Author: George Malik

Of prospect-related note:

In Belarus, Kirill Tyutyayev had a goal and an assist, finishing even with 1 shot as Yunost Minsk won 4-1 over Shahter-Soligorsk;

In the Swedish Allsvenskan, William Wallinder had an assist, finishing at +1 with 2 blocks and a penalty taken in 18:11 played as MODO Hockey won 3-2 in a shootout over Vasby IK;

And Malte Setkov finished at +1 with 1 shot in 14:23 played as AIK Stockhom lost 4-2 to Tingsryds IK;

Later tonight, in the USHL, Kyle Aucoin’s Tri-City Storm will battle the Lincoln Stars.

Update: Aucoin finished at +1 with 2 shots in the Tri-City Storm’s 3-2 shootout loss to Lincoln.

It’s a Mathias Brome kind of day. He’s spoken with the Swedish media several times over the past couple of days, Brome scored a couple of goals in yesterday’s scrimmage, and, today, the Free Press’s Helene St. James wonders aloud if the Wings have finally struck European gold after whiffing on a host of European overager free agents:

Brome may be able to break the recent trend of undrafted European players who have come over with promise but left faint impression. In 2019, Finnish defenseman Oliwer Kaski was signed to a one-year deal; he was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes for minor-league defenseman Kyle Wood after 19 games with the Grand Rapids Griffins (two goals, three assists) and never appeared in a Wings game.

In 2017, the Wings signed Czech defenseman Libor Sulak after scouting him at the World Championship; he played but six games for the Wings. The last European import to make a decent contribution was Swiss forward Damien Brunner, who was signed to a one-year deal in 2012 and joined the Wings after the lockout was resolved. Brunner had a solid rookie season with 12 goals and 14 assists in 44 games. But Brunner overestimated his value in turning down multiple-year contract offers from the Wings, opting instead to sign with the New Jersey Devils as a free agent.

Brome has told the Swedish media that he’s going to stick in Detroit until he makes the NHL:

General manager Steve Yzerman signed Brome to a one-year, $925,000 contract. Brome was also pursued by the Vancouver Canucks and Washington Capitals.

“I had a good talk with Steve,” Brome said. “That’s what I felt was the best chance for me to play in the NHL. That’s why I chose Detroit. I’m really hoping I have a good chance to make the team, but it’s up to me to do that. I’m going to take every day here and do my best and see how long it will take to make the team. … I feel like I am ready. I have developed a lot back home in Sweden. The point I am at now in my career, I really feel there is a good chance to fight for a spot on the team.”

Continued

I’m admittedly a bit biased at times, so you’re going to have to excuse me for subtly disagreeing with The Hockey News’s Matt Larkin regarding the suggestion that the Detroit Red Wings are still “trying” to tank, a comment made during an article about Central Division Stanley Cup Windows:

REBUILDING: Detroit Red Wings

Steve Yzerman continues to lay low and subtly tank. Don’t let the slew of respectable veteran roster additions fool you. It’s true that Bobby Ryan, Vladislav Namestnikov, Troy Stecher, Thomas Greiss and so on will help the Wings be less of an embarrassment after posting the lowest points percentage by any team in 20 years last season. But they were all signed to one- or two- year deals. The one-year additions are set up to be trade-deadline rental flips. The two-year additions are expansion-draft bait. And the veteran presences are also there to block Detroit’s youngsters from earning roster spots by default.

Speaking of the youth movement: defenseman Moritz Seider, center Joe Veleno and left winger Lucas Raymond will remain in Europe this season. None is even attending camp. The Wings aren’t rushing their top prospects and clearly have no plans to make a run for the playoffs this year. If they did, they’d at the very least be giving Seider a long look. So we can bet on another run at the draft lottery in Motown.

Continued; roster flexibility does not mean that a GM is saying, “Well, eff it, see you at the draft!” and the Red Wings’ players and coach have been very vocal in suggesting that they want to improve somehow over the course of this upcoming season. What form that improvement may take, we don’t know yet, but these guys have some damn pride here.

Regarding Veleno and Seider, that was the team’s call, certainly, but Raymond can’t come to camp because the team never signed him to an entry-level contract. That’s irrelevant.

I could go on, but, yes, the Red Wings are rebuilding, and no, they are not trying to suck as hard as they possibly can just because it’s an easy narrative to sell.

I had my big-ass anxiety attack during the World Junior Championship, so I wasn’t able to cover all the Red Wings prospects’ exploits during the tournament. Red Wings Prospects on Twitter posted a list of the statistical exploits of the Wings’ seven World Junior Championship participants:

Final WJC stats for Red Wings prospects. #LGRW pic.twitter.com/80m2NFybwp— Red Wings Prospects (@DRWProspects) January 6, 2021

Red Wings free agent signing Mathias Brome checked in with HockeyNews.se’s Mattias Persson this morning, discussing his initial impressions from the Wings’ training camp. What follows is roughly translated from Swedish:

Brome’s successful start at the NHL camp: “Feeling fit and fresh”

Mathias Brome has started the Detroit Red Wings’ training camp in the best way, and already in the first game he scored two goals.

Afterwards, he was praised by coach Jeff Blashill.

Now the forward talks about his lonely Christmas celebration, the first days at camp and how he sees his chances of earning a spot in Detroit.

“As long as I go down there and do my best, I can walk away with my head held high,” he says to HockeyNews.se.

NBC Sports just released its 2020-2021 NHL season broadcast schedule, and here are the Red Wings’ 10 total scheduled appearances on NBC and NBCSN this upcoming season:

Mon., Jan. 18 Columbus Detroit NBCSN 12 p.m.
Sun., Jan. 24 Detroit Chicago NBC 12:30 p.m.
Wed., Feb. 3 Detroit Tampa Bay NBCSN 5:30 p.m.
Wed., Feb. 17 Chicago Detroit NBCSN 7:30 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 21 Florida Detroit NBCSN 7 p.m.
Sun., Feb. 28 Detroit Chicago NBCSN 7 p.m.
Sun., March 28 Columbus Detroit NBCSN 3 p.m.
Sun., April 4 Detroit Tampa Bay NBC 12 p.m.
Mon., April 19 Detroit Dallas NBCSN 7:30 p.m.
Sun., May 2 Tampa Bay Detroit NBC 3 p.m.

The Athletic’s Corey Pronman posted an article discussing his “all-stars, surprises and disappointments” at this year’s World Junior Championship in Edmonton, and one Red Wings prospect made his “surprises” list:

Elmer Soderblom, LW, Sweden (Detroit)

Soderblom has been rising since he was a sixth-round pick by Detroit in 2019. He’s a very large human who has tremendous puck skills. His ability to go one-on-one against opponents and make tough plays in small areas was consistently on display as one of Sweden’s most dangerous offensive players. He hasn’t gotten it done versus men primarily due to his poor skating, which will be his main issue in the NHL, but he’s certainly a player trending up and looks like a guy who could play NHL games one day.

Continued (paywall); you can always work on your skating. I’m not sure if you can work on possessing the hockey sense or innate talent necessary to score two of these kinds of goals, and make it look natural:

Get a workin’ on moving those big feet, Elmer.

The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe spoke with a significant portion of the Toledo Walleye’s roster and coaching staffs after the Walleye announced that they’ve opted to not play for the 2020-2021 ECHL season:

“I’m also so sad for the people of the city,” said [Shane] Berschbach, who has become the face of the franchise. “I know how rough this has all been, and we were all looking forward to hockey bringing some happiness to the new year.”

Another veteran forward, Kyle Bonis, said he was bewildered by the announcement.

“I can’t really believe it,” said Bonis, who was slated to begin his sixth season with the team. “The news just does not seem real.”

Walleye coach Dan Watson called it a very tough moment for the entire organization and its fan base.

“Today stings for all of us,” Watson said. “I want to personally thank our players who have patiently awaited the start of the season.”

Continued; Bonis has retired.

The Associated Press’s Larry Lage posted a capsule preview of the Detroit Red Wings ahead of the 2020-2021 season, and his preview is quite blunt regarding the state of the rebuilding Wings:

The Detroit Red Wings have spent half a decade rebuilding.

And, this still might not be the year a once-proud franchise with 11 Stanley Cups breaks through and makes the playoffs.

Detroit had the NHL’s worst record last season with 23 fewer points than any other team in a pandemic-altered season that mercifully lasted just 71 games.

When this shortened, 56-game season ends in May, the Red Wings will most likely extend their postseason drought to five years to match the longest since they were known as the Dead Wings from 1979-83.

Entering his second season as general manager with the franchise he led as a Hall of Fame center, Steve Yzerman is making no promises about progress.

“I can’t really predict what we’re going to be,” Yzerman said. “I believe we’ll be improved from last year. How much? I don’t know.”

Continued; none of us really know how much the Wings have improved yet, but the Wings started putting their systems into practice at today’s scrimmage, as noted by DetroitRedWings.com’s Brett McWethy:

“If you’re a goalie, just having that focus for 60 minutes is different than practice, and that’s just one position,” said Blashill. “If you’re a defenseman, you’re put in a lot of different situations. Same with the forwards. I think (scrimmages) can be useful.”

“The other thing it does for our staff is it gives us a chance to know what we need to work on more,” Blashill said. “When you implement systems in practice, everything can look great and then you drop the puck and it doesn’t. It’s hard to have corrective actions without see those things live. We’ll go back and go through the film and get a chance work on some things at practice.”

Red Wings prospect Eemil Viro played a fairly significant role in Finland’s 4-1 win over Russia at the World Junior Championship’s bronze medal game.

Viro nearly wiped himself out of the game in the 2nd period, making an attempt to kick the puck to his stick at the side of Yaroslav Askarov’s net, eating end boards:

GEESH
Eemil Viro goes face first into the boards
? @TSN_Sports pic.twitter.com/Eqyf7rsf6l

— Here's Your Replay ⬇️ (@HeresYourReplay) January 6, 2021

But Viro’s decision to send a wrist shot toward the net instead of winding up for a slap shot early in the 3rd period was wise: the puck chipped off a Russian forward, bounced on the ice and was tipped by Mikko Petman into the net, giving Finland a lead that they would not surrender: