. His highest point total came as a sophomore in the 2008-09 season with 39 (11G, 28A) in 42 games played.

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski posted a ranking of the NHL’s 32 goaltending tandems for ESPN+ this morning, and the Red Wings’ tandem sits in 28th place:

28. Detroit Red Wings
Thomas Greiss, Alex Nedeljkovic

The success or failure of this tandem comes down to two basic questions: Can the Red Wings continue their year-over-year improvement as a defensive team, and were the Hurricanes right or wrong about Nedeljkovic? The Canes didn’t think he was worth a contract extension for three months of light-out, Calder Trophy-nominated hockey. The Red Wings were willing to give him two years and $6 million for it.

Greiss is one of the NHL’s best complementary goalies, playing to his fourth above-average campaign in the last five seasons. He had the misfortune of losing eight overtime or shootout games, tied for most in the league last season. This tandem could look better than expected if the defense can help them get their goals-against average under 3.00.

Continued (paywall)

The Athletic’s “Down Goes Brown,” a.k.a. Sean McIndoe, has posted a list of his 22 most interesting NHL players to follow this upcoming season, and Red Wings forward Jakub Vrana, who’s got a shoulder issue that’s keeping him from practicing at present, is one of DGB’s 22:

Jakub Vrana, Red Wings Steve Yzerman has mostly played it slow and steady as he rebuilds the Red Wings, but he made a big deal to add Vrana at last year’s deadline. The 25-year-old isn’t a prospect anymore, but he’s also no longer buried behind bigger name forwards like he was in Washington. That means more minutes but less help, and that can go either way. We’ll see, but Vrana has the talent to be one of this season’s biggest breakouts.

Continued; everything is dependent upon Vrana’s health at this point.

MLive’s Ansar Khan and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan posted articles discussing free agent forward Bobby Ryan’s attempt to stick with the Red Wings via a professional try-out this fall. This morning, the Free Press’s Helene St. James posted a subscriber-only article which discusses Ryan’s desire to take on a leadership-and-or-mentorship role with the Red Wings:

Ryan’s season ended in late March when he needed surgery for a torn triceps, but  had a great start  scoring four goals in his first three games. A former second-overall pick in 2006 NHL draft, Ryan was a good mentor alongside fellow veterans Sam Gagner and Marc Staal.

“I think those things will add to a decision that they will have to make,” Ryan said. “My body of work speaks for itself, however limited it may have been last year with 33 games and a couple injuries that kind of derailed the season. I like to think even though it was an injury that ended the year, we ended on a positive note with my conversations. I think they look at what they brought to the room and there is an experience level that not a lot of guys in the room have right now — myself, Stallsie and Gags maybe at the upper echelon of games played. Guys can rely on that, guys can bounce ideas off that.

“We talk about a mentor role, but I still think there is a place in the game for a guy to bridge that gap between coach and player, so all those little things I hope would add in. I think they realized, too, how much I wanted to be here and loved being here last year.”

Continued (paywall), and Ryan seems to feel the same way about War and Peace that I do:

With players essentially confined to their hotels when on the road, Ryan took up reading. He left off with “War and Peace” at the of the season and conceded he didn’t finish it. “I couldn’t,” he said, laughing. I tried it. I got a good amount of it. I just felt like it was homework. It’s still on the shelf and collection dust, but I will get back to it, I promise I will.”

Per the Red Wings on Twitter (Apple link), and on SoundCloud:

Shawn Horcoff offers his assessment of the Prospects Tournament and Training Camp in an all new Red and White Authority podcast.

Listen/Subscribe: https://t.co/qbLU58wudj pic.twitter.com/G7L01wSatF

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 27, 2021

MLive’s Ansar Khan wrote a fine article regarding Bobby Ryan, who is attempting to land a job with the Red Wings while on a professional try-out, and the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan’s article from training camp today fills out the rest of the situation:

“You feel like you’re on a shorter leash,” Ryan said Monday during a Zoom call with media. “I can say with absolute certainty you feel tighter and a little more restrictive. I am fortunate that I’ve been here and I know the coaching staff. I have a good rapport with everyone in the room.”

Ryan, 34, was an unrestricted free agent over the summer after scoring seven goals with seven assists for the Wings last season.  After getting a few nibbles from interested teams, but nothing concrete and not hearing from the Wings, Ryan decided to be patient and wait.

While watching the Lions and Green Bay Packers last Monday night, Ryan got a call from the Wings about the chance to come to camp on a tryout. He took it.

“There were a very select few places I was holding out that I hoped would call, and this was No. 1,” Ryan said. ” I’m happy it did work out, even if it was short notice. They realize how much I wanted to be here and loved being here last year. No place has felt this comfortable for me throughout my career. I hope it leads to good things going forward. I just have to take care of the on-ice stuff and go from there.”

Continued

The Detroit Red Wings engaged in their second-to-last practice at Centre ICE Arena for their 2021 training camp on Monday. The Wings are headed home after tomorrow’s practice to begin a nasty slate of 8 games to be played over the course of 12 nights, and I do have some good news on that front:

All the home games, save Thursday’s game vs. Buffalo (which will be streamed on the Red Wings’ YouTube channel) will be aired on Bally Sports Detroit: so that’s Saturday, October 2nd vs. Columbus, Monday, October 4th vs. Chicago and Thursday, October 7th vs. Pittsburgh.

As for the road games, I know that Wednesday’s game vs. Chicago will air on NBC Sports Chicago, and sometimes the NHL Network picks that up; otherwise, we’ll find out whether we can sneak in some bootleg streams on our own.

Anyway, the Red Wings held much shorter practices today (after Jonatan Berggren, T-Bone Codd and Kaden Fulcher skated with Niklas Kronwall, Daniel Cleary and skill development coach Dwayne Blais), with the Red and White teams focusing on simpler “teaching” drills which emphasized 5-on-5 positioning, breakouts and regroups through center ice, and there were heavy emphases on pace and battling today, despite the relative simplicity of the 5-man-vs-5-man drills.

After approximately an hour of on-ice instruction (under the watchful eye of Steve Yzerman, Pat Verbeek, Shawn Horcoff, Cleary, Kronwall and Jiri Fischer), the skaters engaged in the dreaded “skating test,” a grueling ordeal in which they were forced to skate (in groups) in sets of 3 laps up and down the ice, with 3 minutes, 2 minutes, and then 1 minute’s worth of rest between sets of laps. The test is particularly grueling, even for NHL veterans.

Bummer news for Toledo Walleye fans from the Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe:

Significant development here. @ToledoWalleye signee J.C. Campagna will not play for the organization this season: https://t.co/PGHs9UdPZA— Mark Monroe (@MonroeBlade) September 27, 2021

J.C. Campagna said the @ToledoWalleye organization did not mandate or require him to get the vaccine in any way, shape or form. He said it is a personal decision to not get vaccinated. https://t.co/rVCuFfDnXq— Mark Monroe (@MonroeBlade) September 27, 2021

MLive’s Ansar Khan took note of Bobby Ryan’s somewhat telling remarks regarding the 34-year-old’s chances of making the Red Wings as a pro try-out, with Ryan hoping to earn a spot on Detroit’s third or fourth line:

“When I look at the lineup here, and I’m realistic, the top-six is pretty well spoken for, as well it should be, those guys have earned that opportunity,” Ryan said. “I came in with the expectations that I would be a bottom-six player or maybe even the 13th forward, so I don’t think I can change anything.”

Ryan entered training camp without a contract for the first time in his 15-year NHL career, having to prove himself at age 34 on a professional tryout.

Once a prolific scorer, the second overall selection from the 2005 draft feels he needs to show something different in the preseason.

“I would like to broaden my game, be a little more physical, a little more demanding of the puck below the circles and holding it and ragging it instead of taking opportunities to create,” Ryan said Monday during training camp in Traverse City. “Just be a little more patient in those areas for me because your leash isn’t the same as a top-six player right now. I’m OK with that. I won’t change much but my patience level with the puck has to be a little better and I have to err on the side of caution at times. That’s part of the process as you get older and start to play different roles within the team.”

Continued