Author: George Malik

I sort of assumed this was common knowledge by now, but, in case you missed it, former Red Wings prospect Keith Petruzzelli has chosen to play an extra season for the ECAC’s Quinnipiac Bobcats, foregoing his eligibility to sign a contract with Detroit.

As such, Petruzzelli will be a free agent on August 15th, and he attended the Boston Bruins’ prospect development camp last week.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of Petruzzelli’s decision to skate with the B’s:

Last season, Petruzzelli enjoyed a banner campaign as a senior. He was named a Top 10 Finalist for the Hobey Baker Award and the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Year. Petruzzelli was also named to the ECAC Hockey First Team ad was a Finalist for the Mike Richter Award and for ECAC Hockey Player of the Year. He was also a semifinalist for the Walter Brown Award. Petruzzelli led the nation in starts (29) and minutes played (1715:45).

Instead of signing him to an entry level pact, the Wings opted to walk way from Petruzzelli’s NHL rights. He became a free agent. None of the other 31 NHL teams are seeking to get his name on a contract. That fact would appear to show that Detroit wasn’t the only team having their doubts about Petruzzelli’s abilities.

Continued; it’s my understanding that the 6’5″ goaltender chose not to sign with the Red Wings, not the other way around.

From the Grand Rapids Griffins:

UPDATE: The Griffins have signed Kevin Lynch to a one-year AHL contract. #GoGRG

More Info >> https://t.co/r33R7fA5QE pic.twitter.com/wHEV3VVlYx— Grand Rapids Griffins (@griffinshockey) August 9, 2021

Lynch is a 30-year-old native of Grosse Pointe, MI who plays wing. He skated for the Laval Rocket for the past two seasons, but he began his pro hockey journey playing for the University of Michigan.

MLive’s Ansar Khan posted a profile of Red Wings draft pick Carter Mazur this morning, discussing the Jackson, MI native’s connections to Red Wings director of amateur scouting Kris Draper:

Mazur, a 6-foot, 170-pound left wing, was the captain for the USHL Tri-City Storm, where he experienced a spike in production and growth this past season.

He has a history with Kris Draper, the Red Wings director of amateur scouting, who was once his youth coach.

“He grew up playing Little Caesars all the way from 10 to U-16,” Draper said. “It’s been a lot of fun and I’m proud to watch Carter develop into the player he has. Last year he went into his first year in Tri-City and it’s a big jump. At the time he was maybe 5-9½, 5-10. He’s grown 2-3 inches; he’s put on about 20 pounds. He knows he needs to still get bigger and stronger.

“The interesting thing for me was watching Tri-City and seeing the improvement from Carter from last year to this year. Our area scouts, the reports they were putting in about Carter, talking about the improvement, it was great to hear. We (drafted) Carter in a spot where he deserved it. As we were talking to our scouts, it was a pick we all wanted to make.”

Continued

The Red Wings and Jakub Vrana are relatively far apart in terms of their salary arbitration “asks” ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman:

Arbitration asks for Jakub Vrana (DET): Team, $3.65M. Player, $5.7M. Can still be settled before hearing.

— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) August 9, 2021

Update: Here’s a bit of context from Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen:

The $2.05 million difference explains why the two sides are headed toward arbitration. Historically, most cases are settled before they reach an arbitrator. Detroit Hockey Now’s originally projected Vrana’s salary at $4.25 million. If the arbitrator splits the difference between the two proposals, the award would be in the $4.5-$4.7 million range.

Vrana posted 19 goals in 50 games last season, including eight in 11 games with Detroit in 11.  Vrana’s salary was $3.3 million last season.

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski issued free agency grades for each and every one of the NHL’s 32 teams, and here’s what he has to say about the Red Wings:

Detroit Red Wings

Key additions: C Pius Suter, C Mitchell Stephens, D Nick Leddy, G Alex Nedeljkovic

Key losses: G Jonathan Bernier, C Luke Glendening, C Darren Helm, D Dennis Cholowski (expansion draft)

Remaining hole: The Red Wings have the cap space (over $25 million) to pluck some of the contracts that teams might need to shed later in the summer. They also have to do deals with restricted free agent forward Jakub Vrana and defenseman Filip Hronek.

Grade: A. The Red Wings took advantage of a couple of odd decisions by other teams on restricted free agents. The Hurricanes weren’t convinced that Nedeljkovic, a Calder Trophy finalist, had the stuff of a true starting goalie, and they traded him to Detroit. The Blackhawks said there “wasn’t really a match” in contract talks with Suter, walked away and saw the Red Wings snatch him up. Leddy was a salary dump from the Islanders who’ll help their young defensemen.

They also got better by virtue of who left their lineup. It’s still a knee-deep rebuild for Detroit, but it’s very much on the right track. This grade is erring on the side of GM Steve Yzerman (still) being the smartest guy in the room.

Continued (paywall)

More than a few sports columnists in the Metro Detroit area have written columns over the past couple of months which compare the rebuilding efforts of the Detroit Tigers, the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Lions, and, of course, the Detroit Red Wings.

Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen believes that the comparisons aren’t apt, and, specifically, the comparisons between the Tigers and the Red Wings run short of Allen’s expectations:

The problem is the Red Wings and Tigers are an apples and oranges comparison.  The Tigers play in a luxury tax league where it is commonplace for ownership to set a budget. The Red Wings are in a salary cap league where the vast majority of teams spend to the cap. To my knowledge, the Ilitch family has not imposed any restrictions on general manager Steve Yzerman’s ability to spend.

If Yzerman wanted to pursue a trade for $10 million Buffalo Sabres center Jack Eichel, he wouldn’t need special dispensation.

Yzerman’s decision to stay below the salary cap is a strategy, one often employed by rebuilding teams. You maintain salary cap flexibility to take advantage of teams with no flexibility. That’s how landed he landed Nick Leddy and Alex Nedeljkovic this offseason.  That’s why they were in position to land Pius Suter when the Chicago Blackhawks couldn’t fit him into their cap structure.

According to CapFriendly. com, the Red Wings have $25.8 million. However, that number will shrink close to $15 million after signing RFAs Jakub Vrana, Filip Hronek, Adam Erne and Givani Smith.

Yzerman undoubtedly will use that cap space to his advantage during the regular season when other teams are having cap trouble.

Continued (paywall); Allen argues that the lack of blue-chip prospects who are NHL-ready in the Red Wings’ system, combined with a weak free agency class next summer (combined with the salary cap’s spending limitations) all add up to a longer rebuilding timeline for the Wings.

He’s not wrong.

Via Paul Kukla of Kukla’s Korner/Abel to Yzerman comes this Tweet from the NHL Network, in which Stu Grimson debates whether Henrik Zetterberg and/or Rick Nash should be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame:

You tell us – are Henrik Zetterberg and Rick Nash Hockey Hall of Famers? #NHLTonight | @hockeyhallfame pic.twitter.com/tF8WxLtwMk

— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) August 8, 2021

The Free Press’s Helene St. James examines the Detroit Red Wings’ roster this morning, discussing a possible lineup that the Wings could ice on opening night in October. Here are her second and third forward lines:

Line 2: Jakub Vrana-Pius Suter-Robby Fabbri

Suter has good hockey IQ and hands. Vrana made a terrific impression after being acquired at the trade deadline, pumping 11 points into 11 games. He’s an opportunistic, savvy scorer, and could help Suter as he transitions to a new team. A concussion sidelined Fabbri in early April, but he said in July that he’s fully recovered. He’s been a solid, steady scoring threat since arriving in December 2019, and he adds a nice bit of grit.

Line 3: Vladislav Namestnikov–Joe Veleno-Sam Gagner

Yzerman said in late July that Veleno, who played five games for the Wings after his season in the Swedish Hockey League ended, isn’t a shoo-in for a spot in Detroit. But Veleno looks poised to stake a claim, strengthened by the experience he gained playing for Malmö and by gotten significantly stronger. Gagner is a good fit because he’s a savvy veteran who keeps things calm. Both he and Namestnikov can take faceoffs if needed.

Continued (paywall);

Early August is charity golf tournament and charity softball game season for hockey players and coaches. As such, Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill spoke with the Big Rapids Pioneer’s John Raffel while attending a charity golf event raising funds for his alma mater, Ferris State University.

Blashill discussed the addition of Pius Suter to the Wings’ lineup, Darren Helm’s departure, and he said this to Raffel about the timeline of the Red Wings’ rebuild:

Blashill said the Red Wings are headed in the right direction.

“How quickly, I don’t know that answer,” Blashill said. “We get to answer that question on a daily basis this season. We’ve gone through some lean years where it’s been hard. But I think we’ve learned some lessons though it. How big the steps are, I think we’ll see.

“Let’s make sure we have a great first day of camp. That’s the bigger focus. We have to take things day by day and make sure we’re getting better. I know that sounds like a cliché but that’s a reality of sports and a reality of life.”

Continued; Blashill also had this to say to the 9 and 10 News’s Tyler Dreisenga:

Blashill also talked about the excitement of returning to Traverse City for the NHL prospects tournament and training camp.

“First, that means the world is a little more right than it was last year,” Blashill said. “Second, Northern Michigan holds a dear place in my heart having grown up in Sault Ste. Marie. My sisters live in Traverse, my parents both live in Traverse. Probably more importantly, I understand the fans we have on the west side of the state and it really gives the west siders access to our players and to seeing our camp start. So I think it’s a great thing.”

The Red Wings will hold training camp in Traverse City from September 23-28.

Here’s a Tweet from Driesenga of Blashill speaking about Pius Suter:

Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill talked with media today at the Ferris State Hockey Golf Outing. I asked him about Detroit's free agent signings, including center Pius Suter. Suter scored his first three NHL goals in a hat trick performance vs. the Red Wings in January. @MISportsNow pic.twitter.com/XtsDvFAhWU

— Tyler Driesenga (@tdriesenga3) August 7, 2021

This evening, Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen ranked the Red Wings management’s offseason moves, from 1 to 10, with work left to do in re-signing the restricted free agents left on the docket (Adam Erne, Jakub Vrana, Filip Hronek and Givani Smith). Numbers one and two have to do with the Wings’ goaltending:

1. Trading for Alex Nedeljkovic: The Red Wings have a collection of rebuild problems, but lack of a young, premium goaltending prospect was probably chief among them. He solved that in extraordinary way by acquiring goalie Nedeljkovic, who was finalist for NHL Rookie of the Year. He had 15 quality starts last season in 23 appearances for the Carolina Hurricanes. His 1.90 goals-against average and .932 save percentage speak to his potential to be Detroit’s goalie for years to come.

At 25, Nedeljkovic is still young enough to be the team’s No. 1 goalie when the team’s rebuild is completed. The bonus of this trade is that Yzerman only gave up a third-round pick and the rights to Jonathan Bernier, who wasn’t going to resign in Detroit.

2. Drafting Sebastian Cossa: Yzerman moved from No. 23 to No. 15 in the draft to take Cossa, who is a fiery, 6-foot-6 goalie with overflowing talent. While many in the scouting world were crowing about Jesper Wallstedt, the Red Wings focused on Cossa. They liked Cossa’s potential more. He’s a trash-talking, cocky netminder who believes strongly in his ability to stop the puck.

The Red Wings only gave up a second rounder and a fifth rounder to the Dallas Stars to get this done. With Nedeljkovic aboard, the Red Wings have no reason to rush Cossa.

Continued; Bob Duff also wrote a subscriber-only article for Detroit Hockey Now on this humid Saturday evening, discussing the fact that the Red Wings are not going to simply hand out roster spots to their top prospects: