Author: George Malik

Red Wings goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic appeared on 97.1 the Ticket’s Stoney and Jansen show this morning, speaking for 13 minutes about his trade to the Wings and his expectations for the upcoming season:

ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Greg Wyshynski filed a massive article for ESPN+ this morning, discussing the free agency outlook for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams. Here’s what they had to say about the Red Wings’ free agency outlook:

Detroit Red Wings

Key players hitting UFA: RW Bobby Ryan, C Sam Gagner, C Valtteri Filppula, C Luke Glendening, C Darren Helm, D Alex Biega
Key players hitting RFA: F Tyler Bertuzzi, F Adam Erne, F Jakub Vrana, D Christian Djoos, D Filip Hronek
Cap space: $37,565,277

What they should do: GM Steve Yzerman has already gotten some work done. He traded for defenseman Nick Leddy and goalie Alex Nedeljkovic, and re-signed defenseman Marc Staal and forward Michael Rasmussen. That’s a good start. At the moment, the Red Wings have only 13 players under contract for next season. But that number will climb when they get around to signing some of their RFAs, with an emphasis on Vrana, Bertuzzi and Hronek.

The Wings will likely go bargain hunting in free agency, as they continue to cycle through their rebuild. Yzerman signed six UFAs last offseason, none of them to longer than two seasons. The needs this time for the Red Wings: Some right-shot forwards, as the back end looks fairly filled out — including two goaltenders.

Continued (paywall)

Per the Red Wings:

RED WINGS AGREE TO TWO-YEAR EXTENSION WITH
KYLE CRISCUOLO

… Five-Year AHL Veteran Won Calder Cup with Griffins in 2017 …

DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings today agreed to terms with center Kyle Criscuolo on a two-year contract extension.

Updated at 6:20 AM: The Red Wings chose to re-sign 34-year-old defenseman Marc Staal to a 1-year, $2 million contract on Sunday, adding a full no-movement clause to the mix to ensure that the 6’3″ defenseman would remain a Wing, and Staal spoke with the media regarding his decision to stay on a rebuilding Detroit team on Monday morning:

The Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan found that Staal is genuinely happy about re-signing with the Wings…

“I told you guys (reporters) at the of the year, during the year, I really enjoyed myself (in Detroit),” Staal said Monday during a media Zoom call. “The organization, the team, the way we were playing, what’s been going on there (offseason moves), it’s fun to be a part of.

“You never know what you’re going to have in free agency and I was curious to get there. But Steve (general manager Steve Yzerman) reached out and made an offer, and like I said before, I had fun playing (in Detroit).”

Staal, 34, also asked, and received, a no-move clause from Yzerman.

“Getting something concrete down where I can move my family down there now and do that stuff, at this time, it was the best decision,” Staal said. “I have three young kids and it was important to me. Not to say I’d say no to an opportunity (at the trade deadline, if it occurs) but with the young family and you never know what’ll be the situation when you get to that time of the year (trade deadline). To be able to control it a little bit at the trade deadline was important.

“Steve was willing to do that for me and I appreciate that. You never know what’s going to happen, but it’s a nice thing to have.”

Kulfan continues; Staal also told DetroitRedWings.com’s Josh Berenter that he’s bought into the Wings’ attempts to improve its roster:

Ahead of the start of unrestricted free agency on Wednesday, the Detroit News’s Ted Kulfan, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen and The Athletic’s Max Bultman have all considered the free agent marketplace as it applies to the Red Wings’ desire to add a couple of forwards to their mix, but there’s only one player that’s truly “on my radar,” via Bultman:

Perhaps the most surprising name to go unqualified Monday was Blackhawks centerman Pius Suter, who put up nearly a half-point per game as a rookie last season in Chicago. Red Wings fans will remember he scored his first career goal against the Red Wings — as well as two more in the same game to complete the hat trick.

In fact, he scored five goals against Detroit last season, so the Red Wings brass should be plenty familiar with his name. He was a breakout player for the Blackhawks, playing 16 minutes per night, and playing a premium position at age 25, he immediately becomes a player of interest for teams looking for centers — which should be just about all of them.

Can the rebuilding Red Wings get him on board? They certainly can’t sell him on Stanley Cup contention, but they may be able to offer some of the most available playing time, with the potential to slot onto the second line. Suter’s 27 points last season would have led the Red Wings.

Continued (paywall); Bultman suggests that Nick Ritchie, Dominik Kahun, Ondrej Kase and Ryan Donato could all be “fits” for the Wings, but in my book, you go for the sniper.

ESPN’s Victoria Mataiash pondered the fantasy hockey value, in both present and future tenses, of the NHL’s 2021 first-round draft picks, and she discussed Sebastian Cossa’s possible “upside” with ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski:

Sebastian Cossa, G, Detroit Red Wings, Edmonton (WHL) Selected: 15, Draft board ranking: 14

Wyshynski: “… Cossa stands 6-foot-6 and has good agility in the crease. He went 17-1-1 with a .941 save percentage for the Edmonton Oil Kings. After Keith Petruzzelli opted not to sign with the Red Wings, the team didn’t really have anyone in the mold of a goalie of the future. Cossa fits that mold, and fits the M.O. of GM Steve Yzerman. Back in 2012, he didn’t have a goalie of the future with the Lightning, so he drafted a kid from the Russian juniors in the first round. That kid just won the Conn Smythe and his second straight Stanley Cup: Andrei Vasilevskiy.”

One of the more obvious no-brainer fantasy selections available, Cossa is pegged to be the starting netminder for an Yzerman-built team that should emerge from its re-building cocoon in the not-too-distant future. There should be a fight over this prospect in every dynasty league on the planet. Any goalie can fall short of expectations for different reasons, but Cossa feels as near a sure-bet as one could ask. With so few performing at an elite level with true consistency, such a promising figure is worth the gamble. But patience is in order. Cossa isn’t starting for the Wings tomorrow.

Continued; patience is required where Cossa is concerned, because goaltenders take several years to develop, but there’s no doubt that he is the Wings’ “goalie of the future” by default.

Darren Pang discussed the Red Wings’ offseason moves–so far–on the NHL Tonight:

We don’t know yet whether the Red Wings will attempt to re-sign or trade Tyler Bertuzzi, but The Fourth Period’s Tyler Pagnotta has been hammering the trade drum for the past couple of weeks, and Pagnotta added this to the mix on Monday afternoon:

Teams continue to have trade discussions with the Red Wings about pending arb-eligible RFA Tyler Bertuzzi. Still no recent contract discussions between the two sides.

— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) July 26, 2021

After re-signing with the Red Wings, defenseman Marc Staal spoke with the media for ten-and-a-half minutes this afternoon.

Alex Wood, a.k.a. AWood40 on YouTube, posted an 11:35 highlight clip of new Red Wings goalie Alex Nedeljkovic’s 2020-2021 highlights: